Justine Djajadikarta

What exactly does your work entail?
I currently help manage the Marine Invertebrates Collection at the Australian Museum, which means I work with and handle all the specimens from a collections management perspective. This involves:

• Updating the data and quality of specimens. The various forms in which specimens are kept range from alcohol preserved to dry specimens, microscope slides, SEMs, genetic material and even pictorial collections to name a few.

• Aiding in the 'promotion' of specimens toward other scientific and educational Institutions. Scientists will have a particular research project and we would help them, whether it be for taxonomical, genetic, geographical data or reference specimens to help in their research.

• I organise loans around the world to make use of the important specimens.

• The museum is also forever collecting new material - I would help sort these specimens to particular Orders (for example) and place them into the collection for future interest/registrations. In most cases there would always be an interested scientist working on a project, and having fresh specimens is always ideal.

• I also assist with general curation of specimens as it is important in maintaing their value- for example we have specimens collected from the Endeavour, which are of high historical significance and so need to be preserved.

What part of your work inspires you the most? Why do you find it interesting?
The Australian Museum holds around 1.5 million registered specimens in its current Marine Invertebrate Collection. It also contains roughly 9000 type specimens and is ever expanding. With the diversity and interests of Scientists around the world there is always new research, explorations and findings occurring globally. It is the passion of each individual scientist contributing to the world of Marine Biology that inspires me to help aid in future scientific progress.

Do you find the skills you learnt during your degree useful and versatile? If so, how?
In some cases yes. Although its the skills you learn at work, through the people that surround you that I find most helpful.
In my current profession the ability to apply taxonomy and marine invertebrate nomenclature is highly desirable. Along with the idnetification of marine specimens off hand.

What have been your ‘best’ professional achievements?
The best would have been 'processing' of animals from start to finish from recent expeditions; that being the Kermadec Biodiscovery Expedition. I was first to sort the specimens, prepare them for identifications, send the desired specimens to various institutions of interest, help aid scientists with the writing of paper against collection data, and help further research in finding new species and adding them to the Marine Invertebrate Collection.

What was it like to study at UTS Science?
UTS provides a hands on approach to science. A perfect way to learn and understand science from a 'base-level'.

They provided field trips to work with particular plants/animals and see the physical workings of an ecosystem and its processes.  The lecturers were helpful in their teaching processes, and allowed for independent learning to become a strong point for each student.