News Archive

These are exciting days for those of us in science teaching and research – even if the economic news is less than rosy. For instance, this year has seen record enrolments in science at UWA, as well as the launch of several major science projects throughout the State. President Obama’s inaugural speech captured this mood well, when he noted that science is going places: “We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise healthcare's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.”

Here in Western Australia science was very much to the fore when the Premier Colin Barnett formally opened the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in September. It was a great experience to be present at the launch, and to sense the excitement and promise of a major scientific project. Congratulations to all those involved.

Congratulations also go to the School of Physics – Mike Tobar became one of the first 15 Australian Laureate Fellows; and three of the five Future Fellows coming to the Faculty will be working in the School. The Faculty’s total of five Future Fellows make up 50 per cent of the Future Fellows awarded to UWA.

Other recent research successes include Peter Eastwood’s project on sleep apnoea being selected by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) as one of its top 10 projects for 2009. On another front, a collaboration between Peter Hartman in the School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences and UWA Pro Vice Chancellor Robyn Owens led to them winning the UK Rank Prize for Nutrition. This is one of many international prizes that Peter has won for his groundbreaking work on human lactation.

Our students have also been winning prizes. Congratulations to Eleanor Drummond for winning a National Council of Women Science and Technology Bursary which was awarded at a ceremony at Council House. Eleanor won this against stiff opposition – there were 33 applicants. The bursary will help pay for Eleanor to attend an Alzheimer's Disease conference in Vienna later in the year where she will present aspects of her PhD work. Libby Thomas recently received the City of Perth Prize for Excellence in Medical Research, awarded by ASMR Medical Research Week Symposium 2009. She also picked up a Student Travel Award to present her work on epithelial stem cells at the 6th International Symposium on Milk Genomics and Human Health, which was held in Paris on 28–30 September. In addition, at the International Society for Heart Research (ISHR) scientific meeting in Sydney, Helena Viola won the ISHR Student Investigator Prize for Best Oral Presentation.

On the teaching front, the UWA Distinguished Teaching and Learning Award for Schools for 2008 went to the School of Anatomy and Human Biology in recognition of its sustained outstanding achievements in teaching and learning. This award aims to encourage and reward systematic excellence in teaching and learning at the school level. It is awarded on the basis of schools’ teaching portfolios, which must provide evidence of excellence and continuous improvement in teaching and learning quality.

Still with Anatomy and Human Biology, and Geoff Meyer was awarded a 2009 Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Teaching Fellowship. These fellowships are highly competitive and very prestigious. These awards are typically awarded to undertake discipline-based or inter-disciplinary fellowship activities that promote excellence in learning and teaching.  For a staff member at The University of Western Australia to be awarded such a Fellowship is an outstanding result. The award is a significant recognition of Professor Meyer’s teaching reputation and it reflects highly on the quality of teaching at UWA.

At our recent graduation ceremony in September, we saw the first graduates from the new Masters course in Infectious Diseases. Developments at the postgraduate level will be an important component of the new course structure here at UWA. The Vice Chancellor has announced that new course structure will be introduced in 2012. Between now and then, the Faculty will be busy restructuring its teaching.

As I said earlier, these are exciting – if challenging – times for science.