Bruce Dudley Clarkson is a professor of restoration ecology in the School of Science at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. Since 2016, he has led ‘People, Cities and Nature’, a national research programme focusing on restoring damaged or depleted indigenous ecosystems in urban environments. His research has guided biodiversity and restoration projects, including the Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park and Hamilton’s Nature in the City Programme, and he has contributed to many other North Island conservation and restoration projects. He is a board member and immediate past president of the Australasian Chapter of the International Society of Restoration Ecology. Awards relevant to this submission include the following: the 2006 Loder Cup (New Zealand's premier conservation award); the 2016 Royal Society of New Zealand Charles Fleming Medal for environmental achievement; and the 2023 Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to ecological restoration. His research interests include restoration ecology, urban ecology, vegetation succession, restoration planting and habitat reconstruction.