Dr Tina Bell
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Biography |
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My undergraduate and postgraduate studies were all based at the University of Western Australia. I completed my PhD research in 1996 which investigated the fire and nutrient response of heathland species in the family Epacridaceae (supervised by Prof. John Pate and Dr Kingsley Dixon). I continued with this research theme using heathland species from the families Ericaceae, Restionaceae and Poaceae as a Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of Cape Town in South Africa in 1996 and 1997 (supervised by Prof. William Stock). I returned to the University of Western Australia as a Research Associate (1997-2000) and Teaching and Research Fellow (2000-2002) before moving to Creswick to work in the area of fire ecology.
In September 2009 I will be going to the University of California, Berkeley for three months on a Professional Scholarship awarded by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission. I will be studying the effect of smoke on the physiology of leaves of wine grapevines. The effect of smoke from prescribed burns and bushfires on this economically important crop has gained attention in the media and the law courts in recent years in areas of both Australia and the United States. My research will investigate how significant exposure to smoke is for growth processes such as respiration and photosynthesis.
To find out more, go to: http://www.fulbright.com.au/events-and-media/media-releases/MediareleaseAustralian2009.html