Mark Burgman is a Professor in the School of Botany at The University of Melbourne where he works on ecological modelling and risk assessment. He has applied new approaches to uncertainty in conservation biology to improve decision-making. He has modelled species and ecological systems in marine fisheries, forestry, mining and irrigation. He worked as a consultant ecologist and scientist in Australia, the United States and Switzerland before joining the University in 1990. He has published six books and over 120 research papers. He received a BSc (Hons) from the University of New South Wales in 1977, an MSc from Macquarie University in 1981, and a PhD from the State University of New York in 1987. He teaches environmental risk analysis, conservation biology and ecology. In 2006, he took up the role of the Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Risk Analysis, based at The University of Melbourne.

The role of science in conservation debates
by Professor Mark Burgman

Debates around conservation of species and ecosystems invariably involve competing demands and different values. Data are scarce, understanding is incomplete and decisions are imminent. Scientists often deny their own susceptibility to subjectivity. Science has a crucial role to play in these debates, but it has the potential to mislead, if experts fail to heed the warnings of psychologists, mathematicians and philosophers about how science should be engaged.

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