Kit Magellan

My name is Kit Magellan and I am the only Research Professor at the University of Battambang in Cambodia (and probably the only one in Cambodia). I obtained my PhD at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, followed by academic positions at Rhodes University (South Africa), the University of Girona (Spain) and The University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong SAR). My publications can be found at: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Kit+Magellan&oq=k

I have been studying aquatic ecology for 18 years and invasion ecology for 10 years. While my main model species are fish, in particular the ubiquitous mosquitofish, I am fascinated by all ecology and especially the interactions between invasive and native species. My tenure as an Associate Editor and then Editor in Chief of the international peer reviewed journal, Aquatic Invasions (https://www.reabic.net/journals/ai/About.aspx), together with my global research experience, has provided a solid grounding and wide knowledge base for aquatic invasions.

OK, all of the above sounds great, but it’s a bit dry hey. Why am I here and why do I want to do this project? I am passionate about science and I believe everyone has a right to education. I also strongly believe that the scientific world lacks diversity and may overlook important research because of where it is done. I came to Cambodia to promote science and to try to address this bias. This project is an unexpected step towards this goal. This is classic science – observation of a phenomenon, research to get background and formulate hypotheses, then collection and analysis of data to test those hypotheses. I am enjoying the thrill of discovery and I want to bring this same thrill to people here and to demonstrate that good ecological research can come from a developing country. Overall, this will be challenging, but the biggest challenges bring the greatest rewards!

Amaël Borzée

I am a professor at Nanjing Forestry University, and my principal research interest is behavioural ecology and wildlife conservation. My scientific education started in western Europe and I obtained a PhD from Korea, before doing a post-doc at Ewha W. University in Seoul and then moving to China to start my lab. You can find my scientific profile here.

My original focus is on understanding the reasons behind the amphibian decline, the links with their behavioural ecology, and how plan conservation plans through research. I am now however shifting towards the breeding behaviour and conservation of species in East Asia. My primary experience was with treefrogs in Korea, but I now wish to address broader questions aimed at the conservation of multi-species populations over large landscapes, including multiple types of approaches and analytical tools.

My past research experience, education and other academic activities such as conference attended an grant accessed can be found here. I routinely use citizen science for my research, and I was able to determine the range of several species and the impact of climate change on their range based on data collected through citizen science platforms such as iNaturalist. My experience with invasive species is generally linked to amphibians as well, and especially American bullfrogs and the diseases they carry; but also to the impact of invasive slugs feeding on amphibian eggs when parents guarding the eggs don't recognise the invasive slugs as threats.

In addition I am also a secretariat member of the IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, the communication officer for the International Herpetological Committee, and a board member and chapter liaison for the Society for Conservation Biology, Asia section.