Division of Environmental and Life Sciences

News From the Dean
The weekly update from the acting Dean of Division, A/Prof Kevin McCracken

Introducing the latest recruits to the Climate Risk CORE.
Please make them welcome!

Opportunities
- The Australian Federation of University Women Jamieson Award
- Sir Mark Oliphant Conferences
- DelPHE Grants to Address Millennium Development Goals
- Grants of Time aboard the Marine National Facility's research vessel RV Southern Surveyor

Events
- State Library of NSW talk: "Reconciling a wide brown land with sustainability"
- ELS Seminar Series

News from the Dean

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back to the New Year. I hope you all had a relaxing break and are looking forward to the year ahead. A year that will inevitably bring changes - the first one being that our current Dean is leaving us at the end of the week. Liz has accepted a position at ANU as Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education). Congratulations Liz and all the best for the future.

Congratulations also to Ian Jamie who has been awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence. Well done!

A couple of opportunities:-

1. The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) is offering Australian researchers an opportunity to submit expressions of interest for international Missions and Workshops held during the financial year 2008-2009. EOIs are due by Monday 11 February. A form is available on the ATSE website:- http://atse.org.au or email international@atse.org.au

2. The ABCs New Inventors programme is calling for an audience during 2008. Bookings can be made by phoning 833 2652 or email moore.janice@abc.net.au .

Liz is here for her final week and then I will be holding the fort as Acting Dean until the end of July.

Till next time,

Kevin

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Introducing the latest recruits to the Climate Risk CORE....

Dr Melanie Bishop

Dr Melanie Bishop, to be appointed into the Dept of Biological Sciences, is a coastal community ecologist whose major research interests are the impacts of disturbance on coastal environments, especially benthic systems. She is particularly interested in how climate change will affect coastal biodiversity and ecosystem processes in estuaries, beaches and marine communities.

Dr Grant Hose

Dr Grant Hose, to be appointed into both the Department of Biological Sciences and Physical Geography, has research interests in river health, pollution impacts, water quality, ecotoxicology and aquatic ecology. He is particularly interested in the impacts of climate change and environmental flows on freshwater and groundwater systems.

Linda Beaumont

Linda Beaumont will be appointed into the Dept. of Biological Sciences (just as soon as her PhD thesis has been examined) but will take up an ARC Post-doctoral Fellowship prior to joining the Department as a teaching academic. Linda is an ecologist interested in the impacts of climate change on species with particular research expertise in climatic and bioclimatic modelling, and Geographic Information Systems.

Assoc. Prof Ian Goodwin

To be appointed into the Dept. of Physical Geography, studies climatology and coastal geoscience. He has particular research interests in ice core and coral paleoclimatology, climate variability, impacts of climate change on Antarctica and coasts, Holocene coastal evolution, sea level rise, and coastal management and protection.

Dr Kevin Cheung

Dr Kevin Cheung, to be appointed into the Dept. of Physical Geography, is an atmospheric scientist and meteorologist. His main research interest is tropical storms but he has also been involved in cross-disciplinary research in hydrology and natural hazards.

All the new appointees will be taking up their positions in January-February, 2008. Please make them welcome.

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ELS Congratulates Ian Jamie from Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences

Ian Jamie, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences has recently been awarded a Vice Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence.

Ian has been an active and highly valued member of the ELS Learning and Teaching Committee for over 5 years now and has effectively championed the interests of Learning and Teaching in the Department of CBMS. Initiatives he has established within this Department include a peer review program of teaching, and facilitation of a specific Learning and Teaching Q&A forum. Ian was also recently Director of the Carrick Award winning program "Advancing Chemistry by Enhancing Learning in the Laboratory (ACELL)".

In advising Ian of the award, Judith Sachs commended Ian, reporting that "the scholarly foundations of your teaching and a great love for your discipline.  You were able to demonstrate that student learning was a joint journey."

2007 was a great year for Ian and teaching awards and as a result Science News will be reporting a feature on his application with a view to sheding light on what is obviously an award winning teaching philosophy. Watch this space!

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Opportunities

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The Australian Federation of University Women Jamieson Award

The Australian Federation of University Women – NSW Inc. offers annual awards of $1000.00 each to outstanding women students completing their undergraduate degree course in universities within New South Wales in 2007 (nb. the 2008 award is for students completing an undergraduate degree in 2007). Preference will be given to applicants with significant community involvement and preferably proceeding to approved further study. Candidates may be studying in any field.

For application guidelines and further information see http://www.afuwnsw.org.au/scholarship_app_ja.php or contact the AFUW-NSW office: afuwnsw@netspace.net.au. Applications must be received by the 31 March 2008.

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The Sir Mark Oliphant Conferences

The Sir Mark Oliphant Conferences - International Frontiers of Science and Technology provide financial support to stage strategically significant international conferences in Australia on high priority, cutting edge, multi-disciplinary themes. The Conference series is managed on behalf of the Australian Government by the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

The Academies invite applications for funding to hold conferences between 1 July 2008 and 30 June 2009. Each conference can be supported to an amount of up to $90,000. Guidelines, information and an application form can be found at: www.oliphant.org.au. The deadline for receipt of applications is 18 February 2008.

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DelPHE Grants to GBP 50,000

Development Partnerships in Higher Education (DelPHE) scheme is currently accepting submissions to its Third Call for applications for project funding. Between GBP 10,000 and GBP 50,000 per year is available for three-year collaborative projects which address Millennium Development Goals in partner countries. The Association of Commonwealth Universities especially encourages applications to DelPHE which involve all global-southern partners.
Submissions are to be made to the British Council office in the country of the lead partner. Local British Council deadlines range from 30 January 2008 to 1 March 2008, depending on the lead country. Please visit http://www.britishcouncil.org/

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Grants of Time aboard the Marine National Facility's research vessel RV Southern Surveyor

Applications for grants of time aboard the Marine National Facility's research vessel RV Southern Surveyor are now being accepted. The application period will close on 15 February 2008.

Grants of time are typically of 6 to 30 days duration. The vessel's equipment and outfit particularly suit it to support multi-disciplinary research in oceanography and climatology, fisheries, biology, ecosystem studies and marine geoscience. See http://www.marine.csiro.au/nationalfacility/ for more information.

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Events

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A Wide Brown Land and Sustainability

Thursday 31 January 2008

What does it take to look after the land, plants and wildlife and repair the impact of our urban and rural activities? Join Dr Tim Entwisle, Executive Director, and Clarence Slockee, Aboriginal Education Officer, both at the Royal Botanic Gardens; and Dr Denis A Saunders AM, President WWF-Australia as they reflect on this dilemma.

Time: 6:00pm-8:00pm Jan 31 Cost: $22/$20 (seniors)/$15 (Friends & students), incl. light refreshments
Venue: Metcalfe Auditorium, State Library of NSW, Macquarie Street, Sydney
Bookings: State Library of NSW www.sl.nsw.gov.au (02) 9273 1770

***STOP PRESS***

Deb McBurnie from the State Library has advised that students and staff can pay just $15 for entry to this talk by asking for the "green rate" when you ring to book. If you have problems with this please call Deb on (02) 9273 1768.

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ELS Seminar Series

Departments in ELS host seminars covering a wide range of topics associated with ongoing research projects and other areas of interest. The seminars are delivered by academics, research staff, and students from within the Division, as well as guest speakers from other institutions and industry. We are a little short on details of times, dates, locations and topics of seminars to be held in Semester 1 2008 - if you are looking after your Department's seminar series we would really appreciate your advice on what the schedule is for the coming weeks! Simply send a quick e-mail to sciencenews@els.mq.edu.au. Thanks!We will then be able to advertise your seminars here.

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Snippets

More kids unsafe at home
An increasing number of children were placed in out-of-home care in the past 5 years, as a result of emotional of physical abuse, according to new findings.

State housing supports needy
New reports have found that housing assistance is allocated to people in greatest need, those who cannot use the private rental market.

Mayans used glittering paints
Ancient Mayan builders used lustrous and glittering pigments to decorate their temples, according to a recent infrared study of Mayan paints.

Child abuse pain lasts lifetime
Survivors of child abuse are over twice as likely to suffer poor mental health, as well as social problems, even much later in life, according to a new study.

Marsupial lion: king of the jungle
New research has revealed that Australia's extinct marsupial lion would have made mincemeat of today's African lion in a fight to the death.

GM benefits outweigh risk
The benefit of genetically modified (GM) plants outweigh the risks, according to new findings, which encourage the legalisation of GM crops.

Exercise slows Huntington's symptoms
Mental and physical stimulation can delay the onset of dementia and slow memory loss in patients with Huntington's disease, new research has revealed.

Weight loss surgery treats diabetes
A breakthrough study has revealed that gastric banding surgery, can reverse the effects of Type 2 diabetes in obese patients.

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