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Contact details:
CANBERRA ACT 2601 AUSTRALIA
Biography
Alexander's research interests include the systematics and evolution of flowering plants, in particular of Asteraceae (daisy family), biogeography, user-friendly species identification tools including through the application of computer vision, and polyploidy.
He uses DNA sequence data to resolve phylogenetic relationships and understand the evolution of native Australian plants. He is currently lead of the Phylogenomics Bioinformatics Working Group for the Australian Angiosperm Tree of Life initiative and leads a Future Science Platform Environomics project on high-throughput sequence capture.
Alexander has collaborated with the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources to deliver an online identification key to the seeds of weedy daisies, to make it easier for biosecurity officers to document pathways of introduction and ultimately prevent weed incursions, and with CSIRO Health & Biosecurity to provide phylogenetic expertise to the planning of host specificity tests. He uses flow cytometry and traditional chromosome counts to study genome duplication (polyploidy) in native Australian plants.
Alexander studied biology at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and obtained a doctorate with research on the South American mint genus Minthostachys. After postdoctoral work at the University of Halle and the University of Zürich he joined CSIRO in 2010.
Other Interests
Reading, board games, cycling, plant photography
Professional Areas
Fields of Research
Academic Qualifications
-
2005
Dr. rer. nat. (~Ph.D.)
University of Göttingen -
2002
Diplom-Biologe (~honours)
University of Göttingen
Professional Experiences
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2011-ongoing
Visiting Fellow
ANU -
2010-ongoing
Research Scientist
CSIRO -
2009-2010
Postdoctoral Research Assistant
University of Zürich -
2006-2008
Postdoctoral Research Affiliate
University Halle-Wittenberg -
2006-2006
Contract Work
Free University Berlin -
2002-2005
Postgraduate studies
University of Göttingen
Grants
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2021-2022
Biosecurity Innovation Program grant for further development of image recognition of biosecurity risks.
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2020-2023
CSIRO Future Science Platform Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence subproject on feature extraction from specimen images, with Juanita Rodriguez.
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2020-2022
CSIRO Future Science Platform Environomics project on sequence capture, with Andreas Zwick, Katharina Nargar, Cecile Gueidan, Juanita Rodriguez, Bryan Lessard, Stephen Bent, Todd McLay.
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2020-2022
National Landcare Program grant, Weed identification App, coordinated by CISS, with state government partners.
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2019-2020
Biosecurity Innovation Program grant for image recognition of biosecurity risks.
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2019-2019
Digital and Domain: Automated Biosecurity support project prototyping image recognition of pests and weeds.
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2017-2019
CSIRO Future Science Platform Environomics project, with Francisco Encinas Viso (lead), Bryan Lessard, Juanita Rodriguez Arrieta, Anna Simonsen, and Andreas Zwick
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2017-2020
ABRS NTRGP project, with Jeremy Bruhl (lead), Rose Andrew, and Ian Telford
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2017-2018
GISERA Queensland Project Grant, with Francisco Encinas-Viso
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2016-2019
NSW Environmental Trust Fund grant 2015/RD/0004, with David Taylor (lead), Greg Baines, Lydia Guja, Keith McDougal, Mark Ooi, Cathy Offord, and John Siemon
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2016-2017
ABRS BushBlitz Strategic Taxonomy Grant, with Anthony Orchard
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2016-2016
Commonwealth Services Contract to develop identification key to seeds of weedy daisies for the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
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2015-2015
CBA Training Support Grant for Phylogenomics workshop, with Celeste Linde
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2014-2015
CBA Ignition Grant, with Adrienne Nicotra
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2013-2014
CBA Ignition Grant, with Justin Borevitz
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2006-2008
Individual grant SCHM 2449/1-1 of the DFG (Germany)
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2002-2005
Postgraduate scholarschip of the FES (Germany)
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1997-2002
Undergraduate scholarship of the FES (Germany)
Community and Corporate Citizenship
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05/2019-current
Lab coordinator, Australian National Herbarium
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10/2019-01/2020
Acting Team Leader, Plant Systematics and Population Genetics
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07/2014-05/2017
Coordinator of NRCA Vacation Scholarship Program
Publications
We have publications by Dr Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn