Chris is investigating the microbiology and biogeochemistry of Antarctic ecosystems. He is profiling microbial biodiversity in the continent, resolving metabolic pathways that sustain life and testing how microbes influence the environment. He leads the One Health Microbiology group at Monash University’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute. Following a first-class degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at the University of Oxford (2010), he undertook a doctorate at the University of Otago (2013) investigating the physiological roles of the hydrogenases in mycobacteria. He then gained postdoctoral and lecturing experience at the University of Otago, CSIRO, and Australian National University.

In 2016, he was appointed as a group leader in Monash University’s School of Biological Sciences and completed an environmentally-focused ARC DECRA Fellowship. In 2020, he moved to Monash’s Department of Microbiology to take up a medically-focused NHMRC EL2 Fellowship. Trained in the fields of biochemistry and microbiology, Chris also has experience in genetics, microbial ecology, and molecular evolution, and thrives working across disciplines.