Joanna Browne studied interactions between a jellyfish and plankton at the University of Sydney for her honours degree. This led to a work as a research assistant on a project studying jellyfish, plankton and nutrients in Lake Illawarra. A stint as an environmental consultant was followed by a move to coastal Victoria, where she worked as a research assistant at Museum Victoria. Projects she has been involved in at the museum include checking for introduced marine species and time in the lab and at sea on the Southern Surveyor investigating the biogeography of the Western Australia coastal margin.
She began her PhD in 2008, interested in studying the jellyfish of Port Phillip Bay, under the supervision of Dr Mark Norman (Museum Victoria), Dr Kylie Pitt (Griffith University) and Professor Rod Connolly (Griffith University). During a trip to Lizard Island as part of the CReefs project (http://www.creefs.org), she discovered parasitic worms living in jellyfish. This focused her PhD to investigate the parasites of jellyfish along the east coast of Australia. She is collaborating with Associate Professor Tom Cribb in several studies on trematode parasites that use jellyfish as hosts.
Joanna was awarded Best student oral presentation at the Third International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium 2010.