Professor Jonathan Majer
Head, Department of Environmental Biology
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Email: J.Majer@curtin.edu.au
Phone: +61 8 9266 7041
Fax: +61 8 9266 2495
Address: Curtin University of Technology,
GPO Box U1987, Perth WA 6845 |
- Abbreviated CV
- Research Interests
- Publications
Transfer of research into practice
My mission is to perform research which is relevant to Society and which is conveyed to the relevant persons and bodies as soon as possible. I do this through my teaching at Curtin, through Australian and overseas conferences and minicourses and through media presentations. In addition, my experience is used through involvement with professional societies and through the editorial boards of various journals. I also transcribe my research into practice through Australian and overseas consultancies.
- Teaching
As mentioned earlier, my general research interests
fall into four categories. I incorporate my research
findings, and the experience that I gain in doing such
work, into my current teaching units as follows: land
reclamation research - Landcare Revegetation 501, Resource
Management 302 ; invertebrate conservation - Invertebrate
Animals 201, Resource Management 302; invertebrate survey,
Resource Management 302 - Plant Protection 201 ; ants
in tree crops - Plant Protection 201, Resource Management
302. In addition many of my research projects result
in related projects becoming available to undergraduate
and graduate students. Many of my graduates have subsequently
gained employment in some of these spheres of interest.
- Publications
My personal philosophy is to make my findings
available through the literature as rapidly as possible
after the research is completed. This is done through
the publication of practical books, the organisation
of small conferences and editing of their proceedings,
publication of journal articles, speaking at conferences
and writing popular articles. Many of my publications
are used by land managers, agriculturists and other researchers.
In addition, I do not shy away from publishing critical
comment on current land management practices, leading
to papers being produced which may be used by members
of the conservation movement.
- Government and NGO referrals
I am regularly asked to attend and comment
at management workshops organised by the Department of
Conservation and Land Management, the Commonwealth Forest
Taskforce, CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology, Greening
Australia and similar organisations. In addition, I sit,
or have sat, on a number of State and Commonwealth committees
associated with such issues as bauxite mining, forest
fauna, threatened species, and reservation of representative
forest ecosystems. My input at these venues directly
contributes to the management of our natural resources.
- Involvement with societies
As ex-convenor, and now member, of the Conservation
Committee of the Australian Entomological Society, I
was in a position to make input on invertebrate conservation
issues. In addition, as a member of the editorial committees
of several journals, I am able to assist with recruiting,
and maintaining the quality, of papers associated with
the conservation and ecology of invertebrates in natural
and managed ecosystems.
- Public commentaries
By regularly speaking through the media, at
conferences, at schools, at special interest groups and
so forth, I am able to convey my viewpoints and the results
of my research to the general public so that they better
understand some of the important conservation and management
issues which are facing us today.
- Inputs to Curtin
My experience is increasingly being drawn upon at Curtin, both within our Division and within biomedical sciences. In the latter case I have assisted with small grant assessments, selection of staff and of postdoctoral fellows. I have sat on one of the University Quality Assessment reviews and was recently asked to provide evidence at the Science and Maths Education Centre program review.
- Australian consultancies
Having developed a means of using invertebrates as indicators of the success of minesite rehabilitation, I have been invited and funded to carry out evaluations at minesites throughout Western Australia and at Groote Eylandt (NT), Gove (NT), Weipa (QLD) and North Stradbroke Island (QLD). On the forest management/conservation side, I have was appointed by the Commonwealth Government to a Special Advisory Group in 1995 whose role was to adjudicate on the Deferred Forest Assessment process. I was again contracted in 1997 to write a review of the impact of disturbance on invertebrates in the Western Australian forest. This review contributed to the setting aside of forest reservations under the Regional Forest Agreement process.
- Overseas consultancies
In recent years, I have been invited and funded
to disseminate my findings at conferences and/or minicourses
in South Africa, India, Brazil and Switzerland. I have
also been invited and funded to carry out evaluations
on minesite rehabilitation success in south east Brazil
and also in the Amazon. In 1997 the US National Science
Foundation funded a workshop in Bahia, Brazil on the
use of ants as bioindicators of ecosystem health. I was
funded to attend and have co-edited the subsequent handbook
of methods and case studies. Prof H. Recher and I completed
a consultancy to The World Bank on the impact of forest
management practices throughout the World on forest faunal
biodiversity.
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Prof. Jonathan Majer
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