A global spatially explicit database of changes in island palaeo-area and archipelago configuration during the late Quaternary
By: Norder, Sietze J., John B. Baumgartner, Paulo AV Borges, Tomislav Hengl, W. Daniel Kissling, E. Emiel van Loon, and Kenneth F. Rijsdijk. Global Ecology and Biogeography. | Find with Google Scholar »
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Dear all,
Lots of things on this week and another jam-packed newsletter. Still very excited by Vanessa Pirotta’s win at the national FameLabs science communication finals in Perth!!
Stay warm and be EXTRA nice to all mums on Sunday!
Cheers,
Michelle
Save the Date
This coming week 14th – 18th May
Mon 14th: Eurovision morning tea: 10.30am – 11.30am; Biology Tea Room.
Mon 14th: Staff Town Hall meeting on transport – the station closure; Aust Hearing Hub
Wed 16th: Department Morning Tea; 10.30am – 11am; Biology Tea Room.
Wed 16th: Department Seminar – Assoc. Prof. Michael Renton & Dr Elizabeth Trevenden, School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia; 1.00pm – 2.00pm; Biology Tea Room.
Following week 21st – 25th May
Wed 23rd: Workshop – ‘The Art and Science of Getting Your Research Published’; All Day, 12WW (E7A) level 8.
Wed 23rd: Department Morning Tea; 10.30am – 11.30am; The Hill.
Wed 23rd: Department Seminar – Prof. Michael Bunce, School of Plant Biology, ARC Future Fellow Trace and Environmental DNA (TrEnD) laboratory, & Australian Wildlife Forensic Services (AWFS) Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University; 1.00pm – 2.00pm; Biology Tea Room.
Coming Up
May 30th: Workshop – ‘Developing Your 5-year Research Plan’; 12.00 – 1.00pm, 12WW (E7A) level 8.
July 24-25th: Research Enrichment Program – Outlook Conference “The Future of the Human Landscape”; Incubator Building, MQU.
Department Seminar Series
Wed May 30th: Department Seminar – Dr Iadine Chades, CSIRO; 1.00pm – 2.00pm; Biology Tea Room.
Wed June 6th: Department Seminar – Prof. Saul Cunningham, Fenner School, ANU; 1.00pm – 2.00pm; Biology Tea Room.
General News and Announcements
In Case You Missed it… Vanessa Pirotta won the 2018 Australian Division of the British Council FAMELab national competition for science communication in Perth on Thursday night! The amazing places that whale snot will take you…She will now go on to represent Australia at the FameLab International Finals in the UK! – congratulations – we are very proud of you Vanessa!
Jenny Donald is a Winner – In exciting news, Jenny Donald has been announced as this year’s recipient of the Genetics Society of Australia Award for Excellence in Education. This is well-deserved and recognises her dedication to student welfare and leadership in development of curricula. Congratulations to Jenny!
MQ Station Closure – What is Happening? Actually quite a lot. At last week’s Dean’s Advisory Committee meeting, we had a presentation from Carly Roy, Program Manager from the Transport MQ Project Team. The station will be closing 30 September for 6-7 months while the current rail line is changed to become part of the Sydney Metro Northwest, which will eventually (2024) link to the City and Southwest Metro through to Bankstown. There will be a new bus network of seven bus routes (details attached), and Keoride has been launched – this is an on-demand bus service for people who live within a 7.5km radius of the university. The university is also looking at ways to spread the peak demand, with on-campus & Macquarie Centre activities and events planned. Within the department we have investigated timetable changes to make our students’ lives easier. You can see the full presentation here (it’s only 6 pages). And for more information go along to the Staff Townhall Session – 14th May 2018, AHH, 4.15pm – 5.15pm.
Eurovision Ahoy – It’s that time of the year again, when good taste and logic goes out the window: Eurovision ante portas! Do not fret, we are on your side and we will see you through this! Follow the blog, http://www.thescienceofeurovision.website, buy a sweepstake ticket from the HOD office, and join the Eurovision morning tea (May 14, 10:30). Semi-finales and finales will be screened on SBS May 11-13. Eurovisionposter2018
Out and About – As Deputy Chair of the NSW Fisheries Scientific Committee, Jane Williamson recently spent a couple of days with committee members at the DPI Freshwater Fisheries Centre in Narrandera. Here, scientists grow and release threatened species such as Murray Cod, Silver Perch and Olive Perchlet. The NSW FSC lists aquatic (freshwater and marine) species, populations and ecological communities and key threatening processes in the State (https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/species-protection/fsc). Jane has been on the Committee continuously since 2007.
RESEARCH STORIES, OUTCOMES AND OPPORTUNITIES
MiniPam II @PGF – “A new instrument to measure photosynthesis yield has just made its way into the Plant Growth Facility, funded through a MQ Research Infrastructure Scheme (Small) Grant titled “Expanding research capability for plant ecophysiological research” awarded to Leishman, Ossola, Wright, Hughes, Beaumont, Gallagher. The Mini-PAM-II by Walz (Germany) is a new PAM (Pulse-Amplitude-Modulation) chlorophyll fluorometer useful to determine how environmental factors affect the photosynthetic efficiency of photosystem II by measuring fluorescence elicited by LED light. Applications of this technique are extremely varied and relate to plant science, ecophysiology, ecology, agriculture, forestry, water science and even astrobiology.
Looking for People Needing to do Their Scientific Diver Training Course – Do you need to SCUBA dive for research MQ? You will need the VETAB Skills Service Council Nationally Recognised training course AHCLPW305A: Perform diving for scientific purposes. This course is run by Abyss Scuba Diving and to run the course they need a couple of students. The course is 2 days provided you have the right prerequisites, and they can run it Saturday/Sunday or Monday/Tuesday. You can check out the details here: https://www.abyss.com.au/scuba/pc/Scientific-Diver-Training-Course-p7516.htm If interested please send Joni an email with some dates that suit you over the next 5 weeks: <joni.pini-fitzsimmons@hdr.mq.edu.au>
Outside Studies Program – The MQ Outside Studies Program (OSP) opens for academic staff on the 9th May 2018. Please discuss with the Head of Department before putting in an application. All applications will be assessed by the Associate Dean Research and the Research Committee before being approved to proceed. The closing date will be Wednesday the 27th June 2018. There is a workshop scheduled for the 16th May 2018 – it is recommended you attend this if you are planning to apply for an OSP this round.
Participate in the Falling Walls Lab Australia 2018 – The Academy invites applications from Australian researchers, postdocs and students, entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators from all areas to attend the Falling Walls Lab Australia 2018. Deadline for applications is 5pm (AEST) Monday 28th May 2018. 20 contestants will be invited to participate in this challenge with each required to give a 3 minute presentation on their research work, business model, social idea or initiative based on the “Which walls will fall next” concept. Candidates should be research active in any field of the natural sciences, including technology, engineering and medicine as well as social sciences and humanities. Follow this link to view more information and to apply.
PhD Scholarship: Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria in Australian Wildlife – Applications close 17th May 2018 – PhD opportunity
LEARNING AND TEACHING
Interested in Being a Science Ambassador? Do You Live in the Federal Electorate of Parramatta? STA is running a program to promote science policy engagement and this would facilitate someone from MQ being engaged with the Member for Parramatta. https://scienceandtechnologyaustralia.org.au/stem-ambassador-program/. Please contact Judith Dawes (judith.dawes@mq.edu.au) if you are interested.
Want to Develop your Teaching Portfolio? HEA Fellowship Opportunity
Macquarie academics and professional staff can now have their education practice and experience recognised through the Higher Education Academy (HEA) Fellowship program. These Fellowships provide international recognition of personal and institutional commitment, and professionalism, in higher education. HEA fellowships also look great on promotion applications, fitting into the categories of:
Professional development and/or accreditation: Record of continuous professional development, including through internal or external accreditation schemes (e.g. Higher Education Academy).
Scholarship of Learning and Teaching: Articulation of clear personal teaching philosophy with evidence of reflection and response to a range of evaluative feedback (this needs to be addressed in the HEA application).
This year MQ is funding applications for staff, including tutors and professional staff. Due to budget cuts this funding is not guaranteed for 2019 (~$5000 per person), so if you are interested please attend an info session to register. The work involved in applications increases with each level, but there are writing workshops and opportunities to have your application reviewed before submission to help.
Contact Kath McClellan if you are interested <katherine.mcclellan@mq.edu.au>.
HDR Student Emails – Are you still using your students.mq.edu.au email? Did you know that you have a staff email? Naming profile is usually firstname.lastname@hdr.mq.edu.au Your staff email account can be accessed via Office 365. If you would prefer to keep using another email account, there are instructions here which outline how to forward all communications from your staff email account, to another email account. If you experience any issues or need help with this, please contact IT.
SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS
Biological Sciences Weekly Seminar
Date/Time/Venue: Wednesday, 16th May 2018, 1 – 2pm, 14EAR (E8A)-280 Biology Tearoom.
Speaker: Assoc. Prof. Michael Renton & Dr Elizabeth Trevenden, School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia. Title: Adventures in eco-evolutionary modelling: from optimal rooting to fighting the alien resistance to community diversity. More information at https://goto.mq.edu.au/biologyseminar2018-abstracts
MolSci Weekly Seminar
Date/Time/Venue: Tuesday, 22nd May 2018, 1 – 2pm, 4WW (F7B) 422 APAF seminar room. Speaker: Dr Adam Martin, School of Chemistry, UNSW. Title: Peptide hydrogels: From structure to function. For more information visit – https://goto.mq.edu.au/6s
Sap Flow Technology Workshop – A workshop in July on sap flow technology is being organised for research applications on woody plant species. The workshop will be convened by Dr Michael Forster (Edaphic Scientific & University of Queensland). He will cover the essential theory on sap flow (9am-12pm) complemented by hands-on activities on the installation, operation and maintenance of sap flow systems and data analysis (1-4pm). If you, your students or colleagues are interested, please fill this poll (https://doodle.com/poll/g7hr7ebaa9dyb472 ) indicating your available dates or email Dr Alessandro Ossola <alessandro.ossola@mq.edu.au> for more info.
Research Enrichment Program – Outlook Conference
July 24-25, Incubator Building, Macquarie University – “The Future of the Human Landscape”
The Outlook Conference (Research Enrichment Program Outlook Flyer) will bring together leading thinkers in diverse disciplines, spanning molecules to landscapes, and from scientific, historical and social viewpoints. Speakers at 2018 Outlook conference include Professor Tim Flannery (Writer and Social Commentator), Professor Angela Moles (UNSW), Associate Professor Greg Downey (MQ) and Professor Rob Brooks (UNSW). The objective of Outlook is to immerse participants in the frontiers of adjacent, and more distant disciplines. Speakers will present their vision for humanity’s future. 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 applications, and to expose postgraduate students and early career researchers to different ways of thinking. To register, email <fse.rep-admin@mq.edu.au>.
The Art and Science of Getting Your Research Published – Wednesday 23rd May (all day) level 8, E7A Organised by Michael Gillings and Haidee Kruger. This workshop is an introduction to research authorship and communication. In addition to Postgraduate students, academics and postdocs are most welcome to attend. Click here to register for ‘The Art and Science of getting your research published’
Developing Your 5-year Research Plan – Wednesday 30 May (12-1pm), level 8 E7A – Delivered by Andrew Barron. Hitting any mid- and long-term research and career goals is impossible if you don’t know what they are. This seminar discusses how you can identify what you want to do, and how you can plan to give yourself the greatest chance of hitting your targets. No need to register, simply turn-up.
aaRgh (ask an R geek for help) – Second Thursday of every month 3 – 4pm, Biology Tearoom – 14EAR (E8A) 280. Frustrated? Having an R-related problem? We will also run regular afternoon tea sessions where you can get one-on-one help, or just introduce yourself and chat. Snacks provided!
Writing Workshops – Running weekly for most of the year: Fridays 2-4pm in room E8B 111. Convened by Ken Cheng.
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
How to Get the Stars in Your Eyes – The Department of Physics and Astronomy are calling for volunteers to take part in their annual Astronomy Open Night. We are now calling for those interested to please come forward and let us know if you are keen to lend a serious hand on the night. There is the usual payment of a t-shirt and food voucher, and the added bonus of the joy and warm feelings of helping out. Please email <kelly.sharpless@mq.edu.au> or <liz.hennebry@mq.edu.au> if you would like to volunteer. Please note that there will be a compulsory briefing session(s) in the weeks(s) before the event (no more than 2) and that you will very likely be required to arrive in the late afternoon on 19 May to help set up. More details about the event can be found athttps://students.mq.edu.au/study/faculties-schools-and-colleges/faculty-of-science-and-engineering/department-of-physics-and-astronomy/association-for-astronomy/astronomy-open-night
Administration Staffing Updates – Minor changes to admin staff will result in reduced staff availability as of April, so please make an effort to plan your admin needs and avoid potential delays to your request. Adyen De Courcey – On Leave for 3 months. Jacqui Smith – joining us on the front desk. For any administration enquiries please email <fse.bio-adm@mq.edu.au> as this is seen by all administrative staff. The most appropriate person will reply to your email.
PURE Training – The PURE system is used to manage researcher profiles, outputs including publications, funding applications, awards, projects and reports. Do you feel like you could use some more PURE training? Please register your interest via an email to <jenny.ghabache@mq.edu.au>.
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
Photo Competition – May 2018 – Enter to win a $100 Gift Card this month!
This month’s theme is COLOUR! Your images could be used on our Department website, this newsletter, on our social media and in other biology publications. A lucky person’s name will be drawn each month, and they will receive a $100 Gift Card! Criteria: you must provide caption information including details of what/where/who(names of people)/date & you must have taken all photos & the image was taken in the last five years. Please follow the dropbox file request link to submit your images. Submission close: 30 MAY 2018 You can enter as many photos as you like – one entry to the draw for each good photo, good luck!
Location-W (Fauna Park) Admin Support – Monday, Wednesday & Friday from 10am – 1pm in W19F
Deliveries – You will notice that we have placed a red “transfer Box” in W19F, put anything in this box that needs to be delivered to the E8 area location. We also have a red “Transfer Box” in E8B Level 2 location, which is for goods to betaken to the W location. These boxes will be emptied every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10am. Deliveries from the main “MQ” store will be delivered daily. Any questions please contact Sharyon O’Donnell.
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.
Correct Method for Submitting to Department Matters
Department Matters submissions now have their own email address. Please send all future submissions to 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.
- Please write in third person. The information is coming from the Newsletter, not directly from you.
- Do not use fancy text formatting. Bold heading, normal text, and only italics or bold to highlight. No font size changes will make it through, sorry.
- If sending via email, set your email output to basic. HTML output will add all sort of formatting that will have to be removed before your article can go into the newsletter.
Keeping to these guidelines will streamline your article’s addition to the newsletter. Thank you.
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SUSTAINABILITY
Worm Castings and Juice Available for Your Home Garden – In the Biology courtyard (next to the fern bed) are our wonderful worm farms. This week we harvested some of the worm castings and emptied off the worm juice – which is a bit of a slurry. This stuff is full of nutrients and great mixed into the garden. The juice should be diluted approx 10:1, and the solids can make around 20% of the soils volume (more for vegie gardens). Please help yourself – BYO container.
Sustainability Survey – Surveys have been emailed, and hard copies are in place outside the Biology tearoom, and in the E8C ground floor foyer. Please help this department become more sustainable by having your say on what you think the priorities are. Write a post it note, place a tick, or email Samantha Newton <samantha.newton@mq.edu.au> with your feedback.
BLOGS AND OTHER THINGS OF INTEREST
Plant of the Week!
For this week: Gold Dust Plant, or Japanese Laurel – Aucuba japonica ‘Variegata’. Variegation in plants refers to different colours in the leaves, in this case yellow. The green parts of the leaves contain chlorophyll, can absorb sunlight and photosynthesise, but this isn’t going to happen in the golden splashes of colour where there is no chlorophyll to absorb the sunlight.
2018 Nikon Small World Competition – Entries for both Small World competitions can be uploaded directly to the MicroscopyU servers at the following URL: https://nikonsmallworld.magnet.fsu.edu/
New Publications
A global comparison of the climatic niches of urban and native tree populations
By: Kendal, Dave, C. Dobbs, R. V. Gallagher, L. J. Beaumont, J. Baumann, N. S. G. Williams, and S. J. Livesley. Global Ecology and Biogeography (2018). | Find with Google Scholar »Behavioural plasticity under a changing climate; how an experimental local climate affects the nest construction of the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata
By: Campbell, Bridget L., Laura L. Hurley, and Simon C. Griffith. Journal of Avian Biology (2018). | Find with Google Scholar »Cognition Beyond Representation: Varieties of Situated Cognition in Animals
By: Cheng, Ken COMPARATIVE COGNITION & BEHAVIOR REVIEWS Volume: 13 Pages: 1-20 Published: 2018 | Find with Google Scholar »More Situated Cognition in Animals: Reply to Commentators
By: Cheng, Ken COMPARATIVE COGNITION & BEHAVIOR REVIEWS Volume: 13 Pages: 49-54 Published: 2018 | Find with Google Scholar »Using Multiple Methods to Understand the Nature of Relationships in Social Networks
By: Adams, Vanessa M., Katie Moon, Jorge G. Álvarez-Romero, Örjan Bodin, Michaela Spencer, and Deborah Blackman. Society & Natural Resources (2018): 1-18. | Find with Google Scholar »In the Media
Culum Brown and Catarina Villa Pouca were interviewed by ABC Radio Melbourne, BBC Five Live, BBC Derry and featured in the Daily Mail, The Sun ,Sky News, the Hindustan Times, and others.
Associate Professor Culum Brown and Catarina Villa Pouca from the Department of Biological Sciences was interviewed by ABC Radio Melbourne, BBC Five Live, BBC Derry and others and featured in the Daily Mail, The Sun, Sky News and the Hindustan Times regarding new research into sharks’ ability to associate jazz music with a food reward. See page 2 of the report.
Adam Stow featured in Cosmos
Associate Professor Adam Stow from the Department of Biological Sciences featured in Cosmos in relation to research into ambrosia beetles’ colony building.