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Associate Professor Zoe Richards is a scleractinian coral taxonomist in the School of Molecular and Life Sciences at Curtin University, where she serves as Associate Professor since 2023 and previously as Senior Research Fellow from 2016 to 2023. She leads the Coral Conservation and Research Group within the Trace and Environmental DNA Laboratory. Richards earned her PhD in Biological Sciences from James Cook University in 2010, with a thesis on the implications of rarity for Acropora conservation. Her career trajectory includes Marine Invertebrate Curator at the Western Australian Museum from 2019 to 2025, Research Associate at the same institution from 2025 onward, Research Scientist at the Western Australian Museum from 2012 to 2016, and Biodiversity Fellow at the Australian Museum from 2010 to 2012. Earlier, she joined Curtin University under a Research Fellowship to study resilient coral reefs in the Kimberley region.
Richards' research specializes in coral biodiversity, systematics, phylogenetics, population genetics, ecology, and conservation biology. Her work focuses on documenting, classifying, monitoring, and protecting coral reefs worldwide, from the Marshall Islands to the Andaman Islands, examining responses to disturbances like climate change, heat stress, and oxidative stress, as well as employing phylogenomics, eDNA, and total evidence approaches to resolve taxonomic issues and assess resilience. This multidisciplinary research has informed policies in threatened species management, World Heritage Area management, fisheries, and sedentary species conservation. Key publications include "Conservation: Corals in an Extinction Vortex" (Current Biology, 2024), "Links between climate histories and the rise and fall of a Pacific chiefdom" (PNAS Nexus, 2024), "Biodiversity and biogeography of zooxanthellate corals in Australasia revisited based on new data from the Kimberley" (Records of the Western Australian Museum, 2024), and "New precise dates for the ancient and sacred coral mortars from the Pacific" (Science Advances, 2015). She is a Churchill Fellow and was a finalist for the 2024 Premier's Science Awards STEM Educator of the Year – Tertiary. Richards is committed to science communication, public outreach, and advancing tertiary education in biological sciences, supervising PhD students and honours researchers in coral-related projects.
Curtin University researchers detect giant squid DNA using eDNA in Ningaloo deep canyons, revealing 226 species and new records. Explore the study implications for Australian marine science.
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