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BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT MATTERS | August 19, 2019

Dear all

A huge thank you to everyone who helped out at Open Day – students, professional and academic staff. It was a huge day with packed lectures, popular tours, great interest at the biology displays and queues at the advising desks. You can see some images below plus there were lots posted on the Department’s twitter and Instagram pages.

A great week for the department at the NSW Tall Poppy Awards with not one but TWO recipients! Special congrats to Chris Reid and Simon Clulow who both scrubbed up very well for the event.

You’ll notice that we have moved the release of Department Matters to Mondays for a while – a great way to start your week!

Cheers

Michelle

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-click on thumbnail for larger image-

Open Day Advising

Tall Poppy Awards

Save the Date

This week 19th – 23rd August

Tue 20th: HDR “Pain Points” discussion panels (come to either of two sessions); 11:00 am – 12:00 pm, 205b Culloden Rd G28 Boardroom OR 1:30 – 2:30 pm, 14EAR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Wed 21st: Department Morning Tea; 10.30am – 11.30am; 205B Culloden Rd.

Wed 21st: Department Seminar -Dr Georgy Sofronov and Dr Lyndon Koens, MQU; 1.00pm – 2.00pm; 14EAR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Thu 22nd: REP: The Art & Science of Getting Published; 9:30 am – 3:00 pm; 14 EAR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room) – Register here.

Thu 22nd: Leaflet and interactive maps in R by Dr. James Lawson; 3.30 PM – 5.30 PM; Continuum room (75 Talavera road, room 3114); snacks provided.

Thu 22nd: Biology Social Club; 5.00pm – 7.00pm; Biology Courtyard.

Following week 26th – 30th August

Wed 28th: Department morning tea; 10:30-11.30am, 14EAR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Wed 28th: Department Seminar – Professor Michal Kowalewski, University of Florida; 1.00pm – 2.00pm; 14EAR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Weekly Events

Wed: Shut up and Write sessions; 11.00am – 12.00pm; 6WW(E8C)-212 or 14EAR(E8A)-360A.

Thu: Venture Café; 3–8pm; 58 Waterloo Road, Macquarie Park, NSW (map). Find out what is on each week here – https://venturecafesydney.org/

Fri: Writing workshops with Prof Ken Cheng – to support HDRs and ECRs with scientific writing; 2–4pm; Ken’s office at 205b Culloden Road, G12.

Fri: Behaviour and Evolution Journal Club; Friday at 12:30pm (bring your lunch); 205B Culloden Rd Boardroom.

Weekly Biological Sciences seminar program is here

Future Events

September 19th: REP: Reviewing for Journals workshop; 3:00 – 5:00 pm; 14EAR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room) – Register here.

September 23rd: MQ graduation ceremony for Biological Sciences; 10.30am.

October 2nd: Developing your five-year plan workshop; 12:30 – 2:00 pm; 12 Wally’s Walk, 801 – Register here.

General News and Announcements

Whale Snot Research on Channel 10 – Earlier this year, Dr Vanessa Pirotta and her team welcomed Dr Chris Brown onboard their whale snot collecting mission. You can “catch” all the action on Freeview catchup TV as it was shown on Channel 10’s The Living Room last Friday night @ 730pm AEST. For a sneak peak, follow this link.
The Workshop on Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics (WEEG2019) was held in Katoomba last week, with a total of 57 participants from 29 institutions in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and India.
The workshop was organised by a team from MQ Biology (Anthony Chariton, Natalie Caulfield, Sonu Yadav, Annachiara Codello) that was led by Rachael Dudaniec and funded by the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer Conference Grant and the Centre for Biodiversity Analysis at ANU. With 5 days of seminars and workshops on landscape genomics, structural variant analysis and metabarcoding, presenters included Niko Balkenhol, Brenna Forester, Maren Wellenreuther, Michael Stat and Anthony Chariton, with a final closing seminar by Ary Hoffman. More details here: www.weeg2019.com.

Plant of the Week – click the thumbnails for larger images-

This week – Wonga Wonga Vine, Pandorea pandorana.

Wonga Wonga Vine, or Pandorea pandorana, is an Australia native climber common in forests of eastern Australia but it also grows in the Red Centre of Australia, albeit in the protection of rocky gorges and in close proximity to water where it survives, perhaps as a relic of ancient rainforests that were once widespread across Australia.

COMINGS AND GOINGS

New staff member – Benjamin Ashton

Benjamin is interested in how the social environment may influence cognitive evolution. During his MQRF he will use Egernia skinks as a model system to investigate how social interactions shape cognitive development and evolution. He did his PhD at the University of Western Australia under the supervision of Assoc/Prof Mandy Ridley, investigating the causes of individual variation in cognition in Australian magpies. Benjamin has recently finished a postdoc at the University of Bristol, also investigating the drivers of cognitive evolution.

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OPPORTUNITIES

Faculty Staff (Professional & Academic) Travel Grants – support for staff travel is now provided centrally by the Faculty. Funding is available for ECR travel, international collaboration, teaching and professional staff development. If you would like to apply, please discuss with your supervisor and A/Prof Andrew Barron (for research travel) or Dr Drew Allen (for teaching travel). Research Eligibility and application details can be found here.https://staff.mq.edu.au/intranet/science-and-engineering/faculty-awards,-schemes-and-procedures
One round remain for the rest of the year:
– Round 3 closes Friday 27 September 2019
Apply as soon as possible for any travel you intend on taking in 2019, that meets the criteria. Funds awarded must be spent in 2019 and will not be carried into 2020.

SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

Biological Sciences Seminar – Date/Time: Wednesday, 21st August, 2019; 1pm – 2pm. Speaker: Dr Georgy Sofronov and Dr Lyndon Koens, MQU. Title: Optimal decision rules and other problems/Understanding spirochete dispersal, swimming and deformations. Venue:  14EAR-280 (Biology Tea Room). More information on this and all department seminars ON OUR WEBPAGE HERE.

“What are your HDR pain points?” discussion panels (come to either of two sessions) – Please bring along your questions, concerns, and feedback. THERE WILL BE FOOD.

– Tuesday 20 August 11:00 am – 12:00 pm, 205b Culloden Rd G28 Boardroom, OR 

– Tuesday 20 August 1:30 – 2:30 pm, 14EAR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Following some success from “Academic pain points”, the HDR Committee would like to have frank, open discussions with the Department’s HDR students to see where the Department can improve.

Particularly, the Committee would like to hear about:

    • Length of time taken to process MRes->PhD progressions

    • Scholarships (or lack thereof)

    • Student-supervisor expectations (particularly for starting students), 

  • And also admin processes, e.g. HDR Conference + Panels, purchasing, inductions, etc.

People who will be present on the panel, to receive queries, discuss:
– Linda Beaumont (HDR Committee deputy chair, experienced HDR supervisor, ex-PhD student through MQ Biology),
– Culum Brown (Dept HDR Director, experienced HDR supervisor), 

– Mo Haque (ex-PhD student, previously HDR representative on HDR committee, MQ HDR Mentor), 

– Julian May (Dept HDR admin), 

– Emma Wang (in-coming Dept HDR admin)

If you would like to raise any issues earlier, please contact <julian.may@mq.edu.au>

Leaflet and interactive maps in R

Description: “Good maps are essential to communicating spatial science effectively. Static maps can only communicate so much though, especially when what we’re trying to show is complex or has multiple layers of data associated with it. Interactive data visualisation is the new black and Leaflet is the easiest and most powerful way to achieve this in R. I’ll introduce you to Leaflet and get you making awesome looking interactive maps.”

Presenter: Dr. James Lawson is a postdoc in Rachael Gallagher’s Plant Ecology and Conservation Lab at MQU. He is developing conservation planning software in R Shiny that helps decision makers choose the best sites to manage threatened species.

Date: Aug 22, 2019. Time: 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM. Venue: Continuum Room (75 Talavera Road, room 3114). Snacks provided, BYO mug.

Molecular Sciences Seminar – Date/Time: Tuesday, 3rd September, 2019; 1pm – 2pm. Speaker: Dr Rebeca Kawahara Sakuma, Department of Molecular Sciences, Macquarie University. Title: Mass spectrometry-based tools to uncover protein signatures and mechanisms of cancer. Venue: 4WW 322 seminar room. More information https://goto.mq/7n.

Shut Up and Write Sessions, every Wednesday 11am. It’s pretty simple, we shut up… and we write. Using the pomodoro technique we’ll meet at 11am to write, stop 25 minutes in for a 10 min break, then settle down again for another 25 minutes of writing. You’ll be amazed how productive you can be. More details on the concept here: https://thesiswhisperer.com/shut-up-and-write/

Room will be either 6WW(E8C)-212 or 14EAR(E8A)-360A, email <lizzy.lowe@mq.edu.au> to confirm or with any questions.

All welcome!

Lunchtime Litter Collection – The days may be cooler, but they’re also clear and sunny. Lunchtime is a great time to go for a walk and get some vitamin D! It’s also a great time to join the Biology Litter Collection competition! The next event will be Tuesday 10th September, 1pm. Meet in the Biology courtyard, bring a bucket or bag if you can.

We’ll be holding events throughout the rest of the year, every few weeks. At each event you go out to collect litter, between 1 and 1:30pm. Collections will be assessed at the end of each collection and gold stars awarded accordingly. Event results are tallied at the end of the year with a prize for the best collector.

Event dates: Tues 10th September; Tues 8th October; Tues 12th November; Tues 10th December.

Venture Café – Want to know more about innovation, and how to achive it? Come along to the Venture Cafe, Thursday, 3pm – 8pm, 58 Waterloo Road, Macquarie Park, NSW (map). Find out what is on each week here – https://venturecafesydney.org/

This week: 3.00pm: Human+Machine Futures with Konica Minolta; 3.00pm: DemoTables: Innovative Immersive Reality; 3.30pm: Mini-Hack: AR-Fueled Wearables; 5.00pm: Workshop: The Moral and Business Case for Ethical Supply Chains; 6.00pm: Panel: Exploring Ex Machina.

Wildlife at the Watering Hole – 3rd Tuesday of each month, 6:30pm @ Botany View Hotel, King St Newtown!

HDR NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Congratulations to Shubham Chhajed, who presented his 3 Minute Thesis to the Department on 8th August!
Shubham will be going on to represent Biological Sciences at the Faculty of Science and Engineering heat, to be held on 19th September.
Many thanks to Mo Haque for facilitating the event.

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Research Enrichment Program (REP) Workshop Series – The Department now has a fully fledged research enrichment program for 2019 – you can find out about upcoming workshops here (click on this PDF). All HDR students are encouraged to attend several of these workshops each year to develop their skills and track record for the post-PhD world. Supervisors please encourage your students!

REP Workshop: The Art and Science of Getting Published – Thursday 22 August, 9:30 am – 3:00 pm; 14 EAR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room); facilitated by Michael Gillings.

This whole-day workshop will cover:
– Planning and writing papers – Structure of papers, Plans and mind maps, Pivotal parts of papers, Who should be an author, Writing a good title, Choosing good keywords, Writing abstracts and other sections of papers, Editing and feedback, Writing skills, and What makes a good paragraph.
– The submission process – Choosing a journal, What is an impact factor, Predatory journals, Instructions to authors, The letter to the editor, How editors make decisions, Dealing with rejection, and Dealing with reviewers.
– Improving the impact of your papers – What papers are high impact, Social media for researchers, Popular science writing, Understanding research metrics, Media and press releases.

Suitable for: all

Morning tea will be provided.
To attend: REGISTER HERE

Reviewing for Journals – Thursday 19 September, 3:00 – 5:00 pm; 14EaR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room); facilitated by Rachael Gallagher.
Would you like to review for journals, but are not too sure how the whole process works? Have you already reviewed, but would like to brush-up on your skills?
This short, two-hour course is designed to introduce young researchers to the ethics and skills required to become a good journal reviewer.
WHAT WILL BE COVERED:
– The ethics of reviewing – how to be fair and helpful to authors
– Examples of good and not-so-good reviews
– Worked examples of scenarios that may arise when reviewing
– The opinions of journal editors from within the Department
Suitable for: Early-mid career researchers.
To attend: REGISTER HERE

PhD Students: got a grant? Dept. will co-fund up to $1500 – The Department would like to encourage students to seek external sources of funding, and has a small budget with which to support successful candidates.New limits from 2019:PhD students ONLY: Dept. will match up to $1500 of external (non-MQ) funding ONCE during the student’s candidature.

If you have received a grant (student as chief investigator) and wish to request co-funding, please forward a copy of the award letter to <sharyon.odonnell@mq.edu.au> and <julian.may@mq.edu.au>.

Are you a HDR student? Need help with writing? HDR Mentors in collaboration with HDR Learning Skills is running another round of Peer Writing Assistance (PWA) for the rest of the year! This program is designed to support MRES and HDR candidates in managing thesis writing and research-related concerns. All peer writing assistants have undergone training for their role and are current PhD candidates at Macquarie.
The PWA program is based on the principle of collaborative learning in which a more experienced research student helps you develop stronger academic and research skills. Peer Writing Assistants are not teachers. Rather, they are trained to function as a ‘friendly audience’ or ‘fresh pair of eyes’ to help you gain new perspectives on your writing or research ideas.
Registrations are now open for individual consultation bookings. If you are interested, please go to book in for a 45-minute session with a PWA here.

And:

Writing workshops – Convened by Ken Cheng, running weekly for most of the year: Fridays 2-4pm in Ken’s office at 205b Culloden Road, G12.
These writing workshops are meant for HDR students and early-career researchers. In these face-to-face encounters, writing at any stage of any genre is welcome, from first draft to final polish, from empirical paper to literature review to popular news story. Ken envisages personal feedback linked perhaps with rounds of revisions on selected passages during the session. The aim is not just to get stuff written, but to write everything well.
Those interested in attending a session should email Ken Cheng <ken.cheng@mq.edu.au> by Wednesday 12:00-noon, preferably with a draft attached of what they are working on and some indication of what they especially need help with.

ADMIN THINGS

Need to Contact the Biology Admin Team via Email? Please send your email to <fse.bio-adm@mq.edu.au> or drop in and see us. The old google group (sci.bio-adm) email no longer works, if you have this email as a remembered address please delete.

Outreach Activities – Have You Participated in an Activity for Biology Recently? Don’t forget to fill in the super-quick form here – ACCESS OUTREACH FORM HERE

Building Name Changes – Cheat Sheet – If you are trying to identify buildings on campus with new names or old names, please use this link to convert them from old to new or vice versa.

THIS AND THAT

Harvest Hub – great food that doesn’t cost the earth

Do you want:

  • To eat with the seasons?
  • Have fresh fruit and veg delivered weekly?
  • Buy from local growers and support local farmer more directly?
  • Access weekly specials and a flexible, easy to use ordering system?
  • Have produce delivered to you at work?
  • Buy grains and cereals too?

Then try Harvest Hub www.harvesthub.com.au

Hub name: MACQUARIE04 F: @harvesthubau

More information?

Correct Method for Submitting to Department Matters

Department Matters submissions now have their own email address. Please send all your news items for the newsletter to <fse.bionewsletter@mq.edu.au>

Also, please see the following to correctly format your additions, and keep them rolling in!

You may have noticed that we try to keep all the articles to the same format for the Department Matters, however, rest assured, they do NOT all turn up in this format! To help keep your Department Matters looking as good as possible, when sending in additions to the Newsletter, please try to keep these formatting guidelines in mind.

  1. Please write in third person. The information is coming from the Newsletter, not directly from you.
  2. Do not use fancy text formatting. Bold heading, normal text, and only italics or bold to highlight. No font size changes will make it through, sorry.
  3. If sending via email, set your email output to basic. HTML output will add all sort of formatting that will have to be removed before your article can go into the newsletter.
  4. Keep your submission short and direct (two paragraphs) and if possible provide a document, email or link where readers can get more information. Any long submissions will be cropped.

Keeping to these guidelines will streamline your article’s addition to the newsletter. Thank you.

Have You Missed Out on an Issue of Department Matters? Back issues can be found at this newsletter archive link for your reading pleasure.

New Publications

Fungal-contaminated grass and well water and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

By: French, Peter William, Russell Ian Ludowyke, and Gilles J. Guillemin. Neural regeneration research 14, no. 9 (2019): 1490. | Find with Google Scholar »

Recommendations for ecotoxicity testing with stygobiotic species in the framework of groundwater environmental risk assessment

By: Di Lorenzo, T ; Di Marzio, WD; Fiasca, B ; Galassi, DMP ; Korbel, K ; Iepure, S; Pereira, JL; Reboleira, ASPS; Schmidt, SI; Hose, GC. 2019. SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT Volume: 681 Pages: 292-304 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.030 | Find with Google Scholar »

After decades of stressor research in urban estuarine ecosystems the focus is still on single stressors: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis

By: O'Brien, A. L., K. A. Dafforn, A. A. Chariton, E. L. Johnston, and M. M. Mayer-Pinto. Science of the total environment (2019). | Find with Google Scholar »

Urbanisation of floodplain ecosystems: Weight-of-evidence and network meta-analysis elucidate multiple stressor pathways

By: Monk, Wendy A., Zacchaeus G. Compson, Catherine B. Choung, Kathryn L. Korbel, Natalie K. Rideout, and Donald J. Baird. Science of The Total Environment 684 (2019): 741-752. | Find with Google Scholar »

Towards a general framework for the assessment of interactive effects of multiple stressors on aquatic ecosystems: Results from the Making Aquatic Ecosystems Great Again (MAEGA) workshop

By: Van den Brink, P.J., Bracewell, S.A., Bush, A., Chariton, A., Choung, C.B., Compson, Z.G., Dafforn, K.A., Korbel, K., Lapen, D.R., Mayer-Pinto, M. and Monk, W.A., 2019. Science of the Total Environment. | Find with Google Scholar »

Soil erodibility and its prediction in semi-arid regions

By: Ostovari, Yaser, Shoja Ghorbani-Dashtaki, Lalit Kumar, and Farzin Shabani. Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science (2019): 1-16. | Find with Google Scholar »

Acoustic accelerometry reveals diel activity patterns in premigratory Port Jackson sharks

By: Kadar, Julianna, Monique Ladds, Johann Mourier, Joanna Day, and Culum Brown. Ecology and Evolution (2019). | Find with Google Scholar »

In the Media

Maciej Maselko was featured on Kids News

Dr Maciej Maselko from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured on Kids News regarding a project to create genetically modified mosquitoes to help eradicate deadly viruses such as zika and dengue. This story was published on The Lighthouse.

Vanessa Pirotta was featured on Channel 10’s The Living Room

Dr Vanessa Pirotta from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured onChannel 10’s The Living Room regarding collecting whale snot with a drone.

Simon Clulow was featured on 9 News

Dr Simon Clulow from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured on 9 News about how to prevent species from going extinct.

Vanessa Pirotta was interviewed on ABC Radio Melbourne Drive 

Dr Vanessa Pirotta from the Department of Biological Sciences was interviewed on ABC Radio Melbourne Drive about whale conservation.

Rick Shine was interviewed on ABC Illawarra Mornings

Professor Rick Shine from the Department of Biological Sciences was interviewed on ABC Illawarra Mornings about a novel mechanism for evolutionary change seen in cane toads.

Martin Whiting provided comment to Readers’ Digest

Associate Professor Martin Whiting from the Department of Biological Sciences provided comment to Readers’ Digest regarding saliva from lizards which contains compounds useful for treating diabetes.

Vanessa Pirotta was interviewed on ABC Radio Hobart Evenings

Dr Vanessa Pirotta from the Department of Biological Sciences was interviewed on ABC Radio Hobart Evenings about whales’ hair.

Maciej Maselko was featured on 7 News and The Lighthouse

Dr Maciej Maselko from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured on 7 News regarding a project to create genetically modified mosquitoes to help eradicate deadly viruses such as zika and dengue. This story was published on The Lighthouse.

Rick Shine was featured in New Scientist

Professor Rick Shine from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured in New Scientist regarding a study that found turtle embryos are able to influence their sex by moving around within their eggs.

Culum Brown was featured on 9 News and The Lighthouse

Professor Culum Brown from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured on 9 News nationally regarding a study which used shark ‘fit bits’ to monitor behaviour and discovered that sharks are sociable creatures. This story was published on The Lighthouse.

Rick Shine and Martin Whiting were featured in Australian Geographic

Professor Rick Shine and Associate Professor Martin Whiting from the Department of Biological Sciences were featured in Australian Geographic regarding the science behind the frill of the frillneck lizard.

Maciej Maselko from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured in the Herald Sun and The Lighthouse

Dr Maciej Maselko from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured in the Herald Sun and syndicated publications regarding a project to create genetically modified mosquitoes to help eradicate deadly viruses such as zika and dengue. This story was published on The Lighthouse.

Recent Completions