Executive Dean's Message - March 2019
Dear colleagues,
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the spectacular success of the World Science Festival Brisbane last week. A special acknowledgement of Julie Baglot’s outstanding leadership in coordinating the vast number of events and activities.
UQ has done fantastically well in the 2018 Australian Research Council Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) exercise, the results of which were announced on Wednesday 27 March, with UQ rated above world standard in more specialised fields than any other Australian university. Of the 49 two-digit disciplines and four-digit subdisciplines to which we contribute, we scored 5/5 (well above world standard) in 35 and scored 4/5 (above world standard) in 14. Impressively, the ERA scores for 16 of the 49 disciplines and subdisciplines to which we contributed improved between 2015 and 2018. Congratulations to everyone in the Faculty for this success!
We have also done exceptionally well in the ARC Engagement and Impact exercise, which was announced today. For the disciplines to which the Faculty of Science contributes, UQ scored six highs and three mediums for Engagement, six highs and three mediums for Impact, and seven highs and two mediums for Approach to Impact.
Strategic Adviser Tom Barlow visited UQ on Wednesday to talk about the 2019 Barlow Report, which includes a comprehensive assessment of university performance. During his presentation he provided some reflections on UQ’s past and future journey, including areas of strength, real impact and future potential, and alignment of research and teaching. I was delighted to hear that the only university in Australia that has a subject area of global scale and quality (benchmarked to Harvard) is Environmental Science and Ecology at UQ! Several other areas of strength in the Faculty of Science were also identified. Let me know if you would like a copy of the report.
Congratulations to Jacqui Romero for being awarded a Westpac Research Fellowship and to Mark Walker for being recognised as one of 23 of Australia's most outstanding researchers by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). A big congratulations also to astrophysicist and PhD candidate Samuel Hinton and Postdoctoral Research Fellow Matt Reeves, recently accepted to attend the prestigious Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany, and again to Jenny Seddon for being appointed as Associate Dean Research and Deputy Dean in the Faculty.
A reminder that the Faculty will be running an academic promotions information session next week. Details are:
Date: Monday 1 April 2019
Time: 11am-12pm
St Lucia: Room 360, Building 63, Saint Lucia
Gatton: Room 116, Building 8107, Gatton
Zoom link: https://uqz.zoom.us/j/321614685
Contact: Talha Alam, capscience@uq.edu.au
Thank you to the almost one hundred people who attended the Science Precinct information session last Tuesday. For those of you who were unable to attend, the presentation slides are available on the staff intranet. We are also calling for volunteers to join design working groups and reference groups to develop a proposal for the building. Be sure to let us know how you'd like to be involved.
It was a pleasure to travel with members of Senate to visit our Gatton Campus last week to discuss opportunities for developing the campus in the future. We toured multiple buildings, fields and facilities across the campus in parallel with the draft Gatton development plan. A huge thank you to the kind and generous staff of the UQ Vets Small Animal Hospital, who gave the group a tour of the facility when we arrived without warning!
And finally, you may have noticed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flag banners now on display. These banners have been set up in the spirit of reconciliation, helping the Faculty build a strong sense of belonging and an inclusive environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff. This is part of our commitment to the UQ Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) and I'm proud the Faculty is taking part in the initiative.
Kind regards,
Professor Melissa Brown
Executive Dean