Professor Ross Thompson
University of Canberra
Professor Ross Thompson is foundation Director of the Centre for Applied Water Science and co-Director of the Institute for Applied Ecology at the University of Canberra.
Ross is a freshwater ecologist with interests in the study of biodiversity and the restoration of landscapes. His fundamental research is in food web ecology; seeking the rules that determine how natural communities assemble and persist.
Ross' research addresses the ways in which food webs can be influenced by human factors including urbanisation, land clearance, pharmaceutical contamination, river flow diversion and restoration, and invasion. He has an active research program on aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem function in urban and rural landscapes.
Ross has published more than 120 papers, 10 book chapters and more than 200 scientific reports. He has sat on the Australian Research Council College of Experts and the NZ Marsden Panel. His work has strong links to government and industry, and Ross sits on a number of senior technical advisory panels for local, state and federal research programs.
“ We are facing a biodiversity crisis in Australia – and only through engaging with all Australians can we begin to address this crisis." “To solve our biodiversity challenges we as scientists need to engage more broadly than ever before – and the Biodiversity Council is an important mechanism to achieve that." - Professor Ross Thompson