Executive Dean’s Message - May 2025

Dear colleagues,

This week is National Reconciliation Week, a time to for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to learn more about our shared histories, cultures and achievements, to reflect on the past and explore opportunities for a more inclusive future. UQ, including the Faculty of Science, have and will continue to run a number of important NRW events, which will continue to run until Tuesday 3 June. Thank you to our Indigenous Engagement Manager, Shaelene Lake, and the many staff across the Faculty of Science who contributed to or participated in these activities. Please see below for more details.

This week is also the final week of Semester 1 teaching. An enormous thank you to everyone involved in teaching for your incredible efforts, including for navigating the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Alfred and the increase in enrolments on many of our courses. Thanks in advance for the support you will provide students in the lead up to exams and the significant task of marking assessment items and attending examiners meetings that will follow. I hope you will have the opportunity for a well-deserved break at the end-of-semester.

It’s been a busy month, with some amazing achievements for Faculty of Science staff, and a number of excellent events and future opportunities to come together and to celebrate our colleagues.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Hugh Possingham (SENV) who has received the highest of honours, being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. The Royal Society is the world’s oldest scientific academy and includes Charles Darwin amongst its fellows. Relatively few fellowships are awarded to international researchers and its just wonderful that Hugh is now one of this elite group of outstanding scientists. 

Congratulations also to Tamara Davis (SMP) and Trevor Ireland (SENV), who have been elected as Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science in recognition of their remarkable achievements in their respective fields of astrophysics and geochemistry. Congratulations also to Nicole Webster, an Honorary Professor at UQ who was a Principal Research Fellow in the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics in SCMB, and is now the Executive Director for the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania.

Congratulations to Karen Cheney (SENV), who has been appointed as the next Director of the Centre for Marine Science at UQ. Karen brings a deep passion for marine research and fieldwork, paired with an outstanding record of leadership in marine science initiatives in her previous roles, including Academic Director of the Moreton Bay Research Station. As Director, she will focus on strengthening partnerships with industry to support multidisciplinary research projects, deepening engagement with Indigenous Partner Organisations, and enhancing communication and collaboration across Centre members. Many thanks to Mike Noad (SVS) for doing an amazing job as the previous Director of the Centre for Marine Science for three years and the Academic Director of MBRS for five and a half years, with outcomes including implementing an improved governance model at MBRS, developing much stronger relationships with Traditional Owners on Minjerribah, establishing an excellent partnership with the Faculty of Science Advancement Team, leading to alumni events at MBRS and HIRS, co-development of the Healthy Moreton Bay Case for Philanthropic support, planning for new infrastructure at MBRS, recasting and recruiting to the role of Boating and Diving Manager, more regular communications to CMS members.

Congratulations to Olivia Jessop for being recognised as an Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) Emerging Leader, joining an emerging leaders network that was established by ATSE in 2024. Olivia completed her honours year studying the evolution of host-pathogen coevolution using mathematical modelling in SENV and taught mathematics in SMP, and is now undertaking a PhD at the UQCCR in the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Science.

Congratulations to the UQ RRAP teams, led by Pete Mumby (SENV), Cynthia Riginos (SENV) and Tom Baldock (EAIT) and their truly amazing staff and students for their outstanding contributions and impact focused on protecting and rebuilding the Great Barrier Reef. The outcomes of these teams was recently presented at a 3-day conference at QUT and the feedback on all of the UQ RRAP speakers has been fabulous. Congratulations and well done all!

Past and future events

25 in 25 celebrations

25 in 25, the 25th anniversary celebration of UQ’s undergraduate and postgraduate Biotechnology teaching programs, was launched with some wonderful events earlier this month. Thank you to Science Advancement and SCMB for creating such great experiences to celebrate this achievement. And thank you to our stellar panellists and presenters – including Ross Barnard, Paul Young, Liz Aitken, Kym Baker, Trent Munro and Ali Alhomaidan – many student volunteers, and all the curious minds who joined us in these celebrations. 

SMP Industry Partners Night

It was also fantastic to attend the School of Mathematics and Physics Industry Partners night, which showcased the SMP Summer Industry Experience program with presentations from recent interns, current industry partners and SMP academics. Congratulations on a great program and especially to see the enormous benefits for students. Thanks to Meagan Carney, Nan Ye, Ebinazar Namdas, Murray Kane, Kate Ewen, Michael Forbes, Lara Atzeni and Joe Grotowski for a great event.

National Reconciliation Week

It’s been great to see Faculty members so engaged in National Reconciliation Week this year, with excellent presentations from Bruce Gululai Phillips, Joshua Waters and Coen Hird, along with other UQ-wide events. A big thank you to Shae Lake for enthusiastically driving Science’s efforts this year and to the Marketing Communication and Future Students team for helping promote. The week raps up on Tuesday next week, so get involved and consider joining the Faculty’s Deadly Tunes group on Teams – run by Science’s own Dani Nash – to keep up to date with Indigenous musical artists.

UQ All Staff Forum

The first UQ All Staff Forum for this year will be held in-person or online on Thursday 5 June 2025, 1pm for 1:15–3:15pm AEST. At the Forum, the Vice-Chancellor will share updates from across UQ, celebrate our achievements, talk about our recent performance, provide a sector update and outline our focus for the remainder of the year, and take questions. Venues include:

• St Lucia: GHD Auditorium, Advanced Engineering Building (49)
• Gatton: Learning Theatre 132, Animal Industries Building (8103)
• Online: Via the Zoom livestream (Zoom link sent via email after registration)

Spaces may be limited for the in-person venues, so please register as soon as possible to reserve your place. Further details and registration can be found online.

Upcoming Faculty of Science Semester 1 All Staff Forum

The first Faculty of Science All Staff Forum for 2025 will be held on Tuesday 17 June 2025 from 10:00am to 12:00pm, followed by refreshments. The forum will include a short presentation from the Dean including achievements, updates, future opportunities and responses to questions. This will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A on the opportunities and threats associated with artifical intelligence. The forum will be a hybrid meeting, hosted in person at St Lucia, with the option of participating via a group Zoom from each of our sites or from any location of your choice. Refreshments will be served after the event at St Lucia, Gatton MBRS, HIRS and HVRS. Questions on any topics are always welcome from everyone. Please submit your questions online before the meeting using this questions link, or bring your questions along to the meeting. I’m very much looking forward to seeing you on June 17!

Opportunities

2025 UQ Awards for Excellence

A friendly reminder that nominations for the 2025 UQ Awards for Excellence are currently open and will close this evening (Friday 30 May) at 5pm. These annual awards are a great opportunity to recognise the hard work and dedication of your colleagues. There are seven award categories: community; innovation; service; reconciliation; diversity and inclusion; mental and physical health, safety and wellness; and leadership. For guidance on how to complete and submit a nomination or more information on submission requirements and eligibility criteria can be found on the UQ Awards for Excellence webpage. If you have any questions, please email awards@uq.edu.au.

Career Advancement for Senior Academic Women Program

This incredibly successful program is re-launching in 2025, with new facilitators and a refreshed structure, while maintaining its core purpose and objectives. You may be aware that both the Career Progression for Women (CPW) and Career Advancement for Senior Academic Women (CASAW) programs have had a long and successful history at UQ, previously led by Professor Polly Parker (BEL Faculty) and Jennifer Witheriff (HR). Following Polly and Jen’s departure from UQ, the Organisational Culture and Capability team have worked in collaboration with a group of passionate past program participants to re-shape and re-launch the programs. CPW launched and ran in 2024-2025, and CASAW launches this year in 2025. This year, CASAW will be co-facilitated by Professor Kelly Matthews, Professor Jess Mar, and Brydie Bailey. More information about the program structure, dates, and eligibility criteria can be found on the new CASAW website.  

UQ Academic Confirmation and promotions changes

There have been a few changes to the UQ academic confirmation and promotion committees across the university. The key changes are:

• The Local Confirmation and Promotion committee (LCPC) will be split into two separate committees: Local Promotion Committee (LPC) and Local Confirmation Committee (LCC)
• Faculty of Science committees will consider applicants from IMB (in addition to QAAFI, which was already the case)
• The Executive Dean can delegate their role as Chair to a Deputy Dean or Associate Dean
• There will be a larger pool of committee members to help manager workloads
• The Head of School / Institute Director will attend the meeting for candidates from their School / Institute, to provide advice and answer questions, but not contribute to the interview or subsequent deliberations.

Changes are now reflected in the Confirmation and Promotions Committee Guideline. Faculty HR Client Partners are available to assist applicants throughout the promotion and committee process. For the Faculty of Science, contact capscience@uq.edu.au for guidance.

Kind regards,
Professor Melissa Brown
Executive Dean – Faculty of Science