Executive Dean’s Message - September 2023
Dear colleagues,
With the school holidays coming to an end and a long weekend ahead, I know many of you have taken the opportunity to take a well-earned break to recharge and connect with your friends and families. I hope you have all had a wonderful time and are now refreshed and ready to navigate the final few weeks of semester two, the examinations period and graduations.
Congratulations
Congratulations to Ramiro Lafuente (SMP) for winning a UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award.
Congratulations to the ScienceLink management team (Steve Chenoweth, Jonathan Corcoran, Breeann Silverster, Andrea Belcher, Rochelle Soo, Rachel Stephenson) who have been awarded a UQ Research Culture Award for their exceptional contributions to supporting EMCR career development.
Congratulations to UQ Skills Trainer Craig Jones who has won the prestigious Queensland VET Teacher or Trainer of the Year Award. Craig will now be heading to the Australian Training Awards in November, hosted by the Australian Government in Tasmania.
Congratulations to UQ alumnus and international food security expert Professor Glenn Denning who has won the prestigious Global Australian of the Year Award for 2023, recognising more than 40 years spent working to end global hunger and promote sustainable development.
Congratulations to Dr Maggy Lord (SENV), who was recently recognised as a Diversity and Inclusion Champion in the 2023 Multicultural Queensland Awards. Maggy was recognised for her work as the co-founder of the Mshauri STEM Mentorship program, which provides support to students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Congratulations to Bostjan Kobe from SCMB who has been awarded a 2023 NHMRC Investigator Grant of $2,953,040 for his project titled “Proteins in innate immunity pathways: from protein structure to therapeutic targeting”. Congratulations also to Fiona Simpson (Affiliate in SCMB) who was also awarded a 2023 NHMRC Investigator Grant.
Congratulations to Timothy Staples (SENV) and Rossana Ruggeri (SMP) who have been awarded an ARC DECRA award.
Events
This week UQ hosted the Global Bioeconomy Alliance conference, entitled ‘Key technologies in the bioeconomy’. Opened by the Queensland Treasurer, The Honourable Cameron Dick, this truly international conference brought together colleagues from around the world to present, discuss and debate key issues in this area. A huge congratulations to Gary Schenk (SCMB) and colleagues for driving the establishment of this alliance, for leading the development of the UQ Bioeconomy Capability Statement and for organising the conference.
It was wonderful to meet with two groups of undergraduate coursework, postgraduate coursework and research higher degree students at Gatton and St Lucia over the past two weeks, to hear about their experiences and discuss some of the challenges they face. Thank you to Aimee Clarke and team for organising these events.
It was also a pleasure to attend the Emeritus Professor’s annual lunch, where it was wonderful to catch up with many Faculty of Science colleagues, including Michael Drinkwater (SMP and former Associate Dean Academic).
I also attended a farewell for Alastair McEwan, Pro-vice Chancellor Research, and past Deputy Dean of Science and Head of SCMB, to celebrate his enormous contributions and achievements at UQ over a 30 year period. Thanks to Al for his leadership and mentorship over this time and all the best for the future.
There were lots of reasons to celebrate during UQ Research Week with Awards for excellence in research, research training, 3-minute thesis, research partnerships, and research culture. See above congratulations for award recipients in the Faculty of Science.
It was great to see the Gatton Campus holding an R U OK day presentation and BBQ brekky event on Thursday 14 September.
The 20th Science Undergraduate Research Conference (UQ SURC) was held on Saturday 23 September at UQ St Lucia, featuring oral and poster presentations by undergraduate research students. Thanks to Gurion Ang (SENV), Elizabeth Krenske (SCMB) and the organising committee for their work in making the event a success, and congratulations to the prize winners: Emma Prewett, Laura Huelshoff, Edmund Goebel, Morgan Larder, Jared Heymann, and Sarah Wilkey.
And at the 2023 Women in Technology awards, the Wonder of Science team won the Raising the Regions Award. The WoS program (UQ Graduate School and partner universities) inspires excellence in STEM education by co-ordinating more than 140 young science ambassadors across the state to visit participating schools and support students to undertake a term-long, curriculum-aligned research project and then present their findings at a conference in their region.
And finally, a few placeholders for upcoming events:
- BrisScience: Artificial intelligence – the science behind the hype. 6:30pm Monday 9 October
- The Faculty of Science Teaching and Learning Forum has been scheduled for 9am on Friday 3 November
- The Faculty of Science semester two all-staff forum has been scheduled for 9:30am on Friday 24 November
Further details and/or invitations will be distributed soon.
December Graduation dates can be found at myUQ, starting on Thursday 7 December at Gatton.
UQ Thank You events at St Lucia and Gatton will be announced soon.
Other news
Sagadevan Mundree has commenced as the new Head of the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability. Felicity Ray (AGFS) has commenced as the Acting Faculty Executive Manager whilst Patrick Testa is on long-service leave, and Rona Barugahare has commenced as Acting School Manager in AGFS.
The Department of Industry, Science and Resources has released a consultation paper on the draft science and research priorities for Australia. Please consider making a submission noting the closing date is today (Friday 29 September).
An update on the UQ Health faculties review has been provided in yesterday’s all-staff message from the VC.
Health and Safety
Please be aware of the elevated risk of significant bushfires in Australia over spring and summer. Please see UQ Safety Alert and familiarise yourselves with local business continuity plans which are currently being updated in schools, units, campuses and sites across the Faculty of Science.
Kind regards,
Professor Melissa Brown
Executive Dean - Faculty of Science