Philip Commander joined IAH in 1976 and was a founder member of both the Australian Chapter and Western Australian Branch. He was National Committee Treasurer from 1987-90 and has been on the WA Branch committee since 1990, and has been involved with the Commission on Hydrogeological Maps. Philip commenced work as a hydrogeologist in 1971 with the Geological Survey of WA, and with various transfers and name changes is currently Principal Hydrogeologist with the WA Department of Water. His career has been spent mainly in groundwater resources, but has had the opportunity to work on many aspects of hydrogeology throughout WA. His main interests have been in hydrogeological mapping (contributing to the ?ydrogeology of Australia? and the hydrogeology of the Perth Basin, and also the history of hydrogeology. He has contributed to the CGS groundwater courses, to courses at WA universities, and has been involved in the establishment of a hydrogeology MSc course at UWA. Philip is married with four daughters, three of whom are at university this year, and has been threatening to retire from the public service in the near future.

Anna joined the IAH in 1994 and has been a committee member of the WA Branch since 2005. She graduated in 1992 from the University of Mining and Metallurgy in Poland and specialised in engineering geology, hydrogeology and mining hydrogeology. She moved to Australia and completed her Master of Science in Hydrogeology and Environmental Science at the University of Melbourne. Anna has over 10 years of experience in hydrogeology including water source planning and development, definition and design and operational advice. She also has experience in water quality and contaminant hydrogeology. She holds a position of a Senior Hydrogeologist at the Water Corporation in WA. Anna comes from champion skiers and snowboarders family hence her free time is spent downhill skiing. She enjoys dancesport, competed at the state level in 2002-2004, and creative jewellery making

Originally from Canada, Ryan Vogwill joined the IAH in 1995 and has been involved in the State Committee for the last two years. In 2003 Ryan completed his PhD entitled ?ydrogeology and Aspects of the Environmental Geology of the Broome Area, Western Australia?at Curtin University. In his PhD he used fractals to model pore space as well as regional scale flow modelling and local scale investigations to look at the capacity of groundwater abstraction to impact on the 150,000 migratory wader birds, which come to Broome annually. For the last three years Ryan has worked at the Department of Environment (now the Department of Water) on Gnangara Mound rationalising the triple bottom line (social, economic and environmental benefits of water) using the Perth Regional Aquifer Modelling System (PRAMS). He, along with Sandie McHugh, has also worked on bridging the knowledge gap between regional flow systems and groundwater dependant ecosystems (GDE?) of Gnangara Mound. Recently he has moved to the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) to pursue this issue over a wider area, the Wheatbelt, with a focus on the protection of key biodiversity assets in the Salinity Recovery Catchments in the face of dryland salinity. Ryan supervises postgraduate students and his non-work interests include; cricket (playing and watching), rugby (definitely only watching!!), brewing beer (not just drinking it like Doug!) and Subaru WRX?

Dr Colin Walker has been a member of the IAH for eight years and has served on the Western Australian Branch IAH committee over 2005-present, being state president in 2006. He is responsible for the WA Branch website. Colin is a senior environmental scientist leading Geo & Hydro Environmental Mgt Pty Ltd and based in Perth. He has twenty years experience in hydrogeology, having initially specialised in stable isotope tracer techniques and subsequently on surface-groundwater investigations and meteorology in semi-arid conservation projects. Colin teaches environmental subjects at the tertiary level at Murdoch University and Central TAFE, with emphasis on environmental water and law. He also contributes in projects on contamination management, their risk analysis and clean-ups. In his spare time, Colin still enjoys the Western Australian landscape and a coastal farm-retreat.

Doug Brown joined the IAH in 1988 and has been an active member of the UK, Irish and Australian Chapters including a two year period as Chairman of the Western Australian Branch from 2000 to 2002. He has been a consultant hydrogeologist for 18 years with specialisation in mine dewatering, closure and water management and is currently the WA State Manager and Mining/Hydrogeology Sector Leader with MWH Australia Pty Ltd. Doug has been leading the adoption of sustainable water management techniques in the WA mining industry which has included the re-injection of large volumes of excess freshwater generated by mine dewatering back into surrounding aquifers to ?ank?the water resource, minimize the mining footprint and limit offsite impacts. Doug is currently a member of the International Editorial Board of the "Mine Water and the Environment" journal of the International Mine Water Association (IMWA). In his free time enjoys being a dad, climbing mountains, taking photos, talking about Scotland and drinking Little Creatures beer.