Heidi Pethybridge

Dr Heidi Pethybridge is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere, where she has been employed since 2017. She is a quantitative marine ecologist with interdisciplinary expertise spanning biological taxa from phytoplankton to sharks, organizational scales from tissue to biosphere, and geographic areas from Antarctic to tropical regions across all ocean basins.

Her educational background includes a Cotutelle PhD from University of Tasmania, Australia & University of Bordeaux 1, France (2006-2010), followed by postdoctoral fellowships at IFREMER, France (2010-2013) and CSIRO (2013-2017).

Dr Pethybridge's research focuses on environmental sustainability through innovative applications of biochemical tracer methodologies including fatty acids, stable isotopes, trace metals, and compound specific amino acids, combined with statistical and mechanistic models. She is particularly interested in improving food web study design, acquiring higher quality datasets, and using biochemical composition data on seafood to inform human health, ecosystem-based management, and provenance. Her work bridges marine biology, ecology, statistical analysis, and ecosystem modeling to impact strategic policy decisions.

Her significant scientific awards include:

• CSIRO Julius Career Award (2020-2024)
• ASFB Early Career Award (2015-2016)
• ICES Early Career Award (2012-)
• CSIRO Payne Scott Award (2016-)
• CSIRO CDF CoP Awards (2014-2019)
• CSIRO Career Development Awards (2014-2019)

Dr Pethybridge has secured research funding from Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (2016-2018), Crawford Fund (2019), and L'Agence de l'eau, France (2012-2014). She actively contributes to the scientific community through leadership roles including IMBER CLIOTOP co-chair (2022-2025), CSIRO O&A's Inclusion & Diversity Committee (2019-2024), and as Section Editor for the Encyclopedia of Ecology 2nd Edition.

Her current projects demonstrate extensive leadership across multiple research domains including Harnessing food composition data for ecosystem-based resource management, COR Publications, Seafood quality and ecosystem dynamics in the Seychelles, Atlantis Ecosystem Modeling, and Global isotope analyses of tunas (CLIOTOP project).