Professor Kate Trinajstic or Katherine M. Trinajstic is an Australian palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist, and winner of the

Dorothy Hill Award The Dorothy Hill Medal is awarded annually and honours the contributions of the late Professor Dorothy Hill to Australian Earth science and her work in opening up tertiary science education to women. The award supports research in the Earth scien ...

. She is the Dean of Research, Faculty of Science and Engineering at

Curtin University Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, ...

Early life and career

Trinajstic was awarded a Bachelor of Science, (Hons), in ecology and evolutionary biology, from

Murdoch University Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university on 25 July 1973, and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975. Its n ...

in 1996. She then was awarded a PhD in palaeontology from the University of Western Australia, in 2000. She joined Curtin University in 2009 as a Curtin Research Fellow. In 2011 she was awarded an ARC QEII Fellowship, titled 'Fleshing out the fossil record', which was designed to investigate the development of early vertebrates, and the skeleton and specific musculature. She was both a Curtin Research Fellow, as well as an honorary Research Associate at the University of Western Australia. Her career has specialised in vertebrate palaeontology, and also how early vertebrate were able to evolve unique morphology, including complex musculature and internal skeletons. She has experience in the use of micro-CT scans as well as scanning fossils using a syncotron, to examine fossil materials. Her work has included how the earth has responded to climate change. Trinajstic has also conducted research on fossils and palaeongoloy using techniques such as micro-CT and the synchrotron, which enables her to see through rock and determine how fossils of animals such as fish, were able to develop teeth. During her career, she has also named seven taxa.

Women in Science

Trinajstic commented in 2020 on a campaign for attracting science and engineering academics, where only women were welcome to apply. The campaign was designed to address the

gender balance The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species devia ...

in the workforce, and while Research Dean for the faculty, she commented that the program was "a good starting point to attracting talented academic females into the Faculty" and "The benefits of increasing gender representation can start to be realised ensuring we continue to grow a diverse and inclusive environment for all" She worked on a new metric to assess academics, with the aim of overcoming bias in gender and valid across various career stages.

Publications

Trinajstic's google scholar page lists her publications, which have over 2,000 citations. Trinajstic's publication record is noteworthy for having a significant number of peer-reviewed publications in the presigious, international scientific journals,

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

and

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

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Media

Trinajstic has written various articles for the media, including

The Conversation ''The Conversation'' is a 1974 American mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Rober ...

, describing links between sharks and human disease. She has also published in The Conversation on research on vertebral sexual organs, and how they may have evolved as an extra pair of legs. She has also published in the media, describing her research on the fossils of ancient fish, and land movements of extinct fishes, based on new modelling. She has also published in the ABC, on asteroids and excavated fish fossils, from a site in North Dakota, and how an asteroid was potentially linked with a mass fish death, and published in the media on her research around ancient fish.

Prizes and awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trinajstic, Kate Australian women academics Australian women scientists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Australian paleontologists Women evolutionary biologists Curtin University faculty Murdoch University alumni University of Western Australia alumni