It
is with great sadness that we inform the WiseNet membership of the death of
Dr. Toni O'Neill on April 8. Toni fought bravely and with great dignity for
over a year against a particularly virulent form of lymphatic cancer. We will
all remember Toni as an outstanding academic colleague and supervisor and
in particular her irrepressible spirit and amazingly cheerful outlook as she
faced her illness.
Toni was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Geosciences at the University of Wollongong. She was a geographer with particular expertise in Australian vegetation. Her research and teaching centred on remote sensing techniques such as the application of satellite and radar images to mapping vegetation. She was an excellent supervisor to her many students and will be greatly missed by students and staff alike.
Toni had a long and committed association with WiseNet. She attended all the early meetings of the Sydney group from 1985, while working at the Australian Museum and when she moved to Wollongong in 1987, to take up her lectureship in the then Department of Geography, she started a group in Wollongong. She was always extremely involved with that group and also acted as a link-person from 1995 until mid 1997. In 1995 Toni organised fundraising within the Wollongong WiseNet group towards postgraduate scholarships for Vietnamese women scientists at the University of Hanoi, giving important opportunities for these women to continue their education.
A full obituary in honour of Dr. Toni O'Neill's life will be published at a later stage in the WISENET Journal.
The Wollongong WiseNet group