Professor Stephen Simpson
People_

Professor Stephen Simpson

AC FAA FRS
Academic Director, Charles Perkins Centre
Professor, School of Life and Environmental Sciences
Phone
+61 2 9351 2688
Professor Stephen Simpson

Professor Stephen Simpson AC is Academic Director of the Charles Perkins Centre, and a Professor in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, and Executive Director of Obesity Australia.

Stephen was born in Melbourne. After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Queensland, he undertook his PhD at the University of London. He spent 22 years at the University of Oxford, first in Experimental Psychology, then in the Department of Zoology and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, before returning to Australia in 2005 as an ARC Federation Fellow.

Stephen has been Visiting Professor at Oxford, a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) in Berlin, Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the University of Arizona, and Guest Professor at the University of Basel.

In 2007 Stephen was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, in 2008 he was awarded the Eureka Prize for Scientific Research, in 2009 he was named NSW Scientist of the Year, and in 2010 he was named as the Wigglesworth Medallist by the Royal Entomological Society of London, of which he was made an Honorary Fellow. He was also co-writer, narrator and presenter of the four-part documentary Great Southern Land, for ABC TV, which was aired to critical and viewer acclaim in September 2012.

In 2013 Stephen was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London as “one of the world’s foremost entomologists and nutritional biologists”, and in 2015 he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia “for eminent service to biological and biomedical science.”

Stephen Simpson, together with David Raubenheimer, developed an integrative modelling framework for nutrition (the Geometric Framework), which was devised and tested using insects. This has since been applied to a wide range of organisms, from slime moulds to humans, and problems, from aquaculture and conservation biology to the dietary causes of human obesity and ageing. He has also revolutionised understanding of swarming in locusts, with research spanning neurochemical events within the brains of individual locusts to continental-scale mass migration.

Stephen also leads the Precision Nutrition research group. The group's emphasis is 'bottom-up', in that we are especially concerned with the way in which lower-level processes lead to higher level outcomes. The approach focuses on the behaviour of individual organisms and involves an interplay between theory and experiment. Most of our experimental work is on mice, although recent work has examined fish, birds and other mammals - including humans. Techniques employed include the quantitative analysis of behaviour, neurophysiology, metabolic and digestive physiology, mathematical modelling, computer simulations and laboratory selection experiments.

  • Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), 2015
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 2015
  • Fellow of the Royal Society, 2013
  • Edwards Oration, Australian Society for Medical Research,2013
  • Honorary Fellow, Royal Entomological Society, 2013
  • The Wigglesworth Medal and Award, Royal Entomological Society, 2012
  • ARC Laureate Fellowship, 2009-2014
  • NSW Scientist of the Year, 2009
  • NSW Scientist of the Year Award for Plant and Animal Sciences, 2009
  • Inaugural ‘Frontiers in Biology’ Lecturer, Princeton University, 2009
  • Eureka Prize for Scientific Research, 2008
  • Fellow, Australian Academy of Science, 2007
  • Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy, invited participant, 2006
  • ARC Federation Fellowship, 2005-2009
  • Visiting Professor, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, 2005-2008
  • Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford, 2005-2008
  • Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute of Advanced Study), 2002-2003
  • Invited Exhibitor, Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, 2001
  • Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Arizona, 1999
  • Guest Professor, University of Basel, 1990
Project titleResearch student
Using lessons from machine learning to construct a new evolutionary theory of agingChristopher BARKER
Investigating the effects of high-fibre diet and its combination with intermittent fasting in an animal model of multiple sclerosisAnjie GE
Testing the failing heart's capacity to generate its own rescue fuel.Bailey MCINTOSH
The of the gut-brain axis and microbiome in self-directed dietingMirei OKADA

Publications

Download citations: PDF; RTF; Endnote

Selected Grants

2024

  • The Nutritional Geometry of Immunity, Obesity and Appetite, Simpson S, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/Investigator Grant

2022

  • Pathways to benefit for Indigenous Australians in Genomic Medicine, Brown A, Hermes A, Pearson G, Pratt G, Lovett R, Mann G, Simpson S, Huebner S, Bryant V, Patel H, Department of Health (Federal - administered by NHMRC)/2021 Genomics Health Futures Mission Grant Opportunity
  • Australian Eating Disorders Research & Translation Centre, Maguire S, Touyz S, Hickie I, Marks P, Simpson S, Department of Health (Federal)/Mental Health Program - National Eating Disorder Research Centre

In the media

Television

  • Great Southern Land, co-writer, presenter and narrator, ABC, September 2012
  • Nature’s Weirdest Events, BBC, January 2012
  • Locusts, Animal Planet/Oxford Scientific Films, 2009
  • Catalyst, ABC, 2009
  • Catalyst, ABC, 2008
  • Mega Disasters: Super Swarm, History Channel, 2007
  • Killer Swarm, Channel 5 UK, 2006
  • The Perfect Swarm, National Geographic, 2005

Publications

  • Dietary protein and lifespan. (2014). Nature Medicine 20(4), 349.
  • Diet studies challenge thinking on proteins versus carbs. (2014). Science 343, 1068.
  • Locust swarms: The rules of attraction. (2010). The Economist 18 September
  • Hunger and cannibalism make locusts swarm. (2010). Planet Earth online
  • Brainless behavior: a myxomycete chooses a balanced diet. (2010). PNAS 107, 5267-5268.
  • Q&A. (2009). Current Biology 19, R632-R633.
  • Animal behaviour: feeding the superorganism. (2009). Current Biology 19, R366.
  • Sensible swarming. (2009). Nature 457, 132.
  • Evolutionary ecology: old ideas percolate into ecology. (2009). Current Biology 19, R21-R23.
  • The key to Pandora’s box. (2009). Science 323, 594-595.
  • The hunger, the horror. (2008). New Scientist May 31, 42-45.
  • Locusts, Cannibalism & Human Obesity. (2007). Australasian Science, August, 20-22.
  • How locusts decide it’s time to swarm. (2006). New Scientist, June1.
  • Align in the sand. Perspective. (2006). Science 312, 1320-1322.
  • March of the locusts. Research Highlights. (2006). Nature 441, 670.
  • Push on the marching crickets. News & Views. (2006). Nature 440, 38.
  • Can the war on locusts be won? (2004). Science 306, 1880-1882.
  • An insect’s extreme makeover. (2004). Science 306, 1881.