Nicole Webster is an Australian marine scientist who works as a principal research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and research fellow at the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics. Her work revolves around sponge-microbial symbiosis, how environmental pressures affect symbiosis, and the role that microorganisms play in reef ecosystem health. She has more than 120 scientific publications.
Early life
Nicole Webster was born in Ormskirk, United Kingdom in 1973 to an English father and Australian mother. Her family moved to Australia after one year. Marine science piqued Webster's curiosity at a young age, as she played in rock pools at the beach growing up. She moved to the Northern Australian city of Townsville to pursue an undergraduate degree in marine biology at James Cook University, which she earned in 1995. Following her undergraduate studies, she went on to pursue at PhD at James Cook University. The topic of her PhD thesis was the symbiosis between Great Barrier Reef sponges and microbes, and how different stressors in the environment impact these relationships. Her research discovered that sponge-microbial associations are fairly uniform throughout large geographic zones and highlighted the specificity of this partnership. She also discovered that the breakdown of this symbiosis may be a good indicator of environmental stress. Her PhD was granted in 2001.
Career
After earning her PhD, Webster conducted postdoctoral research in Antarctica through the University of Canterbury and Gateway Antarctica. Her research lasted from 2001-2005 and analyzed how microbe symbiosis can be biologically indicative of environmental strain in Antarctic marine ecosystems. She also examined how microorganisms trigger the settlement and metamorphosis of coral reef invertebrates. Following her postdoctoral research, in 2005 Webster became a research scientist at the Australian Institute for Marine Science where she currently works in the healthy and resilient GBR program. Her research focuses on the role of microorganisms in reef ecosystem health, and how environmental pressures affect symbiosis. For example, in 2010 she investigated the effects of temperature on symbiosis. In 2017 she accepted another position as Principal Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics located at the University of Queensland. As part of the healthy and resilient GBR program, one of her most recent projects is called the Sea Simulator. The Sea Simulator is a man-made coral reef system which controls environmental factors such as pH and sunlight. The aim of this project is to be able to breed some marine organisms, like sponges and coral, and see how they adapt to futuristic ocean conditions. According to Webster, some of the goals of her research are to make visible the role of microbes in marine ecosystems and stress their importance in issues such as climate change. She uses both field and experimental based approaches in her work.
Personal life
Webster has a husband and three children. Outside of her work, she is actively involved in science education and works to inspire young people to enter STEM.
