BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | November 20, 2015

Dear all,

It’s a busy time of year for S2 convenors especially, but the end is in sight – formal dept meeting Tuesday 1st December, then we can have some fun at the department research retreat on Monday 7 December at the Botanic Gardens. Last week I mentioned that the faculty’s strategic plan was launched – you can find it here. Finally, congratulations to our fabulous professional staff who did so well at the VC’s Excellence awards last week – see story and pics below.

cheerio

Michelle

General News and Announcements

Biology success at the VC’s Excellence Awards for Professional Staff

Biology was well represented at the VC’s Excellence Awards for Professional Staff which were announced last Tuesday. There were four categories and we were shortlisted in three of the categories, which is a fabulous achievement given that there over 100 nominations received. Leigh Staas was Highly Commended in the Collaboration and Connection category, Rekha Joshi was shortlisted for Leadership Excellence, Winnie Mann and the Biological Sciences Administrative Team were both shortlisted in the Innovation and Process Improvement category. Huge congratulations to all!

Expertise Recognized

Congratulations to Mariella who was inducted into the ARC College of Experts this week.  You can read more about it here. And if you want to get an insight into the ARC grant assessment process, you may find this article interesting – published by the Australia Academy of Science

Visit from Nature Communications November 24th

Simon Harold is the ecology and zoology editor for Nature Communications and will be visiting the department next Tuesday 24 November. He will give a short presentation on the journal and run a Q&A session at 1pm in the biology tea room – all welcome. Thanks to those who have let Michelle know if they want to talk to him directly.

Save the Date

Please save Tuesday the 8th of December for morning tea to farewell Teresa and Marie from the admin team who will be retiring at the end of the year.  Both are very long-serving members of the Department and we’d like to show our thanks and wish them well. An Invitation will be sent out soon.

BIOL326 S3 Enrolment

Could all academic staff who have agreed to supervise a student (or students) for BIOL326 (Biology Special Interest Project) in S3 please remind their students to submit an enrolment waiver request (supervisors must be named in the request). Requests to enrol in this unit submitted after November 27th will be refused.

Any queries about this unit should be made to Koa Webster <koa.webster@mq.edu.au>.

Logo Contest for Biological Basis of Behaviour

Unleash your artistic talent. What used to be BBE100, Introduction to Brain, Behaviour and Evolution, is turning into BIOL122, Biological Basis of Behaviour. The new name demands a new logo for the course, especially needed as little else about the Planet unit will change. So design, or better yet, draw a logo for the new BBB. The width of the logo should be a bit bigger than its height, but no firm prescriptions are given. You may steal copyrighted materials, as the logo will only be used for ‘internal’ consumption. But original drawings will be especially favoured.  Please send your entries to Anne Marie.

Volunteer Wanted for Fieldwork

Hi my name is Samiya and I am a PhD student in the Plant Invasion and Restoration Ecology Lab (PIREL). I am looking for someone to accompany me on fieldwork from December 11th – 21st. I am looking to drive along the east coast of Australia down to Angelsea VIC and look for populations of coastal weeds for my PhD project. The ideal candidate should be able to drive an automatic car. Accommodation is provided but unfortunately you will have to pay for your own food. If you are interested in doing fieldwork along some picturesque Australian beaches, please contact me at s.tabassum@hotmail.com.

University Coverage for E8C Labs Opening

You can read more about the Lab Launch here.

Federal Govt signals that academic publications are to be less important in determining research funding

Read all about it here.

Dear Biology Soccer Lovers

We are trying to bring soccer back again! If you want to kick the ball and do a bit of exercise, come next Tuesday, 5 pm to the “arena” in the lawn in front of the uni’s hub, or send an email to palagosc@gmail.com. No need to be a professional soccer player!

Request for Containers

We need your L&T info by 23 Nov – it means $$ for the department!

To be rewarded (in 2016) for our “participation in the scholarship of learning and teaching” (for 2014-2015) we need to provide the Faculty of Science and Engineering with evidence of our participation. The criteria for participation have changed from last year and are listed below (more detailed information attached, and can be found here).

Teaching Index Criteria and Evidence

1. Full OLT Grants with Macquarie as the lead institution
2. OLT Grants with a Partner-led project
3. OLT Awards (Teaching Excellence and Program),
4. Citations and Faculty and/or Vice-Chancellor Learning and Teaching Awards
5. Formal qualifications in university teaching (i.e. a Grad Cert in Higher Education)
6. Forum hosted by a Faculty, Department or Office (of at least ½ day’s duration; which engages >50% of a Faculty, Department or Office OR > 40 people; and must be ocussed on the scholarship of learning and teaching)
7. Non-ERA (at Macquarie’s Learning and Teaching Week) presented Conference paper or Poster on University teaching

If you do have any of the above please fill in the google spreadsheet and email me (katherine.mcclellan@mq.edu.au) with the proof of attainment (certificate of attainment, copy of award, paper citation, workshop / conference booklet etc…), by 9am Monday 23^rd November.

Biology garden update

Contact Samantha Newton <samantha.newton@mq.edu.au> if you have any questions.

Mapping Gender in Research

Here is an interesting publication on mapping gender in research in Germany. And while talking about gender, you may be interested to read about the ARC’s new gender equality plan 

Looking for Work

Volunteers Wanted

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service project “WildCount” is currently recruiting for the autumn 2016 field season. WildCount is a large-scale fauna monitoring project that uses motion sensitive cameras to monitor wildlife in NSW National Parks and Reserves. For more information please see the attached flyer or watch this video.

The WildCount project is dependent on dedicated volunteers, particularly for the field season which runs from Feb to June 2016. Field teams are usually out for 5 day periods, staying overnight in motel style accommodation (Monday – Friday, 4 nights), with long work days. Each 2 person team is led by an experienced OEH staff member. Volunteers will need a good level of fitness as trekking off-track through thick vegetation is required in places. You’ll also need to be prepared to travel to remote National Parks, often long distances in four-wheel drive vehicles, over rugged terrain and in all weather conditions.

Please see the flyer here for more details. If you would like to volunteer or find out more information about the project please contact npws.wildcount@environment.nsw.gov.au

Women In Science & Engineering (WISE)

The library is doing an evaluation of the CAB direct resource and needs to know how often we use it etc…Can you please send your responses to the questions below to Kate Barry by next Wednesday 25 Nov.

• who uses CAB Direct?
• why or how do they use CAB Direct?
• do they know of any other product on the market (other than CAB Direct) that could achieve a similar function

Plant of the Week: Powder Puff Lillypillies – Syzygium wilsonii and Syzygium ‘Cascade’

New Publications

In the Media

Recent Completions

PhD – Silvia Pineda-Munoz: Diet, Ecology and Dental Morphology in Terrestrial Mammals

Supervised by John Alroy and Glenn Brock

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