Department of Biological Sciences Logo

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT MATTERS | September 16, 2019

Dear all,

Welcome to the first week of the mid-semester break – I’m sure many of you are happy to have a short respite from teaching and time to catch up on everything! Good luck for all the on-campus sessions.

I am at University of Queensland all week chairing a review of their School of Biological Sciences, so please see Grant Hose for all HoD-related issues.

Cheers

Michelle

Save the Date

This week 16th – 20th September

Wed 18th: Department Morning Tea; 10.30-11am; (Biology Tea Room).

Wed 18th: Department Seminar on hiatus due to break

Thu 19th: REP: Reviewing for Journals workshop; 3:00 – 5:00 pm; 14EAR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room) – Register here.

Thu 19th: Biology Social Club; 5.00pm – 7.00pm; 205b Culloden Rd.

Following week 23rd – 27th September

Mon 23rd: MQ graduation ceremony for Biological Sciences; 10.30am-12pm; register for the academic procession here.

Mon 23rd: MRes Seminars; 10.00am – 4:30pm (TBC); 14EAR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room). Schedule to be send out closer to the date.

Tue 24th: HDR Supplementary Conference; 9:30am – 10:45am (TBC); 14EAR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room). Schedule to be send out closer to the date.

Wed 25th: Department morning tea; 10:30-11am, 205B Culloden Rd.

Wed 25th: Department Seminar on hiatus due to break.

Wed 25th: MQU 3 Minute Thesis Competition Finals; 1:30pm – 3.30pm, Macquarie Theatre. Please RSVP here for catering purposes.

Thu 26th: AARGH: R-Users Group (RUG) Help Session; 3.30 PM – 5.30 PM; Continuum room (75 Talavera road, room 3114); snacks provided, BYO mug.

Weekly Events

Wed: Shut up and Write sessions; 11.00am – 12.00pm; 6WW(E8C)-212 or 14EAR(E8A)-360A.

Thu: Venture Café; 3–8pm; 58 Waterloo Road, Macquarie Park, NSW (map). Find out what is on each week here – https://venturecafesydney.org/

Fri: Writing workshops with Prof Ken Cheng – to support HDRs and ECRs with scientific writing; 2–4pm; Ken’s office at 205b Culloden Road, G12.

Fri: Behaviour and Evolution Journal Club; Friday at 12:30pm (bring your lunch); 205B Culloden Rd Boardroom.

Weekly Biological Sciences seminar program is here

Future Events

September 29th: Managing data in R: a beginner’s guide; 3.30 PM – 5.30 PM; Continuum room (75 Talavera road, room 3114); snacks provided.

October 2nd: Developing your five-year plan workshop; 12:30 – 2:00 pm; 12 Wally’s Walk, 801 – Register here.

General News and Announcements

CONGRATULATIONS! Huge congratulations to Vanessa Pirotta who has been named as one of the Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence for 2019! See the full list here – https://www.afr.com/women-of-influence/2019-women-of-influence-are-champions-of-reinvention-20190905-p52oa1

Bruno Buzatto has been awarded a National Geographic grant to study Sydney Funnel Web spiders – good luck with that Bruno!

Do You Have a New Visitor or Member of Your Research Group? There are a number of new faces around the place so the Department is planning a general welcome to all newcomers at morning tea on Wednesday 2nd October. Please let Calli Miller know if there is a new member of your lab that you would like to welcome. Everyone welcome to come along and join in of course! As always, there will be cakes.

Climate Strike Friday 20 September – This coming Friday there will be a climate strike in Sydney as part of a massive global day of action on climate change. The university will be supporting students and staff who wish to participate. So consider taking a day of leave or volunteering and join students and others as a volunteer for climate change action! You can find some information here: https://www.acf.org.au/strike_sydney_200919. For those who want to protest on the day by getting your hands dirty, MQ Sustainability have organised a tree planting event – register here and take Community Volunteering Leave (and state the activity as Bushcare@MQ, an approved volunteering activity). More details see next entry.
There is also a contact list for MQ Staff for Climate Action – you can add your details here: http://www.bit.ly/mq_staff_climate

Tree Planting as Part of the 20 September Climate Strike by Jane Goodall Institute Australia Roots & Shoots and Macquarie University – Do something good for yourself and for the environment. Come out and help like minded people restore some of the woodlands on Macquarie University’s campus to their former beauty.  Native trees will be planted to help support the local birds, insects and other wildlife. There will be two planting sessions on the day. The first is from 2 – 3 pm, the second from 3 – 4 pm.
About this Event – https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/tree-planting-event-tickets-71239736971

The Coffee Machine – The trial of the replacement coffee machine in the Biology tearoom was very successful – 350 coffees made in one week and general agreement that the quality of the coffee was good. However unfortunately the Faculty have not approved replacement of the old machine due to budget constraints, so we will have to survive on instant coffee or a walk to the nearest cafe for the foreseeable future.

Plant of the Week – click the thumbnails for larger images-

This week – Freesia!

Freesia is yet another genus of popular garden plants from southern Africa. Freesias belong to a group of plants known as geophytes: plants that have underground storage organs, such as tubers (potatoes), bulbs (tulips), rhizomes (iris) and corms (Freesia). These enable geophytes to survive underground, protected, depending on location, variously from drought, extreme temperatures (both hot and cold), and predation by animals. And geophytes have another extraordinary characteristic: most have massive genomes.

Free Boxes – The Downing Herbarium has a 100 boxes with lids to give away.  They are new, but not fit for purpose in the herbarium. The measurements are 475 x 310 x 90 x 35 mm.

.

These boxes could be handy for storage in your labs or even at home (socks, toys, Lego etc.). Or to package a fragile gift, perhaps.  They will be available until the end of September by contacting either Karen Marais <karen.marais@mq.edu.au> (Mondays and Tuesdays) or Muhammad Masood <muhammad.masood@mq.edu.au> to arrange collection.  Boxes left over by the end of September will be discarded.

.OPPORTUNITIES

Senior Lecturer (Teaching & Leadership) – Vertebrate Physiology – The Department is currently advertising a ‘teaching and leadership’ academic position, with teaching responsibilities in our physiology units and leadership within the BMedSci and BSc(Human Biology) programs.

The closing date is Sunday 6th October 2019.

Please pass this on to potential quality applicants. The link for the position is: http://jobs.mq.edu.au/cw/en/job/505381/senior-lecturer-in-vertebrate-physiology

Faculty Staff (Professional & Academic) Travel Grants – support for staff travel is now provided centrally by the Faculty. Funding is available for ECR travel, international collaboration, teaching and professional staff development. If you would like to apply, please discuss with your supervisor and A/Prof Andrew Barron (for research travel) or Dr Drew Allen (for teaching travel). Research Eligibility and application details can be found here.https://staff.mq.edu.au/intranet/science-and-engineering/faculty-awards,-schemes-and-procedures
One round remain for the rest of the year:
– Round 3 closes Friday 27 September 2019
Apply as soon as possible for any travel you intend on taking in 2019, that meets the criteria. Funds awarded must be spent in 2019 and will not be carried into 2020.

SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

Biological Sciences Seminar – Date/Time: Wednesday, 2nd October, 2019; 1pm – 2pm. Speaker: Laura Jade, Artist. Title: Light, Art and The Brain. Venue:  14EAR-280 (Biology Tea Room). More information on this and all department seminars ON OUR WEBPAGE HERE.

Drone & Satellite Data Workshop – The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Macquarie University is pleased to announce a free 1-day workshop on using drones and satellite data for research, to be held on September 20th at MQ. Our invited speakers are Professor Steven Longmore, head of the Astro-Ecology at Liverpool John Moores University (UK) and Dr Paul Butcher, senior research scientist in charge of shark management at the NSW Department of Primary Industries.

Registration is free and includes morning and afternoon tea. Come along if you are thinking about using satellite data in your research, or you are simply drone-curious. If you already use drones or satellites, please consider giving a short talk on your work.

For further details and to register please see the meeting website: http://cormacpurcell.net/public/drone_workshop

AARGH: R-Users Group (RUG) Help Session – Do you have a problem with data analysis? You might want to give R a go which is a fantastic analytical and plotting tool. For all your R-related queries, drop by ‘Ask An R Geek for Help’ (aaRgh) session where you can get one-on-one assistance. Or just come by, have some tea, and work on your code. No registration is required and snacks and beverages will be provided (BYO mug). Date: September 26, 2019. Time: 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM. Venue: Continuum Room (75 Talavera Road, room 3114).

Registrations for Macquarie University’s 3MT Final are Now Open – The 3MT Finals will be held on Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at the Macquarie Theatre from 1.30pm-3.30pm. Doors will close promptly at 1:30pm. Please RSVP here for catering purposes.

Alternatively, copy and paste the url into your browser: https://mqedu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2h3XrVLwZQcLZMV?Q_DL=4MAROs59riXM6Y5_2h3XrVLwZQcLZMV_MLRP_1TdGWhO3gRmLPhz&Q_CHL=email

The 3MT is an academic competition that challenges PhD candidates to describe their research within three minutes to a general audience. The 3MT celebrates the discoveries made by research candidates and communicates the importance of their research to the broader community. The winning candidate will go on to compete in the 2019 Asia-Pacific 3MT Competition. We would like to encourage you to attend and participate in this exciting event by voting for People’s Choice. To learn more about the competition history and rules, visit the MQ 3MT and the Asia-Pacific 3MT website.

Let’s Talk Sex! Thursday September 26th, 6pm for 6:30 start. Scientist and debut author Dr Amanda Niehaus in discussion with UNSW Scientia Professor Rob Brooks, author of Sex, Genes & Rock’ n ‘ Roll. Based on Amanda’s scientific research, The Breeding Season is an astounding debut novel that forensically and poetically explores the intersections of art and science, sex and death, and the heartbreaking complexity of love.  GLEEBOOKS. 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe NSW 20377. Reserve a spot at https://gleebooks.worldsecuresystems.com/bookings

Upcoming Franklin Women Event: Research Impact – Increasingly, those working in the health and medical research sector are being asked to demonstrate the impact of their work. But for many of us, the term Research Impact is relatively new and what it means, how to capture it, and how to communicate it, are unclear. At this event, we are excited to welcome Tamika Heiden from the Research Impact Academy, to help us develop the skills we need to successfully navigate the pathway to impact. We will also be joined by a panel representing diverse research stakeholders to provide insights into how we can communicate impact to them in a meaningful way. Join us for an evening of good food and drinks, new skills, and new connections!    

Details in the attached flyer.
Research Impact_Flyer

Genomes and Biodiversity: Research and Career Development Workshop – A Theo Murphy Initiative (Australia) – The Australian Academy of Science invites early- and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) and PhD students in the life sciences to apply to attend the Genomes and Biodiversity: Research and Career Development Workshop. Opportunities to hear from research leaders, receive hands-on training in analysis of big data delivered by experts in genomics, phylogenomics, biodiversity analysis, and pathogen biology, and participate in career development sessions. The workshop will be held at the University of Sydney on Wednesday 20 November – Friday 22 November 2019. The workshop aims to create a space for EMCRs and research leaders from a range of disciplines to meet and share their latest research.

Opportunities to present a 10-minute talk and to be considered for a mobility grant are available as part of the application process. For more information about the event and how you can join visit the event website. Applications close midnight AEST Monday 30 September 2019.

Molecular Sciences Seminar – Date/Time: Thursday, 19th September, 2019; 1pm – 2pm. Speaker: Professor Ho Jeong Kwon from Yonsei University, South Korea. Title: From phenotypic screens to target and drug discovery. Venue: 4WW 322 seminar room.

And;

Date/Time: Thursday, 19th September, 2019; 3pm – 4pm. Speaker: Professor Setsuko Komatsu from Fukui University of Technology and Professor Sixue Chen, University of Florida. Title: Elucidation of tolerant mechanism in soybean treated with plant-derived smoke under flooding stress using proteomics techniques, and; Quantitative proteomics of MPK4 phosphorylation dynamics and interacting proteins. Venue: 4WW 322 seminar room.

And;

Date/Time: Tuesday, 24th September, 2019; 1pm – 2pm. Speaker: Professor Justin Gooding, UNSW. Title: Single Entity Biosensors: From Detecting Many to Detecting One to Detecting Many. Venue: 4WW 322 Seminar room.

Joint User Meeting (ANSTO and the Australian Synchrotron) will be held on the Macquarie Campus Dec. 2-3rd. ‘Showcasing Scientific Success.’ The Meeting will be at MUSE – Macquarie University NSW campus to showcase the achievements of scientists who have accessed ANSTO’s landmark infrastructure and capabilities in the last year. Abstract deadline is this Friday, 20th September.

More info – https://www.ansto.gov.au/whats-on/ansto-user-meeting-2019

Shut Up and Write Sessions – every Wednesday 11am. It’s pretty simple, we shut up… and we write. Using the pomodoro technique we’ll meet at 11am to write, stop 25 minutes in for a 10 min break, then settle down again for another 25 minutes of writing. You’ll be amazed how productive you can be. More details on the concept here: https://thesiswhisperer.com/shut-up-and-write/

Room will be either 6WW(E8C)-212 or 14EAR(E8A)-360A, email <lizzy.lowe@mq.edu.au> to confirm or with any questions.

All welcome!

Lunchtime Litter Collection – The days may be cooler, but they’re also clear and sunny. Lunchtime is a great time to go for a walk and get some vitamin D! It’s also a great time to join the Biology Litter Collection competition! The next event will be Tuesday 8th October, 1pm. Meet in the Biology courtyard, bring a bucket or bag if you can.

We’ll be holding events throughout the rest of the year, every few weeks. At each event you go out to collect litter, between 1 and 1:30pm. Collections will be assessed at the end of each collection and gold stars awarded accordingly. Event results are tallied at the end of the year with a prize for the best collector.

Event dates: Tues 8th October; Tues 12th November; Tues 10th December.

Venture Café – Want to know more about innovation, and how to achieve it? Come along to the Venture Cafe, Thursday, 3pm – 8pm, 58 Waterloo Road, Macquarie Park, NSW (map). Find out what is on each week here – https://venturecafesydney.org/

This week: 5.15pm: Founder Discussion: The Capital Raising Journey, 6.30pm: #2 Make it happen.

Wildlife at the Watering Hole – 3rd Tuesday of each month, 6:30pm @ Botany View Hotel, King St Newtown!

HDR NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Research Enrichment Program (REP) Workshop Series – The Department now has a fully fledged research enrichment program for 2019 – you can find out about upcoming workshops here (click on this PDF). All HDR students are encouraged to attend several of these workshops each year to develop their skills and track record for the post-PhD world. Supervisors please encourage your students!

Reviewing for Journals – Thursday 19 September, 3:00 – 5:00 pm; 14EaR(E8A)-280 (Biology Tea Room); facilitated by Rachael Gallagher.
Would you like to review for journals, but are not too sure how the whole process works? Have you already reviewed, but would like to brush-up on your skills?
This short, two-hour course is designed to introduce young researchers to the ethics and skills required to become a good journal reviewer.
WHAT WILL BE COVERED:
– The ethics of reviewing – how to be fair and helpful to authors
– Examples of good and not-so-good reviews
– Worked examples of scenarios that may arise when reviewing
– The opinions of journal editors from within the Department
Suitable for: Early-mid career researchers.
To attend: REGISTER HERE

PhD Students: got a grant? Dept. will co-fund up to $1500 – The Department would like to encourage students to seek external sources of funding, and has a small budget with which to support successful candidates.New limits from 2019:PhD students ONLY: Dept. will match up to $1500 of external (non-MQ) funding ONCE during the student’s candidature.

If you have received a grant (student as chief investigator) and wish to request co-funding, please forward a copy of the award letter to <sharyon.odonnell@mq.edu.au> and <julian.may@mq.edu.au>.

Are you a HDR student? Need help with writing? HDR Mentors in collaboration with HDR Learning Skills is running another round of Peer Writing Assistance (PWA) for the rest of the year! This program is designed to support MRES and HDR candidates in managing thesis writing and research-related concerns. All peer writing assistants have undergone training for their role and are current PhD candidates at Macquarie.
The PWA program is based on the principle of collaborative learning in which a more experienced research student helps you develop stronger academic and research skills. Peer Writing Assistants are not teachers. Rather, they are trained to function as a ‘friendly audience’ or ‘fresh pair of eyes’ to help you gain new perspectives on your writing or research ideas.
Registrations are now open for individual consultation bookings. If you are interested, please go to book in for a 45-minute session with a PWA here.

And:

Writing workshops – Convened by Ken Cheng, running weekly for most of the year: Fridays 2-4pm in Ken’s office at 205b Culloden Road, G12.
These writing workshops are meant for HDR students and early-career researchers. In these face-to-face encounters, writing at any stage of any genre is welcome, from first draft to final polish, from empirical paper to literature review to popular news story. Ken envisages personal feedback linked perhaps with rounds of revisions on selected passages during the session. The aim is not just to get stuff written, but to write everything well.
Those interested in attending a session should email Ken Cheng <ken.cheng@mq.edu.au> by Wednesday 12:00-noon, preferably with a draft attached of what they are working on and some indication of what they especially need help with.

ADMIN THINGS

The Department’s Annual Report 2018 is now published and available here. It is packed full of news and events and showcases our people and achievements for the year. A cracker of a read! It will be available on the website very soon, so please pass on to your networks, colleagues and friends.

September Department Meeting Slides
Dept meeting 03September2019

Need to Contact the Biology Admin Team via Email? Please send your email to <fse.bio-adm@mq.edu.au> or drop in and see us. The old google group (sci.bio-adm) email no longer works, if you have this email as a remembered address please delete.

Outreach Activities – Have You Participated in an Activity for Biology Recently? Don’t forget to fill in the super-quick form here – ACCESS OUTREACH FORM HERE

Building Name Changes – Cheat Sheet – If you are trying to identify buildings on campus with new names or old names, please use this link to convert them from old to new or vice versa.

THIS AND THAT

Bristle-Nosed Catfish Looking for a New Home – Is anyone interested in taking one of Monika King’s Bristle-Nosed Catfish? It is an excellent cleaner of glass surfaces, tank pebbles and anything which has algae on it. The fish is sand colored and 3.5cm long. It needs a warm (26-28C) freshwater tank to thrive.
Monika has two bristle nosed cat fish in her tank and needs to separate them due to their size and territorial behavior. Please contact Monika on <monika.king@mq.edu.au> if you an rehome this helpful fish.

Call for Cystic Fibrosis Christmas Markets Volunteers! Cystic Fibrosis Australia is in need of Volunteers for their Christmas markets on December 5th and 6th at Martin place. Volunteers are needed to sell Raffle tickets/Merchandise and all funds received support Cystic Fibrosis research and advocacy. All Fixed term and continuing staff are eligible to two days community volunteering leave. Such fund raising events are also great for team building. Please email queries or expressions of interest to Prasanth Subramani <prasanth.subramani@mq.edu.au>.

Volunteers CFA_Markets_Flyer CM_20191

Harvest Hub – great food that doesn’t cost the earth

Do you want:

  • To eat with the seasons?
  • Have fresh fruit and veg delivered weekly?
  • Buy from local growers and support local farmer more directly?
  • Access weekly specials and a flexible, easy to use ordering system?
  • Have produce delivered to you at work?
  • Buy grains and cereals too?

Then try Harvest Hub www.harvesthub.com.au

Hub name: MACQUARIE04 F: @harvesthubau

More information?

Correct Method for Submitting to Department Matters

Department Matters submissions now have their own email address. Please send all your news items for the newsletter to <fse.bionewsletter@mq.edu.au>

Also, please see the following to correctly format your additions, and keep them rolling in!

You may have noticed that we try to keep all the articles to the same format for the Department Matters, however, rest assured, they do NOT all turn up in this format! To help keep your Department Matters looking as good as possible, when sending in additions to the Newsletter, please try to keep these formatting guidelines in mind.

  1. Please write in third person. The information is coming from the Newsletter, not directly from you.
  2. Do not use fancy text formatting. Bold heading, normal text, and only italics or bold to highlight. No font size changes will make it through, sorry.
  3. If sending via email, set your email output to basic. HTML output will add all sort of formatting that will have to be removed before your article can go into the newsletter.
  4. Keep your submission short and direct (two paragraphs) and if possible provide a document, email or link where readers can get more information. Any long submissions will be cropped.

Keeping to these guidelines will streamline your article’s addition to the newsletter. Thank you.

Have You Missed Out on an Issue of Department Matters? Back issues can be found at this newsletter archive link for your reading pleasure.

New Publications

A revision of the French Trichobranchidae (Polychaeta), with descriptions of nine new species

By: LAVESQUE, NICOLAS, PAT HUTCHINGS, GULLEMINE DAFFE, ARNE NYGREN, and MARIO H. LONDOÑO-MESA. Zootaxa 4664, no. 2 (2019): 151-190. | Find with Google Scholar »

Multiple intraguild predators reduce mortality risk of a mutual agricultural pest prey in simple, but not in complex, experimental settings

By: Rendon, Dalila, Phillip W. Taylor, and Mary EA Whitehouse. Austral Ecology (2019). | Find with Google Scholar »

Disease Exposure and Antifungal Bacteria on Skin of Invasive Cane Toads, Australia

By: Weitzman, Chava L., Mirjam Kaestli, Karen Gibb, Gregory P. Brown, Richard Shine, and Keith Christian. Emerging infectious diseases 25, no. 9 (2019): 1770. | Find with Google Scholar »

Pyrethroid resistance in the pest mite, Halotydeus destructor: Dominance patterns and a new method for resistance screening

By: Cheng, Xuan, Paul A. Umina, Siu Fai Lee, and Ary A. Hoffmann. Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology (2019). | Find with Google Scholar »

Non-reproductive male cane toads (Rhinella marina) withhold sex-identifying information from their rivals

By: Kelehear, Crystal, and Richard Shine. Biology letters 15, no. 8 (2019): 20190462. | Find with Google Scholar »

Leaf:wood allometry and functional traits together explain substantial growth rate variation in rainforest trees

By: Gray, Emma F., Ian J. Wright, Daniel S. Falster, Allyson SD Eller, C. E. R. Lehmann, Matt G. Bradford, and Lucas A. Cernusak. AoB Plants 11, no. 3 (2019): plz024. | Find with Google Scholar »

Habitat selection and territoriality

By: Kemp, Darrell J. INSECT BEHAVIOR: FROM MECHANISMS TO ECOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY CONSEQUENCES Pages: 80-97 Published: 2018 | Find with Google Scholar »

Taxonomic Shifts in Philornis Larval Behaviour and Rapid Changes in Philornis downsi Dodge & Aitken (Diptera: Muscidae): An Invasive Avian Parasite on the Galápagos Islands

By: Common, Lauren K., Rachael Y. Dudaniec, Diane Colombelli-Négrel, and Sonia Kleindorfer. In Life Cycle and Development of Diptera. IntechOpen, 2019. DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.88854 | Find with Google Scholar »

In the Media

Darrell Kemp was featured in Cosmos 

Associate Professor Darrell Kemp from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured in Cosmos regarding how birthplace exerts a lifelong influence on butterflies.

Phil Taylor was featured on ABC Mildura Rural Report and 2NM National Rural News

Professor Phil Taylor from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured on ABC Mildura Rural Report and 2NM National Rural News regarding millions of sterile fruit flies being released into trial sites in Victoria and western NSW to try and combat the fruit fly problem.

Lesley Hughes was interviewed on Radio National PM

Distinguished Professor Lesley Hughes, Pro Vice-Chancellor Research Integrity and Development was interviewed on Radio National PM regarding changes to bushfire season in Australia.

Vanessa Pirotta was featured in the Australian Financial Review

Dr Vanessa Pirotta from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured in the Australian Financial Review regarding being named one of this year’s 100 women of influence.

Recent Completions