Feb 2020 – Research Community Project Manager appointment

Lalita Simpson has been engaged as the Research Community Project Manager for the GAP phylogenomics project. In this role she will be focused on the Australian Angiosperm Tree of Life (AAToL) project, co-ordinating sampling efforts among contributing teams to avoid redundancy in sampling efforts and ensure the greatest coverage of the Australian angiosperm genera is achieved. Lalita will be available to support teams during the EOI and sample submission stages and will handle and curate the metadata associated with samples submitted for the project.

Lalita’s bio: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lalita_Simpson

Lalita has a background in plant systematics research focused on the evolution, biodiversity and classification of orchids. Her research has focused on tropical epiphytic orchids, in particular, the most diverse orchid genus Bulbophyllum and Australian Dendrobium species and utilises genomic data to elucidate evolutionary relationships, historical biogeography, within species phylogeography and assess species delimitation. She is soon to be awarded a PhD from James Cook University for her studies undertaken at the Australian Tropical Herbarium and is the recipient of the Pauline Ladiges and the Australian Conservation Taxonomy Awards for her research.