International Alumnus of the Year

Growing up in the Philippines, I loved a Japanese cartoon called Tico and Friends,” says Dexter. A girl, Nanami, and her marine biologist father sailed the world in search of a magical whale. Nanami also had an unbreakable bond with a young female orca named Tico.

Fortuitously, Nanami and her dad eventually found the whale in waters off Australia, where Dexter has spent a good part of his 20-year scientific career tackling the challenge of coral reef restoration. Furthermore, the impact of his initial PhD research and subsequent work as part of the Southern Cross University Coral Larval Restoration team has culminated in Dexter being named the University’s 2024 International Alumnus of the Year.

Dexter came to Southern Cross University as a recipient of an Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) John Allwright Fellowship and completed his PhD in 2019 supervised by Southern Cross University’s Distinguished Professor Peter Harrison. Dexter is now project coordinator for ACIAR’s $2.5 million coral restoration project in the Philippines, led by Professor Harrison.

Among techniques to restore marine ecosystems, Dexter’s pioneering work in Larval Enhancement Method (LEM) is internationally recognised – and the benefits extend beyond the environment.

“For example, Australia and the Philippines both have large coral reef systems,” he says. “The Philippines alone has more than 7000 islands and people are hugely dependent on the reefs for their livelihoods.  

“Reef systems have huge ecological and economic value, yet they are compromised through factors like destructive fishing and overfishing, land misuse, and coral bleaching due to climate change.  

“LEM involves the collection of coral sperm and eggs after spawning in the reef. We can collect tens of millions of larvae and use them to restock and restore degraded but recoverable reef areas.” 

Dexter’s LEM experiments during his PhD studies were the first to successfully settle coral larvae directly onto badly degraded reefs to restore breeding corals within a few years. Achieved at a lower cost than other restoration approaches, results also refuted claims that LEM was too expensive and thus unviable. 

Dexter is now a postdoctoral researcher in the Southern Cross University research team that is developing larger-scale coral larval restoration methods that are being applied on the Great Barrier Reef, supported by research projects funded through the Australian Government and philanthropic organisations. The technique is also at the heart of plans between the Philippines and Southern Cross University to make the Philippines a training centre for reef restoration in South-East Asia.

As Dexter’s reputation continues to ascend – including being named the Australia Awards 2023 Alumnus of the Year through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – he remains grounded. The child who thrilled to a TV cartoon about the sea remains present … and prescient. 

“The first time I went diving on a coral reef, I saw a magnificent blue starfish and yelled with excitement – hardly the wisest thing to do underwater,” he says.  

“Southern Cross University is a recognised leader in innovation in marine science, so I do not take this honour for granted. I am always a student, absorbing everything I can to improve my knowledge and capacity to make a difference.  

“This award reminds me to work ever harder for the welfare of coral reefs and the people who rely heavily on them.”