A/Prof Leanne Armand

Can you ask THAT question? Of course you can!

Have you always wanted to ask a senior academic a burning question but didn’t feel you could? Well this is the session for you! This very interactive session will be in the style of the TV programs Q&A and You Can’t Ask That. Leanne will attempt to answer your challenging/humorous/advice seeking questions based on her experiences of an academic lifestyle, not knowing what question is coming next. All questions welcome – from: 

• Asking your advice on… 
  
• Have you experienced…? 
  
• How have you dealt with…? 
  
• What do feel is important for…?
  
• Did you make mistakes?
  
• Did you feel pressure under diversity constraints?
  
• What is your favourite diatom?
  
• … and any others that you want to ask! 
  

With just one-two minutes to answer each question, Leanne will provide some unforgettable insight into her career, her working life, and her personality.

Biography

A/Prof Leanne Armand is the new ANZIC (Australian and New Zealand International Ocean Discovery Program Consortium) Program Scientist and an ANU RSES researcher. She is currently a council member of the International Society of Diatom Research (2016-2019) and the representative for ANZIC on the National Marine Science Committee.

Prior to her current appointment, A/Prof Armand was a member of the Dept of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University (2009-2017). At Macquarie, A/Prof. Armand established and convened the unit "Biology in Practice" a skills-based course for 1st year biology students (2016-2017). She was the Director of the Marine Science undergraduate programme (2010-2013), course convenor of BIOL121 (Marine Biology and Ecosystems) and MAR201 (Introduction to Marine Science) and was a supervisor to Merit Scholars, Master and PhD students. A/Prof Armand was the first Director of the national Collaborative Australian Postgraduate Sea Training Alliance Network (CAPSTAN) designing a Master-level training at sea program with the Marine National Facility on the RV Investigator (2013-2017), and was a Deputy Director of the MQ Marine Research Centre (2015-2016).

A/Prof. Armand has also held post-doctoral positions at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem CRC in Hobart, Tasmania. While there she was the first Australian awarded an European Union Incoming Marie Curie Fellowship (FP6, 2005-07), which she undertook at the University of Marseille, France, in collaboration with Prof. Bernard Quéguiner. During this time, she focused her research on the living diatom community of the Southern Ocean near Heard and Kerguelen Islands where she has contributed knowledge to the understanding of diatom community responses and the export of their carbon to the seafloor because of their population explosion under the annual, naturally iron-stimulated, spring bloom. A/Prof. Armand completed her PhD in 1998 at the Australian National University under the guidance of Prof. Patrick DeDeckker and the late Dr Jean-Jacques Pichon (Univ. Bordeaux I, France).

In 2007 A/Prof. Armand was awarded the Australian Academy of Science's Dorothy Hill award for her excellence in palaeoceanographic research and also the Bigelow Laboratory's Rose-Provasoli award. In 2014, she received an U.S. Antarctic Service Medal for service on the U.S-led Sabrina Coast Mission on the RVIB N.B. Palmer.