Summary
Once again Antarctica is under threat with the proposal by Senator Barnaby Joyce to have mining sanctioned by the Australian Government. Dr Tracey Rogers, presenter of the 2006 J D Stewart Address at the University of Sydney Faculty of Veterinary Science, is one person whose long experience studying Leopard Seals and other marine mammals in their icy habitat can demonstrate the importance of the Antarctic continent to the world’s environment, and how these mammals can help us monitor climate change. Dr Rogers is a distinguished ecologist with a PhD from the Faculty of Veterinary Science. She won a 2005 Young Tall Poppy Award, created by the Australian Institute of Political Science to recognise outstanding young scientists, and is Director of the Australian Marine Mammal Research Centre, a collaborative research venture between the Zoological Parks Board of NSW and the Faculty of Veterinary Science. Tracey is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the Faculty, and a supervisor of PhD students undertaking research in Antarctica. She received her doctoral degree in 1997 and has been conducting research on seals and cetaceans in Antarctica, Australia and New Guinea for the past fifteen years. A highly experienced Antarctic researcher, Tracey is accustomed to spending part of each year clambering over pack ice and ice floes to study up-close one of the Antarctic’s most dangerous predators, the Leopard Seal. Her hair-raising descriptions of tracking these large animals by helicopter and small outboard inflatable boats demonstrates great dedication to her field. But what do these animals have to tell us about climate change and our environment? Dr Rogers will address these and other issues when she delivers the annual J D Stewart Address at the University of Sydney on Thursday 6 July, 2006. Dr Rogers has been the subject of National Geographic documentaries and advised the BBC Natural History Unit. She has been the scientific advisor on a number of documentaries about climate change and its impact in Antarctica, and has published numerous papers in scientific journals and written books on the subject. Tracey is a gifted photographer and her unique images of Leopard Seals and other marine wildlife will provide a compelling backdrop to her Address. (Gosh I hope so) As Professor Leo Jeffcott, Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science, says,” It is very fitting that, at a time when Antarctica is once again under discussion, we have one of our renowned alumni talking about her research and its importance to all our lives.”