About Me

Hi! I’m Kevin, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland studying the eco-evolutionary dynamics of coral populations along the Great Barrier Reef. For the past five years, I have worked on understanding coral population responses to climate change. The overarching question of my research is:
Will coral evolution be able to keep pace with climate change?


My results suggest that outcomes are likely to vary across the GBR, with an increasingly pessimistic outlook for all coral communities if we fail to reduce our carbon emissions in the near future.


The models I am building make use of explicit genetics and mimic the size-dependent dynamics of coral populations to estimate future resilience and adaptation to climate change.

Research Interests

  • Eco-evolutionary dynamics of natural populations in response to climate change
  • Population projection models of micro-evolutionary change in R
  • Forward genetic simulations of evolution using SLiM
  • Causal inference in statistical analysis
  • Meta-analysis and research synthesis
  • Behavioural ecology and the evolution of animal communication systems
  • Improving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in science
  • Improving the openness, reliability, and transparency (ORT) of science

If you are interested in collaborating on a project or are seeking advice on statistical analysis, feel free to contact me at: k.bairosnovak(at)uq.edu.au

Academic Positions

Coral Eco-evolutionary Modeller (2023 - 2024)
Post-doc, Cynthia Riginos Lab, The University of Queensland
Brisbane, Australia

Education

Ph.D. in Marine Biology (2019 - 2023)
James Cook University
Townsville, Australia

M.Sc. in Biology (2016 - 2018)
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Canada

B.Sc.(Hons.) in Biology (2010 - 2015)
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Canada