Dr Katherine Polain
Lecturer in Soil Science - Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law; School of Environmental and Rural Science
Biography
Katherine is a Lecturer in Agronomy & Soil Science, with research interests including agricultural and environmental microbiology, in addition to the scholarship of teaching and learning. Katherine’s PhD explored subsoil microbial processes in Australian rotational cotton systems using a variety of methodologies including stable oxygen isotopes, high throughput sequencing, qPCR, spectrophotometry and respirometer experiments.
Katherine graduated from Charles Darwin University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science (Honours, first class) after completing her double degree in science and education at the same institution in 2009. Katherine’s honours project investigated the diversity and contribution of microbial communities to the acceleration of acid rock drainage (ARD) in affected mine sites in the Northern Territory.
Katherine is currently involved in projects exploring early student engagement at the University and increasing online student engagement with science units.