Rate My Professor Jonathan Tonkin

Jonathan Tonkin is a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury. He holds a PhD from Massey University awarded in 2014. His academic career includes postdoctoral positions at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Germany and at Oregon State University in the United States, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Canterbury. He was appointed Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury in 2019, promoted to Associate Professor in 2023, and currently serves as Professor. He has been a Rutherford Discovery Fellow since 2019 and is an investigator with Te Pūnaha Matatini and Bioprotection Aotearoa Centres of Research Excellence.

Tonkin’s research focuses on ecology with particular emphasis on freshwater ecosystems, biodiversity patterns in space and time, community responses to environmental change, and metacommunity dynamics. He applies theoretical, experimental, and data synthesis approaches to address questions relevant to biodiversity conservation and ecosystem resilience under climate change. His contributions have been recognised with the Prime Minister’s Te Puiaki Kaipūtaiao Maea MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize in 2022, the University of Canterbury Early and Emerging Career Researcher Award in 2020, and the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society Early Career Researcher Award in 2018. He serves on the editorial board of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.