Academic Director HIRS – Selina Ward

Dr Selina Ward is the new Academic Director of Heron Island Research Station (HIRS). She is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences and has worked at The University of Queensland since 2000.

She started research on reefs with a project on the coral Pocillopora damicornis at Rottnest Island in Western Australia for her Master's degree at The University of Western Australia. Her PhD brought her to the Capricorn Bunker group as part of the ENCORE program, working on the effects of elevated nutrients on coral reproduction at One Tree Island. She has worked in both freshwater and reef spaces during her career and is a past President of the Australian Coral Reef Society. She is also on the boards of both the International River Foundation and the Australian Marine Conservation Society, has organised way too many conferences and regularly advocates for coral reefs to government and in the media.

Selina has been spending a lot of time at Heron Island since the 1990s and currently brings multiple course groups to the station for field intensives including the Stanford in Australia group in spring and a Master's intensive course in Marine Conservation in January.

We asked Selina what she hopes to achieve in her three-year position as Academic Director of HIRS:

“As you know, we haven’t had an Academic Director for a lot of years and I look forward to working with station clients and staff to help fulfil the potential of the station," she said.

"I have been busy meeting with many past, present and potential visitors to the station to discuss their experiences and gauge what we can do to improve this wonderful facility. I will continue to do this and would like to hear from anyone who is reading this. I will be doing my best to raise funds for station improvements and new projects and will be advocating for a number of positive changes.

"Into the future, amongst other things, we hope to upgrade some of the laboratory facilities, build some new accommodation, increase the scholarships available for station time and establish a volunteer program.”