BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | April 7, 2017

Dear all,

We had an interesting discussion at this week’s department meeting about the plans for our new Science Precinct and what we would like to see happen. There is a Faculty retreat on May 4th to move the planning forward – if you have great ideas for the precinct or the re-fit of the E8 buildings or for the new BIG building, please let me know so I can put them forward to the Faculty. These will be important decisions about our working environment that really matter. Also if you’ve seen fantastic meeting spaces (inside or out), lab spaces, etc let me know and send me images! Slides from the meeting are here.

Our traditional Easter Treasure Hunt and hot cross bun feast will be this coming Wednesday – get a team together and join in the fun! Our department seminar on Wednesday also promises to be excellent, with Professor John Mattick (Exec Director of the Garvan Institute) speaking on RNA at the epicentre of evolution, development and cognition – make sure you come along.

cheerio,

Michelle

Save the Date

This coming week 10th – 13th April

Wed 12th: The Great Easter Treasure Hunt; 10:30am – 11am; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Wed 12th: Weekly Seminar – Professor John Mattick, Executive Director, Garvan Institute of Medical Research; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Following week 18th – 21st April

Tue 18th: R-Users Group Meeting; 1:30pm – 3:30pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Wed 19th: No Weekly Seminar  this week.

Wed 19th: Research Enrichment Program – Bookclub: “How to get a PhD: a handbook for students and their supervisors,” Ch 7-8; 4pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Thu 20th: New Student Inductions;  11am – 12:00pm; E8C-212.

Thu 20th: Department social with drinks in the courtyard, pizza provided; 5pm.

Coming up

May 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).

June 13 – 15th: HDR Conference; Timetable TBA; Location TBA.

Department seminar schedule

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

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

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

Award Congratulations

Patricia Selkirk has will receive the 2017 University of Sydney Alumni Award for Professional Achievement – huge congratulations and well deserved!

http://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2017/04/05/awards-for-alumni-who-help-change-the-world.html?cid=em_se-apr-2017

An awards ceremony will be held on 27 April.

The Great Easter Treasure Hunt – with hot-x-buns

Wednesday, April 12, 10:30 E8A Tearoom. The treasure hunt list will be released on Monday. Form a group of treasure hunters, gather the goods and bring them to the tea room. A panel of internationally accredited judges will assess the treasure and distill the winner!

This year we will collect donations for UNHCR African Food Crisis (https://www.unrefugees.org.au/)

DEPARTMENTAL SEMINAR SERIES

Day/Date/Time/Place: Wednesday, 11th April, 1-2pm, E8A-280 (Tea Room)

Speaker: Professor John Mattick, Executive Director, Garvan Institute of Medical Research.

Title: RNA at the epicentre of evolution, development and cognition

Abstract: It appears that molecular biology has been fundamentally misunderstood, because of several primitive or premature foundational assumptions, notably that most genetic information is transacted by proteins, that mutation is random, and that the soma cannot communicate with the germline, all of which are evidently incorrect.  This lecture will present the evidence that RNA is not simply an ephemeral intermediate between gene and protein, but in fact the computational heart of cell biology, development, cognition and probably evolution itself.

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

Advice to MQ Academics on Mentoring Early Career Researchers

Tuesday 2 May 2017, 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm

This workshop aims to provide strategic advice to MQ academics on mentoring early career researchers (ECRs). The workshop will be chaired by Prof Lesley Hughes, and along with 5 panel members from each of Macquarie’s faculties, the group will discuss their experience in recruiting, supporting and advising ECRs. The panel members have outstanding track records in mentoring the next generation of research leaders and will provide unique insights into their development of highly supportive and collaborative research environments. More details

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 this two weeks.

If you need to have a terrestrial fieldwork induction or talk to Sarah about projects or trips that are not yet planned please do so before 19th April.

Thank you for your understanding

Reminder – MU Species Spectrum Research Centre proposals for working groups – due next week.

The MUSSRC will fund proposals for working groups that apply the trait-based approach to a broad range of questions and organisms.

Please submit your 1-page proposal for a working group to: fse.species-spectrum-admin@mq.edu.au next week (beginning Monday the 10th April).

Each proposal should contain the following:

1) Title

2) Background: state the nature of the question to which the trait-based method is being applied. What effort has been made (or will be made) to assess the progress around the advancement of this question nationally and internationally? What is the likely main result you hope to achieve with the working group (you may like to visualize/explain this with a graph of the main result)? What is the main output the working group is hoping to achieve?

3) List of workshop participants and their affiliation: cross-disciplinary membership is strongly encouraged.

4) Budget: State the level of funding requested with the break-down of how the funds will be spent, and over what time-frame.

With best wishes

Marie and the MUSSRC Executive Committee

R you an R newbie, or do you want to learn some new R skills?

DataCamp (https://www.datacamp.com/home) has a number of courses that can be enrolled in for R, Python and statistics. Some are free, others require a subscription (which I currently have until August 2017). If you are interested in doing any of the subscription courses, please send me an email and I will enrol you.

Courses for R include:

Introduction to R

Intermediate R

Importing Data into R

Cleaning Data in R

Data visualisation with ggplot…

and much more.

For those who like a bit of a timetabled approach to learning, Linda Beaumont’s lab meets in E8C212 from 2-3pm on Tuesdays to work at our own speed through the various modules. Anyone is welcome to join – you just need to bring headphones and a laptop. Again, please contact Linda Beaumont <linda.beaumont@mq.edu.au> if you are interested.

Library and Co-op Liaison Person Wanted

With Kate Barry moving to a new role in the department, we need a new contact person for the library and co-op. This is a fairly straightforward role to act as a communication route between the department and library for ordering new books or other resources and letting people know about new resources or trials. Please let Michelle know if you are interested in this role.

I know you’re reading departmental matters right now but…

You Should Be Writing.

No really, you should be.

But it’s difficult to find the elusive combination of time, willpower, and lack of distractions to sit down and hammer out a good 2000 words towards your thesis/paper/back-up novel in case this whole “academia” thing doesn’t work out. But there is hope.

The plan is to get a group of people together who would like to have a set time each week to meet up and write. The time I have in mind at the moment is Thursday afternoons from 1 until 5 as this would allow us to meet for lunch and chat beforehand so we won’t distract each other once we’re in the room, would set aside four solid hours of writing time, and would be followed by departmental drinks/pizza/insert reward here. However, I’m open to other days and times if Thursday afternoons don’t work for people. If you’re interested in joining in, send an e-mail to me (Kyle) <kyle.zawada@students.mq.edu.au> with your name, favourite Bon Jovi song and, if Thursday afternoons don’t work for you, an outline of when you’re available.

Happy writing!

March for Science, Sydney

(see https://marchforscienceaustralia.org/sydney/   or   https://www.facebook.com/MarchForScienceSydney/  ).

This is a non-partisan, pro-science event that will feature an hour of speakers in Martin Place followed by a walk to Hyde Park on Earth Day, April 22nd (noon-2pm).

Plant of the Week

For next week – Protea – not native to Australia, rather, native to southern Africa.

Scientific journals were once a great idea but now they are slowing progress, the Economist reviews changes that probably will, sooner or later, affect not only the way we publish but also the bibliometrics that universities deploy to measure productivity

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21719438-about-change-findings-medical-research-are-disseminated-too

Interesting reading for academics.

Sydney Chapter for Society for Conservation Biology

BioBlitz

Sydney SCB is teaming up with Sophie Golding at the City of Sydney to help source volunteers for a BioBlitz in November. This BioBlitz will help to raise awareness of the beautiful flora and fauna of Sydney. The date in November is not yet set, but if you are interested in getting involved please fill out the survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CoSBioBlitz) and you will be kept in the loop.

Upcoming Event: Creative Conservation Feathers and Fur 2, April 22nd

The Sydney Chapter for the Society of Conservation Biology run an exciting workshop series called “Creative Conservation.” This workshop series is intended to bring nature and science and the arts together. In this workshop pen and ink artist Daisy Claridge (http://www.daisyclaridge.com.au/) will guide us through illustrative techniques for complex details such as feathers and fur.

When: Saturday 22nd April

Where: Centennial Parklands Learning Centre

How: Tickets are $20 for students, and $30 for non-students and are available here: https://creativefeathersandfur2017-2.eventbrite.com.au

New Macquarie University Representative

Peri Bolton will be moving on to different pastures later this year, and SCB will need a new representative for Macquarie University. There will likely be an AGM in June/July to bring in the new cohort. Their job will be to post adverts for SCB events in the department matters and around campus, and hold a small stock of Sydney SCB keep cups that are for sale (Yes, these are still for sale! come buy them $9!!!). If you are interested in the role please contact <peri.bolton@mq.edu.au>.

2017 Nikon Small World Competition

On behalf of Nikon, you are cordially invited to enter Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition and/or the Nikon Small World in Motion Video Competition for the 2017 year.

Entries for both Small World competitions can be uploaded directly to the MicroscopyU servers at the following URL:

https://nikonsmallworld.magnet.fsu.edu/

The Nikon Small World gallery of winning images grace the covers, pages and websites of some of the world’s most respected publications including Nature, CNN, National Geographic, and Scientific American, just to name a few. Exhibits containing the winning entries are displayed at museums and science centers throughout the U.S. and Canada and have hung at the National Academy of Science in Washington DC.

The deadline is Sunday, April 30th, 2017 and the first place winner of each competition this year wins $3,000 and a trip for 2 to Nikon’s Headquarters in Japan. The rules and complete prize list can be viewed on our new Small World upload portal at the address above.

Furthermore, all contestants receive a 2018 full color Small World Calendar in November.

If you have any trouble with your entry or have any questions, please contact Eric Clark at <eclark@magnet.fsu.edu> We will be happy to arrange alternative methods to enter your image/movie in to the competition. Small World and Small World in Motion are separate competitions and are judged separately. You can enter and win both competitions.

AUSTRALIA to USA FELLOWSHIPS 

Now accepting applications for 2017 Australia to USA Fellowships. The Association offers Fellowships of up to US$30,000 – US$40,000 to Australian researchers wishing to undertake graduate level research or studies in the United States.

Fields of research supported by the Fellowships:

– Applicant’s research or study must be at graduate level or above.
– Acceptance or affiliation to an American institution for research or study.
– Australian citizen or permanent resident of Australia.
Deadline: April 30th 2017

APPLY NOW

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