Mark A. Burgman is an Australian

ecologist Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

, Professor at the

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offic ...

from 2024 and Emeritus Professor of Risk Analysis & Environmental Policy and former Director of the Centre for Environmental Policy at

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. He was Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Risk Analysis (ACERA), latterly CEBRA, and Adrienne Clarke Chair of Botany at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

until 2017. He co-led The SWARM Project at the University of Melbourne.

Early life and education

He was born in

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 57,003 as of 2021, it is an important agricultural, m ...

in 1956. He received a BSc from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

(1977), an MSc from

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

, Sydney (1981), and a Ph.D. from

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

in New York State, USA (1987).

Career

Burgman worked as a consultant ecologist and research scientist in Australia, the United States and Switzerland during the 1980s before joining the

in 1990. He held the Adrienne Clarke Chair of Botany in the School of Botany (later the School of Biosciences from 2015) at the

, and became the foundation director of ACERA on its establishment in 2006-2013. ACERA and its successor, the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis (CEBRA, 2013-2017) received millions of dollars of federal funding to research environmental and biosecurity risks, working with numerous partners. He was also a founder of the University of Melbourne's Office for Environmental Programs in the early 2000s, which offers an innovative cross-Faculty environmental master's degree and now has over 400 students. After six years at Imperial College London, he joined the

in 2024. Burgman has received research grants from the Australian Research Council, government and EU agencies, industry and private foundations. He is editor of ''

Conservation Biology Conservation biology is the study of the conservation of nature and of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. It is an i ...

''.

Scholarly contributions

Burgman works on applying model-based risk assessment to problems in conservation biology. His research has included models of a broad range of species including giant kelp, orange-bellied parrots,

Leadbeater's possum Leadbeater's possum (''Gymnobelideus leadbeateri'') is a critically endangered Phalangeriformes, possum largely restricted to small pockets of Eucalyptus delegatensis, alpine ash, Eucalyptus regnans, mountain ash, and Eucalyptus pauciflora, sno ...

s, bandicoots, and

banksia ''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and woody fruiting "cones" and head ...

s. He has worked in a range of environments including marine fisheries, forestry, irrigation, electrical power utilities, mining, and national park planning. Latterly he has worked on expert scientific judgements, and their unreliability. He has published four authored books, two edited books, and over 200 research papers, and more than 70 reviewed reports and commentaries. His work has been cited 28,000 times (as of Dec 2023). His most recent book is ''Trusting judgements: how to get the best out of experts'' which appeared through

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

in 2015.

Honours

*Winner of the 2005 Eureka Prize for Biodiversity Research *Fellow of the Australia Academy of Science (elected 2006) *Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Scientific Excellence in the Biological Sciences (2013) *Society for Conservation Biology Distinguished Service Award *Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United Kingdom Leader Award (2023)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burgman, Mark Australian ecologists Academic staff of the University of Melbourne Academics of Imperial College London University of New South Wales alumni Macquarie University alumni People from Wagga Wagga 1956 births Living people Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Ecology journal editors