BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT MATTERS | September 18, 2015

Dear all,

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to Open Day last Saturday – your efforts are much appreciated! Co-op book vouchers went to Tarun for exceptional organisational ability and to two of our volunteers (drawn out of the hat!) – Laura Fernandez and Vincent Raoult.

The HDR conference went off without a hitch – thanks to all our speakers and organisers. Our prize winners were: 1st Prize (modelling) Tom White, Runner-up (modelling) Lisa-Marie Harrison, 1st Prize (lab-based) Julia Riley, Runner-up (lab-based) Lori Hurley, 1st Prize (Barbara Rice award for field-based) Dominic McAfee, Runner-up (Barbara Rice award for field-based) Anuradhi Jayaweera. Well done all!

Don’t forget to come along to support our MRes students who will be giving their seminars on Thursday 24 Sept in the tearoom.

I’ll be away the next 2 weeks so the exec team will be holding the fort!

cheerio

Michelle

General News and Announcements

Acting HoD, Online Approvals: change of grade

For the next two weeks Grant Hose will be acting Head of Department.  All online applications will be sent to him for approval (grant cover sheets, ethics approvals, nomination of examiners, job approvals, absence on duty, etc.).  The one exception is the Change of Grade form which is not automatically directed.  If you’re submitting a CoG you’ll need to select Grant as your approve when submitting this form.  The electronic Change of Grade from can be found here.

Dominic McAfee: 3-Minute Thesis 

Congratulations to Dominic McAfee who won second place in the faculty 3-Minute Thesis competition and represented both the faculty and the department at the university wide competition.

Grant success!

Adam Stow has secured an extra year’s funding from the Science without Borders program for ongoing work looking at landscape genetics, selection and conservation of poison arrow frogs.

MRes Seminar Presentations

2nd year MRes students will be presenting their findings. Morning and afternoon tea provided. Lunch will not be provided.

Please go along and support the Department’s MRes students. An abstract booklet will be sent out next week as a pdf and made available via Google Drive, in the event of any last minute changes.

Send Us Your Pictures

The department is in need of your pictures.  Whether you’re attending graduation, winning an award, or just attending a prac we’d like your pictures.  We have a continual need to show off our activities in brochures, our annual report on our upcoming web page and though all kinds of other promotional materials.  If you’ve got pictures you’d like to share with us please send them to fse.bio-photo@mq.edu.au.  At the Christmas party there will be a prize (judged by the admin team) for the best picture of 2015.

Free introduction to R

The course is aimed at graduate students and other researchers in the life sciences. You don’t need any programming experience to attend, just a desire to learn!  It will be held at the New Law School Seminar 102, University of Sydney. Participants must bring a laptop with a few specific software packages installed. Please sign up using the registration form here. For more information or see the flyer here or email combine@combine.org.au.

Looking for Loquat Trees

We are looking for suitable fruit tree hosts to collect Queensland fruit-fly. As they fruit early, loquats are good early-spring hosts. We have identified a few trees growing in Auburn, but we need to find more.If you have seen any other loquat trees around Sydney, let us know! please contact Dalila.Rendon@mq.edu.au. The trees look like this:

For all MQRDG/MQNS Grant Applicants

The $5,000 p.a. limit on equipment for MQ Research Projects (New Staff / Restart / RDG) has been lifted. Applicants may request more than this amount per annum and the Assessment Panel will consider the justification of the request and award/not-award accordingly.

EMCR Forum Recruiting

The Early-Mid Career Researcher (EMCR) Forum is a career development body funded by the Australian Academy of Science. They’re looking for new executive committee members and applications close October 4^th. More info here.

Launch of New Research Project Account Set-Up Process

In April this year, a Lean project was conducted to improve the Research Project Account Set Up process.

Background

A Scoping Session conducted with a small group of key stakeholders identified that the problem with the old process was:

The manual, inefficient, poorly documented process for research account set up can lead to variable customer service to researchers, rework, poor internal governance and the inability to meet reporting and compliance needs of internal and external stakeholders and can result in funds mismanagement.

And the objective of this project is:

A streamlined, timely, efficient, well-documented and well-governed process for research projects account set up, leading to consistent, excellent customer service to all stakeholders that supports timely, accurate internal and external monitoring, reporting and planning.

New Process

After five months of hard work by the project team, the new process is now live.

Information on and guides for the new process can be found here.

Below is a high level view of the new process:

The key changes to and benefits of the new process are:

 

Manuscript Writing Retreat for Marine Science Students

AMSA NSW (Australian Marine Science Assoc.) is organizing a small group of students for a scientific writing retreat and workshop.

The intention of the retreat is to work on a manuscript of your Honours/Master/PhD in a structured and interruption free environment. The aim is to spend few days away from every day life distractions with other marine science student fellows from NSW who are at the stage of writing to focus on the writing of your manuscript. By the end of the week, you should have something ready for your co-authors to review before submission. The retreat will be structured with personal time for writing, writing tips and feedback on your writing. To fulfill these objectives, we would ask that students come prepared with a dataset that has been fully analysed and ready to write. There will be no/limited internet on site, so any literature required must be brought with you.

The workshop will be held at Crommelin Field Station, Warrah near Pearl beach for 4 full days from Monday Nov 30 to Thursday Dec 3. We anticipate the cost per student to be about $40 to cover food and accommodation. If you would like to participate but are not an AMSA member, you’ll need to register first ($39 for students – https://www.amsa.asn.au/).

Email Toni with questions: toni.mizerek@mq.edu.au and/or to sign up, email amsastudents@gmail.com

Field Research Volunteer Opportunity

Do you want some experience with field research? Or, simply a break from staring at your computer screen? Julia Riley, Lizard Lab PhD student, is looking for volunteers to work with social Tree Skinks in Albury, NSW!  See here for more details.

Alison Downing’s Visit to China

Alison Downing has just returned from China where she visited Xinjiang as the guest of Professor Zhang Yuan Ming, Dean of the Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresources in Arid Lands and Assistant Director of the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xinjiang. Since 2008, Alison has more than 14 published papers, a book chapter (in press) and a number of on-going projects with biologists from Xinjiang, mostly focusing on the biology and ecophysiology of biological soil crusts and vegetation of the semi-fixed dunes of the Gurbantunggut Desert of north-western China. During this visit, arrangements were made for her to visit a number of key sites in Xinjiang, including the Eremophyte Botanic Gardens in Turpan and the karez of Turpan (man-made underground canals that carry water from the mountains to the oasis);  the spruce (Picea) forests of the snow covered Tian Shan of central Xinjiang; deciduous hardwood (Birch – Betula) and coniferous (Larch – Larix, Spruce – Picea) forests of Kanas Lake in the Altai Mountains of far north-western Xinjiang, near the borders of Russian Siberia and Kazakhstan. Associate Professors Zhang Jing and Wu Nan, both of whom visited Macquarie University in 2014, contributed substantially to planning and organisation of these visits. Details of Alison’s visit to the Institute can be found here.

While in China, Alison, accompanied by colleague Josephine Milne, Collections Manager from the National Herbarium of Victoria, also visited the Institute of Botany in Beijing and the Chinese National Herbarium (PE) as the guest of Associate Professor Cui Hong Xia; and in Shanghai, visited East China Normal University and Herbarium ((HSNU) as the guest of Professor Dr. Zhu Rui-Liang. Professor Zhu also arranged visits to Shanghai Botanic Gardens, which were hosted by Director Dr Feng Shucheng, and to the new Chenshan Botanical Garden and Herbarium (CSH), hosted by Dr Chen Bin and Dr Ge Binjie.

2016 Academic Calendar

The 2016 Academic Calendar is available online.  You can find it here.

Do You Have Research Collaborations with Chinese Colleagues or Institutions?

If so please send a quick email to Michelle with the details (eg HDR students, grants, visits, etc).

Plant of the Week: Gompholobium grandiflorum – Golden Glory Pea

Networking for Introverts, Extroverts and Ambiverts

Which personality type is the best at networking: Introverts, Extroverts or Ambiverts?

The answer is all of them or … none of them! It depends on skill level. Networking is a skill like any other, and can be learned.

Networking is about creating positive and symbiotic relationships. Knowing yourself and your style can help you be your best self in professional and social networking settings.

In this practical, interactive workshop you will get to experience networking in a safe environment and discover which approach works best for you. Making a lasting impression will depend on how you follow up with people you meet after your first meeting. We will also discuss social networking, and share experiences and tips on how to develop connections through different online platforms including LinkedIn.

Your fellow students are potential future employers, employees, collaborators and/or business partners, so take advantage of this opportunity to learn how to create some valuable connections for the future!

If you’d like to attend you can RSVP here.

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