Herp Supervisors in Australia

Potential Supervisors for Australian Herpetological Research Projects

Australia has an astounding diversity of frogs and reptiles and lots of undergraduate students are keen to follow their interests by studying for a Graduate Diploma or Honours and perhaps a Masters and/or PhD.

It is now very common that students do Grad Dips, Honours or Masters degrees at the same university that they did their undergraduate. It is also very common for students to do PhD degrees at the same place they did their Honours. That can be fine and many students have done extremely well by doing all their degrees at the same university, but there are a couple of things you should know.

• It can be very good to move to a different university to do your next degree. It broadens your experience base, you might get to go in a totally new direction, and you gain access to mentors you otherwise might not meet.

• There is a strong feeling among top researchers that moving labs between Honours and the PhD and/or PhD and postdoc is an important part of academic development.

• There is considerable and ever increasing pressure from universities on their academics to keep students in place rather than have them move to other places to study. Incredibly, at some universities this is semi-official policy. This is entirely driven by money - your enrolment is worth cash to a university.

• Your supervisor might not want to let you go. This could be because you are an excellent student, but it also could be because they need students, they are feeling the pressure from the university, or because they are not acting in your best interest.

With these issues in mind, I have created a list of Australian-based people who can serve as a supervisor or co-supervisor on a herp related project, either for honours or postgraduate study.The idea here is that as long as students know about this web site, there is no excuse for not being aware of alternatives.

The list is not complete. For example, I have only included people who have permanent or senior long-contract jobs. I have not included postdoctoral fellows even though they generally are able to co-supervise students. Of course there are also lots of potential supervisors who do not themselves work on herps.  

There are surely people I have missed and I will endeavour to add them as I become aware of them. Please email any comments or suggestions to me at: Scott.Keogh@anu.edu.au

Last updated March 2024. 

ACT

The Australian National University

• Prof. Scott Keogh - Research School of Biology

• Prof. Craig Moritz - Research School of Biology

• Dr. Dan Noble - Research School of Biology

• Prof. David Lindenmayer - Fenner School for the Environment

• Dr. Ben Scheele - Fenner School for the Environment

University of Canberra

• Prof. Tariq Ezaz

• Prof. Arthur Georges

• Prof. Stephen Sarre

New South Wales

Charles Sturt University

• Dr. Matt Greenlees (Port Macquarie campus)

• Dr. Damian Michael (Albury campus)

Macquarie University

• Prof. Martin Whiting

• A/Prof. Adam Stow

• Prof. Rick Shine (retired)

University of Newcastle

• Prof. Michael Mahony (retired)

University of New England

• Dr. Debbie Bower

• Dr. Eric Nordberg

University of New South Wales

• A/Prof. Terry Ord

• A/Prof. Lisa Schwanz

University of Technology, Sydney

• Prof. Jonathan Webb

University of Sydney

• Prof. Frank Seebacher

• Dr. Glenn Shea

• Prof. Mike Thompson (retired)

• Dr. Camilla Whittington

University of Western Sydney

• A/Prof. Ricky Spencer

• Dr. Kate Umbers

University of Wollongong

• A/Prof. Phil Byrne

• Dr. Damien Esquerre

• Dr. Christopher Friesen

Northern Territory

Charles Darwin University

• Prof. Keith Christian

• Dr. Dan Edwards (NT Museum, Adjunct at CDU)

• Dr. Christine Schlesinger (based in Alice Springs)

Queensland

Central Queensland University

• A/Prof. John Parmenter

Griffith University

• Dr. Paul Oliver (joint appointment with the Queensland Museum)

James Cook University

• Prof. Ross Alford (retired)

• Dr. Megan Higgie

• A/Prof. Conrad Hoskin

• Prof. Lin Schwarzkopf

Queensland University of Technology

• Dr. Ian Williamson

Southern Cross University

• Dr David Newell

University of Queensland

• A/Prof. Simone Blomberg

• Dr. David Booth (retired)

• Prof. Craig Franklin

• Prof Bryan Fry

• Dr. Edward Narayan

• Prof. Robbie Wilson

South Australia

Flinders University

• Dr. Ondi Crino

• Prof Michael Gardner

• Prof. Mike Lee (South Australian Museum, adjunct at Flinders)

University of Adelaide

• A/Prof. Jeremy Austin

• Prof. Steve Cooper (South Australian Museum, adjunct at UA)

• Prof. Steve Donnellan (South Australian Museum, adjunct at UA) - now retired

• Dr. Mark Hutchinson (South Australian Museum, adjunct at UA and Flinders University) - now retired

• Dr. Emma Sherratt

• A/Prof. Kate Sanders

Univerity of South Australia

• Prof. Chris Daniels

• A/Prof. Craig Williams

Tasmania

University of Tasmania

• Prof. Erik Wapstra

• Dr. Geoff While

• Prof. Sue Jones

Victoria

Deakin University

• Prof. Don Driscoll

La Trobe University

• Dr. Richard Peters

• Dr. Kylie Robert

• Dr. James Van Dyke

Monash University

• Prof. David Chapple

• Prof. Richard Reina

• Prof. Paul Sunnocks

• Prof. Craig White

• Prof. Bob Wong

University of Melbourne

• Prof. Devi Stuart-Fox

• Prof. Michael Kearney

Museum Victoria

• Dr. Jane Melville

• Dr. Joanna Sumner

Western Australia

Murdoch University

• Prof. Trish Fleming

University of Western Australia

• A/Prof. Nicola Mitchell

• Dr. Renee Catullo

• Prof. Phil Withers (retired)

• Prof. Dale Roberts (retired)

• Dr. Gerald Kuchling (adjunct, see his other page here)

Western Australian Museum

• Dr. Paul Doughty (co-supervises students based at universities)

Edith Cowan University

• Dr. Robert Davies

Curtin University

• Prof. Ben Phillips

• A/Prof. Bill Bateman

LINKS to related info:

Resources and advice for young scientists (has links to a lot of herp related grants)

Australian Society of Herpetologists