MScience is a marine environmental consultancy that was established to provide a link between marine scientists and industries requiring the commercial application of their expertise.
MScience has developed from the provision of academic input for the design and interpretation of studies and the monitoring of developments within tropical and subtropical marine ecosystems with a strong capacity to support the field conduct of such works.
MScience complements the research and technical experience of senior marine scientists with the field expertise of commercially qualified field teams. Divers and boat-based field staff are also academically qualified in marine science. The Company’s intellectual property base has been built from involvement with the majority of dredging and construction projects occurring on Western Australia’s Pilbara coast since 2003.
Our Senior Team
Mr Iain Posnett
Managing Director / Principal Marine Scientist
Iain is our managing director and primary project manager. Having managed large field surveys for a variety of marine science disciplines, he has a solid understanding of what’s required to deliver complicated programs under difficult conditions.
Iain supports our HSE management system and ensures it is compliant with the requirement of our clients in the Oil and Gas, and Mining industries. This includes the processes of planning (HAZID) and active management of safety during project execution.
Mr Matt Frapple
Technical Director / Senior Marine Scientist
Matt is our technical director and primary field lead with well developed skills in commercial diving, fabrication and vessel operations including OVID compliance, water quality instrument and metocean buoy installations.
He has managed many successful campaigns in monitoring water quality in tropical and subtropical environments, from the northwest of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef and inshore Queensland, to the colder waters of New Zealand’s South Island.
Dr Jim Stoddart
Chief Scientist
Following a PhD in coral biology, Jim worked as a research scientist at AIMS Townsville, before getting into research management at BRS Canberra. In 1993, he joined Rio Tinto as an environment manager and had 10 years in the iron ore business.
In 2003, he established MScience and has since developed a reputation with industry and government as someone who understands how to balance the needs of environment protection and industry.
Dr Chris Stoddart
Principal Project Scientist
Chris completed a PhD in neurochemistry before undertaking postdoctoral studies at the WA Oceans Institute on coral reproduction.
Chris’ chemical and statistical background provide a sound basis for his work on evaluating the ecotoxicity of discharges in the marine environment. Recent projects include impact assessment and monitoring and management plans for a variety of oil and gas industry discharges.
Dr David Masters
Principal Project Scientist
After 25 years in CSIRO as a specialist agricultural scientist working in Australia and overseas, David turned his acquired skills to the planning, implementation and interpretation of water quality monitoring with MScience.
In that role, he has completed projects for major dredging works, outfalls around LNG plants and industrial areas and in compiling large datasets for baselines.
Dr David Blakeway
Senior Marine Scientist
David is a coral geomorphologist who has a wealth of experience with the coral and other benthic invertebrates of Australia’s north west – particularly those of the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia.
He is a highly experienced field leader who has managed a great number of successful field trips in remote areas working both from land and on long sea cruises.