BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | May 13, 2016

Dear all,

I’m delighted to announce the return of the PhD completion seminars where we celebrate our recent PhD submissions. First off the ranks is Vince Raoult next Thursday – come along, hear about his research and celebrate!

This year the department has two awards available for HDR students – the Milthorpe and Tony Price awards – see the information on eligibility and how to apply below.

Academic staff – please see the request for feedback on the new block granting process. This may significantly affect us and we should have our voices heard – details from Melanie are below.

If you are out and about doing biology outreach things (Scientists in Schools, Science in the Pub, etc) then why not post something about it to our Facebook page or to the newsletter – it’s great to let everyone know!

Only a few sleeps until Eurovision – join in at the post-mortem on Monday at lunchtime in the tearoom and get your sweep tickets now!

cheerio

Michelle

Save the Date

This coming week 16th – 20th May

Mon 16th; Edwards Group Morning Tea; 10:30 – 11:30am; E8A-280 (tea room).

Mon 16th; Eurovision Postmortem; 12:30 – 1:30pm; E8A-280 (tea room).

Tue 17th; Supervision Enhancement Workshop; 11:00am – 12:00pm; MQU Library.

Tue 17th; IDAHOT; 12:00 – 2:00pm; Central University Courtyard (see details below!).

Wed 18th; Morning Tea with HoD; 10:30 – 11:00am (W19)

Wed 18th; Departmental Seminar: Dr Sarah Hamylton (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong); 1:00 – 2:00pm; E8A-280 (tea room).

Thu 19th; HDR Completion Seminar; Vince Raoult from 3:00pm; E8A-280 (tea room). Drinks and nibbles provided, followed by….

Thu 19th: Biology drinks in the courtyard

The following week 23rd – 27th May

Mon 23rd; G2G Seminar: Prof. Isaac Santos (National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University); 12:00 – 1:00pm; E8A-280 (tea room).

Wed 25th; Morning Tea with HoD; 10:30 – 11:00am; E8A-280 (tea room).

Wed 25th; Departmental Seminar: Dr James Cleverly (Associate Director TERN OzFlux, Deputy Leader Alice Mulga SuperSite, UTS); 1:00 – 2:00pm; E8A-280 (tea room).

Coming up

Wed 15th – Fri 17th June; 2016 Annual HDR Conference; 9am onwards each day; Location E8A labs.

July 31st; applications for PhD scholarships due

Aug 20th; Open Day

General News and Announcements

**IMPORTANT** – your feedback needed on the government’s proposed changes to funding arrangements for HDR students, infrastructure and more…

The Research Block Grants scheme is being overhauled, with major changes being rolled out in January 2017. The proposed changes include an altered research funding model for universities, as well changes to how these funds can be expended on HDR student training and infrastructure.  The Department of Education and Training has commenced a consultation process. It is important that we engage and ensure Macquarie’s interests are spoken for.

Please take a look at the attached consultation paper and consultation questions. Please email feedback to Melanie Bishop <melanie.bishop@mq.edu.au> no later than 5 pm Friday 20 May, so I can collate and forward to the Faculty by their deadline of 23 May.

RBG_consultation_paper

Response Template

ACTION ITEM FOR CONTINUING ACADEMICS: which are the foreign universities with which you actively collaborate? 

Michael Heimlich and Tracy Rushmer are collecting information on active research collaborations between FoSE continuing academics and academics at foreign universities. The purpose is to identify foreign universities with which we have strong links, to target for cotutelle/joint PhD arrangements. They are really keen to make the prioritisation of new cotutelle partners bottom-up rather than top down.

To help with this process, it would be greatly appreciated if continuing academics could please populate the attached spreadsheet with active research collaborations at foreign universities. This might include people you hold (or have recently held) grants with, have spent time with on OSP, have written papers with or have cosupervised students with. We are after details of people with whom you have genuine and ongoing research relationships with (i.e. if they were a co-author on a paper with 20 others, they probably don’t cut it, if this is the only collaboration). Please be selective in who you list rather than necessarily listing everyone. Tracy has started the ball rolling with this by populating the sheet with past and present cotutelle relationships, but we are interested in any type of research collaboration.

She has added a field for “Basis of Relationship” for you to fill in when capturing the information for the other, non-cotutelle international collaborations.  Some suggested entries for this field are;

Complementary– to signify an area where the collaboration provides breadth to the research

Collaborative– to signify an area where the collaboration provides depth of research (e.g. labs of same capability)

Cat-1 – funded research from Aus source

Cat 2/3 – funded research from Aus source

Foreign – funded research from other university’s funding

Joint – funded research from Aus and foreign source

It would be greatly appreciated if you could spend a few minutes doing this now before you forget, but definitely no later than Fri 27 May.

Any questions, please contact Melanie Bishop <melanie.bishop@mq.edu.au>.

Click here to edit the spreadsheet

Postgraduate PhD and Scholarship Ranking

This week we had an in-house supervisor workshop on scholarship ranking. See the attached PowerPoint (also see notes below slides). In addition, there is a supervisor’s help file for the eApp and a file that provides a guide to raking. All supervisors need to get access to the eApp. This can be done as follows:

Go to onehelp.mq.edu.au then click Request Something > Academic & Student Management > HDR Student Admission – AMIS Cloud

In the ticket, write your full name, OneID and email. In the message box you write that you are requesting login access to AMIS in order to access HDR applications.

Scholarship _Rating_Sheet_HDR_2016

Supervisor Help Card

Scholarship ranking workshop

Department of Biological Sciences Prizes Committee HDR Conference Prizes

At the HDR conference there are three categories that will be awarded for the best talk:

• Field
• Laboratory
• Theoretical/modeling

Students should nominate their category when they submit their abstract

The Prizes are as follows:

Prizes committee HDR Conference 2016

PhD completion seminars return!

Next week we kick off the return of the PhD completion seminars which will be held every two months or so on Thursday afternoons so that we can progress on to department drinks afterwards. Next week is:

Vincent Raoult – “The Biology and Fisheries of Angel Sharks and Sawsharks in South Eastern Australia”

Angel sharks and sawsharks have been caught by commercial fisheries in south-eastern Australia for almost 100 years, yet relatively little is known about their population status, the sustainability of current fisheries, or the life history traits of these sharks. My thesis aimed to assess the impacts of current and historical fisheries on these sharks, as well as determine the age, growth, and the trophic niches of these four species. To do this I collated data sets from commercial fisheries ranging from northern NSW to South Australia, and obtained shark samples from commercial fisheries, the NSW Shark Meshing (Bather Protection) Program, and from research trawlers. I used scanning x-ray fluorescence microscopy to further develop our understanding of shark vertebral banding and their links to ageing, and I assessed the inter and intra-specific competition of sawsharks using stable isotope analysis. By combining all this information, I was able to provide NSW Fisheries with suggestions on the management and conservation status of these species.

Awards available for HDR student research

Casual convenor for BIOL326

If you are interested in a casual appointment to convene and manage BIOL326 in S2, please contact Michelle (fse.bio-hod@mq.edu.au)

Weekly Seminar

Day/Time/Location: Wednesday 18th May, 1:00 – 2:00pm; E8A-280 (tea room).

Speaker: Dr Sarah Hamylton, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong

Title: What if environmental science is creative? Producing knowledge on coral reefs through explanation and prediction

Abstract: It is a time for ingenuity in environmental research. Now, more than ever, questions focussed on conservation and climate change need to be answered through more than objective, systematic scientific experimentation. What then, does it mean to acknowledge that environmental science is creative? Creativity is the use of original ideas to bring something into existence. Artistic, musical and poetic pursuits are commonly defined by their creativity. This is not the case for the sciences. As a result, researchers working in scientific disciplines may fail to recognise their creativity, or worse, allow it to be stifled. Yet historians, philosophers, sociologists and psychologists have long recognised scientific creativity, so why do scientists themselves fail to do so, particularly when this is such a valuable component of knowledge production?

Using examples of explanatory and predictive models developed on coral reefs, I demonstrate that creativity plays an important part at every stage of scientific knowledge production (observation, measurement, experimentation, development and communication of theories). The use of remote sensing technology to map coral reefs exemplifies how scientific enquiry is guided by observations and measurements that are both creative and objective. This creativity extends into experimental design, model specification and validation, as illustrated in the identification of dugong hotspots on an atoll in the West Indian Ocean and simulation of changes to reef islands on the Great Barrier Reef. Finally, creativity is becoming increasingly important in the rapid and wide-reaching communication of scientific research findings through social media and open source academic outlets such The Conversation, as can be seen in recent reporting of coral

bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. From the examples presented, creativity emerges as a critical element of the process of knowledge production in the environmental sciences. It is through an awareness of creativity, and recognition and cultivation of its constructive forms, that scientists are most able to produce valuable knowledge for addressing the key research challenges of the twenty first century.

Genes to Geoscience Seminar

Day/Time/Location: Monday 23rd May, 12:00-1:00pm, E8A-280 (biology tea room).

Speaker: Prof. Isaac Santos (National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University)

Title: Groundwater as a major source of greenhouse gases to waterways and the atmosphere

Abstract: Porewater and groundwater flows driven by a number of physical processes are ubiquitous in aquatic environments. These flows significantly increase the surface area of substrates available for biogeochemical cycling. As a result, porewater and groundwater often have high loads of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, alkalinity, and organic carbon that may eventually be released to surface waters. These transport process are accelerated by changes in hydrology such as drainage of wetlands. We have investigated whether groundwater discharge and/or porewater exchange represent sources of greenhouse gases to several systems, including coal seam gas fields, coastal wetlands, mangroves, coral reefs, estuaries, rivers, and intertidal flats. Groundwater and porewater were major drivers of carbon cycling in most of the coastal systems investigated, including Sydney Harbour. I will contrast these findings across a wide range of aquatic systems and explain how to approach the problem using modern techniques.

Bio: Prof. Isaac Santos is a coastal hydrologist specializing in the use of natural radioactive and stable isotope tracers to investigate groundwater processes and carbon cycling in aquatic systems. Much of his work focuses on developing approaches to obtain automated, high resolution observations. Santos has obtained 4 ARC Discovery grants and published over 100 scientific papers. His research relies on active international collaboration with interdisciplinary projects completed in Antarctica, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Indonesia, China and USA. In 2011, Santos was given the Cronin Award from the Coastal and Estuarine Research Foundation for his research linking coastal biogeochemistry to hydrology.

Field Friendly Update

Firstly the fieldwork managers and Adam would like to thank you all for your patience and contributions during the roll-out of Field Friendly. We currently have 95 users logging in to the system in Biology (not including undergraduates), and across the faculty we have seen some 500 users and 200 trips logged through. It has been a busy few months for all. There may have been some hard work to initially get your details in the system, however once this is done you will find the process far more streamlined for future fieldwork applications.

To gather feedback and guide future development a survey was sent around to all who had logged in before April. We received responses from 40 users, the results of this survey have been summarised in the attached PDF. Overall, the response has been very positive. Adam has been responding to suggestions and making improvements all the time and we’re happy to report that much of the feedback received and outlined in the results has already been actioned and included in the system.

What we ask now is for general feedback from everyone. If you see Adam or any of your fieldwork managers please have a chat with us about how you’re finding the system, we’d really like to hear where you want it to go from here. Feedback can also can be logged via email, using the Field Friendly ‘Help’ feature or phoning any of us. A follow up survey will be distributed later in the year as a formal call, but if you have issues or suggestions please don’t hang onto them, let us know.

FFMQ – Survey results May 2016

Plant of the Week – Polyspora axillaris – Fried Egg Plant

A close relation of tea

And remember we are still looking for contributors to Animal of the Week.  C’mon Vertebrate and Invertebrate Zoologists – step up!

Upcoming Supervision Enhancement Workshop

Have you met the requirement to complete annual HDR Supervision training in 2016?

Do you want to know more about Altmetrics for your own purposes, or to help HDR candidates to know more?

The Supervision Enhancement Program will shortly offer the following workshop: Altmetric Explorer @ Macquarie University on Tuesday 17th May 11am-12 noon in the MQ Library.

For further and to register, see https://hdrworkshops.mq.edu.au/registration/new/12681?year=2016

Biology Safety Alert

Minutes for Biology WHS Committee meeting held 3.5.16.

Biology WHS committee minutes 3rd May 2016

IDAHOT Tuesday 17th May, 12-2pm

On Tuesday 17th May, 12-2pm in the Central Courtyard, we will be celebrating IDAHOT – International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

IDAHOT commemorates the removal of homosexuality as a mental illness from the official records of the World Health Organization, and has been celebrated world wide since 2004. This will be our 6th year celebrating here at MQ.

More information about IDAHOT can be found on the official website here:

http://dayagainsthomophobia.org/

The event will be fun and colorful, and will visibly demonstrate Macquarie University’s commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, particular for our staff and students who identify with diverse sexual orientations, sex and gender identities.

More information can be found here:

http://www.mq.edu.au/about/events/view/idahot-international-day-against-homophobia-and-transphobia/

We hope as many of you come down to support the event as you can. Enjoy the BBQ, engage in the activities, and most importantly, be there to support this fantastic cause.

Pint of Science is a science communication event where we get researchers to come and give talks to the general public in local pubs. There are two talks a night for three consecutive nights (23rd-25th May), and tickets are only $5 a night! In between the talks we have trivia and prizes to give away.

Science, Beer, Trivia and Free Stuff – what more could you want?!

This year, our speakers include the MQ Biology Department’s own Michael Gillings (23rd May) and James O’Hanlon (24th May), and all three nights will be MC’d by Vince Repaci.

The event is at the Bristol Arms Pub in the city, and the following talks have been organised:

– May 23rd – conservation and human impacts on the environment

– May 24th – the evolution of mimicry followed by video games and their influence on behaviour

– May 25th – plate tectonics followed by a geology cabaret.

As we are not-for-profit we are relying heavily on word of mouth and social media to get tickets sold, and it would be amazing if everyone could spread the word, or even plug the event in classes or lectures!

The Facebook event is at:

https://www.facebook.com/events/479464932254004/

And our full program can be found on our website:

http://www.pintofscience.com.au/#!sydney/ro665

Christmas Island Flying Fox Health – New PhD Position

PhD position for INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF INFECTIOUS, NUTRITIONAL AND TOXICOLOGICAL DISEASE IN THE DECLINE OF THE ENDANGERED CHRISTMAS ISLAND FLYING-FOX

It is a pretty cool project and the successful applicant will be working closely with another PhD who already has excellent bat handling skills.  Christmas Island National Park staff are also very helpful and supportive.

http://sydney.edu.au/research/opportunities/opportunities/2078

$20,000 Peer Prize for Women in Science

The Sun Foundation of Australia has launched the inaugural Peer Prizes, focusing on women in science for its first year. It’s open to Australian-based female researcher working in life sciences, earth & space science.

How to Enter? Write a short description of research performed or published since January 2015 to a cross-disciplinary audience of peers.  A video explainer is not mandatory but will help your engagement by up to 10x. The Peer Prizes are chosen openly by the highest number of verified peers.  The public can see entries but do not contribute to the awarding of the prizes.

Apply here

Statistics courses by Zuur @ UNSW

Statistician Dr Alain Zuur and ecologist Dr Elena Ieno (Highland Statistics; http://www.highstat.com) are coming to Sydney to teach a statistics course on

Linear Mixed Effects Models and GLMM (frequentist and Bayesian approaches) in R – 18-22 July @ UNSW

Dr Zuur is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, UK. Together with Dr Ieno, they have been teaching statistics to over 7,000 ecologists worldwide since 2004 and have co-authored a series of popular statistics books. Dr Zuur’s courses are highly sought after by researchers all around the world and we are therefore excited to have the opportunity to host this course.

Flyer2016_07Sydney_GLMM

AMSI Winter School 2016 Registration Open

Registration now open!

AMSI Director, Geoff Prince and Winter School Director, Phil Isaac are asking you to mark your calendar as busy from 4-15 July: these are the dates for the AMSI Winter School, and this year’s theme is Biological & Environmental Modelling.

In the twenty-first century, modelling is a crucial research tool for studying complex phenomena and processes. Our impressive line up of speakers will build your knowledge of models, algorithms, and theoretical analysis tools, and bring you up to speed on a range of topical applications, from molecular biology through to ecosystems analysis.

More Information

Who should attend?

Hosted by the University of Queensland, the School is designed for postgraduate students and ECRs in the mathematical sciences and cognate disciplines. Students and ECRs working specifically in biological or environmental modelling are of course encouraged to attend. However, the school is a great opportunity for those working in other areas of the mathematical sciences to strengthen their mathematical tool-kit.

DATES TO REMEMBER

5 June Travel Grant Applications Close

24 June Final Day To Register

Register Now!

Fifth Australasian Conference of Undergraduate Research – Call For Papers

CQUniversity, Rockhampton North campus, Queensland

27-28th October 2016

Deadline for submission of abstracts and papers 1st July 2016

First World Congress of Undergraduate Research

University of Qatar, Doha

13-15th November 2016

Deadline for submission of papers 1st June 2016

Details for how to submit papers and register for these events is on the attached flyer.

Calls for papers v2

Garden Snails Wanted!!

Large (LIVE) garden snails wanted for BIOL114 by May 27th.  Please bring them in and give them to Winnie Man, E8A-103, or leave them in E8C-126. Only used for observation and feed on lettuce (for those concerned about treatment).

Thanks very much in advance.

Field Assistant Required

Project: Bird Ecology project at Armidale 16th-20th May 2016, shared accommodation provided

The entire Australian House sparrow population has descended from under 50 individuals that were intentionally shipped from England to Melbourne around 150 years ago.  We aim to understand how this versatile species has so successfully and rapidly adapted to changing environments in Australia.

Armidale (NSW) is of special interest to this research: house sparrows here are particularly common, and although non-native, the speed and success of their establishment in Australia is of particular relevance to adaptive studies. In order to monitor the house sparrow in Armidale we need to set up nest box sites, and we need help in setting up the boxes throughout Armidale.

If you are interested in helping with this project, contact:

Ellie Sheldon Macquarie University
elizabeth-louise.sheldon@students.mq.edu.au
Phone: 0451 532 403

Looking for shared accommodation for a year

PhD student moving to Australia around the 13th June for one year. Looking for either accommodation for the full year or possibly a short term rent/place to crash to be able to look around in person once I’ve arrived. Budget is around $800pm, very relaxed in terms of smoking/non-smoking and pets. Won’t be driving during my stay, so decent public transport links are welcome, otherwise very flexible in terms of location. please e-mail Kyle at kz28@st-andrews.ac.uk if you have or know of anything that might work. Thanks.

Post-doc Looking for Work

Dr Saira Hussain is a recent PhD graduate looking for work.  If you have anything that you think might suit from the following description, please contact <ray.duell@mq.edu.au> for her resume.

“I am writing to apply for the Post-Doctoral Research or any other research/academic/casual/volunteer work. I believe I have the required skills to perform these duties.

I graduated with a PhD in Biochemistry from Charles Sturt University (CSU), Wagga Wagga, Australia in December 2015. The title of my PhD project was “Bioactive compounds in canola meal”. My research expertise include molecular, biotechnology, biochemistry, chemistry, microbiology, and proteomic etc.

My aim is to embrace the opportunity of learning from skilled people and gaining attributes necessary to achieve excellence in innovative, impactful research for novel and important scientific outcomes. I am happy to relocate and is quite flexible.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my request. I will be happy to provide any further information you may require, I look forward to your response.

This is nearly a year I have been hunting for a job. Hope to hear from you soon.  Thanks in advance.”

Position Available: Service Engineer – Scientific Instruments 

• High tech analytical equipment
• Wide variety of jobs and activities
• Sutherland Shire location

ATA Scientific specialises in selling and servicing analytical and scientific instruments.
See www.atascientific.com.au

We are looking for a service engineer to support these advanced technology instruments.  This is a multi-skilled role combining fault finding, repairing and calibrating instruments and training operators.
.
Qualifications

• Degree/diploma in electronics or instrumentation.
• Several years of practical experience in fault diagnosis, repair (to component level) and maintenance of electronic systems or instruments.
• Ideally also familiarity with optics, fluidics, and computer control.
• An excellent command of written and spoken English.
• Good presentation skills with the ability to conduct training courses
• Computer skills in both office and technical software systems.
• Valid motor car licence.
• Ability to travel interstate and occasionally overseas.
• Permanent resident of Australia with current Australian passport

This position will suit you if you enjoy working in the scientific community. There will be a high degree of autonomy, however it is also important that you enjoy working within a small group. As well as having the above technical skills you will need to produce accurate reports, be well organised and methodical at record keeping.

Location: Taren Point, Sutherland Shire, NSW 2229

Remuneration: A package to attract the right person, including salary, company car, superannuation, and expenses.  There will be a probationary period.

Interview – commencing time: Interviews will be conducted during June 2016. Commencing time July 2016 but is flexible.

Please send your CV (do not phone) to <tmcdonagh@atascientific.com.au>

New Publications

In the Media

Recent Completions