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Lessons from the Lower Mekong
RIEL PhD student Luke Preece on completing his PhD and co-authoring 3 chapters in a new book. “It was a dream PhD for quite a while, up to the second three years of writing and revisions.” Luke Preece says. “I really have to express my appreciation to my supervisors for their years of effort and patience, especially through the writing and revision period! But in the beginning it was just wonderful.” In lieu of his imminent graduation this week, former RIEL PhD student Luke is reminiscing about the research he [...] Read more »
Plight of the Postdocs
Words: Dr Tom Rayner Fresh PhD graduates are symbols of hope: little beacons of promise that glimmer across the dark sea of academic cynicism, ready to be built into shining suns of super-science. When I started my first post-PhD position, my responsibilities were made very clear, ‘I want you to write papers, get grants and co-supervise students’. I now realise that I was one of the lucky few. I had unwittingly swanned into a lab where a combination of flexibility, freedom and focus was the order of the day. I [...] Read more »
It’s snowing outside, let’s talk about fire
What do tropical fire ecologists do when they choose to experience a European winter for their holidays? Apart from relaxing on Deutsche Bahn trains watching snow-clad landscape whiz past, immersing themselves in decades of history (conveniently summarised by walking tour guides in the major cities), realising that Christmas traditions make sense in a cold climate, treating themselves to sublime musical performances and hope that they remember how to ski? They visit the Global Fire Monitoring Centre in Freiburg, in southern Germany (http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/ ). RIEL’s Bronwyn Myers and CSIRO’s Dick Williams [...] Read more »
Giant birds, tropical forests and indigenous cultures: a field trip to the southern Philippines
In February this year, RIEL colleague Hmalan Hunter-Xenie and I travelled to Mindanao in the southern Philippines to learn more about conservation, livelihoods and indigenous culture in the region. The Philippines is biophysically opposite to northern Australia. It is an archipelagic nation of over 7,000 islands. It is mountainous, with dramatic peaks rising to over 2,500m and numerous active volcanoes. Of course, the Philippines’ ecosystems have been significantly altered due to population pressure. In 1900, around 70% of the archipelago was covered with forests. By 1999, that coverage had reduced [...] Read more »
