Michelle Waycott

As a botanist (#iamabotanist) I have so many areas that interest me and which I work on. I believe that we should share our knowledge and expertise as a member of the community, and seek to do that in my Professional roles. 

I currently have a position as the Professor of Plant Systematics at the University of Adelaide, School of Biological Sciences and am also the Chief Botanist for the State Herbarium of South Australia. The Herbarium and the South Australian Seed Conservation Centre, are the science team within the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium within the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. My research team investigate questions of taxonomic, systematic, evolutionary and population genetic processes, often working at the interface of these disciplines. I have a particular (some say peculiar) interest in seeing even the most fundamental of our science applied in decision making. I also have a love for many groups of plants, for example I have worked for more than 20 years on seagrasses, the peculiar submerged marine plants that are found around the world in shallow waters and which play an important role in coastal ecosystems. I have studied their evolution, ecology, management and general biology but also am reviewing their taxonomy and evolutionary systematics which these days we do with amazing genomic molecular genetic tools that allow us to get DNA sequences and compare regions of the genome from hundreds and thousands of loci to inform our questions, its an exciting time to be a molecular geneticist.
 Collecting seagrass in San Blas Panama (some time ago... ;)

My group today continues to work on seagrasses but we also have research into many groups such as those I share with John Conran–Drosera and carnivorous plant evolution, many groups of monocots, tracking down just what the fossils are in new and old deposits and improving our understanding of the South Australian flora.

Since becoming the Head of the Herbarium in South Australia in 2011 I have seen great fluctuations in the interest and support that managers, decision makers and the community at large have in the work some in the field of biological systematics. Given it is such an exciting area–discovering new species, supporting decisions about conserving and managing the native species diversity of Australia, uncovering amazing features of our plants and animals and sharing these with the community and even revealing historical facts about our collections or our flora–we do not do a great job of getting other people excited by the fruits of our labour.

I view a commitment to improving the way we value biological systematics in the Science and Policy sectors as crucial to our future.