Dr Sam Reid

 BSC (Hons), PhD (Ecology)

Senior Ecologist

Sam is experienced in assessing the ecology of the ACT and NSW South Eastern Highlands Bioregion, and has done so working in both the public and private sectors. He has completed, contributed to, and managed many 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. He 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. While working as a Senior Ecologist Sam has produced a variety of reports, including Biodiversity Certification Assessment Reports (BCAR), Biodiversity Development Assessment Reports (BDAR), Biodiversity Stewardship Site Assessment Reports (BSSAR), Flora and Fauna Assessments (F&FA), Ecological Impact Assessments (EIA), Ecological Values and Constraints Assessments (EVCA), management plans, risk assessments, and reports on targeted surveys for threatened species and ecological communities.

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 several 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 10 scientific articles in internationally recognised journals, two theses, and two grant applications, and presented his work at both domestic and international conferences.