Mark Westoby is a distinguished Australian evolutionary ecologist and emeritus professor at Macquarie University, renowned for his foundational contributions to trait-based ecology. Born on September 21, 1947 in London, England, he completed his BSc in Ecological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh in 1970 and earned his PhD in Wildlife Ecology from Utah State University in 1973. He began his long-standing academic career at Macquarie University in 1975 as a lecturer, progressing to personal chair in 1990, Laureate Fellow and Distinguished Professor in 2010, and ultimately Professor Emeritus in 2017. Throughout his career, Westoby has established himself as a transformative figure in ecological science, founding both the Macquarie Ecology Group and the Genes to Geoscience Research Centre.
Westoby pioneered the modern approach to ecological strategy schemes that organizes plant species along dimensions of measurable functional traits, fundamentally reshaping how ecologists understand plant diversity and adaptation. His research elucidated critical trade-offs governing plant strategy diversification, creating a framework that has become central to global ecology research. He led the international effort to compile large-scale trait databases, enabling quantitative analysis of plant strategies across the world's 300,000 species. Among his other seminal contributions, Westoby developed the widely adopted state-and-transition model for ecosystem management, which became mandatory for rangeland management throughout the United States. His theoretical work also includes the linear programming approach to diet optimization and the kin-conflict interpretation of angiosperm endosperm evolution.
As a mentor, Westoby has profoundly influenced the field through his training of numerous leading ecologists who now hold prominent positions at institutions worldwide, including Harvard, Macquarie University, and the University of Miami. Despite transitioning to emeritus status in 2017, he remains actively engaged in research, focusing on eco-evolutionary optimization models, trait ecology of seedlings and resprouts, and extending trait-based approaches to bacterial and archaeal communities. His frameworks continue to guide ecological research and management practices globally, with his state-and-transition model remaining a cornerstone of rangeland management. Westoby's legacy as a visionary integrator of ecological principles continues to shape the field's trajectory as researchers apply his trait-based approaches to address emerging environmental challenges.
