Dr Steve Morton, Visiting Scientist, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Alice Springs.

Dr Steve Morton: expert in arid-zone sustainability

Dr Steve Morton's expertise is in arid-zone ecology, resource management and sustainability.

• 12 July 2011 | Updated 14 October 2011

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Steve Morton is currently a CSIRO Fellow with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems (CSE), Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory, Australia.

In March 2008, after some years as Chief of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Dr Morton took up the role of Group Executive, Manufacturing, Materials & Minerals Group. He served in this role for two and a half years before returning to CSE in Alice Springs.

Background

After completing university, Dr Morton worked as a biologist for the Office of the Supervising Scientist at Jabiru in the Northern Territory.

He joined CSIRO in 1984 at our Alice Springs laboratory and transferred to Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, a decade later.

Prior to his appointment as Group Executive, Dr Morton was Chief of CSIRO’s Division of Sustainable Ecosystems.

Dr Morton is one of the country's foremost thinkers on issues facing conservation, land management and ecological sustainability.

Academic qualifications

Dr Morton has been awarded a:

• Bachelor of Science with Honours from the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
• Doctorate in animal ecology, also from the University of Melbourne.

He completed post-doctoral studies at:

• University of California, Irvine, United States of America 
• The University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Achievements

Dr Morton is Chair of the Steering Committee for CSIRO’s Indigenous Engagement Strategy.

He is also a Director of Bush Heritage Australia.

Find out more in the Biodiversity and ecology overview.