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Plenary Speakers

Professor Stuart Bunn

Director of the Australian Rivers Institute
Griffith University, Brisbane.
Stuart’s major research interests are in the ecology of river and wetland systems with a particular focus on ecosystem processes, and he has published widely on this topic.  Stuart has extensive experience working with international and Australian government agencies on water resource management issues and was recently appointed as a commissioner for the National Water Commission. He is also a member of the Scientific Steering Committee for the Global Water System Project, the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Lake Eyre Basin Ministerial Council and the Deputy Chair of the Scientific Expert Panel for the Southeast Queensland Healthy Waterways Partnership.

Dr Tom Rose

Coordinator, Cockburn Sound Management Council
Department of Environment and Conservation
Tom began learning and working in estuaries with the US Fish and Wildlife Service – California Department of Fish and Game in the San Francisco Bay and San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta. This inspired him to come to Western Australia in 1984 and study  how nutrient enrichment affected the ecology of the Swan and Peel-Harvey Estuaries during the 1980s. Her received his PhD from Murdoch University in 1994.

Tom was Regional Manager in Mandurah for the Water and Rivers Commission where he was heavily involved in a number of programs relating to the Dawesville Channel. H then managed the Swan-Canning Cleanup Program where he oversaw the development and successful release of the first multi-million dollar SCCP Action Plan in 1999.
Tom has since worked as a coordinator for a fish kill incident response program, developed a nutrient monitoring network for the Peel-Harvey and now coordinates environmental management in Cockburn Sound, a heavily industrialised and popular recreational marine embayment near Perth. Tom has a wide range of experiences and stories that cross the spectrum of water resources – from fresh and salty inland waters to tidal rivers and estuaries.

Matt Kendall

General Manager, Water Science Group
National Water Commission, Canberra
Matt leads the Commission’s scientific activities to support implementation of the National Water Initiative and is responsible for implementation of the National Groundwater Action Plan.  He has previously held roles in the public and private sector, and most recently was the Salinity Program Manager with the Murray-Darling Basin Commission.  Matt has a Masters Degree in Engineering Science (Water Resources & Environmental) from Monash University (2000), and a Masters of Business Administration (Technology Management) from Deakin University (2003).

Chris Walsh

Principal research fellow
University of Melbourne
Chris is at the tail-end of the early part of his late-starting career, making him somewhat long in the tooth to be receiving an early career award.  In 1995, he was awarded his PhD from Deakin University on the ecology of estuarine shrimps, and joined the Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology at Monash University. Since then, Chris has become an international leader in research on the effects of urbanization on the ecology of streams and rivers, with over 30 peer-reviewed publications on the topic.  He convened the first symposium on urbanization and stream ecology in Melbourne in 2003, and was on the organizing committee of the second in the USA in 2008.  He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Urban Ecosystems. 
Strong links and effective communication with management agencies have been a hallmark his research, which has influenced approaches to stormwater management in Australia and internationally.

Dr Jes Sammut

Senior Lecturer
School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of NSW.
 Jes conducts research on estuary acidification and the environmental impacts of acid sulfate soils. He has worked on the role of acidification in fish kills and fish disease outbreaks, estuary acidification processes and the effects of land drainage on soil and water processes.  He also investigates the effects of acidification on the brackishwater aquaculture industry in Australia and Indonesia.  Jes leads several ACIAR-funded research projects on land capability assessment, soil mapping, aquaculture pond rehabilitation and coastal planning in Indonesia.  Jes also coordinates a development program in Aceh to rebuild technical capacity and provide research support to government agencies and shrimp farmers affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

Professor Sam Lake

School of Biological Sciences
Monash University.
After many years of teaching and research he is now partly retired, becoming a Research Fellow working on drought in aquatic ecosystems and the restoration ecology of streams. Originally from Canberra, he graduated with Honours from ANU, did his Ph.D. in neurobiology at the University of Southampton, lectured for 9 years at the University of Tasmania, and has worked at Monash University for the past 30 years or so.

Over the years he has supervised 37 Ph.D. students and a great number of Masters and Honours students. From his early work on the effects of zinc pollution in the Molonglo River, he has carried out research on the effects of both natural and anthropogenic disturbances on aquatic ecosystems, on the patterns and regulation of biodiversity in freshwater systems and on the role of terrestrial crabs in tropical island rainforest. From his days in Canberra and Tasmania he has been involved in conservation struggles with quite limited success.

Dr. Rod Oliver

Group Leader, CSIRO Land and Water
Project Leader Water for Healthy Country Flagship.
Rod leads a diverse, cross-divisional, project team researching methods for assessing the environmental flows required to deliver ecological outcomes in lowland rivers. He has 20 years research experience in aquatic ecology with a focus on phytoplankton and water quality issues. During this period he has led major projects supported by the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Land & Water Australia and the CRC for Freshwater Ecology. His published research focuses on the influences of physical and chemical conditions on phytoplankton ecology. This has included analyses of river metabolism and the sources of organic carbon supporting aquatic food webs, active fluorescence for assessment of phytoplankton photo-physiology, phytoplankton nutrient requirements and cyanobacterial bloom dynamics. His research has sought to link cellular and sub-cellular processes to environmental conditions in order to improve understanding of phytoplankton population dynamics at the lake and river system scales.