Executive Dean’s Message - January 2022
Dear colleagues,
Happy New Year!
I hope you all had a restful break and weren’t too disrupted by the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I enjoyed 10 days camping in the Western Downs and Central Queensland, mostly off-grid where it was easy to maintain physical distancing, followed by some R&R at home.
A huge thank you to Jenny Seddon for being Acting Executive Dean during the incredibly busy time that I was on leave, and to Jenny and Patrick Testa for their contribution to resolving a number of significant issues during that time.
Well, 2022 has certainly started with a bang, with escalating numbers of COVID-19 cases and ongoing uncertainty about the future. I am aware that many members of our community have either been directly or indirectly impacted by this and send my sympathies and kindest regards.
Consequently, most of us are currently working from home, often in busy environments given the delay of the school year, which is also presenting challenges, as is the uncertainty on how the pandemic will impact the start of Semester 1.
It is good to see the number of daily cases starting to reduce, and hopefully right-hand side of the curve will be as steep as the left, so that we can safely return to campus in the near future.
On the positive side there are lots of good news stories from the Faculty since my last newsletter:
Congratulations to Gwen Lawrie (SCMB) and Jack Wang (SCMB) for being awarded UQ Teaching Innovation grants.
Congratulations to Michael Bulmer (SMP) for being awarded Life membership of the Queensland Association of Maths Teachers
Congratulations to Joerg Henning (SVS) and Marloes Nitert Dekker (SCMB) for being appointed as Senior Fellows of the Higher Education Academy, to Rachel Stephenson (SCMB) and Sara Herke (SMP) for being appointed as Fellows, and to the following staff for being appointed as Associate Fellows: Anna Mikhalyak, Andrew Penton, Caitlin Ford, Danny Fryer, Jennifer Stables, Narelle Braunack, Oluwamayolun, Richard Harris, Sabrina Chakori, and Shelley Barfoot.
Congratulations to Chelsea Janke (SAFS) for being awarded a Soil Science Australia PhD thesis award.
Congratulations to Yongping Wei (SEES), Yan Liu (SEES) and Jorgen Rasmussen (SMO) for being appointed to the ARC College of experts.
Congratulations to Stuart Phinn (SEES) for his contribution to the Australian Academy of Sciences Decadal Space Science Plan.
Congratulations to the following staff who are chief investigators on ARC Discovery projects led by UQ, and finally announced on Christmas Eve: Matthew Dargusch (SEES), Paul Bernhardt (SCMB), Helen Bostock (SEES), Paul Burn, Alan Mark and Paul Shaw (SCMB), Vito Ferro (SCMB), Elizabeth Krenske (SCMB), Cecilia Gonzalez Tokman (SMP), Gerhard Schenk (SCMB), Simon Hart and Masato Yamamichi (BIOL), Philip Hugenholtz (SCMB), Bostjan Kobe (SCMB), Michael Landsberg (SCMB), Andrew Letten (BIOL), Alan Mark (SCMB), John Pandolfi (BIOL), Simone Blomberg (BIOL), Artem Pulemotov and Mark Gould (SMP), Cynthia Riginos (BIOL), Pat Scott (SMP), Laura Sonter, Martine Maron and Eve McDonald-Madden (SEES), Matt Trau (SCMB), Yongping Wei (SEES), and Patrick Moss (SEES). Apologies for any errors or omissions, e.g. UQ Science CIs on grants led by other universities, as I don't yet have this information.
It was exciting to see the UQ Strategic Plan for 2022-2025 launched at the December all staff VC address. Further information can be found online.
The Faculty has commenced the process of articulating this into our priorities, starting with breakout discussion amongst the more than 160 staff and student representatives who attended the Semester 2 Faculty Board Meeting. For your reference the key issues raised by that group were:
- Diversify our postgraduate coursework offerings.
- Manage teaching workloads / support for dual-mode delivery of teaching.
- Develop activities to improve student engagement.
- Facilitate research collaboration across Science and beyond.
- Better communicate the impact of our research.
- Career development opportunities for EMCAs.
- Improve workplace culture.
The issues in bold are those that were raised most frequently. Faculty and School leaders are currently drafting a list of priorities and activities we should stop doing, and look forward to sharing and discussing this with you in the near future.
All the best for the next few weeks. Stay safe.
Kind regards,
Professor Melissa Brown
Executive Dean