Research support

Sebastian Lopez Marcano

PhD (Data Science)
Senior Manager Analytics
Data Science Collaborative Research Platform
  • Over 10 years of experience in data science and analytics applied to agriculture, biodiversity, urban design, and ecological research
  • Provides strategic leadership and analytic guidance for national research initiatives, including the Analytics for the Australian Grains Industry, the Australian Plant Phenomics Network, and AI-driven environmental programs
  • Reviews and manages interdisciplinary projects for soundness of data workflows, reproducibility, and scientific rigor across government, academic, and NGO sectors
  • Contributes to writing technical documentation, grant applications, and peer-reviewed publications for ecological and agricultural data science projects
  • Performs intermediate- to expert-level data analysis, modelling, and interpretation using machine learning, spatial statistics, and computer vision
  • Develops and applies advanced analytical methods for species distribution modelling, automated wildlife detection, and high-dimensional image processing
  • Provides research mentorship and training workshops to scientists, students, and stakeholders in environmental data science and AI applications
  • Expertise in programming and statistical software including R and Python

Publications

Journal Articles (7)
Data Collection (1)

Journal Articles

Castro-Sanguino, C., Bozec, Y. M., Callaghan, D., Vercelloni, J., Rodriguez-Ramirez, A., Lopez-Marcano, S., Gonzalez-Marrero, Y., Puotinen, M., Hoegh-Guldberg, O. and Gonzalez-Rivero, M. (2022). Coral composition and bottom-wave metrics improve understanding of the patchiness of cyclone damage on reefs. Science of the Total Environment, 804 150178, 150178. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150178
Connolly, Rod M., Fairclough, David V., Jinks, Eric L., Ditria, Ellen M., Jackson, Gary, Lopez-Marcano, Sebastian, Olds, Andrew D. and Jinks, Kristin I. (2021). Improved accuracy for automated counting of a fish in baited underwater videos for stock assessment. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8 658135. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.658135
Roelfsema, Chris, Kovacs, Eva M., Vercelloni, Julie, Markey, Kathryn, Rodriguez-Ramirez, Alberto, Lopez-Marcano, Sebastian, Gonzalez-Rivero, Manuel, Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove and Phinn, Stuart R. (2021). Fine-scale time series surveys reveal new insights into spatio-temporal trends in coral cover (2002–2018), of a coral reef on the Southern Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs, 40 (4), 1-13. doi: 10.1007/s00338-021-02104-y
Roelfsema, Chris, Kovacs, Eva M., Markey, Kathryn, Vercelloni, Julie, Rodriguez-Ramirez, Alberto, Lopez-Marcano, Sebastian, Gonzalez-Rivero, Manuel, Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove and Phinn, Stuart R. (2021). Benthic and coral reef community field data for Heron Reef, Southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia, 2002–2018. Scientific Data, 8 (1) 84, 84. doi: 10.1038/s41597-021-00871-5
Rodriguez-Ramirez, Alberto, González-Rivero, Manuel, Beijbom, Oscar, Bailhache, Christophe, Bongaerts, Pim, Brown, Kristen T., Bryant, Dominic E. P., Dalton, Peter, Dove, Sophie, Ganase, Anjani, Kennedy, Emma V., Kim, Catherine J. S., Lopez-Marcano, Sebastian, Neal, Benjamin P., Radice, Veronica Z., Vercelloni, Julie, Beyer, Hawthorne L. and Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove (2020). A contemporary baseline record of the world’s coral reefs. Scientific Data, 7 (1) 355, 1-15. doi: 10.1038/s41597-020-00698-6
Kennedy, Emma V., Vercelloni, Julie, Neal, Benjamin P., Ambariyanto, Bryant, Dominic E. P., Ganase, Anjani, Gartrell, Patrick, Brown, Kristen, Kim, Catherine J. S., Hudatwi, Mu’alimah, Hadi, Abdul, Prabowo, Agus, Prihatinningsih, Puji, Haryanta, Sutris, Markey, Kathryn, Green, Susannah, Dalton, Peter, Lopez-Marcano, Sebastian, Rodriguez-Ramirez, Alberto, Gonzalez-Rivero, Manuel and Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove (2020). Coral reef community changes in Karimunjawa National Park, Indonesia: assessing the efficacy of management in the face of local and global stressors. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 8 (10) 760, 760-27. doi: 10.3390/jmse8100760
González-Rivero, Manuel, Beijbom, Oscar, Rodriguez-Ramirez, Alberto, Bryant, Dominic E. P., Ganase, Anjani, Gonzalez-Marrero, Yeray, Herrera-Reveles, Ana, Kennedy, Emma V., Kim, Catherine J. S., Lopez-Marcano, Sebastian, Markey, Kathryn, Neal, Benjamin P., Osborne, Kate, Reyes-Nivia, Catalina, Sampayo, Eugenia M., Stolberg, Kristin, Taylor, Abbie, Vercelloni, Julie, Wyatt, Mathew and Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove (2020). Monitoring of coral reefs using artificial intelligence: a feasible and cost-effective approach. Remote Sensing, 12 (3) 489, 489. doi: 10.3390/rs12030489

Data Collection

González-Rivero, Manuel, Rodriguez-Ramirez, Alberto, Beijbom, Oscar, Dalton, Peter, Kennedy, Emma V., Neal, Benjamin P., Vercelloni, Julie, Bongaerts, Pim, Ganase, Anjani, Bryant, Dominic E.P., Brown, Kristen, Kim, Catherine, Radice, Veronica Z., Lopez-Marcano, Sebastian, Dove, Sophie, Bailhache, Christophe, Beyer, Hawthorne L. and Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove (2019). Seaview Survey Photo-quadrat and Image Classification Dataset. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.930