Archive for June, 2008

Dr Col Gellatly, a graduate of the University of New England and a current member of the UNE Council, has been named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 2008 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Dr Gellatly, who was Director-General of the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet in 1994/95 and then from1996 until his retirement in 2007, received the honour “for service to the community as a leader in policy reform and administration in the NSW public sector, particularly through the coordination of whole-of-government program initiatives”.

After joining the NSW Public Service as a trainee in 1968, Dr Gellatly gained an Honours degree in Agricultural Economics from UNE in 1972, followed by a Master of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales and a PhD from North Carolina State University in the United States.

He served the State of NSW in a series of senior positions, including Director-General of the Department of Industrial Relations, Employment, Training and Further Education (1989-1994), and Director-General of the Department of Land and Water Conservation (1995-1996). In 1995 he successfully managed the merger of the NSW Departments of Water Resources and Conservation and Land Management with elements of the Public Works Department.

In recognition of his outstanding contribution to public sector management he was made a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration in 1997.

UNE’s Chancellor, Mr John Cassidy, was named an Officer of the Order of Australia in last year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List. (The medal associated with the Officer of the Order of Australia award is pictured here.)

Among those named yesterday as Members of the Order of Australia (AM) are six UNE graduates and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University – Karen Wilson. Professor Wilson, who is Acting Manager, Plant Diversity Section, of the Botanic Gardens Trust in Sydney, received her award “for service to botany as a researcher and through the recording and documentation of Australian biodiversity”. Another UNE graduate, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Nothard CSC, was named a Member (AM) in the Military Division of the Order of Australia for his “exceptional service” as Commander and Staff Officer, described as being “in the finest traditions of the Australian Army”.

Among the UNE graduates named as recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) are the former UNE history lecturer and New England local historian Graham Wilson (”for service to the community of Armidale through roles in heritage organisations”), and Andrew Lu, winner of UNE’s Young Distinguished Alumni Award for 2007.

Mr Lu, who holds a Master of Laws degree from UNE, is a Senior Associate with Minter Ellison Lawyers. His award, “for service to the arts through a range of administrative roles, and to the community”, recognises his contributions to cultural, legal and philanthropic organisations around Australia. His current positions include those of Deputy Chairman of Canberra Symphony Orchestra and Chairman of the Canberra-based Jigsaw Theatre Company. He is a Life Governor of the National Gallery of Australia Foundation and a Governor of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation

Debra Dunstan and Nicole Turner want to hurt you. Afterwards, they’ll give you a cup of tea and a biscuit - and ask you how it felt.

No, they’re not sadists. They’re researchers, and their work has potential benefits for millions of sufferers of chronic pain worldwide. But first, 100 brave souls have to front up and enter their “room of pain”.

Ms Turner, a fourth-year psychology student at the University of New England, is studying the link between emotional intelligence and adaptive responses to pain. Specifically, she wants to find out whether people high in emotional intelligence - the ability to adaptively perceive, understand and regulate emotions - are better at handling pain than others. If they are, then that’s good news for people suffering from chronic pain, since many of the skills associated with emotional intelligence can be learned.

“What we do know about pain is that the physical component is only one part of the experience of pain,” said Dr Debra Dunstan, the clinical psychologist supervising the study. “The emotional and psychological aspects of pain are equally important.”

Dr Dunstan gave the example of a professional footballer playing in a grand final, who might not even be aware of an injury until after the game due to the emotions involved.

“Different people will react differently to the same physical experience of pain, depending on the situation and their psychological makeup,” she said.

The purpose of the experiment she and Ms Turner would be conducting was to identify traits common to those people who handled pain well, she said. Participants will be led to a room, where, after completing a questionnaire, they will be exposed to experimentally-induced pain that creates painful, but harmless, sensations in their arm. Afterwards, they will be given a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit and asked to describe how the pain felt.

Dr Dunstan emphasised that the procedure was totally safe and said participants would be in complete control of the pain’s duration and free to end the experiment at any time. The levels of pain involved fell well within safe medical criteria, she said, adding that a list of referral numbers would be supplied in the unlikely event a participant’s discomfort continued after the experiment had ended.

Dr Dunstan and Ms Turner hope to recruit a range of people for the study, including people who are scared of pain, as well as those who are less afraid. Participants will initially be restricted to people working and studying at UNE’s Armidale campus.

“We’d really like it if people unnerved by the idea of experiencing pain turn up, along with the braver ones, since these are the people we’re trying to help,” Dr Dunstan said.

Those interested in participating in the study should contact Nicole Turner at nturner2@une.edu.au or on 0411 085 999.

Research into the Lower Gwydir aquatic ecosystem in north-western NSW is producing a clearer picture of how this high-conservation-value wetland system responds to flooding. The findings will underpin future flow management decisions for this important resource.

The research, conducted through the University of New England and the Cotton Catchment Communities Cooperative Research Centre (Cotton CRC), has been funded by the Australian Government. Over the initial 12 months of fieldwork, it has produced useful insights into how fish, planktonic animals, water chemistry and wetland plants respond to environmental and other flow releases from Copeton Dam upstream.

“The Lower Gwydir channels support a diverse community of fish species, typical of many catchments across the northern Murray-Darling Basin,” said The Project Leader, Dr Glenn Wilson from Ecosystem Management at UNE. “Several of the more common species appeared to respond – both in their abundance and in their breeding patterns – despite the relatively small size of flows released into the area over last summer and autumn.”

“Findings from the monitoring of populations of microscopic zooplankton have shown that these may prove a useful ‘indicator’ of river system health and the ecological success of flow events,” Dr Wilson explained. “While organisms like these may appear insignificant, they play a major role as prey for fish and help keep levels of nuisance algae in check.

“Wetland systems such as the Lower Gwydir need to be viewed as an interconnected food web, where intact species assemblages are vital to long-term sustainability. For example, the large rookery areas for water birds that the wetlands are known for can only function if flows are sufficient to maintain the fish and other prey that support the growth and development of fledglings.”

“Flows from most catchments across the northern Murray-Darling Basin end up in ‘terminal’ wetland systems such as the Lower Gwydir,” Dr Wilson added, “and these habitats undoubtedly play a key role across the region in the regulation of major floods, the maintenance of aquatic biodiversity, and the recolonisation of upstream areas.

“For the Lower Gwydir, understanding these dynamics will ensure that future catchment management and environmental flow decisions for this internationally-significant ecosystem will reflect the best available science.”

Both the University of New England and the Cotton CRC continue to encourage sound scientific research on river systems where a balance needs to be achieved between human and environmental uses of water. “We see partnerships between researchers, agricultural industries and the community as being critical if we are to develop a shared understanding of the management requirements of these ecosystems,” Dr Wilson said.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here was taken at “Willowlee” on the Gingham watercourse west of Moree.

Work at the University of New England is opening a new window onto the world of memory in the honeybee.

Experiments conducted by UNE’s Emeritus Professor Lesley Rogers and Professor Giorgio Vallortigara from the University of Trento, Italy, have revealed an impressive complexity in the way bees store and retrieve their memories of odours.

Recruiting subjects from the grevillea bush flowering at Professor Rogers’s laboratory door, the scientists trained them to associate a lemon scent with a reward of sugar. Bees “smell” with their two antennae and “drink” with their proboscis, and they quickly learn to extend their proboscis (the so-called “proboscis extension reflex”) in response to an odour they associate with a sugar reward – even in the absence of that reward.

Professor Rogers and Professor Vallortigara are international authorities on the specialised use of the left and right sides of the brain in many aspects of cognition and behaviour. Professor Rogers is a pioneer of research that, over the past 30 years, has shown that such specialisation – once thought to be unique to humans – is widespread among vertebrate species.

This research is now revealing comparable “lateralization” in the much smaller brains of invertebrates, including the finding that bees learn to associate odours with rewards more efficiently when using the right antenna than when using the left. The UNE experiments were designed to track this lateralised response along the surprisingly intricate corridors of the bee’s memory.

Using the evidence of the “proboscis extension reflex”, the researchers found that, initially, bees remembered the reward associated with the lemon scent when the scent was presented to their right antenna but not when it was presented to their left antenna. After six hours, however, this memory was recalled only when using the left antenna. This could be shown simply by presenting a droplet with the odour on the left or right side of the bee.

“While we don’t yet know whether it’s the memory site itself or the recall pathway that ’shifts’ during this period,” Professor Rogers said, “this result corresponds to findings in vertebrates showing that long-term and short-term memories are stored in different parts of the brain.

“This shift from one antenna to the other may allow the bee to learn new scents of nectar-giving flowers, using the right antenna, without interference from older memories. Such lateralization seems to be a necessary - or advantageous - feature of any brain with paired sensory organs, regardless of its size.”

Professor Vallortigara is Director of the Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences at the University of Trento, and also an Adjunct Professor at UNE. This research was begun when he visited UNE’s Centre for Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour on a Faculty Distinguished Visitor Award in 2007.

The paper reporting on the research will be published today in PLoS ONE, the journal of the Public Library of Science. Read the article online at http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0002340.

For more information contact Emeritus Professor Lesley Rogers on (02) 6773 3969 or Jim Scanlan on (02) 6773 3049.

Fourteen undergraduate women at the University of New England have embarked on a five-month program that will introduce them to the realities of professional life in government administration, business, and law.

Last Friday at UNE, the students met the people who are to be their mentors in the “Lucy” program.

The Lucy Mentoring Program, established in 2004 by the Office for Women within the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet, aims to prepare women students for their entry into professional life in the world of business and law. It matches each participating student with a mentor who is a working professional in either the public or the private sector.

Airlie Bell, a UNE Careers Adviser who is one of the coordinators of the program at UNE, explained that it was not a “work experience” program as such, but rather “an introduction to the realities of some quite sophisticated work environments”.

“Some of the mentors have particular projects that they will work through with their students,” Ms Bell said. “Some will enable their students to gain insight into the workings of the profession by attending meetings in the workplace, and others are planning to take their students with them on business trips.”

As well as spending 35 hours with their mentor, the students will attend professional-development meetings with other “Lucy” students and with staff of UNE Student Assist. The program will conclude on the 31st of October with a formal “graduation” event attended by officials of the University and the Premier’s Department, during which the students will report on their “Lucy” experiences.

The 11 mentors in the UNE “Lucy” program are from local offices of State Government departments and agencies, legal and accounting firms, and the University itself. They are Maureen Chapman and Nickie Murcell (NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet), Adam Blakester (Change Strategist, Paradigm Play), Simon Smith (Department of Environment and Climate Change), Melissa McLeod (Rural Lands Protection Board), Judith Manning (Department of Community Services), Peter Sniekers (Department of State and Regional Development), Jack Ritchie (Arts North West), Kay Hempsall (UNE), Fiona Miron (Wicklow Lawyers) and Annie McNeilly (Forsyths Chartered Accountants).

Kate Parker, Acting Assistant Director of the Office for Women, travelled from Sydney to Armidale for last Friday’s official launch of the Lucy Mentoring Program at UNE. Other official guests at the launch included the University’s Acting Vice-Chancellor, Eve Woodberry, and the Transitional Head of the School of Business, Economics and Public Policy, Professor Alison Sheridan.

Ms Bell said the “Lucy” program was designed “to inspire and motivate women students about opportunities for employment in business and law, and to assist them in building professional networks both inside and outside the region”. UNE has joined the Universities of Sydney, New South Wales, Western Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong in the program, which has already increased employment opportunities for more than 240 women students across the State.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows third-year commerce student Deborah Walls (right) with her mentor, Kay Hempsall (UNE’s Organisational Development Manager).

First-year students in the University of New England’s Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree program have had their first experience of classroom teaching.

They delighted a kindergarten class at Sandon Primary School in Armidale with stories they told with the aid of books and props they drew out of artistically-created “sacks”.

Each of the UNE students had made a “storysack”, decorated on the outside in such a way as to introduce an imaginary world within. That world centred on a high-quality picture book for young children. As well as the book itself, each sack contained a selection of toys and props to help the children bring the story to life, a game connected with the story, a CD of the student reading it, and a non-fiction book providing background and context for the story book.

Kim Porter, who teaches the UNE students “English pedagogy in the primary curriculum”, also teaches at Sandon. She said the success of the “storysacks” had been evident by “the joy on the children’s faces”. “They were just in awe of it all,” she said.

Ms Porter explained that “storysacks” had originated in England in the early 1990s, and were now used throughout the UK and in 60 other countries. Introduced to UNE several years ago by Dr Corinne Buckland, a lecturer in UNE’s School of Education, the storytelling technique has proved popular with students of primary education, who have used it in classrooms throughout the State when on practicum.

“‘Storysacks’ help teachers to use books more effectively in the classroom,” Ms Porter said. “They allow children to retell a story using a range of props, and the non-fiction book introduces them at an early age to the difference between fiction and non-fiction.”

“The process of designing the ’storysacks’ really brought out the creativity in the students,” she said. “And they thought it was wonderful – after all their hard work in preparing the ’storysacks’ – to share them with the children in the classroom and to evaluate their effectiveness.”

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows UNE student teacher Lassalienne Pilgrim during the visit to Sandon Primary School.

The University of New England is meeting a growing need in the sheep industry throughout Australia and New Zealand for a course on the production and marketing of sheep meat.

UNE introduced the course – “Sheep Meat Production and Marketing” – in 2006, making it available to students enrolled in rural science degree programs at other universities as well as at UNE.

Fifteen students from several Australian States (including four from Western Australia) and from New Zealand are currently enrolled in the one-semester course. They recently attended a three-day residential school at UNE, during which they visited the properties of leading local sheep breeders, and the sheep meat processing facility at Tamworth. They also participated in a seminar at which the Manager of Sheep Genetics Australia, Mr Richard Apps, spoke about the application of Australian Sheep Breeding Values.

“The importance of meat to the sheep industry is increasing,” said UNE’s Dr John Goopy, the compiler and coordinator of the course. “Most sheep properties are now classed as ‘dual enterprises’, with 80 per cent of them getting at least 20 per cent of their income from meat.”

Dr Goopy said that two important aspects of sheep meat production in the 21^st century were sheep genetics and the objective measurement of carcass and meat characteristics. He said the UNE course covered both of these, as well as sheep health and nutrition, farm management, and marketing. “It emphasises the strong connection between management and marketing,” he said.

The students examine trends in consumer demand – such as the growing demand for meat with high levels of fatty acids and iron, and low levels of saturated fat – and the science involved in meeting those demands.

The course is sponsored by UNE, the Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation, Australian Wool Innovation Ltd, Meat and Livestock Australia, and the Australian Wool Education Trust.

One of the students at the residential school – Andrew Glover – is in the fourth year of his Bachelor of Livestock Science degree program at UNE. Andrew, who comes from a fine wool property near Cootamundra, said he was exploring the possibility of diversifying into fat lamb production. “You have to make income through several different channels now,” he said.

Another student – Kate Munro – is studying for a Bachelor of Science (Animal Production) degree at Charles Sturt University. Kate, who breeds sheep on a family property near Jerilderie, said she was doing the course to “broaden her horizons”. She said the residential school had enabled her to meet – and learn from – industry leaders. Both Andrew Glover and Kate Munro have ambitions to use their knowledge as industry consultants.

Andrew Jopp, from Queenstown in New Zealand, is studying at UNE towards a Master of Agriculture (Wool Science) degree. He said he had enrolled in the sheep meat course to find out what was happening in the field in Australia. He was particularly enthusiastic about the course’s focus on the genetic basis of sheep meat production. “We don’t have much of that in New Zealand,” he said.

Dr Goopy said that many of the students were from sheep properties, and that their participation in the course was symptomatic of the growing importance of meat production as an integral component of the sheep industry.

For more information on the course, contact Dr Goopy on (02) 6773 1995 (e-mail jgoopy2@une.edu.au).