BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | July 1, 2016

Dear all,

The ECR committee have been busy coming up with some great ideas – first up is an Early Career Researchers Research Showcase to be held on Sept 19 – it will be a great day of talks from our postdocs, research fellows and lecturers – put it in your diary now!

The formal department meeting is next Tuesday for presentation of grades – well done to all those S1 convenors who have got their results to Sharyon in good time, it’s greatly appreciated!

I will be away on holidays next week so Melanie and Grant will be in complete control of all things. Be nice to them!

cheerio

Michelle

Save the Date

This coming week 4th July – 8th July

Tue 5th; Department Meeting – S1 grades; 1:00 – 2:00pm; E8A-280 (Tea room). All academic staff are expected to attend. If unable, please send apologies to Jennifer Rowland.

Following week 11th July – 15th July

Wed 13th; Department morning tea on the Hill; 10.30am.

Wed 13th: Information on research partnership opportunities with University of Groningen. 1-2pm in the Biology tearoom.

Coming up

July 27th: Advising day

Digital Teaching Lab Inductions Semester 2: E8A – Mon 25^th July, E8C – Thu 28^th July, F7B – Fri 29^th July.

July 31st; Applications for international PhD scholarships due

Aug 4th: Morning tea at the Plant Growth Facility to celebrate the commissioning of the new growth cabinets; 10am

Aug 20th; Open Day

Sept 19th: ECR research showcase day

Sept 20th: Graduation for biological sciences, 10.30am-12pm

Oct 31st: Applications for domestic (APA) PhD scholarships due

General News and Announcements

Green Cities funding success!

Very excited to announce that we have signed off on a five year $10 million project under Horticulture Innovation Australia’s Green Cities Fund to work on greening urban space. This is a MQ-led consortium with colleagues at Western Sydney University and NSW Office of Heritage & Environment. Many thanks to Leigh Staas in particular for all her hard work in helping pull this one together! You can read about it here.

Conference Success!

Dom McAfee has taken out the best student presentation award at the International Temperate Reefs Symposium, Pisa, Italy – well done Dom!

Round 2, Departmental Strategic Research Funding closes 29 July

A reminder to continuing academics that Round 2 of the Departmental Strategic Research Funding closes on 29 July, so start planning your applications now! Applications can be for up to $5000 for the activities listed in the attached funding rules. The application process is not onerous (< 1 page). The scheme was under-subscribed in round 1, so chances are that if you propose something worthwhile, that conforms with the funding rules, you are likely to be funded! Any questions about eligibility should be directed to Melanie <melanie.bishop@mq.edu.au>.

Department of Biological Sciences Strategic Research Funding

Biology ECR Research Showcase! Monday, September 19th, 2016

On behalf of the ECR committee, we would like to invite all Early Career Researchers (includes post-docs and any self-nominated ECR’s) to participate in a 1-day mini-conference. This is a one-day event to communicate your current or future research to the department and to meet and hear from fellow ECRs in the Department. The aim of the day is to bring all ECRs and faculty together to showcase and discuss their research in an informal and supportive environment that will facilitate new and existing networks. Talks may be on a particular case study, a collection of studies, or plans for the future, while there is also scope for talking about your background and pathway to MQ. The talks will be open for everyone in the department to attend, including HDR students and faculty.

We are now calling on all ECRs to send us a potential talk title so we can begin to create a schedule for the day. Talks will be 12-15 minutes in length, and the day will include refreshments and a social event afterwards in the courtyard. We hope to have as many of you participate as possible to make this a fun and interactive event.

Please send your talk title to either <ajay.narendra@mq.edu.au> or <rachael.dudaniec@mq.edu.au> before July 22nd.

Exemplar iLearn pages

This is a reminder that all staff can access (observer only) all biology unit iLearn pages and that this can be a good source of inspiration for designing your unit’s iLearn page. Unfortunately these units are not accessible through your personal iLearn login page but are accessible through a department specific link (click here: http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/course/index.php?categoryid=213).

This link (along with a plethora of other useful information about convening a unit) is also available on BIOL000-for unit convenors, under the section “Week -8: iLearn set up” about half way down. If you have an error accessing a unit please let Kath know <katherine.mcclellan@mq.edu.au>.

ilearn Quizzes Set-up

Katherine McClellan’s predecessor, Nansi Richards, has previously developed some useful files that all S2 academics who intend to use iLearn for quizzes should take a look at.  They help you do bulk import of quiz questions into iLearn. These would be especially useful for larger units (eg. 100-level and large 200-level) or those that use a lot of quizzes; this method saves a lot of time compared to laboriously entering each question.

These resources (like pretty much everything for unit convenors) is on BIOL000 – Biology Unit Convening. They are now in a handy section called “iLearn quizzes” to make it easier to search for.

1 Quizzes – Prepare iLearn for Quizzes

2 Quizzes – formatting Qs for import to iLearn

3 Quizzes – Importing Qs from text file to iLearn

4 Quizzes – Setting up the Quiz ‘front-end’

Marine Matters Issue 24 is now available

Our past MRes student, Nic Armansin, has the front cover.

The 24th issue of the IMOS newsletter, Marine Matters, is available to download via the website.

New Library Resources

The Library now has access to a number of Cabell’s directories of publishing opportunities via Cabell’s International including the mathematics & science set.

Cabell’s is a searchable database of academic journals indexing over 11,000 journals covering 18 disciplines. It is an independent platform providing bibliographic information and journal contact information, manuscript submission criteria and review process guidelines, journal quality metrics and levels of impact/influence to help researchers evaluate and select the most appropriate outlets for their work.

Special seminar: “Energy, ecology, evolution” – James H. Brown

Distinguished Professor of Biology Emeritus, University of New Mexico

Monday 4 July, 12.00 – 1.00 pm, DT Anderson Lecture Theatre, Heydon-Laurence Building, University of Sydney

Professor Brown has carried out pioneering research in the ecology of desert systems, biogeography and macroecology, and has written several text books and many research papers on these topics. His current research focuses on two main areas, empirical analysis of population dynamics and community structure, and the theoretical exploration of allometric scaling. Work in the latter area—and the topic of his seminar—has led to the development of a general model for the universal fourth-power allometric scaling observed in biological systems. This model provides the theoretical basis for investigating empirical patterns of allometric scaling in such ecological and evolutionary characteristics as life span, fecundity, energy and resource use, territory or home range size, and population growth rate and density in both plants and animals. It is therefore provides a fundamental underpinning for much inquiry in the biological and environmental sciences.

STEP talk on Australian native land snails and slugs

19th July at 8pm in South Turramurra – see info here

Nominees for BOSTES Board Curriculum Committees

BOSTES is looking for suitably qualified tertiary representatives to appoint to the below listed Science and Technology related curricula committees.  As an expert on one of these panels you would have the opportunity to influence the early science education of NSW children and make an important contribution to the future of the state.

If you have the relevant subject expertise then please consider applying – the Faculty has historically made many contributions to the work of BOSTES and this fact is not lost on the Board.

Further Information:

The Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW (BOSTES) is seeking representatives for Board Curriculum Committees (BCC) for the following learning areas:

1. K–10 Personal Development, Health and Physical Education
2. K–6 Science and Technology
3. Years 7–10 Technology

The BOSTES syllabus development process is based on the importance of maintaining the current high standards and quality assurance processes that are used to develop curriculum in NSW. These quality assurance processes include the establishment of a Board Curriculum Committee to monitor consultation and the analysis of feedback and to provide advice to BOSTES during syllabus development processes.

The suitable representatives will provide sound advice to BOSTES about the monitoring of consultation processes and feedback, and the quality and suitability of curriculum materials for implementation in NSW schools.

It is anticipated that these Board Curriculum Committees will first convene in August 2016 and be required to meet on a number of occasions as necessary during the syllabus development process.

Your assistance in advising the contact details, together with a Curriculum Vitae or brief indication of relevant experience, of any suitable interested nominees by Thursday 7 July 2016 would be much appreciated. If multiple suitable nominees are received an electronic meeting will be held to decide the respective representatives, which need to be advised by Friday 15 July 2016. Contact Gillian Brown on T: +61 2 9678 7820.

Plant of the Week – Jonquils – Narcissus tazetta

Not quite Daffodils!

3D Microscopy Techniques Workshop  (3view) at MQ

A4 Flyer_3View-charges-2016-FINAL

Highly Alarming!

At a recent meeting, Property were able to show records of all fire alarms that have occurred on campus since 2011. They provided a breakdown of the buildings evacuated and what was the cause. Guess what? Buildings E8A, B and C won!

This year we have had 69 call outs across campus resulting in $30K in fines. We are well on our way to going past 2015 when the fines totaled $48K.

We will be having further meetings with Property and building works Project Managers to ensure that all contractors are completing isolation permits (to isolate an area where dusty work is being done from the smoke sensors and the fire/emergency panel). This will hopefully help in reducing some of the false alarms.

One issue  which was brought up was that if E8A/B/C have been responsible for the highest number of alarms for the past several years, maybe the detectors in these building may not be the most appropriate. We have asked for Property/Infinity to undertake an audit of our buildings to look at the type of detectors and their location.

As this will take a long time to assess, we should all try to think about what we do and how we might reduce the amount of unnecessary emergency alarms. Attached is a PDF link to a brochure published by Fire & Rescue NSW.  Unwanted Alarms  Please have a look through the recommendations and think about if there is anything in your location which could be changed in order to minimise the false alarms.  Send all suggestions to your friendly local Building Warden, Monika King <monika.king@mq.edu.au>.

Sydney Chapter – Society for Conservation Biology

We kindly invite you to join us for our next Conservation Café THIS SATURDAY, 2nd July @ 10am at the Education Precinct in Centennial Park.  Complimentary tea, coffee and snacks provided by Sydney-SCB with re-usable cups available for purchase towards our conservation projects.

This July, come learn from Macquarie University’s Associate Professor Melanie Bishop about how oyster reef restoration might benefit coastal ecosystems, and how fledgling restoration projects and pilot studies are being used to return oyster reefs to our coastlines.
Oysters once formed abundant reefs along the southeast coast of Australia, but as few as 1% remain. Over harvest of oysters to create lime for construction and to provide a source of protein had decimated oyster reefs by the late 1800s.

The result is that oyster reefs are now considered functionally extinct throughout most of Australia with most Australians unaware this loss has even occurred.

Please see our Eventbrite for more details and RSVP! (link: https://conservationcafejuly2016.eventbrite.com.au)

Accommodation Request

I’m Caterina, a new phD student in Simon Griffith’s Group. I’m searching for a short term accommodation between the 7th and the 30th of July, 3 weeks before going to field work! I’m italian, 28yo and  easy going. If you have a bedroom or a room to share, please contact me at <caterina.funghi@students.mq.edu.au>.

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