ACSA Australian BioBlitz Symposium 2022 - Presenter Bios

Dr Larissa Braz Sousa - A recent PhD graduate at the University of South Australia, Larissa is a biologist and science teacher from Brazil, with a large passion for education, science communication and public health advocacy. Larissa also has a Masters degree from the Sao Paulo State University. Her doctorate research focused on citizen science mosquito surveillance to enhance public health literacy and education outcomes. Larissa is a co-founder of the Not for Profit citizen science organisation 'Ferox australis' and an organiser of the 'Great Southern Bioblitz'.

Michelle Neil ACSA Social Media Moderator

Michelle is with Stephen Fricker the Founder of the very successful and growing Great Southern BioBlitz, now in its third year

In 2011 Michelle’s young son presented her with a spider. A redback spider. After convincing her son not to pick up spiders but to take pictures of them instead Michelle soon found she had over 7000 photos of all sorts of creatures and no idea what any of them were called. Thus a citizen scientist is made. In May 2014 Michelle was invited by Earthwatch to attend the Australian Citizen Science Associations Inaugral Workshop in Brisbane. She found herself co-chair of the Communications Working Group. Michelle and Jessie Oliver co-developed ACSA social media (Twitter, Facebook, & LinkedIn). Since then Michelle, with her orange coloured ipad clutched firmly in one hand, has been an active social media moderator, poster and tweeter for the ACSA social media platforms. Having worked in analytical chemistry for over a decade Michelle finds herself in an interesting place – a scientist as well as a citizen scientist, with a passion for science communication

Associate Prof. Will Cornwell UNSW

Will’s research interests lie at the intersection of plant eco-physiology, community ecology and ecosystem ecology. He is especially interested in using basic ecological tools, especially functional traits, to understand the effects of climate change on terrestrial biodiversity.

Will is one of the leaders of the Big Bushfire project series of BioBlitzes this year.

Dr Judy Friedlander

Dr Judy Friedlander is the founder of the environmental not-for-profit organisation, Planting Seeds Projects, whose flagship program is the B&B Highway. The B&B Highway – Bed and Breakfasts for Bees, Birds and Biodiversity – is an educational and practical program that links B&Bs at infants, primary and high schools to form regenerative corridors – with over 100 schools in three states by early 2023. Citizen science is a vital part of the B&B Highway educational program with teachers and students inspired by how citizen science helps biodiversity and links in interesting and creative ways to curriculum.  The National Schools B&B BioBlitz being run 1 -9th September in National Biodiversity Month has the support of the Department of Education and the CSIRO’s Atlas of Living Australia and has already signed up over 110 schools. Judy is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS and has had an impressive media and journalism career in newspapers (The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian) and television.

Thomas Mesaglio

Thomas Mesaglio is a PhD student at the University of New South Wales researching knowledge of, and species discovery in, Australian plants. He is also a curator on the platform iNaturalist and a forum moderator on iNaturalist's discussion forum. 

Much of Thomas’ research has focused on using iNaturalist data to answer questions relating to ecosystem recovery, identifiability across different taxa, and improving citizen science data quality, but he has also worked on bushfire recovery, marine forensic science and invertebrate taxonomy and ecology., and has made over 33,000 observations on the site, in addition to 215,000 identifications made for other users. He is also a regular BioBlitz organiser and participant, having organised the City Nature Challenge and Great Southern Bioblitz for Sydney, and the three recent Big Bushfire BioBlitzes across NSW.

SUVARNA PARBHOO MOHAN

Ass Director: Custodians of Rare & Endangered Wildflowers (CREW) Citizen Science Programme

Threatened Species Unit //  Directorate: Biodiversity Assessment

Chair: Botanical Society KZN Coastal Branch

Co-Chair: IUCN-SSC southern African Plant Specialist Group

Libby Hepburn

Libby is Chair of the Atlas of Life project on the far south coast of NSW. The Atlas is now in its 11th year and in that time Libby has organised a BioBlitz nearly every year. Libby brought the UK model of BioBlitzes to Australia and has shared the ideas and approach with many, leading the working group which produced Australia’s Guide to Running a BioBlitz in 2015.

Libby is also Vice-Chair of the Citizen Science Global Partnership Interim Board and co-chair of the global CS & Open Science CoP and is now working with UNESCO on the Implementation of the OS Recommendation.