Dr Federica Turco1

1CSIRO, Australia

Biography:

Federica moved to Australia in 2007 to follow her dreams and passions. She first moved to Brisbane where she worked at the Queensland Museum for nine years, carrying out postdoctoral projects as well specialising in collection management. She then took her current position as Collection Manager of the Australian National Insect Collection in CSIRO, which she has held for over eight years.

As a scientist Federica is particularly interested in beetles, evolutionary trends, behaviour and conservation. As a Collection Manager she thoroughly enjoys facilitating others’ collection-based research and advocating for natural history collections as a fundamental source of knowledge to inform the present and pave the future.

Abstract:

The Australian National Insect Collection does not require an introduction to the national (and international) entomological community, but great changes have been happening and ANIC is moving into a brand-new home that will see the collections grow and prosper for years to come. ANIC will be co-located with the other two national collections in Canberra in a collections’ precinct on the Black Mountain CSIRO site. In order to celebrate the variety of collections, people and research approaches that will coexist in the new building and more broadly in the precinct, the new building was named “Diversity”.

In this presentation, new accommodation will be introduced, from the inception of the project, its design stage and finally the relocation of the ANIC’s estimated 12 million specimens. The guiding principles that have shaped our new building will be presented, along with the gains and challenges that we have faced along the way. Similarly, preparatory work that has kept ANIC staff busy for years and details of the relocation process itself will be included.

Moving natural history collections, whether for internal refurbishment projects or full relocations, is becoming a rather common scenario in Australia and overseas. Sharing experiences would prove beneficial to all and this is what this presentation also wants to achieve. Finally, the aim and the hope are that ANIC and the other collections in the Diversity precinct, may serve as an example of how collection-based scientific research in a modern technology-driven landscape can go hand-in-hand with more traditional approaches.