Penelope Diane Olsen (born 1949) is an Australian

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

and

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

Career

Olsen worked with

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

as an experimental officer and an Honorary Research Associate, as well as being an ARC Postdoctoral Fellow at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

. She has published extensively on

raptor Raptor(s) or RAPTOR may refer to: Animals The word "raptor" refers to several groups of avian and non-avian dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons. * Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunt ...

s, and was involved in the conservation work on

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island ( , ; ) is an States and territories of Australia, external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head, New South Wales, Evans Head and a ...

for the Norfolk Island Boobook. She was President of the

Australasian Raptor Association The Australasian Raptor Association (ARA) was founded in 1978 as a special interest group of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, also known as Birds Australia. It is now a special interest group of BirdLife Australia. It promotes the study ...

1984–1989. In 1997 she was awarded the

Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), now part of BirdLife Australia, was Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. It was founded in 1901 to promote the study and conservation of the native b ...

's D.L. Serventy Medal for excellence in published work on birds in the

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

n region. Olsen published several award winning books on science, and was editor of ''

Wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

'', an ornithology magazine published by Birds Australia. She was awarded a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

(AM) in 2011 for "service to the conservation sciences as an author and researcher, and through the study and documentation of Australian bird species and their history."

Bibliography

Books

* * * * * * Olsen, Penny. (2010). ''Upside Down World: Early European Impressions of Australia's Curious Animals'', National Library of Australia: Canberra. * Olsen, Penny. (adapted). (2010). ''The Best Nest'', National Library of Australia: Canberra. (pbk) * Olsen, Penny. (2012). ''Our Nest is Best!'', National Library of Australia: Canberra. (hbk) * Olsen, Penny. (2013). ''Have You Seen My Egg?'', National Library of Australia: Canberra. (pbk) * *

Articles

François Le Vaillant François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * François Amoudruz (1926–2020), French resistance fighter * François-Marie Arouet (better known as Voltaire; ...

. * * *

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia ...

. * * * ——————— ;Notes

Awards

* 1996 - Whitley Award,

Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales The Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (RZSNSW) was formed in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1879 as the New South Wales Zoological Society. A Royal Charter was granted in September, 1908, leading to a change to the current name ...

* 1997 - D. L. Serventy Medal, Birds Australia * 2011 - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) * 2019 - Fellow,

BirdLife Australia BirdLife Australia is a not-for-profit organisation advocating for native birds and the conservation of their habitats across Australia. BirdLife Australia is the trading name of the company limited by guarantee formed through the merger of tw ...

References

*Anon. (1997). D.L. Serventy Medal 1997: Citation. Penelope Diane Olsen. ''Emu'' 97: 262. *Robin, Libby. (2001). ''The Flight of the Emu: a hundred years of Australian ornithology 1901–2001''. Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press. Olsen, Penny Olsen, Penny Living people Australian women scientists Members of the Order of Australia 1949 births {{Australia-ornithologist-stub