Cameron Ralph
First Class Honours 2003-04
Thesis title: “The effect of egg location in the nest on developmental success in leatherback turtles.”
Published as: Ralph C. R., Reina R. D., Wallace B. P., Sotherland P. R., Spotila J. R., Paladino F. V. (2005) The effect of egg location and respiratory gas concentrations in the nest on developmental success of the leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea. Aust. J. Zool. 53, 289-294.
Since finishing Honours, Cameron worked in animal welfare for about a year and a half and then began a PhD at Melbourne Uni on environmental stress and the physiological adaptations that animals employ to cope. It focuses mainly on hormone partitioning and delivery of cortisol to target organs. At the moment he is on 12 months leave of absence and is working as an environmental consultant in Western Australia. Aside from that Cameron is also building a website and a not for profit organisation to improve mental health in young people and equip them with the skills they need to manage their illness (see www.peoplelikeyou.com.au). Cameron says that the skills he learned from studying science have not only helped his career but have also helped him understand mental illness whilst enabling him to educate and teach young people, peers and colleagues. Through studying science he gained the skills and knowledge that he needed to become very effective at teaching and motivating because he can accurately convey information to an audience or reader.
Tom Daniel
First Class Honours (Environmental Science) 2004-05
Thesis title: “Group behaviour in little penguins (Eudyptula minor) and the factors affecting their attendance patterns at Phillip Island, Victoria.”
Published as: Daniel T. A., Chiaradia A., Logan M., Quinn G. P., Reina R. D. (2007) Synchronized group association in little penguins, Eudyptula minor. Anim. Behav. 74, 1241-1248.
After finishing honours Tom worked as native English teacher at a local primary school in Hong Kong for 6 months. When he returned, he completed a post grad certificate in GIS at Melbourne University because it seemed a necessary skill to get jobs in the environmental science field. He then worked as a labourer for almost a year while looking for jobs in environmental science before getting a 6 month contract with Parks Victoria as a Summer Ranger, based at Rosebud working in the national parks situated from Mornington Peninsula to Frankston. Tom is now working as a research assistant for a freshwater ecology project in the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University, monitoring the restoration of small creeks in agricultural areas within the Murray Darling Basin. His day to day activities include a combination of field work, laboratory work, data management and analysis and some report writing.
Kavitha Chinathamby
First Class Honours 2004-05
Thesis title: “The effects of salinity on the survival, growth and development of tadpoles of the brown tree frog, Litoria ewingi
Published as: Chinathamby K., Reina R. D., Bailey P. C. E., Lees B. L. (2006) The effects of salinity on the survival, growth and development of tadpoles of the brown tree frog, Litoria ewingii. Aust. J. Zool 54, 97-105.
After completing honours in mid 2005 Kavitha spent some time working in the retail industry while deciding on career directions. In early 2007 she successfully obtained a PhD scholarship at RMIT investigating the responses of freshwater fish to endocrine disrupting chemicals in our waterways.
Rebecca Graham
First Class Honours 2005-06
Thesis title: “The age-dependent effects if salinity on the growth, development and survival of brown tree frog (Litoria ewingii) larvae.”
After completing honours Rebecca worked for 6 months at the Melbourne Wildlife Sanctuary, Latrobe University starting as a regular volunteer and soon became involved in running and designing education programs to primary-secondary students. The very 'hand-ons' programs focussed on ideas such as wetlands, life cycles, arboreal habitats, macroinvertebrates and recycling. As well as giving the students an outside classroom experience, these programs also improved her general knowledge of Australian habitats, and her presentation and organisation skills.
She was then offered a position with an engineering consulting firm Kellogg Brown & Root as a Graduate Environmental Scientist. Working within the Water and Environment group, her position involves providing specialist services to clients in the environmental impact assessments of infrastructure projects. Mainly working within Victoria, she writes management plans and flora and fauna reports, conducts site inspections and undertakes flora and fauna surveys. It is a great start to a career in the environment sector.
Pamela Fallow (Gibbons)
First Class Honours 2005-06
Thesis title: “The effect of flipper bands on the diving behaviour of little penguins (Eudyptula minor).”
Published as: Fallow P. M., Chiaradia A., Ropert-Coudert Y., Kato A., Reina R. D. (in revision) Flipper bands alter diving behaviour in free-ranging little penguins in the short term. Journal of Wildlife Management
Pam majored in genetics and zoology then during her honours year of 2005-2006 studied the effect of flipper bands on the diving behaviour of little penguins. She said that the honours year was very different to the rest of the undergraduate degree and provided an introduction to scientific research. In late 2006 she began employment at Applied Biosystems- the world’s largest life science company. Pam is currently a PhD student at the ANU in BoZo (School of Botany and Zoology) studying avian alarm call systems and interspecific communication in passerines.
Emma Dalton
First Class Honours 2005-06
Thesis title: “The leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea: a model to test age related reproductive hypotheses.”
Emma’s honours work involved spending 5 months in the field in Costa Rica studying leatherback turtles. Her passion for combining biology and conservation resulted in her obtaining a PhD scholarship at Monash University in mid 2006, studying the ecological basis for nesting beach and nest site selection in leatherbacks, in order to understand the reasons for leatherbacks using some beaches and not others. This information will be important for designing effective management and conservation programs for these critically endangered animals.
Janosch Hoffmann
First Class Honours 2005-06
Thesis title: “The diet and foraging movements of the little penguin at Rabbit Island, Victoria.”
Jansoch spent time working and travelling since completing honours and is finishing up a manuscript for publication on his results. He is currently a PhD student at the ANU.
Pia Lentini
First Class Honours 2006-07
Thesis title: “Effects of salinity and intraspecific competition on tadpoles of the brown tree frog, Litoria ewingi.”
Pia is taking some time off study to get together some money to travel and to get professional experience (especially in project management). She is currently working full-time for the Parks Forum in Fitzroy, who are the peak industry association for park management agencies in Australia and NZ. Parks Forum run conferences and workshops, collect information about best practice and benchmarking, publish industry information, run field trips and peer reviews etc. As executive officer Pia is in charge of the admin side of things, plus getting to dip a toe in all of the projects. She also just got assigned to organising the Parks Volunteer Network, which is cool. Aside from that she’s still coaching gymnastics part time, doing a bit of volunteering at the marine discovery centre, hiking, rock climbing and snorkelling as much as possible. Pia’s plan is to start a PhD at 25, when she’s a little more experienced and world-weary, that is unless working in an office gets to her, in which case it may well be sooner.
Marcus Salton
First Class Honours 2006-07
Thesis title: “The effect of colony attendance during the non-breeding season on the breeding biology of the little penguin, Eudyptula minor.”
Since completing honours Marcus has presented his research at the 6th International Penguin Conference in Hobart and worked at Healesville Sanctuary as a keeper in both the reptile department and the animal hospital. His work was husbandry-based, and he was also given the opportunity to talk to the public about conserving the environment, as well as furthering knowledge of the general biology of various native animals. He is now a research assistant at Phillip Island Nature Park, working on a monitoring program on the little penguin colony.
Bethwyn Lewis
First Class Honours 2006-07
Thesis title: “Hypotheses for the unique inclusion of shelled albumen in the clutch of the leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea.”
After completing Honours, Beth returned to Perth and is working as an Environmental Scientist with 360 Environmental Pty Ltd. Her main role has been in terrestrial fauna surveys and documentation – from invertebrates to vertebrates.
Gabi Miller
First Class Honours 2007-08
Thesis title: “The effect of temperature on life history traits of an Australian tadpole, Litoria ewingii”
Since completing honours, Gabi has continued working in public libraries on a casual basis, to help fund her growing scuba diving addiction. As life is expensive, Gabi is always looking for other casual work, preferably in the sciences, and is quite happy to work in labs as an RA. Apart from being very good at customer service, Gabi has gotten herself a supervisor and a project for a PhD at James Cook University. The project will be examining the effects of climate change on coral reef fishes. If all goes to plan and someone is willing to pay her, Gabi will commence her PhD in May 2009.
Nicole Kowalczyk
First Class Honours 2007-08
Thesis title: “Sensitivity of leatherback turtles, Dermochelys coriacea, nesting activity to lunar and tidal cycles.”
Once Nikki completed her thesis focusing on the reproductive behavior of leatherback turtles, she had to complete her final semester of primary education as part of her double degree BSc/BEd. She is now applying for teaching positions that will enable her to draw on her science and education knowledge.
Paula Wasiak
First Class Honours 2007-08
Thesis title: "The role of shell grit ingestion in the reproductive biology of the little penguin."
Since finishing honours Paula has been working at Wild Action where through hands on interaction she teaches school children all about our native vertebrates, insects and rockpool creatures. She keeps a kit of snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs and even a wallaby and crocodile at home that she takes with her each day. Nothing gets the heart pumping like an early morning croc wrangle. Paula is working on a manuscript for publishing her results from honours.
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