Meet The Team

Dr Jennie Mallela

Dr Jennie Mallela is a multidisciplinary researcher whose research team focuses on understanding and responding to real world coral reef problems. Jennie is located across the ANU Research School of Biology and Research School of Earth Sciences and actively engages with colleagues from other disciplines.

Jennie has been selected as a 2019/2020 Superstar of STEM. Superstars of STEM is an initiative from Science & Technology Australia which aims to increase the visibility of women in STEM and to challenge society’s gender assumptions about science. Jennie is passionate about science knowledge transfer and incorporates students into her research at every level. Jennie also teaches students coral reef research skills out on the reef.

Watch this video clip of ANU students to hear firsthand about their amazing Great Barrier Reef experience.

brooke mills

Brook is a passionate marine science and science communication student with a particular interest for marine biology as well as herpetology.

Through her studies, she has completed projects on both Lizard Island and One Tree Island on the Great Barrier Reef. Through her passion and study, she has developed an understanding of coral reefs and their significance to other biomes.

Sofia Dalla Costa

Sofia is a Science Communication masters student at the Australian National University with a passion for marine biology and animal behaviour.

Her love for science has lead her to complete projects on a range of projects from birds, molluscs, dogs, marine invertebrates, and fiddler crabs, but her love of marine animals will always outweigh any other.

Luke Hillsley

Luke grew up going to the beach almost every holiday so it’s safe to say the ocean was part of his childhood. As a result, he has always been interested in marine life and is now studying a Bachelor of Science majoring in Marine Science at the ANU.

He is heading to One Tree Island at the end of the year to participate in a coral reef field studies course and when he's not studying he can be found drinking coffee, listening to music or browsing SkyScanner for flights to somewhere exciting and exotic!

Laura Twigger

Laura is a chemistry and marine science student here at ANU with a passion for science communication. As Kanye once said, “What good are all our scientific discoveries if we don’t share it with the rest of the world!” Okay Kanye never said that, but she did.

Her goals in life are to meet Neil deGrasse Tyson, witness the moment the world reaches net-zero emissions, and also maybe do a cartwheel one day too