News

MTEM graduate undertakes PhD in Galapagos

1 April 2010

Master of Tropical Environmental Management (MTEM) graduate, Mandy Trueman, was in Darwin last week, finalising her proposal for a PhD.

Mandy is also working on the final edits of a paper based on her MTEM research, entitled 'Residence time and human-induced propagule pressure at work in the alien flora of Galapagos'. This paper will soon to be published in Biological Invasions.

Mandy completed her MTEM in 2008 as an external student while living on the Galapagos Islands, producing her thesis entitled 'Minimising the risk of invasion into the Galapagos National Park by introduced plants from the inhabited areas of the Galapagos Islands'.

The thesis was jointly supervised by Dr Rachel Atkinson of Charles Darwin Institute, Galapagos, and CDU's School of Environmental & Life Sciences (SELS) academics Dr Penny Wurm and Dr Diane Pearson. Regular supervisory team meetings were conducted online.

Mandy has now been awarded an APA scholarship at the University of Western Australia (UWA) for a PhD to build on this work. Her project, 'Prioritising sites for ecological restoration in the highlands of Galapagos', will be supervised by Professor Richard Hobbs and Associate Professor Kimberly Van Niel at UWA.

Dr Penny Wurm said MTEM graduates are a highly motivated, interesting and dynamic group of people who go on to do many wonderful things in all corners of the world.

"An increasing number are using their MTEM qualifications to apply for higher degree by research scholarships. The first MTEM graduate to do this was Dr Kristin Metcalfe, a Darwin-based environmental consultant specialising in marine impact and management, who completed her PhD under the supervision of Dr Keith McGuinness at CDU," Dr Wurm said.

"Mandy has been extremely productive with her MTEM research foundations and has subsequently co-authored four journal articles, one conference proceeding paper, one local report and two conference presentations based on her research in Galapagos. We wish her every success with her PhD studies at UWA," she said.