Meet an enviro scientist

Join us in celebrating the United Nations’ International Day of Women and Girls in Science and learn first hand about career opportunities and pathways that exist in environmental science.

Hear from four women working in different areas and discover if a career in environmental science is for you! More details to come.

This event is designed for VCE students. Bookings essential.

Speakers
Angela Simms - Ecological Consultant

Angela is a ecological consultant at an engineering firm. Angela work involves conducting biodiversity surveys across a range of projects, from ongoing monitoring programs to large-scale infrastructure projects. These surveys include searching for threatened species such as striped legless lizards in grasslands, to greater gliders and owls within forests. Angela is also in the final year of her PhD, where she has pursued her passion in research working on freshwater turtle conservation within the Murray River. Her research investigates questions surrounding headstarting freshwater turtles to try and bolster declining populations within the Murray River.

Mandi D'Ombrain - PhD student
Mandi is in the final year of her PhD, working on deer - which, although very cute, were introduced to Australia and have major ecological impacts. With an interest in conservation and genetics, her research involves developing genetic techniques to help monitor deer to inform management, and she is currently working on methods to estimate age. She previously completed her Masters in collaboration with Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary, researching genetics of the endangered Matted Flax-lily (Dianella amoena), which we are lucky enough to have at our Bundoora campus.

Jacinta Humphrey - Urban Ecologist
Dr Jacinta Humphrey is an urban ecologist working to make our cities more wildlife-friendly. Her research explores the concept of 'Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design' and aims to find opportunities to create habitat for native animals in residential streets, parks, schoolyards and gardens. For her PhD, Jacinta investigated the influence of urban development on birds and suggested ways to help conserve birds in cities. 

Berenice Della Porta - Soil Scientist
Berenice is a PhD candidate at La Trobe University working on soil condition and biology across different farming systems, as part of a large project called the Farm-scale Natural Capital Accounting. Her research focuses on unpacking the complexity of soil microbial communities through a combination of fieldwork and laboratory analyses, linking these communities to established soil physicochemical properties and management practices. By doing so, her project aims to develop improved metrics of soil health that can support farmers and inform decision-making for sustainable land management and agricultural production

Naomi Hodgens
Naomi is a Wildlife Detection Dog Officer for Zoos Victoria, training dogs to assist our field biologists in locating and monitoring some of Victoria’s most endangered species. Naomi received a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Queensland in 2008, with double majors in Wildlife Biology and Conservation and Park Management. Due to her special interest in animal behaviour, particularly canine behaviour, Naomi began investigating the possibilities of utilising dogs in wildlife conservation. In 2012, Naomi completed a Certificate III in Dog Behaviour and Training. Naomi completed her Honours degree at the La Trobe University, Anthrozoology research group in 2017, where her research explored the effects of different training models on the dog-human relationship. Since then, Naomi has trained dogs to locate targets such as Spotted-tail Quoll scat, Fresh-water turtle nests, Greater-glider scat, Alpine Stone-flies, as well as current projects for Zoos Victoria including Platypus, Baw Baw Frogs, Victorian Grassland Earless Dragons and Broad-toothed Rat scats. Naomi’s interest in research continues with a current project researching methodology for training detection of Frog odours and Oestrus and Lactation detection from Tasmanian Devil scat samples.

This event is part of the National Sustainability Festival.