Robert Godfree is an Senior Research Scientist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). His current research focuses on measuring and predicting the impact of drought and heatwaves on biodiversity of natural and agricultural ecosystems and on developing new strategies for monitoring environmental change and health. His broader scientific portfolio includes both theoretical and applied approaches to biogeography, environmental change, fire ecology, evolutionary biology, restoration, invasive species, seed bank dynamics, soil fertility and water, plant physiology, polyploidy, competition and population dynamics. He has worked in forest, woodland, grassland, wetland, floodplain and arid ecosystems across Australia and in the USA.
Recently, he published a book Drought Country which provides a deep dive into the history of drought in Australia over the past three centuries. The book focuses on how recurring cycles of drought have impacted the environmental and cultural landscape of Australia, beginning in the pre-European era and ending in the 2019-2020 “Black Summer’. You can find it here: Drought Country