Elaine Schenk graduated with a Bachelor of Mathematics, Honours (1st Class) with a minor in physics, from the University of Queensland (UQ) in 2021. Her Honours thesis in the topic of mathematical biology focused on developing a Markov state model describing the transport and binding kinetics of neurosecretory vesicles. Throughout her undergraduate studies Elaine completed a range of courses in applied and pure mathematics, physics, data science and programming. In 2018 Elaine was awarded a UQ Summer Research Scholarship to work on modelling Barramundi populations in Queensland fisheries. In 2019 she engaged in a research collaboration with colleagues from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB) at UQ to provide data modelling insights into the geometry of five-coordinate transition metal complexes. In 2020, she performed numeric analyses to evaluate the efficiency of a recently discovered antibiotic resistance agent, also in collaboration with colleagues in SCMB.
Additionally, Elaine has worked extensively as a casual tutor at UQ, tutoring mathematics, physics and programming courses ranging from 1st to 4th year level courses. Elaine’s passion for exploring interdisciplinary applications of mathematical modelling led her to join the Centre for Solar Biotechnology within the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at UQ, where she began her PhD in April 2022 under the supervision of Prof. Ben Hankamer.
Elaine’s PhD project focuses on the mathematical modelling and optimisation of an integrated bioeconomy, where she seeks to increase the economic, social, and environmental viability of protected cropping systems.
Publications
[1] Schenk, E.B., Meunier, F.A., Oelz, D.B. (2022) Spatial redistribution of neurosecretory vesicles upon stimulation accelerates their directed transport to the plasma membrane.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264521
[2] Blackman, A.G., Schenk, E.B., Jelley, R.E., Krenske, E.H., and Gahan, L.R. (2020). Five-coordinate transition metal complexes and the value of τ5: observations and caveats. Dalton Trans. 49 (42) 14798-14806.
https://doi.org/10.1039/d0dt02985h