Professor David Lindenmayer is one of Australia’s leading ecologists. His interest is the quantification of factors governing the distribution, abundance and population dynamics of vertebrate populations in natural and disturbed landscapes, particularly those subject to forestry practices and landscape fragmentation. His research is marked by rigorous experimental design, meticulous and detailed sampling at a landscape scale and innovative mathematical and statistical analyses that have led to new insights into the management of Australia’s biota. This is an original and ambitious approach to large ecological questions and has earned him wide recognition internationally as well as in Australia.