Unusual but consistent latitudinal patterns in macroalgal habitats and their invertebrate communities across two countries
By: Lloyd, Hannah B., Juan J. Cruz‐Motta, Tim M. Glasby, Pat A. Hutchings, and Paul E. Gribben. Diversity and Distributions. | Find with Google Scholar »
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Dear all,
Thanks to the organisers and speakers for a very successful Virtual HDR conference this week – all the talks and interviews went smoothly in a miracle of organisation, led by Melanie Bishop & Emma Wang. Winners of the speaker awards are announced below!
We are now heading towards Stage 2 of return to work which will start on 22 June. Hopefully you tuned into the VC’s Town Hall on Thursday to hear about the university’s return to work plans, as well as the new Operational Plan. More details about Stage Two are below – if you have any questions please discuss with your manager or supervisor.
cheers
Michelle
Save the Date
Next Week
Tues 16th June: L&T retreat via Zoom for academic staff – Lesson learnt from S1. 1-3pm.
Future Events
July TBD: L&T retreat – Unit reviews (ecology and skills units) and S2 unit learning outcomes
July TBD: Research ‘Pathway to Impact’ workshop
Weekly Events
Wed: Shut Up and Write sessions – now online! See below for further details
Wed: Department seminars; HAVING A BREAK until S2.
General News and Announcements
RETURN TO WORK – IT’S HAPPENING FINALLY!
We are now approaching Stage Two of the university’s return to work plan, which will commence on 22 June. In Stage Two all staff will return to campus 2-3 days per week, enabling up to 50% of staff and students on campus at any one time, with the remainder of the days being work from home.
The processes put in place for Stage One return to work will stay the same, except that we can now support a larger number of people on campus at any one time. You will still need to apply for HoD approval to be on campus and book any shared labs or offices or meeting rooms through the O365 system. However, the expectation is that everyone will return to work to campus on a part-time basis. Managers of professional staff will roster work days for their teams. There will be an exceptions process for vulnerable people (following NSW Health guidelines) and if you have any other concerns about returning to campus you should discuss these with your manager. Phase 3 (everyone back on campus) is expected to start on 20 July, where access to campus is unrestricted but physical distancing and hygiene protocols remain.
All details of how to request approval for campus access were sent out by our Department Manager Sharyon O’Donnell in an email to all staff and students on Tuesday 9th June. A reminder that approvals will be granted ONLY for standard weekday working hours (7am-7pm).
It will be great to have people back together again on campus in Biology!
2020 Biology HDR conference
What a fabulous turnout for our 2020 HDR conference, to hear close to 50 of our PhD students present on their fascinating research! Thank you all for making the event such a success. Congratulations to all the student presenters who did such a stellar job of communicating complex research in challenging 8 min time slots and coping so well with the new online format, and especially to Felix Amuji and Muzahidul Islam for their completion talks. Many thanks to Emma Wang for all her behind-the-scenes work in making this happen, and to our 6 session chairs (Vito, Ko-Huan, Kate, Callum, Hector and Georgina) for such a great job in keeping things running smoothly and to schedule (chairs at external conferences have much to learn from you guys!). With any luck, this will be the first and last time we have to do this online, but if you have any feedback on format (i.e. single vs multiple streams, short format vs longer format talks) please let Melanie Bishop know.
AND THE WINNERS OF THE STUDENT TALKS ARE:
Barbara Rice memorial field research award, for best presentation of field-based research
Lachlan Phillips
Best presentation of field-based research, runner-up
Sabrina Riveron
Best presentation of laboratory-based research
Callum McDiamid
Best presentation of laboratory-based research, runner-up
Bhavana Penmetcha
Best presentation of modelling-based research
Julianna Kadar
Best presentation of modelling-based research, runner-up
Kate Dodds
Many thanks to Rachael Dudaniec and her team of judges for the awards.
Biology Bingo
This year we ran an HDR conference icebreaker and Biology Bingo event. The game itself included traditional number calling (with Mariella’s excellent rhyming slang contributions) and some cryptic biological images that required some interpretation, with the latter leaving several participants a little baffled. While it was a small group it was great to catch up and have a laugh. Thanks to the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for pulling the social event together and to those that came along – if you did not manage to make it – you missed out on a doozy! Biology bingo
Biology takes over the university
Well, not quite BUT our very own Mariella Herberstein has been appointed as the Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), working with current DVC-A Kevin Jamison until his retirement on 31 July. Congratulations to Mariella – it’s a great honour for her and recognition of her commitment to excellence in teaching.
Huge congratulations to Andrew Barron
Prof Andrew Barron with colleagues from ANU and Cambridge University has been awarded $US1,000,000 over three years by the Templeton World Charity Foundation for a project called The Major Transitions in the Evolution of Cognition. The project will relate evolutionary changes in brain and nervous systems to changes in cognitive capacity.
Plant of the Week
This week: Cinchona, an endangered tree from South America, an antidote for malaria, and presidential pharma:
In the weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic, why was US president Donald Trump touting the benefits of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine? How did the development of hydroxychloroquine relate to Cinchona, an endangered tree from Andean forests of South America? Plant of the Week – Cinchona an endangered tree from South America an antidote for malaria and presidential pharma
OPPORTUNITIES
The Which Plant Where team is looking for a spatial data analyst
We are currently advertising a 12 month position for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Spatial Data Analysis. See here for the advertisement and job description. Enquiries to Linda Beaumont (linda.beaumont@mq.edu.au). Applications close 21 June.
Expressions of Interest for Biology Casual Teaching for S2 2020 NOW OPEN
All HDR students and current S1 casual academic staff have been invited to apply for casual teaching positions in S2, 2020. This includes work for practicals, tutorials, marking, fieldwork, on-campus sessions (although the majority of work will still be conducted online).
Please click on the link to complete a short survey that will capture your availability, induction information and unit preferences which will enable unit convenors to decide on who will work in their units in S2 2020.
Please note to be able to work for the Department in S2, there are mandatory lab and Faculty inductions that will be required, including a potential new ‘online teaching workshop’ that may be required of you before any work can commence. You’ll be notified of the date and time for this mandatory induction.
Applications for S2 casual teaching will close at 11:55pm on Sunday 14 June 2020.
PhD position fulltime (4 years) in ‘Predicting Biodiversity Patterns with Environmental DNA (eDNA)’
The PhD uses eDNA to predict patterns in biodiversity using phyllosphere communities linked to the unique spectral signal from remote sensing within the ERC Project ‘Biodiversity monitoring from space’. This position will focus on tracing microbial communities (as discriminated by eDNA profiling) to a unique spectral signal, and then map the communities using remote sensing, complemented where available by legacy human-observed datasets. The successful applicant will have a MSc in molecular ecology, microbiology or biology, geography or similar, and has demonstrated knowledge of DNA extraction from environmental samples. An enthusiasm for biogeography and terrestrial ecology. Link to website.
Applications close: 15 June 2020
Call for applications – Amgen Scholars Program 2021
Applications for the Amgen Scholars Program are opening soon. After a successful first year, we are striving to host the best emerging scientists to help foster their future careers by enabling them to have real-world research experience with all facilities provided. The program is available to students who are currently finishing their 2nd year of their undergraduate science degree (2nd year completed by start of program). There is no cost to students, as travel, food, accommodation and more is covered, so it’s a fantastic opportunity accessible to all students. For more information: AMGEN Slide for Subject Coordinators 2
Contact ailsa.traves@unimelb.edu.au is you have any questions.
The 2020 ECA Research Grants are now extended!
The Ecological Consultants Association of NSW supports ecological research in Australia and would like to award three grants each year to assist researchers to carry out their ecological projects.
- ECA of NSW Conservation Grant ($2000)
- Ray Williams Mammal Research Grant ($2000)
- Bushfire Ecology Research Grant ($1000)
Download a PDF Information and Application Form – Grant Application 2020
Download a Word Application Form – Grant Application Form 2020
Due to the uncertainty of how long the university-imposed restrictions will be in place as a result of COVID-19, the ECA NSW has decided to extend the deadline for the receipt of student grant applications to 30 June 2020.
SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS
Animal Behaviour Live: Annual Online Conference
The Animal Behaviour Live: Annual Online Conference is an international online conference taking place for the first time on 20-21 August 2020. Fully broadcasted online, the participation to the conference is completely free of charge and designed to allow researchers from every time zone to get involved in the meeting. The deadline for abstract submission is June 30th. This conference is a unique opportunity to connect with otherwise difficult to reach researchers from all continents, at no cost, with a very low carbon footprint. Great efforts are being made to ensure attendees will be able to connect, share, discuss and meet beyond the virtual talks. See leaflet
More information can be found on http://www.animalbehaviour.live.
Virtual International Statistical Ecology Conference: June 22-26, 2020
The International Statistical Ecology Conference is a biennial meeting of researchers at the interface between ecology and statistics. This year held online!
Registration closes 12 June: http://www.isec2020.org/
Venture Café – will be convening their community online, via Zoom, and offering the #ThursdayGathering programming in a Virtual format.
For more information visit: https://venturecafesydney.org/whats-on-this-week
HDR NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES
PhD scholarship available in MQ Neurobiology Lab
“Genetic and anatomical basis of brain lateralisation”. One of the ultimate goals of neuroscience is to link genes to anatomy and behaviour. This Project aims to understand how the left and right sides of the brain become specialised for different cognitive functions—a phenomenon called lateralisation. The Project is funded by the Australian Research Council and the work will be conducted primarily at Macquarie University (Sydney), but with opportunities to work with collaborators at the University of Queensland (Brisbane). Using a chicken model of brain lateralisation, you will quantify patterns of differential gene expression that give rise to anatomical and functional asymmetries during development and localise changes in gene expression to specific brain areas and circuits. The successful applicant will conduct gene expression microarray/RNAseq analysis, in situ hybridisation and immunohistochemistry experiments, and potentially behavioural testing of birds.
Scholarship type: Domestic/International Scholarship (direct entry to PhD, or MRes Yr2 + PhD) see website for more information.
Contact Nathan Hart for more information: <nathan.hart@mq.edu.au>
THIS AND THAT
The Brush Turkey returns
Just when the gardens were looking good, the Brush Turkey has returned to renovate his mound.
Do you have great ideas for staying connected? Want to share what your friends and colleagues are doing to stay physically distant but socially close?
Send us ideas to share, images to post on the Biology Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to Calli Miller: <calli.miller@mq.edu.au>
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>
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
Nutrients and water availability constrain the seasonality of vegetation activity in a Mediterranean ecosystem
By: Luo, Yunpeng, Tarek El‐Madany, Xuanlong Ma, Richard Nair, Martin Jung, Ulrich Weber, Gianluca Filippa et al. Global Change Biology (2020). | Find with Google Scholar »Dolphins and Boats: When Is a Disturbance, Disturbing?
By: New, Leslie, David Lusseau, and Robert Harcourt. Frontiers in Marine Science (2020). | Find with Google Scholar »Estimating food resource availability in arid environments with Sentinel 2 satellite imagery
By: Funghi, Caterina, René HJ Heim, Wiebke Schuett, Simon C. Griffith, and Jens Oldeland. PeerJ 8 (2020): e9209. | Find with Google Scholar »The maleness of larger angiosperm flowers
By: Paterno, Gustavo Brant, Carina Lima Silveira, Johannes Kollmann, Mark Westoby, and Carlos Roberto Fonseca. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 20 (2020): 10921-10926. | Find with Google Scholar »Impacts of climate change on high priority fruit fly species in Australia
By: Sultana, Sabira, John B. Baumgartner, Bernard C. Dominiak, Jane E. Royer, and Linda J. Beaumont. Plos one 15, no. 2 (2020): e0213820. | Find with Google Scholar »In the Media
Melanie Bishop was interviewed about Living Seawalls by Richard Glover on Tues 9 June (5.15 min mark)
Read more »
The Living Seawalls project (and honorary Maria Vozzo) was featured on Chanel 9 News Sydney on Wed 10 June
Read more »
Dr Vanessa Pirotta was interviewed on ABC Radio Sydney Drive about the winter whale migration.
Read more »
Dr Vanessa Pirotta was interviewed on ABC Radio Canberra Breakfast regarding the winter migration of whales.
Read more »
Dr Vanessa Pirotta provided comment to the Sydney Morning Herald about a study of the diets of Great White Sharks.
Read more »
Professor Culum Brown was interviewed on 3AW Afternoons about aquarium fish suffering loneliness during the COVID-19 shutdown.
Read more »