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National Science Week to highlight plastic problem on Australian islands

Launceston residents are tomorrow invited to hear how single-use disposable plastic items are accumulating on remote Australian islands, as part of a special National Science Week event at QVMAG.

IMAS researcher Dr Jennifer Lavers will speak about the environmental challenge posed by marine plastic debris at 7.15pm on Friday 16 August.

Dr Lavers has made global news in recent years through her research on the impact of plastic on remote Henderson Island  in the South Pacific and  Australia’s Cocos (Keeling) Islands (pictured, Jennifer Lavers with Cocos Island plastic. Credit Silke Stuckenbrock), as well as on seabirds that ingest plastic.

Dr Lavers said it was important that the community is able to hear about problems such as those caused by plastic pollution.

“The research being done in Tasmania can contribute to long-term solutions for plastic pollution and, in my case, that means keeping seabirds and our coasts healthy,” Dr Lavers said.

“National Science Week gives us the opportunity to chat with the public about what the research tells us and to answer questions they might have.

“Our work is communicated really well with peers in the academic community, in schools and in the media, but it’s not often we can sit down with non-scientists and chat with them about our work.”

Prior to Dr Lavers, Brittany Trubody, organiser of TastroFest, will discuss the connections between asteroids and the end of the dinosaurs. (6.30 -7pm)  

A new collaboration between the Friends of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) and IMAS, the event includes a lively public discussion, “Space vs. species: The good, the bad, the ugly”, and Q&A. (8.15pm)

The event is part of QVMAG’s National Science Week program, Science Open Season, in their evening events, Nights at the Museum.

When:       6.30pm – 9pm, Friday, 16 August 2019

Where: Theatre Annexe, UTAS/QVMAG, 2-4 Invermay Road, Launceston, TAS, 7248

Authorised by the Executive Director, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
28 October, 2022