ABOUT ME

I’m from Aotearoa, and throughout my journey has led me to the land down under, where I currently reside. My first research experience was at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), where I looked at the effects of run-off sedimentation on the growth of marine bivalves. I then moved to fish ecology with the Large River Research group at the University of Waikato, investigating the role of floodplain habitats on the recruitment of larval fish. Near the end of my undergraduate degree, I took on a project investigating scent discrimination behaviour in the tuatara.

 

I then went to The University of Queensland, Australia for my Honours degree, examining the burrowing energetics of skinks as well as the comparative morphology of related species. Continuing my interest in reptiles allowed me to assist with projects on how lizards run bipedally, and role of the cloaca in salt balance in crocodiles. Afterward, I pursued a PhD program in the ECO-Lab looking at how emerging infectious diseases such as chytridiomycosis disrupts frog skin function. From 2019–2021, I was appointed as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at The University of Sydney, where I looked at how plastic pollutants influenced animals' response to climate change, followed by a Postdoctoral Research Fellow position at Western Sydney University looking at the vulnerability of Australian bats to white-nose syndrome with the BatsLab.