Dr Andy Sheppard: Theme Leader for Building Resilient Australian Biodiversity Assets
Dr Andy Sheppard leads CSIRO's Biodiversity Theme: Building Resilient Australian Biodiversity Assets.
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3 December 2010 | Updated 14 October 2011
Overview
Current activities
Dr Andy Sheppard leads CSIRO's Biodiversity Theme: Building Resiliant Australian Biodiversity Assets.
The Biodiversity portfolio currently consists of over 100 research projects on biodiversity, aiming to provide the data, tools and integrated knowledge to underpin a collective national effort to halt biodiversity decline in Australia by 2020 and reverse this decline by 2035.
Background
Dr Sheppard joined CSIRO in 1986 at the CSIRO European Laboratory in France, where he built a science career around the population ecology and plant-insect interactions of several genera of plants that had become significant weeds in Australia.
In 1991 he moved to Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, as a research scientist and project leader in the research group responsible for the ecological management of several national priority weeds using biological control. This included:
- nodding and Onopordum thistles
- Paterson's curse
- common heliotrope
- Scotch and Cape broom.
In 2002 he returned to France as Officer-in-charge at CSIRO's European laboratory, before returning to Canberra as Theme Leader of CSIRO’s Invasive Species & Plant Biosecurity Theme from 2006-2010.
Dr Sheppard leads CSIRO's Biodiversity Theme: Building Resiliant Australian Biodiversity Assets.
Dr Sheppard's experimental research has focussed on comparative native and exotic range studies between Europe and Australia on the plants and habitats they invaded.
His research has included the use of population management evolutionary models that have advanced theory on biological invasions.
More recently he has published on risk analysis and in other areas of biosecurity research.
Academic qualifications
Dr Sheppard was awarded a Bachelor of Science with Honours and a Doctor of Philosophy from the Imperial College London, the latter at the ecological field station at Silwood Park, United Kingdom.
Achievements
Dr Sheppard has published over 100 refereed papers and over 20 technical and contracted research reports.
He is also:
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an adjunct senior lecturer in the Botany and Zoology Department at the Australian National University, Canberra
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an Editor of Biological Control
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an Associate Editor on the Journal of Applied Ecology.
Dr Sheppard has also been involved in organising the following conferences:
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as Chair of the organising committee of XIIth International Symposium on Biological Control of Weeds, Complex International de Lutte Biologique Agropolis (CILBA), Montpellier, France, 2007
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as a member of the organising committee of the Seventh International Conference on Pests in Agriculture, Montpellier, France, 26-27 October 2005
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as a member of the organising committee of the IUCN International Workshop on Invasive plants in the Mediterranean type regions of the world, Montpellier, France, 25-27 May 2005
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as co-organiser of the symposium titled Working at the interface of art and science: How best to select an agent for classical biological control? International Congress on Entomology, Brisbane, Australia, 17 August 2004
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as co-organiser of 'Improving the selection, testing & evaluation of weed biological control agents'. Cooperative Research Centre for Australian Weed Management workshop, Perth, Australia, September 2003
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as a member of organising committee of the XI International Symposium on Biological Control of Weeds, CSIRO Entomology, Australia, April 2003
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as a co-organiser of IOBC/CILBA International Conference 'Genetics, Evolution and Biological Control', Montpellier, France, October 2002
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as aco-organiser of Broom Management Weeds CRC Workshop, Moonan Flat, Australia, November 2000
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as a member of organising committee of the A J Nicholson Centenary Population Ecology Conference, Australian National University, Australia, 1995.
Learn more about CSIRO's research on Pest Management.
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