Who's Dr Don?

Dr Don Ewart (that's me) is a research scientist specialising in termites. From 1994 to 1997 he worked at the Ian Wark Laboratories of CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products in Melbourne, Victoria , Australia , next to the main campus of Monash University . I now work from a portable lab and a controlled-temperature-room-de-wheels (sigh)

I mostly work doing research for, Granitgard Pty. Ltd., makers of crushed -rock termite barriers which negate the need for toxic chemical treatments. Physical termite barriers are all quarry pic.the rage in Australia right now as we only banned organochlorine termiticides in June '95 (only 7 or so years behind the US) and the building industry is still coming to termes with the changes. This means that I get to dabble in crushed rock, crawl under houses, talk with architects, travel a lot, battle some bureaucrats and run all sorts of terribly elegant little experiments in a nicely warmed tandem trailer and pockets of native forest around Australia. So far the work is loads of fun. But as always, I'm open to offers . . . especially when I'm seriously missing teaching! . . . .

Termite ecology is a very challenging field; apart from eating wood, termites do all sorts of interesting things, like infesting aeroplanes, or like building the cathedrals in this picture (here's where I found it) one spit-ball at a time. You can find out more about termites at Dr Don's Termite Pages . . . .