BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | May 19, 2017

Dear all,

Sorry your Department Matters is a little late this week… but I guarantee that this one is worth the wait!

Thanks to Andy for holding the fort in Michelle’s absence, and as always, thanks to Ray for pulling Department Matters together.

Have a great week

Grant

Save the Date

This coming week 22nd – 26th May

Wed 24th: Morning Tea with HoD; 10:30am – 11am; Fauna Park, The Hill.

Wed 24th: Professor Mike Archer, The University of NSW, PANGEA Research Centre & CREATE School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Thu 25th: Writing Workshop; 2:30-4:30pm, E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Following week 29th May – 2nd June

Tue 30th: RUsers group – E8A Tearoom

Wed 31st: Morning Tea with HoD; 10:30am – 11am; The Hill.

Wed 31st: Professor Michael Romero, Tufts University; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Thu 1st: Writing Workshop; 2:30-4:30pm, E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Coming up

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

June 13 – 15th: HDR Conference; Timetable TBA; E7B Lecture Theatres.

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.

Department seminar schedule

June 7th:  Dr Ceridwen Fraser, ANU; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

June 14th:  Dr Caragh Threlfall, The University of Melbourne; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

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

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

General News and Announcements

Grant Success

Lake Macquarie Environmental Research Grant ‘Waterborne pathogen carriage in grey headed flying foxes of Lake Macquarie’ was awarded to Michelle Power, Fiona McDougall and Aparna Lal.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4647986/blackalls-bat-study-to-look-for-parasites/

MRes Student Grant Success

One of our MRes students, Aaron Phillips, supervised by Brian Atwell and Rachael Gallagher, has recently been successful in TWO grant applications!

He has received:

– the Val Williams grant from the Australian Plants Society, North Shore Group valued at $2500 for surveying the sequence diversity of Rubisco activase (RCA) genes in Themeda triandra (kangaroo grass) populations around Australia that are adapted to different thermal regimes

– the Joyce Vickery award from the Linnean Society valued at $2500 to be used to track how the abundance of RCA changes in wild and domestic cotton and tobacco species (adapted to different thermal regimes) when you heat shock them, and whether there might be a link between abundance of RCA and photosynthetic performance. He will use multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (MRM-MS) to find relative protein abundance.

Well done, Aaron!

More Awards!

Congratulations to Maria Vozzo who has been awarded the 2017 student travel award from the NSW branch of the Australian Marine Sciences Association. The award covers Maria’s registration at the association’s annual conference, this year to be held in Darwin in July.

Donation to the UN Refugee Agency

The attached PDF is an invoice for the $164 raised at last years Dept. Christmas Party which has been donated to UNHCR.

MQU_BiologicalSciences_2017-05-17_11-57-30-AM

HDR Conference Coming Up

The HDR conference is less than a month away. This is a big showcase event for the department and all HDR students and academic staff are expected to be there 13-15 June. Please watch out for reminders from Julian for due dates for student and supervisor reports.

Tutor Callout for Session 2

If you interested in tutoring for the Biology Department in Session 2 2017 please click on this link.

Applications are not open for long and the final date for submission is Sunday 28^th May.

Please please read the information carefully on the google form.

Convenors if you know of someone who is not on our postgrad or mres email list, and you would like to teach on your unit please forward them this information

Biology Safety Alert

1. 2017 WHS Office inspections.

The annual office inspections will commence in June as per the schedule below and will be conducted by members of the Biology WHS committee.  The committee will be using the attached 2017 Office inspection checklist as a guide during the inspections and ask that you complete all of the 2016 corrective actions for the office you occupy prior to the 2017 WHS office inspection.

2017 Biology WHS Office Inspections Schedule

2017 office inspection checklist

2. Minutes from the Biology WHS committee meeting held on the 9th May, 2017.

Biology WHS committee minutes 9th May 2017

Baby on the Way

Amanda Sordes, University Dive Officer will be on maternity leave starting Monday 22 May. Nick Harris, our Boating Manager, will cover her duties until the start of March 2018. If you have any diving or snorkelling enquiries, please contact Nick through <diveofficer@mq.edu.au> or <nick.harris@mq.edu.au> or by phone on x4078.

DEPARTMENTAL SEMINAR SERIES

Day/Date/Time/Place: Wednesday, 24th May, 1-2pm, E8A-280 (Tea Room)

Speaker: Professor Mike Archer, The University of NSW, PANGEA Research Centre & CREATE School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences.

Title: Riversleigh—40 years of research is just the start.

Abstract: David Attenborough declared that Riversleigh, now a World Heritage listed natural resource, was one of the four most important fossil deposits in the world. Because Australia has been a vast isolated laboratory for the last 50 million years where evolution could independently work its weird ways, fossils revealed at Riversleigh, which span the last 24 million years, should and do reflect this independence–in spades. E.g., prior to 1976, only 73 Tertiary mammals were known from all the fossil deposits of Australia. Discoveries at Riversleigh have now more than trebled that number with many groups of living mammals (as well as reptiles, birds, ‘bugs’, plants etc.) revealing fossil records for the first time. Although primarily the focus of palaeontologists and geologists at UNSW, with more than 100 researchers in 26 institutions and 11 countries collaborating over the last 40 years to make sense of this resource, a prodigious panoply of publications and preposterous prognostications continues to grow. Unexpected discoveries include bizarre cases of preservation (e.g. fossil eyeballs as well as 17 million year old sperm cells with nuclei) as well as palaeontologists with outrageous senses of humour who almost changed the world as we know it. Ongoing research by many different groups focused on palaeontology, phylogenetics, palaeoecology, palaeoclimatology, geology, caves, palaeohydrology, elemental signatures, geochronology, modern zoology and even the finer aspects of palaeoscatology ensure that at least another century or three of researchers will continue to make extraordinary discoveries in this addictive palaeo-playground.

Admin Updates

With Rosie Neville leaving, Claire Laws (left) has been appointed to be our front desk person for the time being.

Winning top place in the Department’s Eurovision Sweep has helped to welcome Claire, but please also extend your welcome to her.

The Department will also be receiving Finance and HR staffing support from Central resources, whilst the Faculty Admin Review is being finalised, details yet to be finalised.

As a re-iteration, please be patient with the admin team and if/when required, assist with gentle reminders if tasks are taking longer than usual; this is a time of increasing stress, decreasing time and poor communication from the Faculty about where people will be placed, so your help and patience is greatly appreciated.

Ally Training

Ally training is open to all at Macquarie who are interested in creating an inclusive culture for LGBTIQ staff and students.

The training involves a three-hour professional development workshop to increase knowledge, understanding and awareness of diversity of gender expression, issues affecting LGBTIQ staff and students, LGBTIQ-related support at Macquarie and the role of an Ally in fostering an inclusive community.

Date: Wednesday 31 May 2017
Time: 12.30pm – 3.30pm (light lunch included)
Location: Manly Room, Level 4, Building C5C, 17 Wally’s Walk

Those who complete the training will be eligible to join the MQ Ally Network.

To register, please email Lauren Dillon, Workplace Equity and Diversity Coordinator,  lauren.dillon@mq.edu.au with your name, position, faculty/office and details of any accessibility or dietary requirements.

Plant of the Week

For this week, Okra, or Gumbo, Abelmoschus esculentus, like cotton, another important economic plant from the Mallow (Hibiscus) family (Malvaceae).

By Delince. J (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Bibliometrics

The destructive aspects of bibliometrics remain a hot issue and this latest piece in Nature  emphasises how they drive researchers into being risk-averse. To quote: Our findings suggest that the more we bind ourselves to quantitative short-term measures, the less likely we are to reward research with a high potential to shift the frontier – and those who do it.
http://www.nature.com/news/reviewers-are-blinkered-by-bibliometrics-1.21877

Spare PCs Available

Faculty of Science & Engineering IT has an excess of spare desktop PCs following the refresh of multiple IT labs.

We have over 200 spare with monitors, keyboards and mice.

They’re mostly out of warranty but still in reasonable condition.

If you can use spare PCs, please let us know:

– how many

– if you need monitors, keyboards and mice

– special software requirements (they’ll have MS Office)

– where to deliver them to

– when you need them delivered by

Please let us know through a OneHelp ticket at:

http://onehelp.mq.edu.au

Crowd-funding for Conservation Genomics of Endangered Southern Black-throated Finch

The southern black-throated finch is endangered in Queensland and extinct in New South Wales. Existing populations in Queensland are at risk from further habitat loss, particularly the proposed Carmichael mine. ANU researcher Dr Kerensa McElroy is raising funds to sequence the genome of this species, in an effort to better understand population declines, gene-swamping from the northern black throat, and standing adaptive genetic variation.

For more information, and to donate, check out the website: https://pozible.com/project/finches-in-danger-intervention-dna

ACTS (Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability) Conference 1-3 November 2017 – early bird registration open

Sustainability practitioners and influencers, educators, students, government and business partners, and sector support representatives will come together in the heart of Melbourne this November to “THINK BIG for Global Goals”.

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/2017-international-acts-conference-tickets-34496828944

Donate Your Old Mobile Phones and Tablets to a Good Cause

During weeks 10 and 11 (May 15-26) the Jane Goodall Institute Australia, in conjunction with Phonecycle and Mobile Muster, will be collecting working mobile phones and tablets for rehoming.

Australians buy new phones and tablets on average every 18 to 24 months and e-waste is the fastest growing type of waste in Australian landfills. By recycling the devices, we reduce waste and the need to extract new minerals.  The money from the old devices is used by JGIA for conservation and education programs here in Australia and elsewhere in the world.

All phones are data-wiped and factory reset before reuse so there’s no risk of data loss. Before donating, people can use the factory reset option to delete all of their data (it’s device specific but the product webpage will have instructions) and should remove the devices from their iCloud accounts (in the case of iPhones).

http://support.apple.com/en-us/ts4515

A collection box will be placed in the Biology administration office. If you have any questions about the program contact K-lynn Smith <klynn.smith@mq.edu.au> or Samantha Newton <Samantha.newton@mq.edu.au>.

Sydney Chapter for Society for Conservation Biology: Upcoming Events

Creative Conservation: Mammals in Pen and Wash

On Saturday, 27th May,  local artist Peter Wale is returning to teach us how to draw mammals using pen and wash techniques. Peter is a well-renowned artist who specialises in nature and animals and his previous workshops have been highly popular. You can check out his work at  http://www.peterwaleart.com/gallery/

In this workshop, we’ll be focusing on drawing Australia’s largest carnivore, the dingo, but please feel free to bring along your own mammal picture (whether wild or domestic) if you’d like to draw a different furry friend.

When: Saturday 27th May @ 10am – 3.30 pm

Where: Centennial Parklands Education Centre

Tickets: $40 Students and $60 non-students at https://mammalspenwash.eventbrite.com.au

Upcoming REP Workshop

Are you interested in how scientific evidence is represented in the public domain? Then you might be interested in attending an exciting up-coming REP workshop:

SCIENCE, MISINFORMATION AND ALTERNATIVE FACTS

When: Thursday 1 June 2017, 10:30am – 4:30pm

Where: Level 1 Lecture Theatre, Australian Hearing Hub

From climate change to vaccination and alternative medicine, researchers often face problems when they seek to turn evidence into actions.

In this interdisciplinary workshop, experts in climate and health sciences will join professional science communicators and researchers in psychology, cognitive science, linguistics and education to discuss the challenges of science communication and potential strategies for closing the gaps between evidence and public opinion.

Sessions for the day include:

•  Communicating psychological science in the ‘post-truth’ world
•  Challenges in science communication and translation
•  Science communicators’ panel
•  The science of science communication
•  Outreach and interdisciplinary research

Registration

Registration is free. Macquarie staff and students should register here

Non-Macquarie attendees can register by emailing <wade.tozer@mq.edu.au>, stating any dietary or special requirements.

Further information

• Program
• Workshop presenters and panelists

Support

The workshop is coordinated by the Macquarie Research Enrichment Program and co-sponsored by the Faculty of Human Sciences, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders.

Scientific Illustrations

A little while ago, Nathan Hart had some enquiries about assistance with making quality scientific illustrations for e.g. manuscripts for submission to high impact journals.

There appears to be no-one here at Macquarie Uni with specific expertise in scientific illustration, but here are some external contractors with specialisation in scientific/biomedical imagery:

• There’s a fantastic collective of biological visualisation people in Melbourne.  You can see their work here: http://bioviz.edu.au/?page_id=291
• Also in Sydney there’s Kate Patterson at the Garvan who also has a business, Medipics, https://medipicsandprose.com.au

Hopefully this is useful to some.

** 2017 Winter School in Mathematical & Computational Biology **

http://bioinformatics.org.au/ws17/

Key Dates

Online registration: Now to 25 June 2017

– Early bird – from now to Sunday 18 June 2017

– Normal – 19 June to 25 June 2017

Student travel scholarship:

– Applications open on 15 May 2017

– Applications close on 31 May 2017

The series of winter schools is designed to introduce bioinformatics, mathematical and computational biology to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers and others working in the fields of biology, mathematics, statistics, computer science, information technology, complex systems analysis, and chemical and medical sciences and engineering.

Themes

* Next generation sequencing & bioinformatics

* Advances in single-cell sequencing analysis

* Modelling ecologies & populations

* Advanced data visualisation & computation

* Systems and synthetic biology

Featured speakers

— John Quackenbush, Harvard University

— Christine Wells, The University of Melbourne

— Helena Kilpinen, University College London

— David Edwards, University of Western Australia

— Nicole Cloonan, University of Auckland

— Eric Treml, The University of Melbourne

— Marcel Dinger, Garvan Institute of Medical Research

Speakers at Winter School are chosen as great presenters and world leaders in their field. For the complete list of speakers and presentation titles, visit website http://bioinformatics.org.au/ws17/.

Workshop & bootcamp

A Genomics Virtual Laboratory training workshop (limited places) will be run during the Winter School on Wednesday 5th July. A Software Carpentry Bootcamp (10-11 July) is also being run in conjunction with the Winter School. Both events were fully subscribed in days last year, so register early to avoid disappointment.

Outreach Opportunities and Requests – We Need Your Help

Outreach

Do you have any outreach activities coming up or recently completed? DON’T FORGET to let us know via the outreach form – (an average of 1min 46sec to fill in but worth so much more in terms of brownie points for the department) – 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