Our big star shuns the limelight
HOBART marine ecologist Jess Melbourne-Thomas was thrilled to have been named Tasmanian Australian of the year earlier this month but said part of her still felt unworthy of the honour.
“It’s still sinking in, and I kind of half expect someone will call me any day now and say it was a mistake, they want the award back,” she said.
Dr Melbourne-Thomas, 38, of Neika, has always been drawn to studying nature, having grown up in a family where outdoor activities like hiking and scuba diving were the norm.
She received a Rhodes scholarship in 2003 to allow her to further her research at Oxford University and she works for the CSIRO in Hobart as a transdisciplinary researcher and knowledge broker, essentially making the agency’s research easier to understand for members of the public and politicians.
She has been on a billboard in Hobart but she finds any kind of public exposure quite amusing, preferring to let the science be in the spotlight instead.
Read the full interview inside in TasWeekend