IBRC Organising Committee

Prof Justin Welbergen (Chair)

Justin works as a professor at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (HIE) at Western Sydney University. He is the director of the HIE Lab of Animal Ecology, home to an international ensemble of students and postdocs who work on threatened bats and birds in various parts of the world. He also co-leads BATsLAB, a primary academic destination for bat research in Australia.

Outside of academia, Justin is the Immediate Past President (2016-2024) of the Australasian Bat Society, Australasia’s peak body promoting the conservation of all bats in the region; and founding member of the Pacific Bat Conservation Network (PacBat) that aims to facilitate effective, community-led bat conservation throughout Oceania. Earlier this century, Justin conducted his PhD (Cantab) on the social organisation of flying-foxes and has been fascinated with these weird and wonderful creatures ever since.

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Dr Nicola Hanrahan

Nicola is a postdoctoral researcher on the Macroderma Initiative at Charles Darwin University (Darwin, Australia) - a multi-partner project focused on addressing key knowledge gaps that currently hinder the conservation of the ghost bat (Macroderma gigas). She is also Chair of the Ghost Bat National Recovery Team, a former editor of the Australasian Bat Society newsletter, and a member of the Pacific Bat Conservation Network Consortium.

Originally from Ireland, Nicola has lived in Australia for 15 years. She is an alumnus of University College Dublin (Teeling Lab) and a visiting fellow at Western Sydney University (The Lab of Animal Ecology and BATsLAB). Her research interests include acoustic communication, population genomics, and conservation ecology.

Dr Lindy Lumsden

Lindy is a Principal Research Scientist with the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, the Victorian government’s biodiversity research institute, where she has been conducting ecological research on insectivorous bats for over 40 years. She is currently leading a large program of research investigating the impacts of renewable energy on bats in Victoria. Lindy is the chair of the Southern Bent-wing Bat (Miniopterus orianae bassanii) National Recovery Team, and cosupervises a large number of post-graduate students undertaking fantastic research on bats.

Lindy has been on the executive of the Australasian Bat Society for more years than she can remember, and has been involved in organising the ABS biennial conferences since 1996.

Dr Leroy Gonsalves

Leroy is a Research Scientist in the Forest Science Unit of the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. He has over 15 years of experience in wildlife ecology. His research focuses on the responses of bats and other wildlife to forest management and disturbance, in particular thinning and fire. Leroy has an active role co-supervising postgraduate students investigating a range of ecological topics.

Leroy has served on the Executive of the Australasian Bat Society since 2020 and is the current President. Leroy is also a member of the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee.

Dr Joanna Haddock

Joanna became the treasurer for the Australasian Bat Society in 2020, and has a passion for Australian bats. She has degrees in Psychology and Environmental Science, and finished her PhD in 2019, investigating the impacts of urban street lighting on insectivorous bats. Joanna now uses her psychology and her love of bats in the world of citizen science, leading the wildly successful ‘Bats in Backyards’ initiative of the New South Wales Government in Australia.

Joanna is a Senior Threatened Species Officer in the New South Wales Government, and frequently travels to far-flung parts of New South Wales in search of critically endangered species. Her research interests include bat ecology, science engagement, and private land conservation.

Dr Dave Waldien

Dave is a conservation biologist and Associate Graduate Professor with Christopher Newport University and has been leading collaborative bat conservation initiatives around the world since 2005.

He is the Red List Authority for Old World Bats and is an active member of the Global Union for Bat Diversity Networks where he is co-leading a collaborative approach to assess the world’s bats as trigger species for Key Biodiversity Areas.

Dr Malik Oedin

Malik is an ecologist from New Caledonia, co-founder of the Pacific Bat Conservation Network (PacBat) and a member of the Australasian Bat Society. He has been involved in bat research and conservation for over ten years, with a particular focus on flying foxes of the genus Pteropus. As President of the Gardiens Des Iles NGO, he works to protect Pacific island biodiversity with communities by integrating scientific and traditional knowledge.

Malik publishes reference works on the conservation of hunted bats species in a context of increasing pressure from hunting, poaching, invasive species, climate change and socio-economic crises. He also works on the impact of cats on bats and other biodiversity. Malik is now developing collaborative projects throughout the Pacific region in collaboration with Australia, France and other countries around the world. He is helping to train the next generation of young local conservation leaders in the Pacific, working with local communities on the ground, and campaigning for greater recognition of biocultural approaches in conservation policies.

Ariana Ananda

Ari is an ecologist and long-time bat enthusiast with over 12 years of experience in bat research and conservation. On the IBRC organising committee, she coordinates field trips, merchandise, and the fundraising auction. Most recently, she worked with Australian Wildlife Conservancy on field-based conservation projects involving small mammals.

Ari is a working group leader within GBatNet’s “Prioritizing Key Habitats and Species” initiative, a member of the Australasian Bat Society (ABS) and the Pacific Bat Conservation Network, and a former communications volunteer with Bats without Borders and the ABS social media team. Her bat fieldwork spans Latin America, the United States, and much of Australia — including remote regions such as Christmas Island.

Originally from California, Ari has called Sydney home for over seven years and is an alum of the University of California, San Diego, where she created her own major in wildlife conservation and photography.

Maree Treadwell

Maree Treadwell is a biologist with a Masters degree in Wildlife Management. She has been educating communities about bats for over 30 years and co-convenes the Australasian Bat Society’s Flying-fox Expert Group. Maree coordinates the Australasian Bat Night program, an annual program comprising a series of local community events designed to raise awareness of bats. Maree is president of Bats and Trees Society of Cairns in Far North Queensland and coordinates the Spectacled Flying-fox Recovery Team.

Maree has a particular interest in Bat tourism and is vice-chair of Wildlife Tourism Australia and a state representative for Interpretation Australia. She is passionate about the role that nature tourism, interpretation and citizen science can play in conservation of bats and resolution of wildlife-human conflict.