Rate My Professor Cooper Schouten

Dr Cooper Schouten serves as a Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Southern Cross University, where he directs the Bee Research and Extension Lab and leads the Bees for Sustainable Livelihoods Research Group. He earned his Bachelor of Environmental Science (BEnvSc), Bachelor of Science (Honours) (BSc Hons), and PhD from Southern Cross University. His academic journey began in 2012, inspired by encounters with honey hunters in Timor-Leste during a New Colombo Plan scholarship, which highlighted dangerous traditional practices and ignited his focus on beekeeping for sustainable livelihoods and environmental protection. Schouten's research centers on strategic beekeeping industry development with an applied focus benefiting beekeeping businesses. Key interests include agribusiness, honey bee nutrition, biosecurity, varroa mite integrated pest management, queen bee breeding, post-harvest handling and marketing of bee products, and gender equity via participatory apiculture approaches. He possesses extensive international experience in beekeeping research, capacity building, training, and extension across the Indo-Pacific region, including Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Fiji. He oversees two Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) projects: LS-2014-042 and AGB/2022/113, targeting improved productivity, resilience, and profitability for smallholder beekeepers.