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Dr. Patti Virtue is an Australian marine biologist, biological oceanographer and lipid chemist. Virtue is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania, in the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, where she is the Antarctic Graduate Training Coordinator for the Oceans and Cryosphere department. Virtue also has long been associated with work at the Australian Antarctic Division and the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Virtue was one of the recipient's for the Australian Antarctic Medal in 2021 for "her services to mentoring and teaching the next generation of Antarctic ecologists, and her contribution to the understanding of the role of krill in the Southern Ocean ecosystem". Virtue is one of only six female scientists to have been awarded the medal.

Dr. Patti Virtue in her academic robes for the University of Tasmania graduation ceremonies in Hobart, Tasmania (2013).

Education

Virtue graduated with both her Honours degree and her Doctorate from the University of Tasmania in 1995 after completing her thesis on the subject of lipids in the Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba). Her main fields of study include invertebrate biology, marine and estuarine ecology and biological oceanography, specifically marine lipids.

Career

Virtue has had a varied career studying a range of animals in the marine and estuarine environments including whale sharks, zooplankton such as krill, as well as fish, sea urchins, sperm whales and microbial organisms. Virtue completed her postdoctoral fellowship in France at Observatoire Océanologique under the guidance of Professor Patrick Mayzaud. She then returned to Australia as an Australian Research Council postdoctoral fellow. She also holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Magallanes, Chile.

Virtue was one of the founding members and first students for the Institute for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies (IASOS) which later became the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS). Virtue has been involved in numerous scientific voyages to the Southern Ocean since her first onboard the RV Aurora Australis in 1992 including SIPEX, BROKE-West, and the GO-SHIP program and voyages on the RV Investigator to teach students in marine science. Virtue has spent multiple seasons at Australian Antarctic research bases working with collaborators from multiple nations and across scientific disciplines. Virtue has been an author and co-author on more than 60 scientifically published articles and recieved funding for more than 20 grants. Virtue has supervised multiple students while at the University of Tasmania is well-known for her calm and unphased mentoring style.