This year, SVP was held in Brisbane, Australia, and I presented a talk about my ongoing research on multi-proxy models and examined how different datasets influence the outcome of the model. Before Brisbane, I went down to Sydney and talked with one of the exhibit staff at the Australian Museum about their Dinosaurs exhibit. The exhibit focuses on Southern Hemisphere and Australian dinosaurs, as well as discussing the various evidence on the transition from dinosaurs to birds and the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous. Fun fact, there’s even opalized fossils!(https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/australia-over-time/fossils/sites/lightning-ridge/) There was also an exhibit at the Australian National Maritime Museum on Mesozoic marine reptiles! 
Once in Brisbane, I went on one of SVP’s shorter field trips, a day-trip around the greater Brisbane area. We learned about some fossil collecting history, walked around a small nature conservatory, and got to collect some plant fossils from the area. I also attended a Women in Paleontology workshop, which discussed problems and potential solutions to barriers for women and other minorities in science, academia, and paleontology.
Devra Hock, Ph.D. 