Welcome Back to the Jungle

Welcome to 2017, dear Gravelmonkey followers! We have another exciting year here in the Jungle, and we look forward to more fun!

In 2016 we had a lot of achievements amongst our group, so before I go on, I'd like to point those out to you:

• QUAID: submitted his PhD and published several papers relating to his thesis.
• CASSY: also submitted his PhD and published new findings from Tanzania, he has also taken a lecturing postion at Dar es Salaam University.
  
• PRINCE: published his first paper concerning his work in the Congo Basin in Africa.
  
• HANNAH: now Dr. Hannah, completed her PhD with several papers published and continued into a postdoc position at JCU.
• CHRIS: together with the Supreme Director and several other authors, published a well recieved termite paper and attended his first conference.
  
• ERIC: spent two exciting months in Antarctica (WHOA!) on a very successful palaeontology trip and was promoted to Head of Geosciences.
  
• TEGAN: started and completed her honours project with a very exceptional result.
  

We also welcomed to the team a group of eager scientists in PhD students Jelle Wiersma and Jess Robbins; Honours students Tegan Beveridge (who will now become a PhD student in 2017) and Harry Gardner; and we welcomed back Kelly Heilbronn who is now working towards her PhD.
This year we welcome Honours student Theresa Orr to our group. We also welcome PhD students Behnam Sadeghi and Leigh Lawrence who, together with Paul Slezak, will be associate members.

Unfortunately, we also had to say goodbye to some of our Gravelmonkey members in 2016. Cassy returned to Tanzania to complete his PhD, and Rob Holm (our tectonics expert) has left to pursue other career options,

We look forward to 2017 with great excitement as our achievements can only get higher.

GM