Mark A. Burgman is an Australian

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

, Director of the Centre for Environmental Policy and Professor in Risk Analysis & Environmental Policy,

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

and Editor-in-Chief of the journal '' Conservation Biology''. 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 is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

until 2017. He co-leads 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 56,000 as of June 2018, Wagga Wagga is the state's la ...

in 1956. He received a BSc from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensiv ...

(1977), an MSc from Macquarie University, Sydney (1981), and a Ph.D. from Stony Brook University in the 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 Acera is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Campello sul Clitunno in the Province of Perugia, Umbria, central Italy. It stands at an elevation of 972 metres above sea level. At the time of the Istat census of 2001 it had 19 inhabitants. Histo ...

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

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 ''Macrocystis pyrifera'', commonly known as giant kelp or bladder kelp, is a species of kelp (large brown algae), and one of four species in the genus ''Macrocystis''. Despite its appearance, it is not a plant; it is a heterokont. Giant kelp is ...

orange-bellied parrot The orange-bellied parrot (''Neophema chrysogaster'') is a small parrot endemic to southern Australia, and one of only three species of parrot that migrate. It was described by John Latham in 1790. A small parrot around long, it exhibits sex ...

Leadbeater's possum Leadbeater's possum (''Gymnobelideus leadbeateri'') is a critically endangered possum largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash, and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbou ...

s, bandicoots, and

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

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. He has published four authored books, two edited books, and 185 research papers (as of April 2017), and more than 70 reviewed reports and commentaries. His work has been cited 15,000 times (as of April 2017). His most recent book is ''Trusting judgements: how to get the best out of experts'' which appeared through

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

in 2015.

Honours

*Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Scientific Excellence in the Biological Sciences (2013) *Fellow of the Australia Academy of Science (elected 2006) *Society for Conservation Biology Distinguished Service Award *Winner of the 2005

Eureka Prize The Eureka Prizes are awarded annually by the Australian Museum, Sydney, to recognise individuals and organizations who have contributed to science and the understanding of science in Australia. They were founded in 1990 following a suggestion ...

for Biodiversity Research

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burgman, Mark Australian ecologists University of Melbourne faculty 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