BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | September 9, 2016

Dear all,

Still a bit jetlagged from last week’s quick trip to Ecosummit2016 but happy to report that MQ Biology was well represented by the benthic ecology lab in particular, with Lincoln Critchley winning one of the student poster prizes. In other news, the department annual report is well underway and we are busy in the budget process for next year. Two MQ Centre applications from the department were submitted this week – the Centre for Green Cities (led by me with a leadership group from across four Faculties) and the Species Spectrum Research Centre (led by Mariella and including four other FSE departments), so fingers crossed for those.

Thanks to those who came along to this week’s department meeting – you will find the slides here. Researchers who couldn’t be there may want to have a look at the slides on measuring research performance – and chat with me if more info needed.

cheerio

Michelle

Save the Date

This coming week 12th – 16th September

Tue 13th: MRes information session for students; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room) – staff welcome to spruke projects & free lunch!

Wed 14th: Morning Tea; 10:30am – 11:00am; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Wed 14th: Departmental Seminar – Jonathan Rhodes – Managing Trade-offs for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Thu 15th: GGREP Masterclass on “Trait Ecology”; 9am – 2pm; 75T 3. Continuum Room.

Thu 15th; Department Safety Treasure Hunt.

Following week 19th – 23rd September

Mon 19th: ECR research showcase day.

Tue 20th: Graduation for Biological Sciences, 2.30-4pm. Register for the academic procession here.

Wed 21st: Morning Tea; 10:30am – 11:00am; The Hill.

Wed 21st: Departmental Seminar – Dan Warren – Learning to love terrible species distribution models; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Thu 22nd: MRes Seminar Day (final and introductory seminars); all day, E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).

Coming up

Sept 29th: Supplementary HDR Conference.

Oct 26th; Faculty Safety day

Oct 31st: Applications for domestic (APA) PhD scholarships due.

General News and Announcements

Biology L&T Position

The Biology Department has received grant funding from the University to employ somebody to help with developing Learning and Teaching strategies in the Department. The job would entail entering data on the assessment tasks for undergraduate units offered by the Department, and aiding in the development of an assessment framework to ensure that students achieve the learning outcomes of the Biology major. This is a part-time fixed term appointment that would entail approximately 200 hours of work. The ideal candidate for this position would have a Ph.D. in Biology, previous teaching experience, and particular interests in higher education. People interested in the position should contact Drew Allen (drew.allen@mq.edu.au) for further details on the position and how to apply.

Macquarie PhD students awarded during a conference in Malaysia

The first Symposium of Tephritid Workers of Asia, Australia and Oceania (TAAO 2016) was held 15-18 August in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Tephritid fruit flies are the world’s most devastating pests of fruit and vegetable crops, and research into sustainable fruit fly management is currently a particular focus at Macquarie. With the aim of broadening interaction and collaboration among tephritid workers from the Asia-Pacific Region, a number of Macquarie research fellows and PhD students participated at the event.  Phil Taylor presented a keynote address.

During the Symposium, Macquarie PhD students received awards for their presentations. Maurizio Benelli, a cotutelle PhD student at Macquarie and the University of Bologna, was awarded “Best Poster Presentation” having presented a poster entitled “Cold storage of Queensland fruit fly eggs for mass-rearing programs”. Tahereh Moadeli was the runner up, having presented a poster entitled “High productivity gel-based larval diets for rearing of Queensland fruit fly Bactrocera tryoni (Diptera: Tephritidae)”.

The event was jointly organised by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and TAAO in cooperation with Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, International Atomic Energy Agency & The World Academy of Sciences.

Above: Maurizio Benelli, Prof. Phil Taylor, Dr Jeanneth Perez, Dr Vivian Mendez, Tahereh Moadeli and Narit Thaochan.

Above: Maurizio Benelli and Tahereh Moadeli with the awards.

Highly commended award – Maria Vozzo

Maria Vozzo’s student talk on “Interacting effects of habitat-forming species on benthic communities of mangroves” was highly commended at the ECSA56 conference in Bremen.

Ecosummit2016 award

And yet more awards to our students – Lincoln Critchley from the benthic ecology lab won a student poster award at last week’s Ecosummit2016 conference in Montpellier. Well done!

Weekly Seminar Series

Day / Date / Time / Location: Wednesday, 14th September, 1 – 2pm, E8A-280 (Tea room).

Speaker: Jonathan Rhodes, from the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management at the University of Queensland. Jonathan’s lab (https://rhodesconservation.com/) works on conservation decision making and planning, as well as determinants of ecosystem services and the value of information in conservation biology.

Title: Managing Trade-offs for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Abstract: Our world is full of competing objectives. We make decisions every day that trade-off things we value against each other, animals trade-off many aspects of their life history strategies to maximise fitness, and politicians balance competing societal values in forming policy. Making decisions to achieve environment benefits is no different. In this seminar I will discuss some of the key trade-offs that drive decision-making to achieve biodiversity and ecosystem services outcomes. These include competing environmental, economic and social objectives, but also tensions between management and monitoring outcomes and between environmental benefits and risk. I will then discuss how we can better understand and inform management of these trade-offs using interdisciplinary approaches and illustrate these ideas using examples from my own work.

Important Boating Fieldwork Message

Between the 14th of October and the 12th December, there will not be any manager approving boating activities in the department. Diving, snorkeling and other marine non-boating activities will be approved by the University Dive Officer. If you are already aware of boating activities undertaken during this period, please get them approved as soon as possible, or definitely before the 14th October.

Vice-Chancellor’s Graduate Intern 2017

The Office of the Vice-Chancellor (OVC) invites expressions of interest for the position of Graduate Intern from students who have graduated or expect to successfully complete their studies between December 2015 and November 2016. The internship runs from mid-January to December 2017, and offers one Macquarie University graduate the opportunity to work alongside the Vice-Chancellor and his staff on a complex array of topics and matters in the higher education and business sectors.

Applicants must have completed all the requirements for an undergraduate degree from Macquarie University no earlier than December 2014 and not later than November 2015, and have attained a Distinction average or above.

If you know of an exceptional MQ graduate who would be interested in this opportunity, please forward their name to Michelle for nomination.

Plant of the Week

Buddleja madagascariensis – Madagascar Butterfly Bush. An endemic from Madagascar which has become an invasive plant in tropical and temperate regions throughout the world.

Upcoming networking event in Sydney – Let’s Meet – Franklin Women

We all know the importance of establishing and building relationships in our careers but ‘networking’ is not always a natural thing to do. For our upcoming event – Let’s Meet – Franklin Women are very fortunate to have Networking Strategist Julia Palmer as our guest speaker. Julia will explain why it is so important to build meaningful career connections and give us great tips on how to do this well (and not awkwardly!). She will also facilitate a night of mingling among those in the room. This event will be a fun way to pick up new career skills and to meet other women working in different roles, organisations and levels within the health and medical research sector… who knows what opportunities it could lead to!

The details are below. Places are limited so for more information and to register to attend, please visit the Franklin Women website.

Let’s Meet!
Date: Tuesday 27th September 2016
Time: Arrival from 5.30pm for 6pm start. 8pm finish.
Venue: Hotel CBD, Fourth Floor, Sydney City (near train and bus)
Registration: via the Franklin Women website (close 22nd September).
Inclusions: A great night connecting with other women in the field facilitated by Networking Strategist, Julia Palmer. As well as delish food and drinks, of course!

What is Franklin Women? 
Franklin Women is a new community for women working in health and medical research and related careers. We think nothing but good can come from bringing together women working in the health sciences to provide offer other support and opportunities. We also hold unique events focused on delivering professional and personal development on topics outside of the technical sciences and which always involve a lot of fun and good food!

You can stay in the loop with what we are up to by subscribing to our newsletter here. You can also follow us on Twitter (@franklinwomen) and on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/franklinwomen).

Launch of the Max Day Environmental Science Fellowship Award

The Academy is pleased to announce the launch of the Max Day Environmental Science Fellowship Award.

This is an annual award of up to $20,000 to assist PhD students or early career researchers. It provides funding support toward the costs of travel, courses or research, or to supplement PhD scholarships with necessary top-up funding.

Please note the deadline for the 2017 round of applications is the 12th December 2016.

For further information please contact awards@science.org.au

New Office 365 Training Sessions

In case you haven’t seen the article in This Week, the Microsoft team are running a range of training sessions for beginners and intermediate Office 365 users on 20, 21 and 22 September 2016.

As places are limited please encourage your faculty/office to get in quick to register a spot.

Available sessions include:

Office 365 – Introduction to Outlook (Mail, calendaring) and applications
This session will introduce Office 365 and all the applications that come with the program, including Outlook. It will also cover the search function across Windows, Mac OS and Outlook Web Access. Register online now for one of the below sessions:

• Tuesday 20 September – 10.30am to 12pm
• Tuesday 20 September – 1pm to 2.30pm
• Thursday 22 September – 10.30am to 12pm

Office 365 – Intermediate Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote and Skype for Business
This session will provide a deep dive into OneDrive, OneNote, Skype for Business and Outlook.  Register online now for one of the below sessions:

• Wednesday 21 September – 10.30am to 12pm
• Wednesday 21 September – 1pm to 2.30pm
• Thursday 22 September – 1pm to 2.30pm

For questions or suggestions on future training opportunities, email help@mq.edu.au. You can also visit the Office 365 support page for news, FAQs and user guides, or check out the latest user guides and official Microsoft Office Training Centre site.

NEW RESOURCE: Myrmecological News

The Library now has access to the title Myrmecological News.

Access is from Vol. 1, 1995. Please note, in MultiSearch the Free E-Journals link takes you to the publisher’s website but only allows 5 PDF downloads. The Library subscribes and has full access via the Miscellaneous Ejournals link.

New Publications

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