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So many snakes (and toads
and lizards), so little time:
Celebrating the career of Rick Shine

Post by Cissy Ballen

1/30/2020

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I wish I could have participated in the well-deserved celebration of Rick's career!

His writing, humor, generosity, and mentorship have continued to inspire me, years after I left Sydney Uni. He built around him a community which selected for curious, hardworking, and supportive people (Mel, Matt, Ben, Reid, Josh, Tom, I'm looking at you!) and we packed a lot of fun in during my ~four years. Some of my first memories of Rick were our meetings when I first started writing. Early on in graduate school, I'd nervously enter Rick's office to discuss a manuscript draft and see Snowy the red-bellied black snake looking fiercely on in a terrarium behind him. Later Snowy was replaced by a number of fat baby melanistic blueys who were much less intimidating as a backdrop to our meetings. Throughout my PhD, Rick offered a lot of thoughtful advice, but the most memorable was when he and I were showing a large snake to a group of students during the top end field course. He had its front and I had its back half. After we put it away, he said "In the future, when you're showing a large, well fed snake, avoid holding its back end." Wise words! 

Rick was and continues to be enormously influential in how I approach writing and science (and to the field of herpetology more broadly!). I'm incredibly proud to be among his academic descendants.
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Post by Sarsha Gorissen

1/30/2020

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Rick, Congratulations! So many achievements in so little time. It's hard to define the contribution you've made to my life though great. So much of my success in ecology is due to you. You were the ultimate PhD supervisor, a third of the Shine Dream Team, and the head of the Shine Family. Your advice comes to mind often at work: when challenges arise I hear your voice - "Just keep going"; when writing papers, I think - "how would Rick do this?"; and when conducting myself in vocational circles your professionalism, aptitude and generosity come to mind. You are Papa Smurf, we are all your Smurfs - guided by your wisdom, knowledge and fairness. What I do know though, is that I became the Scientist I am today because of you - better, kinder, stronger. There is no way I can thank you enough for the leadership you afforded me: it is truly priceless. May all your herpetofaunal dreams comes true. Forever thank you, Sarsha xo.
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Post by Dan Warner

1/29/2020

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The Shine Symposium was a huge success!  We had a great line-up of talks that covered a range of topics, from snake ecology to toad invasions to lizard plasticity (and more) – big thanks to all the symposium speakers (see the group photo). Thanks to Tracy Langkilde, Mel Elphick and Matt Greenlees for all their effort in organizing this. We also greatly appreciate Jacquie Herbert and Claudia Santori for stepping in and helping out at the last minute (and for taking many photos). A big thanks to all of you who submitted photos for the slide show – we enjoyed viewing them and they brought back many great memories! Extra special thanks to Mac and Terri Shine for their presentations – they were both very enjoyable and probably the most insightful talks at the symposium.  And of course, thanks to Rick (who, as always, gave an excellent and very insightful talk) for everything he has provided us over the years!
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I put together a poster of Rick’s academic family (see below) and would like to continue adding Rick’s descendants. This poster was hung up at the social after Rick’s symposium, and we encouraged former Shine labbers to add their students (Rick’s academic grand kids) so we can continue documenting this academic family (Rick’s academic grand kids, great grand kids, etc), so please send me information about your grad students (even if you were an honours, MS, or postdoc of Rick’s – I don’t want to limit this just to Rick’s PhD students). This list is far from complete, so please send me your list of students and I’ll continue updating this!  Send to dan.warner@auburn.edu
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Post by Mike Wall

1/5/2020

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Rick’s creativity and productivity have done more than just shape the fields of herpetology, evolutionary biology and conservation biology — they’ve also given many of us loads of good laughs. Here’s just one of mine. Shortly after I arrived from the U.S. to start my PhD in the Shine Lab, a group of us took a day trip into the bush outside Sydney to do some fieldwork. As we trundled slowly along a rutted dirt road, someone spotted a lace monitor low on a tree just a few steps into the bush. It was my first lacey, and I was pretty excited. Rick told me I could double my excitement by catching the thing, and I agreed wholeheartedly. As soon as I stepped out of the car, of course, the lacey scuttled up the tree, far out of reach. Rick and everyone else started laughing riotously, as well they should have. Moments like these were what made working with Rick so much fun, and why he was such a great mentor. He even turned me onto cricket, though I still think he’s crazy for listening to it on the radio. 
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Post by Bob Mason

1/4/2020

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I first met Rick in Austin, Texas where I was a graduate student and had come under the dubious influence of one Jim Bull, a long-time friend of Rick’s. I know we went out and collected snakes, but Rick said at the time that he always wanted to see the gartersnakes of Manitoba fame. It was, I believe, a bucket-list kind of thought. Fast forward about 10 or 15 years, and probably over beers at a Herp meeting Rick said I sure would like to see those beauties in Manitoba and I said come on over. It started out as just a chance for Rick and Mats Olsson who was postdoc’ing with Rick, to come and see the system. Well, I think Rick was blown away and clearly 2 weeks wasn’t going to suffice. So, each year for another 7 years Rick would come over with at least one PhD student and we had a blast. Those were my favorite years in the field doing science on the fly. We would get up in the morning, gather data while Rick was running the stats in real time on his laptop. That hypothesis didn’t pan out, no problem! After lunch, Rick would have redesigned the study and we’d be back at it that very afternoon. The breadth of studies that we did over those years was breathtaking and there are scores of papers to show for it. But, the best part was sitting around the dinner table, drinking a cold beer (or several) and having all the grad students and the profs deeply thinking about the science and the questions that we could get at. We all worked hard but the rewards in terms of getting data in the can was just great, especially for young students who often were becoming authors on their first papers. Rick was always an extremely generous and magnanimous collaborator and I treasure those years as my very best. To this day, every year when May rolls around Rick will write a pining email wishing us all the best and sincerely wishing that he could be joining us on the Canadian prairies for another season of fun and discovery.  Rick, you’re always welcome and you know that! Best wishes as your “retire” from Sydney Uni and keep on going with your work. With best wishes to you and Terri from all your friends in Oregon and beyond.
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Post by Uditha Wijethunga

1/3/2020

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I am writing this note to show my heartfelt appreciation for your contribution to my life and career. All the times spent in shine lab as a PhD student and all the things you taught me helped set a clear direction for me to follow. Today, as I looked back at how my dreams have materialised into reality, my dear supervisor, Rick stand clearly in my mind. You patiently listened to my challenges, understood them and motivated me to push harder in life. It is because of those times that I have become responsible, professional, committed and successful, in my career.

If I had not had that great support from all the SHINE family, I would not be here today.

There is nothing I can do to repay you adequately for your contribution to my life. I promise to always cherish your lessons, and hopefully one day be as inspirational others as you were to me.

Thank you very much

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Post by Sohan Shetty

12/30/2019

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Shine on Rick!!
It was an incredible journey between 1997 and 2000 with Rick and well, a thousand odd sea kraits in Fiji..and a thousand more rynchops off the Singapore coast. 
 
His perspective about the subject is phenomenal and with the right amount of encouragement is the perfect formula for a great project. 
 
My stint with Rick and the Shine labbers still ranks among the best years of my life... thanks heaps Rick!
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Post by Scott Eipper

12/13/2019

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I was about 12 years old at the time, I had saved money from my paper round in 1991 to order his brilliant book Australian Snakes - a natural history.  
 
Rick was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Victorian Herpetological Society. I was sitting front and centre, watching his wonderfully articulate slide show/presentation on snake biology. 
 
At the intermission I gathered the nerves to make come up introduce myself and ask him to sign my book.
 
 As he signed the book he asked "What were my favorite snakes?" In a shakey voice, I stated as emphatically as I could that "I really loved "ep-ah-lids", Rick quick as a flash, said "ohh you mean ee-lap-ids, don't worry we all make mistakes" 
 
While I was incredibly embarrassed, it was his quick constructive correction that still to this day, I am thankful for. I cannot help but think back fondly, too that few seconds whenever a young person comes up to me, asking if I would sign their snake book. 
 
His professional manner regardless of whether it was a child, teenager or adult is something we can all wish to emulate.
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Come celebrate Rick’s amazing career!

12/11/2019

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The celebration will begin as a day-long symposium on Tuesday, Jan. 7th, 2020 at the World Congress of Herpetology in Dunedin, New Zealand. We have arranged an incredible line-up of speakers that include Rick’s students, postdocs, collaborators, and family. Following the symposium, there will a reception from 7-9 pm at the Otago Museum. If you plan to attend the reception, please send a quick email to dan.warner@auburn.edu – we need an estimate of people to plan accordingly. There will be a charge (about $20-30) to cover the cost of the venue and food.
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Post by Carla Avolio

12/7/2019

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Rick’s science is wonderful and all that, but for me (a communications person) his biggest impact has come from the clear beauty of his prose. Heck anybody could take one of Rick's manuscripts to bed for a spot of wind-down reading. That’s something we can all aspire to. God damn him.
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