The Freshwater Sciences 2023 Conference acknowledges the traditional owners of the land and waters on which we meet - the Turrbal and Jagera people. We acknowledge and pay respect to their Elders, past, present and emerging. We honour the past, respect the present and look towards a prosperous and reconciled future.
SFS
Society for Freshwater Science
AFSS
Australian Freshwater Sciences Society
NZFSS
New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society
Invited Speakers
Beth Anderson
Invited Plenary Speaker
Associate Professor
Department of Earth and Environment and Institute of Environment
Florida International University, USA
Elizabeth Anderson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida, USA. She leads the Tropical Rivers Lab (www.tropicalriverslab.org), whose work explores freshwaters as social-ecological systems through interdisciplinary, collaborative approaches to curiosity-driven and applied research questions. The Tropical Rivers Lab’s recent efforts focus on rivers in three main geographies: the Western Amazon, East Africa, and South Florida, USA. Prior to her current appointment, Elizabeth held positions as Director of International Research Programs for FIU (Miami, USA), as Conservation Sustainability Director at the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, USA), with the USAID-sponsored Global Water for Sustainability Program (Miami, USA), and as an educational Program Coordinator for the Organization for Tropical Studies (Costa Rica). She received both BA and PhD degrees from the University of Georgia, USA.
Ian Kusabs
Invited Plenary Speaker
Scientist/Principal
Te Arawa, Ngāti Tuwharetoa, Ngāti Maru
Dr Ian Kusabs is principal of his own consultancy specialising in freshwater fisheries incorporating Mātauranga Māori & science knowledge systems. He is of Te Arawa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa descent and is a freshwater advisor to the Te Arawa Lakes Trust and Ngāti Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board. Ian is a self-employed freshwater fisheries biologist with more than 20 years’ experience in freshwater fisheries consultancy, management and research. He is also actively involved in directorship and governance at iwi and national level. He is the senior representative of the Rōpū Māori on the NZ Freshwater Sciences Society and a member of the International Association of Astacology.Ian is an honourary lecturer at the University of Waikato (Department of Science & Engineering).
Joe Morrison
Invited Plenary Speaker
Group Chief Executive Officer
Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC)
Joe Morrison has Dagoman and Torres Strait Islander heritage and has over 30 years’ experience working with Indigenous people in northern Australia, nationally and globally. He has extensive advocacy, policy, research and practical experience across Indigenous communities, non-profit and government sectors.
He has a BA in Land Management from the University of Sydney and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of New South Wales.
He is currently the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC), a corporate Commonwealth entity.
Prior to this he was the Managing Director of Six Seasons consulting, the Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Land Council and the founding CEO of the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA). He is currently a Director of the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre, International Savanna Fire Management Initiative, National Centre for Indigenous Excellence, Primary Partners Pty Ltd, Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia and a member of the AFL Indigenous Advisory Council.
Barbara Downes
Lungfish Lecturer
Professor
The University of Melbourne
Barbara Downes retired from the University of Melbourne at the end of 2020, but remains research active as an Honorary Professorial Fellow. Originally, she worked on intertidal and subtidal marine ecosystems before switching to freshwaters, and has researched the ecology of animals that live in streams for some 40 years. For the last 25, her goal has been to unravel why population numbers of aquatic insects are so variable. Supported by numerous colleagues including many students, this research has examined how events during little-studied life stages (eggs, hatchlings, adults) can have lasting and profound impacts on population numbers. She is currently lead investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project that is exploring the dispersal success (or not) of adult caddisflies across landscapes and whether some species are recruitment limited, with the goal of synthesising new models for populations of species with complex life cycles.