Phyllis Jane Fromont is a New Zealand and Australian scientist specialising in sponges.
She then undertook her overseas experience for about two years, before arriving in Perth, Western Australia, where she found work with an environmental consultancy firm and was a volunteer at the Western Australian Museum with curator of marine invertebrates, Loisette Marsh.
[1] She earned a Master of Science degree from the University of Auckland in 1985, with her thesis titled Poecilosclerida of New Zealand,[2] and while there published papers with Bergquist.
[3] She followed this with a PhD (A taxonomic study of tropical marine sponges (Porifera: Demospongiae: Haplosclerida and Petrosida) using morphological, chemical and reproductive character sets) from James Cook University, completed in 1990, with her supervisor being Patricia Bergquist.
[4] Following her PhD, Fromont worked for the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, continuing to publish on sponges (Porifera).