Executive Dean’s Message - March 2022
Dear colleagues,
It was wonderful to see so many of you at the Faculty of Science Awards on Tuesday and to celebrate the amazing achievements of so many students and staff. It was a truly uplifting event! Congratulations to all of the nominees and winners and thank you to the nominators for sharing the achievements of your colleagues. Details and photos of the winners can be found on Sharepoint. Thanks to the Faculty Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee for their leadership of this event and to the Faculty Engagement team for organising the event, prizes, props, prizes, photos and more and for a wonderful afternoon tea, despite the inclement weather!
This month we also celebrated the launch of the Faculty of Science ScienceLink EMCA Mentoring program. Congratulations to Steve Chenoweth and the EMCA Mentoring Committee for their outstanding work in establishing this resource, and for running such a fun event last Thursday! Further information can be found via the EMCA Mentoring program website.
Other great events in March included celebrating International Women’s Day with a number of events around UQ, including a panel discussion entitled Break the Bias, hosted by the Vice-Chancellor. A recording of the event can be found online. Many staff also celebrated ‘Pi day’ on 14 March, with a number of events including the UQ/QAMT Problem Solving Competition and a pi-themed cupcake extravaganza for Dr Poh Wah Hillock’s students. And on 21 March we celebrated Harmony Day, which started in Australia and is now recognised worldwide as a recognition of cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity and a celebration of multiculturism.
Next month we will celebrate Easter, Ramadan, World Stray Animals Day, National Youth Week, Earth Day, Anzac Day, Buddha’s Birthday and National Chocolate Mousse and Caramel Days in the US, amongst other important events.
March has also been a challenging month, starting with the flooding of our Gatton and St Lucia campuses. My sincere thanks to the very many staff who went above and beyond in the response to this event, including those at Gatton who ensured that our staff, students and animals were safe and had access to food and clean water, and at St Lucia, who alerted the relevant people about the swiftly rising water levels on Glasshouse Road and the impact on our numerous plant science experiments. The restoration of critical infrastructure is ongoing.
With the removal of the mask mandate and the spread of the COVID-19 BA.2 variant, we are seeing a significant increase in the number of cases and close contacts on campus. Just a reminder of the advice from the Vice-Chancellor’s update on 22 March about keeping ourselves and others safe by:
- Keeping our vaccinations up to date;
- Staying at home if we are feeling unwell;
- Remaining 1.5 metres apart where practicable;
- Wearing a face mask when you can’t physically distance; and
- Washing your hands often or using hand sanitiser.
Congratulations to those staff who were successful in the recently announced ARC Linkage round. From a quick look, the list includes Arkady Federov (SMP), Peter Jacobson (SMP), Gilbert Price (SEES), Patrick Moss (SEES). A more detailed summary of the outcomes will be available in due course.
The current exhibition in the UQ Art Museum is called ‘Oceanic Thinking’ and presents new ways of understanding the ocean and the adjacent blue spaces of our planet. The exhibition has been a great source of inspiration and enjoyment for many of our staff and students. Thank you Salit Kark (BIOL) for sharing your fantastic experience of running a class for Master of Conservation students in the museum this week. I encourage everyone to take a look and make use of these great spaces!
As you may have heard, Universities Australia conducted the 2021 National Student Safety Survey in September - October last year. The confronting results of the survey were released on Wednesday 23 March and can be found on the UQ Respect website. Further information, including the results, UQ’s response and opportunities for support, can be found in the VC’s message on this topic.
The Federal budget was announced on Tuesday, with not a lot of new joy for university level science, with the only highlights being the previously announced University Research Commercialisation Package, including funding for projects, industry fellowships, PhD scholarships, an increase in MRFF funding, and an extension of the Science Technology Australia Superstars of STEM program.
Next Tuesday we will launch ScienceConnect 2022, a career mentoring program that connects UQ Faculty of Science students to our community of alumni, industry partners and professionals. Further information can be found on the UQ Mentoring website.
I hope you have a good April and take the opportunity for some well-deserved time out during the upcoming long weekends and school holidays. It has been a big first quarter of the year!
Kind regards,
Professor Melissa Brown
Executive Dean - Faculty of Science