Biography
For the last year, I've been project leader for the "Agriculture and Food Data School", an intensive and immersive internship aimed at up-skilling our staff in digital literacy. I've seen this program grow from an educational experiment in the imaginations of individuals, to a transformative experience for a select few, through to its ultimate CSIRO-wide roll-out as the Digital+Domain's "Digital Academy".
I have a strong personal commitment to excellence and inclusivity in digital literacy education, e.g. through my active involvement with the Software Carpentry global community as an instructor. I have a passion for Python and have contributed to several international, open source software packages, e.g. the haplotype reconstruction program ShoRAH. I also maintain a strong research interest in evolutionary genomics and the mechanistic processes underlying adaptive evolution, and have published primary research on the evolution of birds, bacteria, and viruses.
Other Interests
I am a science educator and communicator, and enjoy writing about my work and encouraging young scientists. I have published numerous articles in COSMOS magazine and have also been featured talking about my research on ABC's "The Science Show".
I am a certified instructor for the volunteer organisation 'Software Carpentry', and have helped design workshops for Bioplatforms Australia. Most recently, I have organised and secured funding for the 'Advanced Scientific Programming in Python' course to come to Canberra in January 2019.
Presentations
McElroy K. (2018). Data distinctions, disasters, and the CSIRO Ag & Food Data School. ANU Ecology and Evolution Seminar Series. Canberra, Australia.
McElroy K. (2018). Beyond trait-based selection: adaptive diversity for sustainable agriculture. Genetics Society of AustralAsia Annual Conference. Canberra, Australia.
McElroy K. (2017). ‘Illuminating’ the black box of NGS library preparation from degraded specimens. Centre for Biodiversity Analysis 'Genomics and Collections' Symposium. Canberra, Australia.
McElroy K.(2014). Positive selection drives short-term diversification of developing Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. University of Melbourne Genetics Department Seminar Series. Melbourne, Australia.
McElroy K, Catullo R. (2013). Comparative genomics of climate adaptation in
Drosophila. OCE Genomics Symposium. Canberra, Australia.
McElroy K, Woo J, Majzoub M, Hui J, Kjelleberg S, Rice S, Egan S, Thomas T. (2012). Deep sequencing of evolving bacterial populations. 14th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology. Copenhagen, Denmark.
McElroy K, Luciani F, Hui J, Rice S, Thomas T. (2011). Bacteriophage evolution drives Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA01 biofilm diversification. 19th Annual International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology / 10th European Conference on Computational Biology. Vienna, Austria.
McElroy K, Luciani F, Thomas T. (2011). GemSIM: General, Error-Model Based Simulator of next- generation sequencing. Bioinformatics Open Source Conference. Vienna, Austria.
Fields of Research
Academic Qualifications
-
2013
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Applications of Next-gen Sequencing to Microbial Evolution
The University of New South Wales -
2007
Masters in Epidemiology and Infections Biology
Swiss Tropical Institute -
2005
Bachelor of Biomedical Science
The University of Melbourne -
2005
Diploma of Music (Harpsichord)
The University of Melbourne
Professional Experiences
-
2013-2017
Postdoctoral Researcher, Evolutionary Rescue and Climate Genomics
CSIRO -
2009-2012
Freelance Science Journalist
Various, including Cosmos and Green Lifestyle -
2010-2012
Research Assistant, Bioinformatics
UNSW -
2007-2008
Research Assistant, Daphnia Genetics
Zoological Institute, University of Basel, Switzerland
Achievements and Awards
-
2012-2012
1st Prize, Science Faculty Three Minute Thesis Competition
University of New South Wales -
2011-2011
Adrian Lee Travel Fellowship
University of New South Wales -
2010-2010
Smith White Award
Genetics Society of AustralAsia -
2010-2010
Royal Society of NSW Scholarship
Royal Society of New South Wales -
2009-2009
Australian Postgraduate Award
Department of Education
Grants
-
July 2014-July 2015
Ignition Grant - Landscape genomics of Red-browed finches