Jessica Melbourne-Thomas (born 17 May 1981) is a marine, Antarctic, and climate change scientist with the

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

, Australia. Her research focuses on

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, its effects on the marine environment, and how to adapt and response to these changes.

Early life and education

Jessica Melbourne-Thomas was born on 17 May 1981. She completed her undergraduate degree at the

University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College (University of Tasmania), Christ College, one of the unive ...

in 2002. She then moved to the UK to the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

to undertake her

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...

from 2003-2005 working on

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

community dynamics. In 2010 she completed her PhD, which developed modelling tools to assist managers in their management of coral reefs, at the

Career

Melbourne-Thomas is a

marine ecologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology clas ...

and

knowledge broker A knowledge broker is an intermediary (an organization or a person), that aims to develop relationships and networks with, among, and between producers and users of knowledge by providing linkages, knowledge sources, and in some cases knowledge itse ...

. Her research focuses on bridging the gap between complex scientific research and decision-making for sustainability, particularly in relation to

climate change adaptation Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to the effects of climate change, both current and anticipated.IPCC, 2022Annex II: Glossary

IPCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to "provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies". The World M ...

's Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate in 2019. Melbourne-Thomas is highly engaged in science communication and the translation of science into decision-making, including through outreach to end-users and policy briefings. She is a co-presenter for the Massive Open Online Course A massive open online course (MOOC ) or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the World Wide Web, Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and p ...

(MOOC) on Open2Study entitled Marine and Antarctic Science. She was named Tasmania's Young Tall Poppy of the Year in 2015 and was one of Science and Technology Australia's first 30 Superstars of STEM. Melbourne-Thomas was also the co-founder, along with business entrepreneur Fabian Dattner, of the first Homeward Bound (expedition)">Homeward Bound voyage, which is an Australian-led, global initiative to foster women's leadership in science. Recognizing the difficulties women in science careers have in obtaining funding, balancing the demands of families and careers, the initiative is privately funded. Her role was to coordinate the science program for the 2016 Homeward Bound program. When challenges prevented the group of 76 global women scientists of varying specialities from sailing out of Australia, Melbourne-Thomas worked to reorganize the launch out of Ushuaia, Argentina. After completion of the research trip, applications were opened for a second voyage and the team was finalized in 2017. They sailed on their second expedition in 2018. She was one of 12 noted female scientists to be featured as a constellation on the ceiling of the

Grand Central Station Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

(New York City) as part of GE's Balance the Equation Initiative. Melbourne-Thomas is the 2020 Tasmanian Australian of the Year. Melbourne-Thomas has been published in '' ICES Journal of Marine Science'', ''

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Scie ...

'', Nature ecology & evolution, ''

Frontiers in Marine Science Frontiers Media SA is a publisher of peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journals currently active in science, technology, and medicine. It was founded in 2007 by Kamila and Henry Markram. Frontiers is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, with of ...

'', ''

Global Change Biology ''Global Change Biology'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on the interface between biological systems and all aspects of environmental change that affect a substantial part of the globe including climate change, glo ...

'', ''

Ecology and Society ''Ecology and Society'' (formerly ''Conservation Ecology'') is a quarterly open access interdisciplinary academic journal published by the Resilience Alliance. It covers an array of disciplines from the natural sciences, social sciences, and the ...

'' ''

Ecological Applications The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...

'', ''Journal of Marine Systems'', and '' PLoS One''.

Awards and honors

* 2003-2005:

* 2015: Tasmania's Young Tall Poppy of the Year * 2017:

Women's Agenda Leadership Awards Women's Agenda is an Australian website and media brand. It publishes news and views relating to women's lives, carries out research, runs an app called "The Keynotes", publishes ''Women's Health News'' and has been awarding the Women's Agenda ...

(finalist) * 2017: Science and Technology Australia, 30 Superstars of STEM * 2020: Tasmanian

Australian of the Year The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Government-owned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the state and territor ...

Selected works and publications

* * * * * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Melbourne-Thomas, Jessica 1981 births Australian Antarctic scientists Women Antarctic scientists Australian academics 21st-century Australian women scientists Living people Women molecular biologists Women marine biologists Australian marine biologists Australian Rhodes Scholars