Curriculum vitae — Mark Westoby (version of Sept 2017)
Born: September 21, 1947, Hayes, Middlesex, England
Family: Widower (married to Barbara Rice 1974-2009)
Citizenship: Australia and UK
Education and employment
B.Sc. Hons (Ecol. Sci.) U Edinburgh 1970; Ph.D. (Wildlife Ecology) Utah State U 1973.
1975-present, Dept of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University: Lecturer to Professor (personal chair 1990; distinguished professorship 2010; prof emeritus from 2017)
2005-16 Leader of Macquarie University Genes to Geoscience Research Centre
2005-2010 Convenor of ARC-NZ Research Network for Vegetation Function (60%)
1973-74, Research Associate with Dr D. Pimentel, Cornell University
1970-73, Research Assistant, US/IBP Desert Biome Modelling Group
Awards and recognition
2021 BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology (shared with Sandra Diaz and Sandra Lavorel)
2017 elected honorary foreign member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2017 inaugural Ralph Slatyer Medal from ANU “for outstanding biological research”
2016 “eminent ecologist” virtual special issue of Journal of Ecology
2014 NSW Scientist of the Year
2012 Australian Award for University Teaching (as part of team, for Genes to Geoscience Research Enrichment Program)
2011-15 Laureate Fellow of Australian Research Council
2009 elected to fellowship of Australian Academy of Science
2005 Clarke Medal from Royal Society of NSW for distinguished research in the natural sciences
2003 Gold Medal from Ecological Society of Australia for research and postgraduate leadership
2001 represented in “Peoplescape”, an array on the lawns of Parliament House of ~5000 effigies of people making a contribution to Australia since Federation
Boards and Committees
Chair of National Cttee for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, Australian Academy of Sciences 2013-2015
Chair of Sectional Cttee 10 of Australian Academy of Sciences 2014-15 (considers candidates for election in ecology, environmental sci and evolutionary biology)
Steering Committee for National Long-term Plan for Ecosystem Science 2013-14
Board of Directors, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network 2009-2016
Board of Directors, US/NSF iPlant Cyberinfrastructure Initiative 2008-2010
Academy Committee on Plant and Animal Sciences, 2003-2010
Science Advisory Board of US/NSF National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 2002-2004
Commonwealth Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee, 1994-1997
Academy Committee on International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, 1993-1996
Australian Research Council: Chair of Plant and Animal Biology Sub-Panel and member of Research Grants Committee, 1993-94; Biological Sciences Panel, 1991-94; Research Training and Careers Committee, 1990
Academic Societies and Journals
Oecologia Board of Editors, 2001-2005
American Naturalist Board of Editors, 2001-2005
Trends in Ecology and Evolution Board of Editors, 1987-1992
Plants Today Board of Editors, 1987-1989
President, Ecological Society of Australia, 1983-84, Council Member for NSW 1978-1982
Secretary, Botany Section of Australia and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, 1981-82
Australian Journal of Ecology Editorial Board, 1981-1984
Publications
See Google Scholar list. Westoby has been “highly-cited” since this form of recognition was introduced in the 1990s, and his citation impact continues to rise. Currently he has published 302 papers and been cited 43489 times, with an h-index of 100 (Google Scholar 15 Sept 2017).
Current research directions in brief
Westoby’s research field is evolutionary ecology. He concentrates on plants because they decisively influence terrestrial ecosystems, providing resources and habitat for all the other species present. Ecological strategies of plants can be understood in terms of cost-benefit trade-offs. Natural selection is a strong invisible hand, suppressing strategies that are less efficient or less competitive. The questions asked include: What kinds of efficiency and competitiveness are important? What tradeoffs do plants face? Why do some species traits diversify across multiple strategies while others evolve toward a single best solution? Strategy theory aims to arrange plant species in patterns according to their ecologies. It plays a role similar to personality theories in psychology or the colour-magnitude diagram in astronomy.
From the 1990s onward Westoby carried ecological strategy research into a new phase by shifting focus away from abstract concepts such as “stress” and instead onto measurable traits such as leaf thickness or seed size. This made it possible to express species differences along trait-dimensions. Plant ecological strategies are now being compared quantitatively and consistently across all biomes and continents worldwide. Westoby has been instrumental also in clarifying particular dimensions of ecological variation. For example, leaf construction cost can link to leaf lifespan and nutrient economy and ultimately to plant growth trajectories (the so-called “leaf economic spectrum”).
Developing plant trait databases is a communal and cooperative activity. One of Westoby’s distinct contributions has been to establish and nurture international collaborative networks. Through these networks and working groups ecological strategy research has been transformed from scales of tens of species within one region to tens of thousands of species worldwide.
Previous significant research directions include the power law of self-thinning, kinship coefficients and the triploid endosperm, and state-and-transition language for vegetation dynamics, now mandated by Congress for US rangelands.
Contributions to research training beyond own lab
Initiator and organizer 2001-2012 of yearly Australia-wide postgrad short courses on current research in ecology and evolution, supported by Ecological Society of Australia and Australasian Evolution Society and attracting ~100 research students per year. This role has now been passed on to Adrienne Nicotra.
Leader 2005-2010 of an ARC Research Network. Fostering postgrads and ECRs from throughout Australia and also from overseas was a priority. Over the life of the Network 134 postgrads and ECR participated in working groups. They often shifted attention to questions of larger scope, and formed collaborations that stretched more widely across disciplines and continents, and targeted their work to higher-impact journals.
Initiator and leader 2005-2016 of Genes to Geoscience Research Enrichment Program, a federation of labs mainly at Macquarie University that offers a menu of 15-20 masterclasses each year for PhD students and postdocs. Genes to Geoscience won a national award in 2012 for “programs that enhance learning” from Australian Office of Learning and Teaching. From 2017 GGREP is morphing into a broader Research Enrichment Program that bridges into humanities, medicine and cognitive science.
Research training from own lab
Forty-seven people emerging from Westoby’s lab have entered continuing careers in universities or research agencies, both in Australia and overseas. As students they won 16 best-presentation prizes or similar at national meetings, and several have won distinguished career prizes subsequently.
Universities where people have become established faculty include Sao Paulo (Tim Moulton), Wollongong (Kristine French), UTS (Bill Gladstone and Brad Murray), Harvard (David Haig), U Federale do Rio Grande del Norte (Gislene Ganade and Carlos Fonseca), James Cook U (Will Edwards), Otago (Janice Lord), Australian National U (Adrienne Nicotra, Saul Cunningham), George Washington U (Amy Zanne), Nuevo Leon (Enrique Jurado), U Oregon (Jessica Green), U Autonoma de Mexico (Julieta Rosell), U New South Wales (Angela Moles, David Warton, David Eldridge, Daniel Falster), U Melbourne (Peter Vesk), U Kyoto (Yusuke Onoda), Massey U (Doug Armstrong), Open University UK (Julia Cooke) and Macquarie U (Lesley Hughes, Michelle Leishman, Ian Wright). Research agencies include Great Barrier Reef Marine Parks Authority (Hugh Sweatman), Worldfish Centre (Johann Bell), CSIRO (Mike Dunlop, Liz Lindsay, Anna Richards, Ian Watson, Tony Grice), Australian Museum (Sandy Ingleby), and US Agricultural Research Service (Sean Gleason).
The Australian Ecology Research Award (given by Ecological Society of Australia for the most significant current research) was won by Lesley Hughes in 2011 and by Saul Cunningham in 2015. The Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year was awarded to Angela Moles in 2013. In 2014 a Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Australian Science was awarded to Lesley Hughes, and the Academy of Science’s Heyde Medal for statistical research to David Warton. In 2015 the Academy of Science’s Fenner Medal was awarded to Ian Wright, and Ecol Soc Australia’s Emerging Ecologist Award to Daniel Falster.
Mark Westoby 