Dr Tara Djokic completed her PhD with the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at the University of New South Wales, Australia in 2019. Her PhD work was focussed on the geological setting and ecology of some of Earth’s oldest evidence for life in the approx. 3.5 billion year old ‘Dresser Formation’ located in the Pilbara of Western Australia. Her passions include communicating ideas about the co-evolution of geology and the living world, and their continued co-operation. Her research interests continue to focus on the connections that can be drawn between geology and the other natural sciences to provide more holistic models of past environments and their ecosystems. She focuses on geological-biological processes because they inform us of the strong connection between life and its environment, and our own interdependent relationship with the natural world.
Her research has also led to the production of an online virtual field trip (VFT), which has been used in a second year Astrobiology course at UNSW since 2016 to teach multidisciplinary science students about early life on Earth, geology and scientific practice. Tara’s research also led to her involvement in an upcoming IMAX documentary called ’The Story of Earth’, which as its title suggests, illustrates Earth’s 4.6 billion year history, as it is currently understood. The trailer for which can be viewed HERE
