Catherine Ellen Lovelock (born 1964) is an Australian marine ecologist, whose research focuses on coastal ecosystems. She is a professor in the School of Biological Science at the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

and 2020 Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellow.

Education

Lovelock has a BSc from the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

. She received a fellowship from the

Australian Institute of Marine Science Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

to support her research for her PhD, titled "Adaptation of tropical mangroves to high solar radiation" from

James Cook University James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cair ...

(1991).

Career

Lovelock began her research career with the Australian Institute of Marine Science in 1991–2. She moved to the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

in 1993–4 and then continued her research at the

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI, ) is located in Panama and is the only bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States. It is dedicated to understanding the past, present, and future of tropical ecosyst ...

in Panama in 1995–2005. In 2005 she joined the

, while continuing her association with the STRI. Her long-term research has shown that damming waterways has adversely affected mangroves, particularly through the loss of mud. Writing with Daniel A. Friess, J. Boone Kauffman and James W. Fourqurean, she contributed a chapter to ''A Blue Carbon Primer: The State of Coastal Westland Carbon Science, Practice and Policy''. In 2020 she was awarded an

Australian Laureate Fellowship The Australian Laureate Fellowship is an Australian professorial research fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council. Fellows are chosen each year for five-year awards. In 2023 8 industry-focused Laureate Fellowships were awarded for the ...

and the Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship for her research project focussing on coastal ecosystems and the effects on them of climate change and how

blue carbon Blue carbon is a concept within climate change mitigation that refers to "biologically driven carbon fluxes and storage in marine systems that are amenable to management". Most commonly, it refers to the role that tidal marshes, mangroves and Seag ...

may mitigate those effects. Lovelock was elected a Fellow of the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

in May 2021 and is recognised as a global expert on coastal ecosystems, particularly those involving mangroves. She and Terry Hughes were awarded the Suzanne Cory Medal jointly in March 2023.

Selected works

Journal articles

Most cited per Google Scholar: * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovelock, Catherine 1964 births Living people University of Western Australia alumni James Cook University alumni Academic staff of the University of Queensland Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Australian marine biologists Australian ecologists Australian women ecologists Australian women scientists