Sea urchin aquaculture in Australia
Williamson, J. E. 2015. Sea urchin aquaculture in Australia. Echinoderm Aquaculture. 225-243 | Find with Google Scholar »
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Dear all,
ARC results are out – well done to Darrell Kemp for gaining funding for a Discovery project and commiserations to all those who were hoping for better news. We will discuss strategies for improving our success at gaining research funding at the DEPARTMENT RESEARCH RETREAT to be held at the Botanic Gardens Sydney on 10 December. All academic staff should mark the date in their calendars!
Thanks to all those who came along for a department discussion about strategies for working within our 2016 budget – you’ll find the slides here.
We will hold our usual monthly department meeting next Tuesday 3 November at 1pm in the tearoom (before the Melbourne Cup celebrations!) – all staff and students are encouraged to attend.
Don’t forget the official opening of the E8C biology teaching labs – 3pm on 11 November. The website to RSVP is here.
There is a draft assessment policy circulating now (link is here) – please provide any feedback to myself and Michelle Power as soon as possible.
cheerio and happy halloween!
Michelle
General News and Announcements
The Race That Stops the Nation
We’ll have the big screen on and some nibbles out in the Biology tea room (E8A 280) on Tuesday just before race begins at 3PM. Please join us and don’t forget to come buy your Melbourne Cup sweep tickets from Hannah in HoD reception from Monday morning. You’ll have a choice of either $2 or $5 sweeps.
Save the Date
Our Department Christmas party will be held on Friday December 18th in the E8 courtyard. Food and activities will be co-ordinated by the Wright and Leishman labs. More details to come soon…
The Great Biology Bake Off
Don’t forget out The Great Biology Bake Off Thursday the 5th at 10:30 in the Biology Tea Room (E8A 280). All proceeds will go to UNHCR. Check out the flyer here.
Questions that Matter
Second Round: funding to support collaborative grant development – deadline COB Mon 2 Nov
Congratulations to Michelle P, Grant and Andy for successful applications for departmental funding to support collaborative grant development.
We still have a small pool of money available for this activity so would like to open up a second round – Deadline 5 pm, Monday 2nd November (academics only). The tight deadline is to facilitate spending by end of year cut-offs.
The funding rules and requirements are as per round 1, and previously unsuccessful applicants are eligible to reapply if they are able to meet the funding rules.
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As one of the Research Initiatives that was funded this year we have some money available to help people develop new collaborative grant proposals. Money is available for domestic travel (airfares and accommodation costs only) to help you bring someone to you, or for you to go somewhere else and meet with someone. The funding rules are:
1. A maximum of $1000 per application will be awarded
2. Airfares must be booked / accommodation paid for by the end of year financial deadline of Friday 14 November (but travel can be in 2015 or the first half of 2016)
3. The expected output is a collaborative grant proposal that is submitted by mid-2016 and is forwarded to the Departmental Research Committee as a reporting requirement.
Applications need to be submitted by close of business on Monday 2nd November. To apply please submit a short email to Melanie Bishop, titled ‘ Collaborative grant proposal funding’ with:
1. The funding requested (ie. how much you need, what it is for, when will it be used);
2. The names of the collaborators involved (with a link to their webpage);
3. A short paragraph on the proposal you are developing, the scheme you are targeting and how this funding will help to progress the proposal.
We will inform you of the success of your application by Wednesday 4th November.
Happy Birthday to Monika King
Monika’s 50th birthday is today. She’s taking the day off but the tech staff threw her a surprise party ahead of time!
Living Lab Position
We are seeking a candidate to support and foster the new research partnership between North Sydney Council and Macquarie University focusing on the Coal Loader Platform. The candidate is expected to liaise with a variety of stakeholders, including North Sydney Council, industry, universities, school and community groups to support the development of an interactive online portal for the Coal Loader Platform, as well as identify and pursue research opportunities that will investigate the environmental and social benefits of the green roofs, specifically at the Coal Loader Platform.
Please see job position outline attached here. For more information contact Leigh Staas leigh.staas@mq.edu.au
Work Experience Student
We have a year 10 student looking for a work experience placement for 5 days 7–11 December. If you can host him please drop Anne Marie <annemarie.monchamp@mq.edu.au> and email.
2015 Faculty of Science and Engineering Research Awards
The faculty have announced the application process for the 2015 Faculty of Science and Engineering Research Awards to be offered in the following five categories:
- EXCELLENCE IN EARLY CAREER RESEARCH
- Nominees must be within five years post-completion/formal award of their PhD or MPhil degree – (award date after 7 December 2010)
- EXCELLENCE IN MID CAREER RESEARCH
- Nominees must be more than five and less than 15 years post-completion/formal award of their PhD or MPhil degree – (award date after 7 December 2000 and before 7 December 2010)
- EXCELLENCE IN HIGHER DEGREE SUPERVISION
- EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH
- EXCELLENCE IN INNOVATIVE RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP
- The partnerships must be between Macquarie University and external groups including industry; local, state or Commonwealth government; schools; community groups; NGOs; international organisations; external partnerships involving commercialisation of intellectual property derived from research by University staff and students
Each research award winner will receive a $1,000 prize.
Those of you who applied for Macquarie University Research Awards will be considered for Faculty Research Awards automatically and you do not need to apply again. However if you think someone in the department is particularly worthy of nomination, please let Mel Bishop, Rob Harcourt or Michelle Leishman know!
Nomination Process: Please email an approximately 100-word nomination from your Head of Department to sci.research@mq.edu.au and attach a CV (up to 25-pages) by 14 November 2015. The winners will be announced at the Faculty End of Year Function in December.
iLearn for 2016: important dates
The unit guide spaces for S1 2016 units are open and ready to populate with your unit information. I know that this notification may feel very early but the year is speeding along. Also, I will not be able to provide the same level of support next year as I have been able to in the past. So, if you need any assistance with your unit guides (like copying over content from 2015 or joining internal and external unit guides together) please let me know by Monday 4th January (you may want to put a reminder in your calendar).
Convenors need to ensure that their the Unit Guides are available at least:
- one week before the scheduled start date of the unit for internal offerings = Submit to department for approval by Friday 19th February at the latest latest
- six weeks before the scheduled start date of the unit for external offerings = Submit to department for approval by Friday 15th January at the latest latest
For more information on unit guide policies please see:
- http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/
unit_guide/procedure.html - http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/
unit_guide/policy.html
FYI: S1 2015 begins on Monday 26th February
Cheers,
Kath
This Week’s Department Seminar: David Mabberly
We are lucky enough to have Dr. David Mabberly as our BioSeminar speaker next week. David hails from a number of institutions (Wadham College, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Naturalis and University of Leiden, The Netherlands; and, most recently, he is an honorary faculty here at Macquarie) and will be talking about the worldwide catastrophe of ‘Citrus Greening’. Be sure to come along!
| Time & location: | 1pm Wednesday in the Bio tea room |
| Title: | The importance of Rutaceae systematics in the face of the worldwide catastrophe that is Huanglongbing (‘Citrus Greening’) |
| Abstract: | The greatest threat to the global citrus industry today is the insect-carried bacterial disease, huanglongbing. The disease, its vector and possible control measures are discussed. An impediment to long-term solutions is the chaotic state of knowledge of the systematics of Citrus (Rutaceae) and its allies and also Murraya (Rutaceae), some plants of which act as transient hosts for huanglongbing. Much of this ignorance applies to other important economic plants and stems from botanical snobbery (beginning with Linnaeus no less) in not wishing/deigning to work on cultivated plants – when today the vegetation of almost all the whole world is in effect an anthropogenic ‘garden’. Work on the generic relationships of Citrus and the systematics of the cultivated taxa in relation to putative wild species, as well as that on Murraya species is outlined. Lacunae in our knowledge of the basic biology of truly ‘wild’ taxa of Citrus and Murraya are described and possible ways forward discussed. |
Diversity in STEM
Check out the presentation here for some insights.
R Training Session
The R Users Group lives, and will be running a 2-hour workshop on multivariate ordination techniques on Wednesday 4th November, from 1400-1600 in the Biology Tea Room (immediately following the Department Seminar). This family of techniques allows you to describe and statistically test relationships between complex multivariate data sets like species abundance matrices and environmental measurements. We’ll give some basic mathematical and statistical background, then run through some purely descriptive techniques, followed by canonical (i.e. significance-tested) techniques*.
The workshop will be introductory, but we will assume a basic familiarity with R, particularly working with data objects, using the formula notation, and basic plotting. The workshop is mainly designed to give you an overview of multivariate ordination techniques so you see what they’re called, what they do, and how to run and interpret them. It’s designed as a jumping-off point for further learning and practice. Feel free to bring a laptop that runs R and play along with the toy dataset which is provided.
We won’t have much time for interactive teaching, or for using attendees’ own data sets, though it’s just possible we might be induced to take our laptops to the pub afterwards for a hacky hour (e.g. http://melbourne.resbaz.edu.au/hackyhour) if enough people are keen. Depending on interest we may also follow up with a more applied workshop at a later date.
Congratulations to Siobhan Dennison
Siobhan has officially satisfied all the requirements for her PhD. Best wishes to her in her future endeavors!
Brunfelsia – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Plant
Bonus Plant of the Week!! Liriodendron tulipifera – North American Tulip Tree. (the tree in the biology courtyard)
Pint of Science Festival Reminder
Pint of Science is an international festival that aims to showcase the amazing research of local scientists to the general public in the relaxed venue of the local pub. In 2015, the Pint of Science Australia festival expanded to include Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brisbane, hosting fantastic events over 3 nights. This is an incredible opportunity to be a part of our ever growing festival so if you are interested in getting involved, please register your interest here or email contact@pintofscience.com.au with what you’re keen to do, tell us a little bit about yourself and how we can best reach you.
EOIs for AXA postdoctoral fellowships due
AXA postdoc fellowship scheme is open and MQ can submit only two applications. The Research Office is calling for Expressions of Interest from eligible applicants.
A Post-Doctoral Fellow can be presented through one institution only and must not be holding a permanent academic position. The candidate must have been awarded his/her first PhD (or equivalent doctoral degree) before the beginning of their Post-Doctoral grant and within the 5 years preceding the submission of the proposal, based on the deadline for light proposals
Potential applicants should review Fellowship guidelines, AXA Postdoctoral Fellowships Scheme prior to submitting an EoI, especially Section 3 – Selection Criteria.
EoI deadline is 9AM 9 November by email at research.preaward@mq.edu.au with cc at sci.research@mq.edu.au .
The EOI should include
Name:
Current Organisation:
Host Department/Faculty at MQ:
Host Department/Faculty Contact at MQ:
Confirmation that applicant has read the guidelines and is eligible:
Overview of Proposed Fellowship Program (max. 200 words):
Identification of Research Fields as specified by AXA:
- Biology & Biochemistry
- Biology & Genetics
- Economics & Business
- Environment/Ecology
- Geosciences
- Immunology
- Mathematics
- Microbiology
- Neuroscience & Behavior
- Plant & animal Science
- Psychiatry/Psychology
- Social Sciences, General.
Paul Ehrlich will be on ABC’s ‘Q&A’ Monday 2nd Nov
Paul has just published two books: ‘Killing the Koala and Poisoning the Prairie: Australia, America and the Environment’ written with Corey Bradshaw of University of Adelaide, and ‘The Annihiliation of Nature: Human Extinction of Birds and Mammals’ written with Gerardo Ceballos (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and Anne Ehrlich.
He will also be on ABC’s ‘PM’ on Thursday evening with Mark Colvin.
Plant resurrection
In April this year, the beloved Silk Floss Tree (Ceiba speciosa) from South America, that lives in the Earth Sciences garden, was knocked over during the wild storms we had. Since the roots were still in ground, Alison suggested the tree may resprout. So, we had the tree lopped off to a metre and propped up. Patience has paid off and the first new shoots have appeared, giving us hope the tree will live on and recover well. The Silk Floss Tree is deciduous, and has large pink flowers in late summer/early autumn.
Seasonal Greetings – sustainable food choices
Spring and summer bring an abundance of delicious fruits and vegetables to our table, as well as festive events such as Christmas and the end of the calendar year celebrations. It’s a good time to think about where our food comes from.
Seasonal Food refers to times of the year where a food is naturally at its peak – in terms of taste and nutrition.
Local Food refers to the distance between food producers and consumers.
Locally produced, seasonal foods are generally less expensive, more flavoursome and nutrient rich as they are harvested at their natural peak, and delivered quickly to consumers. Local producers are more likely to reinvest their profits back into the community, further strengthening the local economy and providing added security.
Macquarie’s Executive Chef, Peter Brewty, has collated some delicious seasonal dishes that can be made and enjoyed this summer season. Get inspired today!
New PhD student Samiya TabassumSamiya has entered the PhD program from the MRes program. She will be working on evolutionary mechanisms underpinning biological invasions, examining plant traits and strategy trade-offs for exotic species in their introduced range. She is part of Michelle Leishman’s PIREL group and is located in E8B104.
New PhD student Laura Fernandez 
Laura is an international student from Argentina. She completed her MRes this year and has started on her PhD looking at the ecological impacts of myrtle rust which is an exotic fungus that affects new growth of species in the Myrtaceae family. She is co-supervised by Dr Angus Carnegie at NSW DPI and is part of Michelle Leishman’s PIREL group, located in E8B104.
New PhD student Ina Geedicke
Ina is a joint PhD student with the University of Hamburg. She completed her Masters at University of Hamburg and arrived in the department this month to start her PhD. She will be working on saltmarsh vegetation – ecology and management. She is part of Michelle Leishman’s PIREL group and is located in E8B104.
Biology Safety Alert
Minutes from the Biology WHS committee meeting held 13th October 2015 available here.
E8A Level 3 map cabinet.
Refurbishment of the eastern side of the E8A level three corridor will commence shortly. There is an old map cabinet located near the main stairwell in E8A level 3 that will be disposed of. If you have any items in this cabinet then please remove them by Monday 12th November.
New Publications
Sexual dimorphism in conspicuousness and ornamentation in the enigmatic leaf-nosed lizard Ceratophora tennentii from Sri Lanka
Whiting, M. J., D. W. A. Noble, and R. Somaweera. 2015. Sexual dimorphism in conspicuousness and ornamentation in the enigmatic leaf-nosed lizard Ceratophora tennentii from Sri Lanka. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 116:614-625. | Find with Google Scholar »No predatory bias with respect to colour familiarity for the aposematic Adelphobates galactonotus (Anura: Dendrobatidae)
Rojas, D. P., A. Stow, A. Amezquita, P. I. Simoes, and A. P. Lima. 2015. No predatory bias with respect to colour familiarity for the aposematic Adelphobates galactonotus (Anura: Dendrobatidae). Behaviour 152:1636-1656. | Find with Google Scholar »Heterogeneous flows foster heterogeneous assemblages: relationships between functional diversity and hydrological heterogeneity in riparian plant communities
Lawson, J. R., K. A. Fryirs, T. Lenz, and M. R. Leishman. 2015. Heterogeneous flows foster heterogeneous assemblages: relationships between functional diversity and hydrological heterogeneity in riparian plant communities. Freshwater Biology 60:2208-2225. | Find with Google Scholar »Integrating Functional and Evolutionary Approaches to the Study of Color-Based Animal Signals
Kemp, D. J., and G. F. Grether. 2015. Integrating Functional and Evolutionary Approaches to the Study of Color-Based Animal Signals. | Find with Google Scholar »In the Media
Culum Brown was featured in UPI and Australian Life Scientist about his recent research which found that guppies with very strongly lateralised brains are better at counting than those with non-lateralised brains.
Read more »
Steven Van Sluyter from provided comment to ABC’s SA Country Hour in ongoing coverage of the development of an online tool to predict grapevine yields
Marianne Peso spoke to ABC 702’s Breakfast program about the discovery of a fungus in Brazilian bee hives which was feeding developing bee larvae