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 , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

and 2020 Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellow.

Education

Lovelock has a BSc from the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

. She received a fellowship from the Australian Institute of Marine Science 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 Cairn ...

(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 research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

in 1993–4 and then continued her research at the

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI, es, Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales) is located in Panama and is the only bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States. It is dedicated to understa ...

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. Up to 17 fellows are chosen each year for five-year awards. Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Georgina Sweet fellowships In 201 ...

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 refers to organic carbon that is captured and stored by the world's oceanic and coastal ecosystems, mostly by algae, seagrasses, macroalgae, mangroves, salt marshes and other plants in coastal wetlands. The term Blue Carbon was coined ...

may mitigate those effects. Lovelock was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science 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 Women ecologists Australian women scientists