2007

Premier Anna Bligh announced the 2007 Queensland - Smithsonian Fellows on 19 November 2007.

Dr Jennifer Beard

Dr Beard is an acarologist at the Queensland Museum at South Bank.  Her project focuses on developing methods for identifying peacock mites, which are increasingly recognised as being of major economic importance due to the damage they cause to crops, in particular citrus and avocados.  The project will also gather information on peacock mites' relationships with host plants, their distribution and ecology.

Jenny will work with world mite experts at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland.

The improved tools generated by this project will help Australian and international quarantine organisations make accurate and scientifically based decisions on biosecurity and also contribute to realising an environmentally sustainable Queensland.

Dr Peter Pollard

Dr Pollard is a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University.  His project will examine links between the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by terrestrial plants and that produced by aquatic microbes to address a major gap in our knowledge of the global carbon cycle, that is the difference between the amount of CO2 taken up by the world's major forests and the amount returned to the atmosphere.

Peter will be collaborating with three major research units of the Smithsonian Institution: the Centre for Tropical Forest Science, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

The project will contribute to improved understanding and management of Queensland's tropical and subtropical creek, stream, river and lake ecosystems and their catchments to support an environmentally sustainable Queensland.

Ms Olivia Robinson

Ms Robinson is a Senior Policy and Project Officer in Indigenous Library Services at the State Library of Queensland.  She will research innovative Indigenous engagement strategies which have been implemented at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian's facilities in Washington DC, Suitland Maryland, and New York.

The project will enhance Olivia's knowledge, skills and experience in engaging Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders in projects and programs.  In turn, this will strengthen the initiatives of the State Library of Queensland which extend beyond traditional library services to support cultural heritage preservation, Indigenous knowledge transfer, reconciliation through public programs, and Indigenous skills development.

It is also hoped that this research will foster collaborative projects and information sharing between the State Library, the National Museum of the American Indian, and Indigenous people in Queensland and the Americas.

Olivia is a Bidjara woman, whose traditional country is in southwest Queensland, and she is the first Indigenous Queenslander to be a recipient of a Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship.