Mark Westoby (born 21 September 1947) is an Australian evolutionary ecologist, emeritus professor at Macquarie University, and a specialist in trait ecology. He is best known for an approach to ecological strategy schemes that arranges plant species along dimensions of measurable traits. This research investigated important trade-offs that govern diversification of strategies of plants in order to understand the similarities and differences across species. Westoby was a leader in the communal effort to compile trait data worldwide, and is currently working on a similar approach to ecological strategies across bacteria and archaea. Earlier in his career Westoby created a state-and-transition approach to managing ecosystem change that has been widely adopted (for example, being mandatory throughout rangelands in the U.S.). He also initiated the linear programming approach to diet optimization under multiple constraints, and the kin-conflict interpretation of the triploid endosperm of angiosperms. Source: Wikipedia (en)