A hot future for sharks

SEB member and marine biologist, Jodie Rummer (James Cook University), has been awarded the highly prestigious L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Australia Fellowship.

A hot future for sharks

Jodie and Natarsha Belling Credit L'Oreal Australia-In txt
Jodie Rummer (right) with Natarsha Belling (left) at the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Australia Fellowship event.Photo:L’Oréal Australia

By Sarah Blackford

SEB member and marine biologist, Jodie Rummer (James Cook University), has been awarded the highly prestigious L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Australia Fellowship. The award was presented in September at a ceremony in Sydney by Karen Andrews, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Science, and Rodrigo Pizarro, Managing Director of L'Oréal Australia & New Zealand.

Jodie, who was one of our plenary speakers during the ‘Science with Impact’ session in Prague earlier this year, is fascinated by fish and their ability to deliver oxygen to their muscles 20 to 50 times more efficiently than humans. Her global research into salmon, mackerel, hagfish, and now sharks explains why fish dominate the oceans, and has given her the opportunity to swim with sharks in the world’s largest shark sanctuary, in French Polynesia.

Her L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Fellowship will help her predict how sharks and other fish will cope with rapidly changing oceans - some will be winners, some will be losers as the climate changes. That’s a problem not just for the oceans, but also for the communities that depend on fish for protein. “Fish have been on the planet for hundreds of millions of years. It’s up to us to ensure they’re here for the next 100 million years,” she says.

With the recent publication of her book “Successful strategies for women in science”, Jodie is a long-term advocate for women in science, and has been a consistent contributor to the SEB’s women in science events. Find out more about her work at www.jodierummer.com/

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