BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | March 11, 2016

Dear all,

Thanks to all for helping us celebrate our female scientists for International Women’s Day this week – there was lots of tweeting and some great facebook posts – check them out.

The HDR conference & interview dates are set – 15-17 June, so please put these dates in your calendar now.

Stay cool!

cheerio

Michelle

Save the Date

This section will keep you informed of the events and meetings that are of specific interest within the Department.

This coming week 14th – 18th March

Mon 14th March; MRes Project Seminars; 9:00am onwards, Schedule; E8A-280 (tea room).

Mon 14th March; Special Seminar – Prof Leonard Harrison; 1:00 – 2:00pm, Schedule TBA; F7B-322.

Wed 16th March; Department Morning tea; 10:30am – 11:00am; E8A-280 (tea room).

Wed 16th March; Weekly Seminar by Dr Karrie Rose of Taronga Zoo; 1:00pm – 2:00pm; E8A-280 (tea room).

Following week 21st – 24th March

Wed 23rd March; Weekly Seminar by Dr Jordan Price of St. Mary’s College of Maryland; 1:00pm – 2:00pm; E8A-280 (tea room).

Fri 25th March; Good Friday – no classes or labs; all day.

General News and Announcements

Funding Success

Congratulations to the National Green Infrastructure Network (co-founded by Leigh Staas) who have been awarded funding through the NSW Environmental Trust to undertake the Urban Ecology Renewal Investigation Project. While MQ submitted the proposal, the project will be a collaboration between MQ, UNSW, UTS, Syd Uni and CSIRO and the multi-disciplinary team will be developing a Blueprint to enhance urban ecology across NSW.

MQ researchers include Dr. David Nipperess, Dr. Peter Davis, A/Prof Mel Bishop, A/Prof Grant Hose and A/Prof Adam Stow.

Help find a date for the first new R users group

Rene Heim and Ina Geedicke are planning a new once a month R users group meeting, starting off right after the Genes to Geoscience workshops. The monthly meeting will cover a useful topic to use R for and a problem solving part. To find out find out the most popular day of the week for a recurring two hour meeting, we would like everybody who is interested to follow the link and fill out the Doodle Poll:

http://doodle.com/poll/7zb6sxvvdmywvs4t

This Week’s Departmental Seminar

Speaker: Dr Karrie Rose (Taronga Zoo)

Title: Wildlife Disease Emergence in Australia.

Time/Place: Wed 16th March, 1:00pm – 2:00pm; E8A-280 (tea room)

Abstract: 

“Australia has witnessed an unprecedented rate of disease emergence from wildlife reservoirs over the past two decades.  High profile disease discoveries such as Hendra virus, Australian bat lyssavirus, chytrid fungus, Koala retroviruses Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease, and lesser known discoveries of cetacean morbillivirus, marine turtle systemic coccidiosis, leishmaniasis, tularaemia, Babesiosis and pathogenic orbiviruses have raised the level of investment and the quality of the scientific investigation in wildlife health.  These diseases have had clear repercussions across biodiversity conservation, human and domestic animal health.

Through these investigations, we have been astonished by novel pathogens, entirely new mechanisms of disease, and new means of disease emergence and transmission.  This situation has forced us to establish new methods of thinking, working and collaborating.

Australian scientists have not only witnessed, but have helped to drive a paradigm shift regarding the role of wildlife health in both biosecurity and biodiversity protection. There is now a firm acceptance of the need to work ecologically and cooperatively to protect the collective health of humans, domestic animals, plant and the environment.”

See you there!

Special Seminar

Speaker: Prof Leonard Harrison

Title: CD52 glycan mediates immune suppression by binding sialic acid binding Ig-­‐like lectin (Siglec) receptors

Time/Place: Mon 14th March, 1:00pm – 2:00pm; F7B-322

More Information:

BMFRC_Seminar_Harrison

HIgher Degree Research Annual Conference

Please make note of this year’s dates for the HDR annual conference, it will be held from the 15th to the 17th of June. Panel interviews will also be held during this period.

Scholarships!

25 international and 25 domestics scholarships will be available mid-year.  This is based on getting your applications in as soon as you can for eligible students that can start by December 15. Adsmission requirements are here

For the applications make a special note that this is for MIDYEAR intake on the scholarships. Tracy Rushmer (A/Dean HDR) will check this as they come through.

HIgher Degree Research Students Migration to Office 365

There will now be a migration of all HDR students (MRes, PhD) from Gmail to Office 365. With the change from Gmail to Office 365, Ren’s office has changed the disliked

“@student”  to “firstname.lastname@hdr.mq.edu.au“.

This will come on-line on 21st of March.

New school liaison officer

Welcome to Dan Bateman who will be our department’s school liaison officer (one day a week), working with the outreach committee and Faculty to develop and deliver an excellent school engagement program. Please have a chat with Dan if you have some ideas and suggestions for engaging school students and teachers.

2016 Field Courses in Tropical Biology and Conservation

Full details about the courses and application procedures can be found on this website www.DANTA.INFO.

DANTA Field Courses 2016

Ron Oldfield

Ron Oldfield has had a tough time lately. Shortly after New Year, he was admitted to Hornsby Hospital with a serious leg infection (cellulitis). He was back at home last week, but unfortunately, only for a few days. The infection has flared up again and last Friday evening he was admitted to the Sydney Adventist Hospital. It seems he is likely to be there for at least the next few weeks. He is really missing his friends and colleagues at Macquarie, so if you have time, he would really appreciate a phone call. The number to call patients at the hospital is: 9487 9111, or you can email Ron through the hospital’s email service which you can find at:  http://www.sah.org.au/email-a-patient

Plant of the Week – Isotoma axillaris – the Native Harebell.

Welcome to Dr Franne Kamhi

Dr Franne Kamhi has joined us as a Postdoctoral Fellow and will be working with Andy Barron, Ken Cheng and Ajay Narendra to investigate the neurobiology of ant navigation. Franne graduated from Boston University where she studied the neurochemical regulation of different behaviours in the Australian green tree ants. Please make her feel welcome!

Publications

2016 – Raderschall CA, Narendra A & Zeil J. Head roll stabilisation in the nocturnal bull ant Myrmecia pyriformis: implications for visual navigation. Journal of Experimental Biology.
2016 – Narendra A, Ramirez-Esquivel F & Ribi WA. Compound eye and ocellar structure for walking and flying modes of locomotion in the Australian ant, Camponotus consobrinus. Scientific Reports.

Getting Your Event into Department Matters

If you have an event coming up that you want in Department Matters, please email Ray <ray.duell@mq.edu.au> with the details, written in 3rd person so he doesn’t need to rewrite it!  Also, if you want your even to get into the ‘Save the Date’ section, make sure it is on the Departmental Events O365 Calendar.  To do this, email the event details to Lara <lara.ainley@mq.edu.au>.

E8A Cabinet Display – Can You Assist?

Message from Rekha

Some of the E8A level 1 corridor displays will be getting a timely make-over and I’m seeking input from academics, post-docs and postgrad students to help make this possible. I put a call-out late last year but unfortunately my timing was not great. Fear not, contributing will not take up too much of your time, with some basic information required plus any additional items you may wish to submit.

The display will be themed around Time. This has many possibilities  – Deep Time (Earth’s geological history, first life); Limited Time (climate change, anthropogenic threats, threatened species); Life Time (life history studies, evolution); Measured Time (communication, migration, circadian rhythms); Changing Time (how your field of research and the technology used has changed over the decades and even centuries); My Time (changes you have seen in your lifetime or career in your area of research or the environment), plus any other ideas you may come up with.

If you are interested in contributing please let me know. Do you have publications, pieces of equipment, specimens, a story to tell? This is an opportunity to get some of your work and ideas into our departmental public space for others to see and be inspired by. Einstein may have said time is an illusion, but hopefully you can help make this display a reality.

Do You Know This Toad?

This cute little guy was found trying to get into the Observatory on the Hill near BBE, but he was a little late for the lunar eclipse.

Rehka Joshi is asking the Department’s help to identify the species.  Any knowledgeable takers?

If you are in the know about toads, please contact Rekha <rekha.joshi@mq.edu.au>

Growth opportunity for Students – Reach Out Volunteers

Change the world, one village at a time…

Are you looking for something exciting, life-changing, and adventurous to do this summer? Volunteer in Africa, Asia, or South America to change the world and have the experience of a lifetime!

Our volunteers provide shelter for homeless families, crèches for young children, classrooms for single mothers and work in community schools. We help protect and save endangered animals through tracking, monitoring and providing safe, vegetated refuge for future breeding.

Volunteers work with some of the most endangered wildlife and ecosystems in the world. This may involve tracking the endangered Black Rhinos, Elephants and Cheetahs in South Africa, working at an elephant refuge in Cambodia or scuba-diving to repair coral reef on a remote island off the coast of Cambodia.

You will be a part of the team, and you will also become a valued member of the community. Reach Out Volunteers prides itself on making sure that you become involved in the culture of the local people. You will leave with a fulfilling sense of accomplishment and take with you a greater sense of their culture.

Do you need more information? If so, come along to our information sessions on campus!

Information sessions are on:

Thursday the 10th of March in Sports Centre – Courtyard Studio @ 3pm, 4pm & 5pm! See you there!

More information at www.rovolunteers.com

PC monitor screen required (for up to 6 months)

Leanne Armand is looking for a spare PC monitor to plug into a laptop for her lab visitors over the next few months. It seems we can wait months on a list for a second-hand PC monitor at ScienceIT or ask around the dept for any that might not be in use.

Drop me an e-mail if you have one we can loan or look after for you.

New Publications

In the Media

Recent Completions

Priscila Gonclaves submitted her PhD Thesis entitled “Intracellular Basis Of Resilience To Climate Change In Oysters

Supervised by Prof David Raftos

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Vincenzo Repaci submitted his PhD thesis entitled ‘The role of functional genetics & population genomics in conversation genetics’

Supervised by Jenny Donald

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