Travel story: Georgia Clarke

Georgia Clarke from the Robinson Research Institute travelled to Christchurch, New Zealand in November to attend the Society for Reproductive Biotechnology Annual Conference and to participate in a two-week lab visit.

This is what Georgia had to say about their experience:

What was a highlight of the travel?

The 2-week lab visit. It was so great to be able to work in another environment and meet with the students, forming new friendships.

Please provide details on any researchers or collaborators of significance that you met at the conference and why they are important to your work?

I met with various people during my time in New Zealand to assist with postdoc positions I am interested in. I met with Prof Rachel Taylor, Dr Mei Peng and Dr Teo Georgescu.

I also attended a guest lecture session and the associated dinner with guest Prof Jaideep Bains (neural circuits behind emotion). It was a nice opportunity to lead about his work and talk casually over dinner. 

How will the experience support you and your research going forward?

Both events are important in creating links and possibly opening up an international postdoctoral position for myself since I am nearly at the end of my PhD candidature. In my opinion, moving labs after a PhD, and in particular travelling overseas, is important in becoming a better researcher as it shows versatility, independence, increases knowledge links and makes your more competitive for grants if you move back to Australia. Within this trip I visited 3 labs in total, all within the field of clinical and pre-clinical work and supporting food intake or pregnancy adaptations.

What was the most exciting thing you learned/experienced as part of your travel?

I was invited to attend a native Marae. Including first nation people within research in New Zealand is essential to improving health outcomes within the community and also being successful with research funding. Within this Marae we had had a welcome event where we sang native songs and learnt about their culture and what they believe in before the researchers translated their findings and how it can help the community. I have never been to an event like this before (not even within Australia) and I think it’s a really nice way to blend communities and break that culture gap which exists. These connections are crucial in going forward and is something we should think about doing within our indigenous communities. It was quite daunting not knowing the songs and not being able to know how to introduce yourself in native language, which is very readily used before all events held within NZ.

What was the most interesting or unexpected moment of your travel?

Being able to observe lactating mice being plugged into the fibre photometry set up. Hard to pin point one interesting aspect, all things lab related (CNE is very brain specific and that’s very different to any experiments I currently do). Even just being able to make nice connections with other PhD students.