Executive Dean’s Message - February 2022

Dear colleagues,

As South East Queensland again deals with widespread flooding, I hope that you’re keeping as safe and dry as possible. This will no doubt be an incredibly tough time for many of us – with loss of property and/or power, and disruptions to family life. There have also been significant impacts on UQ facilities, notably including the Gatton campus and St Lucia glasshouses. Thank you so so much to the amazing staff who have worked tirelessly across the weekend to evaluate and, where possible, address the impacts of flooding on our campuses.

Your safety and wellbeing is our priority – please check your inbox regularly for updates and instructions regarding teaching and campus access. Please also check on the wellbeing of your colleagues and students, and remember that UQ offers mental health support for staff and immediate family members.

There have been some moments of hope. Before the rains hit us hard at the end of last week, it was wonderful to see so many students back on campus, including many of our long-awaited international students, some of whom have had challenging journeys getting here. Please support them however you can during another challenging chapter in Brisbane’s history.

We had strong engagement with the many Faculty of Science orientation and O-week activities. Thank you so much to all of the staff and student leaders who participated in these critical events, to welcome and support our new students. Thank you also to all staff involved in teaching, especially given the uncertainty of dual-mode teaching and changing expectations of our students with regard to flexible learning. I acknowledge your ongoing resilience and patience as we navigate even more new territory in the teaching delivery space.

It has also been a busy time for our research community with much ado around several nationally and internationally competitive grant schemes and the UQ HEalth Research Accelerator (HERA) scheme. I have greatly enjoyed reading the draft HERA applications received to date and look forward to them progressing through the selection process. February has also been a frustrating time for many staff with the ongoing uncertainty around the dates for the ARC Discovery and LIEF schemes, and with this now clashing with the teaching commitments.

Thanks to Jacqui Romero (SMP) for suggesting we celebrate culturally significant events in our Faculty newsletter. In February, these included the Lunar New Year on 1 February to celebrate the start of the traditional lunisolar Chinese Calendar and the Year of the Tiger, and Nirvana Day on 15 February, being the annual festival to commemorate the death of Buddha.

And coming up in March we have Ash Wednesday on 2 March, Hinamatsuri (Japanese Doll Festival) on 3 March, International Women’s Day on the 8 March, St Patrick’s Day on the 17 March, and Holi, a Hindu holiday to celebrate the winter harvest, on 19 March. Best wishes to everyone celebrating these events!

Please let me know if there are cultural events that are important to you and that you would like to be included in future newsletters.

Congratulations to Susan Rowland, who has been appointed as the new Associate Dean Academic in the Faculty of Science, to Mike Noad who has been appointed as the new Director of the Centre for Marine Science, to Patrick Moss, who has been appointed as the new Head of School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, to Steve Chenoweth who has been appointed as the Interim Head of the School of Biological Sciences, and to Jonathan Corcoran who has been appointed as Interim Deputy Associate Dean Research (Researcher Development), replacing Steve.

Congratulations to Evelyne Deplazes (SCMB) who has been awarded the multi-year research funding through the 2021 Gilead Sciences Research Scholars Program in anti-fungals. See story below.

Congratulations to Sarah Herke (SMP) who received a citation at last week’s award ceremony for the Australian Awards for University Teaching, presented by Universities Australia.

Congratulations also to students and staff who have been nominated for a Faculty of Science Award. The full list can be found here. Please join us at the awards event at the end of March to celebrate the nominees and winners, and to gather for some refreshments. Details will be circulated shortly.

And to Claire Daniel, a graduate of our Bachelor of Regional and Town Planning with 1st Class Honours and the University Medal, and a 2015 Commonwealth Bank John Monash Scholar, who has published a series of resources for urban planners.

The Faculty executive has been busy planning for our future, deliberating on how best we can deliver on UQ’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan and shorter-term goals for 2022 as articulated on UQ’s 2022 Plan on a Page. We are incorporating feedback from staff who attended the last Faculty board meeting, comments arising from the UQ Pulse survey, and discussions at the Faculty of Science executive retreat in December that was attended by heads and directors from across the Faculty. I look forward to sharing a first draft with you, and seeking your input, in the near future.

Kind regards,

Professor Melissa Brown
Executive Dean