The 2024 Australian Antarctic Research Conference in Hobart (November, 2024) drew 450 polar scientists and featured many talks, workshops and over 200 research posters. JCU PhD student Nikki Rodewald from the Marine Omics Lab was awarded both the Best Overall and Early Career Researcher poster for show casing her work on dispersal in the benthic seastars, Labidiaster radiosus and Labidiaster annulatus. Well done Nikki!