Associate Professor Bryan J Boruff is a researcher at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment at The University of Western Australia (UWA). Bryan's expertise is in the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing technologies to the study of environmental hazards and climate change impacts. Over the past decade, Bryan's research interests have expanded to encompass a range of environmental management issues in agricultural production, population health, urban planning and sustainable livelihoods. He has extensive experience working in developing nations in multidisciplinary settings with academic, private and government stakeholders.

Dr. Caitlin Moore is a Senior Lecturer at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. She is a leading researcher in ecosystem processes, focusing on how native and managed ecosystems function from leaf to landscape scale. Caitlin's work involves improving measurement infrastructure for faster monitoring of ecosystems in Western Australia, enhancing bioenergy sustainability, and advancing food security. Caitlin is also a regional ambassador for Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), supported by the federal government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). She has collaborated with senior scholars globally, leading to significant advancements in her field. She continues to contribute to the understanding of ecosystem response to climate variability.

Dr Caroline Mather, a Lecturer in the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, is a multidisciplinary scientist with expertise in Earth, Environmental and Climate science. Her research is focused on understanding past environmental and climatic change, in particular hydroclimatic variability, surface water – groundwater interactions, and the response of landscapes and water sources to shifts in climatic regime.  Caroline is also interested in human-environment interactions and recently, her work has focused on understanding environmental change and resource availability (including freshwater resources) that has influenced human occupation in Australia. Her research aims to provide important insights into past adaption to climate change, as well as producing records essential for improving climate predictions and environmental management. Caroline is also an Associate Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures.

Professor Jason Beringer researcher at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, is a global leader in understanding how ecosystems respond to climate change. He has developed the LEAPI group, a multidisciplinary team studying the Australian terrestrial biosphere's response to climate and land use change. His work focuses on major ecosystem cycles of carbon and water that provide crucial tools for sustainable landscape management. His research excellence is demonstrated by his significant contributions to policy-relevant questions about the future impacts of change. He is a founder and continued leader of NCRIS Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network and the Australian Flux tower network (OzFlux).

Dr. Jim McCallum, a Senior Lecturer at the School of Earth Sciences, is a global research leader in the quantification of groundwater systems and their interactions. His current work includes the representation of faults in groundwater assessment and determining historic recharge variation using environmental tracers. His research interests include environmental tracer techniques and the development of numerical methods. His research excellence is demonstrated by his significant contributions to understanding surface water and groundwater interaction, providing crucial insights for sustainable water management.

Dr. John Duncan, a Research Fellow at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. John’s research field is in geospatial software development, remote sensing, and GIS. His research focuses on using satellite images and other socio-economic, climatic, and environmental datasets to monitor and detect change in agricultural and urban landscapes. He has developed the Advanced Spatial Analysis unit, teaching students' geospatial data science skills. His collaborations span across research, government, not-for-profit, and private sectors, with experience in Australia, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Pacific Island Countries. He also delivers GIS and geospatial data analysis training for various audiences.

Associate Professor Natasha Pauli is a researcher at UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. A research leader in human-environment interactions and biodiversity management, she has a rich background in environmental science and conservation policy. Her interdisciplinary research integrates scientific data and local knowledge, focusing on the relationships between people and the ecological resources that sustain them. Her work aims to demonstrate positive ways for people to integrate nature and ecosystem processes into functioning urban, rural, and coastal systems.

Dr. Qiaoyun Xie, a Lecturer at the School of Engineering, Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, The University of Western Australia, is a global research leader in vegetation dynamics monitoring using remote sensing and GIS. Her lab’s research provides solutions that help humanity adapt to reliance on plants for food, fuel, and clean air. Qiaoyun’ s significant contributions to this field are evidenced through her publication record in prestigious journals and textbooks, and her leadership in several multidisciplinary research collaborations. She has also developed Australia’s first vegetation phenology products at 500m resolution using satellite data. Her ultimate aim is to prepare for biogeography in future climates.

Dr. Sarah Bourke is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Earth Sciences, University of Western Australia. As a Hydrogeologist, she specialises in environmental tracers and surface water-groundwater interaction. She coordinates the Master of Hydrogeology program and has a demonstrated capacity to deliver high-quality outcomes through collaborative research projects. She is a passionate advocate for Hydrogeology practice, research, and training, with a focus on understanding responses of groundwater systems to changes in climate and human groundwater use. She is the Vice Chair of the Western Australian chapter of IAH and the Regional Vice-President for Australasia and the Pacific.

Dr. Sharyn Hickey is a Senior Lecturer at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, specializing in spatial ecology and geospatial sciences applied to marine and coastal environments. Her research utilizes remote sensing and geospatial models to investigate environmental change, with a focus on monitoring benthic marine and coastal vegetation. Dr. Hickey has spearheaded numerous multidisciplinary collaborations aimed at monitoring and detecting changes in marine habitats, including mangroves, macroalgae, seagrass, and coral reefs. She places particular emphasis on Western Australia's shallow and coastal marine ecosystems, leading ongoing projects to map mangroves and intertidal habitats, study marine habitat changes along the coast, and assess their relationship with fisheries. Additionally, Dr. Hickey investigates the impact of heatwaves on marine habitats and associated fisheries. Through her research, Dr. Hickey contributes valuable insights to the understanding of marine and coastal ecosystems, informing sustainable management practices for coastal regions.

Amy Stone is a research assistant in the Centre for Water and Spatial Science. Her research interests are using remote sensing technologies to study marine and coastal habitats, in particular the development of robust methods through Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Recent research projects have focused on the use of satellite and drone data in monitoring coastal habitats such as mangroves, saltmarsh, and coral reefs.

Andi Laidlaw is a Spatial Data Scientist at the Centre for Water and Spatial Science in the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment working on training an artificial intelligence model to classify intermittently open and closed water bodies along the southwest coast of WA. Ms. Laidlaw, who is from Colorado, USA, holds a BSc in Marine Biology from James Cook University and an MSc in Environmental Science from UWA, specializing in sensing and spatial data science. At CWSS, Ms Laidlaw has mapped flood patterns and quantified associated riverbank erosion for the Fitzroy River in the West Kimberley region of WA by comparing historical and modern aerial imagery. She is currently designing vertical drone surveys for vegetation growing on cliff faces in the Pilbara region of WA.

Andrew van de Ven is a graduate of the University of Western Australia holding a Master’s of Professional Engineering (Environmental Engineering). In his role as senior technician he provides technical support and insight to students, PhD candidates and research activities alike for those wishing to undertake field campaigns and monitoring activities. He has collaborated with many projects from the Centre for Water and Spatial Sciences and enjoys utilising the multi-disciplinary techniques across the wide swath of environmental sciences.

Dr Bonny Stutsel is a research fellow at Centre for Water & Spatial Science where she contributes her experience to improving farm water security through the WaterSmart Dams project. She thrives on collaboration, bridging the gap between science and real-world needs to develop practical tools and strategies. This year, Dr Stutsel is excited to see WaterSmart Dams launch a farm water planning app to equip growers with the knowledge for informed water management.

Brendan Busch is a Senior Research Engineer for the Aquatic EcoDynamics (AED) Research group at the University of Western Australia (UWA). Mr Busch’s primary focus is on data engineering and visualisation of complex numerical models. In his current capacity, Mr Busch is tasked with designing and creating data and model analytics solutions for environmental assessment. His specialization lies in MATLAB, but he also utilizes a variety of languages and platforms within the realm of analytics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Mr Busch also works with the Western Australia Marine Science Institute (WAMSI) as the technical lead in the development of the Shared Environmental Analytical Facility (SEAF)—a cloud-based platform that facilitates the sharing and curation of environmental data for industry stakeholders and regulators being designed in conjunction with Microsoft, PwC and other industry leading players.

Emily Kelly is a University of Western Australia graduate (2023) holding a Bachelor of Science with Double Major in Environmental Science and Management. After completing a 3-month Internship at the Centre of Water and Spatial Science, Ms Kelly continued her work with the WaterSmart Dams project, joining the Centre as a Graduate Research Officer. Her research focuses on modelling water loss dynamics from farm dam systems throughout the WA Wheatbelt and using this knowledge to generate predictive tools for water management and planning.

Emma's academic journey led her to pursue a Master of Science Communication at The University of Western Australia (UWA), where she currently serves as a Communications Officer with the Centre for Water and Spatial Science. With an honours degree in Marine Biology, Emma's diverse background includes experience working with NGOs, conservation organisations, consultancies, and researchers. Her eight-plus years in the education sector, teaching students from toddlers to tertiary level, coupled with postgraduate qualifications in education, have culminated in her current focus on science communication. Emma believes strongly in the power of science communication, aiming to empower all individuals to make informed decisions and contribute to discussions that impact their lives. Her passion for equitable education and inspiring others, particularly in the realms of science, conservation, and sustainability, drives her work to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and society.

Jessie Ellis is a Graduate Research Officer working with the Centre for Water and Spatial Science on the WaterSmart Dams project. Ms Ellis graduated from UWA in 2023 with a Bachelor of Science, double majoring in Environmental Science and Human Geography and Planning. Ms Ellis analyses surface water hydrology at designated sites equipped with runoff-enhancing equipment. She generates critical data using coding techniques and provides insightful explanations for the collected data. Additionally, her role encompasses fieldwork where she collects data, services the sites, and actively engages with farmers and other stakeholders involved in the project.

Kerry Bardot is a Research Fellow in Hydrogeology and is part of Earth Sciences and the Centre for Water and Spatial Science at the University of Western Australia. She has recently completed her PhD on incorporating structural elements, such a faults, pinchouts and intrusions, into groundwater models. With a keen focus on spatial discretisation, she uses MODFLOW 6 (Flopy) and unstructured grids for all her modelling projects. She is passionate about creating workflows to enable groundwater models to remain updatable as well as capable of adequately addressing uncertainty.

Dr Konrad Miotlinski has a Master’s degree in Geology (2002) and PhD in Earth Sciences (2008) from University of Silesia, Poland. Experienced in applied water resources and quality investigation projects to facilitate drinking water provision across Europe, Australia and South America. In Australia he has been involved in numerous projects on freshwater storage in aquifers. Konrad believes that a carefully selected combination of field and lab experiments along with numerical modelling approaches is a key to improve management of freshwater resources. He widely uses computer techniques in teaching and research.

Dr. Malvina Chmielarski, a Research Fellow at the School of Earth Sciences, Malvina’s PhD thesis focused on quantifying long-term groundwater recharge in transient environments using environmental tracer data. She applied novel groundwater age interpretation methods to data collected from the Pilbara region in northwestern Australia. Her collaboration with various mine companies aims to inform sustainable groundwater management practices in the Pilbara. Currently, Malvina is part of a team investigating the influence of faults as both barriers and conduits to groundwater flow. Their research aims to better incorporate complex geologies into groundwater models. These findings will directly impact the Perth regional groundwater model, a crucial tool for determining groundwater usage in the city of Perth.

Dr Peisheng Huang is a water scientist and water quality modeller. His research interests include water ecosystem modelling, restoration and management of degraded aquatic ecosystems, and biogeochemistry processes in freshwater and oceans. He has extensive experience developing and applying numerical models and using the models to assess ecosystem health and resilience, in both research and industrial consultancy fields. Dr Huang co-authored the decision support framework eBook published by UWA, Balancing estuarine and societal health in a changing environment, and has most recently focused on the Cockburn Sound Westport project. He works with the Aquatic Ecodynamic (AED) group to develop models and applications.

Roberto Lujan Rocha is a Senior Research Officer and PhD candidate at the University of Western Australia, where his affiliation with the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) and the Centre for Water and Spatial Science reflects his dedication to sustainable agriculture. Mr. Lujan Rocha's research leverages technology to improve weed management practices, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable future for our planet. His interests are centred on the use of geographical information systems, remote sensing, and machine learning. Mr. Lujan Rocha is currently engaged in projects that are exploring ways to improve water quality to enhance the effectiveness of herbicides and devising innovative remote sensing techniques for identifying and forecasting weed distributions across extensive farming areas in Western Australia.

Santiago Gil Escudero is a Graduate Research Officer at the University of Western Australia, affiliated with the Aquatic Eco Dynamics Research Group within the Centre for Water and Spatial Science. His work focuses on leveraging computational tools to predict how changes in land use, climate, and management actions impact freshwater and coastal ecosystems, ultimately supporting more effective environmental management decisions. His primary research interests lie in the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), data management, and hydrodynamic modeling to address complex environmental challenges.

Currently, Mr. Gil Escudero is involved in projects related to pollutant tracking in rivers and coastal estuaries in Queensland, the calibration of a hydrodynamic model for a lake in Tasmania, and the development of a hydrodynamic model to assess microclimatic parameters in mangrove ecosystems.

Sherry Zhai is an ecologist and environmental scientist. Her research interests stem from the desire to understand how environmental processes influence the distribution and abundance of living organisms, and to employ a multidisciplinary approach to provide insights for management strategies amidst the challenges posed by climate and land-use changes. Drawing on her expertise in conservation biology and environmental modelling, she has worked on a variety of projects spanning diverse ecosystems with a primary focus on aquatic habitat modelling.

Dr Simone Gelsinari is a research fellow at the Centre for Water and Spatial Science, having joined UWA at the end of 2020 after completing a joint PhD with Monash University and CSIRO Land & Water. With an international background in Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering (University of Pisa - Italy), his experience spans hydrology, numerical modelling, field data collection, quantitative hydrology, remote sensing and model-data fusion techniques. He is passionate about water and its sustainable management in the natural and built environment, and currently leads the UWA arm of the collaborative research project, Recharge Estimation in a Changing Climate.

Dr Stanley Mastrantonis has applied experience with remote sensing, machine learning, decision tool development, and precision agriculture. He completed his PhD on geospatial modelling with UWA and Alcoa Australia, focusing on land-use optimisation for the Northern Jarrah Forrest. Dr Mastrantonis’s first post-doctoral appointment was at the Centre for Crop Disease Management at Curtin, focusing on precision agriculture and farm water demand, where he was involved in the Regional Drought Resilience Plan, On-Farm Experimentation, and On-Farm Water Demand research collaborations. Now at UWA, Dr Mastrantonis collaborates with AIMS and DPIRD on remote sensing applications for monitoring coastal environments. He has a passion for computer vision, geospatial analysis and software.

Warin Chotirosniramit is a research analyst specialising in the application of GIS and machine learning to extract insights from remotely sensed data. His focus lies in leveraging the combination of spatial science and artificial intelligence to address challenges related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Mr Chotirosniramit is researching the use of cutting-edge computer vision models for classifying residential (re)development types from high-resolution aerial imagery, laying the foundation for further investigations into how different forms of residential (re)development influence urban heat patterns and offering valuable insights for shaping urban planning strategies aimed at creating cooler cities amidst a warming climate.