The Bee Doctor

Dr Cooper Schouten has been fascinated by bees ever since he was a child, convinced he could talk to his tiny insect friends. Fast-forward a couple of decades and that childhood fascination has become a career. In 2014, during his undergraduate Environmental Science studies, Cooper received a New Colombo Plan scholarship funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to work in rural Timor-Leste. It was during this time he realised that the state of the environment was inherently linked to community welfare and that his love of bees could be used to help both.