Executive Dean's Message - August 2019
Dear colleagues,
A huge thank you to the more than 140 Faculty of Science staff and students who participated in our major student recruitment activities this year, including TSXPO and UQ Open Days at both St Lucia and Gatton campuses. I was seriously impressed with the quality of these events this year and with the commitment of our dedicated staff in running fantastic sessions and activities, and engaging with our potential future students and their families.
I am delighted to report that attendance was extremely good this year, especially given that the 2020 domestic cohort is expected to be approximately 18% lower than usual in 2020, due to the introduction of a reduced cohort prep year in 2007. Despite this, the total attendance at St Lucia was 22,785, only down 1% from 2018, and attendance at Gatton was 2149, down 12% from 2018. Importantly, the attendance at Faculty of Science information sessions was significantly up with St.Lucia at 4190, compared to 3342 in 2018, and Gatton at 1757, up from 1549 in 2018.
Congratulations to a number of staff and students this year, including Avril Roberston (SCMB) who is a finalist for a Women in Technology Outstanding Life Sciences Award, Bernie Carroll (SCMB) and Elizabeth Aitken (SAFS) who are CIs on a successful ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Sustainable Crop Protection valued at $4.79M (led by Neena Mitter, QAAFI), and Gabrielle Lebbink (BIOL) for winning this year's Faculty of Science Three Minute Thesis (3MT) finals with her presentation 'Less Lawn, More Grass'. Congratulations also to runner-up Leonardo Assis Morais and to Alex Jiang for taking out the People's Choice Award. I am also delighted to share the 2019 Eduniversal Best Masters ranking worldwide results, in which the UQ Master of Agribusiness (SAFS) was ranked #16 in Agribusiness/Food Industry Management worldwide and the UQ Master of Environmental Management (SEES) was ranked #34 in Sustainable development and Environmental Management worldwide.
Education Minister Dan Tehan has recently announced $15,000 scholarships for 4700 students studying at regional campuses. The scheme is open to domestic and international students, enrolled from Certificate IV to PhD and commencing in 2020. A UQ working group has been established by Deputy Vice-Chancellor External Engagement to ensure that we are well-positioned to take advantage of this opportunity. The group includes representatives from Science (Susan Rowland and Julie Baglot), given the potential opportunities for students studying at the UQ Gatton campus.
The Faculty of Science was well represented on a recent mission to the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in China. Joe Grotowski, Yongping Wei, Jack Clegg, Grace Li and I explored opportunities to participate in the UQ-SUSTech collaborative PhD program and to establish articulated Master’s coursework programs. Please let us know if you have any existing linkages to SUSTech or would like to know more.
Finally, it was a pleasure to attend the UQ Emeritus Professor lunch today and to catch up with many friends and colleagues.
Kind regards,
Professor Melissa Brown
Executive Dean
