BAMOS Dec 2017
17
The Annual General Meeting of the Tasmania Regional Centre was held at CSIRO on 8th December. The meeting commenced with an invited talk by Dr Heidi Auman( IMAS) who gave a fascinating description of the appalling impact of marine plastics on seabirds. Heidi( opposite) has studied human impacts on seabirds for most of the past twenty-five years. A pioneer on the research of plastics ingestion, she lived on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in 1993 – 2000, studying the effects of marine debris and contaminants on Laysan albatross. Heidi demonstrated that our ecological footprint has reached the farthest corners of the earth, with disturbing consequences.
The office bearers of the 2018 AMOS Tasmania Regional Centre were elected at the brief AGM. They are Helen Phillips( Chair), Simon Alexander( Vice-Chair), Damien Irving( Secretary), Andrew Klekociuk( Treasurer), Wilma Huneke( Student Representative), and General Members Kathryn Allen, Zanna Chase, Neil Holbrook, Craig Macaulay( Media, Ex-officio), Steven
Phipps, Mike Pook, Irina Sakova and Carly Tozer. We farewelled Andrew Marshall, Pearse Buchanan, Stephanie Downes, John Church and Pete Strutton. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to them for their efforts on behalf of AMOS, their good humour and collegiality.
Tasmania Centre plans for 2018 include( i) a public lecture and forum in conjunction with National Science Week( August) at the University of Tasmania on the theme“ Advances in Technology”, exploring new possibilities in marine and Antarctic research that are becoming possible with new technological capability;( ii) a continuation of our early-career researcher forum in association with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science; and( iii) the award of the 2017 AMOS Regional Award for Academic Achievement at the third year undergraduate or Honours level( UTas).
ACT Centre in 2017
Jeff Kingwell, ACT Centre Chair
The highlight for our Centre in 2017 was hosting the very successful AMOS Annual Conference. This was held in conjunction with the Meteorological Society of New Zealand Annual Conference and the Australia and New Zealand Climate Forum, at the Australian National University, Canberra, 6 – 10 February. Despite heatwave conditions for part of the time, with the maximum temperature reaching 41 º C on the final day, the conference was attended by around 450 delegates.
Special thanks are due to Clem Davis, the Conference Convenor; Jeanette Dargaville, AMOS National Executive Officer; and John Taylor, Chair of the Scientific Committee, who did outstanding jobs in making the Conference such a success.
In March we held a Student Meeting, to thank undergraduates those who helped with the Conference, and also for more experienced members to answer questions about careers in meteorology and related fields. The 2016 student prizes were also acknowledged. 2016 student prizes were awarded to Zac Hatfield-Dodds, Timothy Hume and Fangqin Chen.
On 19 and 20 August the Centre assisted the Scouting movement by giving presentations on“ Wild Weather” to scouts aged from six to over 15, at the camping centre on Cottermouth. Thanks to Clem Davis for not only organising but also carrying out these presentations.
I would very much like to thank the 2017 Committee— Clem Davis, James Goldie, Bob Cechet and Jay Larson— for their support in what for me( and others) has personally been a very difficult year.
I also thank the Australian National University and the Fenner School for the use of conference and meeting facilities during the year.