Jessica Melbourne-Thomas

““The national finalists are an extraordinary group of people whose impact ranges from medical and scientific endeavours to volunteering, human rights advocacy, education, sustainability action and more,””

““We have this traditional model where scientists go off and do their work, write a paper and publish it in a journal and hope that somebody who needs it picks it up and is able to make some kind of decision based on the information. But it doesn’t work anymore because so many of the problems we have now are very urgent, and we need more efficient ways to connect science to policy.””

““I’ve come from being interested in understanding the fundamentals of ecology to thinking more about how humans interact with ecosystems and how we can better connect knowledge to decision making,””

““Those forests are now effectively gone because of climate change. It makes me sad when I think my kids won’t have that same experience and get to see those environments the way I did.””

““The magical experience of diving in a kelp forest is like flying through a jungle surrounded by an amazing diversity of life,””

““These awards reflect the times, and nowadays hopefully recognise how important science has been, and continues to be, not only in understanding what’s changing but also how we can respond to those changes,””

“"The magnitude and rate of climate change together with associated risks, depends strongly on the near-term mitigation and adaptation actions."”

“Human activities are the highest contributors to climate change.”