12 Sep 2025
I was back on weekly science show/podcast, Fuzzy Logic. This time, I got to talk more about my own research. Check it out!
As a bonus, my co-advisee was so impressive in our last appearance, she is now a producer on the show!
In the Studio
05 Sep 2025
I spent two and a half years at ANU working with some really wonderful people. We kicked off a really cool pollen monitoring project, VegeMap, that I believe and hope has the momentum to continue without me.
But I’m really excited to start a new role at Flinders University. I’ve joined the Global Ecology Laboratory | Partuyarta Ngadluku Wardli Kuu under the tutelage of Prof Corey Bradshaw. I’m excited to be stepping squarely into the world of modelling. It feels like a departure, but I will still be focused on palaeoecology and palaeoenvironments.
Another change will be refocussing to much more recent time, from 1000 years ago to the future! The job is part of CIEHF, the ARC’s Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures. It’s really encouraging to see the ARC supporting Indigenous-led research on Country. This necessarily means that my project is very nebulous to start with; CIEHF projects are explicitly co-designed with Traditional Owners and researchers to incorporate multiple ways of knowing. It feels both counterintuitive and exciting to refrain from defining my own research questions and reimagine myself as an instrument for bigger questions built from a Venn diagram of Indigenous and scientific communities.
My interest in Earth systems is founded in my love and appreciation for our planet. I’ve always hoped that my work would contribute to understanding and conserving the natural world. This new role feels like a big step towards having a direct impact on actual conservation efforts done the right way. Let’s go!
It’s official
16 May 2025
For the last 6 months, I’ve had the unexpected pleasure of co-advising a PhD student in the school of art and design. A major part of her studies is creating an exhibition, which is a really fascinating concept to me, being a scientist with little idea about such things. The exhibition has already come and gone, but you can see bits of it on her website.
Her research literally being on exhibit, the local radio station took note of it. She was invited on their weekly science show/podcast, Fuzzy Logic. She invited me to join her and we spent an hour taking about the intersection of art, science, and soil. Check it out!
Soil Breathes
11 Apr 2025
Wild time at Kiola, teaching undergrads about palaeoecology and some hands-on coring.
We arrived on Monday for a warm welcome to Country. While the students got a tour around the lands and waters, we demonstrators got wet in beautiful Murramarang Lagoon, also called Swan Lagoon.
Murramarang Lagoon
We had some pretty impressive hosts. A wedge-tailed eagle. Australia’s largest raptor, circled us for most of our set-up. We also had Australian pelicans, Australia’s largest flying bird, paddling nearby. No emus, so we missed the hat trick there.
Wedge-tailed observer
Tuesday was our only full day and it started earlier than planned. We had settled into the lovely cabins on the Kiola campus. About halfpast midnight, we awoke to a shrill, brain-rattling siren screaming down from the 4 meter high ceilings and echoing off the tile floors. After discovering the smoke alarm was seemingly immune to reset by tossed shoe, we went to the nearby lab and found a step ladder and broom. After some prodding, we were able to quieten the alarm.
Just after settling back into our beds, the piercing din resumed. Thankfully, the caretaker answered his phone, gave us the code to the key safe, and told us where to find a proper ladder. Not to mention drove himself the half hour to come help us. With the ladder, we managed to get the alarm down and replace the battery.
Despite the interruption to our sleep, the rest of the day was very productive. The students all had a go with coring in waist-deep water that got deeper as one slowly sunk into the rotten egg mud.
Our coring playground
In the afternoon I walked the students through some basic time-series analysis in R, using the benevolent Simon Connor’s code. And capped the evening off with a raucous round of trivia!
Scouting out a new site
Retired shoes
28 Feb 2025
I recently had the opportunity to do some sediment coring on French Island!
We’re hoping to learn about the impacts colonisation had on plants and fire regimes.
It was a gorgeous place, absolutely teeming with wildlife.
Coring setup
D-section
The rare double-selfie
Sadly, gale force winds prevented an archaeology field course from joining us to learn about coring.
We were forced to find another way to spend our Sunday afternoon.
French Island Vineyard
