Deep Ocean Dive and Draw

Sami is a 29-year-old international award winning author and illustrator who is based in Newcastle, Australia. She loves all things weird and wonderful and enjoys painting realistic flora and fauna with watercolours. Her favourite topics tend to be the ones most people like to avoid... such as 'ugly' animals, parasites, poo stories and more. 

Dr Claire Rowe started her career as a volunteer in the Marine Invertebrates department of the Australian Museum in 2014 while completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Sydney. In 2018, Claire commenced her PhD through the University of Sydney and the Australian Museum Research Institute. Her project focused on the identification, seasonality and population dynamics of upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea sp.) along the east coast of Australia. Since completing her PhD in 2022, Claire took up the role of Collection Manager of the Marine Invertebrates collection and represented the museum on CSIRO’s RV Investigator exploring the deep seamounts around Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

Dr William (Bill) Gladstone is a marine biologist and Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney. After completing his PhD (involving three years of field research at Lizard Island Research Station, Great Barrier Reef) Bill worked for government and international marine conservation organizations in Australia, the ‘Coral Triangle’ (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines), and the Red Sea where he used his expertise in the ecology of fishes and coral reefs for conservation planning, state-of-the-environment reporting, and staff training. Bill has spent extended periods of time at sea and worked in remote and isolated locations as a member and leader of field teams. As a university academic Bill studied the conservation biology of fishes and sharks (spending more than 4,000 hours underwater), and the social aspects of marine conservation. Bill is passionate about marine life and an exceptional communicator. He received numerous awards for the quality of his university teaching and regularly presents public talks about marine biology and his research. He writes articles about marine animals for scuba diving magazines and his underwater photos and videos are regularly published including the just-released Nat Geo book ‘Secrets of the Octopus’, and the TV documentary ‘Baby Sharks’. Bill has pursued his passionate interest in marine wildlife by travelling to observe, swim and dive with nesting green turtles and tiger sharks (Raine Island, Great Barrier Reef), the annual mass coral spawning (Yonge Reef, Great Barrier Reef), the giant Australian cuttlefish mating aggregation (Whyalla, South Australia), great white sharks (Neptune Islands, South Australia), humpback whales (Vava’u, Tonga), leopard seals and penguins (Antarctica).