16
BAMOS
Dec 2017
Regional
Centres
AMOS Tasmania Regional Centre
Activities Summary 2017
Helen Phillips
Tasmanian Regional Centre Chair
The Tasmania Regional Centre of AMOS held two public events
at the University of Tasmania during 2017, as well as our
inaugural early-career researcher event. The 2017 committee
comprised Helen Phillips (Chair), Neil Holbrook (Vice-Chair),
Damien Irving (Secretary), Andrew Klekociuk (Treasurer), Pearse
Buchanan (Student Representative) and general members
Simon Alexander, Kathryn Allen, Zanna Chase, John Church,
Stephanie Downes, Craig Macaulay, Andrew Marshall, Steven
Phipps, Mike Pook, Irina Sakova, Peter Strutton and Carly Tozer.
The Tasmania Centre acknowledges the University of Tasmania
(UTas), National Science Week, and the Australian Institute of
Physics for providing generous support for our events in 2017.
Thanks also to our partner organisations Inspiring Australia, the
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), the Bureau
of Meteorology, CSIRO, the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems
Cooperative Research Centre (ACE-CRC), and the Australian
Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Systems
Science (ARCCSS).
A public lecture and forum was held at the UTas Sandy Bay
(Hobart) campus on Tuesday 15 August and at the UTas Newnham
(Launceston) campus on Wednesday 16th August, run as a joint
collaboration with the Australian Marine Sciences Association
(AMSA) and in conjunction with National Science Week 2017.
Entitled Big changes in “Big Places: Oceans and Ice”, the public
events featured 15 minute talks by Dr Stephanie Downes
(ACE-CRC/UTas), Dr Mathieu Mongin (CSIRO) and Dr Felicity
Dr Heidi Auman with
Laysan albatoross at
Midway Atoll National
Wildlife Refuge. Image
provided.
Graham (IMAS/UTas), followed by a 30 minute panel question-
and-answer session with the audience. Dr Tas van Ommen
(ACE-CRC/Australian Antarctic Division) facilitated as Master
of Ceremonies and provided input for the panel discussion.
Prior to the talks in Hobart, the Tasmania Centre’s 2016 AMOS
Regional Award for Academic Achievement was presented to
Ms Veda Malpress for her outstanding academic achievement in
the Bachelor of Antarctic Science at the University of Tasmania.
There was strong engagement with the audience at both
events, consisting of about 170 people in Hobart and 35 people
in Launceston, including researchers, teachers, academics, and
those outside academia with broad interest in weather, climate
and oceanography. The Hobart event was recorded live and is
available for playback viewing online (https://livestream.com/
UniversityofTasmania/events/7636186).
We held our inaugural early-career researcher event “You’ve
finished the PhD. Now what?” on 24 November at IMAS, UTas.
The event was organised by our student reprepresentative
Pearse Buchanan and sponsored by ARCCSS. Seven speakers
from academia, government and industry reflected on “Career
pathways post-PhD: opportunites and missed opportunities”.
The well-attended event was followed by informal discussions
and pizza. Pearse was the first student representative in our
regional centre and has made a big impact in a short time.
We hope to continue what Pearse has begun and continue to
strengthen student involvement in AMOS.