Developing future leaders in Tropical Marine Science
A partnership of
Launched in November 2020, AIMS@UWA is an alliance between UWA and AIMS to employ marine science academics jointly in areas where our goals and interests overlap, with a focus on tropical marine science. Research under this partnership emphasises applied science with impact, underpinned by fundamental environmental research. Projects will address the needs of a wide range of stakeholders having interests in the care and stewardship of tropical marine environment including industry, policy and decision makers, and local communities.
Mission
To produce an internationally recognised cohort of emerging tropical marine researchers in Western Australia, directing their work towards the protection and sustainable protection and use of our marine heritage, by integrating fundamental and applied research and by leveraging the infrastructure and research strengths of both organisations.
Alliance Scholars
Meet the AIMS@UWA researchers
The current cohort of AIMS@UWA researchers includes 7 PhD Students alongside more senior researchers.
Dr Luke Thomas
Science lead
Luke's research focuses on reef-building corals and combines genomic and transcriptomic tools with physiological and ecological data on projects related to gene flow, adaption, recovery and ecosystem monitoring.
A research associate at the OI and AIMS, Luke has a background in population genetics and has worked on a variety of marine organisms, from sponges to fish. The ultimate goal of his postdoctoral research is to apply molecular techniques to help inform management on the quest to conserve our precious marine ecosystems.
Camille Grimaldi
Postdoctoral Researcher
Camille is a physical oceanographer working as an AIMS@UWA Post-doctoral Research Associate.
She recently completed her PhD looking at the oceanographic drivers of reef hydrodynamic, connectivity and thermodynamics of a coral reef atoll.
PhD Students
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Molly-Mae Baker
Molly-Mae’s research will integrate the fields of coral trophic ecology, coral early life history stages and coral symbioses to explore how ecological interactions may facilitate coral reef resilience.
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Teresa Bednarek
Teresa's project focuses on the effects of fish-coral interactions on coral physiology and ecology. She will include molecular techniques such as metabarcoding and transcriptomics to analyze how fish affect microbial signatures and gene expression profiles of reef-building corals.
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Amy Carmignani
Amy is conducting research as part of her PhD that will investigate how small, coral-dwelling fishes can enhance the nutritional status and resilience of their coral hosts.
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Shannon Duffy
Shannon is investigating the mechanisms of coral resilience along Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia.
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Laurence Dugal
Laurence's research explores the use of environmental DNA metabarcoding for characterizing tropical marine biodiversity across ecological scales.
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Alan Gojanovic
Alan is examining the factors influencing survival during predator-prey interactions and develop new and innovative methods to reduce predation-related mortality.
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Abinaya MeenakshisundaramAbinaya is a PhD candidate in conservation genetics, with a focus on studying whale sharks
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Megan Meyers
Megan is a PhD Candidate examining the movement patterns of whale sharks in West Papua, Indonesia. -
Clelia Mula
Clelia is interested in understanding what types of ecological interaction underpin the ecosystem functioning in tropical shallow water, considering the complexity of the seascape rather than single habitats.
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Defne SahinDefne’s research investigates the climate-mediated changes in the community structure of subtropical and temperate corals across Western Australia.
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Declan StickDeclan's research interests are in coral genetics and understanding the mechanisms underpinning coral health, tolerance, and resilience.
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Dean Tysdale
Dean’s research takes a focus on fish populations within a reef restoration context. Using genomics and transcriptomics he is exploring the population structure and regional adaptive variation of reef fish within WA.
AIMS@UWA builds on our successful past collaborations. UWA looks forward to expanding our joint research and opportunities for research student training, to address research needs in our tropical marine areas
Want to make a difference to tropical marine science?
Over the next few months and years, we anticipate new co-funded, AIMS@UWA Postdoctoral research positions in subjects such as marine plastic mitigation, machine learning in tropical marine science, blue carbon, eDNA for ecological monitoring.
There will also be co-supervised PhD positions, with a strong focus on work integrated learning to prepare these students for future tropical marine leadership roles.
Interested to find out more?
Reach out to us at oceans@uwa.edu.au or by calling +61 8 6488 8116.