DrZoe Xirocostas

I am a Chancellor’s Research Fellow within the Environmental Sciences Discipline Group at the University of Technology Sydney, where I lead the Adaptive Ecology Lab. My students and I use field, glasshouse, and computational approaches to understand the effects of global change drivers (including urbanisation, biological invasion and climate change) on the survival, reproduction, movement and adaptive capacity of plants (and sometimes animals - usually invertebrates!) into the future. I completed my PhD in late 2022 at UNSW Sydney where I also held a short postdoctoral position afterwards. There, I studied different mechanisms that facilitate invasion in plants and how alpine plants are responding to heatwaves. 

I have broad research interests across ecology and evolutionary biology and have been involved in multiple collaborations investigating functional traits across ecosystems, plant-animal interactions in response to global change drivers, adaptation in urban environments, and more! I enjoy working across different systems to answer new and exciting questions that will have a meaningful impact on both the scientific community and our precious Earth. The quality of my research has been evidenced by numerous institutional, national and international awards and successful grants both in Australia and overseas.

I am an avid science communicator and advocate for women in STEM. Most notably I have presented my research to sold-out shows in Sydney Comedy Festival, alongside presenting at Future Science Talks and Pint of Science. I serve on the boards of the Ecological Society of Australia and the Sydney Society for Conservation Biology (former President) and have an unwavering enthusiasm for teaching/supervising (internships, honours, or PhDs) and welcome enquiries from prospective students.