Kate

Dr Kate Umbers - Principle Investigator

Senior Lecturer in Zoology 
School of Science Western Sydney University, Hawkesbury (Richmond NSW)

Director - Invertebrates Australia (www.invertebratesaustralia.org)
Invertebrates Specialist - NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee 2021 - 2023
Co-Chair of the IUCN Grasshopper Specialist Group (www.iucn.org)
Member of the Australian Entomology Society Conservation Committee (www.austentsoc.org.au)
Past President of the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour (www.assab.org)
Freelance Scientific Consult - Nature Documentaries.

Instagram: @drkateumbers
Building: M15, Room: G64 | E-mail: k.umbers@westernsydney.edu.au
Phone: +61 2 4570 1603 | Post: Locked Bag 1797 Penrith NSW 2751
Research Metrics: Google Scholar

Biography

In 2005 Kate completed her BSc at Macquarie University in Sydney and stayed at Macquarie for her honours project and PhD. During her undergraduate degree Kate worked with Adam Stow, David Briscoe and Andy Beattie on sociality in Australian native bees. Kate's honours project (2006) was supervised by Gregory Holwell & Marie Herberstein looking at paternity in Ciulfina praying mantis. Kate's PhD (2007 - 2010) focused on the adaptive significance of temperature-dependent colour change (thermochromy) in an Australian alpine grasshopper (Kosciuscola tristis), supervised primarily by Marie Herberstein.

After graduating from her PhD in 2011, Kate accepted a postdoctoral position shared between Scott Keogh's Lab and Hanna Kokko's Lab at The Australian National University. With Scott, Kate worked on publishing lizard communication papers and began thinking about frog coloration; in Hanna's lab, in collaboration with Matthew Symonds, Kate spent some time in the world of chemical signalling in moths focusing on female strategies.

In 2013 Kate was awarded a Vice Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Wollongong to work on frog defences with Phillip Byrne. This work focused on the Vulnerable red-crowned toadlet (Pseudophryne australis) and the Critically Endangered southern corroboree frog (P. corroboree). 

In 2015 Kate was appointed as a Lecturer in Zoology at Western Sydney University where she set up the Insect Conservation Lab and continues to be active in teaching and research.

In 2017, Kate was awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) to conduct intensive research into startle displays and

In 2018 Kate was awarded an ARC Discovery project lead by Prof Marie Herberstein at Macquarie University on the evolution of warning signals.

Between 2018 and 2021 Kate had two babies.

In 2020 Kate was appointed to the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee

In 2021 Kate founded Invertebrates Australia with Jess Marsh and Tanya Latty and briefly took up pottery

In 2022 Kate was appointed to the Biodiversity Council and took up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with the whole family!

In 2023 Kate was awarded an ARC Industry Mid-career Fellowship to determine the distribution and migratory flyways of the Bogong moth (Agrotis infusa) and an ARC Linkage Project grant on the conservation of Norfolk Island snails.

In 2024 Kate is hoping to achieve her blue belt in BJJ