Prof. David Lindenmayer
Scientific Director
Distinguished Professor David Lindenmayer is recognized globally as one of the foremost conservation biologists and landscape ecologists, with a profound impact on our understanding of forest, woodland, and agricultural ecosystems, and the sustainable management of natural resources. His pioneering contributions to long-term ecological research and biodiversity conservation have shaped the field for over 35 years. His work has transformed ecological thinking, influenced sustainable natural resource management policies, and generated new insights at every scale – from the dynamics of individual trees to entire landscapes. Much of this work has helped guide improved decision making for enhanced biodiversity conservation, such as how best to limit interacting fire and logging effects on biodiversity in forests, and how to ensure revegetation programs on degraded farmlands are effective for threatened birds, reptiles and mammals, including under increasingly variable weather conditions resulting from rapid climate change.
David’s discoveries are the product of his passionate commitment to long-term research, demonstrated through six large-scale, long-term research programs under his direction (ranging from 21 to 45 years in duration). These programs focus on the conservation of biodiversity and sustainability across a range of settings, including reserves, national parks, production forests, plantations, and farmland.
He has published over 1500 scientific works, including more than 1000 peer-reviewed papers in international scientific journals (including 334 1st authored). He has also published 50 books (35 1st authored), and 132 book chapters (86 1st authored). His research covers a wide array of topics, from forest and woodland biodiversity to landscape and fire ecology, agricultural landscape restoration and conservation, and the importance of long-term ecological research and monitoring. Many of these works are considered foundational texts in these fields. Furthermore, Professor Lindenmayer is among the world’s most productive and highly-cited scientists, particularly in forest ecology and conservation biology. He has a Google Scholar H-Index of 163 with a total of 115,051 citations as of March 2026. He was included in the 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015, and 2014 Clarivate Highly Cited Lists. And in September 2025, ScholarGPS rankings listed David in the top 0.01% of all scholars worldwide, as #4 in Forest Ecology, Biodiversity, and Habitat, #5 in Conservation Biology, and #1190 over all fields. Between 2004 and 2024, David Lindenmayer was listed among the top 2000 Highly Cited Researchers (h>100) and is 26th most cited academic in the field of ecology, the 7th most cited in conservation biology, and the 2nd most cited in forest ecology according to Google Scholar Citations. He is consistently ranked in the top 1% of cited scientists in environmental and ecological sciences worldwide and is one of the top 0.1% of scientists across all disciplines having published over 10 peer-reviewed international articles every year for the past 17 years. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, The Australian newspaper listed the 30 leading Australian scientists, and Lindenmayer was listed as the leading conservation and biodiversity expert in the nation.
