David Guerin is a retired Air Traffic Controller with expertise in drone operations, airspace management, and safety systems. After a sabbatical at the German Aerospace Centre’s UAS Department, he worked as a short-term consultant for the World Bank, advising on drone projects in Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, before returning to Brisbane after a decade away. David was operations manager and safety lead for the Lake Victoria Challenge (2018) and African Drone Forum (2020), and helped organise the South Asia Drone Forum 2025 in Nepal. He is also an active member of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s specialist group on drones and JARUS’s Safety Risk Management group. Beyond consulting, he volunteers for conservation initiatives, funding and leading the Global Drone Regulations Database (www.droneregulations.info) and Nature Drones, and serving as an advisor and operations manager for the EU-funded WildDrone project in Kenya (https://wilddrone.eu/). He aims to harness drones for the Sustainable Development Goals and biodiversity conservation. Most notably, David is leading the inaugural Global Drones in Nature Conservation symposium and expo in Nairobi, Kenya, commencing on World Wildlife Day, 3rd March 2026 (https://dronesinnatureconservation.org/). His efforts reflect a commitment to safe, innovative drone use for the benefit of people and nature.

Alice is a spatial scientist with a passion for the application of remote sensing for environmental monitoring, land management and conservation. She is experienced in leveraging drone data, including LiDAR, RGB and multispectral imagery, and integrating this with ecological knowledge to develop methods for ecosystem monitoring and biodiversity modelling. Since 2024, she has been working on the NatureScan project, which aims to advance the use of consumer-grade drones for land management and monitoring biodiversity.

Hayley Merigot is a consultant Ecologist with extensive experience conducting ecological surveys and assessments. Hayley is skilled at identifying potential ecological impacts of development projects and providing and developing practical solutions to avoid and minimise impacts and maximise positive outcomes. Hayley is also undertaking a PhD looking at the flowering patterns of Eucalypts and how improving our knowledge of ecosystem processes can help deliver greater biodiversity outcomes with more strategic restoration and revegetation efforts.

Associate Research Fellow at Deakin University | Drone scientist | Developing economic arguments for emerging technologies for wildlife conservation | Chief Remote Pilot, Drone Operations Coordinator and Maintenance Controller |

I am a wildlife ecologist who uses and develops monitoring methods to understand how animal’s behavior and health are impacted by environmental changes. I am currently a postdoctoral researcher working on developing a method to assess nutritional status of dugong individuals and populations through remote drone-based surveys, without the need to closely approach or capture animals. I recently completed my PhD in Informatics at Kyoto University in Japan, where I studied feeding strategy of dugongs in Thailand using drone photogrammetry of seagrass beds and passive acoustic monitoring. Before moving to Australia, I also conducted research on drone-based radiotelemetry of amphibians in mountainous areas.

Elliot Webb is a scientist with the Koala Science team at the New South Wales Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (NSW DCCEEW). He holds a Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience with First Class Honours from the University of Sydney, where his research focused on koala behaviour at artificial water stations. Elliot is currently contributing to the NSW Statewide Koala Baseline Project, where he combines fieldwork and drone technology to support koala monitoring efforts. His conference presentation will explore the behavioural responses of koalas to drones during surveys, offering insights into how emerging tools can be used responsibly in wildlife monitoring.

Dr Kirrilly Pfitzner - BEd, BSc (Hons), PhD is a research scientist with the Drone Operations and Technology Solutions (DOTS) program. She specialises in remote sensing. She has a background in environmental science, particularly earth sciences, biology and geography. She is experienced in hyperspectral analysis as well as optical and gamma ray spectrometry data for characterisation of mine sites and other ecological environments. Her current work focuses on revegetation health monitoring and substrate mapping at Ranger Uranium mine in the Northern Territory of Australia. Kirrilly has developed spectral libraries (both laboratory and in situ measurements) for local vegetation, soil and mineral spectra, including magnesium sulfate efflorescence. Kirrilly’s areas of expertise and research interests include: remote sensing using hyperspectral, airborne gamma, spectra of minerals, vegetation mapping and monitoring and spectrometry.

Megan is a PhD candidate working to improve biodiversity monitoring and management outcomes via population models built entirely from remote sensing data, experimenting with uncommon and potentially untested data combinations. Megan is simultaneously working to enhance the way ecologists use deep learning to classify and count wildlife.

Nick is Postdoctoral Research fellow at the Bushfire Research Centre of Excellence at the Fenner School of Environment & Society, ANU. His work centres around the evaluation of novel fire detection technologies, including understanding environmental drivers of ignition risk. He completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours at the Australian National University in 2015 and a PhD at the University of Wollongong in 2022. He was employed as a research ecologist in the ACT Conservation Research Unit from 2015 to 2017. Nick has also applied his skills as an ecological consultant in the ACT and NSW.

Courtney is a PhD candidate at the University of Adelaide researching conservation genomics of the endangered Woylie (Bettongia penicillata). With experience spanning government, consultancy, and academic research, she integrates field ecology and species management with a flexible, solutions-oriented approach. Her Honours research pioneered the use of photogrammetry to non-invasively assess microhabitat preferences in Egernia cunninghami, and she continues to explore novel, data-driven methods to improve species conservation outcomes. Courtney believes that effective conservation depends on collaborative approaches, and she strives to build meaningful connections between western science and land stewardship.

Al Healy uses remote sensing to monitor small and rapid changes in vegetation in Australia's arid and semi-arid environments, as well as examining the potential use of landscape characteristics as proxies for predation and competition.

Qingting Liao is a PhD student in the Quantitative and Applied Ecology Group at the University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on improving the spatialisation of biodiversity impact assessment within the life cycle assessment (LCA) framework, particularly through integrating ecological models and species-level data. She has a strong interdisciplinary background in sustainability science and biodiversity conservation. Qingting is passionate about bridging ecological theory with practical tools for environmental decision-making.