Anna Christe is a PhD candidate in the Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab (CEBEL) at Flinders University. Her research focuses on understanding the spatial geometry and stucture of Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphin groups using drone based research. Prior to her PhD, Anna completed her honours project investigating the feasibility of using drones for morphometrics measurements on Australian snubfin and humpback dolphins, through Southern Cross University. Additionally, she has worked on a range of marine mammal projects around Australia.

John Read is a conservation ecologist with special interests in rangeland and restoration ecology and adaptive management of threatening processes. John is also founder and voluntary CEO of Thylation, which develops conservation innovations including the Felixer that uses edgeAI to enable targeted control of feral cats

Isaac Humber is a Machine Learning Engineer specialising in ecological applications. He holds a BEng (Hons) and BIT, where his research focused on AI-driven environmental monitoring. His capstone project with Quintis and Dr. Precila Gonzales (PhD) developed a drone-based Machine Learning system for tree health and biomass assessment, outperforming existing methods in sustainable forestry and the literature body. Isaac now designs industry-leading bioacoustic species detection systems at Titley Scientific, advancing tools for biodiversity conservation. His work bridges AI innovation with scalable ecological solutions.

PhD student researching methods standardisation for the application of machine learning to behavioural classification from animal-borne accelerometers.

Christine Chivas has recently completed her PhD which combined her background in eDNA and conservation biology to explore the use of mosquito iDNA to monitor birds and mammals in Kakadu National Park. Christine has also previously worked on other eDNA based studies, including applying eDNA to understand the impact of anthropogenic disturbance on estuaries in far North Queensland.

Lachlan Gretgrix is a PhD candidate with La Trobe University and Agriculture Victoria, where his research focuses on the application of high-throughput DNA metabarcoding to improve the monitoring of insect populations in agricultural ecosystems. He holds a Master of Science degree from La Trobe University with the thesis title “The Hidden Population Structure of Australian Terrestrial Invertebrates in a Fire Prone Landscape”. Lachlan has a keen interest in the applications of metabarcoding for increasing our understanding of the population dynamics of both exotic and native invertebrate species within Australia.

After many years working as a clinical veterinarian I am following my passion for wildlife conservation and undertaking a PhD at the Centre for Conservation Science at The University of Newcastle. My PhD involves developing minimal invasive biomarkers to monitor stress, immune function and reproduction in two endangered amphibian species, the green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea) and the Littlejohn's tree frog (Litoria littlejohni). Biomarkers may be used to monitor health and reproduction, and it is planned to integrate these measures with traditional ecological survey methods to monitor and inform conservation decisions. As part of my PhD I have measured stress associated and reproductive hormones in urine using mass spectrometry and ELISA, and performed bacterial killing assays using blood plasma to assess immune competence. We have also performed non-lethal gene expression studies using foot webbing biopsies to understand the immune response to the amphibian fungal infection, chytridiomycosis, in L. aurea.

Mark is a 30 year veteran in the profession both in and out of academia. He is Adjunct at the University of Southern QLD and Managing Director of Ecoknowledge. Ecoknowledge undertakes a wide variety of projects in rangeland systems, including translocations, a significant number of vegetation impact surveys and mammal trapping\surveys. Mark has personally participated and published from a number of pest management projects in rangelands, temperate and desert landscapes since 2002, including the MERI committee of $19 mil dollar Australian Feral Camel Management Project. Since 2000 he has led his team and agency staff in undertaking regular multi-species state-wide aerial surveys for Victoria, Tasmania, NSW, WA and SA governments, using trained observers and HD thermal technology. Mark remains active in research. This includes the application of emerging technologies including endurance drones for nocturnal surveys, thermal technology and AI, stochastic computer modelling and habitat modelling. But in order to remain grounded, field work and project management remain an essential part of his work. In this talk Mark describes a genetic model that uses samples from two translocated freshwater fish populations, and its practical application in the on-going monitoring and management of this endangered species.

My research focuses on the use of the latest molecular approaches for the conservation and restoration of species. I am the leader of the Minesite Biodiversity Monitoring with eDNA (MBioMe) group at Curtin, a member of the TrEnD lab and a CI with the ARC Training Centre for Healing Country.

Gabriel is an AI Research Scientist at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, The Environment and Water (DCCEEW) with 13 years of experience building high-impact AI solutions in different domains following responsible AI practices. He is skilled in developing AI projects and building team AI capabilities. Currently focused on employing AI to support the Sustainable Development Goals, he develops monitoring systems for nature restoration. His main projects include creating bioinformatics eDNA pipelines for amplicon analysis and developing automated methods for fish species recognition from underwater videography. Previously, he was the AI Lead at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital (WCH) in Adelaide. His primary goals were to establish a regulatory framework to guide the ethical and safe development of clinical projects involving AI; and to implement 'Discovery Projects', AI systems designed to improve patient outcomes and experiences at WCH. Prior to this, Gabriel completed his PhD at the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML), where he developed novel methods for medical imaging, and continued as a Research Fellow conducting medical machine learning research and translational projects.