About Claire Brandenburger

Claire is a PhD candidate at UNSW Sydney where she is looking at the rapid evolution of introduced plants. Her study species is the South African beach daisy which arrived in Australia in the 1930s. As part of her research, Claire has been growing South African plants and Australian plants side-by-side in the UNSW glasshouse. She has discovered that in less than one hundred years the Australian plants have rapidly evolved changes in almost every aspect of their biology, including the way they look, photosynthesise, defend themselves and reproduce. This has important implications for how we manage these plants…are they still unwanted weeds from somewhere else, or are they evolving into a unique new Australian species?

About Hayden Schilling

Hayden Schilling is a final year PhD student at the University of New South Wales. Hayden works with NSW Department of Primary Industries and recreational fishers to study the ecology of Tailor, the iconic fishing species. He is interested in how fast they grow, what they eat, where they live and when they reproduce. Hayden also helps to teach classes in marine science and oceanography for undergraduate and masters students.

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UNSW BEES 3 Minute Thesis Competition