The Office of the Supervising Scientist (OSS) has a number of scientists who are considered leaders in their fields. The expertise represented across OSS includes aquatic ecology, environmental monitoring, ecotoxicology, remote sensing, landscape ecology, ecosystem restoration, geomorphology and environmental radiation. This breadth of experience ensures the advice provided by OSS is based upon leading practice and scientific evidence.
Mr Keith Tayler is the Supervising Scientist and Assistant Secretary Supervising Scientist Branch.
Keith commenced with the Department in March 2008, and has held the position of Supervising Scientist since 2016. Previously he has worked with Cameco Australia, the Northern Territory Government and the military.
Keith has a background in mining regulation and has been involved in the regulation of uranium mining since 2004. He holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science and a Master of Tropical Environmental Management. Keith held Lead Auditor certification for over a decade, and was an accredited radiation safety officer in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. Keith maintains an ongoing engagement with several international organisations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency.
Contact: keith.tayler@dcceew.gov.au
Dr Che Doering - BSc, MSc, PhD is the Director of the Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist (ERISS), having previously led the ERISS Radiation team.
He has a background in radioecology and radiation protection. The focus of his research has been on uranium mining in the Alligator Rivers Region. His recent research includes assessing potential radiation exposures to the public and the environment from the planned rehabilitation of the Ranger uranium mine.
Che has a longstanding involvement in scientific programs coordinated by the International Atomic Energy Agency aimed at developing and enhancing world best practice methods for radiation exposure assessments. He was also involved in the development and drafting of the national Guide for Radiation Protection of the Environment.
Che’s areas of expertise and research interests include:
- radiation dose modelling
- radiation protection of the environment
- radiation protection standards
Contact: che.doering@dcceew.gov.au
John commenced with the Department and the Office of the Supervising Scientist in November 2013. He heads up the Supervision and Assessment team, who are responsible for the Office’s compliance, assessment and regulatory oversight functions.
John holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons 1st) and has a background in mining chemistry, having worked at mining and processing operations in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Africa. This mining experience is complimented with over 20 years of environmental and safety regulatory experience in various roles with the Northern Territory and Australian Governments.
John has held both lead environmental and OHS auditor qualifications and is a certified workplace trainer and assessor. John maintains an ongoing professional interest in integrated risk management and is passionate about the protection of Kakadu.
Contact: john.miller@dcceew.gov.au
Mr David Jan joined the Department as the Director Science Facilitation in January 2023. David has 12 years’ experience in:
- local government working in operations
- assets and financial management
- policy development and public governance.
Much of this experience was for remote Indigenous communities.
Before this, David worked in the natural resource management (NRM) industry with Greening Australia and a regional NRM group in Southwest Australia.
David holds a Bachelor of Science (Environmental Science and GIS/Remote Sensing), Graduate Diploma in Business and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Contact: david.jan@dcceew.gov.au
Dr Chris Humphrey - BSc (Hons), PhD is Principal Scientist with ERISS. He assists the ERISS Director in wide-ranging and high-level support and review of the Institute’s research program and research outputs. A particular focus of his research has been the development, implementation and refinement of environmental monitoring programs used to assess potential human impacts (including mining) upon freshwater ecosystems.
Chris has been involved in national and international river health and remediation programs. He has represented the Department on many scientific committees associated with related programs. He has also authored and played a key technical coordination role in the previous and ongoing revisions of the Australian & New Zealand Water Quality Guidelines. Recent mine-related research focuses on rehabilitation of Ranger, including the development of post-mining closure criteria for freshwater ecosystems.
Chris's areas of expertise and research interests include:
- tropical freshwater ecology
- developing techniques river health monitoring and assessment
- experimental design and analysis for river health assessments
- restoration of savanna ecosystems
- developing environmental standards (including water quality guidelines).
Contact: chris.humphrey@dcceew.gov.au
Andrew Esparon - BSc, BEng is the technical database manager for scientific data collected by the Supervising Scientist Branch. He has a background in mathematical data processing, computer programing, and remote sensing. He also contributes to environmental research activities that need image processing, hyperspectral analysis, or custom computer programming.
In 2006, Andrew worked in the Environmental Radioactivity program for three years. He then moved to the Ecosystem Restoration and Landform group.
Andrew's areas of expertise and research interests include:
- remote sensing
- spatial data statistical analysis
- image processing
- hyperspectral analysis
- and gamma ray spectrometry.
Contact: andrew.esparon@dcceew.gov.au
Dr Andrew Harford - BAppSc (Hons), PhD is a Principal Research Scientist and the Team Leader of the Water and Sediment Quality (WASQ) team.
The WASQ team run an integrated creek monitoring program to predict and measure the potential impacts from mine-water discharges from the Ranger Uranium Mine. This program involves the derivation of water/sediment quality standards using:
- laboratory toxicity tests
- the real-time measurement of water quality
- the use of biomonitoring to ensure the local First Nation communities that the environment remains healthy.
The WASQ team also develops new toxicity tests and leading-edge tools for biomonitoring, such as:
- genomics and eDNA
- videography and AI/ML-driven image analysis.
Andrew has also managed the ecological risk assessment program, which brings together all the knowledge acquired for the Ranger mine. This knowledge is used to assess the risks of individual stressors, their cumulative risks and identify Key Knowledge Needs. He has also provided his expertise to collaborative projects to help extend the capacity of ecotoxicology and ecological risk assessment for other mines and for tropical marine environments.
Andrew's areas of expertise and research interests include:
- aquatic ecotoxicology (including freshwater and marine)
- biomonitoring and field-based toxicity assessments
- sediment ecotoxicology
- ecogenomics
- environmental statistics
- ecological risk assessment
- Weight of Evidence approaches using Multiple Lines of Evidence.
Contact: andrew.harford@dcceew.gov.au
Mr John Lowry - BSc (Hons) is an environmental scientist and landform modeler with the ERISS Ecosystem Restoration and Landform program.
He has been involved in a range of projects, focusing initially on the development of wetland inventory techniques for northern Australia and south-east Asia through the development and application of remote sensing technologies.
In collaboration with national and international research partners, his current research focus is on leading the development and application of cutting-edge tools. These tools are used to assess the geomorphic stability of post-mining rehabilitated landforms in northern Australia.
This includes the use of remote sensing technologies to monitor erosion, and the application of landform evolution models to assess the impact of extreme climatic events on mine-impacted environments.
John's areas of expertise and research interests include:
- landform modelling
- spatial analysis
- tropical wetlands
- soil erosion
- geomorphology
- climate impacts.
Contact: john.lowry@dcceew.gov.au
Dr Tom Mooney - BSc (Hons), PhD is a Research Scientist in the Water and Sediment Quality (WASQ) Team, specialising in aquatic ecology and ecotoxicology.
The WASQ team operates an integrated chemical, physical and biological long-term monitoring program to predict and measure the potential impacts from mine-water discharges on the environment.
A key component of his work includes the assessment of mining related contaminants on biological communities. The team are researching the use of leading-edge tools, such as:
- genomics
- videography
- machine learning for biological assessments and monitoring.
Tom's areas of expertise and research interests include:
- aquatic ecology and ecotoxicology
- genomics
- metabarcoding
- biological monitoring
- terrestrial ecotoxicology
- environmental statistics.
Contact: tom.mooney@dcceew.gov.au
Anja Moritz-Zimmermann is the Assistant Director of the Supervision and Assessment team at the Office of the Supervising Scientist.
She has a Master of Science degree, and over 25 years of professional experience in:
- environmental impact assessment
- mine rehabilitation
- ecological restoration
- compliance
- contaminated site remediation
- environmental monitoring and ecology.
She has worked at the Northern Territory (NT) Environmental Protection Authority, the NT Government, Energy Resources Australia and environmental consultant companies.
Contact: anja.moritz-zimmermann@dcceew.gov.au
Dr Joshua Koh - Bsc (Hons), MBTech, PhD leads the ERISS Drone Operation and Technology Solutions team.
Prior to joining ERISS, he was the Chief Remote Pilot for Agriculture Victoria, providing oversight to drone operations across regional research centres in Victoria.
Initially trained as a plant biologist and geneticist, Joshua found his new calling in artificial intelligence research and remote sensing using drones through his involvement in multiple AgTech commercialisation projects.
He pioneered the use of automated machine learning in high-throughput image-based plant phenotyping. He is one of the lead inventors in two Australian-International patents for novel remote sensing solutions. He is passionate in applying artificial intelligence in tandem with satellite and drone platforms for mine-site rehabilitation and environmental monitoring.
Joshua's areas of expertise and research interests include:
- artificial intelligence
- automated machine learning
- satellite and drone-based remote sensing
- vegetation and landscape mapping
- phenomics
- plant genetics
- molecular biology.
Contact: josh.koh@dcceew.gov.au
Dr Ceiwen Pease - BSc, PhD is the Laboratory Manager for the ERISS Water and Sediment Quality team with a focus on ecotoxicology.
A key component of her work involves undertaking toxicity tests using a suite of six local tropical species to derive water quality guidelines. She is also responsible for developing and refining tropical toxicity test methods to ensure that the data coming out of the ecotoxicology laboratory is of a high quality.
Ceiwen’s previous experience was looking at the toxicity of diet-borne copper to herbivorous crustaceans in Sydney Harbour and how copper toxicity interacts with temperature.
Ceiwen’s areas of expertise and research interests include:
- aquatic ecotoxicology (marine and freshwater)
- effects of other stressors on organisms (e.g. changes in temperature and pH) and their interaction with chemical stressors
- mechanisms of tolerance/acclimation of organisms exposed to chemical stressors
- environmental statistics.
Contact: ceiwen.pease@dcceew.gov.au
Dr Kirrilly Pfitzner - BEd, BSc (Hons), PhD is a research scientist with the Drone Operations and Technology Solutions (DOTS) program. She specialises in remote sensing.
She has a background in environmental science, particularly earth sciences, biology and geography. She is experienced in hyperspectral analysis as well as optical and gamma ray spectrometry data for characterisation of mine sites and other ecological environments.
Kirrilly has developed spectral libraries (both laboratory and in situ measurements) for local vegetation, soil and mineral spectra, including magnesium sulfate efflorescence. Kirrilly works on a part time basis.
Kirrilly’s areas of expertise and research interests include:
- remote sensing
- hyperspectral
- airborne gamma
- spectra of minerals
- vegetation mapping
- spectrometry
- geology
- mine rehabilitation assessment and monitoring.
Contact: kirrilly.pfitzner@dcceew.gov.au
Jenni Risler - BSc, MSc is an environmental scientist with the Ecosystem Restoration and Landform (ERL) team. She specialises in fauna, botanic and ecological advice.
Jenni’s knowledge and experience is gained from over 30 years of field survey across north Australian savannas. She is leading fauna trapping and full floristic data inventories to accurately document the flora and fauna of natural ecosystems.
With an environmental protection and assessment background, Jenni is now applying her knowledge to the ecosystem restoration of the Ranger mine.
The ERL team works collaboratively with stakeholders to conduct, support and implement environmental research and monitoring programs that inform the successful rehabilitation of the Ranger mine.
Jenni's areas of expertise and research interests include:
- terrestrial ecology
- fauna and botanical survey
- Herbarium and Museum identification of native and introduced flora and fauna
- monitoring design
- environmental assessment
- specialist presentations and education.
Contact: jenni.risler@dcceew.com.au
Dr Mike Saynor - BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD is an environmental scientist with the ERISS Ecosystem Restoration and Landform program.
He has considerable field experience and has been responsible for managing the program’s field and laboratory program. He is currently managing research associated with a trial landform that has been constructed at the Ranger mine.
Recently he has obtained his Remote Pilot License (RePL) with heavy lift endorsement to fly Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) up to 25 kilograms.
He is a keen photographer and his photographs are used for many aspects of his research. He has also had experience working in coastal and wetland areas of Kakadu National Park, bedrock gorges of NSW and farming lands throughout southeastern Australia.
Mike's areas of expertise and research interests include:
- stream channel stability
- sediment transport
- hydrology
- river rehabilitation
- extreme flood events
- soil erosion and gully erosion.
Contact: mike.saynor@dcceew.gov.au
Dr Melanie Trenfield - BSc (Hons), PhD is a Research Scientist with the Water and Sediment Quality (WASQ) team.
The WASQ team uses an integrated creek monitoring program to predict and measure the potential impacts from mine-water discharges. This involves the use of field-based biomonitoring tools to assess the impacts of mine-water discharges from the Ranger mine and the derivation of water/sediment quality standards using laboratory toxicity tests and field-based observations. The latter includes continuous monitoring of water chemistry for upstream and downstream sites, which uses in-situ sondes and autosamplers, complimented by routine grab-sampling.
The WASQ team also develops new standardised biological toxicity tests and leading-edge tools for biomonitoring, such as genomics and videography.
In addition to her experience with freshwater systems, Melanie has also worked in collaboration with Charles Darwin University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science to study contaminants of concern for an alumina refinery in a tropical marine environment.
Melanie's areas of expertise and research interests include:
- aquatic ecotoxicology and aquaculture (freshwater and marine)
- monitoring and assessment of metal toxicity and bioavailability
- development of standardized toxicity testing protocols
- site-specific water quality guideline values.
Contact: melanie.trenfield@dcceew.gov.au
Dr Tim Whiteside - BA, DipEd, MNatResMgt, PhD is a remote sensing scientist within the ERISS Drone Operations and Technology Solutions (DOTS) team.
Tim’s main research expertise is in developing methods for capturing, processing and analysing high spatial resolution remotely sensed data. This data is used to characterise vegetation within tropical landscapes, including savanna and wetlands. Methods include the extraction of individual tree structural information, fractional cover estimation, community mapping and species identification.
Tim’s current research focus is the use of drones or remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) for mapping and monitoring of mine site rehabilitation including revegetation success. This has involved building and integrating sensors onto drones, collecting ultra-high resolution remote sensing data using multispectral, hyperspectral and LiDAR sensors, and developing workflows to process and analyse the data.
Tim is a CASA certified Remote Pilot and is experienced with many fixed wing and multi-rotor platforms. Tim is a member of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society and the Remote Sensing and Photography Society.
Tim's areas of expertise and research interests include:
- geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA)
- individual tree crown extraction and analysis
- vegetation cover mapping
- drone data acquisition
- processing and analysis
- linking field-based measurements to remotely sensed data
- the application of remotely operated and telemetric in-situ sensors for environmental monitoring
- drone sensor integration.
Contact: tim.whiteside@dcceew.gov.au