Dr Duan Biggs is from South Africa and completed his PhD at the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, in 2011, on the resilience of coral reef tourism to global change and crises. Dr Biggs holds an MsC in Conservation Biology from the University of Cape Town and has a trans-disciplinary undergraduate training with majors in Economics, Development Studies and Environmental Science.

He has developed, coordinated and consulted to projects for BirdLife International, Conservational International and WWF among others. In March 2012, he started a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions where his research focuses on the socio-economic aspects of conservation decision-making and management and operationalizing resilience ideas for biodiversity conservation.