He was educated at Trinity College Dublin (B.A. Mod.) and the University of California-Berkeley (Ph.D.), as well as the Institute of Actuaries (Dip. Act. Tech.). After postdoctoral research at the University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland (UQ), he lectured at UQ’s Centre for Applications in Natural Resource Mathematics. He joined Queensland University of Technology in 2015 to investigate optimal decision making for eradication and quarantine of plant pests.

Baxter, PWJ and HP Possingham (2011). Optimising search strategies for invasive pests: learn before you leap. Journal of Applied Ecology 48:86-95. (Editor’s choice) McDonald-Madden, E, PWJ Baxter, RA Fuller, TG Martin, ET Game, J Montambault and HP Possingham (2010). Monitoring doesn’t always count. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25:547-550. Baxter, PWJ, JL Sabo, C Wilcox, MA McCarthy and HP Possingham (2008). Cost-effective suppression and eradication of invasive predators. Conservation Biology 22:89-98. Baxter, PWJ, MA McCarthy, HP Possingham, PW Menkhorst and N McLean (2006). Accounting for management costs in sensitivity analyses of matrix population models. Conservation Biology 20:893-905. Regan, TJ, MA McCarthy, PWJ Baxter, FD Panetta and HP Possingham (2006). Optimal eradication: when to stop looking for an invasive plant. Ecology Letters 9: 759-766. Baxter, PWJ and WM Getz (2005). A model-framed evaluation of elephant effects on tree and fire dynamics in African savannas. Ecological Applications 15:1331-1341.