Executive Dean's Message - October 2019
Dear colleagues,
The jacarandas remind us that Semester 2 has come to an end and exam season is approaching. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to another fantastic semester of teaching in the Faculty of Science. Together we educated over 8000 students, through hundreds of courses in more than 30 programs. Thanks to an amazing team effort across our community of academic, professional, casual staff and students. Well done everyone!
The quality of our teaching staff was again recognised through the Dean’s Commendation for Teaching Excellence scheme, introduced last year by our Deputy ADA Lydia Kavanagh and coordinated by the Student Experience team. Each semester, high-achieving students who receive a Dean’s Commendation for Academic Excellence are asked to nominate their most effective teacher. In Semester 1 2019, 117 nominations were received for 72 teachers. The 10 most nominated staff were Jack Wang, Artem Pulemotov, Poh Wah Hillcock, Stuart Phinn, David Sewell, Mick Zeljko, Jo Blanchfield and Daniel Schull.
October has also been a spectacular month for achievements in research. There are too many examples to list in full, but they include the award of a $35M ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture to Christine Beveridge (BIOL) and her team in the School of Biological Sciences, School of Agriculture and Food Science, QAAFI and colleagues in multiple other Universities and Industry partners. Huge congratulations also to Paul Young (SCMB) who was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science. Congratulations also to UQ alumnus Emeritus Professor Cheryl Praeger received the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science in recognition of her contribution to pure mathematics. The Faculty was highly successful in this year’s ARC Future Fellowship round with the following six outstanding researchers being awarded fellowships: Volker Herzig (SAFS), Karen Cheney (BIOL), Simon McIlroy (SCMB), Karen McNamara (SEES), Tyler Neely (SMP), Pat Scott (SMP). This is six out of the eight awarded to UQ and one hundred awarded nationally!
We are also thrilled to congratulate three staff members for being awarded a 25-year service award from the Vice Chancellor last week. Congratulations to Sue Lowrey (BIOL and FoS), Kaelene Matts (SAFS) and Lara Atzeni (SEES).
Wednesday 23 October was the first UQ Giving Day. Thanks to everyone who participated in the day’s events and donated to the multitude of worthy causes, supporting our students and our research. Congratulations to Evan Morgan and his team for the Faculty’s great success on the day, receiving 100 donations for our Future Scientist Scholarship, the second-highest number of donations in the University. This made us eligible to matching funds of $10,000, bringing the total new funding for this scholarship to over $18,000! I am so thrilled and grateful knowing the impact this will have on students who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to pursue studies in science.
The Faculty has been engaged in a lot of external activities. Again, too many to mention, but highlights include congratulating Queensland Year 12 students who have been selected to attend the National Youth Science Forum at Government House, meeting with the CEO and Board Chair of the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC) to discuss implementation of our UQ-QYAC Memorandum of Understanding, and attending the first meeting of the Minjerribah Futures reference group.
The ADR team led some fantastic events this month, including the Alternate Futures Industry Engagement session, an Indigenous partnerships workshop with Gerry Turpin (expert on Traditional knowledge and the Biodiscovery Act) on 11 October, led by Deputy ADR Melissa Fitzgerald in collaboration with PVC Indigenous Engagement Bronwyn Fredericks, and an Indigenous foods ‘Masterchef’ event with Chef Dale Chapman, Aunty Jenny Thompson, students, as well as Melissa Fitzgerald and Bronwyn Fredericks.
Paul Young, Mark Schembri, myself and others also had the privilege of congratulating two of our high achieving alumni: Emeritus Professor Dato’ Dr Sai Kit Lam (SCMB) and Dr Paula Parker (SVS), at the UQ Courting the Greats event in City Hall.
The planning for the proposed Science Precinct continues, through the development of a strong business case supporting the next stage of the process. Thank you to the many people who have been contributing information and ideas through our various working groups.
Our Faculty of Science Board Meetings are a great way to find out what's happening across the Faculty and beyond, to celebrate our 2019 achievements and discuss our priorities for 2020. I welcome everyone to join us at St Lucia (Weds 27/11), Gatton (Thurs 28/11) or by Zoom at either meeting. In response to requests from several people, from this meeting onwards we will be introducing an ‘open discussion’ session. I welcome suggestions for topics from everyone in the Faculty. A formal invitation will be distributed in the coming week, so please RSVP.
Kind regards,
Professor Melissa Brown
Executive Dean