‘Mike got people moving!’
Associate Professor Mike Gardner
remembers a valued colleague and mentor.
‘Mike Bull was an extremely positive person who
radiated a kind of infectious enthusiasm. As a supervisor
he could make you feel that you could conquer the world.
He was also extremely efficient at time management – I
have never met anyone better. If you met with him in his
office, at the end of your allotted half hour, he would
simply terminate the meeting by uttering a drawn out
‘ok’ before turning his back and beginning to work at his
computer. In fact, this turned into something of a game
between the two of us, as often I would try to beat him to
the punch by ending the meeting first.
‘I used to wonder why he would volunteer to chair so
many meetings. Mike told me that if you were going to
be involved anyway, you may as well be in the chair,
because then you could ensure things ran to schedule. He
once confided that he sometimes felt as if he may not
give people enough time to talk, but then resolved that,
‘If they haven’t prepared properly, they don’t deserve
any extra time!’
‘Yes, Mike got people moving, but no-one ever felt hard
done by or rushed by him. He treated everyone equally; it
wouldn't matter if you were the Prime Minister.
Professor Michael Bull.
‘The Sleepy Lizard project is such a long-standing piece
of work. I don’t think Mike set out with any idea that it
would last this long, but I don’t think he ever saw an end
to it either; it gave him a lot of enjoyment. It’s nigh on
impossible to obtain funding for long-term research, but
Mike became very adept at spotting opportunities to pig-
gyback short-term projects onto the ‘scaffold’ he had
created at Bundey Bore. Hopefully I can do something
similar.
‘It almost seems as if we have an obligation to continue
this project. I never got the benefit of a ‘hand over’ and
didn’t even manage to sit down to discuss some basics
with Dale Burzacott before he passed away. But I did
inherit an ice cream bucket containing a pair of forceps
and some spring scales that were used for decades to
measure countless Sleepy Lizards in the field!’
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