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Martin Westgate

@martin-westgate.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.5K following 160 posts

Australian biodiversity scientist. Occasional scientific software developer. Former professional gift wrapper. Blog: martinwestgate.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/martin-westgate Insta: www.instagram.com/martin.j.westgate

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Reposted by Martin Westgate
Linette Umbrello @planigale.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Job at CSIRO: Bioinformatics Coordinator/ Research Scientist - National Biodiversity DNA Library. Until June 2029. Flexible work location in Aus 🧬🔬 jobs.csiro.au/job/Melbourn...
jobs.csiro.au
Bioinformatics Coordinator/ Research Scientist - National Biodiversity DNA Library
Bioinformatics Coordinator/ Research Scientist - National Biodiversity DNA Library
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Roald Dahl wrote a short story about this precise situation that I read as a child. How weird that we all find ourselves in a science fiction storyline.
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Spending the day at ACT EcoFocus 2026, MC’ed by Chris Malam
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Go work with Megan! She’s the best. Canberra is also great, but don’t spread that around we’re trying to fly under the radar
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Finally starting to feel more human after a week of jet lag ✈️😴 Walks and sunshine are helping Back to the office on Monday for more biodiversity informatics good stuff 👨🏻‍💻💪🏽
View of Black Mountain from Lake Burley Griffen Foreshore, Canberra
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Reposted by Martin Westgate
Damon Young @damonyoung.com.au · 25/07/2026
Nope. No, you haven’t.
r/WritingWithAl
u/Dazzling-Major-5620 • 13h
ChatGPT not letting you emulate specific authors anymore
Prompting
Join
I've been writing my book for several months now, paid for a more advanced model. Took a break. Came back.
Now Ms. GPT says she can't generate content in the style of specific authors. My prompts were soooo specific and I got exactly what I wanted out of them. For example,
'rewrite in the literary style of 'author here' with abundant dialogue and detail avoiding staccato prose. That was my go-to. Or 'please write and flesh out in the style of
'author' etc. they tightened the ropes. I have no idea how to get around this other than maybe feed it prose I already edited that's technically mine? Fuck.
& Locked post. New comments cannot be posted.
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
As someone who has used AI precisely once, it’s really interesting to see a discussion from an expert of their challenges both with and without AI. Definitely cause for thought here.
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Last session of #SOTWPF - powers and pitfalls of AI
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Session 5 #SOTWPF
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Session 4 #SOTWPF Daniel Zhigila - 73% of Nigerian herbaria are not registered on Index Herbarium; 29% have digitized their data, but locally; 90% not available online. Many Nigerian specimens are located overseas.
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Minor interruption of service on #SOTWPF posting for a flat white and ANZAC biscuit
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Sarah Greasley welcoming us back for day 2!! #SOTWPF
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Posting today from the State of the World’s Plants and Fungi Symposium at Kew. If you’re here come and say hi! 👋🏻👋🏻
A sunny day at Kew Gardens
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Fonti Kar @fontikar.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
📮You've got mail! 💌 We are thrilled to invite you to "Where do R packages live?" a discussion with folks from the #R foundation, #CRAN #Bioconductor #R-universe and @posit.co. Let's learn from our panel about the ins-and-outs of where you might want to create a home for your R software 📦 1/n
A postcard flyer. On the top right, there is a whimsical beach scene featuring fuzzy, colourful creatures wearing hex sticker badges with the letter 'R' in the center. The creatures have their luggage and are enjoying themselves with a cocktail and inspecting a map. The second page of the postcard flyer. On the top right, there is series of wavy blue lines to resemble a postage processing stamp. On the top, there is a "our panel" header . In the center, there are four circular photographs of four individuals. Their names below their photographs.
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Dax Kellie @daxkellie.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
In one week I'll be talking about tips for reproducible R code and why science would love you to try these tips on your own code too 🧪😍🌏 It's an online talk, so feel free to watch comfortably from your couch. Hope to see you there! @sortee.bsky.social #rstats events.humanitix.com/sortee-webin...
events.humanitix.com
SORTEE Webinar: On what makes good sharable and reproducible R code, how to do it, and why it’s good for science
For this month's SORTEE webinar, Dr. Dax Kellie from the Atlas of Living Australia will present on good, sharable, and reproducible R code in science
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
I’m proud to be 12.5% of the winners of the 2025 Ebbe Nielsen Challenge! 😆👨🏻‍💻
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Dax Kellie @daxkellie.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
🚨Our new package {galaxias} is released in R & Python today! 🚨 📦 galaxias makes it easy to standardise data to Darwin Core, the accepted format for sharing ecological data with infrastructures like @gbif.org and the Atlas of Living Australia galaxias.ala.org.au #rstats #python 🧪🌏🐟 A thread 🧵👇
the galaxias hex logo showing a fun-coloured illustration of a green galaxias fish. The head, gills and fin in the centre with light green on the underside, green lips and wavy shades of green on its back, with blue and orange markings by its eye and gills. The background is light orangey-salmony colour in a sunburst style
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Excited to be in Melbourne for #WOMBAT2025!
A laneway with neon lights A bridge over a river in a cityStickers on a table
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Reposted by Martin Westgate
Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 16/09/2025
Today is the 30th anniversary of Hackers
the cast of Hackers (1995) posing in a series of adjacent phone booths
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
I’m thrilled to share that I’ve been selected as a 2025 #ChurchillFellow, to find ways to improve data quality at ALA & GBIF www.churchilltrust.com.au/project/to-i...
churchilltrust.com.au
To investigate global-scale solutions in biodiversity informatics - Churchill Trust
To investigate global-scale solutions in biodiversity informatics - Public Service — Federal, State and Local governments and authorities
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WOMBAT 2026 @wombat.numbat.space · 09/09/2025
If you like #DataViz or a curious about it, come on September 29 for a one-two punch of hands-on tutorials and and stick around for Nicola Rennie's talk on building effective data visualisations the next day. See the full program & register: wombat2025.numbat.space #OpenSource #RStats
WOMBAT 2025 - Tutorial

Dianne Cook & Harriet Mason - Visualising Unvertainty

29-30 September 2025, Naarm/Melbourne
womabt2025.numbat.spaceWOMBAT 2025 - Tutorial

Jess Hopf - Building better figures: a scientific graphic design workshop

29-30 September 2025, Naarm/Melbourne
womabt2025.numbat.spaceWOMBAT 2025 - Keynote

Nicola Rennie - Designing for decision-making: how to build effective data visualisations. 

29-30 September 2025, Naarm/Melbourne
womabt2025.numbat.space
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Belated shot of my outfit for #WearItPurple day - turns out my stock of purple outfits leans surprisingly formal, but the socks bring it back a bit 💜
Man in a purple shirt and jacketPurple socks
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Reposted by Martin Westgate
WOMBAT 2026 @wombat.numbat.space · 28/08/2025
You know what they say: the early bird gets the WOMBAT. 🦚 Early Bird registration ends in just a few days! wombat2025.numbat.space
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
I’ll be at day 2 of this, along with @daxkellie.bsky.social and @shandiya.bsky.social; very excited to hear from these speakers!
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Reposted by Martin Westgate
Ian Brennan @brennian.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
🚨🐸 Frog Nerds Assemble 🐸🚨 Recently we published a paper on the phylogenetics and taxonomy of Australia and New Guinea's tree frogs, the Pelodryadidae. Link here: tinyurl.com/4udpmxsm What does this mean for you Litoria-lovers? There's a whole bunch more names to use! Let me explain ...
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Lovely event to mark the end of #ICCB2025 last night, congrats to the organisers for a fantastic conference!
Whale sculptures at the Queensland MuseumNeon art at the Queensland MuseumA biplane at the Queensland Museum
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
@jamesbeedorey.bsky.social on cleaning biodiversity data using beebdc #ICCB2025 jbdorey.github.io/BeeBDC/
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Neat work by Lamuel Chung (UQ): Multi-species occupancy models for quantifying quoll distributions from large-scale camera trap studies #ICCB2025
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
This sounds pretty cool - the ability to programmatically download any dataset from a DOI is a great feature, and super important for reproducibility. {galah} has supported this feature for ALA for some time, but we’ll aim to add it for GBIF shortly galah.ala.org.au/R/articles/d...
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Thanks to everyone who shared #rstats hex stickers so far at #ICCB2025! Some very cool projects represented here…
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Cool remote talk by Millie Chapman on political legacies in GBIF #ICCB2025 milliechapman.info www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Spending the morning learning from the Monitoring Biodiversity at Large Scales session at #ICCB2025
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Great talk by @hannahsfraser.bsky.social on assessing condition of bird communities
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
@patmnorman.bsky.social on how to get tree heights out of lidar data at landscape scales #ICCB2025
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Fantastic talk at #ICCB2025 by @shandiya.bsky.social on our teams’ work supporting open data *and* code at ALA
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Dax Kellie @daxkellie.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
🚨galah 2.1.2 is on CRAN! 📦 This version fixes a major bug that prevented queries with more complex filters from returning the correct result. It also adds a way to get species conservation status from authoritative lists 🔗 Details: galah.ala.org.au/news/index.h... #rstats @rowdynerd.bsky.social 🌏
galah hex logo. An illustration of a galah (an australian species of cockatoo) with pink feathers on its head and chest and grey feathers on its wings. The galah is inside a hexagon with aqua green, sunburst background. Outside of the hexagon is a pattern of pink dots exploding outwards from behind the hexagon in all directions
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Dax Kellie @daxkellie.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
This mobile-friendly & R-friendly app lets you create species checklists for a specified area 📋🐦🦘🌱 It uses global and national data (from GBIF & ALA) to make a list comprehensive & fast! Cool new tool from an awesome group of people made with #Shiny & #rstats🧪🌏 unsw.shinyapps.io/infinitylists/
unsw.shinyapps.io
Infinity Lists
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Hadley Wickham @hadley.nz · 11/06/2025
Happy 18th birthday ggplot2! #rstats
Balloon wall art inspired by the ggplot2 hex sticker. The display features a hexagonal frame made of black balloons, filled with white balloons inside and surrounded by a background of light and dark blue balloons. A line graph with black balloon segments and round coloured nodes runs across the centre, and the word “ggplot2” is spelled out in black balloon letters below the chart.
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
If you’re into #rstats & will be at #ICCB2025 make sure to stop by the Atlas of Living Australia stand! Our new hex stickers just arrived…
Hex stickers on a wood surface
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Shandiya Balasubramaniam 🍉 @shandiya.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Excited to be at #ICCB2025 in 2 weeks! * Sunday 15 workshop: Introducing galah: the Atlas of Living Australia's R Interface for Accessing Biodiversity Data with @rowdynerd.bsky.social * Monday 16 talk: Supporting Scientists and Decision-makers to use Biodiversity Data #conservation #rstats 🧪🌏
A screenshot of a hex sticker with a stylised galah on it in shades of grey and pink. The background is in shades of blue-green in a sunburst pattern radiating from behind the galah. There is text spelling out the name of the package, "galah", and the url for the Atlas of Living Australia, ala.org.au.
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
A perfect autumn day in Canberra
An urban park where the leaves are starting to turn red
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Word
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Heading over to ANU shortly to hear my boss talk about the ALA. Tune in here from 12:30 CBR time: fennerschool.anu.edu.au/news-events/...
fennerschool.anu.edu.au
The Atlas of Living Australia – Future Proofing a National Biodiversity Data Infrastructure
This seminar will explore the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA). The ALA is Australia’s national biodiversity data infrastructure which harmonises the nation’s biodiversity data to support world-class s...
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Public holidays are for baking slightly lumpy cinnamon scrolls
A tray of iced cinnamon scrolls
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
Enlighten festival in Canberra is a delight! 🔦🌈 Just check out the National Gallery on Friday night 😍
The wall of the National Gallery lit upLights showing a starry night on the wall on the Mational GalleryA large artwork at night
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Spotted these two friends outside Parliament House this arvo, very calmly eating seeds and not at all bothered by me pointing a phone at them! Beautiful creatures
A female gang-gang cockatoo in a treeA male gang-gang cockatoo in a tree
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Dudes where’s the best place to print hex stickers these days? I’m in Australia if that makes a difference #rstats
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
I’m low key convinced (worried?) that making *exactly* 24 biscuits each week is one of my top 5 skills
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Jenn Macalady @jmacalad.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Evolving intelligent life took billions of years − but it may not have been as unlikely as many scientists predicted theconversation.com/evolving-int...
theconversation.com
Evolving intelligent life took billions of years − but it may not have been as unlikely as many scientists predicted
Humans evolved late in Earth history. While this timing inspired the conclusion that humanlike life is a cosmic improbability, a new study pushes back.
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Martin Westgate @martin-westgate.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
We had a beautiful visitor to our garden this lunchtime; a ~ metre long brown snake. It took a stroll through the grass before hiding under the raised bed, then out through a gap in the fence. So lovely to have a visit from the neighbours!
A brown snake
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