Prof. Mark Costello is an ecologist with a long-time interest in biodiversity and biogeography from local to global scales, particularly in marine and freshwater ecosystems, with applications in climate change, conservation and aquaculture. He is a Professor at Nord University (Norway) and the University of Auckland (New Zealand).

Born in Ireland, he studied in Galway and Cork, followed by post-docs at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth England, and the Scottish Office and Napier University in Scotland. He was a lecturer in the Trinity College University of Dublin, Managing Director of EcoServe (an environmental consulting company in Ireland), and Executive Director of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, Canada.  He has supervised over 50 MSc and PhD students and published over 200 peer-reviewed papers.

Driven by a life-time fascination with nature, he is especially pleased to have been a pioneer in “ocean biodiversity informatics”, and played leadership roles in the development of useful world databases that list and map biodiversity across land and sea, including the World Register of Marine Species, Ocean Biodiversity Information System, Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and recently co-led establishment of the World Register on Introduced Marine Species (WRiMS). He has been involved in the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network since it began, co-chaired its Marine BON until this year, and is a Lead Author in the current IPCC 6^th Assessment Report including co-leading the chapter on Biodiversity Hotspots.