Mark Hamann
Favourite Thing: My favourite thing about science is that it gives me the freedom to explore, learn, travel and teach. I don’t usually work on experiments and most of my research involves traveling and camping, catching animals in their environment and learning from them.
My CV
School:
Dover High & Brighton High
University:
Flinders Uni & University of Qld
Work History:
Charles Darwin University, IUCN in Vietnam, QLD Government and James Cook University
Employer:
James Cook University
Current Job:
Lecturer and research scientist
Me and my work
I am a marine biologist who works with marine animals – such as turtles, dugongs, dolphins and sea snakes
I am a marine biologist working in two main areas of research. The first area is studying the biology of marine wildlife such as sea turtles 
. I have worked all over northern Australia and overseas studying sea turtles and using the information to help look after them 
. Part of my work involves being part of Australian and International panels like IUCN to improve turtle management.
The second area of research involves trying to understand and reduce the impact of plastic pollution in our oceans on animals, thousands of critters are dying each year because they swallow small fragments of plastic 
.
The other main parts of my work involve giving lectures to students and advising Masters and PhD research students. My students are amazing, and they look at many different aspects related to marine systems.
My Typical Day
My typical day involves meetings with students to discuss their projects, answering email and research tasks.
My working days are all very different. I generally start the day by catching up on overnight email. I do my own research 
and schedule any new meetings for Mon & Tues – these include staff meetings etc. Wednesday’s are typically when I organise my lectures and practical material for Thur and Fri classes. Thursdays are spent meeting with students (6 PhD students by 1 hour each) and giving a lecture (1 hour). Similarly, on Friday I start the day with a 9am lecture and then continue with student meetings. In between all of this I also have to respond to ~ 50-100 emails per day.
This schedule works really well most of the time, but it fall apart when i travel. In a typical year I would spend around 3 weeks doing research field work – mostly in Torres Strait. Plus I spend a few weeks a year travelling for various conferences and meetings.
My Interview
My profile link:
https://boron.imascientist.org.au/profile/markhamann/