Jen Matthews

After working as a marine biologist and conservation manager in Thailand, Jen decided to pursue a PhD on the ability of corals to adapt to climate change.

Jen stands outside, looking off to one side. Behind her is the Ministry for Primary Industries sign, a street and traffic lights.

“The Marsden project that my PhD was part of utilised both field and lab work to answer a pivotal question about the adaptive ability of coral reefs. I was able to develop new lab techniques, gain field experience, collaborate with scientists around the world and present my findings at international conferences.

“Currently, major gaps exist in our understanding of the nutritional flux between reef-building cnidarians and their phototrophic algal symbionts (Symbiodinium sp.), but greater in-depth knowledge is of paramount importance for understanding the potential for coral reefs to adapt to environmental change.”

During her PhD, Jen developed and applied several important methodological advances, including the integration of gene expression and metabolite-profiling techniques, to unravel the molecular and metabolic implications for cnidarians when they harbour different Symbiodinium types.

“My work raised the intriguing possibility that such novel pairings, should they persist, may evolve over time to a more beneficial symbiotic state, providing an adaptive potential for coral reefs in the face of climate change.”

Jen says that the University offered academic and extracurricular opportunities that broadened her expertise, not just in marine science, but also in writing and communication, leadership, innovative thinking and the art of collaboration.

After submitting her thesis, Jen worked at the Ministry of Primary Industries, initially in the fisheries science team and, subsequently, in the marine biosecurity investigation team. But her determination to continue a career in research saw her search for postdoctoral opportunities all around the world.

“I’ve been awarded a Human Frontier Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Technology, Sydney. This project will employ state-of-the-art molecular, imaging and microbiological techniques to investigate marine microbes.”