BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | April 21, 2017

Dear all,

I hope you all enjoyed the Easter break – I certainly did! And if you plan on taking Monday off to make a 4 day weekend with Anzac Day on Tuesday, please apply for leave via HR Online.

cheerio,

Michelle

Save the Date

This coming week 24th – 28th April

Wed 26th: Morning Tea with HoD; 10:30am – 11am; The Hill.

Wed 26th: Weekly Seminar – Departmental ECRs – Koa Webster & James Lawson; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Thu 27th: Writing Workshop; 2:30 – 4:30pm, E8A 280 (Biology Tea Room).

Following week 1st – 5th May

Wed 3rd: Morning Tea with HoD; 10:30am – 11am; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Wed 3rd: Weekly Seminar – Associate Professor Tim Parker, Whitman College, Washington; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Wed 3rd: Research Enrichment Program – Bookclub: “How to get a PhD: a handbook for students and their supervisors,” Ch 9-12; 4pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Thu 4th: HDR Completion Seminar – Yanan Sun; 5pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Coming up

June 13 – 15th: HDR Conference; Timetable TBA; E7B Lecture Theatres.

Department seminar schedule

May 10th: Associate Professor Eddie Holmes, The University of Sydney; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

May 17th:  Associate Professor Vanessa Hayes, The University of Sydney and The Garvan Institute; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

May 24th:  Professor Mike Archer, The University of NSW, PANGEA Research Centre & CREATE School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

May 31st:  Professor Michael Romero, Tufts University; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

June 7th:  Dr Ceridwen Fraser, ANU; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

June 14th:  Dr Caragh Threlfall, The University of Melbourne; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

June 21st:  Professor Bill Ballard, The University of NSW; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

June 28th:  Professor Madeleine Beekman, The University of Sydney; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

General News and Announcements

New Accolades

Professor Westoby was named one of the 44 new foreign honorary members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Congratulations Mark!

Tony Price Award for plant ecological research by HDR students

Funds can be used for fieldwork or conference presentation. Applications close 30 April 2017, and must be submitted to fse.bio-hod@mq.edu.au. (application form is attached).

Tony Price Award Application_2017

Biology Garden Update

1. There is a big pile of mulch in the courtyard. Most of it will go on the garden beds in the Biology and Bush Tucker gardens. There’s more than we need, so if you want to collect some over the weekend, please help yourself.  The remainder will be removed later next week. Please contact Samantha Newton <samantha.newton@mq.edu.au> if it’s in the way or there are any questions or problems.

2. From May to August Property will work on the parapet around the E8A roof. There will be scaffolding installed around the perimeter of E8A. There will be no major damage to the garden, but there may be limited access to some parts. More updates will come later.

Chatswood Epping Rail Shutdown

Towards the end of 2018 the Chatswood-Epping Rail line will be shutdown, while it’s upgraded to be part of the Sydney Metro North-west. During the following period of ‘about 7 months’ additional buses will replace trains.

The Review of Environmental Factors for the arrangements relating to bus replacements during the rail shutdown has been released for public comment. Comments are due by 12 May. Visit the website for more information:  http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/projects/sydney-north/macquarie-park-bus-priority-capacity-improvement/index.html

The Student Centre is Finally Moving!

Just a quick note to let you know that from tomorrow we will be located in the new centre in E7B (opposite the E7A lifts).  We will be blocking off the assignment boxes and directing students to the new assignment box in our foyer area.  An email was sent to all Science students at 12pm today to notify them of the change

But other than that, everything is the same.  Feel free to come and visit.

FSE Drop In – iLearn, Gradebook, Any L&T Topics

Drop in on the FSE L&T team to get help, ask a question or just let us know your great ideas. Take the chance to do a gradebook health check. A few minutes at drop in may save you hours.

Times: Thursday 27 April, 10am-12 and Thursday 4 May 2-4pm
Location: 12 Wally’s Walk ground floor meeting room ‘G23’
No need to book, just walk on in. Laptops provided.

Of course, if you cannot make those times, drop Natalie and Michael a line for personal assistance <fse-lt@mq.edu.au>.

MMR RECRUITS SENIOR MARINE ECOLOGIST

The Ministry of Marine Resources (MMR) has appointed Dr Lara Ainley to the position of Senior Marine Ecologist this month. Ainley was recruited from the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University in Australia where she worked as a technical and research officer. Please see here for more details.

Department Knitting to Resume

Come and join the fun of knitting for the charity Wrap With Love

Where: E8A Tearoom & W19F Foyer

When: Wednesdays 10:30 (department morning teas)

How: Instructions here and will be available with the knitting.

Knitting yarn will be supplied in the E8A Tearoom and the W19F foyer.

Some knitting needles will be provided, but please bring your own if you have them.

Outreach

Do you have any outreach activities coming up or recently completed? DON’T FORGET to let us know via the outreach form – (an average of 1min 46sec to fill in but worth so much more in terms of brownie points for the department) – ACCESS OUTREACH FORM HERE

Terrestrial Fieldwork Coverage (2 weeks only)

From 19th April – 4th May, Sarah Collison will not be at work and terrestrial fieldwork approvals will be done by another member of the fieldwork management team. Please ensure during this period that you give more than 3 days notice for fieldwork. Also during this period no fieldwork inductions or planning meetings for new fieldwork will take place. Only ongoing Trip approvals will be happening just for these two weeks.

Thank you for your understanding.

DEPARTMENTAL SEMINAR SERIES

Day/Date/Time/Place: Wednesday, 26th April, 1-2pm, E8A-280 (Tea Room)

Speakers: Departmental ECRs – Koa Webster & James Lawson.

Title: KW: Individual differences in mammalian glucocorticoid responses; or: How I learned to love variation. JL: How abundant are different kinds of photosynthesis proteins in wild Eucalyptus leaves? A continental-scale ecological proteomics project.

Abstracts: KW: In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of non-invasive measurement of glucocorticoid hormones (in urine, faeces or hair) to investigate the physiological stress response of mammals. Studies typically investigate the physiological response to some stressor, such as seasonal changes, social ranking, population density, translocation and acclimation to a new environment, the presence of or handling by humans (e.g. zoo visitors), to name a few. However, individual differences in the stress response may impact on studies investigating differences between treatment groups. Using examples from my studies of flying foxes, koalas, possums and bandicoots, I will show that high variation between individuals can make interpreting group differences difficult. I will further show that individual variation is itself a fascinating area of study and can illuminate differences in how individuals interact with and respond to their environment.

JL: Photosynthesis is one of the most important sets of chemical reactions in the biosphere. We have had a robust understanding of how plants perform this incredible feat for several decades, but most of this information has come from model organisms in highly controlled environments. What we don’t know is how wild plants allocate their protein resources to photosynthesise under natural conditions.

Do You Want Help to Improve Your Writing? 

Ken Cheng and Jennifer Hallinan run weekly writing workshops, Thursdays 2:30-4:30pm (in E8A 280).

These writing workshops are meant for HDR students and early-career researchers. Writing at any stage of any genre is welcome in these face-to-face encounters, from first draft to final polish, from empirical paper to literature review to popular news story. The sessions will involve personal feedback linked with rounds of revisions on selected passages, but will vary depending on the needs of participants. The aim is not just to get stuff written, but to write everything well.

Those interested in attending a session should email both Ken Cheng <ken.cheng@mq.edu.au> and Jennifer Hallinan <jennifer.hallinan@mq.edu.au> by Wednesday 12:00, preferably with a draft attached of what they are working on and some indication of what they especially need help with.

Plant of the Week

For this week – Tomato – Solanum lycopersicum – a member of the Nightshade family.  And why is the Galapagos Tortoise so important for one tomato species?

Brought to you by Monika King, David Edgecombe, Prasanth Subramani, Brian Atwell, Alison Downing and Kevin Downing.

Your Vision Needed!

We humans see the world in colour, which helps us detect tasty things to eat (ripe apples and bananas), when to go-versus-stop (traffic lights) and when not to touch (redback spiders). The science and psychology of colour perception comes from controlled lab experiments. Surprisingly, nobody knows precisely how this relates to our experience of colour in the natural world. So we need your help for an experiment!

What you’d do: stroll along a 100-m forest track and tell us which coloured model objects you spy. Ideally once on a sunny and once on a cloudy day. All involvement completely anonymous;

Where: MQ campus near the fauna park (between E8A and W19);

When: Between 11am and 2pm on 1 – 2 weekdays in the first half of May, with flexibility as to your regular daily schedule;

Your reward: Some lunchtime exercise, a warm-fuzzy feeling from helping push back the bounds of science, and chocolate (!). Once you’ve finished strolling, we’d love to share all details of the experiment, what the science predicted and why, etc. You can choose to receive any ultimate study outcomes (reports/papers);

This is a collaborative venture between Dr Bibiana Rojas (visiting Research Fellow), Dr Tom White (MQ Research Associate), and A/Prof Darrell Kemp (MQ faculty).

Please flick an email to DK if you’re interested in helping out: <darrell.kemp@mq.edu.au>

New PhD Student

Mohammad Shadmany, joining Phil Taylor’s group.

“Mohammad investigates prevalence and predictors of polyandry and paternity in the Queensland fruit fly. Polyandry is a potent evolutionary force influencing reproductive biology of most animals not only at individual scale but also at population, landscape, and species level. Mohammad’s project focuses on patterns of female remating and subsequent sperm use in wild and laboratory populations of the Queensland fruit fly, and identifying male traits associated with paternity advantage. His project will also investigate post-copulatory success of sterile males, such as are released in sterile insect technique management programs.”

Interested in Mathematical and Computational Biology?

UQ is running a Winter School in Mathematical and Computational Biology. Themes include: Next generation sequencing & bioinformatics; Advances in single-cell sequencing analysis; Modelling ecologies & populations; Advanced data visualisation & computation; Systems and synthetic biology.

WHEN: 3-7^th July 2017.

WHERE: Queensland Bioscience Precinct, UQ, Brisbane.

Applications for travel scholarships for student travel bursaries open on 15^th May and close on 31^st May.

For more information click here.

Draft Program Available – NCC Bushfire Conference

The draft program for NCC’s Bushfire Conference is now available.Download Draft Conference Program

Conference 30-31 May at Surry Hills and Field Day 1 June at North Head.

The 2017 program will examine:

• the interactions between fire and fauna across a range of ecosystems
• integrated approaches to managing fire, native fauna and flora, weeds and pest animals
• new ideas for managing the Asset Protection Zone
• on-ground fire and restoration projects and Aboriginal burning initiatives.

Speakers include:

• Associate Professor Alan York, University of Melbourne – managing fire for fauna conservation
• Professor Ross Bradstock, University of Wollongong – rethinking how we manage the Asset Protection Zone
• Justin Leonard, CSIRO – supporting community adaptation to fire
• Professor Chris Dickman, University of Sydney – fire and feral animals
• Lloyd Van Der Wallen, NSW Rural Fire Service – update on the Bush Fire Environmental Assessment Code.

Other presenters include Councils, NPWS, AFAC, Aboriginal groups, contractors and environmental NGOs.

Field Day Update

Conference participants are now invited to register for the Field Day online. Please register quickly as there are limited places. Download Field Day information here.

Register for conference and field day

Further information

Organisers

This conference is organised by the Nature Conservation Council of NSW Bushfire Program with oversight from the NCC Bushfire Advisory Committee.

Animal Behaviour Researchers, read on:

The Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour has now opened its applications for grants in 2017: https://www.assab.org/student-grants/  – Applications close 30th May
These provide $1000, and both winners and those highly commended also get $200 towards the ASSAB conference.

Please see application details on their website, and note that applicants must also be society members ($25/year for students).

Please also note that the ASSAB Conference 2017 is now open for registration (https://www.assab.org/); Early Bird Registration closes 21st April, Regular Registration on 30th April, and Abstract Submission on 30th May.

Ecology Grant

The Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment Postgraduate Research Grants close to applications on the 31st July 2017. These research endowments enable postgraduate students to conduct research on ecology, wildlife management or natural history. Grants are worth up to AUD 7,500 per year and renewable for a period of two to three years. The total conference travel budget for the project is limited to AUD 3,000.

https://www.ecolsoc.org.au/endowments

Monash PostDoc Positions Available @ Monash University

Professor Dustin Marshall two postdocs available in my research centre, one for a theoretican, the other for a quantitative empiricist, please encourage suitable folk to apply.

http://careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/job/561052/research-fellow-biological-sciences-adaptive-dynamics-modelling

http://careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/job/561073/research-fellow-biological-sciences-life-history-empiricist

New Publications

In the Media

Recent Completions