ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

Students

	Rene Abesamis - JCU PhD Student Contact : rene.abesamis@jcu.edu.au Coming from the Philippines, Rene’s interest in marine biology started quite early. In his youth he spent many summer vacations snorkelling in some of his country’s best known coral reef areas. Shortly after obtaining his BSc in Biology at the University of the Philippines (U.P.), Rene worked as a research assistant for the U.P. Marine Science Institute. His job as a marine biologist in U.P. brought him to hundreds of reefs all over the Philippines – from the least harmed by humans to some of the most severely damaged and overfished. It was during this time when he developed a keen interest in coral reef fish ecology and conservation. An AusAID scholarship eventually made it possible for Rene to obtain his MSc in Marine Biology at JCU. His master’s thesis dealt with net export of adult fish, or spillover, from no-take marine reserves, which he did in collaboration with Garry Russ and Angel Alcala, both Pew Fellows in Marine Conservation. Rene is now working on his PhD thesis on resolving patterns of population connectivity in reef fishes in an internal Philippine sea.
	David Abrego - JCU PhD Student Contact : david.abrego@jcu.edu.au David is originally from Mexico, where early ambitions of becoming a marine biologist were easily nourished by many trips to the Pacific and Caribbean coasts with family and friends. After obtaining his Bachelor of Science degree in Aquatic Biology from the University of California in Santa Barbara, he grabbed his backpack and visited many reefs in the Indo-Pacific before returning home to find funding to study a PhD at JCU. His research looks at the flexibility in the coral-Symbiodinium symbiosis and the physiological attributes of different host-symbiont combinations in order to understand how these associations may change in the future. David is supervised by Professor Bette Willis and Dr. Madeleine van Oppen.
	Vanessa Adams- JCU PhD Student Contact : vanessa.adams@jcu.edu.au Vanessa was raised in New Mexico (USA) and completed dual degrees in mathematics and a degree in biology at Washington and Lee University. She spent a year as a Fulbright scholar doing research with Prof. Hugh Possingham at University of Queensland. She is currently undertaking her PhD at James Cook University with Prof. Bob Pressey. The primary focus of her PhD is how to incorporate cost considerations in systematic conservation planning so that conservation targets can be achieved at a minimal cost (both social and economic considerations). She is interested in efficiency gains of including costs as well as uncertainties associated with the decision making process.
	Jorge Alvarez Romero - JCU PhD Student Contact : jorge.alvarezromero@jcu.edu.au Jorge was born and grew up in Mexico City. He completed his BSc in Biology at the National University of Mexico (UNAM) with a research on introduced mammals in Mexico and did a Master degree in Management, Conservation and International Trade of Species at the International University of Andalusia, Spain. Jorge is currently a PhD student within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, under the supervision of Professor Bob Pressey, who runs the program on systematic planning of the Centre. His project relates to systematic conservation planning for the Gulf of California and involves a review and further development of strategic conservation planning exercises already undertaken in the region. Novel approaches will include planning for the persistence of natural processes, integrated planning for coastal catchments and nearshore marine waters, as well as a formulation of a strategy for effective implementation of fixed and dynamic Marine Protected Areas and No-Take Zones.
	Shelley Anthony - JCU PhD Student Contact : shelleya@gbrmpa.gov.au Shelley is originally from the U.S.A., and most recently lived in Hawaii before emigrating to Australia in 2000. Her PhD project involves the environmental, microbial, and physiological cause(s) of tissue sloughing and its role in coral disease. She is supervised by Bette Willis at the JCU node of the Centre, as well as David Bourne from AIMS, and Kirsten Michalek-Wagner from ReefHQ Aquarium. Shelley enjoys salsa dancing, house renovation projects, and relaxing at the beach with her husband and 1-year old son.
	Christopher Bartlett - JCU PhD Student Contact : cybartlett@gmail.com Chris has been living in working in Melanesia since 2002, originally as a US Peace Corps volunteer. His extensive work with the Nguna-Pele Marine Protected Area in Vanuatu, made up of 16 island communities, led him to the current dissertation topic: hybridized marine management in Vanuatu. He is refining the way conservationists, governments, scholars and communities view the diverse contemporary expressions of marine management found throughout the region. Chris loves discovering new places, cultures and languages not as a visitor, but as a local. After his PhD, he will become more involved in community-focused conservation work, especially in the less-developed areas of the world. Currently based at JCU in Townsville, he makes frequent consulting trips to Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. .
	Brian Beck - UQ PhD Student Contact : b.beck@uq.edu.au Brian is originally from the USA and completed his BSc in Geology at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He then went on to complete his MSc in Geology at the University of Iowa studying coral morphometrics in the Dominican Republic. He is currently enrolled as a PhD student at the University of Queensland under the supervision of Dr. John Pandolfi. Brian is studying the paleoecology of coral communities along a cyclone gradient in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
	Duan Biggs - JCU PhD Student Contact : duan.biggs@jcu.edu.au Duan was born in Namibia but has spent most of his life in South Africa. He started his PhD in July 2007 in the Centre's Program on Resilience and Socio-Ecological Systems. His PhD is investigating the resilience of nature-based tourism to climate change. His project ties into the Resilience Alliance's workbook project which aims to translate resilience theory into practical outcomes for managers and policy-makers. Terry Hughes is his primary supervisor. Prior to his PhD he completed an MSc by dissertation in Conservation Biology at the University of Cape Town. His MSc dissertation was on the institutions, economics and conservation benefits of community-based specialist ecotourism in South Africa. He has a trans-disciplinary undergraduate training with majors in Economics, Development Studies and Environmental and Biodiversity Science. Duan relishes working at the interface of science and management and has developed, coordinated and consulted to projects for BirdLife International, Conservational International and WWF among others. He also leads specialist birding and eco-tours to destinations in Africa and the Asia-Pacific.
	Teressa Bobeszko - JCU PhD Student Contact: teressa.bobeszko@jcu.edu.au Teressa grew up in Brisbane and completed both her undergraduate and BSc Hon degree in marine biology at the University of Queensland. Currently, Teressa is a PhD student within the School of Pharmacy and Molecular Sciences at James Cook University. Under the supervision of Dr Bill Leggat and Professor David Yellowlees her PhD research focuses on the effects of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on the inorganic carbon supply in the coral-Symbiodinium symbiosis. In her spare time Teressa enjoys camping, spending time at the beach, dancing and painting.
	Lynda Boldt - JCU PhD Student Contact: lynda.boldt@jcu.edu.au Born in New Zealand, Lynda initially started her professional career as a Physical and Outdoor Educator before returning to University to pursue her interest in Marine Science. Based at JCU Townsville, her PhD work focuses on isolating photosynthetic genes from the unicellular algae Symbiodinium sp. and determining how and through what mechanisms changing environmental factors effect photosynthetic processes. Lynda’s research interests include aquatic photosynthesis, symbiotic relationships between marine organisms and how environmental stresses can effect these associations.
	Roberta Bonaldo - JCU PhD Student Contact: Roberta.Bonaldo@jcu.edu.au Roberta is originally from Brazil, where has studied reef fishes during six years. She has gained her Bachelor and Master degree at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil, studying feeding ecology of parrotfish species endemic from Southwestern Atlantic. Currently she is doing her PhD at James Cook University under the supervision of Dr David Bellwood. She is interested in the role of herbivorous reef fishes on the benthic community structure of the Great Barrier Reef, focusing on the importance of these fishes to the benthic composition of the Great Barrier Reef.
	Mary Catherine Bonin - JCU PhD Student Contact: mary.bonin@jcu.edu.au Despite growing up far from the ocean in Minneapolis, Minnnesota, Mary’s interest in fish began at a young age while fishing on freshwater lakes with her father. After completing a BA in Biology at The Colorado College, she pursued her interest in marine ecology by applying to JCU’s postgraduate program. Mary’s current PhD work, supervised by Prof. Geoff Jones and Dr. Glenn Almany, examines patterns and consequences of habitat specialization in coral-dwelling damselfishes in Kimbe Bay, Papau New Guinea. One of the main objectives of the project is to better understand how habitat specialists will respond to coral loss and habitat degradation.
	Pim Bongaerts - UQ PhD Student Contact: pim@uq.edu.au Pim was born and raised in the Netherlands. He completed a Bachelors degree in Biology at the University of Utrecht and a Masters degree in Limnology and Oceanography at the University of Amsterdam. The first year of his Masters degree was focused on the photobiology of zooxanthellae in the Dutch Caribbean, while during the second year he worked on coral population genetics in Australia. In the beginning of 2007 he started a PhD under supervision of Prof. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg at the University of Queensland, looking at the ecology and community structure of deep light-dependant coral communities (>25m) and the genetic connectivity of these communities with their shallow-water counterparts.
	Kate Bromfield - UQ PhD Student Contact : K.Bromfield@cms.uq.edu.au Kate grew up in Tasmania before moving to Brisbane early in 2005. Today, she is enrolled for a PhD at the Centre for Marine Studies, UQ, and is supervised by John Pandolfi and John Jell, with input from CSIRO's Alan Butler. She is currently investigating faunal turnover in reef corals over the Miocene Pliocene boundary in the Indo-West Pacific. When she's not collecting rocks, she enjoys spending time with her son
	Neal Cantin - JCU PhD Student Contact: neal.cantin@jcu.edu.au Neal completed his BSc. Honours degree at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, where he grew up. Neal moved to Townsville to follow his interests in coral biology in 2003. Neal’s PhD project is investigating the impact of photoinhibition on coral reproduction and the influence of genetically distinct Symbiodinium spp. on the physiology of the coral host. This project is supervised by Dr. Andrew Negri of the Australian Institute of Marine Science and Bette Willis from the JCU node of the Centre. Neal plans to pursue a Postdoctoral position in North America next year
	Mike Cappo - JCU PhD Student Contact : m.cappo@aims.gov.au Mike has studied fish and fisheries in tropical and temperate Australia for the past 20 years. Now he is using baited video tools to describe patterns of community composition of demersal fishes and elasmobranchs in deeper shelf habitats of the GBR "inter-reef" and Sahul shoals to infer the roles of biogeography, habitat type and ontogeny This part-time PhD project is supervised by Mike Kingsford, Glenn De’ath, Julian Caley and Gary Russ, with a number of external collaborators. When not at sea, Mike maintains a family, old wooden house, and orchard on a tropical river frontage.
	Paulina Cetina Heredia - JCU PhD Student Contact: paulina.cetinaheredia@jcu.edu.au Paulina studied Oceanography at the Autonomous University of Baja California and obtained a masters degree in Physical Oceanography from CICESE, Ensenada, Mexico. Her masters’ research project on the Circulation Dynamics along the Mexican Caribbean took her exploring Reef Systems and motivated her to further investigate this ecosystem. She pursued coming to Australia to study the Great Barrier Reef and got the opportunity to enroll for a PhD at JCU with a scholarship given by the Mexican Government. As an oceanographer Paulina is curious of various marine science aspects and developed an interdisciplinary project that deals with larval transport in reef systems. She works under the supervision of Dr. Sean Connolly, Dr. Peter Ridd and Dr. Richard Brinkman. She uses a hydrodynamic model to simulate circulation along the GBR and will be implementing coral and reef fish larval life traits and behaviour to accurately model their transport. Apart studying marine science she enjoys sharing good time with friends, being at sea, dancing and reading a book before falling sleep.
	Chia Miin Chua - JCU PhD Student Contact: chiamiin.chua@jcu.edu.au Miin grew up in Terengganu, a small state in the east coast of Malaysia. After completion of her Bachelor of Science (Marine Biology) and Honors in University Malaysia Terengganu Miin moved to Townsville to undertake her PhD with supervision of Dr. Andrew Baird, Dr. Bill Leggat and Prof. Terry Hughes. Her PhD project 'Effects of climate change and ocean acidification on the early life history of corals', aims to investigate high temperature and CO2 stress on fertilization, larval development, survivorship, settlement and growth of juvenile corals and her research focuses on the synergistic effects of high water temperature and low pH on coral larval and juvenile ecology and how such stresses mediate interaction with other organisms.
	Darren Coker – JCU MSc Student Contact: darren.coker@jcu.edu.au Darren grew up in New Zealand until the urge to do something different convinced him to make the move across the ditch. He completed a degree in Marine Biology at James Cook University and then continued on to obtain a Postgraduate Diploma in Research Methods. Darren is currently enrolled in Masters by Research investigating the proximal causes of short-term declines in the abundance of coral-dwelling fishes following host coral bleaching. He intends to expand his research into a PhD and watch the All Blacks win the next world cup at home. Darren is supervised by Dr Morgan Pratchett, Dr Philip Munday and Dr Shaun Wilson.
	Andrew Cole – JCU PhD Student Contact: andrew.cole3@jcu.edu.au Andrew Cole is currently enrolled in a Doctor of Philosophy program at James Cook University. Originally from the south coast of NSW, Andrew migrated to the warmer waters of the Great Barrier Reef in 2003. His research investigates the role of chronic fish predation on the population dynamics and life-histories of reef-building corals. It also explores the potential for chronic predation to exacerbate the effects of global environmental change. This research is being carried out under the supervision of Dr Morgan Pratchett, Prof Geoff Jones and Dr Shaun Wilson.
	Melissa Cowlishaw - JCU PhD Student Contact : melissa.cowlishaw@jcu.edu.au Mel grew up in Brisbane and completed her BSc hons in marine biology at the Centre for Marine Studies, at the University of Queensland and moved to Townsville to undertake a PhD at James Cook University under the supervision of Dr Geoff Jones and Dr Mark McCormick. Her PhD investigates the interrelationships between individual living space, habitat quality and abundance in coral reef fishes, with most of her research being carried out at the Lizard Island Research Station. When she's not out on the reef Mel enjoys surfing (when there's waves around), outdoor adventures and surf lifesaving.
	Natalie Crawley - JCU PhD Student Contact : natalie.crawley@jcu.edu.au Originally from the UK, Natalie studied for her BSc in Marine Biology and Oceanography at the University of Southampton. Natalie moved to Townsville to pursue her interest in coral reef ecology which stemmed from research carried out on an expedition to Sulawesi, Indonesia. She is now undertaking her PhD at JCU with the supervision of Dr Geoff Jones and Dr Phil Munday. Her thesis aims to explore the effects of sedimentation on the recruitment of juvenile reef fish and their subsequent growth rates.
	Vivian Cumbo - JCU PhD Student Contact : vivian.cumbo@jcu.edu.au Vivian grew up in Sydney and completed her BSc Hons in Microbiology and Marine Biology at the University of NSW. Her honours thesis was on the Antimicrobial compounds in the Scleractinian Corals Montipora digitata and Montipora tortuosa. She is currently enrolled as a PhD student in the School of Marine and Tropical Biology at JCU under the supervision of Dr Andrew Baird, Dr Madeleine van Oppen and Prof. Terry Hughes. Her research focuses on whether coral can acclimate to climate change by acquiring and/or switching to a more heat tolerant symbiont. Coral larvae along with monoclonal strains of zooxanthellae with different functional response to stress are being used as a model system to answer this question.
	Jo Davy - UQ PhD Student Contact: j.davy@cms.uq.edu.au Jo completed her undergraduate and Masters studies in the UK before taking up a PhD scholarship at the University of Queensland in 2003 to study aspects of coral disease on the Great Barrier Reef under the supervision of Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Dr Maoz Fine and Professor Linda Blackall. Her research focuses on a putative disease affecting the poritid corals, and she is using a range of techniques to try and identify both the causative agent and to determine the ecological characteristics of the disease. In addition, she is hoping to determine if environmental stresses influence the incidence and progression of the disease. Hoping to graduate in 2007, Jo aims to continue her science career in New Zealand, where her husband lives.
	Ayax Diaz-Ruiz - UQ PhD Student Contact: a.Diaz-Ruiz@cms.uq.edu.au Born and educated in Mexico, Ayax finished his honours project in coral-associated crabs (genus Trapezia) in the Sea of Cortez by 1999 and then switched into Information Technology for his Master's project, where he explored the use of mobile internet technology in ecological studies. Keen on returning to work on the effect of climate change on invertebrates associated to Pocillopora damicornis, he has been working under the supervision of Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Greg Skilleter and John Pandolfi at UQ to analyse the effects of bleaching in the biodiversity of invertebrate fauna associated to pocilloporid corals. Additional objectives of his work are also studying food webs within this particular symbiosis (coral-invertebrates) and tracking recovery of biodiversity after stressful periods within coral colonies. He looks forward to increase his knowledge of ecosystem functioning in any model system as part of his career development. In his free time, he likes to relax practicing some T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
	Danielle Dixson - JCU PhD Student Contact: danielle.dixson@jcu.edu.au Danielle is originally from Minnesota in the USA. She received her BSc degree in Marine Science and General Biology from the University of Tampa, FL. Her undergraduate degree focused on the monitoring of seagrass health through a mark recapture study using a species of seahorse as the indicator species. Since completing her degree she moved to Townsville and has been working towards the completion of her PhD. She is currently enrolled in the Masters of Science by Research program but is looking to upgrade to the PhD program in August. Currently she is working on larval settlement site selection through olfactory cues, and self recruitment mechanisms supervised by Dr. Geoffrey Jones, Dr. Philip Munday and Dr. Morgan Pratchett
	Juan Pablo D’Olivo Cordero - ANU PhD Student Contact: juan.dolivo@anu.edu.au Despite of growing in the urban area of Mexico City, since Juan Pablo had a memory, he has been interested and amaze by the ocean. His passion for the ocean was originated during the frequent family trips to the Mexican coast and thanks to Cousteau’s documentaries about the ocean life. This interest took him to study Oceanography at the Autonomous University of Baja California where later obtained a masters degree in Coastal Oceanography (2008). During his masters research Juan Pablo worked in paleoceanography, using a coral core from Fiji to reconstruct climate conditions in the tropical region, specifically the sea surface temperature, of the last six centuries. Juan Pablo started his PhD in March 2008 at RSES - ANU under the supervision of Prof. Malcolm McCulloch. The aim of his current research is to reconstruct the pH changes in the tropical ocean using coral records from the Pacific, and to establish the relationship of these changes in the tropical Pacific with the CO2 atmospheric variability. In his spare time Juan Pablo likes drawing (especially over his notes), playing soccer, diving and surfing although not being a very good at it…
	Janelle Eagle - JCU PhD Student Contact: janelle.eagle@jcu.edu.au Janelle grew up in Perth, Western Australia but moved to James Cook University in Townsville to complete her Bachelor and Honours degrees in Marine Biology. After working as research assistant for a few years she commenced her PhD at the JCU node of the Centre, under the supervision of Geoff Jones and Mike Kingsford. Janelle's PhD research is on links between hydrodynamics, recruitment and spatial patterns in coral reef assemblages, and their potential to impact on the functioning of marine protected areas. After her PhD is completed Janelle is interested in continuing coral reef research and being involved in conservation and management.
	Maxi J Eckes - UQ PhD Student Contact: m.eckes@uq.edu.au Maxi is supervised by Dr. Sophie Dove from CMS at UQ. Her project focuses on Coral reefs as UV-rich environments: organisms that live in such shallow habitats of the ocean protect themselves from damaging solar radiation by either having protective UV absorbing compounds known as mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) or they let themselves be “burned” and then repair the damaged cells and tissues. Her PhD research investigates these two possible UV protective mechanisms (MAAs or DNA-repair) in coral reef fish of the Great Barrier Reef. .
	Richard Evans - JCU PhD Student Contact: richard.evans@jcu.edu.au Richard grew up on the North Coast of NSW. He is currently enrolled as a PhD student at JCU under the supervision of Prof. Garry Russ, Prof. Geoff Jones and Dr. Lynne van Herwerden. Richard is investigating the effects of no-take areas on target fishery stocks. Richard is particularly focussed on adult movement and larval dispersal of target species using molecular tools in fished and protected areas on the inshore reefs of the GBR. Richard has worked for several organizations, both in Australia and overseas, monitoring coral reef health status, fishery target stocks and impact assessment studies. These organizations include GBRMPA, JCU, Conservation International, the French Institute of Research Development (IRD), and the Northern Province of New Caledonia.
	Mike Fabinyi - ANU PhD Student Contact: mike.fabinyi@anu.edu.au Mike is from Melbourne and moved to Canberra in 2005 to study at the ANU. His PhD research is focused on the social and political aspects of marine resource management in the Calamianes Islands, Philippines. The research examines how perceptions about poverty and the environment among local fishers affect the implementation of fisheries regulations, including marine protected areas and closed seasons. Mike has particular interests in the live reef fish trade, and the relationship between marine tourism and fisheries management. He has recently completed his fieldwork in the Philippines, and is currently busy writing the thesis up in Canberra.
	Pepito (Sonny) Fernandez - ANU PhD Student Contact: sonny.fernandez@gmail.com Sonny is an Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UPV), teaching political science and general education courses to undergraduates. He has a bachelors degree in political science from the University of the Philippines and a masters degree in geography at McGill University, Canada. His interest on governance and co-management issues in tropical coastal areas peaked in the late 1990s after a stint as a long-term exchange scientist to the College of Fisheries, Kagoshima University, Japan. He began his PhD studies at the Department of Human Geography-Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University in July 2004. He is finalizing the writeup of his PhD thesis on the politics of marine protected area management across scale in northern Iloilo Province, Philippines.
	Paul Fisher - UQ PhD Student Contact: p.fisher@marine.uq.edu.au Paul grew up in the UK. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences, specialising in Zoology, at the University of Reading, UK, in 2001. He later came to Australia, and is currently in his later stages of his PhD at UQ, researching Symbiodinium physiology.
	Rebecca Fox - JCU PhD Student Contact: rebecca.fox@jcu.edu.au Originally from the UK, Becky completed her BSc(Hons) in Marine Biology at James Cook University (JCU) in 2006. Her Honours research project focused on quantifying the impact of herbivorous fishes on an inshore reef of the Great Barrier Reef. Becky is now undertaking her PhD at JCU under the supervision of David Bellwood, where she is examining aspects of the ecology of one particular family of herbivorous reef fishes, the rabbitfishes (f: Siganidae). Her research aims to expand our knowledge of the trophic ecology, habitat associations and movement patterns of individual species of siganid, with a view to better understanding their functional impact on reef ecosystem processes.
	Matt Fraser - JCU PhD Student Contact: matthew.fraser@jcu.edu.au Matt Fraser, a North Queensland local, completed his BSc and honours on fish larval development and aquaculture nutrition at James Cook University. Matt is currently undertaking his PhD research on coral reef fish spawning aggregations in Papua New Guinea with the ARC Centre of Excellence under the supervision of Dr. Mark McCormick. Specifically, his research investigates the dynamics of egg predation at spawning aggregations and the consequences of this food resource on the egg predator community. His work will yield a broader understanding of the dynamics of globally threatened reef fish spawning aggregations. Matt’s research interests include reef fish reproductive ecology, fisheries biology and aquaculture nutrition. In his spare time Matt is usually out fishing in his boat.
	Ashley Frisch - JCU PhD Student Contact : ashley.frisch@jcu.edu.au Ashley was born and bred on the shores of the Great Barrier Reef and is proud to be one of the few locals engaged in marine biology at JCU. He has wide-ranging interests in the physiology, ecology, aquaculture and management of coral reef organisms, particularly commercially exploited macrofauna such as groupers and crayfish. At present he is investigating the regulation of sex-change in hermaphroditic fish (PhD supervised by Mark McCormick and Ned Pankhurst). Aside from planning a long career in marine biological research, Ashley is well known for his didjeridoos, which he sells at the local market.
	Naomi Gardiner - JCU PhD Student Contact: naomi.gardiner@jcu.edu.au Naomi grew up in Alice Springs, completed her BA/BSc at Melbourne University and migrated back to the sunshine of Townsville in 2002 to pursue her interests in coral reef ecology. She is now undertaking a PhD under the supervision of Dr Geoffrey Jones and Dr Craig Syms at JCU.Naomi is investigating the ecology of coral reef dwelling cardinalfish, in particular the interactions of habitat specialisation, resource partitioning and the amazingly strong fidelity of cardinalfish to their sleeping spots. After completing her Phd Naomi is keen to pursue coral reef research and management in Indonesia.
	Christopher Goatley - JCU MAppSc Student Contact: christopher.goatley@jcu.edu.au Christopher is from the UK where he undertook a BSc (Honours) degree in marine biology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Since completion of this degree he stayed in Newcastle upon Tyne for a short period helping the university to coordinate field trips for visiting school groups and then worked as a freelance scuba instructor in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. He is currently enrolled on a Master of Applied Science course at JCU Townsville and is conducting a research project on the trophic ecomorphology of reef fish assemblages, supervised by Prof David Bellwood.
	Alonso Gonzalez Cabello - JCU PhD Student Contact: alonso.gonzalezcabello@jcu.edu.au Born in Torreon, Mexico, Alonso obtained a BSc in Marine Biology at Universidad Autonoma de Baja California Sur (1997-2001) and a MSc degree at Centro de Investigaciones del Noroeste (2001-2003), focusing his thesis research on the spatial and temporal variability of cryptobenthic reef fish assemblages in the Southern Gulf of California. Thanks to a scholarship granted by the Mexican government, Alonso joined James Cook University PhD program on December 2005. Supervised by David Bellwood, he is currently trying to elucidate the factors that determine cryptobenthic reef fish diversity at different spatial scales and is also trying to quantify the effect of small-fish piscivory on cryptobenthic reef fish abundance in the Great Barrier Reef.
	Luis Gonzalez-Reynoso - JCU PhD Student Contact: luis.gonzalezreynoso@jcu.edu.au Luis studied his Honours in biology in Mexico, his passion for aquatic animals made him initiate an aquaculture company and study his master degree on marine biology in the Mexican Caribbean. Currently he is studying his PhD at JCU on the hormonal mechanisms of stress inhibition of reproduction in fish, supervised by Ned Pankhurst and Mark McCormick. This project has implications for the understanding and management of fish populations under stress either in the wild (as in the case of fish subjected to pollution or thermal stress) or in captivity (aquaculture industry). He plans to study these implications in a post-doctoral position.
	Erin Graham - JCU PhD Student Contact: erin.graham@jcu.edu.au Originally from Colorado, USA, Erin completed a BSc(Hons) in Marine Biology at James Cook University in 2007. She is currently enrolled in a PhD under the supervision of Bette Willis, Andrew Baird, and Sean Connolly. Her research focuses on factors affecting the dispersal potential of coral larvae, including energetics, settlement competence, and survival.
	Jessica Haapkyla - JCU PhD Student Contact: Jessica.Haapkyla@jcu.edu.au Jessica is originally from Finland. After having finished her MSc in hydrobiology at the University of Jyväskylä, Jessica got an internship with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Honolulu, Hawaii and visited the pristine reefs of Palmyra Atoll. Ever since she has visited various reefs in the world and developed a great enthusiasm in the coral reef environment. Jessica’s PhD is on the impacts and drivers of coral diseases in the Indo-Pacific. Her supervisors are Professor Bette Willis from the Centre of Excellence and David Bourne and Britta Schaffelke from AIMS.
	Jean-Paul Hobbs - JCU PhD Student Contact : jean-paul.hobbs@jcu.edu.au After growing up in Sydney, Jean-Paul moved to JCU to pursue a degree in marine biology. Following undergraduate studies, he continued studying at JCU and is currently enrolled in a PhD, supervised by Philip Munday, Geoff Jones and Dean Jerry. His PhD is focused on fish communities on isolated islands, particularly the ecology and genetics of endemic species. When he has completed his PhD, JP would like to continue doing research on coral reef fishes.
	Tom Holmes - JCU PhD Student Contact : thomas.holmes@jcu.edu.au Tom was born and raised on the Darling Downs in inland south-east Queensland. In 1999, he moved to Townsville to commence his studies in Biology at JCU, and in 2004 graduated with honors. After a 7 month hiatus in Canada, Tom returned to JCU to commence his PhD studies under the supervision of Dr. Mark McCormick. His current project investigates predator-prey interactions during the early post-settlement period in coral reef fishes. Specifically, the research focuses on the selectivity of predation during this high mortality period and its implications for future population dynamics. Tom's interests lie in predatory ecology and conservation biology, and he looks forward to pursuing a career along this path at the completion of his PhD studies.
	Andrew Hoey - JCU PhD Student Contact: andrew.hoey@jcu.edu.au Andrew grew up in Sydney where he completed a BEc at Macquarie University before moving to Townsville in 1995. Andrew completed his Bachelor and Honours degree in marine biology at JCU in 1999. His honours project examined the factors that influence the early post-settlement survival of coral reef fishes. After 7 years as laboratory manager and research assistant for the reef fish laboratory at the JCU node of the Centre, Andrew commenced his PhD under the supervision of Prof David Bellwood. Andrew’s research focuses on the role of herbivorous fishes in structuring benthic macroalgal communities and how this relationship varies across the continental shelf. In particular his research hopes to identify those species of herbivorous fish that may promote the resilience of reefs on the GBR. When not in the field or lab, Andrew enjoys spending time with his wife and 18 month old daughter, and renovating their Queenslander house.
	Emily Howells - JCU PhD Student Contact: emily.howells@jcu.edu.au Emily's favourite childhood memories include playing with marine life in rock pools on the Australian south coast and a mind-blowing first-time snorkelling trip on the Great Barrier Reef. Yet it wasn't until boredom set in after years of working in hospitality and retail jobs that pursuing a career in Marine Biology made sense. Emily moved to Townsville and completed her undergarduate degree with honours in Marine Biology at James Cook University in 2006. Her PhD research focusses on the genetics of populations of coral endosymbionts (dinoflagellates in the genus Symbiodinium) to understand their role in the potential of coral reefs to adapt to climate change. Current research activities are directed at identifying genes involved in heat stress in Symbiodinium and how these differ (DNA sequence and gene expression) among different types of Symbiodinium, over natural thermal gradients, and under heat stress experiments.
	Stephanie Januchowski - JCU PhD Student Contact: Stephanie.januchowski@jcu.edu.au Stephanie grew up in the United States and completed a Bachelor and Master of Science in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She moved to Townsville to undertake her PhD in systematic conservation planning with supervisors Bob Pressey, Richard Pearson, and Kristen Williams. She is interested in conservation planning of freshwater systems. Her research at JCU will focus on establishing a systematic classification for streams and rivers in the Wet Tropics bioregion. Her classifications will be based initially on available data and will be built upon using field derived data to evaluate informativeness and uncertainties associated with classifications and field surveys. She will also look at how much uncertainty is acceptable when establishing conservation priorities and how uncertainty can be accommodated for in planning. While her work is focused on freshwater systems, she hopes it will eventually contribute to integrated coastal planning and management for protection of biodiversity and the quality of water flowing into the reef.
	Jacob Johansen - JCU PhD Student Contact: jacob.johansen@jcu.edu.au Jacob is originally from Denmark where he gained his Bachelor at Copenhagen University studying fish ecophysiology. Jacob decided to escape the cold and move to Australia in 2005 where he gained his Masters of Science at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia in 2007. In his masters project Jacob examined the effects of swimming ability and refuging behaviour on coral reef fish ecology and distribution. Jacob was awarded a PhD scholarship by JCU in September 2007 and is currently studying the resilience of planktivorous coral reef fishes to environmental disturbance such as global climate change and terrestrial run-off. He is interested in the ability of reef fishes to tolerate adverse or extreme environmental conditions on coral reefs.
	David Jones - JCU Honours Student Contact: david.jones@jcu.edu.au Born in Atherton and growing up in Townsville, David has completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology focusing on genetics. He is currently undertaking Honours in the population genetics of a coral reef fish, Pomacentrus amboinensis, looking at connectivity between populations in both the spatial and temporal scale including comparisons between adult and recruitment populations, under the supervision of Dr Line Bay, Dr Mark McCormick and Dr Dean Jerry. Intending to continue with a PhD Project in the coming years.
	Narinratana Kongjandtre - UQ PhD Student Contact: n.kongjandtre@uq.edu.au Narinratana is originally from Thailand, she prefer people to called her “Nong”. She completed a Bachelors degree in Aquatic Science and a Masters degree in Biological Science at Burapha University. She started learning coral taxonomy and did her first coral reef research in coral taxonomy (Family Faviidae in particular). When she was a graduate student she continued my research in coral taxonomy and population study of faviid corals in the Gulf of Thailand, as she believe good taxonomy is the basis for any ecological study. In July 2006, she started a PhD under supervision of Prof. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg at the University of Queensland, she is interested in taxonomy and systematics of the coral genus Favia from Thai waters. A unique multi-disciplinary approach will be undertaken with ecological, morphological, molecular genetic and reproductive characteristics being taken into account. Thailand had been selected as a case study due to the variety of habitats and its position within the high biodiversity hot spot known as the ‘Coral Triangle’. In addition, Thailand represents an opportunity to compare Indian and Pacific Ocean species.
	Charlotte Kvennefors - UQ PhD Student Contact: c.kvennefors@uq.edu.au Charlotte (Lotta) grew up in Sweden where she also completed her masters in molecular biology. In 2004 she moved to Australia where she carried out her honours in coral disease at the University of Queensland. She is currently undertaking a PhD at UQ studying host-pathogen interactions and immunity in reef-building corals. Her PhD commenced in 2005 and she is supervised by Dr Andrew Barnes, Prof. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Dr Bill Legatt and Prof. Bernie Degnan. In her spare time Lotta enjoys reading, seeing friends and spending time in or by the ocean.
	Angela Lawton - UQ PhD Student Contact: a.lawton@cms.uq.edu.au Angela grew up in Boston, and moved to Wisconsin to complete a BA in Science and BMusic in Education. During her time at Lawrence, she participated in the Lawrence University Coral Reef Semester, spending a month in the Cayman Islands learning about the biology and ecology of the Cayman Islands. This experience inspired her to return to Grand Cayman to complete her honours on the ecology of the reefs of Grand Cayman and eventually to start her PhD in Ove Hoegh-Gulberg’s lab studying the metabolic relationship of the coral host and the symbiotic dinoflagellate using microsensors.
	Rebecca Lawton - JCU PhD Student Contact: rebecca.lawton@jcu.edu.au Originally from New Zealand, Rebecca completed her BSc Honours in Zoology and Ecology at the University of Otago in 2005. Following several years working in the Fisheries Science team at the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries and as a research assistant for the Cairo office of the WorldFish Center, she decided to begin a PhD at James Cook University. Supervised by Morgan Prachett and Line Bay, her research investigates the role of ecological specialization on population genetic structure and extinction risk in butterflyfishes.
	Anne Leitch - JCU PhD Student Contact : Anne.Leitch@csiro.au Anne Leitch has a background in marine ecology but these days spends more time as a social scientist. During her PhD, Anne will work with two communities adjacent to, and dependent on, the Great Barrier Reef to develop an integrated assessment of their adaptive capacity and planned response options to climate change. Anne has a BSc (Hons) from University of Sydney and Masters in Communication from QUT.
	Raechel Littman - JCU PhD Student Contact: raechel.littman@jcu.edu.au Raechel is originally from Seattle (USA) and is currently working on a PhD at JCU under the supervision of Prof. Bette Willis and Dr. David Bourne. After completing a BSc in biotechnology at WPI (MA, USA) she earned a Masters in environmental policy at George Washington University and worked at several environmental policy institutions in Washington DC. Raechel’s research is examining the natural variability in microbial communities associated with corals and the effects of climate change on the dynamics of microbial associations.
	Adrian Lutz - JCU PhD Student Contact: adrian.lutz@jcu.edu.au Adrian grew up in Switzerland and completed his MSc in biology at the University of Basel. He first came to Townsville in 2005 to work with Madeleine van Oppen for his thesis on the genetic connectivity of Seriatopora hystrix. He returned to Switzerland to finish his degree and worked for the Institute of Zoology of the University of Basel. Thanks to an AIMS@JCU scholarship he's back in Townsville working with Madeleine van Oppen, David Miller and Walt Dunlap. His PhD investigates the potential antioxidant role of Coenzyme Q and Plastoquinone in coral symbiosis.
	Matt Lybolt - UQ PhD Student Contact: m.lybolt@uq.edu.au Originally from Chicago, Matt first learned about corals in Florida and was hooked. He got a taste of life as a government employee while completing a University of South Florida Masters thesis on octocoral community dynamics in the Florida Keys. Vowing never again to be a full-time employee and full-time student simultaneously, Matt went off to work as a consultant for Coastal Planning & Engineering. Life as a consultant was a happy and productive time for Matt but after four years he returned to school, this time as an IPRS winner at the University of Queensland. His wife Karen bravely moved to Brisbane without having seen it first! Matt's PhD project, under John Pandolfi, will examine the historical ecology of Moreton Bay with emphasis on the Bay's coral assemblages. Though he enjoys playing soccer, traveling, and relaxing with his wife, Matt is otherwise spectacularly boring.
	Thomas Mannering - JCU MSc Student Contact: thomas.mannering@jcu.edu.au Thomas spent his childhood growing up in the UK, Australia and Hong Kong and the constant close proximity of the sea sparked his interest in underwater life. In 2004 he obtained his BSc Hons. in oceanography with marine biology at Southampton university. In early 2005 he moved to Australia where he is currently completing his MRes in marine biology. Thomas is interested in fisheries management and is currently investigating possible marine reserve effects on recruitment of coral reef fish, under the supervision of Prof. Geoff Jones and Dr. Craig Syms. His other interests include volleyball, photography and travel.
	Guy Marion - UQ PhD Student Contact: g.marion@uq.edu.au Guy grew up moving all over the world (Bahrain, Bangkok, Tokyo, Sydney, New York, Dallas, Hong Kong), but moved to Brisbane in 2003 from the San Francisco Bay area, California. Guy is a Ph.D. candidate at the UQ node, and is supervised by Ove Hoegh-Guldberg (UQ) and Malcolm McCulloch (ANU). His research focuses on the extraction and analysis of nitrogen isotopes (δ15N) preserved in long coral cores to trace river-born signals of fertilizers and urban pollutants entering the GBR lagoon since European-arrival (1860). Guy earned a B.S. (hons) at Stanford University (2002), and was a recipient of the 2004 International Society for Reef Studies prize. In his spare time, Guy loves surfing, diving, visiting friends, and is pursuing post-doc positions in Australia or the U.S. next year. See also: http://www.cms.uq.edu.au/mackayarc/
	Luiz Felipe Mendes de Gusmao - JCU PhD Student Contact: luiz.mendesdegusmao@jcu.edu.au Felipe is originally from Brazil and has been studying zooplankton ecology since 1997. He has gained his Bachelor in Oceanology at the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG) in Brazil studying the ecology and aquaculture of estuarine zooplankton. In 2004 he gained his Masters Degree in Environmental Engineering (Limnology) at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) in Sao Carlos, Brazil, studying the impact of heavy metal contamination on freshwater zooplankton with mesocosms experiments. Currently, he is an AIMS@JCU student doing PhD at James Cook University under the supervision of Dr. Mike Kingsford (James Cook University) and Dr. David McKinnon (Australian Institute of Marine Science). The main focus of his research is understanding the controls of zooplankton secondary production in tropical seas using traditional methods and new biochemical techniques to estimate copepod growth rates. The same techniques are also being applied to investigate the biology of some tropical copepod species in laboratory and its potential use in aquaculture.
	Vanessa Messmer - JCU PhD Student Contact: vanessa.messsmer@jcu.edu.au Vanessa was born in Germany and mostly grew up in Europe. Her fascination for oceans began through watching documentaries on TV. In 2000, she moved to Townsville to study Marine Biology and graduated in 2004 with honours. After working for 2 years in Perpignan, France as a research assistant, she returned to JCU in 2006 thanks to an IPRS scholarship to commence a PhD. Supervised by Geoff Jones, Philip Munday and Serge Planes (France), she is investigating the causes and consequences of declining fish diversity on coral reefs.
	Rachael Middlebrook - UQ PhD Student Contact: r.middlebrook@uq.edu.au Rachael grew up in Sydney and completed a Bachelor of Marine Science at Macquarie University. In between Sydney and Brisbane, Rachael spent time in Fiji researching traditional fisheries and reef management in Fijian communities before moving to Brisbane to complete an Honours degree at the Centre for Marine studies, University of Queensland. Rachael began her PhD at CMS in 2007 under the supervision of Dr Sophie Dove, Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Dr Ken Anthony and Dr Bill Leggat (JCU). Her research focuses on determining thermal threshold dynamics and variability in reef building corals between reefs and at sub-reef scales. Information provided by this research will be utilized by NOAA towards predicting coral bleaching and mortality and subsequent impacts on coral reef environments. In her spare time Rachael enjoys surfing and painting.
	Morena Mills - JCU PhD Student Contact: morena.mills@jcu.edu.au Morena, born and raised in Brazil, completed a Bachelor of Marine Studies Honours degree at the University of Queensland. Hoping to help save the world she has now started a PhD with Prof Bob Pressey in conservation planning. She is interested in the socio-economic effects of Marine Protected Areas and how socio-economic data should be integrated into conservation planning.
	Y. Roshni Narayan - UQ PhD Student Contact: r.narayan@uq.edu.au Roshni was born in Suva, Fiji but grew up in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. She completed her BSc in Zoology at the University of Alberta (1998) and her MSc in Earth Sciences at the University of Victoria, Canada (2003). Roshni arrived in Brisbane, Australia in February 2007 and started her PhD project, within the Earth Sciences and Centre for Marine Studies, UQ, under the supervision of John Pandolfi. Some of her objectives are to assess historical (Holocene) and modern Foraminifera diversity and distributions across MB (from most to least anthropogenically impacted sites). She aims to: 1) survey and assess changes in faunal distribution and diversity, over the last forty years (incorporating existing samples), since the Holocene (~6000 ybp) and since pre-European colonization 2) identify modern/historical foram-coral community and foram-seagrass associations 3)correlate with shifts in the coral communities, overtime (in collaboration with concurrent coral community studies by another Ph.D student) and 4) chronologically constrain timing of ecological changes by determining radiocarbon age dates. In her spare time Roshni enjoys painting/drawing, learning new languages swimming and belly-dancing. She would like to do more scuba-diving in Australia and learn photography: http://www.earth.uq.edu.au/2006/Students/Student_Profiles2006.html
	Jung Ok Kang - ANU PhD Student Contact: jung.kang@anu.edu.au Jung grew up in South Korea where she majored in economic geology and geochemistry at Korea University and for her master’s thesis, she worked on the effect of agrochemicals on the shallow groundwater quality and natural processes in South Korea. She also has been studying on determination of oxygen isotope fractionations between rhodochrosite (MnCO3) and water at low temperatures. Having worked in stable isotope laboratory at Korea University, she is quite knowledgeable about a Finnigan MAT 252 isotope ratio mass spectrometer and its automated peripherals, such as a CO2-H2O Equilibrium Device and the H/device. She is currently working for a PhD at the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian University supervised by prof. Malcolm Mcculloch. Her research topic is indentifying the impact of anthropogenic increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide and Ocean acidifying and global warming to examine implications for long-term changes in the calcification rate of coral reefs.
	Juan Ortiz - UQ PhD Student Contact: j.ortiz@uq.edu.au Juan Carlos was born in Caracas, Venezuela 32 years ago. He did his undergraduate degree in the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV). During his time at the UCV he was involved in different activities including being a member of the diving club BIOSUB. After a lot of diving and also spending time doing theatre in the university he finished his undergraduate studies. He got a degree in Ecology from the UCV. His undergraduate thesis was studying the effects of freshwater and sediments discharges on a marginal coral community in the central coast of Venezuela. Juan started a PhD at the University of Queensland in 2006 co-supervised by Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg (University of Queensland) and Prof. Rob van Woesik (Florida Institute of Technology), studying the ecological dynamic of coral reefs in response to subtle disturbances. Juan Carlos PhD project is part of the GEF-Coral Reef Target Group. His research is based on Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef. Juan Carlos main interests are coral community ecology, with emphasis in Sampling design and statistical analysis. His latest creation (Amaranta) arrived on the 12th of January 2008 and has nothing to do with science, but he is very proud of her.
	Cathie Page - JCU PhD Student Contact: cathie.page@jcu.edu.au Cathie moved to Townsville from northern-NSW to complete her Bachelors degree at James Cook University. She then traveled overseas for 18 months before returning to complete her Honours at JCU. While working at the Australian Institute of Marine Science she developed an interest in coral disease and is currently enrolled for a PhD under the supervision of Bette Willis and Terry Hughes. Cathie is currently investigating the biological impacts and spatial patterns in coral disease prevalence on the Great Barrier Reef. Cathie is planning to continue research in this field on completion of the PhD, hopefully in exotic overseas locations.
	Caroline Palmer - JCU PhD Student Contact: caroline.palmer@jcu.edu.au Caroline is a first year PhD student in a conjoint arrangement between JCU and Newcastle University, U.K, with Prof. Bette Willis and Dr John Bythell. Caroline graduated from JCU with a BSc in Marine Biology, and undertook a Graduate Certificate of Research Methods with Prof. Bette Willis at JCU, which she completed in 2006. Caroline's research interests include the biological mechanisms behind coral disease and immune defences of scleractinians. Her work currently focuses on the visible pigmentation responses of coral to localised stressors, and innate responses involved in wound healing. Caroline has completed studies in Indonesia, Orpheus and Heron islands on the GBR and in Hawai'i in association with the Pauley Program at HIMB. In her spare time Caroline enjoys swimming, sailing, hiking and skiing.
	Allison Paley - JCU MSc Student Contact: allison.paley@jcu.edu.au Allison, originally from Washington, D.C., began her University education at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she studied Dance and Aquatic Biology. Initially a study abroad student at James Cook University, Allison transferred and graduated from JCU with a BSc in Marine Biology in 2005. She is currently pursuing a MSc in coral reef ecology supervised by Professor Bette Willis, Dr. Madeleine van Oppen (of AIMS), and Dr. Line K. Bay. Her research interests are focused on the genetic structuring and diversity of coral populations in relation to bleaching sensitivity and colour morph variation. In particular, she is interested in developing a clearer understanding of the importance of coral fluorescence in thermal resilience.
	Eneour Puill-Stephan - JCU PhD Student Contact: eneour.puillstephan@jcu.edu.au Eneour says "After spending a year sailing around the Atlantic Ocean on a sailing boat and exploring coral reefs, I always kept in my mind this dream to study coral biology. Subsequently, I completed my undergraduate and masters degree in Marine Biology in France, at the University of Western Brittany in Brest. In June 2005, I finished my Masters by research on fish physiology, from which I got associated to three publications. Now, I am into this exciting project for my PhD with Bette Willis and Lynne van Herwerden from JCU and Madeleine van Oppen from AIMS thanks to the AIMS@JCU scholarship. The project will explore the potential of corals to form genetic chimeras and the extent of chimerism in natural coral populations (e.g., Acropora millepora) on the Great Barrier Reef. The role these genetically diverse chimeras might play in the resistance to different stress such as invading pathogens will be investigated. I also kept contact with my previous French University through the signature of a co-tutelle agreement in early 2007 between the University of Western Brittany (Brest, France) and the James Cook University."
	Ruth Reef - UQ PhD Student Contact: r.reef@uq.edu.au Ruth comes from Israel, where she did her BSc. and MSc. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences of Eilat Today she is enrolled for a PhD at the Centre for Marine Studies of the University of Queensland, supervised by Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. Ruth is currently investigating the effect of temperature on the accumulation and repair of UV damage in corals and their symbionts and testing whether corals can acclimate to the changes they are facing of global warming and increasing UV-R levels. Growing up on the Red Sea coast, diving and other marine activities are her second nature but when not underwater, Ruth enjoys hiking, bird watching and being outdoors. She plans to pursue a post-doc studying the changing marine UV environment and how organisms cope with this emerging threat. Contact details and list of publications can be found at: http://www.cms.uq.edu.au/staff/rreef.htm
	Alejandro Reyes - JCU PhD Student Contact: alejandro.reyes@jcu.edu.au Alejandro grew up in Colombia where he finished his BSc Hons in Marine Biology. After traveling for 18 months he decided to immigrate to Australia to do his PhD under the supervision of Dr David Miller in the Comparative Genomics Centre at JCU. His research focuses on the cellular mechanisms of coral calcification. This biological process is responsible for the deposition of Calcium Carbonate exoskeletons from which coral reef ecosystems are build upon. After completion of his degree Alejandro would like to work towards the establishment of a coral cell line that would allow the study of genetic pathways involved in different aspects of coral biology.
	Claire Reymond - JCU PhD Student Contact: c.reymond@uq.edu.au For the most part Sydney has been home for Claire. After completing her BSc in conservation and biodiversity at Macquarie University she's now taken residence in Brisbane. It's still early days however Claire intends to fulfil her ABRS scholarship by collecting taxonomy and ecology data on foraminiferal communities to address two priority goals of the Environmentally Sustainable Australia initiative; in particular, the sustainable use of Australia's biodiversity and preparing for environmental variability. Claire is currently a PhD candidate at the centre of marine studies, UQ and is supervised by A/Prof. John Pandolfi, Prof. Hugh Possingham, Dr. Willem Renema and Dr. Sven Uthicke (AIMS). When not working, you'll often find Claire in a bookstore, at the art gallery or lying under a tree looking at the sky.
	Zoe Richards - JCU PhD Student Contact : zoe.richards@jcu.edu.au Before enrolling in her PhD with the Centre of Excellence, Zoe worked in the Corals section of the Museum of Tropical Queensland for 5 years.Her project investigates the age, genotypic diversity and reproductive fitness of rare Acropora species. Zoe is supervised by David Miller from the Comparative Genomics Centre and Madeleine van Oppen from the Australian Institute of Marine Science along with Bette Willis (JCU) and Carden Wallace (MTQ). Zoe is interested in coral biodiversity and the threatened status of marine invertebrates and looks forward to a future exploring and researching the world’s coral reefs.
	Alma Ridep-Morris - JCU MAppSc Student Contact : alma.ridepmorris@jcu.edu.au Alma is a Pacific Islander from the beautiful islands of Palau, and she gained her BSc from the Australian National University in Canberra, and she went back to Palau to work as the Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Program Manager for the Bureau of Marine Resources, Ministry of Resources and Development for the past few years. She is currently doing her Master of Applied Science by Research at James Cook University, and hopefully if funding permits, she wants to pursue her PhD in the near future. Alma is doing her Master’s on the dynamics of coral disease (particularly on Black Band Disease) outbreak in Nikko Bay, Palau. Her supervisors are Professor Bette Willis and Professor Geoff Jones from JCU.
	Jez Roff - UQ PhD Student Contact : g.roff@uq.edu.au Jez is studying the historical ecology of coral communities from the central Inshore Great Barrier Reef, and is supervised by A/Prof John Pandolfi, A/Prof Jian-Xin Zhao and Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg (University of Queensland).
	Alexandra-Sophie Roy - JCU PhD Student Contact : alexandrasophie.roy@jcu.edu.au Alexandra-Sophie grew up in Quebec, Canada where she also completed her Bachelor degree in marine sciences at the Universitee du Quebec a Rimouski. In 2004, she moved to Australia to discover a new world and diversify her knowledge on tropical systems. She is currently working on a Master of Science at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia under the supervision of Professor Geoffrey P. Jones. Sophie’s research is examining Trans-generational marking of clown fish larvae via maternal transmission. She is interested in pursuing her studies at JCU in ecology of coral reef fish populations and communities. When she is not working on her studies, Alexandra-Sophie enjoys travelling, snowboarding and of course diving.
	Armagan Sabatien - JCU PhD Student Contact : Armagan.Sabatien@jcu.edu.au From New Zealand., Armagan has been working in the Solomon Islands since 1999, first completing a Msc on the ecology of Serranids (Groupers) targeted by the Live Reef Fish Food Trade (LRFFT). Currently he is a PhD candidate at James Cook University under the supervision of Professor Howard Choat. His research commitments have taken him back to the Solomon Islands where since 2004 he has been conducting a comparative demographic analysis of the Scaridae family (Parrotfish), and also investigating the status of the fishery from an ethnographic perspective. More recently he has been collaborating with the Roviana and Vonavona resource management program in the Western province of the Solomons (University of Santa Barbara, California) to investigate the effects of marine reserves on the abundance and distribution of functionally important reef fish
	Yui Sato - JCU PhD Student Contact: yui.sato1@jcu.edu.au Yui grew up at Tokyo in Japan, where he has done his Bachelor in Biology. Today he enjoys his Master's on coral disease, supervised by Dr Bette Willis and David Bourne (AIMS), after his Minor Project on dynamics of a black band disease outbreak at Pelorus Island. He, recently accepted as a member of AIMS@JCU student, focuses on environmental drivers and potential trigger of black band disease and undertakes monitoring of the disease in the field and laboratory work using molecular techniques. Yui keenly intends to expand his studies into a PhD.
	Francois Seneca - JCU PhD Student Contact: francois.seneca@jcu.edu.au Francois was born and raised in Monaco. He completed his Bachelor degree in Zoology at the University of Hawai’i where he developed his interest for molecular biology applied to marine organisms. To complement his undergraduate studies, he worked as a student assistant at the Kewalo Marine Laboratory, Waikiki Aquarium and Scientific Centre of Monaco. Today he is a PhD student as part of the Coral Genomics Group (Comparative Genomics Centre JCU), supervised by Prof. David Miller, Dr. Madeleine van Oppen and Dr. Andrew Negri. His research focuses on cellular stress responses in corals exposed to pesticides, heavy metals and elevated temperature. When Francois is not “pipetting” in the lab, he enjoys underwater photography and video, or plays Rugby Union for JCU.
	Loic Thibaut - JCU and Pierre & Marie Curie PhD Student Contact: loic.thibaut@jcu.edu.au Loïc was born and raised in France. After completing a Master degree in theoretical computer science at the University of Nancy, he worked as an IT for more than 10 years, mainly overseas. He developed a strong interest in marine ecology while working in Africa on a European Union funded fisheries management project and decided to go back to university. Today he is a PhD student at JCU and University Pierre & Marie Curie, supervised by Prof. Terry Hughes, A.Prof. Sean Connolly and Prof. René Galzin. His research focuses on modelling approaches to reef fish assemblages resilience using data from long term monitoring programs.
	Chuya Shinzato - JCU PhD Student Contact: chuya.shinzato@jcu.edu.au Chuya was born and grew up in Okinawa, which is located southwest of Japan. He completed his bachelor and master degree’s at Kyoto University. Chuya’s background study is the molecular biology of marine organisms and he is now undertaking a PhD at James Cook University, supervised by David Miller, Comparative Genomics Centre. His research focuses on the Sox genes functions in early coral development.
	Lubna Ukani - JCU PhD student Contact: Lubna.ukani@jcu.edu.au Lubna was born and brought up in Bombay, India. She completed her BSc Honors degree in Biology at the University of Houston in the United States where she developed an interest for molecular genetics. Before moving to Australia she worked for 2 years with the Department of Molecular & Human Genetics at the Baylor college of Medicine in Houston, Texas. As a research assistant she was investigating genetic control of normal development and the mechanisms of pathogenesis involved in human neurodegenerative disease using Drosophila as a model system. Lubna then decided to pursue her interest for molecular genetics in marine organisms at James Cook University where she is currently a PhD student as a part of the Coral Genomics Group, supervised by Prof. David Miller. Her research focuses on the Characterization of DNA Methylation Systems in Acropora and other Lower Animals during development.
	Annamieke Van Den Heuvel - UQ PhD Student Contact: a.vandenheuvel@uq.edu.au Annamieke was raised in Darwin, before moving to Brisbane to further her education. Annamieke completed a Diploma in Horticulture before starting a Bachelor of Science at UQ, majoring in both marine biology and genetics. She went on to do her honours at the Centre for Marine Studies and is currently undertaking her PhD there. She is supervised by Sophie Dove (UQ), Bill Leggat (JCU) and David Yellowlees (JCU). Annamieke’s project examines the effect of elevated nitrogen on gene expression in coral and its’ symbiotic dinoflagellate. When not at university Annamieke enjoys taking long walks with her dogs on the beach.
	Piero Visconti - JCU PhD Student Contact: piero.visconti@jcu.edu.au Piero was born in Italy where he completed an honours and a Master degree in conservation biology care of University “La Sapienza”, Rome. Piero came to Australia in 2007 to undertake a project at the University of Queensland in dynamic conservation planning with Professor Bob Pressey who is now his primary supervisor at JCU. Piero’s PhD project addresses some of the many unresolved issues of doing conservation planning in dynamic systems. Among them: setting conservation priorities for dynamic species and threats, mutual interactions between conservation actions and land/sea use opportunity cost and uncertainty in data on species and threats distribution. Piero’s scientific interests are in species distribution modeling, decision support systems, and land use modeling. Extra curricula interests are snorkeling, sailing, tennis, and hiking.
	Marcelo Visentini Kitahara - JCU PhD Student Contact: marcelo.visentinikitahara@jcu.edu.au Marcelo is originally from Brazil and has gained Bachelor in Oceanography (UNIVALI) and Masters degree in Geography (UFSC), studying the systematic, distribution, biogeography and threats among southern Brazilian deep-sea corals. Currently, he is doing PhD at James Cook University under the supervision of Dr David Miller (James Cook University) and Dr Stephen Cairns (Smithsonian Institution). The primary focus of the study is phylogeny of the Scleractinia using molecular and classical taxonimy data.
	Stefan Walker - JCU PhD Student Contact: stefan.walker@jcu.edu.au Stefan grew up in Port Stephens, NSW, and has been living in Townsville for the past nine years. He is currently enrolled as a PhD student at the JCU node of the center, under the supervision of Dr Mark McCormick and Dr Philip Munday. His research focuses on experimentally isolating the interrelationships between population dynamics, social system and life history plasticity in reef fish.On completion, Stefan hopes to secure a postdoctoral position and expand the scope of his research by integrating sociobiological processes and population modeling techniques.
	Patricia Warner - JCU PhD Student Contact: patricia.warner@jcu.edu.au Patricia grew up fishing and diving on the east coast of Florida (USA), where she was born and raised in Stuart. After completing a dual BSc in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans, she spent a year teaching field marine science in the Florida Keys. She later worked for an environmental consultant, involved in a diverse range of marine projects from sea turtle nesting surveys to plankton community studies. In February 2007, Patricia started postgraduate coursework at James Cook University and was soon wooed into the world of corals. She began research with Professor Bette Willis in September, and will officially commence her PhD in 2008. Patricia’s current work under the supervision of Prof. Willis and Dr. Madeleine van Oppen (AIMS) employs molecular techniques to investigate the reproductive ecology and population connectivity of the brooding coral Seriatopora hystrix.
	Rebecca Weeks - JCU PhD Student Contact: rebecca.weeks@jcu.edu.au Originally from the UK, Rebecca completed her Masters degree in Ecology at the University of Sheffield. Prior to taking her undergraduate course, Rebecca took a year out during which she learnt to SCUBA dive, worked on a marine conservation project in Madagascar, and travelled across China. After three months counting fish in the Indian Ocean, she was determined to pursue a career in marine biology. During four years at a landlocked university she did her best to steer her studies towards the sea - her Masters research focussed on the ecology and design of marine reserve networks. Upon graduation, Rebecca was awarded a Northcote Graduate Scholarship to pursue postgraduate studies in Australia, and accepted a PhD position at JCU under the supervision of Prof. Garry Russ. Her PhD explores approaches to designing marine reserve networks in the Philippines; she is especially interested in how systematic conservation planning concepts and tools can be applied in a data-limited, developing country context.
	David Williamson - JCU PhD Student Contact: david.williamson@jcu.edu.au Originally from Perth, WA, David moved to Townsville to pursue a BSc and MSc in Marine Biology at JCU. David is currently a PhD candidate in the School of Marine Biology and Aquaculture at JCU under the supervision of Garry Russ, Geoff Jones, Lynne Van Herwerden and Simon Thorrold (Woods Hole Institute, USA). David is investigating larval dispersal of exploited reef fish, genetic connectivity of populations and potential export effects of MPA’s within the GBR marine park. David has worked on Australian and international research and monitoring projects for organizations including; the GBRMPA, CRC, the French Institute for Research and Development (IRD) and the U.S. based Smithsonian Institute. David’s other interests include playing music, travel and adventure.
	Huibin Zou - JCU PhD Student Contact: huibin.zou@jcu.edu.au Completing his master degree in genetics at Ocean University of China, Huibin is undertaking research at David Miller's lab. His research focuses on screening immune related genes in coral and recording their expression model under microorganism stress.