Ceridwen I. Fraser

Ceridwen Fraser is a biogeographer, currently serving as a Professor in the Department of Marine Science at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. She focuses her studies on ecology, evolution, climate change, and how they are all significant to the southern hemisphere, specifically at higher latitudes such as Antarctica.

Early life and career Fraser was born in Canberra. While in primary school, she had a teacher who was a marine biologist and collected organisms from the ocean and displayed them in a tank in the classroom. Fraser was often distracted and amazed at these small animals, and by the age of 11, Fraser knew that she wanted to become a marine biologist. However, many adults in her life advised her that this would be a risky career choice, and therefore her first undergraduate degree was in the studies of conserving cultural materials, more specifically paper conservation, at the University of Canberra. After earning this degree, Fraser completed her second undergraduate degree in marine science at Macquarie University, after having transferred from James Cook University (because she could not handle the climate of Townsville). After graduating from Macquarie University, Fraser spent a year studying polychaete worm ecology at the Australian Museum with Pat Hutchings. She earned her PhD from the Department of Zoology at the University of Otago.

Fraser became a lecturer at the Australian National University in 2012, where she worked at and mainly conducted her research at up until 2019. In that same year, she received, and took the opportunity, to move her lab group and continue her research at the University of Otago, where she continues to be a professor.

Research Fraser's research has expanded to several different parts of the world. After receiving her doctorate, Fraser worked at two different locations as a postdoctorate fellow. The first of these occupations was at the University of Otago with the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology, and the second being located in Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium with the Biological Control and Spatial Ecology group at this university. Several of Frasers most highly cited papers discuss similar topics, with each one making an important contribution to the scientific community.

Awards and honours Ceridwen Fraser has received several individual awards that are given to young or "early-career" scientists. These awards and recognitions include:

2014 ARC Discovery Early Career Research Career 2016 ACT Scientist of the Year award 2018 Australian Academy of Science Fenner Medal 2019 The MacArthur & Wilson Award

Publications

A small list of some of Fraser's most cited works is below: