Business education and research has been boosted with the announcement of an A$5 million partnership between BHP Billiton and The University of Western Australia Business School.

Announcing the partnership today, President BHP Billiton Stainless Steel Materials Mr Jimmy Wilson said the company would provide $5 million to support the establishment of a new Professorial Chair - known as the BHP Billiton Chair in the Business of Resources - new research initiatives, new scholarships as well as targeted training and education.

Science research and industry links were the subject of the day when the Hon Francis Logan, Minister for Energy, Science and Innovation, visited the Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences on 5th July. The Minister had a sneak preview of the sapphire oscillators in the School of Physics and the new gravity gradiometer, a multi-million dollar research project funded by Rio Tinto.

Women are in a unique position to be able to bring exceptional life skills to the workplace, according to one of The University of Western Australia’s first female engineering graduates, Sue Murphy.

Ms Murphy, who was also the first female engineer employed by Western Australian construction firm Clough Engineering, will be the guest speaker at a cocktail party to honour women in engineering at The University of Western Australia’s Watersports Complex, from 6.30pm-8.30pm next Friday, October 26, 2007.

Scientists at The University of Western Australia are racing against the clock to find plants that will provide bio-energy and bio-fuels and be able to perform under the environmental extremes predicted with climate change.

And an inconspicuous, aesthetically-challenged weed, Arabidopsis thaliana (or thale or mouse-eared cress) is offering vital information to researchers at the Centre of Excellence for Plant Metabolomics, to be opened at 4pm today (Monday, October 15, 2007) at UWA, by the Minister for Energy, Resources, Industry and Innovation, Fran Logan.