News Archive

This year is shaping up to be a watershed year for the Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences.

We achieved considerable research success over the past 12 months – and the next 12 months will involve exciting developments in our teaching programs. These developments relate primarily to preparations around New Courses 2012, the most significant university-wide change in teaching programs in UWA’s history.

From next year, all commencing students will take one of five degrees: a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Design or Bachelor of Philosophy. All of the current professional degrees, including Medicine and Engineering (which our Faculty makes significant contributions to) will become graduate entry programs.

Two important consequences of this new model are that more undergraduate students will study Science, and BSc students will be required to complete more non-Science units. These changes will provide our students with more breadth as well as improved research and communication skills, all considered essential attributes for graduates entering the increasingly unpredictable workforce of the 21st Century. Another feature of New Courses 2012 will be the greater number of postgraduate courses that the Faculty will offer.

In addition to contributing to the health-related professional postgraduate degrees (Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, etc.), the Faculty will provide postgraduate coursework degrees at the Masters, Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate levels. Indeed, two such courses will be available for the first time this year, namely the Graduate Diploma in Sleep Science and the Graduate Diploma in Work, Health and Safety.

These new courses are founded on extensive research expertise in these areas within the Faculty, and involve direct links to industry. As such, they are both well placed to meet the career aspirations of our graduates.

On the subject of graduate careers, the Science Faculties hosted a very successful Science Teachers’ breakfast at the University Club in October. More than 80 guests enjoyed updates on ongoing research by Professor Jessica Meeuwig from the UWA Oceans Institute and Professor Peter Eastwood from the Sleep Science Research Group.

The Dean of the Faculties of Science, Professor Tony O’Donnell, discussed the immediate future of science at UWA, and Associate Professor Peter Whipp (Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning) explained how we are changing the way we teach science as we make the transition to New Courses 2012.

In 2011, we are celebrating the International Year of Chemistry which was officially launched in Paris in late January. It is fitting, therefore, that late in 2010 the university recognised the distinguished career of the late Emeritus Professor Sir Noel Bayliss with the naming of the new Bayliss Building which houses much of the School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences.

Professor Bayliss held the position of UWA Chair of Chemistry from 1938-71. Through his own remarkable intellectual abilities and his willingness to form collaborative networks, Professor Bayliss transformed the Chemistry Department. The naming ceremony was enriched by the presence of members of the Bayliss family and by reminiscences of Professor Bayliss and his enormous contributions to our Faculty.

Faculty staff also received national recognition for their achievements in teaching in 2010, with Kerry Smith from the School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health receiving an Australian Learning and Teaching Council award for programs that enhance learning. Kerry’s award was in the category of ‘Educational Partnerships and Collaborations with Other Organisations’, and recognises her long-term contributions to the industry practicum component of undergraduate and graduate professional programs in SSEH.

Our researchers also celebrated considerable success in 2010. Following our stellar performance in the Shanghai Jiao Tong World University Rankings (UWA was ranked Number 1 in Australia for Life/Agricultural Sciences and Number 2 for Chemistry), Laureate Fellow Professor Mike Tobar from the School of Physics was named WA Scientist of the Year. At the same ceremony, Professor Eric May was named WA Early Career Scientist of the Year. Professor May completed his PhD in the School of Physics and is now Deputy Director of the UWA Centre for Energy in the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics.

Research students from across the Faculty also received significant awards relating to their projects: Stephan Karl from the School of Physics was awarded the Western Australian AusBiotech- Glaxo Smith Kline student excellence award for his work on the magnetic properties of malaria-infected cells; and Nadine Reghupathy, an Honours student from the School of Anatomy and Human Biology, won the best student paper prize at the Australasian Society for Human Biology in Auckland. Nadine’s colleague, Rebekah Dawson, was runner-up for the same award.

Congratulations to all of these award winners.