Introducing … Dr Isabel C. Metz
Research associate at the German Aerospace Centre
Program Manager, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Feather Identification Lab
Barely a month after his 75th birthday, Dutch aviation ornithologist of world standing, Luit (pronounced Lute) Buurma died as a result of a massive heart attack.
Andrew Walters started his latest role at Melbourne Airport in May 2021 somewhat inauspiciously. Quarantined in a Sydney hotel at the height of COVID, he spent his first couple of weeks as the airport’s manager, airfield operations, managing via Teams meetings, with his wife still living in Dubai and 4 months pregnant.
Jeff Follett has had a different career path to the average wildlife biologist. ‘It’s certainly not been a direct line,’ he says. Born and bred in the US state of Minnesota, he completed a bachelor of science degree there majoring in fisheries and wildlife management. When he graduated, ‘everyone in my course had a hard science degree and wanted to go out and work with wildlife’, but Jeff and his wife took a different path. They joined the Peace Corps, (the American equivalent to Australia’s Volunteers Abroad program) and had a long stretch working overseas on humanitarian programs. They had two years in South America, where Jeff worked with an agricultural organisation, and worked in agroforestry.