Can the movement of an audience through a mechanical forest help to calm down cultured nerve cells in a remote laboratory?

UWA's Professor Geoff Meyer has been awarded a 2009 Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Teaching Fellowship.

Vice-Chancellor Alan Robson congratulated Professor Meyer on his achievement, saying the ALTC Teaching Fellowships were highly competitive and very prestigious.

"For a staff member at The University of Western Australia to be awarded such a Fellowship is an outstanding result," Robson said. 

"The award is a significant recognition of Professor Meyer’s teaching reputation and it reflects highly on the University. It is particularly apt that Professor Meyer’s ALTC Teaching Fellowship is announced at this time, being the UWA Teaching and Learning Month."

Australia's Chief Scientist Professor Penny Sackett, assisted by some of the next generation of scientists from Shenton College, officially launched Western Australia's biggest telescope on 1 April, 2009.

The Zadko telescope, co-located with the Gravity Discovery Centre near Gingin, is part of a global network of telescopes linked to a NASA satellite ground station.