Professor Ralph Mac Nally trained as a community ecologist (The University of Melbourne) but has grown his portfolio in the emerging disciplines of conservation ecology, landscape ecology and ecological futures. He weaves strands of research from terrestrial and freshwater ecology with large-scale modelling to treat landscapes as integrated systems, which is an area in dire need of concentrated effort. Mac Nally served on more than 20 Australia-wide and state panels with responsibilities for developing conservation planning, and was a scientific expert for the 2nd Australian Bird Atlas program and Victoria’s strategic document: Biodiversity and Soil Health in a Time of Climate Change. He published one book (Cambridge University Press), many book chapters and more than 190 refereed articles, many in journals such as Ecology, Conservation Biology, Trends in Ecology & Evolutions, Ecological Applications, The American Naturalist, Ecology Letters, and Global Change Biology. He served for 13 years (1995-2007) on the editorial board for Austral Ecology, for two years with Conservation Biology, and since 2005 with Diversity & Distributions. Mac Nally holds a DSc from his alma mater and is an ARC Discovery Outstanding Researcher.