Lord Howe Island Wedding Lily – Dietes robinsoniana

Bushland regenerators in Sydney recognise a number of species of Dietes as increasingly problematic weeds in local bushland, and yet the geographic distribution of this predominantly African genus is quite extraordinary. Why? Well, there are 6 species of Dietes, 5 from Africa, but one, Dietes robinsoniana, from Lord Howe Island, off the east coast of Australia.

This week we are fortunate to have superb photographs of Lord Howe Island and the Lord Howe Island Wedding Lily from Dr David Meagher, whose recent doctoral thesis was titled The bryophyte flora of Lord Howe Island: taxonomy, diversity and biogeography.

We also thank Jann Hayman for allowing us to use her photograph of Dietes grandiflora.

Plant of the week – Dietes robinsoniana

OPPORTUNITIES

6^th October 6pm – Macquarie University’s Undergraduate Research Internship (MURI) One-Minute Thesis (1MT) Competition.

MURI offers undergraduate students a paid research and collaborative opportunity with Macquarie University academics. This highly sought-after research program also facilitates the 1-Minute Thesis (1MT) Competition, inspired by the international 3MT Competition, an Australian initiative that became an international phenomenon in Academia.

Registration is essential for online or on-campus attendance: https://forms.gle/5KwdoQ5XHei1SKxn9

COVID-19 restrictions cap our capacity to 50 in-person attendees, but a Zoom Link will be emailed to those unable to attend.

The Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer is pleased to confirm the 2020 Conference Sponsorship Program is now open for applications. This round of the Conference Sponsorship Program is open to organisations hosting research conferences in New South Wales from July 2020 to June 2021. Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis.

COVID-19

The Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer is committed to responsible management of COVID-19. If your conference is an ‘in-person’ event, you must comply with current government requirements regarding maximum numbers and social distancing. Any conference that does not appropriately demonstrate how it will implement and comply with social distancing requirements will be deemed ineligible for funding under Round 13 of the Conference Sponsorship Program.

Further information about the program, including application forms and dates, is available here: https://www.chiefscientist.nsw.gov.au/investing-in-science/conference-sponsorship-program.

The BIOTech Futures team are seeking academics to mentor high school students under the BIOTech Futures Challenge 2020, a large outreach event hosted by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Training Centre for Innovative BioEngineering (Director: Prof Hala Zreiqat), in conjunction with our many partner institutes and centres.

 

This is a fantastic opportunity for academics, postdocs and research students (all can be mentors) to work together with high school students and inspire the next generation of young scientists. As an academic mentor, you will be guiding one to several teams of high school students on an innovative project in science, engineering, medicine, etc. that is related to your research area. The teams will conduct their research and design for the project, and present their ideas and findings in a short presentation at our end-of-year symposium.

Please find some additional information regarding the event below. For more detailed information about our expectations for mentor commitment, please see the attached “Final Statement of commitment” document. More information can be found on the website https://biotechfutures.org/ or contact biotech.futures@sydney.edu.au.

 

Please register as a mentor through our Google form. Mentors have the choice of submitting possible projects or to work with students who develop their own project. https://forms.gle/q5wRkHzeCca8gn7p9

Working With Children Check (WWCC). This is not required for registration – we will ask you to update when we’re allocating projects. You can apply or renew at https://www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/child-safe-organisations/working-with-children-check (free for volunteers).

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Hort Innovation Leadership Fund Grant for young scientists

Hort Innovation is partnering with the 2021 Science and Innovation Awards for Young People in Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, a competitive grant program that seeks to advance the careers of young researches, scientists, producers and innovators aged between 18 and 35 years by funding research projects that benefit Australia’s primary industries. 

This year, Hort Innovation is the official Science Award partner, offering a grant of $22,000 (incl. GST) through the Hort Innovation Leadership Fund, to a young Australian with an innovative research idea for the horticultural sector. The horticulture category winner will also be invited to apply for the Minister of Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management’s Award, granting an additional $22,000 (incl. GST) to extend the project.  

Applications are now open and close Friday 2 October at 5:00 pm AEST with winners to be announced at the ABARES Outlook event in March 2021.  

For more information visit the website.

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Insight Research Services Associated is proud to be presenting three workshops online in October/November 2020. 2020.11 Insight Online

* October 24/25:  A Gentle Introduction to Statistics in SPSS and R

* October 28/29:  Introduction to Linear and Logistic Regression

* November 4/5:  Introduction to Longitudinal Data Analysis

These workshops are aimed at non-statisticians as well as statisticians new to these fields. Please read the attached flyer for more information, or visit our website at <https://insightrsa.com/workshops/upcoming>. For questions please contact Mark Griffin at m.griffin@insightrsa.com or by phone on 0448 176 926.

To keep up to date with the training programs being delivered by Insight please consider joining our email list at <https://insightrsa.com/connect-with-us>.

For more information visit: https://venturecafesydney.org/whats-on-this-week

HDR NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES

CSIRO Postgraduate scholarships

 

CSIRO PhD Top-up Scholarships are worth AUD 7,000 per year, plus an operating budget of up to AUD 10,000 per year. Projects offered: 

 

Health and Biosecurity

– Self-limiting genetic control of invasive vertebrate pests (zebrafish)

 

Agriculture and Food

– Various, including sustainable production and genome “bioprediction”

 

Land and Water

– Fire, termites and tree hollows: is there a trade-off between habitat condition and carbon storage in tropical savannas? (based in Darwin)

– Spaceborne LiDAR as a vegetation biomass scaling tool

– River flows and aquatic predator ecology in tropical river-floodplains of northern Australia

 

Oceans and Atmosphere

– Coral characteristics and processes for modelling and restoration

– Image capture and deep-learning applications to fisheries research

 

Applicants must already have University PhD admission and a stipend, and an university supervisor who is willing and able to supervise. Applicants who already commenced their PhD studies must be less than 12 months into their PhD as of 1 January 2021. Recipients should generally be Australian citizens or permanent residents; tnternational applicants must have the appropriate immigration approvals to allow them to take up the scholarship.

 

Applications close 31st October 2020; see: https://www.csiro.au/en/Careers/Studentships/Postgraduate-scholarships 

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Attention all Unit Convenors

Now is the time to mention the Master of Research program to your students. Students at all levels will benefit from knowing about post-bachelor options, and many of our best MRes students have started out volunteering with research groups very early in their bachelor degree program.

We encourage all unit convenors to carve out 2-3 minutes to talk about:
– We are a very research active department.
– We encourage students to volunteer and participate.
– The cool things that you are doing in your research!
– For a 2021 S1 start applications are due at the end of October.

Attached here: – 2021 MRes-Recruitment is some AV which you may find useful. Any student with questions about the Biology MRes program are encouraged to contact the BPhil/MRes Yr. 1 advisor: Matthew Kosnik <Matthew.Kosnik@mq.edu.au>.

THIS AND THAT

At Macquarie University, a voluntary survey in HR Online is used to gather details about staff diversity. This information helps MQ understand the diversity of our workforce and whether staff of all backgrounds have the same opportunities to join, develop and progress at Macquarie. This analysis is used to identify and address any barriers that may be facing demographic groups, and to track progress over time. 

At this stage, the picture of workforce diversity within our Faculty is incomplete, as just 58% of staff have provided this information. MQ HR would like to encourage you to check that your diversity profile is up to date via HR Online so they can better understand and serve our staff community. This data will be used to build a relevant and successful EDI action plan that will benefit everyone in the Faculty. Data provided will remain confidential. Diversity data is only reported at an aggregate level and data analysis provided to our Faculty by the Workplace Diversity & Inclusion Team is anonymised.

To complete your diversity profile please log into HR Online and select the ‘My HR’ tab in the top left. Select ‘Personal Details’, then ‘My Diversity Profile’.

If you have any questions, please contact <workplacediversityinclusion@mq.edu.au>.

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

 

We are looking to feature a different student each week on the Biology Social Media accounts. If you would like to share your research or fieldwork with the public, please send photos and a short blurb about your work to Jenny Ghabache: <jenny.ghabache@mq.edu.au> 

 

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

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