The majority of studies into the Australian orchid flora and associated funga have thus far been narrow in scope and focused either on a macro- or microevolutionary scale. In this thesis, I studied the Australian terrestrial orchid flora and its associated funga as a unified system spanning from the macro to microevolutionary scale.

Plants synthesize an amazing diversity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that facilitate interactions with their environment, ranging from attracting pollinators and seed dispersers to protecting themselves from pathogens, parasites, and herbivores.

This seminar is presented by Dr Emily Stringer and Dr Jarrod Sopniewski, Postdoctoral Research Fellows from the Centre for Conservation Ecology and Genomics at the University of Canberra.

Many flowering plants have evolved diverse strategies to communicate with and attract animal pollinators. We have discovered exciting new evidence for the role of anthocyanins and terpenes in the evolution of the highly diverse terrestrial orchid subtribe Caladeniinae (Diurideae).

Using case studies from my research on black-cockatoos and a formal partnership with Bush Heritage Australia, I will discuss how bioacoustics’ focus on machine learning and analysis over the last decade has now landed us in a place to use the technology in applied conservation settings.

Dietary shifts—particularly the inclusion of animal resources—were pivotal in human evolution, yet direct evidence of meat consumption in early hominins remains limited and debated.

By addressing key modeling challenges in mass spectrometry and tissue image analysis, this research advances the scalability, precision, and applicability of deep learning in clinical genomics, computational pathology, and personalized medicine.

Cognition plays a vital role in survival and reproduction, yet individuals often differ in their cognitive abilities. In my thesis, I investigated the combined influence of prenatal corticosterone (CORT) — the primary GC in reptiles — and incubation temperature on cognition in two species of skink.

Hidden in plain sight and often going unnoticed, animals are undergoing changes in their behaviour, physiology, and morphology to survive an urban life. In this seminar, I will focus what my work on eastern water dragons has taught us about urban evolution.

Weird as it may seem, our understanding of why species are the size they are is very limited. We don't really know why organisms grow, why they stop growing when they do, or why size changes when conditions change.

A fundamental goal of evolutionary biology is to understand the processes that contribute to patterns of genomic variation and how this relates to adaptive variation (phenotypes) and ultimately fitness.

While the path by which a scientific advance is made is not particularly relevant to science itself, the path is everything for practicing scientists.