If you are interested in any of the work that we are doing and want to discuss becoming a researcher in our lab, we always have new and exciting projects on offer, so please get in touch via email at a.gilpin@westernsydney.edu.au.
Nicola Tsoutis
Nicola is an undergraduate student at WSU. She is currently being supervised in writing a critical review looking at the ground nesting requirements of ground-nesting bees and wasps, with a focus on observing gaps within the Australian literature for future research. She hopes to be able to form a better understanding of the diversity and importance of pollinators, and to continue researching them in later projects.
Griffin Pickard
Griffin is a WSU undergraduate student interested in the behaviour and ecology of Australian native pollinators. He recently completed a summer scholarship project looking at the nesting behaviour of native burrowing bees. Griffin hopes to continue researching native bees and will happily drop everything to hang out in nature and watch insects.
Matthew cunningham
Matt was a Summer Scholar Student 2021-22. During the Summer Scholarship Matt’s research focussed on understanding the interaction between honeybees and native bees on a communal floral resource. Matt is currently a research assistant studying the ecology and nesting behaviour of the ground-nesting bee Leioproctus fulvus.
Rose Harper
Rose is currently undertaking a Master of Research exploring the behaviour and interaction between native bees and the introduced honeybee in a variety of natural field-based systems as well as manipulative experiments.
Sindhu Sheoran
Is a current PhD candidate at Haryana Agricultural University and Western Sydney University and is supervised by Dr Sunita Yadav, Prof Sally Power and co-supervised by myself. Sindhu’s research focusses on the effects of landscape floristic diversity on pollinator performance and crop pollination efficency. 2020-present.
Andrew Williamson
Andrew is a current Master of Research student at Western Sydney University and is supervised by myself and co-supervised by Prof Sally Power and Dr Rachael Nolan. Andrews research focuses on the impact of fire on the flowering phenology of spotted gums along the NSW coast. Andrew also undertook a Summer Scholarship and Undergraduate research project which focussed on understanding the impact of bushfire on plant-pollinator networks in apple orchards. 2021.
Lena Schmidt
Lena successfully completed her PhD at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University under the supervision of Prof Sally Power and was co-supervised by Prof James Cook, Dr Paul Rymer, Dr Paul Gibson-Roy and myself. Lena’s work focused on developing a locally adapted climate ready Australian seed mix to support and conserve native pollinators in agro-ecosystems. 2018-2022.
Olivia Gobran
Olivia successfully completed an Honours at the University of Sydney where she was supervised by A/Prof Tanya Latty and co-supervised by myself. Olivia’s research focused on determining how highly attractive plants influence visitation and potential reproductive success of neighbouring species. 2021.
Laura Lopresti
Laura was a Honours student at the University of Wollongong where she was supervised by Dr Karen Sommerville (Royal Botanic Garden Plant Bank) and A/Prof Todd Minchinton and co-supervised by myself. Laura’s work focused on the floral biology, pollination vectors and breeding system of rainforest Rutaceae. 2020.
Gina Herrmann
Gina was a Summer Scholar research student at WSU and was supervised by Dr Amy Churchill, Dr Jinyan Yang and myself. Gina’s research investigated the effect of drought and decreased frequency of rainfall on flower production in a grassland community using phenocam imagery. 2020-2021.
Casey Forster
Casey undertook an internship at WSU. Casey developed a plant and pollinator field guide for apple growing regions in NSW. 2019.
James Listberger
James undertook an internship at WSU. James developed a plant and pollinator Field Guide for apple growing regions in NSW. 2019.
Jesse Cass
Jesse was a Third year Research Project student supervised Dr Amy-Churchill, Dr Jinyan Yang and myself. Jesse’s research focused on understanding the effect of drought on the flowering phenology of grasslands and the implications for pollinators using phenocams. 2020.
Tia Tyler
Tia was Summer Scholar research student at WSU and was supervised by myself. Tia’s research focused on understanding the effect of drought on flower diversity, abundance, duration and pollinators within a grassland community. 2019-2020.
Isabelle Atton
Isabelle was an Honours student at UOW. Isabelle’s research focused on the pollination biology, mating systems and early life history of two endangered saltmarsh chenopods and was supervised by A/Prof Todd Minchinton UOW and Dr Karen Sommerville Mt Annan Botanic Garden and co-supervised by myself. 2017
Keira Leahy
Keira’s was an Honours student at UOW. Keira’s research focussed on heat stress, dispersal and early life history of endangered coastal saltmarsh plants and mangroves and was supervised by A/Prof Todd Minchinton UOW and Dr Karen Sommerville Mt Annan Botanic Garden and co-supervised by myself. 2017.
Ana Gracanin
Ana undertook a 2nd year research project, supervised by Prof David Ayre and myself which sought to determine the fidelity of honeybees with distance from magnet species. Ana also undertook an internship with A/Prof Todd Minchinton and myself investigating pollination of saltmarsh plants. 2015-2016.
Justin Collette
Justin undertook a 3rd year research project to determine the germination and fitness of seed from co-evolved bird pollinated plant by introduced honeybees and was supervised by Dr Mark Ooi and myself. 2014