Rate My Professor Paul Rymer

Associate Professor Paul Rymer is a plant evolutionary ecologist serving as Associate Professor in Plant Ecological Genetics at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University. He earned his BSc (Honours) from the University of Western Sydney in 1999 and PhD in Biological Science from the University of Wollongong in 2006. His career includes postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford (2006-2007), a Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowship at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Imperial College London (2007-2009), and a position at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney (2009-2010). Since joining Western Sydney University in 2011 as a Research Lecturer, he has advanced to his current role, leading an active research group.

Rymer's interdisciplinary research integrates ecology, physiology, and genetics to investigate drivers of biodiversity and biological adaptations, including plant-animal interactions, mating patterns, hybridization, local adaptation, and responses to climate change. His studies span grasses to eucalypts and address applications such as urban forest resilience, eucalypt dieback, post-fire regreening, and restoration of grassy woodlands like the Cumberland Plain. He leads funded projects from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, including climate-adjusted provenancing for restoration, seeding native ground cover for drought resilience, and the Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan. Notable publications include 'Genomic determinants, architecture, and constraints in drought-related traits in Corymbia calophylla' (BMC Genomics, 2024, with Ahrens et al.), 'Adaptive plasticity in plant traits increases time to hydraulic failure under drought in a foundation tree' (Tree Physiology, 2022, with Challis et al.), 'Assessing climate risk to support urban forests in a changing climate' (Plants People Planet, 2022, with Esperon-Rodriguez et al.), and 'Signatures of natural selection in a foundation tree along Mediterranean climatic gradients' (Molecular Ecology, 2022, with Filipe et al.). His work supports UN Sustainable Development Goals on climate action and life on land, and he supervises PhD students while teaching courses like Principles of Evolution and Ecosystem Restoration.