Burnside's Dr Phil

Congratulations to Dr Phil Roetman, Hazelwood Park resident and Council’s Environment & Sustainability Officer, who was named Unsung Hero of South Australian Science Communication at an awards ceremony on Friday night, which kicked-off National Science Week in South Australia.

For the City of Burnside community Phil supports the development of citizen science through the Australian Citizen Science Association and leads the Burnside Urban Foresters, a project focused on trees and the wildlife they support. Residents can register their interest to participate at: http://trees.burnside.sa.gov.au/

“It was an honour to receive this award as recognition of the work I have done over the years with the community, which has been really rewarding,” Phil said.

He has also been recognised for his work in running innovative citizen science projects and events at UniSA for many years. These projects involved thousands of citizens in activities such as counting koalas, tracking cats, spotlighting in rockpools and recording bat calls. The data collected has helped in understanding the distribution of species, the home-ranges of domestic cats, the management of abundant species and the locations of threatened species.

Phil was the founder of Discovery Circle, a major citizen science initiative which delivered such projects as Corella management engagement, the Great Koala Count and Cat Tracker.