معرفی
Andy T.D. Bennett is Professor of Life and Environmental Science at Deakin University, where he has been employed since 2008 and previously served as Head of the School of Life and Environmental Sciences from 2008-2011. He established the Centre for Integrative Ecology at Deakin University and serves as President of the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Professor Bennett earned his BSc in Zoology from University of Adelaide, followed by a DPhil from Oxford University on the ecology of avian spatial memory. After research fellowships in Oxford and Brussels and a postdoc in Adelaide, he spent over 15 years in Europe, including at the University of Bristol where he became a Lecturer and Reader in Sensory and Behavioural Ecology.
His research focuses on integrative ecology using birds as model systems, particularly parrots and waterbirds. He leads a program on satellite tracking waterbirds across Australia. His work spans animal behaviour, evolution, vision, navigation and disease. His research has revealed insights into the breeding behavior of banded stilts that travel thousands of kilometers to nest in temporary desert salt lakes, and the link between color variability in Crimson Rosellas and Beak and Feather Disease Virus.
His notable scientific contributions include:
- Documenting banded stilts' extraordinary breeding behavior in remote Australian salt lakes
- Discovering the relationship between plumage color variation and disease resistance in Crimson Rosellas
- Establishing the Centre for Integrative Ecology at Deakin University
Professor Bennett has received prestigious awards including the 1851 Science Research Scholarship and a Leverhulme Fellowship which enabled him to establish a research program on the crimson-yellow-Adelaide rosella species complex. He has been Deakin University's representative on the Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research and continues to contribute significantly to ornithological research in Australia and internationally.