Division of Environmental and Life Sciences

News From the Dean
An update from the Acting Dean of Division, A/Prof Kevin McCracken

ELS and ARIES Welcomes Ranjeeta Buti from India
ARIES has an Endeavour Exchange scholar from India, Ms Ranjeeta Buti.

Opportunities
- Renew your first aid certification on campus
- General Staff Development Grants

Events
- In the Hot Seat #2, real-life politicians talking climate change!
- UTS Speaks Seminar: "Are green credentials now a key driver for successful business?"
- Physical Geography Seminar
- Genes2Geoscience Seminar
- ELS Seminars

News from the Dean

Dear Collegues

Liz recently established a working party to undertake a review of the operations of the Division's store. To assist the working party Rebecca Taylor from CPD will be running two focus groups this week to gather input from ELS staff and students about what they need and want from this service. I would like to encourage your participation in one of these groups which will meet on Thursday 15 March at 10.00am and on Friday 16 March at 11.00am in E7A 829. Morning tea will be provided. If you would like to contribute please email Rod Nurthen at rnurthen@els.mq.edu.au .

Nominations are being sought for the 2007 Prime Minister's Prizes for Science. These prestigious prizes are awarded for outstanding contributions to science and science teaching. The closing date for nominations is 5.00pm on 27 April, 2007. More detailed information about the Prizes and the nomination process can be found at: http://www.dest.gov.au/scienceprize

My current sojourn ends with Liz's return today. Thanks to everyone for your support and patience during that time.

Best wishes
Kevin

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ELS and ARIES Welcomes Ranjeeta Buti from India

ARIES has an Endeavour Exchange scholar from India, Ms Ranjeeta Butin

ARIES has an Endeavour Exchange scholar from India, Ms Ranjeeta Buti. Ms Buti is an Associate Fellow with the Environment Education and Awareness area at TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute, www.teriin.org), New Delhi. Ranjeeta has won the prestigious Endeavour Executive Award, supported by DEST and will be associated with ARIES, for the next two months.

About TERI
TERI formulates local- and national-level strategies to develop global solutions. As an organization, TERI has created an environment that is enabling, dynamic and inspiring for the development of solutions to global problems in the fields of energy, environment and current patterns of development, which are largely unsustainable.
The Institute’s growth has been evolutionary, driven by a vision of the future and rooted in challenges looming today, based on an approach that looks beyond the present and across the globe. TERI has, therefore, grown to establish a presence not only in different corners and regions of India but is perhaps the only developing country institution to have established a presence in North America and Europe and on the Asian continent in Japan, Malaysia and the Gulf.
TERI’s works touches the lives of millions and embraces every significant aspect of Sustainable Development

About The Endeavour Programme
The Endeavour Programme is an internationally competitive, merit-based scholarship programme that forms part of the Australian Government’s $1.4 billion Australian scholarship initiative, announced in April 2006.

The Endeavour Executive Awards are two-way, providing professional development opportunities for high achievers in business, industry, education or government from participating countries working side by side with their colleagues in counterpart institutes.

This association gives Ranjeeta an opportunity to share updated skills and knowledge with colleagues as well as establish linkages and networks.

We welcome Ms Buti to ARIES and ELS and wish her all the best.

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ELS Congratulates Dr Ross Peacock from Biological Sciences

ELS Congratulates Dr Ross Peacock from Biological Sciences for receiving a travel grant by the Maxwell Ralph Jacobs Fund. The Maxwell Ralph Jacobs fund was established to commemorate the life and work of Dr M.R. Jacobs (25 February 1905 - 9 October 1979). It is a forest research fund administered by the Australian Academy of Science in conjunction with the Institute of Foresters of Australia.

Ross was awarded the grant to assist his work of validating models of vegetation change following timber harvesting in East Gippsland, Victoria. In 1990 a chronosequence of 60 plots was established in East Gippsland lowland, damp and wet forest 2 to 29 years after timber harvesting. Those plots were used to develop a model of vegetation change following timber harvesting as part of a larger suite of field experiments examining vegetation and timber response to harvesting. The proposed project will validate the model of vegetation change published in 1992 and 1995 by re-visiting those same study sites 16 years after they were originally established by the author. Ross intends to test predicted changes from the original successional model against actual field data.

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Opprtunities

Renew Your First Aid Certification On Campus

Macquarie University is running a Recertification courses for people who hold a Senior first Aid Certificate. You have to complete the 1 day course prior to your certificate expiring. When you attend the one day training, your certificate will be renewed for another 3 years.

2 days have been organised:
- 16 April 2007
- 25 September 2007

If your certificate is going to expire between 16 April and 25th September please book into the first date 16/4/07. If your certificate expires anywhere between 25 September and the 30 April 2008 please book into training on the 25th September 2007. These two days are being held on campus in Building C4B. Only 1 day needs to be attended.

Enrol ASAP through the cpd website: http://www.cpd.mq.edu.au/

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Division General Staff Professional Development Grants

Did you know the Division has funding available to support the professional development of its general staff? If there is a course you have been wanting to do or any other opportunity that extends your professional development, you should consider applying. The closing date for the 1st round of 2007 Staff Development Grants for General Staff in ELS is Friday the 27th April 2007. For more details and the application form, please refer to
http://www.els.mq.edu.au/staff/generalpd_info.htm

When making the ELS application, please also complete the CPD
application for Specialist Support Grants - details and application form can be found at http://www.cpd.mq.edu.au/leadership/award_specialist.htp

A second round of applications for both programmes will be called for in September.

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Events

In The Hot Seat Forum Two: Who will take the lead on climate change?
Tuesday 13th March, 2007, free admission

Speakers:
- Hon. Bob Debus MP (Environment Minister)
- Mr Michael Richardson MP (Shadow Environment Minister)
- Ms Lee Rhiannon MLC (Greens Member)

Venue: Grand Lodge, Sydney Masonic Centre, 66 Goulburn St, Sydney

For further information contact Marnie Kikken at mkikken@nccnsw.org.au or 9279 2466.

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"Are green credentials now a key driver for successful business?"

A serious turning point has been reached in the relationship between human consumption and global ecosystems. Corporations and governments are heeding alarm bells that many industries must adopt sustainable practices or propel the world's nations into environmental and social disaster. To date, the daunting task of creating a sustainable basis for human survival has been viewed mainly in terms of costs.

Drawing on inspiring examples from Australia and world-wide, this free public lecture explores the opportunities that are at hand for Australian business to respond profitably to growing environmental and social crises, contributing to sustainable solutions by achieving more with less.

Introduced by Maria Atkinson, Global Head of Sustainability, Lend Lease Corporation

When: Thursday 15 March, 6pm drinks for 6.30pm start

Where: Guthrie Theatre, Level 3 Peter Johnson Building, 702-730 Harris St, Ultimo. Free Parking at Peter Johnson Building basement car park 702-730 Harris St Ultimo

About Dexter Dunphy

Dexter Dunphy is Distinguished Professor in the UTS Faculty of Business.

With an international reputation for thought leadership, research and consulting in corporate sustainability, corporate social responsibility and the management of organisational change, he has authored 90 articles and 25 books, some business best sellers. Dexter is a member of the Westpac Community Consultative Council and a Patron of the Global Sustainability Institute at RMIT. He has been Foundation Director of the Centre for Corporate Change at the Australian Graduate School of Management, held visiting professorships at Harvard University, Keio University (Japan), the National University of Singapore, the Shanghai First Medical College and the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration. Dexter actively supports and documents sustainability initiatives in leading Australian companies.

RSVP - Wednesday 14th March 2007 robert.button@uts.edu.au or phone 02 9514 1734

UTSPEAKS: is a free public lecture series presented by UTS experts discussing a range of important issues confronting contemporary Australia.

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Genes-to-Geoscience Seminar: "Environmental Forensics –Why stable isotopes are playing a major role in this and many other litigious areas"

by Prof R. Paul Philp, School of Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma, USA

Wednesday 14th March, 1-2pm in E8A 290 (Biology tea room).

This talk will be of interest to:
Chemists: stable isotopes (C, H, N, S, O, Cl), drug characterization,
Biologists: food adulteration
Geoscientists: groundwater
Environmental scientists: environmental forensics

Seminar abstract:
For many years groundwater analyses have depended upon such analytical techniques such as gas chromatography(GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GCMS). In recent years there has been a significant increase in the application and utilization of stable isotopes in the area of groundwater analyses but also in many areas of forensic science, drug characterization, and food adulteration. A number of topics will be addressed in this presentation. The first will be a brief introduction to stable isotopes, particularly those of interest in the above mentioned areas, namely the stable isotopes of carbon, hydrogen, chlorine, nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen. The second area will be to examine some case histories where stable isotopes have played a very important role in environmental forensic cases. In many of these applications, isotopes are one approach from the available tool box and it is not the intent of this talk to give the impression that it can replace the more conventional tools. However there are indeed some cases, particularly single component spills where it might be the most valuable tool available. The third part of the presentation will focus on applications of isotopes in other potentially litigious areas outside the realm of environmental forensics. For example a combination of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes along with presence of specific compounds has proven a very powerful tool in the determination of geographical areas of drug shipments. Characterization of blood and urine samples for the presence of certain compounds can also be used to discriminate natural and synthetic compounds, for example testosterone. In SE Asia crime laboratories are using stable isotopes to track shipments of adulterated food from China, particularly ginseng, along with spices that are supposedly natural but often synthetic.

So in summary, with the development of the combined gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GCIRMS) approach, the number of isotopic applications to a wide variety of problems continues to increase, almost exponentially. While for the most part many of the applications are currently based on carbon and hydrogen isotopes, GCIRMS methods continue to be developed for the other common isotopes.

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Snippets

Bird flu vaccine trials
Saturday, 10 March 2007
An Australian-developed vaccine that’s been trialed in Perth has been found to produce a strong immune response against the H5N1 bird flu virus.

Weeding out the risk of pest plants
Friday, 09 March 2007
More accurate assessments of the environmental risks associated with the release of disease-resistant plants are now possible following CSIRO’s development of a new framework that identifies potential weed pests.

Carbon credit calculator online
Friday, 09 March 2007
As carbon trading becomes an increasingly important tool in the fight against global warming, an online carbon credit calculator has been developed to help quickly determine the value of timber plantations.


Victorian cat receives pacemaker
Friday, 09 March 2007
Surgeons at the University of Melbourne’s Veterinary Clinic and Hospital have commenced feline pacemaker operations, a probable first for Victoria.

Hard to focus as eyes age
Thursday, 08 March 2007
The lens of the eye, which becomes one thousand times harder during the course of our lives, may cause an inability to focus up close as people age.

Foetus receives copper through placenta
Thursday, 08 March 2007
A Deakin University study has unlocked one of the many mysteries of pregnancy—how the trace element copper is transported across the placenta.

Researcher rejects multivitamin risk
Thursday, 08 March 2007
One of Australia’s leading researchers in the field of complementary medicine has rejected reports that the use of a daily multivitamin supplement could increase the risk of death.

Government goes for green homes
Wednesday, 07 March 2007
The Australian Government will help households and small businesses become more energy efficient, through a $52.8 million Small Business and Household Climate Change Action initiative.

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