Rate My Professor Eve McDonald-Madden

Professor Eve McDonald-Madden is a Professor in the School of the Environment at the University of Queensland, within the Faculty of Science. She earned her PhD from the University of Queensland in 2009 and a Graduate Diploma in Mathematics while working for the Victorian Government on biodiversity research and management. Her career trajectory at UQ has advanced from postdoctoral positions to Senior Lecturer and now full Professor. McDonald-Madden holds an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship and previously served as an ARC Research Fellow. She is a Chief Investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions and the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Threatened Species Recovery Hub, as well as a founding member of the UQ Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science. In 2021, she was awarded the prestigious Fenner Medal by the Australian Academy of Science for her pioneering contributions to environmental decision science, particularly in value of information, climate action, and conservation decision-making. Additional honors include the L'Oréal Australia for Women in Science Fellowship in 2011 and the UQ Advancing Women Researchers Grant in 2015-2016.

McDonald-Madden's research focuses on enhancing environmental decision-making in complex systems by integrating decision theory with techniques from artificial intelligence, economic theory, and manufacturing sciences to manage uncertainty, social contexts, and ecological interactions. Her work addresses critical areas such as population management, invasive species control, ecosystem services valuation, conservation planning, and climate adaptation strategies. She leads the McDonald-Madden Lab at UQ, applying optimization, systems modeling, spatial prioritization, and value-of-information analysis to sustainability challenges. Notable publications include 'True conservation progress' (Science, 2009), 'Optimal timing for managed relocation of species faced with climate change' (Nature Climate Change, 2011), 'Using food-web theory to conserve ecosystems' (Nature Communications, 2016), 'Detecting failure of climate predictions' (Nature Climate Change, 2016), 'Reducing global land-use pressures with seaweed farming' (Nature Sustainability, 2023), and 'How to fuel an energy transition with ecologically responsible mining' (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2023). With over 120 peer-reviewed publications and highly cited works—such as 'Predicting species distributions for conservation decisions' (Ecology Letters, 2013; 2481 citations)—her contributions have significantly influenced global conservation practices and policy.