BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | June 9, 2017

Dear all,

Thanks to those who came along to this week’s Department meeting. Mariella reported on the Diversity & Inclusion working group – please see the update below and make sure you have your say! The full department meeting slides are here.

This Friday we will be saying thanks to our admin team members Veronica, Jen & Hannah and wishing them well in their new roles in the Faculty – join us in the Biology tearoom at 10.30am.

See you all at the HDR conference this week!

cheers

Michelle

Save the Date

This coming week 13th – 16th June

Tue 13th – Thu 15th: HDR Conference; Timetable see draft schedule; E7B Lecture Theatres.

Tue 13th: Data Visualisation Masterclass: Principles, Tools and Storytelling

Wed 14th: No Department Morning Tea due to HDR Conference.

Wed 14th: No Seminar due to HDR Conference.

Wed 14th – Fri 16th: Visualizing biological data (VIZBI) 2017

Thu 15th: Writing Workshop; 2:30-4:30pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Friday 16th: Farewell morning tea for our admin staff Jen, Veronica and Hannah; 10.30am (Biology Tea Room).

Fri 16th: REP workshop – ‘Non-research skills in job applications’

Following week 19th – 23rd June

Wed 21st: Department Morning Tea; 10:30am – 11:00am;  The Hill.

Wed 21st: Professor Bill Ballard, The University of NSW; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Thu 22nd: Writing Workshop; 2:30-4:30pm, E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Fri 23rd: REP workshop – ‘Non-research skills in job applications’

Coming up

Every Thursday for the next few months: Writing Workshop; 2:30-4:00pm, E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

July 4th: Formal Department meeting for grading; 1-2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

July 12th: REP workshop – ‘Making Lectures Interactive’ 

July 19th: E8C Digital Teaching Lab Induction; 9am – 11:30am; E8C-106.

July 21st: F7B Digital Teaching Lab Induction; 9:30am – 11:30am; F7B-108.

July 24th: E8A Digital Teaching Lab Induction; 9am to 12 noon; E8A-120.

July 25 & 26th: REP Outlook conference 2017

Sept 19th: ECR Showcase, E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Department seminar schedule

June 28th: Professor Madeleine Beekman, The University of Sydney; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

July 5th: Professor David Haig, Harvard University; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

August 2nd: Professor Rick Shine, The University of Sydney; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

General News and Announcements

VOTE for Michelle Power and her Team

Voting has now opened for the Peer Prize for Women in Science. Support Michelle’s application and vote now! See: https://www.thinkable.org/submission_entries/790Okx8V

Congratulations Chris Reid & Partner

Welcome to Elliot Sunny Reid. Born 29 May 2017

3.01 kg, 49 cm, and loved more than can be measured.

In Case You Missed It in the Research Office Newsletter…

Read all about Andy Barron’s research here.

Diversity & Inclusion statement and logo

The working group for Diversity & Inclusion have developed a statement and logo (below) for inclusion in Department communications. Please email your feedback on the statement and the logo to <marie.herberstein@mq.edu.au>. We will bring the statement to the formal department meeting in July for a formal endorsement.

We acknowledge and pay respect to the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which our university is located.

In the Department of Biological Sciences we want to create a diverse community that is inclusive and respectful. We recognise, welcome and support staff, students and visitors from different countries, cultures, backgrounds, genders, gender identities and sexualities, people with different abilities, from all ages, and more. We believe a visibly diverse Department generates creativity, inspiration, productivity and a positive working environment.

We value this diversity and show respect in the way we interact with each other.  We conduct our core mission (research, teaching, community engagement) in a way that is inclusive and encourages everyone to participate and contribute.

Employee Assistance Program

Feeling stressed or anxious? Do you need guidance on work/life balance, career and goal setting? Macquarie University has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that members of staff and their families can access for no cost. For more information see: https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/wellbeing/employee-assistance-program

Faculty Visiting Researcher Scheme Now Open

The Faculty Visiting Researcher Scheme is now open to applications. Application forms and the information sheet can be found on the Resources page of the Faculty Intranet.

Applications close on the 5th July 2017.

The visiting period covered will be for 1^st September 2017 to the 28^th February 2018. This will be the last round to run this year – we expect the next application period to be open in January next year.

FSE Associate Dean Global Engagement Position Advertised

The Faculty is currently advertising for applicants from academic staff for the new position of Associate Dean, Global Engagement

This position is to support the Faculty’s strategic plan within the  international engagement portfolio. This is an excellent leadership role for an experienced individual to lead the international engagement for the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Applications close 2nd July. Have a chat with Michelle if interested.

HDR Award Opportunity

Award opportunity for HDR students working in fisheries-related research

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/content/research/fishing-aquaculture/funding/john-holliday

REP Workshop – ‘Non-research skills in Job Applications’ (16^th and 23^rd June)

How do you persuade other people (and yourself!) about matters such as your teaching strengths, your collaborative capabilities, your skills in managing finance or coordinating projects, your commitment to diversity, your initiative and entrepreneurship, your capacity to guide research students? What are some possibilities for conveying these skills through CV or job application materials or through questions at interview?

Organised by Mark Westoby with contributions from others, this workshop will operate mainly through group participation, putting yourself into the minds of selection committee members.

This workshop will run over two sessions, 2-5 Thursdays  15th and 22nd June. At the first session we will find out what skills people are most interested in, and discuss possibilities for presenting them. At the second session participants will bring draft materials. We will work through what sort of presentation might be more versus less convincing, and how each might be strengthened.

Click here to register for ‘Non-research skills in job applications.’

REP workshop – ‘Making lectures interactive’ (10:30 – 12, 12^th July)

This workshop, convened by Beverley Miles (Learning Designer, Faculty of Human Sciences) at the invitation of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, will explore why we need to think differently about lectures, and how to design lectures for active student engagement to deliver a deeper learning experience.

Participants will experience what is possible to accomplish with these strategies using Echo’s Active Learning Platform (ALP) and then apply these practical demonstrations and examples to their own lecture content, design and delivery. The strategies can also be used with other interactive tools.

The positive impact of implementing strategies and tools in live lectures on student learning (both staff- and student-perceived) will be discussed. Everyone is welcome to attend. We invite all lecturers; anyone interested in trying new interactive teaching techniques; those already delivering interactive lectures with other tools; and those who want to design for improved lecture learning.

Click here to register for ‘Making lectures interactive.’

REP Outlook conference 2017 (25 and 26^th July)

The Research Enrichment Program’s annual Outlook Conference – this year run with the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship in their new building in Ultimo – brings together leading thinkers in diverse disciplines, spanning molecules to landscapes, across deep time frames, and from scientific, historical and social viewpoints. Our objective is to immerse participants in the advancing fronts of research in adjacent, and more distant disciplines.

The 2017 meeting is called What Matters, and Why. Invited speakers will present ideas on why their discipline matters, and how research fronts in these disciplines inform diverse areas of human enquiry. These talks will not recount personal research findings, but will be future-scoping exercises. Our goal is to identify promising areas for high level trans-disciplinary collaboration, for novel commercial or industrial applications, and to expose researchers at all career stages to different ways of thinking.

The two day meeting will consist of seminars by invited speakers, followed by afternoon discussion and brain-storming sessions. A key feature of the conference is the opportunity to meet and interact with research leaders across the breadth of human enquiry.

Click here to register for ‘REP Outlook.’

2017 ECR Showcase

Following the success of our inaugural Early Career Researcher Showcase, we have our 2017 ECR Showcase scheduled for September 19th – put it in your calendar now!

The ECR Showcase is a 1-day mini-conference where you have the opportunity to communicate your current research or future research plans to the Department. The aim of this day is to bring all ECRs together to showcase and discuss their research in an informal and supportive environment that will facilitate new and existing research networks. Talks may be on a particular case study, collection of studies, or plans for the future, while there is also scope for talking about your career background and pathway to MQ. The talks will be open for everyone in the Department to attend, including 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 catered social event afterwards in the courtyard.

We kindly request all Lab Heads to encourage ECRs in their group to participate in this event.

Please send your talk title to either <ajay.narendra@mq.edu.au> or <rachael.dudaniec@mq.edu.au> before August 4th.

New/Refresher Lab Inductions for Demonstrators

Staff/HDR students intending to demonstrate in teaching units (S2, 2017) run in E8A/E8C/F7B are requested to please contact Prasanth Subramani <prasanth.subramani@mq.edu.au> to sign up for lab inductions. These include new inductions as well as refreshers.

Outreach Opportunities and Requests – We Need Your Help

Outreach

The department has an unprecedented representation in this year’s upcoming Science Festival. The festival runs from 8^th-20^th of August. Effectively the department will have representation for every day of the festival. The events will include: Wild Science Race (16^th/17^th) in conjunction with Taronga Zoo, Night of Illusions (18^th/19^th) in conjunction with Department of Cognitive Sciences from MQ and USyd; The Great Evolutionary Arms Race: Emerging Pathogens and Rise of Superbugs (20th); and the Future of Human Evolution – these latter two are multi-department events; and lastly the Australian Museum Booth from 8^th-17^th which will involve PhD and Postdocs interacting with Primary, Secondary schools and the general Public. As a result we have a base level of around 20 individuals from academics to postdocs and postgrads representing 12+ labs. On behalf of the Outreach team I want to thank all those that have put their hand up for these events.

In the middle of all this is Open Day, which is the 19^th.  More will be made of this day in the next coming weeks. Some labs have already taken up the challenge of creating a new activity! Lastly please continue to enter details into the Outreach form. Our approach here has also been recognised at the Faculty level so all your efforts are hitting the desired mark! If you have any questions regarding outreach events or want to know how to get more involved or wish to propose an idea please contact any of the outreach team which includes Matthew Bulbert, Kath McClellan, Jemma Geoghegan, Chris Reid, Kerstin Bilgmann, Alex Carthey, Julian May, Ken Cheng and Ajay Narendra. – ACCESS OUTREACH FORM HERE

Science Festival Gigs for August – We Need You!

1. Excite schools and public at the Australian Museum

For this year’s science festival the faculty will have a booth/space at the Australian Museum. The museum is the central hub of the festival and hence has high flow through traffic including both public and high schools. This is a great opportunity for Macquarie and a great one for those of you wanting to increase your outreach profile as well as broaden the knowledge of the public.

We need volunteers for:

Primary school days: 8^th (AM) and 11^th (Anytime)

Super Public day: 12^th (Anytime)

High School days: 15^th (anytime), 16^th (AM), 17^th (Anytime), 18^th (AM)

Your commitment:

At minimum, a couple of hours with whatever display/activity of your choosing

Have fun telling passer-by’s about the cool stuff you do

I particularly encourage participation on the high school days.

2. National Indigenous Science Education Program (NISEP)

The National Indigenous Science Education Program (NISEP), Redfern Community Centre and City of Sydney are once again running the Indigenous Science Experience at Redfern – 16-18^th and 20^th August. If you would like to contribute an activity to this, please contact the biology outreach team or Joanne Jamie directly for more information. It’s a wonderful opportunity to showcase our disciplines. I highly recommend (for those who have not contributed previously) checking out the YouTube channel to see previous years’ events:www.youtube.com/user/NISEPmq

Annual Report Anecdotes

Did you do an outreach activity last year that you were particularly proud of?

We need some nice examples for the 2016 Annual report.  So, if you do please send through a few lines about what it was and a picture or two (if you have one – if not please send details anyway).

For any of these items please contact: <matthew.bulbert@mq.edu.au> or talk to any member of the outreach team which include Kath McCellan, Chris Reid, Ken Cheng, Jemma Geoghegan, Alexandra Carthey, Kerstin Bilgmann and Julian May. It is important you talk to us about any activities. Thanks.

Plant of the Week

For next week – Stelitzia reginae from South Africa is a particularly tough, sturdy plant. We used to think that Strelitzia flowers were pollinated by Sunbirds, but in fact, Sunbirds are nectar thieves and the flowers are pollinated by Weaver Birds.

*Remember you can see examples of the Plants of the Week, each week in the E8C foyer.

M-Power: Co-hop and Win a Folding Electric Bike

In the wake of a recent surge in Co-Hop sign ups (a free ride-sharing and transport mapping tool for Mac park), M-power are running a competition to win a folding electric bike. For more details about the competition, please visit the competition website. Also see the following poster.

MU M Power A3 Poster

Macquarie Undergraduate Research Internship (MURI) Call for Academic Sponsors

The MURI team are seeking 2017 Academic Sponsors. Involved academics would take on an undergraduate research intern for an ongoing project for Session 2 of 2017 until february 2018 (details below). Students are expected to commit to 5-10 hours per week working on research. Please let them know if you have a specific project in mind and we can then forward this onto students to apply for the position.

The internship runs from August 2017 – February 2018 and includes 12 weekly group sessions during semester that aim to build research and professional skills. Students have two options when undertaking our internship. The first option is that they may devise their own research project to work on with an academic sponsor. This has been a very popular option with students in the past as it allows them to explore whatever discipline or sub-discipline they wish.

The second option is to apply to work on a pre-existing, sponsor-led project.

The internship is a paid opportunity for equity students. All payment is organised by the MURI program. The criteria for equity eligibility is as follows.

• Low socioeconomic background / financial hardship
• Non english speaking background
• Disability such as physical or mental illness
• Indigenous heritage
• Relocation from a rural area to study at Macquarie University

If you have any questions, or wish to express your interest in becoming part of this program, please contact <mqmuri@gmail.com>.

2017 MURI AS application EOI

Aquatic Laboratory Officer Position Advertised

See advertisement below for an aquatic technician in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.

http://jobs.mq.edu.au/cw/en/job/500645/aquatic-laboratory-officer

Data Visualisation Masterclass: Principles, Tools and Storytelling

13 June, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Do you work with large, complex datasets? Data visualisation can help. Using principles of human visual perception with modern methods and tools, you can create insightful visual representations of complex data, as well as compelling visualisations for communication. More details

Visualizing Biological Data (VIZBI) 2017

14–16 June 2017 at the Charles Perkins Centre in Sydney, Australia

This multi-day conference features talks from over 18 world-leading researchers showcasing visualizations transforming how life scientists view data, and driving key advances in molecular biology, systems biology, biomedical science, and ecology. more details (and registration) here

New/Refresher Lab Inductions for Demonstrators

Staff/HDR students intending to demonstrate in teaching units (S2, 2017) run in E8A/E8C/F7B are requested to please contact Prasanth Subramani <prasanth.subramani@mq.edu.au> to sign up for lab inductions. These include new inductions as well as refreshers.

Outreach Opportunities and Requests – We Need Your Help

Outreach

The department has an unprecedented representation in this year’s upcoming Science Festival. The festival runs from 8^th-20^th of August. Effectively the department will have representation for every day of the festival. The events will include: Wild Science Race (16^th/17^th) in conjunction with Taronga Zoo, Night of Illusions (18^th/19^th) in conjunction with Department of Cognitive Sciences from MQ and USyd; The Great Evolutionary Arms Race: Emerging Pathogens and Rise of Superbugs (20th); and the Future of Human Evolution – these latter two are multi-department events; and lastly the Australian Museum Booth from 8^th-17^th which will involve PhD and Postdocs interacting with Primary, Secondary schools and the general Public. As a result we have a base level of around 20 individuals from academics to postdocs and postgrads representing 12+ labs. On behalf of the Outreach team I want to thank all those that have put their hand up for these events.

In the middle of all this is Open Day, which is the 19^th.  More will be made of this day in the next coming weeks. Some labs have already taken up the challenge of creating a new activity! Lastly please continue to enter details into the Outreach form. Our approach here has also been recognised at the Faculty level so all your efforts are hitting the desired mark! If you have any questions regarding outreach events or want to know how to get more involved or wish to propose an idea please contact any of the outreach team which includes Matthew Bulbert, Kath McClellan, Jemma Geoghegan, Chris Reid, Kerstin Bilgmann, Alex Carthey, Julian May, Ken Cheng and Ajay Narendra. – ACCESS OUTREACH FORM HERE

Science Festival Gigs for August – We Need You!

1. Excite schools and public at the Australian Museum

For this year’s science festival the faculty will have a booth/space at the Australian Museum. The museum is the central hub of the festival and hence has high flow through traffic including both public and high schools. This is a great opportunity for Macquarie and a great one for those of you wanting to increase your outreach profile as well as broaden the knowledge of the public.

We need volunteers for:

Primary school days: 8^th (AM) and 11^th (Anytime)

Super Public day: 12^th (Anytime)

High School days: 15^th (anytime), 16^th (AM), 17^th (Anytime), 18^th (AM)

Your commitment:

At minimum, a couple of hours with whatever display/activity of your choosing

Have fun telling passer-by’s about the cool stuff you do

I particularly encourage participation on the high school days.

2. National Indigenous Science Education Program (NISEP)

The National Indigenous Science Education Program (NISEP), Redfern Community Centre and City of Sydney are once again running the Indigenous Science Experience at Redfern – 16-18^th and 20^th August. If you would like to contribute an activity to this, please contact the biology outreach team or Joanne Jamie directly for more information. It’s a wonderful opportunity to showcase our disciplines. I highly recommend (for those who have not contributed previously) checking out the YouTube channel to see previous years’ events:www.youtube.com/user/NISEPmq

Annual Report Anecdotes

Did you do an outreach activity last year that you were particularly proud of?

I need some nice examples for the Annual report and apparently, I need them by like yesterday. So, if you do please send through a few lines about what it was and a picture or two (if you have one – if not please send details anyway).

For any of these items please contact: <matthew.bulbert@mq.edu.au> or talk to any member of the outreach team which include Kath McCellan, Chris Reid, Ken Cheng, Jemma Geoghegan, Alexandra Carthey, Kerstin Bilgmann and Julian May. It is important you talk to us about any activities. Thanks.

New Publications

In the Media

Recent Completions

Emma Gray submitted her PhD Thesis entitled “Growth Rate and Functional Traits of Tropical Rainforest and Savanna Species.”

Supervised by Associate Professor Ian Wright, Dr. Daniel Falster (UNSW, formerly MQU), and Dr. Caroline Lehmann (The University of Edinburgh, formerly MQU).

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Juan Gabriel Dominguez Sarmiento submitted his PhD thesis entitled “The Middle and Late Holocene Environment of Sydney Harbour (NSW, Australia): A Millennial Story Preserved in Live and Dead Molluscan Assemblages.”

Supervised by Dr Matthew Kosnik and Professor Dorrit Jacob.

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