Professor Richard Kingsford

“It's an ongoing battle but I do think a lot of these major environmental problems are not really about lack of knowledge.”

Professor Kingsford is the Director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of New South Wales Sydney.

He is a river ecologist and conservation biologist whose work has improved our understanding of how water resource developments impact river and wetland ecosystems.

For over 35 years he has led the Eastern Australian Waterbird Survey, which covers about a third of the continent, and is one of the longest and most extensive surveys of ecosystems in the world.

For the past six years, he has led the Wild Deserts project, which is restoring a desert ecosystem by reintroducing seven locally-extinct mammals into Sturt National Park in north-western NSW.

Professor Kingsford’s work has been awarded both Eureka and Banksia Awards and earned him Fellowships of both the Royal Society of NSW and the Australian Zoological Society. In 2021 he was awarded the ESA Gold Medal for his outstanding contributions to ecology.

The Ecological Society of Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

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The music in this podcast is ‘Glow’ by Scott Buckley - www.scottbuckley.com.au.

Episode image credit: Peter Berney