A Canberra Skeptics Lecture
Speaker: John La Salle, Director Atlas of Living Australia
Date: 17 April 2012
Time: 6.00-7.30pm
Venue: Optus Lecture Theatre, CSIRO Discovery Centre, Clunies Ross Street, Acton, ACT 2601
Members Free/Non-Members Gold Coin Donation
The Atlas of Living Australia is a national initiative to deliver web-based information about Australian plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms. Existing information about Australian species is distributed across countless databases, specimen catalogues from museums and herbaria, printed literature, images and hundreds of web sites. The ALA is integrating this dispersed information to provide as complete a pictures as possible for each species. The Atlas provides a variety of tools to let people explore the biodiversity at a regional or local level, and contribute to the knowledge of Australian biodiversity.
John La Salle, Director Atlas of Living Australia, has been involved in the Atlas since its inception and played a key role in its establishment in 2006. John would like to unlock the information stored in many Australian museums, herbaria, other natural history collections and databases, and make these data freely available online through the Atlas. This huge, rich database would generate new avenues of research and enquiry.
John is the former Director of the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC). His main area of research has been on the taxonomy and biology of parasitic Hymenoptera (wasps), including their significance in maintaining sustainability in both natural and agricultural ecosystems.
John is a native Californian, who has lived in Australia since 2000.
Dinner will follow the lecture (venue tbc). To RSVP for dinner please email: mail@canberraskeptics.org.au
For further information about Canberra Skeptics please visit our website: http://www.canberraskeptics.org.au
[Photo by martyo]
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