BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | May 26, 2017

Dear all,

You will all have seen the email from the Exec Dean Barbara Messerle about changes to the Faculty’s admin structure and the consequent changes for Biological Sciences. We have been talking about this for some time at department meetings, but now the changes are really upon us, with people starting in their new roles from 1st June, although there are some transitional arrangements in place. We wish those staff moving to new roles in the Faculty (Jen, Veronica, Hannah) all the best – we thank them for their help and friendship in the department and we will miss them terribly! And we welcome Suchitra Patki and Phil Dartnell who are helping out in the short-term with Finance and Academic administrator roles – please drop in and introduce yourselves to them. The Faculty General Manager Emma Bowen, who managed the process for the Faculty, will be here for an information session on Monday 10-11am in the tearoom. Please come along to hear the Faculty’s view, understand the changes for biology, and have the opportunity to have your voice heard.

In cheerier news – great turnout for Mike Archer’s seminar this week, success for Citizen Science funding for Michelle Power and Michael Gillings, the Outreach Team are doing a fantastic job, and Linda & Kath have exciting news on indigenous engagement – read all about it below!

Thanks to Andy & Grant for holding the fort while I was in Japan last week with the Faculty delegation.

Have a great weekend,

Michelle

Save the Date

This coming week 29th May – 2nd June

Tue 30th: R-Users group; 3pm – 5pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Wed 31st: Morning Tea with HoD; 10:30am – 11am; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

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).

Following week 5th – 9th June

Tue 6th: Department meeting; 1-2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Wed 7th: Morning Tea with HoD; 10:30am – 11am; The Hill

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

Thu 8th: 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 see draft schedule; E7B Lecture Theatres.

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

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.

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

Department seminar schedule

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

Ephemeral Art in Autumn

The leaf-raking fairy (aka Michael Gillings) has been at it again.  See his handiwork in the Courtyard on crisp, Autumn mornings.

Researchers – PURE is Here

All researchers (academic staff, research fellows and associates, postdocs) should log into PURE and check their publications and details before it all goes live. Log in here https://staff.mq.edu.au/research/research-hub. Please also upload a photo of yourself!

Citizen Science Grant Success

Macquarie did very well out of the Citizen Science grants offered by the Federal Govt and announced this week. Both Michelle Power and Michael Gillings were successful – Scoop the Poop (Michelle & Michael) and household dust & health risks (Michael plus others). Well done!! Read the media release here.

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.

Plotting: R Base Graphics and ggplot

This month’s R Users Group meeting tries to provide an overview about the options available in Hadley Wickham’s ggplot2 and in R’s in-built alternative base graphics. I (Rene Heim) will guide you through an article by Nathan Yau which was posted on flowingdata.com in March 2016 to equip you with some tools to make your own decision, ggplot2, base graphics, or both. Let’s meet on Tuesday the 30^th of May 2017 at 3 pm in the Biology Tearoom as usual. The script I am going to use will be provided on our Quantitative Advice forum for you to follow along (http://quantitative-advice.gg.mq.edu.au/t/r-users-group-macquarie-uni/100/3).

DEPARTMENTAL SEMINAR SERIES

Day/Date/Time/Place: Wednesday, 31st May, 1-2pm, E8A-280 (Tea Room).

Speaker: Professor Michael Romero, Tufts University.

Title: Stress physiology in conservation: Predicting human impacts on wildlife.

Abstract: Many human-induced environmental changes are potentially stressful stimuli to wildlife; often they are stressful but sometimes they aren’t.  Distinguishing between whether they are or are not stressful is of prime importance for conservation.   Monitoring the presence, dynamics, and strength of the physiological responses to stress in potentially affected individuals can help determine whether those individuals are adversely affected.  In other words, stress physiology can tell us how well those individuals are coping with these stimuli.  How those individuals respond to stress thus becomes an index for how problematic is the human-induced environmental change for that population and species. The ultimate goal is to use physiological responses to predict the health of individuals and populations that are at risk of extinction.

Fieldwork Stories

Do you have stories of fieldwork that you would like to share?  Maybe about the day you first saw a wild elephant, or the biggest ant that has ever crawled on your pants, or perhaps fieldwork failures, challenges and surprises? Do you want to talk about science, or your ‘Attenborough’ moments, or maybe just communicate to the general public about what you do when you go on field trips?

Here is an opportunity to explain your fieldwork research to the general public through the Field Reports podcast hosted at the Journal of Animal Ecology (British Ecological Society). Take a look at the trailer and the first episode here to get an idea about the podcast.

Plant of the Week

This week: Angel’s trumpets, Devil’s trumpets – Brugmansia and Datura. Two more garden delights (!!!) from the Nightshade family.

From the Desk of Andy Beattie

Two pieces of correspondence in Nature reflecting widespread concerns about the quality of PhD supervision.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v545/n7653/full/545158a.html
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v545/n7653/full/545158b.html

New PhD Student: Robert Perryman, Supervised by Culum Brown

Rob is undertaking a PhD on social behaviour and social network analysis of reef manta rays, with fieldwork based in Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia. The project aims to reveal for the first time the structure of relationships between these highly intelligent and curious rays. Rob is using drone-base aerial videography along with photo-identification of individuals, and intends to conduct a fine-scale acoustic telemetry study. By using these techniques he hopes to provide a clear picture of how manta rays live their lives in a pristine natural setting. Results will be used to inform conservation procedures relating to eco-tourism.

Rob will be sitting in W21B.101 when he is not on fieldwork – please make him welcome!

Looking for Volunteers to Work on an Ant Project

I am looking for volunteers who can help me with digitising data on how ants learn to use landmarks for navigation. You will learn how to re-create the paths taken by homing bull ants. The work involves learning a very useful Graphclick software (which is pretty simple), and stimulating conversations on ant eyes, brain, navigation, and miniature insects (as small as an amoeba!) . If you are interested or know of someone who might be, please contact me (Ravi, <rvndrpn@gmail.com>).

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.

And in more Outreach news…

Jane Williamson and Michael Gillings opened an exhibition by the artist, Laura Jones: Paintings, drawings and sculptures of the Great Barrier Reef. “Bleached” Olsen Gallery, Woollahra, 17th May-4th June, 2017 http://www.olsengallery.com/ex-works.php?exhibition_id=578

Michael Gillings gave a seminar, followed by a question and answer session at the Campbelltown District Family History Society’s Seminar Day “Tracing Your Ancestry with DNA” 20th May 2017.

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.

Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology: Call for Entries

Dear Researchers,

The annual Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology is an international award which honors young scientists for their outstanding contributions to neurobiological research based on methods of molecular and cell biology. The winner and finalists are selected by a committee of independent scientists, chaired by Science’s Senior Editor, Dr. Peter Stern. Researchers who are not older than 35 years are invited to apply.

The winner receives

• Prize money of US$25,000
• Publication in Science of an essay by the winner about his/her research
• Full support to attend the Prize Ceremony held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in the USA
• An invitation to visit Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany
• Up to three finalists are honored, too!

Application deadline: June 15, 2017

Congratulations to Gilad Evrony on winning the 2016 Eppendorf & Science Prize for his work on developing technologies to sequence and analyze the genomes of single cells from the human brain. Dr. Evrony’s research has revealed a diversity of mutations in neuronal genomes indicating that every neuron in the brain carries a unique fingerprint of somatic mutations. Such mutations can cause focal brain malformations and may have a role in other unsolved neurologic diseases. The technology also allows, for the first time, reconstruction of developmental lineage trees in the human brain to study how cells proliferate and migrate to build the brain.

It’s easy to apply!
Learn more at www.eppendorf.com/prize

Physics and Astronomy Department Colloquium

Who:  Professor Geoff Clayton (LSU)
When: 1pm, Tuesday May 30th
Where: E7B T2

Title: Is There Anything I Can Do To Improve Diversity Other Than Retire?
Abstract: Things are changing so fast that it makes an old white guy’s head swim. Native Hawaiian’s delay telescope construction, a well-known astronomer resigns after multiple claims of sexual harassment, and we are uncertain about what pronouns and bathrooms to use. The admirable goal of a more diverse workplace, where everyone feels included and valued, requires better communication and understanding that each person is having a different experience in the same workplace. All of us need to become more aware of our own unconscious biases, and the roles of white and male privilege. I plan to discuss where we are now and where we go from here.

Speaker Bio: Geoff Clayton is the Ball Family Distinguished Professor of Physics & Astronomy at LSU. He received his PhD from the University of Toronto. He had positions at the University of Wisconsin, NASA, and the University of Colorado. He has been at LSU for the last 21 years. He is an expert on dust in circumstellar and interstellar environments. He has served on the International Astronomical Union Working Group on Women in Astronomy, and was chair of the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society.

** 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.

Career Path-Jobs, Advice, & More.

Science Careers is dedicated to being the world leader in matching qualified scientists with jobs in industry, academia, and government. Check out their website http://jobs.sciencecareers.org/jobs/

New Publications

In the Media

Recent Completions