Dr Sam Reid

 BSC (Hons), PhD (Ecology)

Senior Ecologist

Sam is experienced in assessing the ecology of the ACT and Southern Tablelands of NSW, and has done so in both the public and private sector. He has completed, contributed to, and managed numerous ecological assessment projects during his career.

Sam has undertaken surveys and monitoring on a wide variety of animals, including threatened species such as the Grassland Earless Dragon, Striped Legless Lizard, Pink-Tailed Worm-Lizard, and Golden Sun Moth. Sam has experience trapping and handling native animals, including reptiles, bettongs, quolls, and kangaroos. He has performed full scale wildlife camera surveys and radio-tracking programs. Sam is proficient in Plant Community Type and Vegetation Zone mapping of temperate vegetation communities, and has excellent native plant and exotic weed identification skills and management knowledge. He has performed numerous flora surveys, including determining Floristic Value Scores, and is skilled in data analysis, presentation, and GIS programs.

Before beginning his career as a consulting ecologist, Sam worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Genomic Research in Spain, one of the leading research institutes in Europe, where he investigated the neurobiology of olfaction in fruit fly larvae. Sam was responsible for a number of projects, including leading his group’s efforts in the Larval Olympiad, a large international collaboration run by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This work took Sam to the USA for one year, where he gained invaluable skills in project management, stakeholder engagement, and high-throughput data analysis. During his PhD, Sam studied the ecology, navigational abilities and visual system of a night active bull ant. During this period, Sam developed the ability to independently plan, perform, analyse, and present, ecological studies to a wide variety of audiences.

During his research career, Sam published eight scientific articles in internationally recognised journals, two theses, and two grant applications, and presented his work at both domestic and international conferences. While working in the public sector, Sam produced a variety of reports, including technical updates, market access submissions, risk assessments, and stakeholder impact assessments.