Dr Penelope Diane Olsen is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n ornithologist and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. She has worked with CSIRO as an experimental officer and an Honorary Research Associate as well as being an ARC

Australian Research Council

The Australian Research Council is the Australian Government’s main agency for allocating research funding to academics and researchers in Australian universities. Its mission is to advance Australia’s capacity to undertake research that brings economic, social and cultural benefit to the...

 Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian National University

Australian National University

The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

. She is also internationally recognised as an expert on raptor

Bird of prey

Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as birds that primarily hunt vertebrates, including other birds. Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....

s and was involved in the conservation work on Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...

 for the Norfolk Island Boobook

Norfolk Island Boobook

The Norfolk Boobook , also known as the Norfolk Island Boobook, Norfolk Island Owl or Norfolk Island Morepork, was a bird in the true owl family endemic to Norfolk Island, an Australian territory in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. It is an extinct subspecies of the Southern Boobook...

. She was President of the Australasian Raptor Association

Australasian Raptor Association

The Australasian Raptor Association was founded in 1978 as a special interest group of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, also known as Birds Australia. It promotes the study and conservation of the diurnal and nocturnal raptors, or birds of prey, of Australasia and South-east Asia. It...

 1984-1989. In 1997 she was awarded the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union

Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union

The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, also known as Birds Australia, was founded in 1901 to promote the study and conservation of the native bird species of Australia and adjacent regions. This makes it Australia's oldest national birding association. It is also Australia's largest...

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

Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...

n region.

Since 2003 she has been editor of Birds Australia's magazine Wingspan

Wingspan (magazine)

Wingspan is the quarterly membership magazine of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union . It was first issued in 1991, replacing the RAOU Newsletter. The current Editor is Sean Dooley....

.

Books

• Olsen, Penny D. (Ed). (1993). Australian Raptor Studies. ARA, RAOU: Melbourne.
• Olsen, Penny. (1995). Australian Birds of Prey. The biology and ecology of raptors. NSW University Press: Sydney.
• Olsen, Penny. (2001). Feather and Brush. Two centuries of Australian bird art. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne.
• Olsen, Penny. (2005). Wedge-tailed Eagle. Australian Natural History Series. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne.
• Olsen, Penny. (2010). Upside Down World: Early European Impressions of Australia's Curious Animals, National Library of Australia: Canberra.