The Centre for Geometric Biology entered its third year in 2017. It has been an extremely busy year with many research highlights. The different research groups are working with a variety of organisms and approaches to explore a wide range of specific questions about organismal growth. There has been a palpable feeling of excitement as the different research streams and collaborations are starting to come together under the unifying theme of energy acquisition and use.
Success in the realms of external funding and publications in high ranking journals has been excellent in 2017 and this applies to all career levels from PhD students to early career researchers and above.
A meeting with board members and the Monash University internal review process has provided ample opportunity to reflect on our progress and identify where we want to be headed. A priority target is to improve the theoretical underpinning of our work. Successful visits followed on from theoretical ecologist Professor Andre de Roos in 2016 (University of Amsterdam), with visits from mathematical modeler Professor Tim Coulson (University of Oxford) and theoretician Professor Troy Day (Queens University, Ontario) in 2017. These visits have all resulted in ongoing collaborations and I think we have all found them highly motivating.
Finally, we would like to thank the board members and the internal review team for their ongoing interest and support of our research and of course congratulate all the members of the Centre for Geometric Biology for their many successes in 2017.
Prof Dustin Marshall, Director
Prof Craig White, Deputy Director
Centre for Geometric Biology 