School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences

Stuart Pearson

Associate Professor Stuart Pearson

Associate Professor, Discipline Coordinator - Geography
BA (Hons), DipEd, PhD UNSW

 

Telephone: +61 2 6268 8305
Fax: +61 2 6268 8017
Email: stuart.pearson@adfa.edu.au
Location: PEMS Nth, Room 334, Building 22

My UNSW Research Gateway Profile

Australian Dendrochronology beyond 2011 28th November 2011 Workshop Report

Practical Responses to Climate Change conference 1-3 May 2012 Canberra more

 

Current Position and Career Background

Assoc. Prof. Stuart Pearson is the Discipline Coordinator of Geography in the School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences.? This is a significant discipline employing 8 full-time staff.? He has recently joined the University of New South Wales after managing research for one of the agencies (Land & Water Australia) of the Australian Government?s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. In that role as a research investor and manager he provided research leadership and support on issues such as Stewardship, Citizen Science, Periurban Issues, Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals, Pesticides risk on the Reef and Resilience. ?He set the strategic direction of A$2.5 million of new investments each year and managed 61 current projects and an active portfolio of A$8.8 million in research.? This included management of 23 postgraduate research scholars at multiple universities working on applied research projects.

Current Research

Assoc. Prof. Stuart Pearson has an ongoing research interest in achieving the transition of research into action and provides briefings to government on that research. ?For example, he has written papers on the monitoring and evaluation of research and policy using the triple bottom line and return in investment analysis to report on the impact of investing in research in natural resource management. Tracking research impact and learning how to improve the outcomes of science investment is fundamental to environmental science?s multidisciplinary and integrated approach to significant issues.

His other research includes using plant and animal fossils preserved in stick-nest rat middens and the weather signals recorded in tree rings to record evidence of environmental change in arid and semi-arid Australia. He is currently a collaborator with Dr Michael Bunce (Murdoch University and an ARC Future Fellow) on an Australian Research Council funded project using fossil DNA to uncover ancient population changes.

Stuart has recently completed a national collaborative project on Callitris dendrochronology (Pearson et al in press) that worked with a team of people to cross-date tree rings from Callitris pines using the changing carbon isotope concentrations caused by atmospheric bomb testing.? He is preparing a national Dendrochronology Conference in November 2011, funded by the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology) to help scope future research including the application of new ITRAX sensors.

Reflecting his commitment to working with China?s academic colleagues and research students he has been guest editor of the Special Edition of Labour and Management in Development following the establishment of the Sino-Australian Research Centre for Coastal Management.

Teaching

  1. ZPEM1202 Contemporary Global Change
  2. ZPEM2212 Managing Environmental Change
  3. ZPEM3208 Geographic Research Methods

Current Co-Supervision of Research Students

Grants

Recently Funded Projects

  1. 2011 - AINSE Grant - Opening tree core and sub-fossil wood archives at key Western Australian sites using AMS sating of the Bomb Pulse period and iTRAX
  2. 2010 - UNSW - Geography Curriculum Development for ADFA
  3. 2010 - UNSW - Setting-up a science laboratory
  4. 2009 - Land & Water - Australian Government Grant - A review of twenty years of investment ? a triple bottom line return on investment analysis

Publications since 2005

Journal Articles

  1. Pearson, S., Hua Q., Allen K., Bowman D.M.J.S. (2011) Validating putatively cross-dated Callitris tree-ring chronologies using bomb-pulse radiocarbon analysis, Australian Journal of Botany, 59(1), 7-17.
  2. Pearson, S., Chudleigh, P., Simpson, S., Schofield, N. (submitted 2010) Measuring return on 20 years of investment in natural resource management research & development, Research Policy.
  3. Pearson, Stuart Graham, Honeywood, Steven James, O'Toole, John Mitchell (2005) 'Not yet learning for sustainability: The challenge of environmental education in a university', International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 14, 173-186.
  4. Webeck, K., Pearson, S. (2005) ?Stick-nest rat middens and a late-Holocene record of White Range, central Australia?, Holocene, 1(5), 466-471.

Reports

  1. Gell, P., Gergis, J. Mills, K., Baker, P., De Deckker, P., Finlayson, M., Hesse, P., Jones, R., Kershaw, P., Pearson, S., Treble, P., Barr, C., Brookhouse, M., Drysdale, R., Haberle, S. Karoly, D.J., McDonald, J., Reid, M., Thoms, M., and Tibby, J. (2009) Palaeoclimate Studies Relevant to Natural Resource Management in the Murray?Darling Basin, in Murray-Darling Basin Authority Science Review (pdf, 1.7MB), Canberra, Australia.
  2. Pearson, S., Chudleigh, P., Simpson, S. & Schofield, N. (2010) Measuring Return on 20 years of Investment in Natural Resource Management Research & Development, Land & Water Australia, Canberra. Available on-line http://lwa.gov.au/products/pn30369 (pdf, 1.18 MB).
  3. Schofield, N., Chudleigh, P., Simpson, S,. & Pearson, S. (2008) Land & Water Australia?s Portfolio Return on Investment & Evaluation Case Studies,? Land & Water Australia, Canberra.
  4. Pearson, S. & Coffey, B. (2007) Stewardship, Market based instruments and Ecosystem Services, Land & Water Australia, Canberra.

Book Chapters

  1. Pearson, S. & Donaldson, J., (2010) 'Woodlands conservation: some lessons from managing research and observing policy'', Temperate Woodland Conservation and Management, David Lindenmayer, Andrew Bennett and Richard Hobbs (eds), CSIRO Publishing,Collingwood, pp. 271 - 282. [B2]
  2. Chudleigh, P., Pearson, S., Schofield, N., Simpson, S. (2010) 'Knowledge for managing Australian landscapes: Evaluating an applied research portfolio', Chapter submitted for ANU e-book titled Knowledge for Managing Australian Landscapes. [B2]
  3. Cork' S., Foran, B. Pearson, S. (2010) 'Powerful Possibilities'. Chapter submitted for ANU e-book titled Knowledge for Managing Australian Landscapes. [B2]

Conference Publications

  1. Pearson, S. & Gayler, L.  (2010) 'Looking elsewhere to avoid confirmation bias', PAGES Conference Melbourne 2010 (Poster)
  2. Chudleigh, Peter; Schofield,Nick; Pearson, S. (2010) 'Evaluating an applied research portfolio', Knowledge for Managing Australian Landscapes, Canberra 2010.
  3. Foran, Barney; Cork, Steve; Pearson, S., Fisher, Tim; Alexandra, Jason (2010) 'Futures thinking and ecosystem services', Knowledge for Managing Australian Landscapes, Canberra 2010.
  4. Pearson, S. & Cockerill, Alex (2010) 'What should we take from the past into the future?' AQUA Conference 2010.
  5. Pearson, S. (2010) 'Is there nothing citizen science cannot do?' Australian Association of Environmental Educators Conference 2010, Canberra.
  6. Hua, Q; Bowman, D; Pearson, S., Allen K.  (2008) 'Validation of tree-ring ages of recent Australian Callitrisby means of bomb radiocarbon'. Abstract submitted for the 11th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, 14-19 Sept. 2008, Rome, Italy.
  7. Gayler, L. & Pearson, S. (2007) The palaeoenvironments of the semi-Arid Paroo/Warrego Region, NW NSW and SW Qld, Australia ? A multi-proxy approach, INQUA Conference, Cairns.
  8. Pearson, S., Hartig, K., Webeck, K. & Allen, G. (2006)? 'Getting ready for desert knowledge: Learning in universities the knowledge economy and its place in the desert, Desert Knowledge Symposium, Alice Springs.