BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | December 9, 2019

Dear all,
S2 is now done and dusted – thank you to all teaching and support staff for a successful teaching session. We are now in the quiet before the storm that is coming – S1 of the new 2020 curriculum! I’m sure we will all be ready and prepared!

We had a great end-of-year celebration last Tuesday – thanks to all the organisers (Calli, Martin & the Lizard Lab, Mel & Rick) and participants for making it a great day. All details of prize winners and awardees can be found below.

On Thursday the academic staff had a productive day discussing research ideas, big projects, industry opportunities and making work fun – thanks to Andrew Barron, Grant Hose & Lesley Hughes in particular for their contribution to making it a successful day.

Congratulations to our 2019 Faculty Award winners – Prasanth Subramani, Kath McClellan and Lachie Roach – well deserved! Pictures below.

While you read this I will be enjoying the beauty of Lord Howe island, enjoying a week’s leave. Andrew Barron is in complete charge so I encourage you to see him if you have any issues!
cheers

Michelle

-click thumbnail for larger image-

Above: Katherine McClellen, won 2 awards for Excellence in Leadership and Citizenship AND Teaching Excellence, Lachie Roach for Excellence in Sessional Teaching, and Prasanth Subramani for Technical Excellence.

Save the Date

This week 9th – 13th December

Wed 11th: Department Morning Tea; 10.30 – 11am; 14EAR-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Thu 12th: Biology Social Club; 5.00 – 7.00pm; Biology Courtyard.

Following week 16th – 20th December

Wed 18th: Department Morning Tea; 10.30 – 11am; 205b Colloden Rd, meals area.

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

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

General News and Announcements

ARC success! The Department did very well in the latest ARC Discovery grant round. Congratulations to all successful applicants (and commiserations to the rest of us!)

Through Macquarie as lead institution
Professor Simon Griffith; Professor Mark Taylor; Professor John Swaddle
Professor Ken Cheng; Dr Ajay Narendra; Associate Professor Andrew Barron
Professor Michael Gillings; Dr Sasha Tetu

With Other institutions
Michelle Power, Chris Reid, Jemma Geoghegan, Oliver Griffith and Rachael Gallagher

End of Year Party! A good time was had at the Biological Sciences EoY event last Tuesday.  See photos for more.  Those who received awards were:

• Drew Allen & Caitlin Kordis – for surviving the deluge of work that has been the 2020 curriculum changes

• Michelle Power – for her leadership and wrangling skills in developing the 2020 BMedSci program

• Jenny Donald – in recognition of years of service in teaching and student support

• Josh Aldridge – for his eye for detail and sheer persistence on the Seawater Facility technicalities

• Ray Duell – for excellence in newsletter production

• The Admin Team – for all their hard-work throughout the year

• Negin Farzadian for her outstanding technical support

• Kath McClellan – for her hard work to support student outreach and innovative teaching

• Fleur Ponton – for being a “lovely supervisor”

• Drew Allen – for his outstanding contribution to academic footwear

• Grant Hose – for managing to juggle multiple jobs in the Department and Faculty and always providing comic relief

• Martin Whiting, Rick Shine, Mel Elphick and the whole team for making sure the EoY Party is a huge success

• Grant Hose for being the best dressed organism

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 December, 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 December.

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.

Teaching in Vertebrate Physiology 2020 – The department is seeking applications for sessional teaching in Advanced Physiology in S1. This includes convening, lectures, pracs and assessment grading. Please send an expression of interest and a short CV to <fse.bio-hod@mq.edu.au> by 9 December 2019.

Plant of the Week -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

Session 1 2020 Tutor Applications are Now Open!

Click here to apply

Applications close Friday 13 December, 2019.

Please contact <caitlin.kordis@mq.edu.au> with any questions.

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

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: Thursday, 12th December, 2019; 1pm – 2pm. Speaker: Associate Professor Torsten Seemann from University of Melbourne. Title: How bioinformatics and genomics have transformed public health microbiology. Venue: 4WW-322.

And;

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: Cannabis Innovation; 3.00pm: Demo Tables: 12 December Thursday Gathering; 4.00pm: Workshop: Startup Accounting & Grants 101; 5.00pm: Panel: The ABC’s of CBD; 5.15pm: Lego-(un)Mastered Customer-Centric Hardware Development; 6.30pm: Panel: Green Rush – The Business of Cannabis.

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

Events from AINSE (The Australian Institue of Nuclear Science and Engineering)

Australian X-ray Analytical Association (AXAA) 2020 Conference & Exhibition (29 April – 1 May 2020) – Call for Abstracts now open (deadline 29 November 2019). For more information, please visit the conference website.

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 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!

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 <wenjing.wang@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

Notes From the Previous Faculty Research Committee Meeting
Please let Nathan Hart know if you have:
1. Significant collaborations with CSIRO to include in Macquarie’s MOU to enhance CSIRO/MQU relationship
2. Existing collaborations with IIT Madras (Chennai) and BITS Pilani (Hyderabad), particularly project ideas to develop existing links & collaborations; more engagement with Indian Universities and HDR resource allocation is the aim.

Notifications
Externally funded PhD scholarships list. Click below link, under “PhD Studentship Opportunities – Science and Engineering”.
https://staff.mq.edu.au/intranet/science-and-engineering/faculty-awards,-schemes-and-procedures

Cloud Based Lab Notebook App, Lab Archives:
– 3 year agreement signed to record lab notes with file uploads, instead of paper
– Data kept in Australia, unlimited file storage, max file size 250MB
– Sign in and up via web site, https://au-mynotebook.labarchives.com/login
– Data can be exported if Mq Uni does not renew its licence
-Data and notes can be shared without and outside of MQ

Want help to commercialise your research? See attached Impact Canvas. Potentially also useful for your National Interest/Benefit ARC application.

Research Commercialisation Impact-Canvas

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

Assistance during first years of biology major leads to higher retention of first-gen students — ScienceDaily

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>

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.

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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.

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