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About Sam
Professor Sam Banks is an Outstanding Professor in the Faculty of Science and Technology and Director of the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods at Charles Darwin University. He specializes in molecular ecology and conservation biology, having joined CDU in 2018 from the Australian National University in Canberra. Banks earned his PhD in Genetics from Monash University in 2005 and a BA/BSc with Honours from the same university in 1999. His research integrates genomics, field ecology, and computer simulation modeling to examine biodiversity responses to environmental change. Central themes include how fire regimes shape animal population dynamics and genetic diversity across landscapes, conservation genetics of declining mammals in northern Australia, and using genomic data to track movement patterns of saltwater crocodiles across northern Australia and South-East Asia. As a conservation biologist, Banks employs landscape genetics and DNA sequencing to study wildlife connectivity, population stability, and individual behavior in dynamic environments like the Top End.
Banks' team combines field-based approaches with laboratory genomics to generate insights into ecological processes, informing sustainable wildlife management. He has authored more than 100 scientific publications, with recent works including 'Genomics-Based Approaches to Ant Monitoring in Land Management: Validation of COI Metabarcoding Primers' (Environmental DNA, 2026), 'Spatial metrics in fire ecology: seeking consistency amidst complexity' (Biological Reviews, 2026), 'A reference genome for the eastern bettong (Bettongia gaimardi)' (F1000Research, 2025), and 'Declines in greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) geographic range and realised niche are best explained by the invasive red fox (Vulpes vulpes)' (Biological Conservation, 2025). He has served on the editorial boards of Heredity (2020-2023) and PLoS One (2014-2021), and leads ARC Linkage and Rainmaker-funded projects on biocultural fauna conservation, fire management, and Indigenous-led environmental science. Banks supervises higher degree by research students in molecular ecology and related fields, contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals such as climate action, life on land, and life below water.
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