Academic Director MBRS – Michael Noad

Michael Noad was appointed Academic Director of Moreton Bay Research Station (MBRS) in June 2019. He is an Associate Professor in the School of Veterinary Science, where he has worked since 2003. Along with his veterinary background, Mike has had a long-standing research career in marine science where he has worked on the behaviour and population ecology of the eastern Australian humpback whales. He is particularly interested in the evolution and function of their songs, as well as the impacts of anthropogenic noise on marine mammal behaviour. In July 2018, he and long-term collaborator Rebecca Dunlop, both moved their labs to MBRS from UQ’s Gatton campus.

We asked Michael about MBRS and what he hopes to achieve in his role as Academic Director:

"MBRS is an outstanding facility, providing easy access to the wide range of connected ecosystems of Moreton Bay and Minjerribah," he said.

"It has excellent equipment, services and staff, and yet is underutilised for teaching and research. It has been a long time, for instance, since the station had a sizable permanent research staff. In 2018, this changed when Rebecca Dunlop and I moved our labs there, more than doubling the number of people based at the station.

"This also represented the first major relaxation of the ‘user pays’ model for the station, and the first move towards the station becoming a real campus. Those of us focused on research in Moreton Bay, and surrounding areas, see this as the beginning of a renaissance for the station. In the last 6 months we have continued to develop the campus vision, pushing for a reversal of the ban on children on the stations, re-constituting a MBRS advisory committee, and developing a new strategic plan.

"Over the next 12 months I will be talking to as many academic users and potential users of the station as possible to identify how we can increase use, not just by the Faculty of Science, but by the entire University. Together with CMS, we will develop relationships with international partners to develop new courses that will be taught through the station and review the use of the station by secondary school groups to ensure that UQ groups can use the station when needed. We will also start to plan expansions to the station to accommodate other research groups and as well as the provision of flow-through seawater, a much-needed facility at any marine station."