Professor Geoff Gurr is a leading academic in Applied Ecology at Charles Sturt University's School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences. He holds a distinguished position as a Professor specializing in Agriculture, with extensive leadership experience including former roles as Associate Dean Research and Director of the Rural Management Research Institute at the University of Sydney. His academic journey began with a BSc (Hons) from Plymouth, followed by a PhD from London, DIC from Imperial College, GradCert from Sydney, and DSc from Charles Sturt University. Professor Gurr's research focuses on developing ecologically-based strategies to harmonize agriculture with the environment. His work spans biological control of insect pests, plant defense mechanisms, insect-vectored plant pathogens, and chemical and molecular ecology. He has pioneered approaches for promoting natural enemies of pests while delivering additional ecosystem services that build resilience in farming systems. These methods have been adopted across tens of thousands of farms in Australia and internationally, with companion cropping becoming nationally-recommended policy in Chinese rice agriculture. His research portfolio demonstrates consistent high-impact output across entomology, sustainable agriculture, and ecological engineering. Professor Gurr has published over 200 scientific papers in prestigious journals including Nature Plants, Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, PNAS, and Annual Review of Entomology. His work shows strong interdisciplinary connections between agricultural science, ecology, and molecular biology, with particular emphasis on translating research into practical farming applications that benefit both producers and the environment. Engagement Australia's excellence award for Outstanding Research Engagement (2020) Thousand Talents fellowship for work in China Fellow of the Royal Society NSW Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society Nation's top researcher for 'Insects & Arthropods' in The Australian special reports (2020, 2021) Professor Gurr has successfully supervised 43 HDR students (38 as principal supervisor) and has secured nearly $20 million in research funding from diverse sources including the Australian Research Council, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, rural research and development corporations, CRCs, and international donors like the McKnight Foundation. His current projects on vineyards, regenerative agriculture, beneficial insect ecology, sesame, and hazelnuts are funded by Wine Australia, the Drought Innovation Hub, the Gulbali Institute, and Agrifutures. He maintains extensive international collaborations, with over 91% of his publications co-authored with international researchers, reflecting his significant global research network.
