Maria Dornelas | |
---|---|
Education | BSc University of Lisbon, PhD James Cook University, post doctoral fellowship University of St. Andrews |
Occupation(s) | researcher and professor |
Employer | University of St. Andrews School of Biology |
Known for | research into biodiversity changes on coral reefs and global ecosystems; macroecology |
Maria Dornelas FRSE is a researcher in biodiversity and professor of biology based at St. Andrew's University. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2021. Her research into biodiversity change [1] has challenged previous views, on the growth and decline of coral reefs [2] to understanding global biodiversity with data analysis on how species or ecosystems are changing in the Anthropocene. [3]
Maria Ana Azeredo de Dornelas completed her BSc at the University of Lisbon, graduating in 2000, and then a doctorate in the School of Marine Biology, studying 'biodiversity patterns in the context of neutral theory [4] at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia in 2006. [5] Her research challenged the orthodoxy of how coral reefs developed and died off. It was published in Nature [6] and called ' a paper that will turn our attention in a completely new direction' by Dr John Pandolfi of the University of Queensland. [2]
After her postdoctoral fellowship, in 2012 she became a Lecturer, [7] then Reader, now Professor, in the Centre for Biological Diversity of the School of Biology at University of St Andrews. [1] She was external examiner for University College London on 'Predicting population trends under environmental change: comparing methods against observed data'. [8] She is a visiting professor in the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh. [9]
Her interest in the ecology of the tropical areas, and coral in particular grew during her undergraduate honours project in Mozambique. Her fellowship included working with the University of Aveiro [7] and the ARC Centre of Excellence Coral Reef Studies on 'morphological and life history diversity of corals' (2008-9). [4] When not focused on biodiversity change, macroecology or reef ecology, her research also looked into Trinidadian guppies, in considering polyandry in fish. [10]
Dornelas's key published works are listed by the University of St Andrews. [11] She compiled and standardised a database of publicly available timeseries, [12] which is the basis of the BioTIME project. [13]
Her funded project from the Leverhulme Trust (2019-2029) is generating datasets, and cross-discipline collaborations. [14] [15]
Citations can be found in Google Scholar [16]
Dornelas has engaged in a number of public outreach events such as talking to the British Ecological Society on 'Is biodiversity declining?' [17] She was a member of the Young Academy of Scotland, and was positively debating the future of higher education and its resilience in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. [18]
In 2020 Dornelas contributed to the World Economic Forum discussion on How forest loss has changed biodiversity across the globe over the last 150 years. [19] And her collaborative work, published in Nature in 2020 has contributed to debate on vertebrate species decline, for example in a Living Planet Report, [3] showing that average declines in populations do not reflect some rapidly declining species at risk. [20]
She has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2021. [1]
Maria Dornelas | |
---|---|
Education | BSc University of Lisbon, PhD James Cook University, post doctoral fellowship University of St. Andrews |
Occupation(s) | researcher and professor |
Employer | University of St. Andrews School of Biology |
Known for | research into biodiversity changes on coral reefs and global ecosystems; macroecology |
Maria Dornelas FRSE is a researcher in biodiversity and professor of biology based at St. Andrew's University. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2021. Her research into biodiversity change [1] has challenged previous views, on the growth and decline of coral reefs [2] to understanding global biodiversity with data analysis on how species or ecosystems are changing in the Anthropocene. [3]
Maria Ana Azeredo de Dornelas completed her BSc at the University of Lisbon, graduating in 2000, and then a doctorate in the School of Marine Biology, studying 'biodiversity patterns in the context of neutral theory [4] at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia in 2006. [5] Her research challenged the orthodoxy of how coral reefs developed and died off. It was published in Nature [6] and called ' a paper that will turn our attention in a completely new direction' by Dr John Pandolfi of the University of Queensland. [2]
After her postdoctoral fellowship, in 2012 she became a Lecturer, [7] then Reader, now Professor, in the Centre for Biological Diversity of the School of Biology at University of St Andrews. [1] She was external examiner for University College London on 'Predicting population trends under environmental change: comparing methods against observed data'. [8] She is a visiting professor in the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh. [9]
Her interest in the ecology of the tropical areas, and coral in particular grew during her undergraduate honours project in Mozambique. Her fellowship included working with the University of Aveiro [7] and the ARC Centre of Excellence Coral Reef Studies on 'morphological and life history diversity of corals' (2008-9). [4] When not focused on biodiversity change, macroecology or reef ecology, her research also looked into Trinidadian guppies, in considering polyandry in fish. [10]
Dornelas's key published works are listed by the University of St Andrews. [11] She compiled and standardised a database of publicly available timeseries, [12] which is the basis of the BioTIME project. [13]
Her funded project from the Leverhulme Trust (2019-2029) is generating datasets, and cross-discipline collaborations. [14] [15]
Citations can be found in Google Scholar [16]
Dornelas has engaged in a number of public outreach events such as talking to the British Ecological Society on 'Is biodiversity declining?' [17] She was a member of the Young Academy of Scotland, and was positively debating the future of higher education and its resilience in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. [18]
In 2020 Dornelas contributed to the World Economic Forum discussion on How forest loss has changed biodiversity across the globe over the last 150 years. [19] And her collaborative work, published in Nature in 2020 has contributed to debate on vertebrate species decline, for example in a Living Planet Report, [3] showing that average declines in populations do not reflect some rapidly declining species at risk. [20]
She has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2021. [1]