Keen to hear what our Young Geographers are up to? Join us for the annual RGSQ Young Geographers Forum to hear three outstanding young researchers present on topics ranging from volcanic rainforests to coastal geomorphology to coral reefs. Each presenter will share a 15-minute overview of their work followed by an opportunity for group Q&A to round off the evening. This will be a hybrid in-person and online event.

Our first speaker, Annie Nguyen, will share work from her recent PhD at the University of Tasmania which investigates the factors behind plant biodiversity in forests underlain by volcanic bedrock in eastern Australia. Her research aims to unravel the factors contributing to the distribution and unique biota of these forests, revealing the intricate interplay of geology, soil and climate that shapes these biodiverse ecosystems.

Our second speaker, Dylan Cowley, is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of the Environment at the University of Queensland. His research focuses on the interaction between coastal geomorphology and oceanographic processes and how these interactions change over multiple decades, utilising land and sea observations and numerical models.

Our final speaker, Olivier Decitre, is an aspiring marine biologist and nature photographer completing a Master of Marine Biology at James Cook University. His research focuses on streamlining deep learning object detection algorithms for conservationists and ecologists, transforming complex data labels into user-friendly maps and actionable insights for real-world applications. Utilising drone imagery from the Great Barrier Reef, his research specifically focuses on the detection and mapping of giant clam observations.