Libby Evans-Illidge has enjoyed a 40-year diverse marine science career blending the doing of science with its uptake, application and impact. Her current role leading the Indigenous Partnerships Program (IPP) at AIMS is her career highlight to date, because she gets to work with descendants of Australia’s original marine scientists and help transform AIMS’ relationships with First Nations people. She led the establishment of the IPP and is now guiding its further evolution to create more multi-disciplinary partnership projects that amplify traditional knowledge and Indigenous perspectives alongside AIMS science.
Libby's past research interests include chemical ecology particularly of marine sponges, bioprospecting, access and benefit sharing policy, and aquaculture. Her past roles include 11 years as Research Director of AIMS@JCU.
2025 Flipping the Tide – a First Nations vision for Indigenous leadership in sustainable ocean culture. Collaboration with 13 Indigenous scientists and senior knowledge holders to produce an invited scoping paper to inform the next National Marine Science Plan 2025-2035. (The Black Paper).
2019 – 2025 A framework for addressing biocultural risks and opportunities associated with the interventions being investigated in the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program. Collaboration with CSIRO and Traditional Owners of the GBR.
2018 Traditional Owner Aspirations – the next generation of Reef 2050 actions. Collaboration with JCU, RRRC, CSIRO, Cape York Institute, NAILSMA and Traditional Owners of the GBR.
1998 – 2000 Commonwealth Inquiry into access to biological resources in Commonwealth Areas. (Ministerial appointment to the reference group).
1994 – 2022 Marine Drug Discovery – partnership bioprospecting projects with Australian Medical Research and Development (AMRAD), the National Cancer Institute, and Griffith University.
1990 – 1994 The Torres Strait Baseline Study (of heavy metals in sediments, indicator organisms, artisanal foods and commercial seafood). Collaboration with GBRMPA, Department of Primary Industries (Qld), the Island Coordinating Council (Torres Strait) and Traditional Owners of Torres Strait.
11 years as Research Director of AIMS@JCU providing mentorship to PhD students enrolled through the program.
HDR Supervision:
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Blanche d’Anastasi. A natural history, taxonomic and population genetic study of Australia’s iconic Aipysurus sea snake fauna. PhD submitted 2025.
- Rayhan Dudayev. Integrating Traditional Knowledge in co-managed marine conservation: implications for distributional and procedural equity. PhD commenced 2025.
