uwa news - uwa staff : uwa staff€¦ · inheritance code for plants. this discovery has huge...

UWA NEWS5 May 2008 Volume 27 Number 5

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by Lindy Brophy

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A childhood friendship was the catalyst for a major international development in genetic research at UWA that has captured the imagination of the science world.

Researchers in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, in collaboration with colleagues at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in California, have mapped the genetic switches that determine the epigenetic inheritance code for plants.

This discovery has huge implications for a fundamental understanding of the inherited function of genes and has the potential for application in plant breeding and food production and eventually could help to unlock the secrets of cancer and other human diseases.

Professor Harvey Millar (above left) and his PhD student Julian Tonti-Filippini (above right) are the UWA researchers in the project, and their joint publication with the Salk Institute was this week published on the front cover of Cell, a leading international molecular biology journal.

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Mr Tonti Filippini is a co-first author with Dr Ryan Lister, who completed his PhD in 2005 in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology at UWA, won a Human Frontier Science Program fellowship for a post-doctoral position at the Salk Institute and has been there for 18 months.

He and Mr Tonti Filippini have been friends since they were children, so when Dr Lister needed help with managing his research team’s epigenetic data, he asked Julian.

“It had to be somebody he trusted because he gave us direct access to the institute’s valuable collection of data,” said Mr Tonti Filippini, who is a bioinformaticist, describing himself as more of computer programmer than a plant biologist.

What started as a side project to help out the Salk Institute team grew into a ground-breaking discovery that will help molecular biologists to make sense of their data.

“Everybody has data management problems,” Professor Millar said. “It is a big hole internationally that needs to be filled, and we think this development of Julian’s will radically change the way epigenetic data can be visualised and, in turn, what we can learn from it.”

Epigenetics is a science focused on unlocking the secret codes that determine which genes are turned on and which are turned off. The settings of these switches, which exist in all living plants and animals, are called methylation points. Until now, scientists did not have a clear picture of how many methylation points a biological system had, or the tools to find them all.

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Genetic code cracked

Software written by Mr Tonti-Filippini proved critical in handling, analysing and visualising the Terabytes of data generated by the study. A revolutionary genome-browser called Anno-J shows the exact location of more than two million methylation points in the plant genome by displaying “aligned reads from deep sequencing data” generated by Dr Lister in the laboratory of Dr Joe Ecker at the Salk Institute.

“The DNA sequence in a gene changes over long periods of time and is generally permanent,” Professor Millar explained. “But now we have the tools to map and see the methylation points or switches that can change heritable gene expression much more quickly, and then change them back again, without altering the basic sequence of the DNA.”

The team used a plant called Arabidopsis for this research, the ‘lab rat’ of plant science.

“When we studied mutants that lacked enzymes that methylate or de-methylate DNA, we saw large heritable changes in methylation patterns which up and down regulated a large number of genes, without us changing the DNA of these genes in the plant,” said Mr Tonti Filippini.

If scientists can learn how to regulate gene expression via epigenetics, there are implications for cancer treatment in humans as well as the production of food and biofuels through tailored plant feedstocks. UWA’s plant biologists are paving the way for life-saving developments by helping in the establishment of the technologies needed for epigenome sequencing.

“Julian’s programming and data analysis skills have been essential for the project,” Professor Millar said. “The Salk Institute had so much data but couldn’t display or analyse it to the degree they knew it needed. Raw data is wasted when you can’t manipulate it effectively.” “People all over the world have been looking for a system like this,” Professor Millar said.

He and Mr Tonti Filippini work in the Australian Research Council-funded ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology and in the WA Government-funded State Centre of Excellence in Computational Systems Biology.

These centres are dedicated to discovering and characterising the molecular components and control mechanisms that drive energy metabolism in plant cells. This is vital for determining the timing and rate of plant growth and development, the biomass and yield of grain, fruits and crops, the efficient use of water and mineral nutrients and the tolerance of plants to environmental stresses such as excess light and drought.

Dr Ryan Lister gave access to his group’s data

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UWA NEWS 5 May 2008 The University of Western Australia2

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When a sparkling new BMW X5 was delivered to the Vice-Chancellery recently, some people thought it was a new car for Professor Alan Robson.

But no such luck for the Vice-Chancellor. The luxury four-wheel drive has been donated by BMW for research into driver assistance systems, to help curb the road toll by providing drivers with computerised aids.

Associate Professor Thomas Braunl’s work on robotics and automation in the School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering took him on sabbatical to the Technical University of Munich last year.

“They had good contacts with BMW and Audi and I asked if we could get an older vehicle for our research,” A/Professor Braunl said. “They said they would give us a brand new vehicle with zero kilometres on the clock. Unfortunately, it is not licensed so there’s no joy-riding, just research being done with it!”

He said that driver assistance systems were already being installed in some luxury cars and a brand of truck to try to make driving safer.

“The early systems were radar-based. Their active cruise control could measure the distance between the car and the vehicle in front and keep the distance constant, instead of just keeping the speed constant.

“We are now looking at systems using image processing: actual cameras that look at surrounding cars and road conditions and modify the driving accordingly,” he said.

“With the camera we can identify the lane markings on the road and install a warning system if the driver goes too close to it. This is especially useful for long-haul truck drivers who might get sleepy and drift across into the next lane.”

A/Professor Braunl said technically it would be possible for a car to be totally automated. “But if it was involved in an accident, the blame would lie with the manufacturer, not the driver, so the car companies are keeping well away from that idea,” he said.

With the camera we can identify the lane markings on the road and install a warning system if the driver goes too close to it

for safer driving

Luxury research

His group’s innovation is to work towards embedding the driver assistance system into a small independent device similar to a satellite navigation system.

“It could then be attached to the windscreen of any car and you could have the benefit of the system without having to buy a car with the system installed,” he said.

“Maybe, in the future, it could even be part of your mobile phone. All it needs is the right software.”

The group includes A/Professor Braunl’s PhD student Adrian Boeing, who went to Munich on sabbatical with him last year. “Adrian developed the vehicle regulation and tracking software that will be part of our device.

“We hope to eventually include more advanced functions,” he said. “The industry is looking at braking systems that could detect a potential collision, which would trigger full braking capacity with just a touch of the brake pedal. This would need quite advanced sensors.”

Associate Professor Thomas Braunl hopes this device will ultimately make the roads a safer place

The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 5 May 2008 3

Alan Robson Vice-Chancellor

Amidst major national discussions last month on higher education, on campus there was significant reinforcement of the University’s primary mission through our autumn graduation ceremonies at which more than 2,750 students received bachelor degrees, diplomas, masters degrees and higher degrees

The awards included 75 PhDs from across all faculties, as well as degrees and diplomas to 660 graduates from business, more than 200 engineers, 109 doctors and 98 teachers.

These graduation events, held in autumn and spring, remain a most important reminder of the human realities of our University environment and provide very tangible evidence of our contribution to society. Our highly-talented graduates are destined to become leaders in business, industry, government, academia and the community more generally.

Along with the success of students, our graduation ceremonies also recognise the extraordinary work of individuals within our broader community through the awarding of Honorary Degrees. These are offered to those who have provided distinguished service or reached significant attainments in the areas of community and public service, private sector engagement, international links, academic achievement, or contribution to the arts.

At our autumn graduations, 11 such honorary degrees were awarded to: Mr Brettney Fogarty (Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters) Mrs Annie Fogarty (Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters) Ms Sara Macliver (Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music)Mr Kerry Hill (Honorary Degree of Doctor of Architecture) Mr John Poynton (Honorary Degree of Doctor of Commerce) Mr Terry Enright (Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science in Agriculture) Dr James Ross (Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science) Professor The Honourable David Malcolm (Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws) Ms Erica Smyth (Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters) Dr Brian Lawn (Honorary Degree of Doctor of Engineering) Dr Richard Pestell (Honorary Degree of Doctor of Medicine).

The success of our honorary degree recipients in Australia and on the global scene, along with the extremely high quality of all our graduates, reminds us that they are the greatest reflection of the strength of our University and its contribution to society.

Along with the graduation ceremonies last month, there was also wider interaction with the community through the University’s annual Parents’ Welcome for the parents of new undergraduate students.

A record number of more than 1,130 parents responded to our invitation and the significance of the event is reflected in the fact that by far the majority of parents (some 87 per cent) indicated that their son or daughter was their first child in their family to study at The University of Western Australia. As a result, for most parents, this was their first visit to the University.

The University owes its thanks to the staff who volunteered their Saturday afternoon to present at information sessions and to act as tour guides for the Parents’ Welcome.

Graduations reflect the strength of our University

Professor Jorg Imberger has been invited by His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh to speak in London.

The Director of the Centre for Water Research will be giving the prestigious RSA (Royal Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) Prince Philip Lecture, delivered annually by world leaders.

Professor Imberger is expected to give a global perspective on challenges in water management in the 21st century. He will dine at the 250-year-old RSA, one of the UK’s oldest and most respected think tanks, with Prince Philip, who will chair the event.

The lecture will be broadcast live on the RSA’s website, with an MP3 available to download afterwards.

Professor Imberger’s audience will be a mixture of RSA Fellows and non-specialist members, plus others working in the field, policy makers and academics.

His lecture follows RSA events featuring prestigious speakers such as Kofi Annan, Al Gore, Amartya Sen and Jeffrey Sachs.

“Professor Imberger’s invitation to address the RSA is a reflection of the international excellence attained by many of our researchers,” said Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Robson.

“Although our University is in one of the world’s most isolated cities, it has a lot to contribute on solving some of the global community’s most urgent problems, including water use.”

Professor Imberger will be presenting the Prince Philip Lecture at RSA House, Central London, at 6pm on Wednesday, June 11.

Royal address


Time stood still for Craig Atkins through 30 years of prize-givings, media conferences and meetings in the Vice-Chancellery’s Prescott Room.

All he recalls from those many occasions is the beautiful antique French calendar clock that stood not working on a side table.

“I finally got sick of it and asked Alan if I could take it away and get it working again,” said the Emeritus Professor of Plant Biology. And it is now a going concern.

Professor Atkins’ father collected clocks and he grew up surrounded by them.

“Dad lived in the country, so I used to buy a lot of his clocks for him,” E/Professor Atkins said. “I remember buying one in 1958 for 400 guineas, which Dad sold before he died for nearly $400,000. It was a windmills clock made in 1690 for the Lord Mayor of London. There were only three of them: one is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, one belongs to the Queen and is in Holyrood House, Edinburgh, and we had the third one.”

The mantle clock in the Prescott Room was given to the University by a former Senate member Dr William J Hancock in 1931. E/Professor Atkins said it was made in France in the second half of the 19th century by clockmakers Louis-Achille Brocot of Paris.

“But, interestingly, it has the name McMaster of Dublin on the face of the clock,” he said. “McMaster would have made the case, which I think is marble, but the workings are definitely French.

“The escapement, on the front of the upper dial, regulates the transfer of energy from the pendulum, or in this case, the spring, to the movement of the hands. This clock has two ruby jewel posts that engage the escapement wheel. It is known as a

French timepiece

ticks again

Brocot escapement and was patented by the maker in the early 19th century.”

The lower dial shows the date and the difference between solar time and clock time. “This varies throughout the year because the Earth’s access is tilted and the Earth’s orbit around the sun is elliptical,” he explained.

E/Professor Atkins said the key to wind the clock had been lost. “The clock wasn’t damaged, just very dirty inside,

so I had a clockmaker friend clean it and make a new key. I got it running again and regulated it. It should be OK now as long as somebody in the Vice-Chancellery remembers to wind it every 24 days.”

After restoring the clock to its place in the Prescott Room, E/Professor Atkins was going home to his three Morgans (British racing cars) and to work on his second book (co-authored with two English colleagues) on racing cars.

Emeritus Professor Craig Atkins is delighted to see this clock working


Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called for ‘big ideas’ at the 2020 Summit and UWA presented him with just that - eight of our leading academics whose motivation for change may help create the better future Australia is looking for.

More than 1,000 delegates from around the nation were called upon to attend the two-day talkfest in Canberra to discuss ideas on climate change through to the possibility of creating a national education curriculum.

Individual contributions made at the Summit by our attending academic staff will be looked at in future issues of UWA News, but here is taste of who went, and what may be to come:

A tax on junk food, alcohol and tobacco to fund a national preventative health agency and programs to keep people healthy received strong support from experts in the long-term national health strategy stream of the Summit, attended by Dr Fiona Wood, 2005 Australian of Year, and clinical professor in the University’s School of Surgery. The creation of a healthbook website similar to Facebook also raised discussion and will be considered along with recommendations on creating a self-sufficient and flexible medical workforce.

Australia’s future security and prosperity workshop was attended by Dr Gary Sigley, director of the University’s Confucius Institute and senior lecturer in the School of Social and Cultural Studies, and Associate Professor Samina Yasmeen, who both contributed their knowledge of culture and language to Summit discussions on the national and international community in our rapidly changing world. Ideas which evolved in this area included linking Australians to Asian communities through school partnerships and establishing four institutes to look at Australia’s relationship with Japan, China, the US and India.

Holding the government accountable on Indigenous issues through the creation of a new watchdog got discussion under way in the Options for the future of Indigenous Australians stream, attended by Adele Cox, lecturer at the UWA Centre for Aboriginal Medical and Dental Heath, Dr Christine Jeffries-Stokes from the School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care and chief investigator of the Eastern Goldfields Renal Project, and Professor Fiona Stanley, 2003 Australian of the Year and director of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in UWA’s Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. All three women contributed their much-valued insight into Indigenous

Our group of eight at

by Natali Morgan

Australia, acquired over their many years of work with Indigenous communities. Delegates also looked into increasing the formal and legal recognition of Aborigines with a possible treaty.

Building upon the Indigenous Australia discussion was the Creative Australia stream, where Indigenous culture was recognised as core to creativity in Australia. Discussing the expansion and development of education in arts and creativity to enrich and support cultural endeavours, were Shelagh Magadaza, artistic director of the Perth International Arts Festival, and Professor Margaret Seares, UWA Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Other key policy ideas raised included

boosting Australian television content and establishing a ministry of culture with funding access to research and development.

With myriad ideas from delegates across all Summit streams, public submissions, internet blog sites and the media, many will await the government’s response to the Report of the Summit (end of 2008)

with baited breath. What will the future hold? Will it be changed? One thing is for certain – although the government’s response is important, we are all passionate about pursuing our imagined future and it is we, as like-minded individuals, who will set about creating its path.

The future is in our hands, a notion poignantly captured by Mr Rudd at the closing of the Summit: “I don’t want to wake up one morning in the year 2020 with the regret of not having acted when I had the chance; that’s why it’s important to plan ahead,” he said.

“I don’t want to have to explain to my kids, and perhaps their kids too, that we failed to act, that we avoided the tough decisions, that we failed to prepare Australia for its future challenges.

“We can either take command of the future or we can sit back and allow the future to take command of us.”

Read about what our delegates had to say in the next issue of UWA News.

I don’t want to wake up one morning in the year 2020 with the regret of not having acted when I had the chancePrime Minister, Kevin Rudd

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Perhaps Narcissus would not have come to grief if he had had a colleague’s reflection at which to gaze.

The Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences began a peer reflection initiative recently by taking the participating staff members to the Reflection Pond, so they could look deep into their own reflections and those of their colleagues.

The idea is not to become self-obsessed, as Narcissus did, but to see in the teaching colleague with whom you are partnered, your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as theirs.

Dr Alexandra Ludewig, the faculty’s associate dean (education) is keen to involve new, sessional and casual teaching staff in the initiative, as they often miss out on or are in need of professional development.

“The scheme is voluntary and involves nominating an aspect of teaching you wish to work on; teaming up with another interested staff member; observing each other’s teaching and providing feedback; meeting with your peer as often as you both need to during the year; and submitting a one-page report at the end of each semester,” Dr Ludewig explained.

Reflecting on teaching

Teaching and learning project officer Susan Gazey has been appointed to oversee and facilitate the program. She will provide resources, guidance and advice.

Dr Lee Partridge, a lecturer in the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL), helped the faculty to set up the program last year.

“The Dean nominated 10 excellent teachers to participate,” Dr Partridge said. “I ran a workshop to help them come up with a framework for evaluating a peer’s teaching. Then each of them chose another colleague as a partner and 20 of them refined the framework further.

“Then they went away and took turns in watching each other teach.

“They said they all benefitted hugely from this exercise, despite some of them being sceptical at the outset and all of them being good teachers to start with,” she said.

The group then finalised a set of recommendations which the current 10 participants are using now to guide them through the process.

Four other faculties are using or developing peer review techniques. Last year, Natural and Agricultural Sciences used peer review to reflect on ways to improve the delivery of specific units, rather than as a professional development tool for individuals.

The Business School has several trained observers who are available to observe and provide feedback on classroom practice. The Law School is devoting Teaching Month to peer review, with a planned introductory session with CATL. And Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences is implementing a peer review process across all schools.

Dr Ludewig sees the initiative as more than just a chance for individual teachers to improve their performance.

“I see it as a community-building exercise,” she said. “We constantly encourage our students to be part of the University community, and the staff need to do the same.

“We are not going to make it to the list of the world’s top 50 universities if we all stay at home writing our books and not interacting with each other.”

Arts faculty teachers Andrea Bach, Srilata Ravi, Leith Passmore and Sabine Kuuse consider their reflections with Lee Partridge, Alexandra Ludewig and Susan Gazey

T e A C h i n G M o n T h


Encouraging innovation

on our substantial research and teaching expertise.”

Chevron’s Energy Technology Company President Mark Puckett said the program was designed to help develop new technologies and people required to meet the world’s growing energy needs.

“It enhances local and global gas research and education and complements Chevron’s existing alliances with other leading universities and research institutions,” he said.

Chevron recently opened a Global Technology Centre in Perth to provide value-adding research, development and technical support for the company’s Asia Pacific and worldwide operations.

Chevron’s University Partnership Program operates in 18 cities with UWA currently the only Australian university chosen to take part. Universities are selected based on their excellent reputation, forward thinking and result-oriented education development.

The partnership will focus on gas processing, providing professional development to meet industry needs and complementing the work of the Western Australian Energy Research Alliance, the Chevron Energy Technology Centre and the Australian Gas Centre.

engineering partner for UWA

Chevron’s Mark Puckett and Professor Alan Robson seal the partnership program

Global energy company Chevron, has selected UWA to join its prestigious worldwide university partnership program.

The three-year $6.9 million partnership program, including a $2.3 million commitment from Chevron and in-kind funding of $4.6 million from UWA, will fund a Chair in Natural Gas Process Engineering, two postdoctoral appointments and two PhD scholarships.

The University joined universities such as Stanford, Texas A&M and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, the Imperial College London, and Bandung Institute

of Technology in Indonesia when it signed an agreement recently to become part of Chevron’s University Partnership Program.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Robson said the partnership cemented the University’s place as a leading international university of excellence and a world class centre in training engineers and earth scientists.

“This partnership is a great achievement for our University,” said Professor Robson.

“Our relationship with Chevron and its industry and academic partners will enable us to produce more job-ready graduates and allow Chevron to draw

Antoine Musu used his entrepreneurial instincts to develop the University Club

The Business School’s first Master of Business Innovation graduated in the recent ceremonies … which raised the question: Can innovation and entrepreneurship be taught?

“It’s like the argument about leadership,” said Professor Tim Mazzarol, who supervised Antoine Musu, the first graduate from the course.

“There is a lot of theoretical discussion about leadership and whether it can be learned, but, at the same time, there is no empirical evidence that people are born with leadership qualities,” Professor Mazzarol said.

“And it is a similar situation with entrepreneurship. It is an area that students volunteer for. It is certainly not a core subject that everybody who does an MBA has to take.”

Professor Mazzarol presented a paper last year in Europe on entrepreneurial orientation among MBA students. He said his students start off their studies by doing a GET test, to reveal their General Entrepreneurial Tendency.

Another strong


Female veterinarians have double the risk of miscarriage, from exposure to anaesthetics, X-rays and pesticides.

This finding, from PhD research in the School of Population Health, was published recently in the British Medical Journal.

The article was then featured on the health websites of the BBC, Yahoo news, the US Government Health Department and TV and radio stations throughout the UK and US.

While its co-author, Dr Adeleh Shirangi, was being feted by science communities on the other side of the world, she slipped quietly back to Perth to attend her PhD graduation ceremony in Winthrop Hall last month.

Dr Shirangi currently holds a post-doctoral fellowship at London’s Imperial College, where she is looking at exposure to pesticides and their link to congenital birth defects.

This is related to the work she did at Population Health, under the supervision of Professor D’Arcy Holman and Associate Professor Lin Fritschi on occupational hazards in veterinary practice and possible effects on reproductive outcomes in female veterinarians.

Originally from Iran, Dr Shirangi completed a Masters in Public Health at Adelaide University before taking up a position as project co-ordinator at Population Health, of an Australia-wide study into the health risks of veterinarians.

“The project explored the effects of stress and the incidence of cancer and injuries, and led me to my PhD project, where I studied the incidence of miscarriage, birth defects, preterm births and occupational stress,” Dr Shirangi said.

She found that female vets were twice as likely as the general population to have miscarriages due to their working conditions.

Research on world stage,

“There are five qualities needed for entrepreneurship. They are the need for achievement; creativity and above-average capacity for creative thinking; capacity for calculated risk-taking; capacity for autonomous action (or going it alone); and internal locus of control (or the feeling that you are creating your own destiny).

“There are enterprising tendencies in all human beings. How they score is often dependent on their family or work history,” he said.

“I had a student who was a nurse, who scored extremely low in the GET test. I found out that her father had died when she and her siblings were young so they never felt economically safe, so didn’t take risks. Then, being a nurse,

there was no room for risk-taking; she always worked in a team, not alone; and there was no creativity in her work.

“But once we sorted that out, she was able to open up to opportunities and she ended up completing the course and starting and running a successful business with her husband.”

Antoine Musu worked at UWA for several years as a consultant to the University Club.

“With a background in hotels, tourism and leisure, and experience in clubs overseas, I was brought in to advise what could be done with the old University House,” Mr Musu said.

He spent a few weeks walking around the campus listening to people. “I heard

people talking about graduates all the time, and people expecting graduates to come back to the University. But nothing was being done for them. They were excluded, as under-graduates, from the old University House, but were expected to want to return.

“I came up with the vision of a new club for both graduates and staff and, once others could see the vision, I was given the job of giving it a life.”

While working for UWA, Mr Musu took on a Master of Business Administration, which he completed in 2006, the year after he opened the new University Club. He then became one of the first students to enrol in a Master of Business Innovation.

“We found that not all veterinary practices complied with safety guidelines,” she said. “Lead shields, protective thyroid collars and lead glasses are examples of established protective equipment which are not frequently used by veterinarians.”

She said the same chemicals were used in veterinary practices around the world and that protection devices and better ventilation would go a long way in preventing human treproductive problems.

researcher on

Dr Adeleh Shirangi back in Perth for her graduation

Winthrop stage


The world supply of luxury perfumes has been assured by Chris Jones, a PhD candidate in the School of Plant Biology.

While world supplies of natural sandalwood are dwindling, perfumes such as Obsession by Calvin Klein and Opium by Yves St Laurent, which contain the essential oil, can be made using local Western Australian sandalwood.

Once widespread throughout southern WA, but almost wiped during clearing of the grainbelt for farmland, sandalwood or Santalum spicatum and its northern relative S. album, are making a comeback as plantation trees.

“In WA’s Kununurra area close to 2,000 hectares of Santalum album have been planted and more than 4,000 hectares of S. spicatum have been planted in the wheatbelt area of southern WA,” said Chris, who is supervised by Associate Professor Julie Plummer.

Continual harvesting has depleted world supply and WA, with a growing plantation industry, holds 50 per cent of the world-traded market in this timber.

For his thesis, Mr Jones used a three part approach to understand the underlying causes of oil yield variation in the plantation sandalwood, S. album: genetic studies; extractable oil yield and composition; and isolation of oil biosynthesis genes.

Genetic diversity of S. album and two other tropical species from the WA Forest Products Commission

The sweet smell ofsuccess

arboretum at Kununurra were compared. Santalum spicatum, a distant relative from the semi-arid areas of southern and western Australia, was used for comparison. Based on DNA banding patterns, the collection was categorised into 19 broad genetic groups.

“Essential oil yields from these genetically similar trees varied greatly both within and between groups, suggesting a significant environmental influence,” Mr Jones said.

Ancestral lineages were compared, with results suggesting low genetic diversity within the Australian S. album collection was attributed to incomplete seed sourcing and highly restricted gene flow during evolution of the species.

“Based on this study and others, S. album may have come from an overseas dispersal out of northern Australia or Papua New Guinea three to five million years ago,” Mr Jones said.

“Total extractable oil content varied enormously between trees, but individual chemical profiles were almost identical, suggesting limited genetic diversity in this region of the genome.”

In the future, high oil yields may be selected for, along with shortened harvest times, which were traditionally 40 to 60 years after planting: “We may be able to shorten rotations to 10 or 15 years in high yielding varieties.”

Mr Jones explained that sandalwood had a role in revegetating marginal lands in WA, creating biodiversity in the grainbelt and potential use for carbon sequestration.

“It’s not just about using sandalwood for perfume, incense and woodwork. There are other uses for this versatile tree.”

UWA, in collaboration with the WA Forest Products Commission, was awarded an Australian Research Council linkage grant, enabling Mr Jones to continue his research.

As the 2005 recipient of the Mike Carroll UWA Travelling Fellowship, he spent six months in the laboratory of Professor Jorg Bohlmann, an expert in plant biotechnology at the University of British Colombia in Canada.

Chris Jones in the plant propagation nursery surrounded by Santalum album seedlings destined for Kununurra.

Chris Jones measuring a Santalum album tree in the sandalwood trials in Kununurra


Sublime poetry and a beautifully-illustrated children’s book are winning acclaim for two staff members.

Professor John Kinsella’s latest anthology of poetry, Shades of the Sublime & Beautiful, was launched at the Co-Op Bookshop last week. Published by Fremantle Press in March and then in the UK by Picador in April, the book has been feted on three continents.

In London The Guardian described his work as having “well-turned lyrics and pieces of linguistic daring”.

In the US, Professor Kinsella was recently awarded the Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for his poem Requiem, published last year. The award comes with a cheque for $US1,500. He has also been appointed an extraordinary fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge University, for his outstanding performance in the field of literature.

And, in Australia, Professor Kinsella has recently won the Christopher Brennan Award, for “poetry of sustained quality and distinction.” Previous winners include Bruce Dawe, Gwen Harwood, Faye Zwicky and Les Murray.

The post-doctoral fellow in creative writing in the School of Social and Cultural Studies has been invited to this year’s Edinburgh International Writers’ Festival.

Winning words and pictures

Local heart researchers don’t miss a beat at UWA

Cardiovascular research in Western Australia has been given a tremendous boost, with seven UWA researchers awarded 2008 Heart Foundation Grant Awards to further their studies into the causes of heart, stroke and blood vessel disease.

Dr Graeme Polglase, Associate Professor Lawrie Abraham, Dr Bu Yeap, Professor Hugh Barrett, Professor Kevin Croft, Professor Frank Christiansen and Dr Esther Ooi join this year’s pool of more than 90 commended researchers Australia-wide, whose dedicated knowledge and skills will lead to better understanding

Funding from the heart

of cardiovascular disease – Australia’s biggest killer and greatest health challenge.

Our UWA grant winners are:

Dr Graeme Polglase from the School of Women’s and Infants’ Health, who will use his experience at King Edward Memorial Hospital to investigate how exposure to inflammation in the womb during pregnancy may lead to increased blood pressure - a common and serious consequence of preterm birth;

Dr Lawrie Abraham from the School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Science whose research lies in a particular gene associated with low levels of good cholesterol HDL in the blood;

Dr Bu Yeap from the School of Medicine and Pharmacology’s Fremantle Hospital Unit who will investigate how diabetes affects fatty acid accumulation in the absence and presence of drugs used to treat diabetes.

From the UWA School of Medicine and

Pharmacology’s Royal Perth Hospital Unit, grants were awarded to:

Professor Hugh Barrett, who will undertake metabolic studies on obesity, focusing on the effects cholesterol-lowering drugs have in reducing the progression of cardiovascular disease;

Professor Kevin Croft, whose project will examine, for the first time, the effect of common dietary supplement Vitamin E on drug metabolism in humans;

Professor Frank Christiansen, to further his is investigating the role of natural killer cells in the rejection of human heart transplants;

And Dr Esher Ooi, who will study new means of weight loss and fat-lowering therapies including the use of cholesterol-lowing drugs. Dr Ooi was also presented with the Bendat Family Foundation Perpetual Scholarship, valued at $10,000. This additional award will allow Dr Ooi to further her experience in the treatment of, and research into, heart-related diseases at an overseas centre.

Another staff member, Law lecturer Ambelin Kwaymullina, has had her children’s book, Crow and the Waterhole, shortlisted for the Crichton Award for New Illustrators.

Published by Fremantle Press, it was written and illustrated by Ms Kwaymullina, who is the daughter of Professor Sally Morgan, from the School of Indigenous Studies, and another literary prize winner.

The Crichton Award aims to recognise and encourage new talent in the field of Australian children’s book illustration. Only six titles are short-listed from hundreds of submissions.


Students were still tallying the takings from the annual PROSH parade and sale of newspapers when UWANews went to press, but it was already $125,000.

This total tops last years $108,950 and all previous totals since PROSH started in 1931.

Students are thrilled with the result for three charities which benefit from the funds this year — The Dyslexia-SPELD foundation, RSPCA, and Holyoake (Alcohol and Drug abuse programs).

The paper, The Yearly Obligation, had a good response from the public with only the usual small number of expected complaints regarding a Perth Glory advertisement.

As early as 4am students were flooding the Oak Lawn to get their hands on stacks of newspapers and collection tins, their inventive costumes brightening up the pre-dawn.

The winner of the prize for best float this year was the Music Students’ Society which chose a Wham theme. Dressed all in white, and with a live band aboard the float, they had commuters and students alike running behind them, singing and dancing.

Flush ProshThese girls in blue were likely to give their teachers a fright as they headed off to afternoon lectures following the parade through the city streets.


You might have thought the ancient culture of the first Australians was incompatible with novel science, but 24 Indigenous Year Nine students found it blended easily into stories from the Dreaming and the notion of respect for Country.

From metropolitan schools as well as from schools in Broome, Carnarvon, Karratha, Kununurra, Port Hedland and Wongan Hills, the students visited UWA for an inaugural school holiday Indigenous Science Camp which had the added bonus of activities such as star stories under a full moon at Bold Park and shopping.

Nanotechnology and green chemistry were chosen for one of the introductory sessions at UWA because they are the sciences of the future with applications in every aspect of life, according to Dr Scott Martyn, one of the organisers.

Groups were encouraged to consider science in relation to water, earth, plants and animals. For example, the students in the ‘plants’ group used liquid nitrogen in a flask to freeze-dry roses and peppermint leaves before grinding them with a mortar and pestle and finally extracting the oils for perfume and DNA in one of the labs in the Molecular and Chemical Sciences Building.

While they were finding and crushing plant matter, others used muscle power on crayfish shells to learn about the natural plastic they contain -- a material used in artificial limbs.

by Sally-Ann Jones

Ancient culture meets nanotechnology

Another group discovered magnetic ferro-fluid and found out about rocks containing ochres and iron while a fourth learned there is much more to an ordinary egg than meets the eye.

Later in the morning they all enjoyed finding out about robots and gyroscopes in Mechanical Engineering with more inspirational science organised by Anatomy and Human Biology.

Indigenous artists, scientists and engineers joined the camp to demonstrate the relevance and importance of science and technology to Indigenous people while students from several faculties volunteered their time.

The University has been very successful in attracting Indigenous students to study medicine, law and social work but less so in encouraging them into science and engineering because these studies are seen as less relevant to their communities, said Dr Martyn, lecturer and science project coordinator at UWA’s School of Indigenous Studies.

“We aim to show them that in fact science and engineering are relevant because they can help solve problems such as unemployment, lack of infrastructure and sustainability and we want our Indigenous students to be leaders in their communities,” he said.

“As the mining industry becomes more sophisticated, it will need more industrial chemists and engineers. As the State’s population continues to grow, resources such as energy and water will need to be more carefully managed and the biodiversity of the land conserved. Who better to fill these positions than Indigenous men and women who live nearby and who are connected to Country?”

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STAFF ADSClassified advertising is free to staff. Email [email protected]

RESEARCH GRANTS AND CONTRACTS

FOR SALEHYUNDAI GETZ GL: 2003, green, manual. 3 doors 5 seats hatchback. Full service history including comprehensive 100,000k service recently completed with 4 new tyres fitted, very fuel efficient. Great little car, good condition – price negotiable for quick sale due to overseas trip. $8,600. Contact 0433 026 133 or 9315 4505.

To LeTBUSSELTON: “Driftwood Cottage”. New holiday house right in town. Only 250m to the beach or town centre, but quiet and secluded under big peppermint trees. Sleeps 8, with big spa in main bedroom, fully self contained and you only need to bring linen. 10% discount for UWA staff. Can be viewed at http://www.stayz.com.au/29356

ACTeW AGLMr Peter Yeates, Centre for Water Research: ‘MGRWT Scheme Hydrodynamic Modelling’ —$170,007 (2008)

AnU ex enViRonMenT AnD WATeR ReCoURCeS AnD CeRFA/Prof Michael Burton, Agricultural and Resource Economics, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: ‘Commonwealth Environmental Research Facilities CERF - Divergence Between Community and Expert Valuation of Ecosystems’ $286,000 (2007-10)

ARUP GRoUP (includes ARUP energy and ove Arup)Dr Christophe Gaudin, Prof Barry Lehane, Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems,Civil and Resource Engineering: ‘Turkmenistan’ $23,000 (2008)

AUSTRALiAn ACADeMY oF SCienCeDr David Coward, Physics: ‘Travel Grant Scientific Visits to Europe 2008 and 2009’ $6,000 (2008)

AUSTRALiAn AGenCY FoR inTeRnATionAL DeVeLoPMenT (AusAiD)A/Prof Carolyn Oldham, Ms B Powell, External, School of Environmental Systems Engineering: ‘Institutional Support for Education and Training in Water Sanitation Timor Leste’ $200,798 (2008)

AUSTRALiAn ReSeARCh CoUnCiL: LinKAGe inFRASTRUCTURe eQUiPMenT FACiLiTieSProf Dennis Haskell, Dr Toby Burrows, Ms D Bird, Social and Cultural Studies, External,Humanities: ‘AustLit Phase Two - Research Infrastructure for Humanities and Education Researchers’ $20,000 (2008)

Avon Catchment Council nhTDr Daniel Murphy, Earth and Geographical Sciences: ‘Benchmarking Soil Characteristics in the Kulin and Hyden Districts’ $101,800 (2008)

BioPLATFoRMS AUSTRALiA LTD ex nCRiS,nCRiS nATionAL CoLLABoRATiVe ReSeARCh inFRASTRUCTURe STRATeGY,WA DePARTMenT oF inDUSTRY AnD ReSoURCeSProf Steve Smith, Centre of Excellence for Plant Energy Biology: ‘Western Australian Metabolomics Node’ $1,217,100 (2007-11)

CRC PLAnT BioSeCURiTYProf George Milne, Dr D Hardie, Computer Science and Software

Engineering: ‘Simulation Platform Technology for Predicting Spread of Emergency Plant Pests EPPs’ $436,479 (2008-11)

CRiCKeT AUSTRALiADr Sandy Gordon, Mr Daniel Gucciardi, Sport Science, Exercice and Health : ‘Cricket Australia - Mental Toughness in Australian Cricket - Inventory Validation’ $7,762 (2008)

CSiRo FLAGShiP CoLLABoRATion FUnD CLUSTeRSProf Mark Cassidy, Prof Mark Randolph, Prof Liang Cheng, Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, Civil and Resource Engineering: ‘Wealth from Oceans - Subsea Pipelines for Reliable & Environmentally Safe Development of Ocean Hydrocarbon Resources - Seabed Characterisation’ $548,140 (2007-11)

Prof Mark Cassidy, Prof Mark Randolph, Dr Christophe Gaudin, Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems,Civil and Resource Engineering: ‘Wealth from Oceans - Subsea Pipelines for Reliable and Environmentally Safe Development of Ocean Hydrocarbon Resources - Struct Integrity’ $740,960 (2007-11)

Prof Mark Cassidy, Prof Liang Cheng, Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, Civil and Resource Engineering: ‘Wealth from Oceans - Subsea Pipelines for Reliable and Environmentally Safe Development of Ocean Hydrocarbon Resources - Seabed Morphology’ $246,494 (2007-10)

Prof Mark Cassidy, Dr David White, Dr Christophe Gaudin, Prof Mark Randolph, Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, Civil and Resource Engineering: ‘Wealth from Oceans - Subsea Pipelines for Reliable and Environmentally Safe Development of Ocean Hydrocarbon Resources - Pipeline Hazards’ $460,000 (2007-11)

Prof Mark Cassidy, Prof Hong Hao, Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, Civil and Resource Engineering: ‘Wealth from Oceans - Subsea Pipelines for Reliable and Environmentally Safe Development of Ocean Hydrocarbon Resources - Pipeline Reliability’ $251,200 (2007-11)

CURTin UniVeRSiTY eX WATeR CoRPoRATionDr Jason Antenucci, Centre for Water Research: ‘Characterisation of NOM in Highly Coloured Surface Waters’ $35,000 (2008)

Department for Planning AnD infrastructureA/Prof Carolyn Oldham, Prof Charitha Pattiaratchi, Prof Paul Lavery, School of Environmental Systems Engineering, External:

‘Research Study into Seagrass Wrack Movement at Geographe Bay’ $356,000 (2008)

DePARTMenT oF AGRiCULTURe, FiSheRieS & FoReSTRY (DAFF)Dr James Findlay, Dr Euan Harvey, Mr J Hender, Dr J Seager, Mr D Ellis, Plant Biology, External: ‘Assessing the Feasibility of Stereo Video and Evaluating Monitoring Options for the SBTF Farm Sector’ $33,636 (2008)

FUTURe FARM inDUSTRieS eX RiRDCDr Geoff Woodall, Earth and Geographical Sciences: ‘Improved Direct Seeding Establishment of Commercial Native Plants Through Improved Germination Moisture Management and Weed Control’ $250,024 (2008-10)

nATionAL WATeR CoMMiSSionDr Peter Davies, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: ‘National Synthesis of Australian River Restoration Projects’$25,000 (2008)

RPS eneRGY UKProf Mark Cassidy, Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems: ‘InSafe JIP - Improved Guidelines for the Prediction of Geotechnical Performance of Spudcan Foundations’ $124,500 (2008)

SoUTh AUSTRALiAn WATeR CoRPoRATionDr Desmond Lord, Plant Biology: ‘The Engagement of a Contractor to Provide a Review of Environ-mental Investigations’ $16,200 (2008)

South West Catchments Council nhTDr Mark Westera, Mr Peter Barnes, Plant Biology: ‘Baited Remote Underwater Video Monitoring of Fish Assemblages in Cape Leeuwin Cape Freycinet and Flinders Island’ $93,000 (2008)

South West Catchments Council nhTProf David Pannell, Agricultural and Resource Economics: ‘Support Role for a Pilot Project to Investigate the Applicability of the SIF3 State Salinity Investment Framework Model to the South West NRM Region’ $20,000 (2008)

TiMBeR QUeenSLAnD ex FoReST AnD WooD PRoDUCTSMr John Beale, Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts: ‘Advanced research into floor performance issues’ $53,000 (2008)

UniVeRSiTY oF CAMBRiDGe ex JDRF DiABeTeS UK & BhFDr Timothy Jones, UWA Centre for Child Health Research: ‘Adolescent Type 1 Diabetes Cardio Renal Intervention Trial AdDIT’ $1,133,693 (2008-12)

UniVeRSiTY oF MeLBoURne eX ARC DiSCoVeRYA/Prof Andrew Lynch, Social and Cultural Studies: ‘Medievalism in Australian Cultural Memory’ $80,209 (2008-11)

UniVeRSiTY oF neW SoUTh WALeS ex ARC DiscoveryA/Prof GH Kingston, A/Prof Hazel Batemen, Prof Kenneth Clements, Dr Lance Alexander Fisher, Dr Susan Thorp, Business School, External: ‘Security in Retirement Forecasting and Managing Macro Investment Risks’ $65,644 (2008-10)

UniVeRSiTY oF TASMAniA eX FoReST AnD WooD PRoDUCTSMr John Beale, Dr G Siemon, Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, External: ‘Impact of Sapwood on the Properties and Market Utilisation of Plantation and Young Hardwoods’ $30,000 (2007-08)

Contact Nick Gibson on 0413 622 269, 9305 9059, or [email protected] for more details.

NANNUP: Holiday rental property. Beautiful secluded house set on 6 acres. Sleeps 7/8. Fully fitted throughout to a high standard. Contact Nicky Davison on Ext 3003, 9380 6508 or [email protected]. Also see website: www.kanjarralodge.com.au

FRENCH PYRENEES: Holiday rental property. Characteristic rental property in the small French village of Rodes at the foothills of the French Pyrénées. 40 minutes from Perpignan and 2.5 hours from Barcelona. Sleeps 7. Fully fitted throughout. Contact Nicky Davison on Ext 3003, 9380 6508 or [email protected]. Also see website: www.voletsbleus.co.uk


Friends of the Library

REDUNDANT EQUIPMENTCONDITION refers to the general condition of the item (1=as new, 2=good, 3=serviceable, 4=unserviceable). AGE refers to the nearest year.

Schools are reminded that all university equipment available for sale must be advertised in UWA NEWS. Receipts should be PeopleSoft account coded 490 (computing with barcode), 491 (non-computing with barcode) or 493 (items with no barcode). If equipment has an existing barcode please contact extension 3618 for details. Preference will be given to School bids. Please identify your bid as School or private.

ITEM PRICE AGE COND SECTION CONTACT

NOTICES

3 x DELL PowerEdge 2500 Rack Mount Servers $250.00 each or best offer 6 2 Oral Health Centre of WA [email protected] or Tel: 9346 7641

Tuesday 13 May 2008 at 7:30pm for 8pm

Library Meeting Room, Ground Floor, Reid Library Building

Professor Cheryl PraegerJust about every part of modern society is underpinned by mathematical technology, and the only way to benefit from and manage the information/data explosion is by building smarter mathematics. But how smart are mathematicians? How can we measure what makes a mathematician “good”?

Cheryl Praeger is Professor of Mathematics at UWA. She holds a Federation Fellowship of the Australian Research Council, and her research group has received several million dollars of research funding over the last few years. Cheryl graduated with a BSc with honours and a University Medal from the University of Queensland in 1970, DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1973 and a DSc from The University of Western Australia in 1989.

Professor Praeger was selected in 2004 as being in the top 1% of most highly cited research mathematicians worldwide, having published more than 250 research articles and 3 books. She is the first Australian-based mathematician to serve on the Executive committee of the International Mathematical Union, the peak international mathematics body.

Please note that the ground floor entrance to the Library, nearest to the carpark, will be open from 7.30pm - 7.45pm.

Members: Free Non-members: $5.00 donation

Institute of Advanced StudiesPuBLIc LEcTuRES May 2008

Aboriginal SpiritualityNoel Nannup, Indigenous Consultant

13 May 2008 Alexander Lecture Theatre at 6pm

All welcome, no RSVP required

In this lecture noted Aboriginal Heritage Consultant Noel Nannup will discuss spirituality of Aboriginal people, particularly of the Noongar people of Western Australia. The role of spirituality, often referred to as “Dreaming” covers a wide range of connecting threads, including the connection to the land and the way people live their lives. This lecture will include discussion of Aboriginal stories that are central to understanding the identity of Aboriginal people today.

elvis is TitanicAn Institute of Advanced Studies Literary Event with author Ian Klaus

19 May 2008, @ 6pm Alexander Lecture Theatre, uWA

All Welcome, no RSVP required

In this special literary event, author Ian Klaus will discuss his book Elvis is Titanic and will talk about the passions and influences that informed his work.

Elvis is Titanic is the fresh, funny and insightful story of the semester he spent teaching US history and English to war affected Kurds. Following 9/11, and trading duty for intimacy, Klaus volunteed to teach the ‘American Way’. Drawing on popular culture to cut through cultural inconsistencies and challenges, the line between enlightening and enlightened blurs.

centre for Integrated Human StudiesPuBLIc SEMINAR Wednesday 14 May 5.30–7pm

Eternal/infernal economic growthCan economic growth continue eternally, or is it already infernal?

5.30 – 7pm, Seminar Room 1.81, School of Anatomy and Human Biology

PROMOTION BRIEFSProvided by Elizabeth Hutchinson, Executive Officer, Promotions and Tenure Committee, Human Resources

PRoFeSSoRProfessor John Watson (Financial Studies, UWA Business School)

Professor Watson’s area of research is in small and medium business enterprises and entrepreneurship, and his work has attracted international scholarly recognition. He is involved with the Diana International Group of entrepreneurship scholars whose researchers are from some of the leading North American universities such as Harvard Business School and Boston University, and through the Group was invited to join the editorial board of a new international journal in female entrepreneurship. He is also a regular presenter at the Babson Conference which is the world’s premier entrepreneurship conference allowing only the authors of the top 15% of paper submissions to participate.

SenioR LeCTUReRDr Defeng (David) Huang (School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering)

Dr Huang’s research is related to the “last mile” issue in telecommunications, especially by wireless means. He has worked extensively on developing effective algorithms and protocols for broadband wireless communications. His research contributions have been recognised internationally, with his appointment as editor for the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications in 2005, and his senior membership of the IEEE.

Registration (FREE) and Call for Abstracts

Abstracts are invited by all undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as postdoctoral fellows and researchers

Abstract deadline: May 12

Details: [email protected]

Prizes for presentations of original research have been generously donated by:

Department of Health, Government of Western Australia $2,000Department of Health, Government of Western Australia $2,000Curtin University & Western Australian Biomedical Research Institute (WABRI) $1,000Edith Cowan University (DVC Research) $1,000Lung Institute of Western Australia (LIWA) $1,000Murdoch University (DVC Research) $1,000School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Western Australia $1,000University of Western Australia (PVC Research) $1,000WAIMR (Western Australian Institute for Medical Research) $1,000Women’s and Infants Research Foundation $1,000Tri-Med $1,000OrthoCell $500Australian Neuromuscular Research Institute (ANRI) $500

ASMR MeDiCAL ReSeARCh WeeK®

June 2 - 8, 2008

ASMR MEDICAL RESEARCH WEEK

Western Australian Scientific SymposiumHaydn Williams Lecture Theatre, curtin university of Technology

Wednesday June 4 9am – 5pm


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EDITOR/WRITER: Lindy Brophy, Public Affairs Tel: 6488 2436 Fax: 6488 1020

Email: [email protected] Hackett Foundation Building, M360

Director of Public Affairs: Doug Durack Tel: 6488 2806 Fax: 6488 1020

Designed and printed by UniPrint, UWA

UWAnews online: http://uwanews.publishing.uwa.edu.au/

UWA NEWS

Susan TakaoManager, Institute of Advanced Studies

The Institute of Advanced Studies at UWA is known for attracting dynamic scholars, writers, artists, activists and others who are working internationally from all fields of inquiry.

As well as fostering the excitement of cross-disciplinary research, the IAS is committed to sharing that excitement with the community at large through our public lectures, masterclasses and workshops.

In March, IAS launched its inaugural Humanities Lecture Series, Visions, Dreams, Freedom in partnership with the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Mark Bould, Reader in Film and Literature at the University of Western England, kicked off the series with a public lecture on The Very Modern World of Fritz Lang followed by a screening of the classic silent film Metropolis. Mark also held a masterclass for postgraduate students as part of his visit.

Others participating in this year’s series include indigenous heritage consultant and story teller, Noel Nannup, lawyer and author Alice Pung, academic and former Premier of Western Australia, Geoff Gallop, and author Chloe Hooper. Leng Leng Thang, a leading scholar from the National University of Singapore, will also give a lecture on Cos Play with those attending in Costume going into a draw for an I-pod Touch. The series will conclude with a lecture by Princeton University’s Eduardo Cadava. Eduardo, based in an English Department, is noted for his scholarly work across disciplines.

A major symposium Putting Health First will be held in August. This innovative program will focus on key areas facing health policy and showcase cutting edge researchers, journalists, activists and health professionals including UWA’s Fiona Stanley, Helen Milroy, Carmen Lawrence and Billie Giles-Corti as well as John Dwyer (Australian Health Care Reform Alliance), Cobie Rudd (ECU), Catherine Lumby (UNSW), John Richardson (Monash) along with Lt General John Sanderson, Maxine Drake, Mick Gooda, Michael Pervan and Judy Edwards.

A public lecture What in the World Does Ethics Have to do with Health Research?: Some Musings on Whether Morality is Local or Global by noted American bioethicist Professor Eric Meslin will be held the night before the symposium.

Eric Meslin is also one of seven 2008 IAS Professors-at-Large. The requirements of a Professor-at-Large are to enliven the intellectual and cultural life of the University.

Professors-at-Large are not necessarily academics—they may also be writers, public intellectuals, and artists. These eminent visitors provide a variety of activities while in residence at UWA. Ongoing research with a host department, participation in symposia, offering of masterclasses for postgraduate students and public lectures are just some of the activities our ‘PALS’ do.

a flavour sensationA tasting of 2008 activities

The other 2008 Professors-at-Large are Brian Wilson, Head of Biophysics and Bioimaging at the Toronto Cancer Institute; Peter Phillips, Head of Political Studies at the University of Saskatchewan; Sylvester (Jim) Gates, Director of String and Particles Physics at the University of Maryland; Anne Worrall, Head of the School of Criminology, Education, Sociology and Social Work, at Keele University, UK; Ken Freeman, Duffield an E3 Distinguished Professor, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics ANU; and Professor Michael Huston, Department of Biology, Texas State University.

Some of the other upcoming IAS activities for 2008 are a multi-disciplinary symposium on Driving Change in the Disability Sector with a public lecture Disability and digital cultures: brave new worlds or just new forms of injustice? by Professor Gerard Goggin (UNSW) this month and the second annual symposium, Thinking Society, Thinking Culture, a wonderful forum of works-in-progress by both academics and postgraduates, in September.

These are just a taste of what’s on at the Institute of Advanced Studies in 2008. And speaking of taste sensations, renowned chefs Michelle Garnault and Stefano di Pieri will also be part of the IAS schedule this year.

For more information on IAS programs please visit our website www.ias.uwa.edu.au or give us a call at 6488 1340.


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