COORDINATING COMMITTEE
TIEC's Coordinating Committee comprises representatives of the institutional partners with relevant skills and interests. It helps implement the IWG’s vision and assists with project resourcing, development and management.
CURRENT MEMBERS
Gerry Turpin
Queensland Herbarium
Australian Tropical Herbarium
Gerry Turpin is an Mbabaram man from north Qld and been employed by the Queensland State Government for about 30 years. Gerry has previously been involved in the Queensland Herbarium’s Vegetation Surveys and Regional Ecosystem Mapping Project in Queensland. He currently manages the Tropical Indigenous Ethnobotany Centre at the Australian Tropical Herbarium, in partnership with James Cook University, Dept. of Environment and Science and CSIRO, and has worked with many Traditional Owner groups on Cape York and other parts of Queensland.
As an Indigenous ethnobotanist Gerry has a strong cultural commitment to facilitating effective partnerships that support Indigenous communities to protect, manage and maintain their cultural knowledge on the use of plants. Gerry is a member of the Ecological Society of Australia Board of Directors with the role of Indigenous Engagement, and a member of the NESP Threatened Species Recovery Hub Indigenous Reference Group. In 2013, Gerry took out the first ever science award at the 2013 National Indigenous Deadly Awards for best scientist or science Project of the Year category.
Dr Melinda Laidlaw is an ecologist with the role of Science Leader within the Queensland Herbarium and biodiversity Science Unit, Department of Environment, Science and Innovation. She leads a team that describes and names, models and maps Queensland’s floral and fungal diversity, and maintains the Queensland Herbarium collections. Melinda studies biodiversity drivers and ecosystem change in plant communities, with a focus on assessing the impacts of climate change on Australia’s World Heritage subtropical rainforests to inform their current and future management.
Melinda Laidlaw
Queensland Herbarium
Dr Katharina Nargar is a research scientist at the Australian Tropical Herbarium & National Research Collections Australia (CSIRO). Katharina uses advanced molecular genetic approaches to understand how Australia’s tropical plant diversity evolved over time and in space and how to best conserve this unique diversity.
Katharina Nargar
Australian Tropical Herbarium
CSIRO National Research Collections Australia
Prof Darren Crayn is Director of the Australian Tropical Herbarium joint venture. He has broad interests in the origins, evolution and uses of the flora of the Australasian tropics.
Darren Crayn
Australian Tropical Herbarium
PAST MEMBERS
Dr Eda Addicott is Principal Botanist with the Queensland Herbarium and an expert in vegetation mapping and classification. She is curator of the Regional Ecosystem mapping in the state of Queensland for the Cape York Peninsula, Einasleigh Uplands and Wet Tropics bioregion in north-eastern Australia, working also in biodiversity assessment and conservation land management.
Eda Addicott
Queensland Herbarium
Australian Tropical Herbarium
Dr Rosemary (Ro) Hill is an internationally-recognised expert in the science of ecosystem governance and multiple knowledge systems for sustainability, including biodiversity futures, climate change adaptation and how Indigenous Knowledge can inform resilience. She is a Principal Research Scientist with Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, and an adjunct Associate Professor with James Cook University.
Ro Hill
CSIRO Land and Water
Dr Gillian (Gill) Brown is Director of the Queensland Herbarium. Gill is an experienced plant systematist and collections manager who is actively working on processes to enable Nagoya Protocol compliance for herbarium collections in Australia and New Zealand.
Gillian Brown
Queensland Herbarium