16
BAMOS
Dec 2018
Regional
updates
AMOS Tasmania Regional Centre
Activities Summary 2018
Dr Helen Phillips
Chair, Tasmania Regional Centre
The Tasmania Regional Centre of AMOS held two public events
at the University of Tasmania during 2018, as well as an early-
career researcher event. The 2018 committee comprised 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.
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 2018.
Thanks also to our partner organisations Inspiring Australia,
the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, the Bureau of
Meteorology, CSIRO, the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems
Cooperative CRC (ACE-CRC), and the ARC Centre of Excellence
for Climate Systems Science (ARCCSS).
In May we had the pleasure of hosting Dr Joëlle Gergis from the
University of Melbourne for the Tasmanian launch of her book
“Sunburnt Country—The History and Future of Climate Change
in Australia”. A lively group of around 120 people joined us on
16 May in the Stanley Burbury Theatre of UTas for the event in
Hobart. Joëlle’s presentation was followed by a Q&A session
facilitated by MC Prof Nathan Bindoff.
A public lecture and forum was held at the UTas Sandy Bay
(Hobart) campus on Tuesday 14 August and at the UTas
Newnham (Launceston) campus on Wednesday 15 August
in conjunction with National Science Week 2017. Entitled
Observing our Oceans and Ice: High Tech Solutions for a Hostile
Environment, the public events featured 15 minute talks by Dr
Beatriz Peña-Molino (CSIRO), Assoc Prof Guy Williams (UTas) and
Dr Mark Curran (ACE-CRC/Australian Antarctic Division). The
talks were followed by a 30 minute panel question-and-answer
session with the audience. Dr Tony Press (ACE-CRC) facilitated
as Master of Ceremonies and provided input for the panel
discussion. Prior to the talks in Hobart, the Tasmania Centre’s
2017 AMOS Regional Award for Academic Achievement was
presented to Ms Chelsea Long for her outstanding academic
achievement in the Bachelor of Marine and Antarctic Science at
the University of Tasmania. There was strong engagement with
the audience at both events, consisting of about 120 people
in Hobart and 20 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 at:
https://livestream.com/UniversityofTasmania/events/8330077.
We held our annual early-career researcher event “Always
wondered what you really learned during your PhD?” on 30
November at IMAS, UTas. The event was organised by our
student representative Wilma Huneke and sponsored by the
ACE-CRC. Career counsellor Mr Peter Tatham led the session,
which was aimed at identifying skills that PhD students and
post-docs have that are readily transferrable, and marketable, to
jobs within and outside academia. Nineteen students and post-
docs attended the session and some stayed on for one-on-one
sessions with Peter afterwards.
The AGM for the Tasmanian Centre will be held in mid-December.
Tasmania Centre plans for 2019 include (i) a public lecture and
forum in conjunction with National Science Week (August)
at the University of Tasmania on the theme “Marine Plastics:
Finding solutions by linking science and community”, which
will be organised in partnership with the Tasmanian branch of
the Australian Marine Sciences Association, (ii) a continuation
of our early-career researcher forum, and (iii) the award of the
2018 AMOS Regional Award for Academic Achievement at the
third year undergraduate or Honours level (UTas).
Chelsea Long receives her award from TAS Centre Chair
Helen Phillips with Chelsea's supervisors Dr Andrew Moy
(left) and Dr Mark Curran (right) at IMAS. Retake of the
presentation as we forgot to take a photo on the night.
Roscoe Blake (pictured with Chelsea) looks on bemused.