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Associate Professor

Quinn Fitzgibbon

Deputy Associate Dean Research (HDR)/Associate Professor

Sustainable Marine Research Collaboration

Orcid identifier0000-0002-1104-3052
  • Deputy Associate Dean Research (HDR)/Associate Professor
    Sustainable Marine Research Collaboration
  • Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Sustainable Marine Research Collaboration, IMAS Taroona, Off-Campus

BIO

The overarching theme of Associate Professor Fitzgibbon’s academic career has been the physiology of aquatic organisms and how this impacts animal performance in aquaculture and in response to environmental and anthropogenic stressors. He has particular interests in the impacts of environmental or culture parameters on the metabolic physiology of crustaceans and his expertise extends across several physiological systems including respiratory, biochemical, nutritional, endocrine, molecular, behavioural and disease/stress physiology. Most of his recent research has focused on rock lobsters where he has become an authority on the physiology and culture of lobsters. His research is largely industry-focused to develop new closed-cycle lobster aquaculture or address key lobster fishery and aquaculture industry concerns. His rock lobster expertise includes larval rearing/aquaculture, post-harvest maintenance, energy and nutrient requirements, molecular control of development and the impacts of environmental stressors (environmental change, seismic testing, paralytic shellfish toxins, disease). Much of his earlier research experience focused on endocrinology and metabolic physiology of fishes including his Ph.D. studies on the aquaculture applied eco-physiology of bluefin tuna. He continues to be active in eco-physiology research of aquatic organisms including crustaceans, teleosts, cephalopods, bivalves, and zooplankton principally in response to climate change and other anthropogenic stressors.

Associate Professor Fitzgibbon has published over 90 peer review manuscripts in a broad range of leading multi-disciplinary and biological journals with an overall mean impact factor of 4.73, well above my disciplinary median IF for Fisheries (2.28, JCR). He has secured more than $22M in seventeen Category 1 competitive research funding including two ARC Industrial Transformation Hub projects (as Deputy Director), seven FRDC projects and an ARC Discovery project. He has also secured more than $10 M industry funding and have completed >60 commercial-in-confidential research reports and are a named inventor on three patents (one fully filed and two provisional).

Associate Professor Fitzgibbon has demonstrated a strong trajectory in university research leadership particularly related to the Higher Degree Research (HDR, PhD & MRes) program within IMAS and the College of Sciences and Engineering. Associate Professor Fitzgibbon has been a long serving Graduate Research Coordinator (GRC, 2015-present) as well as previously maintaining IMAS leadership positions including, GRC representative IMAS Research Committee (2016-2021), IMAS lead GRC (2018- 2021), and IMAS Deputy Associate Head Research (DAHR, 2019-2021). Associate Professor Fitzgibbon is now the Deputy Associate Dean Research (DADR, 2021-present) for the College of Sciences and Engineering (CoSE) with the portfolio of the HDR program. In this significant leadership role, Associate Professor Fitzgibbon has leadership oversight of more than 650 PhD and Masters by Research candidates within CoSE which represents approximately 50% of HDR candidates within the University of Tasmania.

Biography
Associate Professor Fitzgibbon completed his Batchelor of Applied Science (with First Class Honours) degree at the School of Aquaculture, University of Tasmania and was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Adelaide in 2007. He joined IMAS as a post-doctoral research fellow within the lobster aquaculture group in 2007 and was subsequently promoted to Research Fellow (2011), Senior Research Fellow (2016) and Associate Professor (2020). He now has the roles of Deputy director on an ARC Industrial Transformation Hub project on lobster aquaculture and Principal Investigator of an FRDC project examining post-harvest survival of live held Southern Rock Lobster.

Qualifications
PhD Metabolic physiology of the southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) and mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus) University of Adelaide Australia Dec 2007
BAppSc (1st Class Hons) The effects of stress hormones on the in-vitro secretion and metabolism of reproductive steroids by rainbow trout ovarian follicles University of Tasmania Australia Dec 1999

SCHOOL AND PORTFOLIO

  • Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

FIELD OF RESEARCH