Biographical entry Olsen, Penelope Diane

Summary

Penelope Diane Olsen is recognised world-wide as one of Australia's leading specialists on raptors. Many of her publications deal with their conservation and ecology, and have resulted in a wiser use of pesticides and more efficient disposal of chemical wastes in rural Australia. She is a prolific writer whose book, Australian Birds of Prey, won the 1996 Whitley award for best popular zoological publication.

Details

Events

1970 - 1982

Career position - Experimental Officer at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation)

1982 - c. 1994

Career position - Honorary Research Associate at CSIRO

1983 - 1987

Career position - Regional Coordinator (Australia and Oceania) of the World Working Group on Birds of Prey for the International Council for Bird Preservation

1984 - 1989

Career position - President of the Australasian Raptor Association (ARA)

1988 -

Career position - International Committee Member of the Raptor Research Foundation

1992

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) completed at Australian National University

1994 - 1999

Career position - Australian Research Council (ARC) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian National University

1995 -

Career position - Member of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Fauna and Flora Committee

1997

Award - D. L. Serventy Medal received from the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 2003, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/wisa/wisa.html. Details

Books

• Olsen, Penny, Feather and Brush: Three Centuries of Australian Bird Art, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 2001, 240 pp. Details

Reviews

• Olsen, Penny, review of Owen, David, Thylacine: the Tragic Tale of the Tasmanian Tiger (2003), Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 15, no. 1, 2004, pp. 124-125. Also available at http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=HR03015.pdf. Details

Online Resources

• 'Olsen Penelope Diane', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1476404. Details

See also

• Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2001, 492 pp. Details