Victorian Marine Science Consortium
To further extend support to young researchers, the VMSC Management Committee has provided a commitment for 5 years to award a prize for best temperate oral presentation or poster, to be made at annual ASFB conferences. The inaugural award was made at the 2010 conference - Climate change and the aquatic environment - the future for fish and fisheries - held at the Melbourne Museum 12 - 14 July 2010.
John's oral presentation titled : Manipulative fish experiments on artificial reefs: a lesson learned about acclimatisation - was judged most outstanding temperate oral presentation.
John is a PhD student at the University of Melbourne and commenced his PhD in 2008. The focus of John's research is rocky reef fish and identifying important pathways for fish movement and areas of reef with high productivity and high conservation value. Project supervisor is Associate Professor Stephen Swearer. Port Phillip Bay is John's passion and he spends all year jumping in under the surface and watching the marine life underneath, even in July!
The 2009 ASFB International Travel Award was awarded to Jodie Kemp (The University of Melbourne) for her paper - “Otolith shape and chemistry to distinguish cod species (Genus Pseudophycis) in the diet of Australian fur seals”.
The $5000 award is based on the submission of a research paper on any aspect of fish biology or fisheries, with submitted papers ranked in order of merit. Jodie was announced the 2009 winner at the 8th Indo Pacific Fish Conference (IPFC) and 2009 ASFB Conference in Fremantle in early June. The award will enable Jodie to attend the 4th International Otolith Symposium in Monterey California USA in August 2009. Jodie will also give the plenary presentation at the 2010 ASFB Conference in Melbourne next July. Congratulations Jodie
The Australian Society for Fish Biology (ASFB) offers postgraduate students the opportunity to apply for funding of up to $5,000. The ASFB has information on these awards including amounts, timelines and how to apply; alternately contact Patrick Coutin, Past-President of ASFB. Congratulations also to Ruben-Lee Roennfeldt (Deakin University), Athol Whitton and Joel Williams (The University of Melbourne) who were recipients of John Glover Travel Awards - provided to assist students attend the conference and present their research.