Research Staff

 Tim Fletcher
Professor Tim Fletcher has expertise in stormwater quality, treatment and impacts, with research focused on modelling stormwater flows, quality and the performance of novel stormwater treatment and harvesting systems. He has been involved in a range of green infrastructure such as biofiltration, infiltration and green roofs. For more information visit Tim’s website or email: 
Chris Walsh
Associate Professor Chris Walsh is a stream ecologist whose research asks how landscapes, and human activities in them, affect the ecological structure and function of streams and rivers.  His primary projects have aimed to guide land and water management practices that permit the restoration and conservation of stream ecosystems, often in concert with other co-benefits. For more information visit Chris’s UoM Page, his website for online tools or email: 

Yung En Chee
Dr Yung En Chee is a quantitative applied ecologist. Her research interests include spatial and ecological modelling, decision analysis, reasoning under uncertainty and interdisciplinary research. She works on how ideas and methods from these fields can be integrated to improve conservation and environmental decision making. For more information email: 
Stephanie Lavau
Dr Stephanie Lavau is a Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Environmental Practice. Her research and teaching focus on social and cultural aspects of environment management, knowledge and governance, particularly in relation to ecosystem health, environmental risk, biodiversity conservation, and natural resource management. For more information visit Stephanie’s website or email: 

Rhys Coleman (Melbourne Water)
Dr Rhys Coleman is an aquatic ecologist who currently manages the waterways and wetlands research program at Melbourne Water – including projects relating to the stormwater management, protection of aquatic biodiversity, vegetation management, aquatic recreation and public health, environmental flows, and catchment impacts on estuaries and bays. For more information email: 
Matthew Burns
Dr Matthew Burns is a hydrologist working on the links between urban stormwater and stream degradation. His interests are in a range of environmental fields, specifically in catchment hydrology, the modelling and performance of stormwater source-control measures, and ecohydrology. For more information email: 

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 Moss Imberger
Dr Moss Imberger is a freshwater ecologist interested in the effects of landuse change and other anthropogenic impacts on aquatic systems. They are particularly interested in the effects of urbanisation on organic matter dynamics and both ecosystem structure and function. Mosss undertakes both experimental and observational research that informs and guides policy and ecosystem management. For more information visit Moss’s website or email:

 

 
Joe Greet
Dr Joe Greet is a wetland ecologist who hopes his research will improve our ability to protect and restore wetland environments. His current research projects include: assessing the response of swamp forests to hydrological restoration within the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve; ecology-informed control of invasive wetland plants including Phragmites, Phalaris arundinacea and Kunzea; modelling to predict deer impacts on riparian vegetation within Victoria; and maximising prospects of direct seeding as means of revegetating riparian environments. For more information visit Joe’s website or email: 

Belinda Hatt (Melbourne Water)
Dr Belinda Hatt is a waterways and wetlands research specialist at Melbourne Water. Her interests are in vegetated water treatment systems, monitoring and treatment of stormwater and the application of stormwater harvesting to improve urban waterway health and the liveability of our cities and towns. Her current research projects include the development of performance indicators for constructed stormwater wetlands, the role of headwater streams in the overall health of stream networks and the long-term effectiveness of WSUD assets on private land. For information email: 

 

 
Chris Szota
Dr Chris Szota is a plant ecophysiologist, working on selecting plants and substrates which improve the performance of stormwater control measures including: green roofs, street tree pits and raingardens. His research activities include monitoring systems in the field, glasshouse experiments and development of models which describe both stormwater retention and plant performance. For more information email: 

Peter Poelsma
Peter Poelsma is a hydrologist specialising in field data collection. He is interested in improving stormwater management by providing empirical data from the measures being implemented. He has extensive experience monitoring waterways, rainfall, the performance of stormwater treatment systems, lab based experiments and many other challenging projects. For more information email: 
Kathy Russell
Dr Kathy Russell is a fluvial geomorphologist, working on the impacts of urbanization on stream physical form and function. Her research interests include the sediment supply and transport regime of urban streams, sediment pollution produced by construction areas, prediction of stream channel adjustment to urban conditions and the provision of freedom space for urban streams to exhibit healthy dynamic behavior and engage their floodplains. For more information email: 

Rob James
Rob James is a research officer with extensive instrumentation and electro-mechanical experience. He is currently designing novel methods of quantifying groundwater input to streams, designing self-cleaning flow structures and is part of a team working on low-cost sensors using open source methods to make our environmental sensor data available online. For more information email: 
Gen Hehir
Gen Hehir is a research officer focusing on the collection of biological data to assess the structure and function of waterway ecosystems. She has extensive experience monitoring and identifying freshwater macroinvertebrates, undertaking leaf breakdown experiments and carrying out algal biomass studies. For more information email:

Sacha Jellinek
Sacha is an ecologist with an interest in habitat restoration and community engagement. He completed a PhD in ecology at the University of Melbourne and most recently he has worked for Greening Australia and La Trobe University/the Arthur Rylah Institute looking at the effectiveness of restoring habitats at a landscape scale, and prioritising management actions for biodiversity under a changing climate. He has experience working in the Government sector but has also worked in South-East Asia and in various parts of Australia including Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland. For more information email: 
Ryan Burrows
Dr Ryan Burrows is an ecosystem ecologist. His current and past projects have focused on a range issues related to the ecological importance of groundwater-surface water interactions, forest ecology and management, ecological impacts of riverine methane gas seeps, Arctic and boreal freshwater ecosystems, drivers of Great Barrier Reef water quality changes, and tropical aquatic food webs. Ryan’s research has strong industry links and he believes that researchers should maximise the impact of their work through knowledge translation. For more information email: 

Darren Bos
Dr Darren Bos is an ecologist with extensive community engagement experience, especially the administration of financial incentives and community grant programs that are aimed at improving environmental condition. Darren co-coordinates the knowledge exchange activities of the partnership. For more information email: 
Ami Bennet
Dr Ami Bennett is a wildlife ecologist and currently work as an independent consultant and Research Fellow at The University of Melbourne. One of her main research interests is the impacts of introduced deer on native vegetation including riparian systems and management of deer populations to reduce impacts.. For more information email: