Graduate Profiles

Ben Galton-Fenzi - continues to study the ice shelfs of Antarctica

Ben graduated in 2004 with Honours in Environmental Science. His Honours project was part of an international attempt to implement a worldwide network of sea-level sensors to detect rising sea-levels due to global warming. Ben is continuing his research with a PhD at the University of Tasmania >> more

Joshua Byrne - WA presenter on ACB's Gardening Australia

Environmental Science graduate Joshua Byrne, who is a familiar face at Murdoch University's Environmental Technology Centre (ETC) has become the new presenter for ABC's Gardening Australia. He is the story presenter for WA along with Matthew Lunn from Curtin University and will be researching, writing and presenting stories with an environmental sustainability focus. His stories include topics such as organic gardening, water conservation, creating a urban habitat, backyard food growing and organic waste management.

Josh started out as a guest on the show in 2000 which featured the home permaculture garden that he set up as a student in Environmental Science. They liked him so much that they asked him to join the team. However, travel plans and further studies in the Environmental Science honours program deferred his decision until 2004 with his first story going to air in mid July 2004. In addition, he will also be writing stories for Gardening Australia magazine on the practicalities of sustainable gardening.

Highly motivated, Josh is also doing his PhD, is a tutor and a Professional Officer at the ETC. He feels that his studies at Murdoch have helped in getting this job as it gave him a good grounding in natural and physical sciences. Being a passionate gardener, especially in sustainable gardening, has also helped >> more

For more information, contact Josh at J.Bryne@murdoch.edu.au

Christina Mykytiuk – environmental project officer at World Wildlife Fund

Christina is a Wetland Watch Project Officer with the World Wildlife Fund and is involved in community education and awareness-building of wetland issues, increase the ownership of long-term conservation tools such as management agreements, conservation covenants and promotion of suitable incentive packages.

Christina graduated with an Honours degree in Environmental Science and felt that her honours program gave her the opportunity to test all the skills that she had gained and gave her the confidence to go out and work in the real world.

She loves her job as she works with a wide range of people from all walks of life – school children, community groups, private landowners and local governments. “Being able to educate them about wetlands and why we should look after them and seeing people’s attitudes change,” she added, are the highlights of her job.

For more information, contact Christina at cmykytiuk@wwf.org.au

Dr Catherine Baudains - Lecturer in Environmental Science and Environmental Education

Catherine is a Lecturer at Murdoch University. Environmental education has always been Catherine's overarching research interest. The question which most fascinates her is ‘what makes some people act in environmentally sustainable ways even at personal cost, while others choose not to act in these ways even when it may not be difficult to do so?’

Catherine graduated with First Class Honours in Environmental Science in 1998 and went on to complete her PhD in Environmental Science in 2003 with research combining elements of policy, organizational culture and theory, educational and self regulation of learning theory and transport practice in order to address change in commuter behaviour (TravelSmart).

Catherine's principle area of expertise is environmental education but she has an interest in all aspects of environmental science and education as she feels a broad understanding of both disciplines is important to the development of environmental education as a tool for achieving sustainability. Her greatest interest is in the development of environmental behaviours into social norms and the possibilities for environmental protection through improving the ways in which humans interact with the environment on a day-to-day basis.

Catherine's believes that her Honours and PhD qualifications gave her the necessary skills to support her current role as Lecturer in both the School of Environmental Science and School of Education.

For more information, contact Catherine at C.Baudains@murdoch.edu.au