Lee is a Murdoch University PhD student studying the DiCOM® process, with project 7. This project aims to investigate and optimise the process, combining composting and anaerobic digestion of solid waste in a single closed vessel.

After completing his degree in science education, Lee taught high school mathematics and chemistry for 20 years. He wanted to inspire students to work in the exciting field of science … and somewhere along the line Lee inspired himself. He recently graduated from Murdoch University with an Honours degree in biotechnology. His honours project, sponsored by Environmental Solutions International, was to investigate nitrous oxide emission from sequencing batch reactor treatment of domestic wastewater.

Lee's interests are varied and include spending time with family, photography, woodwork, snorkeling and gardening. Being born and raised in Western Australia, he enjoys hot, dry summers and lazing around the pool. Lee's ambitions include improving the quality of people’s lives, to be a great husband and dad, and to work overseas. Lee is married with two lovely children and his wife is an assistant accountant who keeps him in the manner to which he has become accustomed.

Luke Burow is a PhD student at The University of Queensland (UQ), studying microorganisms critical to pollutant removal from wastewater. Science has been of interest to Luke since high school, especially the biological sciences. His majors as an undergraduate student were genetics and microbiology and during his honours degree developed a fascination for microbes in the environment. Luke presented his honours work entitled “Is their a role for rumen protozoa hosting Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli at the Australian Society for Microbiology at their Annual scientific meeting in September, 2002.

In the following 12 months Luke gained industry experience working for a Brisbane-based biotechnology company. During this time he won a UQ postgraduate research scholarship and started considering further study. In 2004 Luke was offered a scholarship from the Environmental Biotechnology Co-operative Research Centre (EBCRC) and is currently working within the Advanced Wastewater Management Centre (AWMC) on the EBCRC project; Biological nutrient removal from high strength wastewater.

Luke’s work involves investigation of the function of microorganisms responsible for phosphorous removal in abattoir wastewater. For the first time the gene sequences that encode for these organisms metabolic functions will be investigated using a suite of molecular tools including DNA cloning, sequencing microarray technologies.

Quach is a Macquarie Uni PhD student studying Cryptosporidium proteomics. He graduated from UNSW with a Bachelor of Advanced Science and a Bachelor of Arts.

His honours thesis was completed through the CSIRO’s Molecular Science Division. It was on the ‘Proteomic Analysis of the Effect of Transition Metals on Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans’ (biomining bacterium).

Quach was then offered a job at Macquarie University to study the role of Integrons and its correlation to Antibiotic Resistance in Vibrio with a focus on DNA.

Realising he was more interested in proteins, Quach accepted an EBCRC scholarship to study the proteins of Cryptosporidium. The purpose of his project is to construct a proteome map and determine proteins involved in pathogenicity among Crypto-species, hopefully resulting in diagnostic development.

After completing his PhD, Quach is keen to go out and get some international experience and see how other scientific organisations do research.

In his spare time, Quach loves to eat and socialise, hit a few rounds of tennis, and draw. Growing up in Wollongong, he also loves having close access to the beach where he spends most of his summer.

After finishing high-school, Jessica worked full-time for a year in the retail industry, and started her Science undergraduate degree at University of Queensland in 2000. In 2001/2002 she received an EBCRC Summer Vacation Scholarship to complete a 6-week research project. The project was entitled ‘The Twin-Arginine Translocation (TAT) system in E. coli’ and was carried out with Professor Alastair McEwan in the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology. Jessica graduated from Bachelor of Science in 2002 with Biochemistry and Microbiology Fields of Study, and was awarded the UQ Microbiology Prize for 2002.

She completed her Honours project in 2003, entitled ‘Phenotypic analysis of an ntrYX mutant in Rhodobacter capsulatus’, in the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, also with Professor Alastair McEwan.

Jessica received an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) scholarship and was accepted for PhD candidacy at the University of Queensland in early 2004. She has been interested in conservation and sustainable living since primary school, and has recently joined the Greens Party and The Wilderness Society in order to further these interests.

Jessica received a top-up scholarship from the EBCRC in March 2004 to assist her with her work on the P2 (Bioproducts) project. The aim of my PhD project is to better understand the metabolism of volatile fatty acids such as acetate and butyrate in purple photosynthetic bacteria. Jessica uses the laboratory strain Rhodobacter sphaeroides as a model organism for this work, which will form a basis for the manipulation of these organisms in order to produce valuable products from agricultural waste streams. On a personal note, Jessica enjoys cooking (and eating!), reading and travelling and have recently taken up dynamic yoga.