David Roy Bellwood is an Australian marine biologist. Bellwood studies the ecology, biogeography and evolution of marine fishes, and in 2016 was elected to the Australian Academy of Science.

David Roy Bellwood
Bellwood with the skull of a dogtooth tuna, 2017
Born
Yorkshire, England
Alma materUniversity of Bath
Known forResearch on coral reef fish
AwardsK. Radway Allen Award[1]
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science[2]
Bleeker Award, IPFC, Tahiti 2017[3]
Jubilee Award, Australian Marine Sciences Association, 2018[3]
Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, 2019[4]
Scientific career
ThesisThe functional morphology, systematics and behavioural ecology of parrotfishes (family Scaridae) (1985)
Websitewww.thebellwoodreeffishlab.com

Early life

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Bellwood was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England.[1] He graduated from the University of Bath in 1980, with Honours, having studied the effects of cyanide as an anaesthetic for reef fishes.[1] He worked on North Sea inshore fishing trawlers and trained in taxonomy at the Natural History Museum in London, under zoologist Geoffrey Boxshall.[1]

Career

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Bellwood completed his PhD research at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, where he studied parrotfishes from 1981 to 1985.[1] He subsequently undertook a one-year postdoctoral position at Silliman University in the Philippines.[1] In 1988, Bellwood returned to James Cook University, first as a postdoctoral researcher with Howard Choat and then, in 1991, as a Lecturer.[1] In 2004, he was promoted to a Personal Professorial Research Chair in Marine Biology, and then to Distinguished Professor in 2015, becoming an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow in 2019.[4][1] Bellwood's research interests are wide-ranging, and his work spans the "systematics, evolution, biogeography, biology and ecology of reef fishes from both tropical and temperate seas."[1] Bellwood currently teaches ‘Reef fish evolution and ecology’ and ‘Marine biogeography’ at James Cook University. Since 1992, Bellwood has led the Reef Fish Research Lab at James Cook University.

Awards and honours

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In 2015, the Australian Society for Fish Biology awarded Bellwood its highest honour, the K. Radway Allen Award.[1] Bellwood was elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2016 .[2] He received the Bleeker Award in Ecology at the Indo-Pacific Fish Conference in Tahiti in 2017[3] and the Jubilee Award from the Australian Marine Sciences Association in 2018.[5] In 2019, he was awarded an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship.[4]

Selected publications

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Christopher J. Fulton (2015) "Prof. David Bellwood FAA" Australian Society for Fish Biology K. Radway Allen Award, official website. Accessed July 21, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Nathalie Fernbach & Paula Tapiolas (2016) "Townsville marine science researcher David Bellwood joins Australian Academy of Science" ABC News. Published May 23, 2016. Accessed July 21, 2019.
  3. ^ a b c "Bleeker Award". IPFC10. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  4. ^ a b c "2019 Laureate Profile: Professor David Bellwood". Australian Research Council. 25 June 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  5. ^ "Jubilee Award Recipients | Australian Marine Sciences Association". www.amsa.asn.au. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
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