ProfessorErik Wapstra

Professor Wapstra is the Dean of Research, Sciences and Engineering and Professor of Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology in the Biological Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, at the University of Tasmania. The research portfolio of Sciences and Engineering includes the 8 academic Units of the Schools of Natural Sciences (Biological Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry), Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences, Engineering, Information and Communication Technology, Architecture and Design, the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, Tasmania Institute of Agriculture and the Australian Maritime College. Responsibility within the research portfolio includes supporting the Academic Units with research performance (excellence, engagement, impact, funding, research outputs), HDR recruitment, retention and success and Research and Researcher Development.

Professor Wapstra is also the Academic Lead for the UTAS Climate Transition, a key component of UTAS Strategic Refresh 2025. The Climate Transition recognises the University's Times Higher Education Impact rankings of number 1 in the world in Climate Action for three years in a row, 2022-2024, but more importantly, that our climate is in crisis. We urgently need to create a climate safe world — a world where we understand how and why our climate is changing and the impacts on our island home and beyond, where we act to arrest the change, and mitigate and become resilient to the harms we can’t stop. The transition will require policy, legal, and social change of considerable complexity. We are fortunate to have real experts across all these fronts, who can play an important and necessary role. Our objective is to make critical global contributions to understanding climate change, especially as it relates to the processes of the Southern Ocean and Antarctic and its impacts on our terrestrial systems, to see Tasmania be a world-leading jurisdiction in moving toward a truly zero emissions economy by 2040, and to have supported the creation of a resilient Tasmania so the impact of weather events is no greater in real terms than it was in the year 2000. 

Professor Wapstra's Disciplinary home is within Biological Sciences where he co-leads the Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology Group (or BEER Group) with Associate Professor Geoff While. Professor Wapstra has been in of Biological Sciences since 2004 after completing research fellowships at the Macquarie University, The University of Sydney and Gothenburg University in Sweden. He is a former ARC Future Fellow working at the interface of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Climate Change. He works mostly on reptile model systems including Tasmanian snow skinks (maternal effects, sex allocation, climate effects, distribution models), Egernia lizards (evolution of sociality and mating systems) and European sand lizards (sexual selection and climate effects).

Career summary
2022 - current, Dean Research, Sciences and Engineering and Professor Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology

2010-2022, ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor, Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology

2007-2010, Senior Lecturer, Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology

2004-2007, Lecturer, Behavioural Ecology

2003-2004. SESQUI Research Fellow, University of Sydney

2001-2003, Macquarie University Research Fellow

Qualifications
PhD Life history evolution in snow skinks University of Tasmania Australia 1998

Bachelor of Science (Hons), Zoology, UTAS