Biography
I am an Environmental Scientist, Climate Change Impact Modeler, and Geospatial Ecologist specializing in biodiversity forecasting, species distribution modelling, ecological niche modelling, climate-change impact assessment, nature-based climate solutions, GIS, remote sensing, machine learning, conservation planning, invasive species risk assessment, biosecurity, environmental decision-support systems, and higher education teaching. My research integrates ecology, biogeography, spatial data science, climate projections, species traits, remote sensing, and AI-enabled modelling workflows to address biodiversity and climate challenges under global environmental change.
I am recognized among the Stanford/Elsevier Top 2% Scientists for multiple consecutive years, including 2022–2025. My research profile includes 96 peer-reviewed journal articles and 103 scholarly outputs, including journal articles, a preprint, conference proceedings, and a book chapter. According to my Google Scholar profile, my work has received more than 6,600 citations, with an h-index of 40 and an i10-index of 77. Since 2021 alone, my research has received more than 5,200 citations, with an h-index of 35 and an i10-index of 71. My publication portfolio has an FWCI of 2.878, with approximately 75% of journal articles published in Q1 journals.
I am currently an Assistant Professor at Qatar University and founder of EcoSpatialLab, where I lead research on climate-risk modelling, biodiversity informatics, species distribution modelling, trait-based ecology, ecological decision-support tools, conservation planning, and applied environmental management. I am also an Adjunct Research Fellow at Flinders University in Environmental Modelling and Climate Change.
At Qatar University, I contribute to research leadership, teaching, curriculum development, student supervision, program assessment, academic service, and external engagement. I have taught 14 distinct undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral courses since 2022, including courses in ecology, weather and climate, earth systems, GIS and databases, geospatial methods, biodiversity, graduate seminar, lab rotation, senior project, and graduate research and thesis. I serve as Course Coordinator for Basic Ecology, leading a multi-member teaching team and overseeing curriculum renewal, assessment moderation, laboratory coordination, quality assurance, and student progression.
I also serve as Assessment Coordinator for Undergraduate Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) in the Biological Sciences and Environmental Science programs, supporting curriculum mapping, assessment alignment, quality-assurance reporting, and evidence-based curriculum improvement. I have also contributed as a Lead Faculty Member for Blackboard Ultra implementation, including faculty workshops, course-page migration, assessment setup, guidance documentation, and mentoring colleagues in digital teaching practices.
My research portfolio includes successful leadership of competitive research grants and applied projects, with a research funding portfolio exceeding USD 1.37 million since January 2024, including more than USD 1.21 million in external competitive funding and more than USD 850,000 as Lead Principal Investigator. My funded projects include climate vulnerability modelling for Qatari vulnerable plants, ecological niche modelling tools for biological invasions, sustainable native and exotic plant growth modelling for Qatar until 2070, genetic diversity of Qatari native plants, and undergraduate research-capacity enhancement.
My current research leadership includes the development of QPlants, a web-based ecological and spatial decision-support platform integrating plant traits, occurrence records, and climate-suitability outputs for Qatar’s plant species. Through EcoSpatialLab, I lead an interdisciplinary team involving postdoctoral researchers, research assistants, undergraduate students, and postgraduate students working on Qatar’s flora, species traits, climate suitability, joint species distribution modelling, plantation planning, biodiversity conservation, and environmental decision support.
I have extensive international research experience across Australia, Qatar, the Middle East, Europe, South America, Türkiye, Japan, and Malaysia. Prior to joining Qatar University, I held four postdoctoral research fellowships across Australian universities, including the University of New England, Macquarie University, and Flinders University. I also worked with Australian government agencies, including Biosecurity Queensland, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, and the NSW Department of Regional NSW – Primary Industries. These roles strengthened my applied expertise in biosecurity, weed-risk assessment, invasive species modelling, climate-induced range shifts, ecological forecasting, GIS, and government-facing environmental decision support.
I completed my PhD in Ecology, with specialization in Environmental Modelling, Climate Change, and GIS, at the University of New England, Australia, where I received the Chancellor’s Doctoral Research Medal. I also hold an MSc in Physics of Soil, Soil Erosion and Conservation from the University of Tehran, and a BSc in Soil Science from the University of Guilan. This background allows me to integrate ecology, soil science, land degradation, climate modelling, GIS, and biodiversity science across both terrestrial and applied environmental systems.
Courses Taught
Undergraduate
BIOL 103 – Freshman Seminar
GEOG 242 – Weather and Climate
BIOL 221 – Basic Ecology + Laboratory
BIOL 496 – Senior Project
Postgraduate
BIOL 501 – Earth Systems
BIOL 502 – Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Databases
BIOL 505 – Graduate Seminar in Environmental Science
BIOL 530 – Graduate Research and Thesis
BIOL 600 – Advanced Graduate Seminar
BIOL 602 – Laboratory Rotation
BIOL 603 – Laboratory Rotation II
BIOL 613 – Geospatial Methods
BIOL 616 – Biodiversity
BIOL 617 – Earth Systems Modelling / Special Topic
Previous Teaching Experience
Introduction to GIS, University of New England
Remote Sensing, University of New England
Spatial Analysis, University of New England
Introduction to GIS, Flinders University
Climate Change Modelling, Federal University of the Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Valleys, Brazil
Geospatial Applications, Boğaziçi University, Türkiye
Academic and Research Appointments
I am currently an Assistant Professor at Qatar University, founder of EcoSpatialLab, and Adjunct Research Fellow at Flinders University in Environmental Modelling and Climate Change.
Before moving to Qatar, I held research and teaching appointments as:
Research Fellow, Flinders University, Australia
Research Fellow and Guest Lecturer, Macquarie University, Australia
Research Fellow, University of New England, Australia
Instructor, University of New England, Australia
Climate Change Modeller and Consultant, Biosecurity Queensland, Australia
Climate Change Modeller, Department of Regional NSW – Primary Industries, Australia
Climate Change Modeller and Consultant, Wild Matters, Australia
These appointments provided extensive experience in ecological modelling, climate-change impact assessment, GIS, remote sensing, machine learning, invasive species modelling, biodiversity risk assessment, biosecurity, environmental data analysis, and applied decision-support systems.
Research Supervision and Researcher Development
My supervision record includes four completed PhD theses, five completed master’s theses, and one ongoing master’s co-supervision, primarily as co-supervisor. Supervised research has contributed to 15 peer-reviewed publications. I have mentored PhD students, master’s students, undergraduate senior project students, research assistants, and postdoctoral researchers, supporting their development in modelling, spatial analysis, data interpretation, scientific writing, publication, and research project management.
Through EcoSpatialLab, I provide leadership and mentoring for a growing interdisciplinary team working on biodiversity modelling, climate-risk assessment, plant traits, species distribution modelling, Qatar flora, invasive species, and environmental decision-support tools.
Editorial Roles and Professional Service
I serve, or have served, in editorial roles with internationally recognized journals, including:
Frontiers in Remote Sensing
Journal of Biogeography
Ecology and Evolution
Scientific Reports
PeerJ
My professional service includes 99 verified peer reviews and 61 verified editor records in my Web of Science Researcher Profile. I have reviewed for 38 academic journals, including Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Earth-Science Reviews, Science of the Total Environment, Environmental Pollution, Journal of Environmental Management, People and Nature, Global Ecology and Conservation, Agronomy for Sustainable Development, Journal of Cleaner Production, and Climate Risk Management.
I have also served as an external grant reviewer for the Marsden Fund Council, New Zealand, Khalifa University – United Arab Emirates University, and Khalifa University of Science and Technology. In addition, I have contributed as a PhD thesis examiner, PhD Confirmation of Candidature assessor, committee member, seminar organizer, 3-Minute Thesis judge, and postdoctoral representative for major research and academic programs.
Institutional Leadership and Service
My institutional leadership includes:
Assessment Coordinator for Undergraduate Program Learning Outcomes in Biological Sciences and Environmental Science
Basic Ecology Course Coordinator
Lead Faculty Member for Blackboard Ultra implementation
Member of academic-quality, curriculum, assessment, teaching-workload, graduate-studies, and departmental committees
Designer of digital platforms for senior-project evaluation, applicant assessment, greenhouse booking, and senior-project proposal collection
Chair and member of outreach, seminar, research-enabling, and sustainability-conference committees
Postdoctoral representative for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage
Representative for Environmental Modelling and Climate Change disciplines at the University of New England
Major Research Projects
Qatar Climate-Risk and Biodiversity Modelling Program
At Qatar University, I lead research on climate-risk assessment, biodiversity modelling, and ecological decision-support systems for Qatar’s native flora and ecosystems. This work includes developing a national plant trait database, modelling current and future climate suitability, applying single-species and joint species distribution models, integrating traits and phylogeny, validating model outputs, and developing public-facing tools for conservation, restoration, plantation planning, and biodiversity management.
QPlants
I am developing QPlants, a web-based ecological and spatial decision-support platform for Qatar’s plant species. The platform integrates species occurrence records, plant traits, climate-suitability maps, future projections, and ecological information to support biodiversity conservation, restoration planning, plant selection, and environmental decision making.
EcoSpatialLab
I established and lead EcoSpatialLab, an interdisciplinary research group focused on climate-change impact modelling, ecological niche modelling, spatial ecology, biodiversity informatics, environmental risk assessment, AI-enabled ecological decision support, and conservation planning. The lab works across Qatar, Australia, and international systems, with projects spanning plant ecology, invasive species, climate vulnerability, trait databases, joint species distribution models, and web-based ecological platforms.
ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage – Global Ecology Lab
In 2018, I joined the Global Ecology Lab as an Associate Investigator in palaeo-ecological vegetation modelling for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, a major AUD 46 million research centre. My work involved applying advanced global dynamic vegetation models, including LPJ-GUESS, and bioclimatic envelope models to reconstruct and simulate vegetation dynamics across long time periods. This research explored how historical and future climate change, wildfire, CO₂ change, human disturbance, and invasive species influence Australia’s vegetation, biodiversity, and ecosystem resilience.
Which Plant Where Project
I contributed to the Which Plant Where project, a major AUD 12 million national initiative supporting climate-ready urban greening in Australia. In this project, I modelled climate suitability for approximately 2,500 plant species and contributed to the development of online decision-support tools to guide species selection for Australian urban landscapes under current and future climate scenarios.
WEED FUTURES
I contributed to WEED FUTURES, a nationally significant project assessing current and future weed threats in Australia. This work supported biosecurity planning by modelling climate-induced distribution shifts of invasive plants and identifying regions of emerging weed invasion risk.
Biosecurity Queensland Collaboration
Through collaboration with Biosecurity Queensland, I applied species distribution modelling and climate-risk assessment to evaluate climate-induced range shifts and emerging weed risks across Queensland. This work supported biosecurity, risk prioritization, and environmental management under changing climate conditions.
University of New England and National Climate Projects
At the University of New England, I taught GIS, Remote Sensing, and Spatial Analysis, and contributed to postgraduate supervision. I also served as a GIS specialist for the Commonwealth Department of Environment Pacific Climate Change Project, a national initiative delivered through UNE, involving spatial analysis, environmental data processing, climate-related geospatial applications, and applied decision support.
Research Interests
Climate-change impacts on biodiversity
Species distribution modelling and ecological niche modelling
Biodiversity forecasting
Nature-based climate solutions
Climate-risk assessment
Vegetation modelling
GIS, remote sensing, and spatial analysis
Machine learning and AI-enabled environmental modelling
Biodiversity conservation and conservation planning
Invasive species and biosecurity risk assessment
Trait-based ecology and biodiversity informatics
Joint species distribution modelling
Ecological decision-support systems
Big-data analysis in ecology and environmental science
Soil erosion, land degradation, and environmental vulnerability
Urban ecology and climate-ready planting
Fire-risk and habitat-suitability modelling
Palaeo-ecological and dynamic vegetation modelling
Professional Recognition and Awards
Stanford/Elsevier Top 2% Scientist, 2022–2025
Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Early Career Researchers, Flinders University
Chancellor’s Doctoral Research Medal, University of New England
International Postgraduate Research Scholarship, University of New England
Keith and Dorothy Mackay Travelling Scholarship, University of New England
My academic profile integrates internationally recognized research impact, externally funded research leadership, applied geospatial innovation, higher education teaching, curriculum coordination, PLO assessment, student and researcher supervision, editorial and peer-review service, government-facing applied research, and strong international collaboration in environmental modelling, climate-change impact assessment, biodiversity conservation, biosecurity, nature-based climate solutions, and geospatial decision support.
I can be reached via email at fshabani@qu.edu.qa, AND farzin.shabani@flinders.edu.au.
EcoSpatialLab: link ORCID: link Scopus ID: link Google Scholar: link Publons: link ResearchGate: link