Associate ProfessorSusanna Venn

My teaching experience includes unit coordination, lecturing, re-developing and designing teaching materials, marking assignments and exams, field-course design and teaching, supervision and mentoring of undergraduate and post-graduate students. I also examine theses of Honours, Masters and PhD students from Deakin and around the world. I especially love teaching in the field; taking students into natural systems where ecological theory is on display. In Environmental Botany (SLE203), we use local parks and creeks for teaching general plant ecology and tree identification. We also go to Kallista in the nearby Dandenong Ranges National Park to learn about ferns and mosses. In Australian Vegetation and its Management (SLE317), I develop students' plant identification skills in the highly diverse Anglesea Heathlands, (Otway Ranges National Park). I encourage students with a passion for botany and ecology to enrol in Research Project (SLE314), a unit in which I work with the student to develop a project specifically tailored to their interests. This unit gives students a taste of what an independent research project is like, as they begin to develop their own research interests.

Supporting students:

Each year, I nominate, support and supervise vegetation science students for the SEBE Associate Dean Research Summer Project Prize. These students have since continued with further study at Deakin (Honours) or gained employment with relevant agencies. I also facilitate the formal Industry Partnership between Deakin and the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, and regularly co-supervise students working on projects across both institutions. I have been an active member of the Ecological Society of Australia since 2000, and have supported hundreds of students through co-ordinating the annual Post Graduate Student Day, in conjunction with the annual ESA conference, since 2014. I also work on the ESA Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment committe, assesing PhD student funding applications for this scheme.    

Current Deakin Undergraduate teaching:

SLE203 Environmental Botany (Lecturer and former unit chair)
SLE317 Australian Vegetation and its Management (Lecturer)
SLE451 Science Professionalism (Lecturer and former unit chair)
SLE314 Research Project (Supervisor) 

Supervision of PhD and Masters students:

2026 - present - Alex McLachlan, PhD Primary supervisor, Deakin University

2024 - present - Mohan Pandey, PhD, Primary supervisor, Deakin University

2022 - present - Danny White, PhD Primary supervisor, Deakin University

2022 - present - James King, PhD Co-supervisor, Australian National University

2022 - present - Thomas Hanley, PhD Co-supervisor, Australian National University

2022 - present - Lisa Danzey, PhD Co-supervisor, University of Technology Sydney

2022-2026 - Lukiel Oliveira, PhD Primary supervisor, Deakin University

2022-2025 - Clare Vernon, PhD Primary supervisor, Deakin University

2024-2025 -  Lucy Coles, PhD, Co-supervisor, Deakin University

2024-2025 - Simon Lobos Parreno, PhD, Primary supervisor, Deakin University

2018-2023 - Casey Gibson, PhD Co-supervisor, University of New South Wales

2019-2023 - Eylish Thompson, PhD Co-supervisor, Deakin University

2020-2021 - Lil Gurung, Masters Co-supervisor, Deakin University

2019-2023 - Jerónimo Vázquez-Ramíerez, PhD, Primary supervisor, Deakin University

2018-2022 - Emma Sumner, PhD, Primary supervisor, Deakin University

2015-2019 - Ben O’Leary, PhD, Co-supervisor, Monash University

2014 - 2018 - Sonya Geange, PhD, Co-supervisor, Australian National University

2014 – 2018 - Annissa Satiani, PhD, Co-supervisor, Australian National University 

2009-2010 - Annika Korsten, Masters, Co-supervisor, Otago University, New Zealand

2010-2011 - Diego Uguevara, Masters, Co-supervisor, Otago University, New Zealand

2009-2011 - Mel Schroder, Masters, Co-supervisor, Charles Sturt University