The Laborastory

Phoebe is a PhD student from RMIT University studying the effects of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and plastic in Antarctic seabirds. She just completed her first Antarctic field season last summer and is slightly obsessed with anything polar.

After planting, pruning, picking, plunging, pumping, pressing, packing, pouring and promoting everything to do with wine, Luke wrote silly short stories for the stage. He's now a student of psychological sciences, and so Luke is combining a past life with a current interest to talk about Dom Perignon and the production of Champagne.

Gary Hime completed his PhD at the University of Adelaide before working as a research scientist at Stanford University and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne where his work is focussed on understanding the genetic regulation of stem cells in development and disease.

Clare Hampson is the creator of award-winning fringe festival live art piece A Window in Mime and has written and performed in comedic plays and sketch comedy shows in the Melbourne fringe and comedy festivals. She script advises for the ABC TV Show The Dr Blake Mysteries and is a long time supporter of Laborastory: she actually came up with the name The Laborastory, and performed at the very first show in 2013. She is a doctor who has trained in anatomical and forensic pathology and now works as a pathology lecturer.

William Bevens completed a Masters of Biomedical Science in 2016 at University of Melbourne, investigating proteins within the placenta and their links to preeclampsia. He has worked at the Office of Adam Bandt helping develop Science and Research policies and helped organise the March for Science. William now works as a research assistant at the School of Population and Global Health at The University of Melbourne.

Sarah Charnaud is a molecular parasitologist studying how the malaria parasite survives in red blood cells with the aim of finding new drug targets to cure this devastating tropical disease. Sarah completed her PhD at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, Australia after moving from malaria drug discovery in London at LSHTM. She was born in South Africa and witnessed the effects of maternally transmitted HIV on young people. Feelings of helplessness sparked her interest in tackling diseases that disproportionately affect the poor and vulnerable. She enjoys collaborating and thinking up new schemes, often while camping or mountain biking in the Australian outback.

Rohan Long is a zoology teacher and collection manager of the Tiegs Zoology Museum at the University of Melbourne. He is a writer, an obsessive birdwatcher, a composer of esoteric music and a palaeontologist with many field season's experience on the early-Cretaceous rocks of the Victorian coast.

Meredith is originally from the US, and no, she doesn’t want to talk about politics. She landed in Australia 13 years ago to study abroad during an arts degree. She is now a proud Melbournian and a doctor in paediatrics, which most people mistake for podiatry. For the record, she does not know anything about your sore feet.

Simon Cropper is a teaching and research academic examining human sensation and perception. He has worked in both physiology and psychology departments in the UK, Canada and Australia and is now in Psychology at Melbourne University.

Samuel Mills researches visual neuroscience. He loves brains, and is fascinated by all the different ways they can play up.