Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
BSc Hons Ecology Edinburgh, PhD Wildlife Ecology Utah State
Westoby came to Macquarie as lecturer in 1975; personal chair from 1990; Laureate Fellow and Distinguished Prof from 2010; Prof Emeritus from 2017. Was married to Barbara Rice (1944-2009), after whom postgrad awards are named.
Research interests
As of April 2022, active research areas include the following:
- eco-evolutionary optimization (EEO) models for plant species traits under future environments (with Ian Wright at Hawkesbury and Wang Han at Tsinghua)
- trait ecology of startup plants, seedlings and resprouts
- ecological strategies across bacteria and archaea via measurable traits; in particular, theory for optimal cell size (with Michael Gillings and Ian Paulsen)
- state-and-transition descriptions for future Australian vegetation
- island biogeography on the basis of traits (with Julian Schrader)
Research student supervision
Students and postdocs include David Haig (Harvard), Lesley Hughes (currently Dean of FSE at Macquarie), Michelle Leishman (Distinguished Prof at Macquarie), Ian Wright (Chief Scientist at Hawkesbury Institute of Environment), Saul Cunningham (Director of Fenner School at ANU), Ian Watson (leader of CSIRO Northern Agricultural Futures Initiative), Amy Zanne (Aresty Chair in Tropical Ecology, U Miami), Yusuke Onoda (U Kyoto), Angela Moles, David Eldridge, Daniel Falster, David Warton (all UNSW), Andrea Stephens (editor of Trends in Ecology and Evolution).
Teaching and Leadership
Initiator and organizer 2001-2012 of yearly Australia-wide postgrad short courses on current research in ecology and evolution, supported by Ecological Society of Australia and Australasian Evolution Society and attracting ~100 research students per year. This role has now been passed on to Adrienne Nicotra.
Leader 2005-2010 of an ARC Research Network. Fostering postgrads and ECRs from throughout Australia and also from overseas was a priority. Over the life of the Network 134 postgrads and ECR participated in working groups. They often shifted attention to questions of larger scope, and formed collaborations that stretched more widely across disciplines and continents, and targeted their work to higher-impact journals.
Initiator and leader 2005-2016 of Genes to Geoscience Research Enrichment Program, a federation of labs mainly at Macquarie University that offers a menu of 15-20 masterclasses each year for PhD students and postdocs. Genes to Geoscience won a national award in 2012 for “programs that enhance learning” from Australian Office of Learning and Teaching.
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Macquarie University Species Spectrum Research Center
Herberstein, M., Gillings, M., Jacob, D., Saintilan, N., Barron, A., Westoby, M., Sofronov, G. & Tetu, S.
1/01/17 → …
Project: Research
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Macquarie participation in developing national strategy for integrated evolution
16/12/16 → …
Project: Research
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Answering longstanding plant ecology questions with new technology: the effects of changes in leaf proteins with age
Westoby, M., Van Sluyter, S., Haynes, P., Gygi, S. P. & MQRES (International), M. (.
1/01/14 → …
Project: Research
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High Throughput Molecular Sample Processing Facility
Zakoshanski, I., Paulsen, I., Whiting, M., Power, M., Lanfear, R., Barron, A., Westoby, M., Warren, D., Van Sluyter, S., Clarke, T., Wunderlin, T., Ostrowski, M., Mazard, S. & Tetu, S.
4/02/15 → 31/12/15
Project: Research
Research Outputs
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Aerobic bacteria and archaea tend to have larger and more versatile genomes
Nielsen, D. A., Fierer, N., Geoghegan, J. L., Gillings, M. R., Gumerov, V., Madin, J. S., Moore, L., Paulsen, I. T., Reddy, T. B. K., Tetu, S. G. & Westoby, M., Apr 2021, In: Oikos. 130, 4, p. 501-511 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile5 Citations (Scopus)1 Downloads (Pure) -
A roadmap to plant functional island biogeography
Schrader, J., Wright, I. J., Kreft, H. & Westoby, M., Dec 2021, In: Biological Reviews. 96, 6, p. 2851-2870 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile4 Citations (Scopus) -
AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora
Falster, D., Gallagher, R., Wenk, E. H., Wright, I. J., Indiarto, D., Andrew, S. C., Baxter, C., Lawson, J., Allen, S., Fuchs, A., Monro, A., Kar, F., Adams, M. A., Ahrens, C. W., Alfonzetti, M., Angevin, T., Apgaua, D. M. G., Arndt, S., Atkin, O. K., Atkinson, J. & 198 others, , 30 Sep 2021, In: Scientific Data. 8, 1, p. 1-20 20 p., 254.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile9 Citations (Scopus)10 Downloads (Pure) -
Cell size, genome size, and maximum growth rate are near-independent dimensions of ecological variation across bacteria and archaea
Westoby, M., Nielsen, D. A., Gillings, M. R., Litchman, E., Madin, J. S., Paulsen, I. T. & Tetu, S. G., May 2021, In: Ecology and Evolution. 11, 9, p. 3956-3976 21 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile12 Citations (Scopus)39 Downloads (Pure) -
Disentangling direct and indirect effects of island area on plant functional trait distributions
Schrader, J., Westoby, M., Wright, I. J. & Kreft, H., Aug 2021, In: Journal of Biogeography. 48, 8, p. 2098-2110 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile4 Citations (Scopus)4 Downloads (Pure)
Prizes
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BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation
Westoby, Mark (Recipient), 2 Feb 2021
Prize
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