AFUW-ACT
Inc. Meeting Report
Topic: REFLECTIONS ON MY JOURNEY AS A YOUNG SCIENTIST
Speaker: Dr KIRSTEN BENKENDORFF
Dr BENKENDORFF spoke at the annual dinner in February. She gained a
PhD in the Biological Science Department at the University of Wollongong.
She won the Science and Technology category of the recent Young Australian
of the Year awards.
Kirsten considers herself fortunate to have been brought up in a family
and society which have encouraged and supported her to research her
own ideas. She hopes to give something back both to the society and
to the natural environment .She has a deep passion and fascination with
all aspects of life on earth.
Her research has been driven by a strong desire to make a difference
to the way we view and interact with the natural environment. As a young
girl she used to watch ants for hours on end enthralled by their diligence
and interactions. In an attempt to discover their secret lives she dug
up a nest. Later she felt ashamed of her thoughtless destruction. Later
she realised that it was sometimes necessary to interfere with nature
if it was for the greater good. Scientists can conduct research in an
environmentally sustainable way if they are aware of potential impacts
they could have on the environment and try to minimise them.
At Macquarie University there were several inspiring mentors. Prof.
Andrew Beattie’s ideas on biodiversity and bioresources appealed both
logically and philosophically. He argued that the deductive powers of
evolutionary biology could be used to identify new bioresources and
that the provision of novel bioresources could be used as an incentive
for the conservation of biodiversity. Kirsten studied ants again but
using modern analytical tools to examine their antimicrobial properties.
Ants live in high density societies and this coupled with their close
genetic relatedness appears to increase their susceptibility to infectious
disease. Her first research endeavour was a success.
The second Honours project involved the slime secretion gland of an
Onychophoran(velvet worm). She learnt a lot of analytical techniques
in this project and worked with an enthusiastic natural historian who
taught her the value of interdisciplinary and collaborative research.
During a summer term at the University of Wollongong , Kirsten discovered
marine organisms, the world of her hero Rachel Carson. She decided to
do her PhD at Wollongong. She became keen to search for potential antibiotics
after seeing her first bright yellow gelatinous egg ribbon of marine
molluscs. Before starting screening molluscan egg masses she had to
find what species occurred along the coast. I managed to confirm that
mollusan egg masses do provide a novel source of bioactive compounds.
The highlight of her research was the isolation and characterisation
of a potent antibiotic.
Kirsten found the conservation implications of her research as important
as the antibiotic. She used the media to get her message across; the
media were keen to push the conservation issues so overall she feels
she had a positive influence on the public’s perception of marine biodiversity.
It is important for scientists to communicate the implications of their
research. An enlightened public can help funding and encourage further
research. The quality of research work produced is likely to be greater
when reseachers are happy and comfortable in their surroundings. Kirsten
chose a scientific career because she loves it and has been fortunate
in being offered a fantastic position in the University of Wollongong.
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