Marine and Molecular Ecologist
Joseph DiBattista
Background
Dr DiBattista completed his undergraduate (2001) and PhD (2009) studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. After completing his PhD on the mating systems of tropical shark populations using pedigree-based genetics approaches, Dr DiBattista went on to complete a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada funded postdoctoral fellowship at the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology in the USA (2009-2012) and a research position in the Reef Ecology Lab at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia (2013-2015), both focused on the biogeography of Indo-West Pacific fishes. He then completed a molecular-focused Early Career Research Fellowship (ECRF) at Curtin University (2015-2018) and continues to maintain a close collaboration with the staff and students affiliated with the TrEnD Laboratory. Dr DiBattista most recently served as NSW Senior Research Scientist and Curator in the Ichthyology Section at the Australian Museum (2018-2023), where he maintains Research Associate status and continues to coordinate legacy fish collection and genomic initiatives between the museum, CSIRO, and the Minderoo Foundation. He has taken on a new role as Senior Lecturer in Molecular Ecology at Griffith University in Queensland from August 2023.
How does your work engage and consider the environment, different sites and ecologies?
I work alongside communities using DNA-based tools and citizen science approaches to catalog biodiversity in our own backyards.
Experience with this Country/place and the thoughts it has evoked in you?
Protected, culturally significant, and little developed areas in Sydney are few and far between. I believe that places like Nielsen Park and Bottle and Glass Point should be celebrated and preserved at all costs, including the transition from the land into the sea.
Experiences with intertidal areas, the ocean and connections you've forged with country.
The overall message I'd like to share is the more you look and appreciate, the more you find, which provides the "ammunition" or baseline data to affect conservation in areas of particular concern.
What holds particular significance for you in/about Neilsen Park country and Bottle and Glass Point?
This place has significance as a site of colonial arrival and attack. Its local vegetation persists due to its local care. But it is also highly populated by weekend visitors and Australia Day is difficult to witness, as revelers seem unaware of the insensitivity of celebrating a period of violent extractivism and harm.
How do you create spaces for contemporary leadership, learning and collaboration with other people and the environment?
The two main mechanisms for engagement are show and tell (but don't just tell) and shared experiences. Therefore, my philosophy is to learn and experience alongside my students, staff, collaborators, or active community members. The biggest problem in academia is over-committing, which leaves little time to provide feedback to students, staff, collaborators, or active community members. I try to avoid this at all costs.
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