Episode 105: Dr Britta Denise Hardesty (CSIRO)

Craig's interview guest in this episode is Dr Britta Denise Hardesty who is a Senior Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Environment and is based in Hobart. Denise is world renowned for her work in marine plastics research, an area she has been involved in for the past 16 years; taking a risk-based approach to addressing the impacts of plastics on wildlife, people, and economies. Her work also focuses on drivers for litter losses into the environment, how to identify and implement effective policies to reduce plastic entering the environment, including combating gear loss from fisheries. Promoting the role of science in underpinning policy and decision-making has been a big part of Denise’s career to date, and she regularly provides science advice to governments and international panels. And she believes strongly in the contribution of communities, having worked with more than 8,000 citizen scientists across more than 20 countries to help tackle global challenges. Denise engagingly relates her interesting career path, beginning as a "very inquisitive child", and later traversing a diverse range of jobs and postgraduate studies in forest ecology and on birds, including working in the tropics of Africa, Asia and South America, the deserts of Mexico and in Antarctica, and then forging the link to marine plastics while working on albatrosses on Midway Atoll in the Pacific. Among other things, you will also hear Denise talk of her work with the Homeward Bound Leadership Team, promoting and supporting women in STEMM careers.