Robert Catchlove graduated with MEM in 2003. During MEM completed a research project in central China.

Robert has been working in Bureau of Meteorology since 2000 on flood forecasting and emergency management issues. He went to Geneva to represent Australia on water issues in the World Meteorological Organisation in 2004. Robert recently obtained a position working on Litter Management in the Lower Yarra River (Victoria) which is a partnership between Melbourne Water, Ecorecycle Victoria, City of Melbourne, City of Yarra, City of Stonnington and City of Boroondara.

Robert says 'I think the best thing for me in doing the MEM was to enhance my "way of
thinking" in terms of exploring theories and practical approaches to sustainability and reinforce the inter-disciplinary approach required to tackle environmental problems".

Mark Eslake graduated from his MEM in September 2005. Mark has always maintained a keen interest in the natural world and environmental protection, and was pleased to have developed this interest into a career.

Mark worked for SBS-TV in Sydney for a couple of years after completing his BA. Breaking away from the confines of the television studio, Mark purchased a video camera and joined the digital revolution in attempting to merge developing interests in environment management with skills in video production. Mark became involved in the production of videos on subjects ranging from improved public transport in Sydney to Nam Theun 2 in Laos.

Following this, Mark worked on a variety of films from the Matrix to low-budget feature films yet to emerge from the cutting room as well as several short-films, commercials and documentaries. To gain some further perspective Mark travelled to South America through Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina where he gained an appreciation of the opportunities and resources available for environmental conservation in Australia.

Wanting to pursue this interest professionally Mark returned to Sydney to begin a Masters in Environmental Management at the University of New South Wales while working at the New South Wales Environment Protection Agency and later an environmental consultancy.
Mark highly recommends the MEM program as it offers a variety of interesting courses, an excellent overview of environmental issues in Australia as well as comprehensive training in environmental management.

Tamsin Martin completed her MEM program in Session 1 2005. She now works in Environmental Assessment (Department of Lands, NSW) where she assesses Crown Land for environmental significance, focusing on flora/fauna and threatened species (field work and office work). Tamsin also works on developing land management polices that are sustainable and which consider environmental issues for reserves, conservation areas and leases. This has included risk assessment of the land assessment process.

Tamsin is a consultant for Ecolens where the focus is on training and education, as well as some flora/fauna assessment. Tamsin runs training courses for clients either corporate or community (eg EMS, green households, organic gardening).

Tamsin's career has been pretty eventful. She has been nominated for the Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year Award by a past employer - for a waste management and community education project. Developing and opening a Waste Education Centre in the Blue Mountains was a very rewarding time for Tamsin especially as Bob Debus did the honours.

Tamsin's specific interests include creating momentum for grass roots behaviour change - ie, showing people that every little ting they can do to lessen their footprint helps and adds up to a big change. Focusing on the house and garden is a great way to make it relevant and understandable. Once they have this, and have some changes in place, they often begin to ask about the 'bigger picture' (ie climate change, development) and what they can do there.

Personally, Tamsin feeds her soul by dreaming of the day they start to build their low-footprint straw bale home on a bush block; in the mean time she works on making their home have less impact and get great joy from our organic veggie & herb patch, worked over by our living composters (the chickens).

Tamsin was asked to describe the benefits of the MEM program. She felt the flexibility with the program both being offered by distance and by having a huge range of electives from the whole university available. She completed her entire degree by distance and found, in the majority, that it was well structured for distance students and recognised the need for interaction (eg WebCT) to develop thoughts and ideas as well as getting support.

Tamsin says "It was very encouraging to see/hear the very wide range of people who are doing MEM, either to change their career or to create a level of knowledge to help in their existing career. It bodes well for the future of environmental management that I studied with engineers, activists, communications/media people, a few environmental scientists, and a wide range of policy writers, risk managers, quality process people and others - all who now (should) have a good general knowledge of 'the environment' and better ways to both manage AND COMMUNICATE. The focus on communication is VERY important and one of the reasons I chose IES - being a Macquarie Alumni made this a difficult choice at first".