After 4 months in Chile and Antarctica Dr Mel is back at UOW. Gustavo and the others at USACH are probably missing her but we are really glad to have her back.

Beat stayed with us for a couple of weeks and then went to Canberra to visit HRPPC and ANU. While he was there he worked with Barry Osmond and Fred Chow.  He also had a holiday at Jervis Bay which he enjoyed a lot. It was great to have Beat visit and get to know him better.  He and Rhys swapped lots of uplifting ideas.  Hopefully Rhys will be able to make a reciprocal visit in a few months.

Sharon went to Paris to attend a meeting of the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition Review Panel where she was involved in reviewing grants for this upcoming expedition around the subantarctic Islands.  The voyage will leave in December from Cape Town and stop at Hobart and Punta Arenas visiting many islands along the way. This will be a very unique opportunity for scientists to study what is happening all around the Antarctic continent. There was a lot on interest from around the world in being part of this expedition.

Mel came back with more samples from Antarctica and also news from the Chilean group and our colleagues at Portland State.  Angelica, Todd and Hannah were in Antarctica with Marisol in February. We have just heard that Angelica has launched a new Flora Antarctica pdf at INACH.  I think there is an app on the way!  You can download the pdf here but it is in Spanish.