SPEAKERS
ABSTRACT SPEAKERS
ALEX ROMANO
Alex Romano is an Ornithologist working in the Terrestrial Vertebrates and the Citizen Science teams at the Australian Museum. With a Bachelor in Science (Zoology), and Master of Research from Western Sydney University, Alex has keen interests in Avian Ecology, specifically their Thermal Physiology.
ANDREW SIMPSON
Andrew Simpson has worked with natural history, social history and art museums and
collections in the higher education sector of Australia. He was director of an undergraduate and postgraduate museum studies program for 10 years. Currently he works with the Macquarie University Art Gallery and holds a postdoctoral research affiliation with the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney. He has written extensively on the museology of the academy includin the book “The Museums and Collections of Higher Education” Routledge 2022. He has been active in ICOM mainly through UMAC as their journal editor (2016 – 2025) and Board Chair (2022 – 2025). He has served on ICOM’s Strategic Allocation Review and Evaluation Committee (SAREC) and worked on several multi-partner SAREC projects. He was recently appointed to the new ICOM Standing Committee on Decolonisation.
JUSTINE PHILIP
Justine Philip is an environmental historian and printmaker based in Bendigo, Australia. She is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Schoolof History and Cultures, University of Birmingham, UK, and holds a BSc in Scientific Photography, a Master of Animal Science, and a PhD in Ecosystem Management. Justine's research as a postdoc on the ERC-funded MaMoGH project, The Making of Monoculture: A Global History, revealed a lack of visual culture documenting global food systems and inspired her travelling exhibition project
titled The Museum of Monoculture (2025–2027). This evolving collection of screenprints and photogravure draws on her experience as a museum photographer at Museums Victoria, to document agricultural landscapes and habitats.
KERRY ETHERINGTON
Kerry Etherington is a Project Conservator in the Collections Care and Conservation team at the Australian Museum. Her work focuses on natural science collections, and she has experience with a wide range of materials, including taxidermied specimens, skeletal remains, skins and wet specimens. Her current projects involve the conservation of large-scale taxidermied marine specimens, including a bump-head sunfish and the holotype of
the reef manta ray.
LUCY SCHRADER
Lucy Schrader is a heritage collection data professional from Aotearoa New Zealand. At Te Papa she mobilised collections data, images and research widely including through GBIF and Wikipedia. She is currently freelancing and was previously a board member for Wikimedia Aotearoa.
MELISSA JULLIARD
Melissa Juillard is a Collection Care Conservator working within the Collection Care and Conservation team at the Australian Museum since 2020. She completed a Bachelors in Archaeology and Art History before completing her Masters in Cultural Materials Conservation from the University of Melbourne.
RUNGTIP WONGLERSAK
Rungtip Wonglersak is a research and curator at the National Science Museum (NSM), Thailand. She works in Department of Natural History Research, Division of Ecology. She is an ecologist who studies how insects respond to environmental change, especially how rising temperatures affect insect body size. Her work connects natural history collections with climate-change research and public engagement.