Winchester's Emma Smith is looking forward to a trip to Australia after being named as an "environmental champion" by her employers and winning a place on an international field research project there.

The 27-year-old is an IT team leader working in London for GlaxoSmithKline, who ran their own "Earthweek" competition in collaboration with the international environmental charity, Earthwatch, as a celebration of World environment Day.

The object was to raise employee awareness about the company's environmental responsibilities and applicants had to show how they would improve environmental understanding.

Emma will be joining the project, Climate Change in the Rainforest, which operates in the Atherton and Carbine Tablelands of Queensland, where experts predict that global warming could wipe out nearly half the endemic species.

Working with Earthwatch-supported scientist, Dr Stephen Williams, of Queensland's James Cook University, and with a team of international volunteers, Emma will help to measure the distribution of plants and animals in order to identify monitoring sites to assess the impact of climate change.

The data collected will be used to build predictive models which scientists hope will help them decide what must be done to conserve critical refuge areas of the rainforest.

"It will be a fantastic opportunity for me to get more closely involved in environmental issues and to share my experiences with my colleagues and with schools in my home town," said Emma.

"It sounds as though this could be a life-changing experience."