Executive Dean’s Message - August 2023

Dear colleagues,

August was certainly a busy month with National Science Week activities, UQ Open Day events, staff achievements and awards, and a welcome return to travel and external events.

A massive thank you to the almost 200 amazing Faculty of Science staff and students who contributed to the recent TSXPO, UQ Open Day events at St Lucia and Gatton.

UQ welcomed almost 18,500 Open Day visitors at St Lucia, with 3524 attending Faculty of Science information sessions, significantly up from 2022, and more than 240 people visiting physics and earth science museums or chemistry laboratories.

At Gatton, we had 1702 people attending science information sessions, with the strongest interest in veterinary science, veterinary technology, wildlife science and agricultural science programs.

We also had requests from over 2000 students to receive further information on science and mathematics, 424 to hear more about environmental science, and 406 who were interested in agriculture and animal science programs.

News

I was delighted to hear that Professor Kerrie Wilson has been appointed to the role of Queensland Chief Scientist. Many colleagues will know Kerrie from her roles here at UQ, including as a Professor in the School of Biological Science, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Environmental Decisions, and Deputy ADR (Research Impact) in the Faculty of Science, before taking up leadership roles at QUT.

The Australian Research Council (ARC) recently released a Policy on Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the ARC’s grant programs. In brief, the policy:

• Prohibits the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the ARC peer review process, including by all General and Detailed Assessors. Release of material into generative AI tools constitutes a breach of confidentiality.
• Cautions that the use of AI in grant applications may raise issues around authorship and intellectual property, including copyright. Applicants are responsible for ensuring the completeness and accuracy of information in a grant application.

More information on the policy can be found on the ARC website.

Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley AO issued an important paper on Trust in Science, providing a clear and important distinction between ‘research quality’ and ‘research integrity’.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Gurion Ang, Jackie Mergard and colleagues for being awarded a Peter Doherty STEM Education Partnership Award by the Department of Education, for their leadership and development of the UQ Science Ambassador Program. This program partners UQ students directly with Secondary School students to champion science by developing and delivering events, holding National Science Week activities, and encouraging other senior science students to share their experiences with students in all years.

Congratulations also to Carissa Klein (SENV) and Cullen Howlett (SMP), who have both won a 2023 Queensland Young Tall Poppy Science Award, which recognizes research excellence and enthusiasm as science communicators. They are now in the running for Queensland Tall Poppy of the Year.

Congratulations to Emeritus Professor Mary Garson (SCMB) who has been elected as Vice-President (and President-Elect) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) for 2024-2025 and will assume the Presidency for 2026-2027. IUPAC serves the international scientific endeavour in the dual function of a basic science and a mission-oriented Union.

Well done to Gary Schenk (SCMB) who is a member of the team attracting a new ARC Industrial Transformation Hub for Engineering Plants to Replace Fossil Carbon to UQ. Led by Robert Henry (QAAFI), the team has secured $4.93m in funding to create plant varieties to enable the development of renewable carbon products from plant biomass.

Congratulations also to Jody Hobson-Peters (SCMB) who has secured a $239,992 2023 Australia’s Economic Accelerator (AEA) Seed Grant. Jody’s project involves next-generation rapid diagnostics using chimeric viral antigens.

A shout out to Benjamin Roberts (SMP) who has been awarded a Big Questions Institute (BQI) Fellowship. BQI Fellowships are designed to support fundamental research at the boundaries of human knowledge, supporting early and mid-career researchers to develop lines of enquiry that aim to reveal as-yet-undiscovered theories about the physical universe, the origins of life and the science of consciousness.

It was also delightful to see Analog Quantum Circuits (AQC), a start-up from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS) (SMP) and represented by Arkady Fedorov (SMP), win the ‘Start-up of the Year’ at the UQ Ventures Entrepreneurship and Innovation Awards last Monday. AQC is the first Australian quantum technology company based in Queensland, and the first superconducting quantum technology start-up in Australia.

Events

In early August, I had the privilege of participating in a Senior Executive Mission to South America, visiting institutions and universities in Chile and Brazil. These included UQ SMI Chile, UC Chile, UChile, University Concepcion, University Sao Paulo, UNESP, FAPESP, and Instituto Butantan. We are now exploring lots of opportunities to partner, including joint PhD programs, research collaborations and student exchanges. It was also wonderful to see how well-regarded many of our colleagues are in South America, notably Marina Fortes (SCMB), Gary Schenk (SCMB), Gordon Southam (SENV), Paolo Vasconcelos (SENV), Laura Sonter (SENV), Salit Kark (SENV), Carlos Spier (SENV), Jonathan Rhodes (SENV), Bryan Fry (SENV), Joan Esterle (SENV), Chiara Palmieri (SVS) and Tamara Davis (SMP), to name a few.

National Science Week 2023 (12 – 20 August) saw over 1000 science and technology events held across the country. This year’s theme was Innovation: Powering Future Industries. I enjoyed attending a parliamentary breakfast to celebrate National Science Week, incorporating three talks from researchers from universities (including UQ) and their industry partners.

During UQ Sustainability Week (21 – 25 August), the Student Experience Science Leaders team hosted the Science Sustainability Swap. The event was a swap-meet/rummage style event where participants were invited to donate some quality pre-loved items, and rummage for some treasures to take home for themselves.  All leftover items were donated to the UQ Union Op Shop. Well done Barb Mejias and the Science Student Experience team!

Upcoming events include numerous activities associated with UQ Research and Innovation week next week, and the Voice Information sessions for staff being held at Gatton on Tuesday 5 September and St Lucia on Friday 8 September (TBC).

Safety

Just a gentle reminder to please complete your annual fire safety training. A few people have yet to do this, and it is important that we are all aware of the risks and procedures.

Kind regards,

Professor Melissa Brown
Executive Dean - Faculty of Science