In this issue P3 Aussie english P7 internAtionAl women’s dAy P8 treAsures of the berndt museum

continued on page 2

By Lindy Brophy

“It all started with falling in love,” Maria Myers told a roomful of archaeologists, geologists and academics in the humanities.

it is not something often heard in the usually formal context of the Vice-Chancellery’s Prescott room, where partnerships are cemented, agreements signed and initiatives launched.

this ceremony celebrated all three in the form of a new Chair in rock Art for uwA. ms myers, passionate Chair of the Kimberley foundation of Australia (KfA) said she fell in love with the Kimberley, and this led her into working towards

bringing the story of the region and an understanding of its ancient treasures to all its stakeholders (indigenous people, pastoralists, and the tourism and mining industries) and to future generations.

the Kimberley foundation has given uwA $1.5 million to set up the KfA ian Potter Chair in the Centre for rock Art. KfA will work to raise a further $500,000 and the university will provide $2 million, for a total of $4 million for an ongoing position.

Kimberley dreaming becomes a reality

Macropod. Rock art from the north-west Kimberley region supplied with the permission of the Kandiwal Aboriginal Corporation

Maria Myers

UWA NEWS19 March 2012 Volume 31 Number 2

Kimberley dreaming becomes a reality from page 1

the gift will support long-term research into the nature and context of the Kimberley’s rock art, working in partnership with the traditional custodians. researchers will study and record the art and pass on knowledge to students and the broader community about the value of the region’s rich cultural heritage.

winthrop Professor Krishna sen, dean of the faculty of Arts, humanities and social sciences (in which the Centre for rock Art studies sits), said uwA and the KfA had been discussing the Chair and their ongoing research partnership for two and a half years.

the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Johnson, had met ms myers in melbourne last year, before taking up his post at uwA, to discuss the opportunities that existed for scholarship and research in the Kimberley.

Professor sen said the Pro Vice-Chancellor (research), Alistar robertson, had worked tirelessly, alongside uwA graduate and director of the KfA, dr Jim ross, to bring it all together.

“there are at least 40,000 identified rock art images in the Kimberley and many more not yet identified,” Professor Johnson said. “it is a great role for this university to work with the KfA and the government to recognise the rock art as a world resource, to be understood and protected.

“universities have a responsibility to work for the public good, and the public good is always advanced by better understanding,” he said.

the Centre for rock Art studies, within the discipline of Archaeology, will soon advertise the position.

Top right: Jim Ross (centre), Alistar Robertson and Paul Johnson at the launch of the new Chair

Bottom right: Gwion figures. Rock art from the north-west Kimberley region supplied with the permission of the Kandiwal Aboriginal Corporation

Louise Naylor helps Leteisha Warner with her exercise routine

Is exercise the answer?Diabetes is one of the most common diseases of the 21st century in the western world, but preventing or treating it is far from simple.

babies born with a pancreas that does not release insulin have type 1 diabetes and most of them will have to take insulin for the rest of their lives.

type 2 diabetes occurs because at some stage later in life, some people’s bodies produce too much insulin. they can usually manage their diabetes with lifestyle changes, including exercise and diet.

dr louise naylor at the school of sport science exercise and health is trialling adolescents with type 2 diabetes to see if regular exercise has an effect on their insulin sensitivity, and thus their health.

“we are not exactly sure how children get type 2 diabetes,” dr naylor said. “sometimes it’s due to an unhealthy

lifestyle, and sometimes there are genetic factors.”

she and her team train groups of teenagers three times a week for 12 weeks, measuring the effects of the exercise and comparing the results with children who are obese but not diabetic, and other children, who are neither.

her research project, Can exercise training improve health in adolescents with Type 2 diabetes, is funded by the bright spark foundation, which supports the work of promising young researchers working in the areas of children’s health.

“the aim of the program is to increase muscle mass, since muscle uses glucose and therefore improves their diabetes,” she said.

the teenagers are referred by Princess margaret hospital and dr naylor is running three 12-week trials.

2 | UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 the university of western Australia

“I dated this loser in high school and he was obsessed with lollies…and he’d just eat them. I’m just like: That’s disgusting.”

you don’t need to have teenage children to recognise the speech patterns of young Australians in this second decade of the 21st century.

rather than be affronted by them, dr Celeste rodriguez louro, an Assistant Professor in linguistics, is fascinated by the structure of vernacular Australian english.

“i love the way english is spoken in Australia,” Professor rodriguez louro said. “i love the long drawn-out ‘yeah’ that is so indicative of the laid-back Australian way.”

Professor rodriguez louro is a sociolinguist. sociolinguistics examines the relationship between language and society, including how linguistic and social factors such as age, education, social class, ethnicity and others influence language use and change.

one of the outstanding aspects of current youth language across varieties of english is the use of ‘like’, known as ‘quotative be like’ in the linguistics literature.

“there has been much published on ‘like’ over the past 15 years or so, but Australian english deserves a closer look. i’ve conducted some research on the use of quotation in Perth english and i’m presenting my findings at a linguistics conference in manchester in April this year,” she said.

this research shows that – just as with other varieties of english around the world – the use of ‘like’ usually starts with girls, around the age of 11 and continues well into the tertiary years, with boys ‘catching up’ later in life.

“women are leaders in language change in the western world,” Professor rodriguez louro said. “girls from 11 to 13 are very vigorous users of ‘like’, while boys lag behind until they get to about university age, then they use it more than their female peers.

“my research shows that while young people are using ‘like’ extremely often, it is rare to hear it used by somebody over the

age of 35. the general consensus is that it started in the us, then spread via the mass media including to Canada, where it has been in use for a long time and has expanded and is now heard amongst people over 40.”

she said that – much to the dislike of older generations – young people were bound to continue to use ‘like’.

“As with other aspects of language innovation, the expansion of ‘like’ depends on it being evaluated positively. we will have to wait another 20 years to see whether ‘like’ remains a strong contender as people age.”

Professor rodriguez louro is also researching how verbs such as ‘think’, ‘believe’, ‘guess’ and ‘reckon’ are used to express one’s attitude in Australian english. she hopes to study how these verbs were used from the 19th century onwards and how the system of Anglo Australian english compares to the uses of these verbs in Aboriginal Australian english.

Professor rodriguez louro says the widely used ‘yeah, no’ expression in Australian english reflects the Australian preference for conflict avoidance. “As a cross-cultural observation, in my native Argentina, it is common to hear people respond with a blunt ‘no, no, no, no’ before giving their opinion as a response to yours,” she said.

“in countries such as spain, italy and france, expressing your opinion is valued and conflict is not avoided.

“Cross-cultural communication is ever important and we are lucky to be offering an exciting unit in second semester this year,” she said.

the linguistics discipline, in the school of humanities, is offering a broadening unit this semester, Communication across Cultures and Languages. this new unit gives students an opportunity to learn about how language is used and understood in different cultural settings looking at, among many other areas, how silence is deployed by people from different cultures, inside and outside Australia.

“we are thrilled to be able to teach in this crucial area,” she said.

it’s not like any other languageCeleste Rodriguez Louro loves the way English is spoken in Australia

“So I went, like, see you on the Oak Lawn”

the university of western Australia UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 | 3

Paul JohnsonVice-Chancellor

The importance of academic research

When the Royal Society was founded in 1660, it was possible for a knowledgeable person to be able to understand the full gamut of scientific discovery of that time.

Centuries later, it is hard to keep up with the furious pace of research advances even in one’s own discipline.

while some in the community might view this rapid growth of scientific knowledge as an indication that we’ve pretty much covered all that needs to be discovered, the application and impact of academic research on our daily lives continues apace.

the truth is that we can’t really begin to imagine what the world will be like in 30 years. we do know it will be fundamentally different from today; and we can be sure that it will be different because of science, technology and innovation which will almost certainly start out in the university research environment.

research is not only critical to the economic and social development of

society; it is also critical to the mission of our university.

some research benefits are obvious – for example, benefits of an economic kind (a new product, technology or service), a social kind (increased knowledge of relevance to policy makers), of an environmental kind (improved techniques to ensure sustainable food production), of a cultural kind (increased under-standing of cultural values or social approaches) or of a health kind (a better understanding of the causes of medical conditions or better means of delivering health services).

for some research the benefit may not be so obvious. As Albert einstein once remarked: “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

nevertheless, it is this research which is the foundation for knowledge that makes possible so much of the innovation and application that provides wider benefit. there is a large element of serendipity in research and we need to acknowledge that for every successful connection between research and application, there are many projects that will not succeed in the same way. but such research, nevertheless, adds to the stock of global knowledge and provides the source of new ideas, methods, techniques and innovation across a whole range of disciplinary and multi-disciplinary areas.

there is no doubt that the emphasis on the social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts of research has increased greatly. this has been partly driven by the debate over the impact and quality of research and also by a pragmatism that applied research is more likely to persuade funding bodies to spend on research.

our economy is based very strongly on technology and innovation – and in western Australia that centres on the resources sectors of agriculture, energy and minerals.

And as we continue to pursue our global research agenda, we can look to a vast range of opportunities to build a future economy based on the existing strengths of our resources wealth backed by research from this university.

staff pitch in to pick up what’s pitched outA piano leg, a finger puppet and a complete outfit – pants, shirt, shoes and socks – were among rubbish picked up by UWA volunteers during Clean Up Australia.

About 120 staff and students cleaned up the Crawley campus, the nedlands campus and the matilda bay foreshore early on friday 2 march and were rewarded with a breakfast at the university Club – as well as a sparkling campus.

Co-ordinator trish howard from sustainable development (facilities management) said the crew had picked up about three cubic metres of rubbish and recyclables across 742,000 square metres in less than two hours. (the set of clothes was found on the matilda bay foreshore.)

“it was a great effort and we were delighted that nearly all the people who volunteered last year put their hands up again this year. i didn’t have to go looking for volunteers,” she said.

Cigarette butts, as always, featured among the rubbish collected. ms howard said she would be interested to see how many, if any, were collected next year, after the smoking ban had been in place for a year. “it will give us an idea of how successful the smoke-free campaign is,” she said.

breakfast for the volunteers was sponsored by the university Club and sustainable development.

Ewann Lebrun and Nicolas Thebaud from Centre for Exploration Targeting target the rubbish

4 | UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 the university of western Australia

Philip Mead, trailblazer for new humanities research

In the literary world, it was an accepted assumption that the 1970s was a time of unprecedented growth in home-grown Australian fiction. And everybody was reading and talking about books by young Australian women.

but it was not until recently that a researcher was able to measure just how many novels were published in that decade, and she found that there had been a decline in novels by Australian writers overall, but confirmed an increase in women’s novels.

it is this sort of research – testing ideas about literary history – that is becoming possible with the spread of ‘digital humanities.’

the intersection of humanities and digital technologies is opening up opportunities in the fields of literature, linguistics, history and language that were not possible without computational methods and digitised resources to bring information together in an accessible way.

winthrop Professor Philip mead and dr toby burrows have set up a digital humanities reference group and are working on developing the field at uwA. late last year Professor mead visited King’s College london which has the world’s first university department of digital humanities and has just offered the first Phd in the field.

“it’s an emerging, exciting field,” Professor mead said. “for us, 2012 will be a year of talking to leaders in the field and finding out where the important directions are, to help us to develop digital humanities here at uwA in a distinctive way.”

he said uwA academics were combining traditional research methods with the possibilities offered by computing. Professor mead offers an honours unit in english that introduces students to digital humanities.

“inevitably, it will become part of our undergraduate teaching because it’s what we will be doing,” he said.

one of the world’s leading exponents of digital humanities, Professor Alan liu from the university of California santa barbara, will be a plenary speaker at the first conference of the Association for digital humanities in Australasia at the

New technologies can unlock humanities secrets Australian national university later this month. he will present a

roundtable discussion at uwA before that.

Professor liu studies “information culture as a way to close the circuit between the literary or historical imagination and the technological imagination.” his presentation at the university Club is part of the institute of Advanced studies’ program.

Professor mead said that while it was exciting to combine traditional research skills with the latest technology, proponents shouldn’t try to turn literature, for example, into data.

“the increasingly available databases and digital resources are what allow us to expand our research and enhance our methodology. you don’t want to get lost in the ‘busy work’ of creating databases, but focus on the important research questions you want to answer.

“digital technology allows us to ask different questions, questions we wouldn’t have been able to answer before databases became available,” he said.

“for example, having Australian newspapers from the 19th century digitised allows us to ask about people’s reading experiences. there were not many books published in Australia then, so people’s main reading was newspapers. without a database, it would be impossible to do this research.

“And having, say, Patrick white’s manuscripts digitised means a researcher can access them in one place, instead of several libraries and repositories around the world.”

Professor mead has contributed to the first Australian book on digital humanities, Resourceful Reading. it is the first comprehensive account of eresearch as it transforms the field of Australian literary studies in the 21st century.

transcription software is being developed for turning scans of books and documents into text, as the field of digital humanities really takes off.

“it is changing our work fundamentally, changing the questions we ask, the patterns and links we can find and enabling us to test theories that were previously impossible to test,” Professor mead said.

To attend Professor Alan Liu’s discussion on 23 March, please RSVP to ias@uwa.edu.au

the university of western Australia UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 | 5

What makes a ground-dwelling and disease-carrying tick decide to crawl up a grass stalk and launch itself onto a human or animal host?

Are some solitary locusts more likely than others to suddenly band together in plague proportions and act as one?

And why do single-celled algae change from vegetative reproduction to having sex?

these and other questions are being investigated by evolutionary biologist future fellow Professor Joseph tomkins in the Centre for evolutionary biology.

he is testing a model that seeks to explain what triggers changes in the behaviour or development of living things, whether they are as small as single cells or as big as a plague of insects, numbering many millions.

the model, pioneered by Professor tomkins’s collaborator, Professor wade hazel at de Pauw university in the united states, suggests that a certain threshold in the environmental conditions experienced by an organism make it switch between two alternatives.

“A cell can divide itself or find another cell to exchange dnA with, as it divides,” Professor tomkins said. “A male salmon might stay in its home river growing to only a few hundred grams, or go to sea for years, returning weighing a few kilograms. the model we are interested in treats the decisions that organisms make as traits, and asks how these decisions evolve. to date it has not been applied to the breadth of questions to which it could.”

Professor tomkins, who won an Australian research Council future fellowship of almost $1million over four years, will travel to france and scotland to examine the behaviour of deer ticks, which are responsible for the growing spread of lyme disease throughout parts of europe.

“the tick that carries lyme disease – which can be extremely disabling, and even fatal, if not treated with antibiotics – climbs up a grass stalk to look for a host only in certain weather conditions,” he said. “by knowing what triggers its behaviour, we hope to be able to warn farmers to move their stock, and hikers to avoid tick-infested areas, at times when ticks are searching for hosts.”

lyme disease also occurs in Australia, causing at least one death in the past 18 months.

“my ArC project will test the environmental threshold model to see how well it applies to decision-making in a range of organisms across the spectrum of life.

“it will help us understand the diversity of life and give us insight into what happens when species are under threat from human activity,” he said.

Bike weekUp to 300 staff and students are expected to cycle their way to a free breakfast this week.

the bike breakfast, to be held on the northern terrace of the university Club from 7am to 9am on wednesday 21 march, is a free event to recognise and reward cyclists for looking after their health and not bringing a car to uwA.

organiser ruth balding, transport Coordinator at uwA, said limited parking and increasing road congestion were making it increasingly difficult for students and staff to drive to the Crawley campus.

“so we’re hoping to show that cycling is a popular and feasible transport option for many car drivers and that uwA will be working hard to create a cycle-friendly campus,” ms balding said.

“riding a bike to uni is a great way to keep fit, maintain good mental health, save some money and reduce your environmental impact.”

the City of nedlands has joined forces with uwA to support the bike breakfast and will offer some great prizes on the day.

bikeweek is an annual celebration of cycling coordinated by the department of transport’s bikewest and hosted by local governments, community groups, workplaces, cycling organisations and schools across the state.

this year, bikeweek runs from 18 to 25 march.

what makes a tick

By Sally-Ann Jones

… tick?

6 | UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 the university of western Australia

Carolyn Oldham was the first woman to be made a Winthrop Professor in Engineering

Just as women used to sit in groups weaving together, more than 100 women (and men) at UWA sat together in the Tropical Grove, listening to Carolyn Oldham weave together the threads of her vision for a resilient and excellent university.

winthrop Professor oldham was the guest speaker on international women’s day and she brought together the strands of efficiency, engaging with young people and offering them a vision to create the resilience needed for an inspiring future.

the theme for the morning, Connecting Girls and Inspiring Futures, is something Professor oldham said she had spent half her life pondering. “i see the challenge to engage girls and present the vision of an inspiring future in engineering as a critical need for my profession’s future viability,” she said.

Although her discipline, environmental engineering, enjoys a staff and student balance of almost 50 per cent women, other areas of engineering fail miserably on the gender scale.

but it is not just girls, but boys, who, more than anything, “want to have voices in their communities,” she said. “with this desire to be heard, they bring a heap of energy, ideas and passion … (but) we are often disinclined to listen to them. we often don’t feel we have the time to really listen.”

she said the girls and boys who are our future are at home with the new world where digital technology has eroded traditional power bases and we need to engage meaningfully with them to find a new way of operating.

Professor oldham talked about community resilience: “the ability of communities to cope with rapid change, to cope with new demands, to ensure the community is sustainable and high-performing even under extreme conditions, the ability to transform and evolve.”

she spoke of the “critical difference between long-term resilience achieved through diversity of thinking and doing, and the efficiency of the current system.

“efficiency often uses a short-term framework … i suggest our biggest challenge is to know when to follow the efficiency pathway and when to follow the innovation, resilience and

gen y offers us our best chance at excellence

sustainability pathway. i propose that by engaging young women and men in our decision-making, we make that balancing act explicit.

“i believe the key to engaging girls (and boys) is dependent on our ability to offer them a vision not just of the future, but a vision for the present. i believe that the vision girls and boys are looking for is a future with genuine dialogue. engaging with girls, particularly in areas like engineering, and presenting an inspiring future for them, is a commitment and a responsibility that has to be shared by all of us.

“if we do not encourage an environment where people’s voices are heard, whether they are girls or boys, we don’t even get to the starting line in attracting our best chance of a resilient and excellent university for the future.”

UWA music student Olivia Thorne, a member of C 4 Cello, which performed at the Tropical Grove

the university of western Australia UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 | 7

It was like opening a treasure chest – a very prolonged opening that took four years.

this is how long it took to pack and verify every one of nearly 12,000 pieces in the berndt museum collection for its move from the cramped

basement under the social sciences building to its new, albeit temporary, home beneath the lawrence wilson Art gallery in the dr harold schenberg Arts Centre.

dr John stanton, director of the berndt museum, has devoted his life to the museum, begun and bequeathed to the university by anthropologists ronald and Catherine berndt.

but even he was surprised to see some of the artefacts he had almost forgotten about. “it was 30 years since i had seen some of the pieces and it was such a wonderful experience,” said dr stanton, who positively glows as he walks through the gallery space that is the museum’s exhibition space while awaiting a purpose-built home for the museum.

if the exhibition space produces a glow, the offices, work area and storage space under the Art gallery generate a metaphoric brilliance, as dr stanton sees the precious pieces finally cared for as they deserve to be.

for years, staff and visitors were tripping over boxes as the collection spilled out of inadequate storage into the gallery space.

it took three full-time packers as well as the museum staff to make the move. the museum gallery was closed to visitors for the past two years.

“it’s a long time to be closed, but our collection was still available on-line,” dr stanton said. “we are one of the few museums in the world which has a catalogue of all our objects on the web. About 15 per cent of the collection is shown in photographs but we were able to photograph every piece as it was rediscovered and packed, so we hope to have the whole collection on-line eventually.”

buried treasure under lights at last

Above: Crayon drawing by Djamagula, Oenpelli NT, RM and CH Berndt Collection, 21 March 1950. Far right: Polychrome wooden figure, T’ang Dynasty, China, RM Berndt Collection, c.1932. Right: Asmat shield Irian Jaya, Indonesia, E Sanchz-Flores Collection

8 | UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 the university of western Australia

Above left: Ngarrindjeri shield, Coorong SA, RM Berndt Collection, c.1938. Top: Sister basket, Strathern Moravian Mission, Gippsland Rev. FA Hagenauer Collection c.1856, gift of Dr Le Souef

dr stanton said visitors to the website were monitored and there had always been a lot of overseas interest, with students and academics from the us, the uK and across europe using the website. there are also plenty of requests for commercial use of images.

About 70 per cent of the collection is Australian objects; the rest are from Asia and melanesia, complementing the Australian indigenous pieces.

how to reintroduce the public to the berndt collection stimulated vigorous discussion during the packing and it was decided, after a suggestion from relocation manager fiona gavino, that staff should choose their favourite pieces and the first exhibition could be a collection of those favourites.

Relocate and Rediscover: Treasures of the Berndt Museum is the result. it is a small exhibition that includes a feathered mask from the new guinea highlands, a wooden figure from the t’ang dynasty, possibly the oldest Australian bark painting in existence and a contemporary Aboriginal painting of a football match.

“All the pieces have a story to tell,” dr stanton said. “As anthropologists, we deal with culture, not art as such, and these objects speak volumes if you know how to decode the story.”

he said bark paintings from western and north-eastern Arnhem land were a response to a demand for portable craft in the 1950s. “the movement was well-established by the 1960s and by the 1980s, it was rivalling dot paintings. bark paintings are not found anywhere else in the world.”

dr stanton was a young Phd student when he started working at the berndt museum with Professor ronald berndt. he is looking forward to its new home in the dr harold schenberg Arts Centre, well before he retires.

the berndts spent their lives building up the collection; dr stanton has spent his bringing it to the world.

Relocate and Rediscover continues at the gallery until the end of the semester. A new exhibition will be mounted every semester while the berndt museum occupies its gallery in the lwAg.

it is a beautifully-lit exhibition, eliciting a feeling of entering something extraordinary.

one of dr stanton’s favourites is the mask from new guinea, from 1951. it is displayed in a glass case, alongside a rare photograph of it being worn in the highlands.

Paintings on the inside of a bark shelter were probably created around 1875, making this the oldest bark painting in the world. “they are from the period of transition when Aboriginal people were just coming into contact with white people,” dr stanton said, “A pivotal incident in the history of Aboriginal, indeed world, art.”

there is a ‘sister basket’ woven from pink sedge in 1860; a photograph taken in the Kimberley from 1937 when the local indigenous people were already using dots on the ground to tell stories; and a brightly coloured painting of a modern football match.

John Stanton and his staff in the thick of packing two years ago

Photograph of a performer wearing a fern tree mask, Kainantu, Eastern Central Highlands, Papua New

Guinea. RM Berndt Collection, 1951

the university of western Australia UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 | 9

If you think you don’t need a high performance computing facility to assist your research … have a chat with Jenni Harrison, and prepare to be surprised.

Professor harrison is uwA’s eresearch program leader, based in the interactive Virtual environments Centre (iVeC) in the Physics building.

she is keen to explain how access to high end computing facilities, such as visualisation, can be of huge benefits to researchers in all areas. “lots of people think they don’t need high powered computing, but they might not realise the benefits, especially in creative areas,” Professor harrison said.

“of course, we (iVeC) do a lot of work with iCrAr, with astronomy and crystallography, who use enormous amounts of data, but data is used extensively in the creative industries, for example in movies and re-creations of fine art, which can benefit from using high performance technology.”

she is currently working with the institute of Advanced studies on ways that iVeC can increase the support for digital humanities researchers at uwA.

the iVeC program is a joint venture between the public universities in wA and the Csiro. “high performance computing is very expensive and needs to be refreshed every couple of years, so it is cost-effective to share facilities,” she said.

iVeC provides specialised support to all partner organisations in areas including eresearch, industry engagement and education. Professor harrison is based at uwA, but supports eresearch at all the iVeC partner institutions; she has colleagues located at edith Cowan and Curtin universities who provide industry engagement and education support respectively.

“eresearch is much wider than just using the supercomputer,” she said. “one project i supported used multipoint video conferencing so a

Improve your performance

group of geographically dispersed musicians could play together. such technologies allow people to actively participate, collaborate or learn, which is especially beneficial to individuals living in remote locations.

“Another project i am presently working on with colleagues across Australia will develop a sharable online tool which aggregates marine data collected by researchers; the resultant information will be used by the marine community to ‘map’ changes in Australia’s oceans.

“these are the sorts of creative results we have the power to achieve.”

one of the biggest challenges of her work is the wide range of awareness of technology among university staff. “everybody is at a different level and it certainly keeps us on our toes.”

from a background as a chemist and 10 years working in biosciences, Professor harrison was most recently with the national health service in edinburgh. she was designing and delivering online training for health professionals throughout scotland,

including the creation of 3d anatomy and virtual patients.

“Access to education in some rural communities is challenging, so this was a great solution,” she said. “i learn so much about the disciplines in which i work. in the health area, there are issues of intellectual property rights such as copyright, consent, confidentiality, privacy and data security, all of which apply to many other disciplines.”

Professor harrison is finishing a masters in e-learning from edinburgh university. And computers have become part of her comfort zone in her private life too. she enjoys shopping on-line and gets most of her news on-line rather than from newspapers.

“i was quite a subscriber to the paper book, until i was given a Kindle for Christmas!” she said.

for information on eresearch, please go to ivec.uwa.edu.au/ and click on services. you will find contact information and how to access iVeC’s twitter feed, which tweets news, coming events and conferences.

Jenni Harrison, here to help

10 | UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 the university of western Australia

Students from St George’s College are helping athletes with intellectual disabilities – and learning some lessons themselves.

medical student Kirsten bennett, who has signed up for a second year of mentoring with the Athletes leadership Program, said she had learned from the young woman she mentored that life did not need to be as complicated as we make it.

“the athletes have really taught us lessons about life,” said Kirsten, who, along with the other st george’s residents, has volunteered to be involved again this year, even though some of them have graduated.

the special olympics program complements the Paralympics, where athletes with physical disabilities compete nationally and internationally. other mentors include mark dodd, rose devereaux, Anna and rebecca Civil, stacie Cunningham, Alexander watson, Alexander mcleay, and Akram Azimi.

richard Pengelley, Chaplain at st george’s, uwA’s sub dean Community and a former olympic water polo player, became involved when special olympics wA patron winthrop Professor fiona wood recommended him to run a mentoring program.

Assistant Professor Pengelley had run a successful mentoring program for the west Coast eagles football club in 2010 with his colleagues Associate Professor Peter whipp and winthrop Professor shelda debowski. Professor wood was one of the mentors in this program.

he paired seven st george’s students with a group of athletes and set some goals for them to achieve.

Kirsten mentored michelle, a woman in her mid-30s who plays softball. “i’m not a sporting person myself but i welcomed the opportunity to get to know somebody with a different perspective and different experiences,” she said.

students give athletes a sporting chance

“we would meet for coffee and talk about the training goals richard had set. one of the biggest challenges for the athletes was public speaking. As part of the program, they each had to stand up at a public event and deliver a speech. michelle lacked the confidence to do that; she even found writing a speech daunting.

“so we worked a lot together on that until she was finally able to get up and speak at a sports luncheon.”

the program is designed to train the athletes to be able to take a place on the special olympics board.

special olympics is more about learning skills, taking part, getting fit, interacting socially and instilling confidence, rather than competing to be the fastest and the strongest.

there are competitions, and wA athletes take part in nine different sports. the next national special olympics meet is in Victoria in 2014 and the international games are in los Angeles in 2015.

Professor Pengelley, who has now been joined by wA cricketer luke towers to train the mentors, last year partnered the mentor/athlete pairs with eagles footballers. they attended a training session, toured the club and some of them practised their speeches in front of the players.

“we also had a parade at half-time during an eagles/dockers derby for athletes who had taken part in the 2011 special olympics in Athens,” he said.

the Athletes leadership Program continues this year with 10 athletes being mentored by current or former st george’s students.

Special Olympic athlete Rusty Nelligan being assisted by mentor in the Royal Life Saving Society water safety skills session

Dr Fiona Wood celebrating the 2011 Athlete Leadership Program graduation with St George’s mentors and

Special Olympians in the gardens of St George’s College

the university of western Australia UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 | 11

Whether it was through agriculture, medicine or innovative outreach programs, the winners of Chancellor’s Medals dedicated most of their working lives to the University.

five medals are being presented during the current graduation season for “outstanding service and significant contribution to the university over many years”.

on 13 march, Winthrop Professor Neil Turner was honoured for his work in dryland crops and soils. he was part of a team that developed a successful bid for the Cooperative research Centre for legumes in mediterranean Agriculture (ClimA). he later helped to establish ClimA as a uwA centre. ClimA research has benefited farmers in Australia and all over the world in the face of drought and land degradation.

Professor turner was instrumental in securing federal funds for the new faculty of Agriculture building on the Crawley campus. he helped to establish research partnerships with india and China and is still an active member of the uwA institute of Agriculture.

Cathy Tang came to uwA in the 1980s to study Classics – and never left. with her first class honours degree, she became a tutor in latin, then a conference organiser, then the manager of university house where her charm and organisational skills shone. she became a member of the Council of Convocation, then joined the university senate in 1996, on which she served until 2010.

mrs tang is involved with the friends of uwA music and the uwA Centenary trust for women. her Chancellor’s medal was presented on 14 march.

There can be beauty and even fun in the shapes that scientists find in nanoparticles.

Visiting research fellow in the school of Physics, dr lucia gutierrez-marruedo, noticed a few years ago that some magnetic nano-particles resembled letters of the alphabet. so she started collecting them.

dr gutierrez recently found the last few to complete her set of 26 while working in the bio-magnetic group at uwA, her postdoctorate position here funded by a spanish institution.

the group has now published, tongue-in-cheek, the first magnetic nanoalphabet, or as dr gutierrez-marruedo puts it, ‘nanoalfabeto’.

Nanoalphabet!Pictures by: M. P. Morales1, A. G. Roca2, M. Ibrahim3, © L. Gutiérrez1,3 !

1Insituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid ICMM-CSIC, Spain, 2The University of York, UK, 3The University of Western Australia, Australia, 2012!

Dedication to the University rewardedRoger Dickinson had a significant impact on community perceptions of the work and role of uwA. he was a pioneer in the use of multimedia for science education and those skills were used to reach out to high school students, to inform them about uwA and indigenous art.

he has forged enduring connections with state government departments and schools, one of the highlights being the sPiCe program, a hugely successful and popular secondary teachers’ enrichment program, which has benefitted both teachers and the university. he will receive his medal on 22 march.

Another agricultural scientist, Emeritus Professor Craig Atkins, will be honoured on 28 march. he had a distinguished career in the area of plant biochemistry and physiology, making an outstanding contribution to the knowledge of molecular and cellular functions of legumes, and improving the field performance of these agriculturally-important plants.

the final Chancellor’s medallist (4 April) is Adjunct Professor Peter Flett who enabled strong and ongoing partnerships between the university and the state health department. in various roles including Chief executive of Pathwest, director of the south metropolitan Area health service, and director-general of health, he advocated and engineered close cooperation between the two institutions.

he secured funding for academic posts at the Armadale-Kelmscott and rockingham-Kwinana hospitals, which, with the increase in numbers of medical students, have become critical to providing quality medical education.

A to Z of nanoparticles

12 | UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 the university of western Australia

doctors happy to learn new skills

Last year UWA was awarded the prestigious Pride in Diversity accolade as one of the Top 10 employers in Australia for awareness of sexual diversity.

Pride in diversity’s program is designed specifically to support Australian employers with their inclusion of staff of diverse sexualities and genders.

this recognition has prompted the university to review its current sexual diversity strategy. since 2002 the cornerstone of this strategy has been the Ally program, now extended to 16 other universities nationally. the university has decided to extend the strategy with a range of new initiatives and has recently re-established an informal network of staff on campus who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex.

beverley hill, Associate director, equity and diversity, said that as part of our Pid application this year uwA was participating in a survey to get a current sense of the campus ‘climate’ and the extent to which we are inclusive on this matter. “we believe

The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is best known for its policy of Gross National Happiness, and UWA is lending a hand to ensure it is achieved.

two doctors from bhutan are visiting Perth to further their knowledge of cancer diagnosis and treatment.

leading international breast cancer surgeon and researcher, winthrop Professor Christobel saunders met with dr lungten wangchuk, a public health doctor from bhutan’s ministry of health, and dr ugyen tshomo, bhutan’s only gynaecologist-oncologist.

After being invited by the ministry of health to bhutan in 2009, Professor saunders developed a cancer policy and plan for that country.

it provided better prevention and early detection of common cancers as well as world-class national cancer care and support.

situated between india and China, bhutan has a population of 650,000 with nearly one-third living in urban areas.

the average life expectancy is 66 years and more than 80 per cent of cancers present at a late stage.

“tackling cancer is a complex task that will be made easier with a comprehensive plan supported by government, health services, health professionals, academic institutions, religious and community leaders and the people of bhutan,” Professor saunders said.

“during their visit, the doctors from bhutan are meeting cancer specialists, clinicians and researchers, and learning how our cancer prevention, treatment and support services work.

“we hope that the knowledge they gain from their time here will help them in their practice and teaching at home in bhutan.”

the visit was funded by the Cancer Council Australia, the Australian himalayan foundation and the international skills and training institute in health.

wA public health worker michelle hogan, who has lived and worked in bhutan, helped coordinate the project and is working to foster links between Australia and bhutan.

being aware of gender diversitythe general feedback we receive from this survey will help us to support sexual and gender diversity on campus,” she said.

“Accordingly, we are inviting staff to participate in the Pid survey. the survey is short (no more than a few minutes to complete), and responses are completely confidential since no identifying information is collected. the university will only be provided with survey feedback from Pid in an aggregated format.”

to complete the survey, go to prideindiversity.com.au/employee-survey-2012/

to access the survey, use the password: pride2012 (lowercase no spaces). you will be asked for the name of your organisation (the university of western Australia is the correct description here, not uwA), and you will be asked for the uwA security code: uwA22

the survey closes at 2pm on 30 march.

Dr Tshomo, Professor Saunders and Dr Wangchuk

the university of western Australia UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 | 13

UWA NEWS classified

For all your design needs

uniprint.uwa.edu.au

UniPrint’s in-house designers offer a comprehensive design service.

Our designers have full knowledge of our University’s visual identity guidelines and can assist in the implementation of the style, or the migration of your current promotional materials to meet the University’s requirements.

See UniPrint for all your design needs.

Paris AccommodationA 17th century convent in Paris is available for UWA staff accommodation through the French Department of the School of Humanities.les récollets has 81 small flats and studio apartments for visiting researchers. the convent was converted into an international scientific and cultural accommodation centre by the french government in 1999 and european studies has recently entered into a not-for-profit agreement with the centre.tristan Kewe, a joint Phd candidate at uwA and la sorbonne nouvelle in Paris, is the contact for arranging accommodation. les récollets is available for periods from a week to two years. the serviced apartments are very reasonably priced and tristan says the agreement is able to bypass “the french habit of asking for mountains of paperwork.”he would like to hear from any staff member who is interested in staying there.for more information, email tristan.kewe@arts.uwa.edu.au or tkewe@ozemail.com.au

My Collection is a new project from UWA’s Cultural Precinct in which members of the University community choose works from the University art collection and explain what it means to them. The chosen works will form an ongoing exhibition.

the first in the series is a painting chosen by former Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan robson, one which he got to know intimately, as it hung in the Vice-Chancellery.

“my favourite work of art within the Collection of the university of western Australia is Skeletal Remains by howard taylor. one of my regrets in finishing my time as Vice-Chancellor is that i will no longer admire this painting every day.

“Painted in 1960 the oil on composition board painting is a gift to uwA by dr and mrs r K Constable. ted snell in his wonderful book on howard taylor says that “the Skeletal Remains project was very important in laying the foundation for the artist’s exploration of the zone between painting and sculpture”.

“i like the painting because of its symmetry and balance and because of the reinforcing subtlety of colour with gradation of pinks with rectangular arrangement. ted snell describes the process of its creation:

“When searching for a subject to paint, the sculpture was dismantled and the elements reassembled as a starting point for a series of drawings. At first the elements are accurately transcribed into two dimensions with considerable emphasis being placed on the kinetic potential of the form.

“As the process of analysis continued the end-on view is simplified into a bull’s-eye target and slowly the circular elements are liberated from the central shaft and given their own supports.

“The legs anthropomorphise the mechanical object and with the assistance of the title the viewer is encouraged to continue the process. Set within a desert landscape that stretches to the horizon, the forms resemble a lizard or large insect, denuded of its flesh yet still poised for flight.

while not understanding all this until i read ted snell’s account, i have greatly enjoyed the company of this work for nearly twenty years.”

Getting up close and personal

Notice

The University of Western Australia Academic Staff Associationelection of officers pursuant to section 69(4) of the Industrial Relations Act 1979

ELECTION NOTICEnominations are called from eligible candidates for the election of:

•President(1)•VicePresident(1)•Secretary(1)•Treasurer(1)•OrdinaryMemberoftheCommitteeofManagement(6)

the above positions are for a one year term commencing from 1 July 2012.nominations will be accepted from thursday 15 march 2012.nomination forms are to be completed in accordance with the Rules of The University of Western Australia Academic Staff Association and must reach the wA electoral Commission by 12pm on monday 2 April 2012.nomination forms and lodgement instructions are available from the uwAAsA office: uwaasa@cyllene.uwa.edu.au

Cathy Kingreturning offiCer

Howard Taylor, Skeletal remains, 1958, oil on hardboard, 60.5x122 cm The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Dr and Mrs R K Constable, 1978, © Howard Taylor Estate

14 | UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 the university of western Australia

UWA NeWs classified

When life is not plain sailing ...The Employee Assistance Program offers free confidential counselling to UWA staff and immediate family, for personal or work problems.

To arrange an appointment contact one of the following service providers

PPC Worldwide Level 16, 251 Adelaide Tce, Perth Tel: 1300 361 008 (24hrs) Web: au.ppcworldwide.com

For further information on the UWA Employee Assistance Program seesafety.uwa.edu.au/policies/eap

UWA Counselling and Psychological Service 2nd Floor, South Wing, Guild Village Tel: +61 8 6488 2423 (Office Hours) Web: counselling.uwa.edu.au

ReSeARcH GRANtSGrants Awarded Between 17/02/2012 and 2/03/2012CANCER COUNCIL OF WESTERN AUSTRALIACornelia Bertram, biomedical, biomolecular and Chemical sciences (school of): ‘mode and molecular mechanisms of tea tree oil-induced tumour Cell death in Vivo’— $24,117 (2012)Adjunct Professor Richard Lake, Dr Cleo Robinson, Professor Anna Nowak, Dr Amanda Cleaver, Winthrop Professor Bruce Robinson, medicine and Pharmacology (school of): ‘A high fidelity model of malignant mesothelioma’— $175,000 (2012-13)

DEPARTMENT OF INNOVATION, INDUSTRY, SCIENCE AND RESEARCH (DIISR)Dr Merran Smith, Child health research (uwA Centre for): ‘Population health research network education investment fund eif super science initiative’— $10,000,000 (2011-12)

ILUKA RESOURCES LIMITEDAssociate Professor Andrew Rate, Assistant Professor Sally Salmon, Dr Henning Prommer, Winthrop Professor Zdenko Rengel, earth and environment (school of): ‘literature review: geochemical background and mobility of thorium and uranium from mineral sands’— $39,942 (2012)

MONASH UNIVERSITY EX ARC LIEFProfessor Tim Sercombe, mechanical and Chemical engineering (school of): ‘A hot isostatic Press hiP for Aerospace and biomedical Component Processing’—(2012)Winthrop Professor Dongke Zhang, mechanical and Chemical engineering (school of): ‘test facility for Clean energy transformation technologies’— (2012)

NATIONAL SENIORS AUSTRALIAProfessor Paul Gerrans, Professor Doug Hershey, uwA business school, university of oklahoma: ‘role of financial literacy and financial Anxiety in older Australians retirement savings decisions’— $30,833 (2012)

PRINCESS MARGARET HOSPITAL FOUNDATIONRuth Thornton, Paediatrics and Child health (school of): ‘dissolving the glue in glue ear – Assessment of the use of dornase Alfa as an Adjunct therapy to Ventilation tube insertion’— $50,000 (2012)

ROYAL MELBOURNE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY EX ARC LINKAGE PROJECTSAssistant Professor Wei Liu, Computer science and software engineering (school of): ‘tools methodologies and reasoning support for developing Companion toy modules’— $5,000 (2012)

UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES EX ARC LINKAGE PROJECTSWinthrop Professor Cristina Gibson, Dr Catherine Collins, uwA business school, university of new south wales: ‘lP120100690 / leveraging organisational Context to maximise team Performance and thriving – A dynamic Approach to understand team learning Across diverse settings’— $25,195 (2012-14)

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE EX NATIONAL ERESEARCH COLLABORATION TOOLS AND RESOURCES NECTARPaul White, genetic epidemiology and biostatistics (Centre for): ‘Cloud based bioinformatics tools’— $306,000 (2012-13)

PRomotioN bRiefS WINTHROP PROFESSORProfessor Tim ColmerSchool of Plant BiologyProfessor Colmer’s research focus is the identification of physiological and biochemical traits associated with plant adaptation to salinity and flooding, and the regulation of these traits. he has built an international reputation for his research on plant stresses and his expertise and leadership in this field.he has been deputy head of school as well as Associate dean (teaching and learning) in the faculty of natural and Agricultural sciences. Professor Colmer has contributed to the school’s role in community service, and to the wider scientific community as discipline representative for the Australian society of Plant scientists.Professor Andre LuitenSchool of Physicsthe main feature of Professor luiten’s work has been the development of new types of instruments in the many diverse fields of physics. he is particularly interested in the possibility of applying these instruments to solve problems or to make measurements that were not previously possible. he is dedicated to establishing a world leading centre for Precision measurement at uwA that will produce high impact research outcomes in both fundamental and applied disciplines, renowned for the quality of its research training, and which inspires and educates the public.he is recognised as a prominent and highly respected expert in the international community of precision metrology and fundamental measurements, and has established strong connections with the best scientists throughout the world. he was named wA scientist of the year in 2011.

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE PROFESSORDr Matthew NelsonSchool of Plant Biologydr nelson has a joint appointment: research and teaching in the school of Plant biology and commercial research with Canola breeders western Australia Pty ltd. Key themes of his research are the characterisation and exploitation of genetic variation within and between species, genome evolution and the novel and efficient applications of microspore culture.he is recognised both nationally and internationally for his work in crop genetics and breeding particularly in the area of lupin and brassica improvement. in this context, dr nelson has developed an active group of collaborators which will lead to strong research impacts in the future.Dr Roberto BusiSchool of Plant Biologydr busi’s main area of research is the theoretical and applied aspects of herbicide resistance evolution. he has communicated the results of his research at numerous international and national conferences and is

widely recognised to have strong expertise in the area of the selection and evolution of weed resistance to herbicides. he has participated in outreach activities and delivered research results to both consultants and farmers. Currently, he is principal investigator in a grant funded by the rural industries research and development Corporation: sustainability of wheat-selective Pre-emergent herbicides in a Changing Climate. in 2008 he won the best early career publication award within the school of Plant biology and in 2009, the uwA early career publication award.he is part of the organising committee for the international conference, Global Herbicide Resistance Challenge which will be held in Perth in 2013.

clASSifiedSACCOMMODATIONLONDON: Accommodation available from one week to three months, at very reasonable price. for more information, contact: melhon@optusnet.com.au

HOUSESITTINGHOUSESITTER: Available for long term from early march. in nedlands, Crawley, Claremont, dalkeith, Cottesloe, swanbourne, mosman Park, north fremantle or other areas. reliable, trustworthy and mature uwA lecturer. with excellent

references and previous house sitting experience. recent police clearance check. will look after your house, pets, garden, plants and swimming pool. Please contact emmanuelle: 0431 120 356.

WANTEDHOUSE WANTED: nZ family of four are coming to uwA for a sabbatical 13 August 2012 – 13 January 2013. we are wanting a house to rent or sit (furnished or unfurnished) for this time period. house would need to be child-friendly and have 2 or more bedrooms. Please contact Paul Kenyon p.r.kenyon@massey.ac.nz

TO LETQUINDALUP: A charming, recently renovated, fully self-contained redbrick cottage only 400m from beautiful geographe bay and 2km from dunsborough township. located at the end of a private road, this cottage offers privacy and security, a lovely natural vista out over toby inlet reserve, and is a great cottage for all seasons. Please go to quindalup.net.au for further information.PARIS: interested in staying in a lovely apartment on an island in the seine? Choose between seven apartments in inner city Paris for holiday or longer term accomm-odation – ile de la Cite, ile st louis, montmartre, le marais, nation, unesco-Pasteur. Contact Carlotta for arrangements: carlotta@beeinparis.com

In a campus emergency

dIal 2222

the university of western Australia UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 | 15

Make Agricultural Science a national priorityAustralia ranks fourth in the world behind Brazil, Argentina and Netherlands as an exporter of agricultural products.

we typically export up to 70 per cent of our output, helping meet the food requirements of Australia’s 22 million people, plus another 60 million overseas.

Conservative estimates suggest Australia helps feed 400-500 million people in developing countries through agricultural education, training, development, knowledge and technology transfer in partnership with developing countries and international Agricultural research Centres.

using a wide range of indicators, including water, fertiliser and energy use efficiency and rate of adoption of technologies such as conservation agriculture, Australian agriculture leads the world.

modern society can’t thrive without access to a high level of sustainable, economical and quality food. the challenge is to find solutions to declining natural resources – land, water and nutrients – and increasing human population, so investment today in higher education in agricultural science is money well spent for the future.

Continued long-term improvements in world food production are fundamental to world security. feeding the growing population will require renewed and vigorous efforts to enhance agricultural productivity, utilising all the advantages modern science and technology bring.

governments will need to increase investments in agricultural education, research and development (r&d) – and encourage the private sector to invest in r&d to ensure future agricultural growth.

farming’s viability in Australia is threatened by the current focus on the mining and resources sector, which is pulling bright young minds away from higher education in sciences.

uwA has a proud history of teaching and research in agriculture and related natural resource management. we are currently ranked 110 in the world (Academic ranking of world universities 2011) and ranked 33 in the world and number one in Australia in the life and Agricultural sciences category.

uwA’s agricultural science graduates enjoy a 100 per cent employment success rate, but pay scales suffer compared with jobs in the mining and resources sector, where unqualified young people can enjoy $100,000+ starting salaries.

so, how do we address the challenge?

• bridge the city-country gap with educational and awareness programs to enthuse and inform the community, from primary school up, of the vital importance of agriculture and food productions systems;

• develop co-teaching qualifications with graduate degrees in agricultural science to place some graduates into the school system, as champions of agricultural science;

• Promote the diversity of employment opportunities (both domestic and international) for agriculture science graduates;

• Close the cultural gap between industry and universities, better define industry needs and develop closer collaborations with commercial groups and companies (including food processing and retailers) to increase consumer interest in food and enable agricultural science graduates to pursue careers where they can ‘sell’ the farming food story;

• rationalise the collaboration between university courses and ‘smart’ systems of delivery and encourage greater links between metropolitan universities and rural environments, possibly linking with local government authorities for training/work experience;

• encourage graduates from other disciplines to seek post-graduate qualifications in agricultural science through commercially funded scholarships; and

• formalise worldwide networking of agricultural science faculties to attract the best students and become powerhouses of ideas and applicable science to keep the world well fed at an affordable price.

Agriculture should be highlighted as a national priority for education in the same way as mathematics and science are and as nursing and education have been previously.

Winthrop Professor Kadambot SiddiqueChair in Agriculture, Director UWA Institute of Agriculture, Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences

16 | UWA NEWS 19 march 2012 the university of western Australia

the last word …

Uni

Prin

t 94

891

editor/writer: lindy brophy, Public Affairs tel: 6488 2436 fax: 6488 1020 email: lindy.brophy@uwa.edu.au

hackett foundation building, m360

director of Public Affairs: doug durack tel: 6488 2806 fax: 6488 1020

designed and printed by uniPrint, uwA

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

UWA NEWS