Jan Strugnell is the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture. She investigates the evolution and function of marine organisms using genomic and proteomic techniques. Her research encompasses both applied and blue skies questions. 

Jan applies next generation sequencing tools to help solve bottlenecks in fisheries and aquaculture industries. Supported by the ARC, her laboratory group is investigating population differentiation, recruitment and adaptation in a range of commercially important lobster species and are investigating the genetic basis for resilience and susceptibility to temperature stress in abalone. Jan also works on marine species that are shifting range in response to climate change and employs eDNA techniques to detect rare and invasive aquatic and marine organisms. A/Prof Strugnell also investigates population and species level molecular evolution in Antarctic and deep-sea taxa in the context of past climatic and geological change.