BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | December 16, 2019

Dear all,

This will be the last Biology newsletter for 2019. It’s been another productive and successful year for the department. My thanks to all of you who have contributed in so many different ways to make this a great department and workplace. I hope that you enjoy a relaxing break over Christmas-New Year spending time with family & friends.

Last morning tea for 2019 on Wednesday in the tearoom – come along to wish our colleagues who are finishing up at MQ the best of luck for their next career adventures.

All the best to everyone for 2020!

Michelle

Save the Date

This week 16th – 20th December

Wed 18th: Department Morning Tea; 10.30 – 11am; Biology tearoom

Following week 23rd – 27th December

Dec 25, 2019 – Jan 01, 2020 Inclusive: University Shutdown.

Weekly Events (not during Shutdown)

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 will return in February 2020

Future Events

Digital Teaching Lab Inductions for S1, 2020. You must have done the requisite induction to teach in the 14ER, 6WW or 4WW teaching labs.

Fri 14th Feb: 4WW Teaching Lab Induction; 9am – 11.30am; 4WW-105.
Mon 17th Feb: 6WW Teaching Lab Induction; 9am to 11.30am; 6WW-106.
Wed 19th Feb: 14ER Teaching Lab Induction; 9am – 11.30am; 14ER-120.

Contact <ray.duell@mq.edu.au> to sign up.

General News and Announcements

Acting Department Manager Biological Sciences – Rachelle Carritt (Faculty Project Officer, Student Experience) will be acting Department Manager for the Department of Biological Sciences on a part-time basis until Sharyon O’Donnell returns from leave at the end of March 2020.Rachelle will support the Department for 5 days each fortnight, and continue in her Project Officer role for 3 days each fortnight.Any support you can provide to Rachelle at this time will be greatly appreciated.

Sign The Climate Emergency Petition – As you know, Sydney and NSW are now dealing with the consequences of massive fires and high levels of air pollution. A few months ago, staff at the University were contacted about Macquarie’s response to climate change and to what most now agree is a Climate Emergency. A strong consensus about compelling our University to act was clear.

We are now asking you to sign a petition urging the University Council to declare a Climate Emergency.

https://www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/declare-a-climate-emergency-at-macquarie-university

Plants of the Season -click the thumbnails for larger images-

This week – a floral cornucopia to round out the year!

In November, mauve Jacarandas, golden Silky Oaks, scarlet Illawarra Flame Trees and pink Cape Chestnuts remind us that summer is on the way, but Christmas itself is heralded by other plants, particularly red NSW Christmas Bush, blue Agapanthus and crimson Poinsettias!

OPPORTUNITIES

2020 NPWS WildCount – The WildCount team are seeking enthusiastic volunteers to join them in 2020. Interested parties can also find and share further information about WildCount by watching this video or visiting the WildCount webpage.

WildCount is a broad scale fauna monitoring study using motion sensitive cameras to detect long-term changes in the distribution of widespread species. Volunteers assist our staff to deploy and retrieve these cameras in NSW bushland. Teams consist of two people – one volunteer and an experienced NPWS staff member.

Volunteers will be required to:

• Have a good level of fitness, as we are trekking off‐track through thick vegetation.
• Commit to a full week of fieldwork. This usually involves being away from home for a 5 day/4 night period, with accommodation provided in motels.
• Travel long distances in four‐wheel drive vehicles, over rugged terrain and in all weather conditions.
• You may also be required to make your own way to/from one of our centralised meeting points – Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, Queanbeyan, Coffs Harbour or Armidale.

We provide all food, accommodation (motel style), and transport between field sites.

Allergens – Please note, you will be exposed to peanuts, methylated spirits and other irritants. Volunteers may also come into contact with insects such as ticks and leeches, and appropriate precautions will be taken. Please ensure you let us know if you have any allergies, or injuries.

Volunteers can now register online for the 2020 WildCount field season here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/wildcount

In addition, NPWS has introduced a new online system for volunteer registration called VIP.

To participate in WildCount, volunteers are required to register with VIP, using the following link: http://bttr.im/q6ujp   

This will ensure they are covered by insurance. The registration process takes approximately 5-10 minutes. More information in the following documents.

2020_WildCount_flyer
How to register as a volunteer in VIP(NPWS)

Volunteers Wanted – The National Herbarium of NSW is imaging its 1.4 million specimens ahead of its move to the Australian Botanical Garden, Mt Annan in April 2021. This is the first project of this scale to happen in the Southern Hemisphere.

And they NEED YOUR HELP!

By volunteering you will have the opportunity to see their incredible collection up close and meet expert plant scientists. There are two sessions per weekday (morning and afternoon). Each session runs for three hours.

If you would like to help and gain valuable experience, please contact Floret Meredith <floret.meredith@bgcp.nsw.gov.au> with your availability.

Research on Plant-Pollinator Relationships – opportunities for involvement as student, volunteer or collaborator, with field trips scheduled to Port Macquarie during Nov/Dec 2019 and Jan 2020. If interested, please contact Professor Graham Pyke at <Graham.Pyke@mq.edu.au>.

For more details, please consult this word document

eFLOWER Summer School Down Under – Royal Botanic Garden Sydney and UNSW, Australia; 1-10 April 2020.
Applications are now open for the eFLOWER Summer School Down Under to be held at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney and the University of New South Wales (Australia) from 1 to 10 April 2020. The goal of the eFLOWER Summer School Down Under will be to deliver high-quality training in the modern comparative methods used to study plant macroevolution, while at the same time offering the students the opportunity to contribute to future targets of the eFLOWER project.

For all details about this event, please see the RBG’s webpage: https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/eflowerdownunder.

SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

Digital Teaching Lab Inductions for S1, 2020 – the compulsory lab inductions for teaching and demonstrating for in the Biol/Mol Sci teaching labs are on again. You must have done the requisite induction in the last 2 years to teach in the 14ER, 6WW or 4WW teaching labs.

Fri 14th Feb: 4WW Teaching Lab Induction; 9am – 11.30am; 4WW-105.
Mon 17th Feb: 6WW Teaching Lab Induction; 9am to 11.30am; 6WW-106.
Wed 19th Feb: 14ER Teaching Lab Induction; 9am – 11.30am; 14ER-120.

Contact <ray.duell@mq.edu.au> to sign up. Please state if you are attending as a first time inductee or as a  refresher.

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!

MolSci Special Seminar – Date/Time: Wednesday, 17th December, 2019; 2pm – 3pm. Speaker:  Joseph Zingarelli from Licella Pty Ltd. Title: The Role of Liquid Biofuels in the Energy Transition. Venue: 4WW-322.

Venture Café – Want to know more about innovation, and how to achieve 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: Demo Tables: 19 December Thursday Gathering; 3.00pm: Interactive: What Do You Wish For?; 3.00pm: Make an Impact; 3.00pm: Interactive: Co-design Venture Cafe’s 2020 Program; 5.00pm: Pitches: Make It Happen!; 6.30pm: Workshop: Demystifying Cyber Security.

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

HDR NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Val Williams Scholarship 2020 – The North Shore group of the Australian Plants Society would like to invite Masters, Honours and PhD students of Botany to apply for the Val Williams Scholarship (worth up to $3000).

Research Enrichment Program (REP) Workshop Series – The Department now has a fully fledged research enrichment program – 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!

ADMIN THINGS

The Department’s Annual Report 2018 is now published and available here. It is packed full of news and events and showcases our people and achievements for the year. A cracker of a read! It will be available on the website very soon, so please pass on to your networks, colleagues and friends.

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

Weekly Fruit and Harvest Hub – The fruit you’ve been eating in department gatherings has been coming from Harvest Hub for the last few years. Harvest Hub has now closed and moved to a new arrangement called Box Divvy. The new arrangement doesn’t suit us so we will trial a few different fruit providers over the next couple of months. If you have any feedback on what you like and what you don’t, please email your comments to <samantha.newton@mq.edu.au>.

Box Divvy – You might be interested in signing up to Box Divvy for your home fruit and veg orders. https://www.boxdivvy.com/

What is Box Divvy? Harvest Hub has worked closely with NSW Health, Western Sydney Diabetes Alliance and various councils to re-develop Harvest Hub into an ordering platform that provides fresh, local produce that is easy to access anywhere, affordable to anyone regardless of income, and is easy to use.

The Benefits

• Reduce your food bill by 40% compared with regular retail
• Same quality produce and range as Harvest Hub, but even fresher as direct
• Growers are getting paid a fair price for their produce: 65c in every dollar you spend goes back to the farmers and food producers, and they get paid on order. (Supermarkets pay around 35c in the dollar, and usually pay after 30-60 days).
• A growing range of grocery products, and next year: dairy, sustainable seafood and meat
• Minimal packaging
• A 90% reduction in carbon emissions compared with supermarkets

How Does It Work? Box Divvy is a box-sharing App – everything that is supplied to the Hub is in wholesale-size quantities to the Hub to share but it’s shared through the App between those members wanting that particular item: a 10kg box of tomatoes or cucumbers; Groceries are about to change in the way they are sold so it will be a total minimum spend for the whole Hub – you can pick and choose with these.

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>

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