People

Chief Investigator

Cynthia Riginos is an Associate Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland. She is an evolutionary geneticist with wide-ranging interests spanning population genomics, land & seascape genetics, molecular ecology, phylogeography, biogeography, speciation, hybridisation, invasive species, and conservation. Overall, her research seeks to understand how marine biodiversity is created, where that biodiversity has accumulated, and how this knowledge can be used preserve biodiversity and the processes that create it in a changing world. Cynthia is especially fond of reef fishes, molluscs, and corals but easily distracted by other taxa as well. She is an associate editor for Molecular Ecology, the Journal of Biogeography, and Frontiers in Biogeography and a founding member of the Diversity in the Indo-Pacific Network (DIPnet), a consortium seeking to promote open data exchange and collaboration among genetic research groups and students working in the Indo-Pacific region. Cynthia has been at UQ since 2006 and previously held an endowed postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Evolution & Comparative Genomics at Duke University. Her PhD (2000) and Master’s (1998) degrees are both from the University of Arizona in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

PhD students

Dean Blower 

Molecular ecology of sharks with emphasis on effective population size estimation and its applications in fisheries and conservation

Supervisors: Riginos & Ovenden
Email: dean.blower@uqconnect.edu.au

 

 

Carmen Da Silva 

Acclimation capacity of intertidal fish: anticipating tolerance to climate change

Supervisor: Wilson & Riginos
Email: carmen.dasilva@uq.net.au

 

Kimberley Dunbar 

Supervisors: Riginos & Pandolfi
Email: kimberley.dunbar@uq.net.au

 

 

 

Ambrocio (Din) Matias

Explaining genetic patterns across the Philippines

Supervisors: Riginos & Mumby
Email: ambrocio.matias@uqconnect.edu.au

 

 

Katharine Prata

Delineating hard coral population structure in relation to the seascape

Supervisors: Riginos & Bongaerts
Email: k.prata@uq.net.au

 

 

Iva Popovic

 Evolutionary genomics in a marine global invader

Supervisors: Riginos & Ortiz-Barrientos
Email: iva.popovic@uqconnect.edu.au

 

 

Sinan-Saleh Kassam

Characterizing the cryptic species complex in Australia using genotype, phenotype, and environment 

Supervisors: Riginos & Ortiz-Barrientos
Email: s.kassam@uq.net.au

 

 

Josh Thia 

Survival after arrival: the interplay between selection, dispersal, and connectivity in an intertidal fish

Supervisors: Riginos & McGuigan
Email: joshua.thia@uq.net.au

 

Honours

Jenny Evans

Supervisors: McGuigan & Riginos

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