Steve Whalan

Biography

Associate Professor Steve Whalan has two decades of research experience across academia, government and industry throughout Australia, SE Asia, Scandinavia and the Caribbean. Steve's expertise centres on the population ecology of marine benthic communities from boreal to tropical ecosystems where he has published >50 research papers.

Research

I research sessile benthic communities/ecosystems, targeting questions on population maintenance and persistence. A present focus includes interrogating behavioural choices in taxa without brains, particularly for coral and sponge larvae. More specifically, do these taxa exhibit selective choices  in larval dispersal and settlement or are dispersal and settlement outcomes simply a reflection of random behaviours?

Community engagement

Extensive experience with community engagement including participation as a scientific advisor on marine conservation and management panels , leading citizen science projects that deliver to coral reef heath monitoring, (EarthWatch) and working with the CSIRO Scientist’s in Schools programme.

Supervision

Supervisory panel for 8 PhD students to completion, and another two PhD students in progress.