Rate My Professor Tiffany Morrison

Morrison’s research centers on the governance of complex environmental change, encompassing polycentric governance architectures, climate adaptation strategies in tropical coastal and reef systems, policy responses to warming ecosystems, and governance frameworks for novel ocean-based climate interventions such as chemically modified seawater and genetically modified coral. She leads the international Governing Changing Oceans program, funded by Australian Research Council Discovery grants and the US Science for Nature and People Partnership (2022-2025), and serves on the Australian Government’s Reef 2050 Expert Panel. In 2025, she was awarded the Australian Laureate Fellowship ($3,762,590) for her project Transforming environmental governance for novel ocean-based climate action, which develops decision tools, partnerships, and capacity-building to minimize social-ecological risks, support marine industries, enhance biodiversity conservation, and advance international climate commitments. Elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA) in 2022, she also contributes as an editorial board member for Global Environmental Change. Her highly influential publications include “Coral reefs in the Anthropocene” (Nature, 2017), “Building adaptive capacity to climate change in tropical coastal communities” (Nature Climate Change, 2018), “The black box of power in polycentric environmental governance” (Global Environmental Change, 2019), “Mitigation and adaptation in polycentric systems” (Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2017), and “Evolving polycentric governance of the Great Barrier Reef” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2017).