Executive Dean’s Message - February 2023

Dear colleagues,

It's been fantastic to see so many students back on campus during O-week and the first week of the semester at both of our campuses.

A huge thank you to the many people involved in supporting orientation activities for our new students who commenced studying a science program this semester. This includes the Science Student Experience team, Science Academic Services team, the Science Marketing, Communications & Future Students team, all our wonderful academic program directors and advisors, student ambassadors, and enquiries teams who delivered activities, information sessions, and study plan advice to new students. I was fortunate to join a session for parents of new students who were grateful to receive advice and information to help them support the transition to university.

A huge thank you also to the academic and professional staff involved in teaching. I acknowledge the enormous amount of work that goes into preparing for and delivering teaching throughout the semester and supporting and guiding our students through the process.

Congratulations

The big news this month was the naming of Poh Wah Hillock, Director of First Year Mathematics (SMP), as Australian University Teacher of the Year. What a spectacular and well-deserved achievement! I was thrilled to be there along with our VC, DVCA and DVCRI, when the Minister of Education, the Hon Jason Clare MP, presented the award to Poh at Parliament House in Canberra. Please join me in congratulating Poh!

Congratulations also to the great research outcomes from SCMB this month, including

Jody Hobson-Peters and colleagues work to develop a vaccine to protect pigs from Japanese Encephalitis Virus, Kirsty Short and colleagues for their work on the susceptibility of Black swans to avian influenza, David Muller who was awarded funding for two CRC projects to develop vaccine and drug delivery systems, and Mark Walker (previously SCMB, now IMB) for being awarded almost $8M in philanthropic funding to develop an mRNA vaccine against Group A Streptococcus bacteria.

A big congratulations to the UQ teams, led by Pete Mumby (BIOL) and Bernie Degnan (BIOL), whose projects are included in the $9.8 million Great Barrier Reef innovation program. This is a world-leading program from the Great Barrier Reef Foundation that partners with UQ, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, CSIRO, and James Cook University to develop next-generation tools that will enhance our capacity to predict, detect and respond to deadly coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks at large scale across the Great Barrier Reef.

News

The Queensland Education minister Grace Grace, recently recognized 43 Highest achieving Year 12 graduates, awarding them a prestigious QCE Achievement Award. Of these 43 students, 24 have enrolled at UQ, three of 43 were UQ Science Ambassadors in 2021, and 12 of 24 at UQ are enrolling in a Faculty of Science program or dual program.

Opportunities

Applications are now open for the 2023 Queensland Women in STEM Prize. This year's categories are: 

• Judges’ Award- presented to the most meritorious applicant.
• The Breaking Barriers Award- presented to the most meritorious Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicant, applicant with a disability, or applicant who is a carer.
• Highly Commended Award(s)- considered to be a meritorious applicant, as determined by the judges.

Applications close 24 March 2023. Further information can be found on the Queensland Museum Network site.

Applications are also open for the Australian Eureka prizes. Applications close 14 April 2023. Head to the Australian Museum site for more information.

Please share your nominations with us, too, as we’d love to hear about your successes.

Other award opportunities can be found in the mail newsletter.

Other news

I attended the annual Universities Australia conference in Canberra last week.

Highlights for me included keynote addresses from Megan Davis from UNSW, who gave an overwhelmingly compelling speech on the importance of backing the voice to parliament in the upcoming referendum, Mary O’Kane provided a comprehensive overview of the University Accord process to reform Australian Universities, Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director, National Science Foundation, talked about the power of research collaboration, Tanya Monro, Australia’s Chief Defence Scientist, talked about partnerships between DSTO and Universities and Jack Wang (SCMB), Australian University Teacher of the Year (2020), was one of three panellists discussing Innovation and Excellence in Learning and Teaching. Check out the full conference program.

Kind regards,

Professor Melissa Brown
Executive Dean - Faculty of Science