James Hitchcock

James Hitchcock is a Senior Lecturer in freshwater and marine ecology at the University of Technology Sydney's School of Life Sciences. His research focuses on food webs, water quality, and environmental management in freshwater and coastal systems, particularly addressing ecosystem restoration through management strategies. He leads large-scale projects collaborating with government and academic partners, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches.

Education: PhD in Environmental Science (UTS), Graduate Certificate in Education Studies (University of Sydney, 2019). Previous roles include Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Canberra and Lecturer at the University of Sydney.

Research interests span food web ecology, environmental flows, microplastic pollution, and carbon biogeochemistry. He co-founded the Third Degree Environmental Justice Show and won the 2010 UTS Human Rights Award for Creative Media.

• Awards: 2010 Peter Cullen Scholarship, 2016 Tony Roach Award (early career researcher), 2010 UTS Human Rights Award

Grants and collaborations include projects on Menindee weir pool thermal modeling, Murray-Darling Basin flow responses, and Pindari Dam cold water pollution. He coordinates the 91121 Aquatic Ecosystems unit and has developed interdisciplinary curricula.

Labs/Teams: Member of the Freshwater and Estuarine Research Group at UTS, contributing to basin-scale food web studies and environmental management initiatives.