From the Head

SUBIT

Science and Nature Blitz

Publications

School OH&S Committee

SOBscript

 

 

From the Head

Congratulations to our two successful ARC applicants. Rick Shine has been awarded a new Discovery Grant, "Evolutionary ecology of snakes and lizards", worth $932,000 over 5 years, and John Sved has been awarded a Linkage grant, "Fruit fly pests in northwestern Australia : invasion, hybridisation or evolution?", worth $280,000 over 3 years.


May I also commiserate with those who applied unsuccessfully; remember there are other ways to get funding, and the School will do whatever it can to help with these. Since we had fewer applications than normal, and a lower success rate (20%, where the overall success rate at Sydney was 30%), the Research Committee will be looking into how we can improve our
performance next year. A lot of biology departments seem to have fewer grants than expected, and this may be partly due to the fact that the Research School of Biological Sciences at ANU now has access to ARC funding - whatever the cause, we need to ensure that we diversify our funding and return to our recent high success rate with ARC.

 

Head of School's Report

Staffing

General
Ms Keryn Wilkes took up duties as Associate Lecturer (fixed-term, half-time) from 7 May - 28 September 2001.

Research
Ms Kate Hardie took up duties as HEO Level 5 Research Assistant (Skurray) on 7 May (to 6 May 2002 in the first instance)

Ms Joanne Browne took up duties as HEO Level 5 Research Assistant (Pitt) on 21 May 2001 (to 20 May 2002 in the first instance).

Honorary Appointments

Honorary Reader - Dr Meats' appointment as Honorary Associate has been changed to that of Honorary Reader

Honorary Associate Professor - A/Professor Armati's appointment as Honorary Associate has been changed to that of Honorary Associate Professor

Visiting Scholar
Mr Wonje Lee (nominated by Professor Patterson/Dr Rouse)

Honorary Associate
Dr Michael Gray (nominated by Professor Shine)
Dr Nihal Agar (nominated by Professor Hume)
Dr D Woodside (nominated by A/Professor Hinde)

 

Jul - Sept '01

HEAD OF SCHOOL'S REPORT


Staffing

Academic
Lectureship in Marine Biology
15 applicants have been shortlisted for referees' reports.

General
Mr Richard Potts (HEO 4, First Year Biology) is taking 6 months' leave without pay. Ms Olivia Hamilton has been appointed to the position during his absence, from 7 August 2001 to 10 January 2002.

Research
Dr Jonathan Webb took up duties as Postdoctoral Fellow on 12 June 2001 (to 11 December).
Mr Stephen Kwong has taken up duties as Level A (Research-only academic) (NH&MRC-Skurray) on 25 June (to 31 December 2001 in the first instance).
Dr Lousie Cole took up duties as Level B Research Fellow on 1 August 2001 (to 31 December 2003).

Honorary Appointments approved by the Dean

Visiting Scholar
Dr A Bouskila (nominated by Dr Dickman)
Dr J Stewart (nominated by A/Professor Thompson)
Mr J Strasburg (nominated by Dr Melville)

Honorary Associate
Mr R de Kroon (nominated by A/Professor Armati)

Special Honorary Appointment

Congratulations to Professor Skurray on his election to the Keeley Visiting Fellowship at Wadham College, Oxford for the Michaelmas Term, during his period of Study Leave.



 

SUBIT

On the 26th of July the Vice Chancellor approved a proposal to establish a new center in bioinformatics at the University of Sydney.

The summary of the proposal follows:

The Sydney University Biological Informatics and Technology Centre (SUBIT) will be established on the main campus in a suitable building to promote the newly emerging needs of the Life Sciences in handling large and complex bodies of digitalized information in well established as well as newly emerging disciplines, such as genomics, proteomics, pharmacoinformatics, phylogenetics, medicine and biodiversity assessment. The Centre will consolidate and strengthen the leading role that the University has already taken nationally in Bioinformatics with the establishment of the Australian Genomic Information Centre, the spin-off company Entigen and the new degree structures, B Sc (Bioinformatics) and B Sc (Molecular Biotechnology). The Centre will draw upon all these current strands to promote the discipline of Bioinformatics throughout the University of Sydney, while at the same time taking advantage of the synergies provided by the expanded ANGIS, i.e. ANBIF - the Australian National Biological Informatics Facility. ANBIF will be in the same building and will be a Major National Resource Facility (MNRF) with nodes at 5 sites around Australia, but with its home base and engineering base at the University of Sydney. The Centre will be financed partly by industry and partly through grants, with estimated overheads of $3.0M per annum. Joint appointments with the existing departments will be made to ensure that there is a strong link to the University's teaching programs at all levels.

The proposal was spearheaded by

1. Prof. J. Chalmers (Institute of International Health)
2. Dr L. S. Jermiin (School of Biological Sciences)
3. Prof. A. W. D. Larkum (School of Biological Sciences)
4. A/Prof. Tim Littlejohn (Australian Genomic Information Centre)

but with substantial input from our many colleagues in the Faculties of Science and Medicine.

If you need more information about the proposal of SUBIT please contact me or Tony Larkum.

All the best,

Lars

Publications

Publications submitted to the School Database Since the Last Newsletter
Journal
Adcock, GJ, Dennis, ES, Easteal, S, Huttley, GA, Jermiin, LS, Peacock, WJ & A Thorne. (2001). Human origins and ancient human DNA: Response. Science. 292:1656

Allaway, WG & AE Ashford. (2001). Motile tubular vacuoles in extramatrical mycelium and sheath hyphae of ectomycorrhizal systems. Protoplasma. 215:218-225

Allaway, WG., Curran, M., Hollington, LM., Ricketts, MC. & NJ. Skelton. (2001). Gas space and oxygen exchange in roots of Avicennia marina (Forssk.) Vierh. var. australasica (Walp.) Moldenke ex N.C. Duke, the Grey Mangrove. Wetlands Ecol. Managmnt. 9:211-218

Allen, LR. & ID. Hume. (2001). The maintenance nitrogen requirement of the Zebra Finch Taeniopygia guttata. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 74:366-375

Andorfer, B., Kieseier, BC., Mathey, E., Armati, P., Pollard, J., Oka, N. & H-P. Hartung. (2001). Expression and distribution of transcription factor NF-kB and inhibitor IkB in the inflamed peripheral nervous system. J. Neuroimmunol. 116:226-232

Barron, AB. & BP. Oldroyd. (2001). Social regulation of ovary activation in 'anarchistic' honey-bees (Apis mellifera). Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 49:214-219.

Board, PG, Chelvanayagam, G, Jermiin, LS, Tetlow, N, Tzeng, H-F, Anders, MW & AC Blackburn. (2001). Identification of novel glutathione transferases and polymorphic variants by expressed sequence tag database analysis. Drug Metab. Disposition. 29:544-547

Clarke, KE, Oldroyd, BP, Javier, J, Quezada-Euan, G & T Rinderer. (2001). Origin of honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) from the Yucatan peninsula inferred from mitochondrial DNA analysis. Mol. Ecol. 10:1347-1355

Corso, M. & M. Thomson. (2001). Protein phosphorylation in mitochondria from human placenta. Placenta. 22:432-439

Dibbayawan, TP., Harper, JDI. & J. Marc. (2001). A gamma-tubulin antibody against a plant peptide sequence localises to cell division-specific microtubule arrays and organelles in plants. Micron. 32:671-678

Dorfman, EJ., Lamont, A. & CR. Dickman. (2001). Foraging behaviour and success of Black-necked Storks (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus) in Australia: impications for management. Emu. 101:145-149

Franklin, S. & M. Peat. (2001). Managing change: The use of mixed delivery modes to increase learning opportunities. Aust. J. Educational Technol. 17:37-49

Jakobsen IB, Saleeba JA, Poidinger M & TG Littlejohn. (2001). TreeGeneBrowser: phylogenetic data mining of gene sequences from public sequence databases. Bioinformatics. 17:535-540

Markovina, A-L. & PA. McGee. (2001). Comparison of symbiotic and asymbiotic seed germination and plantlet development in Sarchochilus (Vandeae; Orchidaceae). Lindleyana. 15:68-72

Palmer, KA & BP Oldroyd. (2001). Mating frequency in Apis florea revisited (Hymenoptera, Apidae). Insectes soc. 48:40-43

Peat, M., Dalziel, J. & AM. Grant. (2001). Enhancing the First Year Student experience by facilitating the development of peer networks through a one-day workshop. Higher Educatn. Res. Dev. 20:199-215

Seebacher, F. (2001). A new method to calculate allometric length-mass relationships of dinosaurs. J. Vert. Paleontol. 21:51-60

Seebacher, F. & G.C. Grigg. (2001). Changes in heart rate are important for thermoregulation in the varanid lizard Varanus varius. J. Comp. Physiol. B. 171:395-400

Spencer, R-J., Thompson, MB. & PB. Banks. (2001). Hatch or wait? A dilemma in reptilian incubation. Oikos. 93:401-406


Science and Nature Blitz

 

Members of the School have recently begun a blitz on the high profile publications, Science and Nature. Lars Jermiin published another paper in his series on Mungo Man in Science ( June 1) and Kylie Robert published her paper on temperature dependent sex determination in a viviparous skink in Nature (August 16).

Congratulations to both authors

 

 

School OH&S Committee

 

From September 1, a new act covers Ocupation Health and Safety in NSW ( policy at this link www.workcover.nsw.gov.au). As a result of this act the School has established a new OH&S Committee to ensure that the School complies with the new legislation. and to assist individual labs and researchers with meeting the new requirements for using hazardous goods and developing Risk Assessments for all hazardous proceedures.

The committee will post regular updates in the newsletter and the minutes of the meeting can found on the School's website (click here ). As an introduction into what the new legislation means to individuals in the School, the committee has arranged for Patrick Dunn, OH&S officer with Risk Management, to give a seminar on Friday October 5, in the DTA Lecture Theatre at 1-2pm. There will be inducements for those who attend!

Mark Ahern for OH&S committee.

 

 

SOBscript

Double honours for the Bee Lab.

At the recent Genetics Society of Australia meeting in Adelaide, two School members received awards. Kellie Palmer, PhD candidate, was awarded the prestigious Smith-White (after the (in)famous Sydney Professor) Student Travel Award, which she will use to attend the International Union for the Study of Social Insects congress to be held in Berlin in September.

Not to be outdone, Emilie Cameron, who recently submitted her Honours thesis on mating behaviour in stingless bees, was awarded the prize for the best talk by an Honours student. Congratulations to both.


From First Year Biology:-

In FYB we are all recovering from the marking frenzy which was bigger than ever!! We all feel like we are full of cakes etc from the pseudo competition for the best and most interesting cake!! A few of us we lucky enough to miss some of this as they were in the field.

I went to Tampere in Finland, about 200km north of Helsinki to present a workshop and a paper at the EDMEDIA2001 conference. One of the highlights was a surprise outing for the workshop presenters - it was to a Finnish Sauna, women first, men second. We were welcomed by a dignitary and had good Aussie wine to drink. The sauna was an amazing experience, pretty hot at 120 degrees C, birch leaves to beat yourself with, and a swim in the cold lake followed by more wine and dinner.

 

The Last Installment- Bill Allaway's Swedish Opus.

Over Prennegatan

Early spring morning:
Hear the sound of God breathing.
A hot-air balloon.


Glad midsommar!

On midsummer's eve we went to a nearby village to the midsummer celebrations. Girls and boys with wreaths of wild flowers in their hair, a huge (15-20 ft high) 'midsommerstång' - a cross with a hoop on each arm, completely covered with leaves and flowers. Gentle folk music, and simple dancing in contra-rotating rings. Everybody calm but happy and laughing. Delightful!

After this, we were treated to the traditional Swedish midsummer feast - matjes sill (a special kind of pickled salt herring, pretty similar to all the others to our un-refined palates), new potatoes, sour cream with chives, hard bread, dark bread and cheese, all followed by strawberries and cream, and accompanied by beer and schnaps with 'skål-ing'. This is the full midsummer feast, apparently, consumed by everyone that day over the whole country.

That's all from Sweden, bye for now

Departures

August saw the departure of two members of the School to new horizons at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga. John Harper and Nim Weerakoon will be sadly missed by all, although we wish them all the best in their new endevours. Pictures of the farewell can be viewed here!

And to close this issue of the newsletter a priceless image of our staff working flat out on the Ecophysiology field trip held earlier this year - Assoc Prof Thompson has been at me for ages to show the School how hard we actually worked!