CMERC Team
Professor Emma Jackson – CMERC Director
Professor Emma Jackson is the Director of the Coastal Marine Ecosystems Research Centre and a Research Fellow in Marine Ecology. She has more than 20 years of research expertise in the areas of fisheries ecology, seagrass landscape and restoration ecology, impacts on marine species, coastal marine habitats and ecosystem health indicators. Her research is driven by the idea that coastal development is an ever-increasing human activity, but that there are ways in which this development can work with nature rather than against it to maintain ecosystem health, in turn supporting our health and wellbeing as humans.
Currently, Emma leads a research program on the construction of a science-based framework for seagrass restoration in Queensland, but her past and present research areas include marine conservation management, ecosystem services, marine ecology and marine angiosperm.
Associate Professor Nicole Flint – Research Fellow
Associate Professor Nicole Flint is a Principal Research Fellow in the School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences. Nicole has been a researcher at CQUniversity since 2011. She has postgraduate qualifications in fish biology (PhD) and economics (MEcon) and previous work experience in fisheries and management and sustainability. Her research focuses on improving the monitoring, assessment and management of aquatic environments; environmental report cards; and generating data to support management of industries including fisheries, ports and water supplies. She is particularly interested in the diverse catchments, rivers and estuaries of Northern Australia, and the communities and industries that they support. Nicole is a member of the Fitzroy Partnership for River Health's Independent Science Panel and the Regional Report Cards Technical Working Group, and represents research active staff members on CQUniversity’s Research Committee.
Dr Angela Capper – Research Fellow
Dr Angela Capper has more than 20 years of experience in marine ecotoxicology, with strong interests in pollutants and contaminants and their fate in the environment, biological matrices and risks to human health. Her research focuses on: the impacts of anthropogenic contaminants (microplastics, PFAS, heavy metals); co-existence of aquaculture and fisheries (impacts of chemical therapeutics to non-target organisms); seafood security (ciguatera fish poisoning - CFP); and marine chemical ecology (Harmful Algal Blooms - HABs). She has worked in multidisciplinary teams around the globe, liaising with government agencies, scientific institutions, health-based institutes, non-profit organisations, stakeholders, fishermen and community groups.
Dr Amie Anastasi – Lecturer in Environmental Science
Dr Amie Anastasi’s research is focused on understanding the risk to the environment from the natural and anthropogenic sources of pollutants. She specialises in the management, design and implementation of water quality monitoring and environmental risk assessment studies. Her research in this area has encompassed physical and chemical impacts of pollutants from urban, industrial, agricultural and geological sources. Amie has more than 12 years of research experience in ecotoxicology, chemistry and water quality. Amie has been involved with the Port Curtis Integrated Monitoring Program (PCIMP) since its inception in 2007 and is a member of the PCIMP Technical Sub-Committee. Amie has authored numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications and industry reports while also maintaining a heavy university teaching schedule that allows her to expose students to current best-practice methodologies for the monitoring and management of aquatic environments. She is passionate about Central Queensland Ecosystems and enjoys using science to inform sustainable use of local environments. Amie has a BSc (Chem), BBioMedSc (Hons) and a PhD.
Associate Professor Andrew Irving – Marine Ecologist
Andrew Irving joined CQUniversity in 2013 as a senior lecturer specialising in marine and environmental ecology, evolution, experimental design, and statistical analysis. His research interests primarily focus on the ecology of marine habitats, particularly marine plants such as seagrass meadows, salt marshes, and kelp forests. How much habitats are maintained, how humans disrupt them, how they might recover naturally, and what humans can do to facilitate their recovery (e.g. through habitat restoration) are all central themes to his research. He has published 37 international peer-reviewed manuscripts and four book chapters.
Dr Guy Carton – Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science
Dr Guy Carton’s research interests are highly varied and include aquaculture, conservation physiology, sensory physiology and ecology. A central question to his research program is how aquatic organisms respond to unprecedented environmental change. He employs various techniques to understand how aquatic animals respond to current and forecasted environmental changes. Of particular interest are increased temperature (climate warming) and shortages in oxygen availability (hypoxia). He is also interested in determining whether physiological attributes may differ between sub-populations of the same species. This research contributes to a knowledge base required to make informed future management decisions within a sustainability framework.
Professor John Rolfe – Professor of Resource Economics
Professor John Rolfe is a resource economist who is a Professor of Regional Economic Development in the School of Business and Law at the CQUniversity Rockhampton and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. John was one of the leaders of the 2013 and 2018 Great Barrier Reef Science Consensus Statements and currently Chairs the Independent Science Panel for the Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics from 2013-17 and was President of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society in 2019.
Dr Jeremy De Valck – Environmental Economist
Jeremy De Valck is a transdisciplinary environmental economist (PhD, KU Leuven, Belgium), with strong research interests in natural resource management (MSc NRM, Cranfield Uni., UK) and geographic information systems (MSc Bioscience Eng., Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Belgium). Jeremy applies non-market valuation techniques to the study of environmental assets, ecosystem services and biodiversity. Since joining CQUniversity in 2016, he has led or been involved in research projects on assessing socio-cultural, economic and environmental impacts in the Great Barrier Reef region. Jeremy's current research relates to applying revealed and stated preference techniques to value the environment.
Associate Professor Nathan Brooks-English – Head of Course for Environmental Science
Through the career of Associate Professor Nathan Brooks-English the consistent theme of research has been the study of how environmental variables affect Earth-surface processes (climate, transport, etc.) and natural materials (biota, earth and water) over multiple scales of time and distance. Currently, he is using dendrochronology, stable isotopes, and ancient kauri pines of North Queensland to reconstruct past rainfall, as well as model the response of drought and floods to El Niño Southern Oscillation and other multidecadal climate phenomena (Indian Ocean Dipole, Pacific Decadal Oscillation). In the past, he and his colleagues have investigated the link between ecophysiology, climate, and isotopic variation in the spines of columnar cactuses, including the tropical species Trichocereus pasacana in Bolivia. This research develops and explains a novel climate proxy that yields high-resolution information about plant ecology, water relations and past climate that will be useful in tropical and subtropical regions.
Dr Ziyad Abunada – Environmental Engineer
Dr Ziyad Abunada obtained his PhD from Cambridge University, UK, in Civil and Environmental Engineering in sustainable remediation and contaminated land management. His PhD was part of the largest collaborative project between academia and industry in the form of the Soil Mix Remediation Technology (SMiRT) project. He has more than 12 years of industrial experience working on civil engineering and construction projects in developing countries. His research addresses civil and environmental engineering applications, including project management, contaminated land and waste management, water and wastewater treatment materials and technologies, and engineering for sustainable development and decision support systems. In 2017, Dr Abunada’s research was ranked first and awarded the best research prize by ISESCO in environmental management. He was also the winner of the best paper award during AINAC conference in 2012 in UAE. He is currently a member of the Institute of Civil Engineering (ICE) and the Royal Society of Chemistry UK.
Dr David Vaughan – Marine Parasitologist
Dr David Vaughan's fields of research include marine parasitology, parasite taxonomy, cleaning symbioses, biocontrol and the investigation of novel methods of reducing problematic parasites in aquaculture. David worked extensively in public aquaria and aquaculture for many years in southern Africa supporting aquatic animal health in large public exhibition collections of fishes and farmed fishes and abalone before moving to Australia in 2015. He received his BSc (Hons) and MSc from the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, and PhD from James Cook University, Australia. David is also a professionally registered scientist with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions.
Associate Professor Amanda Rebar
Associate Professor Amanda Rebar is lead of the Social Insights Research Group, Director of the Motivation of Health Behaviours Lab, and Associate Professor of Psychology at Central Queensland University, Australia. Associate Professor Rebar’s research focuses on the psychology of behaviour change and motivation, with particular emphasis on the irrational and non-conscious processes that influence behaviours like habits and biases. While her work draws on a range of methodologies, she is a strong advocate for longitudinal repeated assessment designs and multi-level analysis for testing predictive relationships in real-world contexts. Amanda is a self-proclaimed theory and stats nerd. Amanda regularly works with community not-for-profit organisations and partners to provide evidence-based guidance and evaluation of behaviour change, community, and social wellbeing programs.
Dr Lasi Piyathilaka
Dr Lasi Piyathilaka completed his PhD in robotics from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in 2016. With significant industry experience, he has actively contributed to various university-industry collaboration projects. Currently, he is a lecturer at the School of Engineering and Technology at CQUniversity. Previously, he worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), where his primary focus was developing sensing and robotic systems for inspecting underground infrastructure such as sewers and water pipes.
In recent years, Dr Lasi Piyathilaka has expanded his research interests to include underwater robotic applications and sensing. In 2023, he received an innovation connection grant from the Australian government to develop an underwater robotic system specifically designed for cleaning underwater infrastructure.
Dr Manoj Kumar
Dr. Manoj Kumar, a Senior Research Fellow at the Coastal Marine Ecosystems Research Centre at CQUniversity, brings over 15 years of expertise in the fields of seaweed (macroalgae) aquaculture, ecophysiology, and molecular biology. His research pursuits revolve around a globally significant theme – evaluating the resilience of marine plants and algae, encompassing seaweeds, seagrasses, and microalgae, amidst the challenges posed by global climate change. Driven by cutting-edge systems biology-based 'omics' approaches, Kumar's recent endeavors include the development of environmentally friendly and sustainable technology for zero-waste seaweed biomass processing, with a focus on bioplastic and biochar production within a biorefinery framework. This initiative was financially supported by philanthropic organization – Julius Baer Foundation (Switzerland).
Dr Andria Ostrowski
Dr Andria Ostrowski is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Marine Ecologist in the Coastal Marine Ecosystems Research Centre at CQUniversity. Andria’s research interests include evaluating the impacts of multiple anthropogenic stressors on coastal wetlands, identifying effective methods for large-scale seascape restoration, and understanding positive species interactions within coastal wetlands that can enhance restoration success. Her research uses both laboratory and field experimental approaches, and novel statistical techniques to better understand and predict how seagrass ecosystems will respond to human impacts, highlight early warning indicators of environmental degradation, and suggest management strategies to mitigate these impacts. Andria also has experience in seed-based seagrass restoration. Her current work focuses on exploring various techniques of seed dispersal in intertidal seagrass meadows to determine the most effective methods for successful large-scale seagrass restoration. Andria also has experience managing and maintaining large-scale seagrass nurseries to support seed-based restoration activities. Her current research aims to increase the scale of seagrass restoration efforts, enhance seagrass meadow resilience to disturbance events, and guide future intertidal seagrass restoration efforts.
Dr Shaneel Chandra
Dr Shaneel Chandra is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at CQUniversity. He is an analytical chemist by training and his research focuses on several analytical the development of analytical sensors. These sensors find applications in disease detection, environmental monitoring and food quantification. His projects also include analytical detection methods for various applications and several multidisciplinary studies. He also has collaborations with scientists from several areas including microbiologists, public health professionals, human factors specialists, sleep psychologists and the industry.
Ms Barbie Keller
Associate Director of Operations CMERC
Mr John Sergeev
Boating, Diving and Research Operations Support Officer
Mr Andrew Gill
Adjunct Research Fellow
