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Biography
Dr Sam Nicol is a senior research scientist at CSIRO Environment and is part of the Adapting for Nature Team.
Sam is the Environmental Natural Capital coordinator at CSIRO. Natural Capital refers to nature's assets; i.e. the stocks of resources such as clean air, water, soil and living things which produce flows of ecosystem services that have value because they benefit humans. A key part of the Natural Capital portfolio is natural capital accounting, which uses accounting techniques to make these nature's services material to business, i.e. making nature visible to the economy. Sam's coordinator role integrates CSIRO's capabilities in Natural Capital and provides a connector role to help CSIRO work more effectively with business and government to deliver the Natural Capital agenda.
Outside of his natural capital work, Sam is an ecological modeller and decision scientist who specialises in decision techniques to help managers allocate limited natural resources over time to achieve environmental goals. He uses techniques from a broad range of disciplines to help decision-makers structure and understand decisions and provide scientifically robust and defensible recommendations at the appropriate level of complexity for application. Sam combines decision-making techniques from mathematics, economics and artificial intelligence with skills in small-group facilitation and ecological modelling to generate practical solutions for managers. His research can be used to logically formulate decisions, highlight trade-offs and prioritise actions.
Dr Nicol has published more than 50 refereed journal papers, including articles in leading journals such as PNAS, Nature Communications, Journal of Applied Ecology, and Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
Professional Areas
Fields of Research
Current Roles
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Natural Capital Coordinator
Coordinating CSIRO's portfolio of work in Natural Capital, including streamlining CSIRO's capability to provide an integrated offering to clients. The role will better connect CSIRO with our partners and clients to support the implementation of Natural Capital-related work around Australia.
Academic Qualifications
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2010
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The University of Queensland -
2004
Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Engineering (Hons 1st Class)
The University of Western Australia
Professional Experiences
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2018-2024
Senior Research Scientist
CSIRO Environment -
2015-2018
Research Scientist
CSIRO Land and Water -
2012-2015
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences -
2010-2012
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Alaska Fairbanks -
2005-2006
Graduate Environmental Engineer
Sinclair Knight Merz -
2005-2005
Project Officer
Western Australian EPA Service Unit
Achievements and Awards
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2024-2024
R&D Excellence Award (Murray-Darling Ecosystem Functions project team)
Australian Water Awards -
2012-2012
Outstanding paper award in Computational Sustainability
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-12) -
2015-2016
Invited Participant
National Institute for Mathematical Biology and Synthesis (NIMBioS) Working Group “Area contributions of habitat for migratory species" (Knoxville TN) -
2018-2023
CSIRO Julius Career Award for outstanding early-mid career researchers
CSIRO
Other highlights
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2023-2024
CSIRO Natural Capital Coordinator for the Environmental Natural Capital Strategic Growth Opportunity
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2024-2025
Project Lead for National Climate Risk Assessment (Natural Systems risk)
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2021-2021
Team leader, Conservation Decisions Team
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2020-2023
Murray-Darling Basin Ecosystem Functions project: Waterbirds connectivity theme lead
Community and Corporate Citizenship
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2023-2024
Standards Australia: Biodiversity Committee (BD-112)
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Jan 2018-June 2022
Associate editor, Ecology and Evolution
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December 2019-Present
Review editor, Models in Ecology and Evolution
Related links
Publications
We have publications by Dr Sam Nicol