Professor Madeleine van Oppen is an ecological geneticist with an interest in microbial symbioses and climate change adaptation of reef corals. Her work has been published in >230 peer reviewed papers and book chapters and is widely cited (h-index = 76). Her early career focused on evolutionary and population genetics of algae and fish, and subsequently corals. She obtained a PhD in the molecular ecology of macroalgae in 1995 (U Groningen, Netherlands) and is currently an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow with halftime positions at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the University of Melbourne. Her team is using bioengineering approaches aimed at increasing coral climate resilience. These interventions include bacterial probiotics, experimental evolution of microalgal symbionts, and host hybridisation and conditioning.