Partner Investigator

Dr Tom Celebrezze (NSW Department of Planning and Environment)

Bachelor of Arts and Sciences
Master of Environmental Studies
PhD, Ecology

Tom Celebrezze is currently Director of Remote Sensing and Landscape Science for NSW Department of Planning and Environment.  Tom drove the development and commencement of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2017, including substantial new programs such as the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme and the Biodiversity Indicator Program.

Since the late 90s, Tom has worked in strategy and leadership roles in the NSW public service ranging from regional delivery, policy and science. He has a keen interest in understanding the often counter-intuitive art of policy and program innovation in environmental sustainability. For around a decade, he worked to establish and adaptively manage compliance frameworks for native vegetation regulation. He was a principle contributor to the NSW Premier’s Award winning Sydney Growth Centres Strategic Biodiversity Certification, which enabled development of nearly 200,000 homes and established a half a billion dollar offsets scheme. His current role spans knowledge strategy, research partnerships, ecosystem modelling and forecasting, place based science for strategic land use planning and NSW Climate Change Fund evaluation.

Tom completed a PhD in biological science on the effect of honeybees on Australian plant pollination systems and genetics at the University of Wollongong. He holds a Masters of Land Resource Planning from University of Wisconsin Madison and a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences at Stanford University. He came to Australia (Adelaide University) as a Rotary Scholar in 1996.