Biography

I’m a biophile. Over my career I’ve worked at many different levels of biological organisation, from proteins, through cells, up to anatomical scales, to whole organisms, ecosystems, and finally regional and continental scales: protein strucure, cellular signalling, photosynthetic biochemistry, plant cell proteomics, molecular neurophysiology and neuropharmacology, neuroanatomy, photosynthetic physiology, functional biology and functional diversity in plant communities, threatened species conservation, and the functional biogeography of plants at broad scales.

The common themes I’m interested in across these diverse areas of study are the awe-inspiring complexity and diversity of biological forms, how they self-organise, and the repetition of common motifs at every level of organisation.

I’m also a data geek. The amount of biological data produced in the last 20 years is staggering, and when I’m not in the bush I’m usually in front of the command line working data into knowledge. I teach data science and R to students and academics, and am a lead organiser of the Macquarie University R Users Group.

At present I’m a postdoc in Professor Michelle Leishman’s Plant Invasion and Restoration Lab at Macquarie University, Sydney. In this position I’m working on an R Shiny app, intially developed by my colleague Daisy Duursma, as a decision support tool for the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage’s Saving our Species programme. This tool aids users in selecting sites at which to fund conservation programmes for threatened species.

• james.lawson@mq.edu.au
• Building E8B Room 322, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia