CV

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy, Biology - January 2025
  • The Australian National University, Canberra
  • Thesis: “Systematic bias in phylogenetic methods: investigating the adequacy of the treelikeness assumption”
  • Supervised by Dr. Robert Lanfear, with Dr. Minh Bui, Dr. Maja Adamska, and Dr. Barbara Holland
  • Research areas: phylogenetics, evolutionary biology, bioinformatics
• Bachelor of Science (Honours, First Class) - November 2018
  • The Australian National University, Canberra
  • Honours thesis: “Detecting introgression in multiple sequence alignments: a new test for quantifying treelikeness”
  • Supervised by Dr. Robert Lanfear and Dr. Minh Bui
  • Coursework: evolutionary biology, chemistry, systems engineering, biomedical engineering

Work experience

• Research Officer (R package development): 26/08/2024 - present
  • National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, ANU
  • Developer of R package PoolTestR and Shiny app PoolTools
  • Duties included:
    • Created documentation and tutorials for development team and end users
    • Transformed R package functions into a user-friendly Shiny app with accessible GUI
    • Developed a test suite for an existing R package
    • Added new classes and generics to an existing R package
    • Developed and implemented new features to facilitate checking the formatting of user datasets (and test for common errors present within user datasets).
• Bioinformatician (Genome assembly and analysis): 27/05/2024 - present
  • National Collections and Marine Infrastructure, CSIRO
  • Duties included:
    • Developed Snakemake pipeline from existing BASH and SLURM scripts
    • Structured Snakemake pipeline to meet diverse end user analyses
    • Documented methods and approach for end users
    • Adjusted existing R and Bash scripts for use on high performance computing servers
• Research Assistant (Climate modelling): 11/2017 - 11/2017
  • Australian National Wildlife Collection, CSIRO
  • Duties included:
    • Used daily climate data and niche modelling software to model incubation temperature for wild specimens of bearded dragon, while accounting for uncertainty in age and location
    • Developed a model for predicting the hatching date and nest location for wild bearded dragon specimens, based on capture location and life stage.
    • Collated over 10 years of research data (lab notebooks, spreadsheets, other documents) into machine-readable database to facilitate data analysis

Professional development

• Graduate of Homeward Bound 7, 2022-2023
  • One of 109 women selected globally to participate in a year-long leadership program for women in STEMM with focuses on Leadership, Strategy, Visibility and Science
  • Fortnightly workshops with topics including strategic planning, developing a personal leadership philosophy, intersectional leadership, science communication, and personal and professional visibility
• Organising committee member of graduate student conference, 2020
  • Research School of Biology (RSB) Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Student Conference
  • Logistics and organisation including planning program, and providing support on the day for registration and conference sessions
• Mentee, paired with a postdoctoral researcher, 2019 - 2022
  • ANU Research School of Biology (RSB) Higher Degree by Research (HDR) mentoring program
  • Met fortnightly with my postdoctoral researcher mentor to plan and progress my scientific career
• Science outreach and volunteering, 2014 - 2016
  • Committee member of student-led STEM outreach organisations including Engage: University Outreach, Fifty50 ANU, and Robogals ANU
  • Independently recruited, trained and managed volunteers
  • Created and maintained relationships with local and rural schools
  • Designed and ran programs such as a mentoring program for first-year women in engineering
  • Planned and attended multi-day trips to teach engineering workshops to students in rural areas
  • Managed budget and financial reporting
  • Recorded and reported program outcomes to stakeholders

Awards and funding

• Secured funding for Homeward Bound program ($7000), 2022
  • Secured funding for the 2022-2023 women in STEMM leadership program
  • Awarded by Research School of Biology, Australian National University
• Visualise Your Thesis runner-up ($500), 2019
  • Awarded by The Australian National University
• RSB Director’s Prize in Honours ($500), 2018
  • Awarded by the Director of the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University
• Undergraduate travel award recipient ($405), 2018
  • Awarded by the Genetics Society of AustralAsia
• Angus Nicholson Honours Scholarship in Science ($7500), 2018
  • Awarded by the College of Science, The Australian National University
• CSIRO Summer Research Scholarship ($7500), 2018
  • Awarded by the National Research Collections of Australia
• Lisa Brodribb Scholarship for Women in Engineering ($5000), 2016
  • Awarded by the College of Engineering and Computer Science, The Australian National University
• New Columbo Plan Mobility Grant recipient ($3000), 2015
  • Awarded by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government
• Lisa Brodribb Scholarship for Women in Engineering ($5000), 2014
  • Awarded by the College of Engineering and Computer Science, The Australian National University