Professor Jonathan Majer

Experiences of a six legged kind: Jonathan Majer’s career as an entomologist

Jonathan Majer spent much of his teenage years as an amateur entomologist and, after studying towards a degree in zoology, a doctorate in entomology and a certificate in teaching at the tertiary level, he has spent the last 33 years as an educator and researcher at Curtin. He is currently head of the Department of Environmental Biology and holds a personal chair in Invertebrate Conservation. Recently, he was awarded by ANZAAS the 2006 Mueller Medal. Here is how it all began.

I spent my early years in the Sussex countryside of the UK. Most of my friends had strong interests in hobbies and mine was butterfly collection. Having collected most of the readily obtainable species, I built myself an ultra violet light trap and ran it in my parents’ back garden for several years. After amassing a vast amount of material, my biology teacher asked me to exhibit my work on moth seasonality at one of the regional Science Fairs, organised by the British equivalent of ANZAAS. From this, I was selected to represent my school in the BBC television program ‘Science Fair 67’.

Buoyed up with enthusiasm as a result of this experience, my motivation was somewhat dampened when the careers counsellor at our school suggested that I might have to relegate my entomological interests to a hobby, as there were few jobs available in this area. Luckily, I ignored him and secured a place in the Zoology Department at Bristol University! At the end of my three years I was sent to the University of Ghana under the ‘Study and Serve Scheme’ and researched my PhD project on the possibility of using tree ants for limiting cocoa pests.

I returned to the UK to write my thesis at the Imperial College field station. My PhD was conferred by the University of Ghana, so I have a fine academic gown with hand-woven Ghanaian kente cloth incorporated into its design. At this time I was also awarded a Diploma of Imperial College (DIC) and completed a Graduate Certificate in Education at the University of London.

Happily my careers counsellor was wrong, and I was able to consider positions in the Seychelles, Nigeria and Nicaragua. Not wanting to return to the tropics immediately, I took up a one-year senior-tutor position at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT) and as they say, the rest is history!

My knowledge of Ants was recognised at WAIT and I secured funds to assess how ants might interfere with seeding of rehabilitated bauxite mines. My mine site rehabilitation work soon revealed that ants, and many other invertebrate groups, could be used to indicate how well the rehabilitation was progressing in ecological terms. Instead of asking the rehabilitation officer, I found that one could ‘ask’ the invertebrates.

I have invested a lot of effort into convincing miners, and other land managers that they must consider invertebrates in their land management activities. Initially, this was received with a certain degree of derision; after all these animals are ‘so small and insignificant’! This challenged me to convince these people of the importance of invertebrates. I am reasonably pleased with the progress that has been made in gaining acceptance of the importance of invertebrates, but there is still a long way to go – the convincing must go on.

Currently, I am President of the Australian Entomological Society. Through this, I am endeavouring to promote the importance of insects and the profession of entomology to all of us; after all insects do make up the majority of animal species on our lands.

Head of Department
School of Agriculture & Environment
Curtin University
GPO Box U1987 Perth, Western Australia 6845

Ph: +61 (8) 9266 7041 
Fax: +61 (8) 9266 2495
[ Email Jonathan ]

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