Venom, vectors, and integrity
How Dr Maggie Hardy turns curiosity about spiders into global scientific integrity
For most people, Queensland’s major attractions are sun, surf, and sand. For Dr Maggie Hardy, it was the K’gari funnel-web spider of Fraser Island.
A Boston-born, Hawaii-educated entomologist, Maggie chose the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) for her postgraduate studies to work with Professor Glenn King’s group, exploring how venomous invertebrates could unlock new drug therapies and environmentally friendly insecticides.
"Only in Australia could I get close to funnel-web spiders in their natural habitat, and I wanted to find out if their venom could unlock some answers for environmentally friendly insecticides," Maggie explains.
Over a decade at IMB and across UQ, Maggie worked on interdisciplinary projects, co-authoring numerous papers and earning a co-inventor credit on a patent for pest-controlling agents isolated from spider venom.
"It was excellent science with excellent people—that’s what my experience at IMB was all about," she says.
While honing her research skills, Maggie also pursued the business and training side of science, including commercialisation, lab management, and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education.
"One of the most valuable skills I learned at IMB was how to turn research and science into relatable stories," she reflects. "This capability has helped me connect meaningfully not just with members of the public, but also with other researchers and practitioners."
Maggie’s career has always centred on the intersection of insects, environmental change, and diseases affecting humans and animals. She champions the One Health approach, recognising that the health of people, animals, and the environment are deeply interconnected, and that multidisciplinary collaboration is essential to achieving meaningful outcomes.
A standout moment came during the 2017 response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, where she contributed to re-establishing public health laboratory capacity after catastrophic damage.
"Our job was to systematically re-establish testing for disease outbreaks, food and water safety, and infectious disease surveillance. The lessons we learned and the tools we used were published in Nature Communications, and made freely available for future response operations," Maggie says.
Today, Maggie serves as Scientific Integrity Officer at the U.S. Geological Survey, within the Office of Science Quality and Integrity. In this role, she oversees policies, training, and programs that ensure research is planned, conducted, and communicated with integrity across the agency.
"My mission now is to foster a culture where science is trusted, rigorous, and transparent," she says. "Research quality underpins real-world impact — for people, animals, and the environment alike."