A James Cook University professor in far north Queensland has been awarded one of Australia's most significant scientific fellowships.

Professor Bill Laurance was one of 15 researchers to receive an Australian Laureate Fellowship at a ceremony in Cairns last week.

Professor Laurance will receive $1.6 million towards his research projects in the next 5 years.

He says the money be used for student mentoring as well as helping major research projects to tackle environmental problems in areas that include north Queensland and Indonesia.

He says the funding will be spent tackling environmental problems in tropical climates.

"Things like logging, the expansion of oil palms which is destroying a lot of forests, climate change is another big issue, fires are another big issue, over-hunting are big issues," he said.

"We're really interested in the combined effects of a lot of these different environmental threats operating simultaneously and how it's going to affect species."