Archive for July, 2008

Professor Ian Frazer, the 2006 Australian of the Year, inspired first-year medical students at the University of New England last week with a personal story of research that has already enabled 27 million women around the world to be immunised against cervical cancer.

Professor Frazer played a leading role in the development of the cervical cancer vaccine “Gardasil”, now licensed in more than 80 countries. He was guest speaker at the UNE Medical Society’s inaugural academic event on Thursday 24 July.

He began his talk by emphasising the importance of research experience as a “critical” part of medical training, and then traced his own career from a successful research project as a university undergraduate in Edinburgh to his current research as Director of the Diamantina Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine in Brisbane.

“Research is always a team activity,” he said, adding that “thousands of people around the world” had played a part in the development of “Gardasil” – a vaccine that is effective against the two types of human papillomavirus responsible for 70 per cent of cervical cancers.

The incorporation in the vaccine of protection against the remaining 30 per cent of cervical cancers, and widespread vaccination in the developing world, are among the aims that Professor Frazer and his colleagues are now pursuing. “In this country,” he said, “we could prevent that remaining 30 per cent through screening, but vaccination is necessary in the developing world.”

He referred to field trials of strategies for delivering the vaccine now under way in Vanuatu and Nepal. “We don’t want to divide the world into those who have access to the vaccine and those who don’t,” he said. “There are enough divisions in the world as it is.”

In encapsulating his own journey as a medical researcher, Professor Frazer spoke about the excitement of being part of a project at its inception and then right through the development phase to its successful implementation.

On the evening of the lecture the Vice-Chancellor of UNE, Professor Alan Pettigrew, as well as student officials of the UNE Medical Society, said the visit of such an internationally eminent medical researcher to UNE’s School of Rural Medicine mid-way through its first year of teaching was recognition of the new School’s important role in medical education.

The School of Rural Medicine is UNE’s part of the innovative Joint Medical Program (JMP). The JMP is an expansion of the highly successful University of Newcastle medical program in partnership with UNE, Hunter New England Health and Northern Sydney Central Coast Health.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Professor Frazer with UNE medical student Anuj Bohra who, as the UNE Medical Society’s Events Convener, organised last week’s event.

The 5th Armidale International Film Festival begins this Friday evening, when it will be opened by the festival Patron, Ann Pettigrew (pictured here).

“The International Film Festival Committee is delighted that Ann is opening the event,” said Committee member Caroline Downer, “with the screening of two critically acclaimed films on the opening night: Die Falscher (‘The Counterfeiters’) from Austria and Mio fratello e figlio unico (‘My Brother is an Only Child’) from Italy.”

Thirteen films from as many countries will be screened from Friday, August 1 to Sunday, August 3 at the Belgrave Twin Cinema in Armidale. The films range from light-hearted comedies to hard-hitting dramas and erotic thrillers. Among them are Oscar winners, Palm d’Or recipients, and popular smash hits. Not one of the films is in English, and all are subtitled.

The only showcase of its type in regional NSW, the Armidale International Film Festival began in 2004 as part of the University of New England’s 50th anniversary celebrations. Since then, the festival has enjoyed the support of UNE’s School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics and now its School of Arts.

The festival committee includes current and former members of UNE staff, as well as people from the wider Armidale community, all “committed to bringing high-quality international films to Armidale and the region”, Ms Downer said.

Ms Downer emphasised the festival’s role in promoting cultural awareness and understanding both on campus and in town. “The University of New England prides itself on welcoming many international students and academic staff from Asia, Africa, Europe and the US to its campus each year,” she said. “Many of these people bring their families to Armidale, creating a multicultural presence in the town. One of the aims of International Film Festival is to show how this mix of cultures enhances the Armidale community, by educating people about a range of cultures through film.”

She acknowledged the support of the festival’s sponsors, including the NSW Film and TV Office, Alliance Francaise Armidale, the New England Credit Union, Armidale Regional Tourism, ABC New England North West and the University of New England.

With festival Passes and opening night tickets already sold out, movie lovers are encouraged to hurry in to book tickets for individual screenings at the Belgrave Twin Cinema or by calling (02) 6772 2856. For more information about the festival – and a complete program – visit http://www.belgravecinema.com.au/iff or contact Caroline Downer on 0428 959 067.

A research project launched this week in Sydney and Melbourne with funding from the NSW Health Corporation will investigate links between heart disease and depression within Australia’s Lebanese community.

The Lebanese community is the eighth largest migrant community in Australia, with major concentrations in Sydney and Melbourne. Dr Alan Avery from the University of New England is coordinating the research in Sydney, and Associate Professor Lina Shahwan-Akl from RMIT University is coordinating it in Melbourne.

“We expect that the findings will provide health care practitioners and organisations with valuable information about the relationship between heart disease and depression in this large migrant community, and highlight cultural sensitivities that can affect their diagnosis and treatment,” Dr Avery said. “We know from the scarce research data available that older Lebanese Australians have a high risk of developing heart disease. However, little is known about the relationship between heart disease and depression in this community, and the treatment and care provided.

“Studies suggest that the rate of migrants accessing mental health services in Australia is low. This is mainly due to cultural differences in the expression of psychological distress and differences in attitudes among ethnic communities to the stigma associated with mental illness. As part of our study, an established Australian Depression Scale (the Cardiac Depression Scale developed by Associate Professor David Hare from the University of Melbourne) will be trialled and validated in the Arabic language for the first time.”

Questionnaires (in either English or Arabic) will be distributed to about 100 Lebanese-Australian people who have experienced a heart problem in the past 12 months and who have reported an episode of depression or expressed a feeling of being depressed. Five to ten participants in each city will be invited to have individual face-to-face interviews about their personal experiences of heart disease and depression and the factors that hinder or help them in seeking appropriate health care.

“We’ll also be surveying GPs to learn about culturally-specific issues relating to access and referral to appropriate mental health and other services,” Dr Avery said. “We hope the project will identify health care service gaps and, on the other hand, areas where services are appropriate and recommended. This will have implications for best practice and service provision by the GPs, nurses, and other allied health professionals who deal with Lebanese Australians.”

Dr Avery and Dr Shahwan-Akl plan to present preliminary findings at an international conference in Dublin in November this year. In the longer term, they hope to extend their study to the broader Arabic community in both Australia and the Middle East.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Webb, who began his tenure at the University of New England on Thursday 24 July, said he looked forward to building on UNE’s reputation as a respected teaching and research institution.

“The synergies between teaching, learning and research are what make the university such an interesting place to work,” Professor Webb said. “I want to help people explore and develop ways in which research can be developed in its own right and be used to develop teaching and the inquiry skills of students. I am also looking forward to seeing how teaching can be used as a spur in developing research and in improving teaching and learning practices.”

Professor Webb (pictured here) is well placed to lead UNE forward in this and other areas, having recently been recognised for his outstanding contributions to higher education in Australia by being awarded the Australian Higher Education Quality Award by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) at the Agency’s annual forum held in the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra.

The award recognises Professor Webb’s three decades of experience as a teacher and researcher in universities – including the University of Ulster, the University of the West Indies, the University of Otago, and most recently Monash University, where he served as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Quality). For a period he was also CEO of Monash College Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned company of Monash University comprising six education businesses. This experience has given him a global perspective on important areas of university teaching, research and administration.

Professor Webb said that he was looking forward to getting back to the more personalised style of working in a university town, and that UNE’s Armidale location provided the perfect opportunity to do this.

“I spent 11 years at the University of Otago – a university town – and loved it,” he said. “For the past decade or so I worked at Monash, Australia’s largest university, which provided many opportunities; but living in a university town gives you the chance to get to know people better and develop lasting relationships.”

Professor Webb has the degrees of BA (Hons) MSc, and PhD (with distinction), and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education. He is the author or editor of nine books, and numerous book chapters and journal articles concerning the theory and practice of teaching and learning in higher education and staff development. He is an editorial advisory board member for five international journals, and continues to play an active role in quality assurance and improvement at international level.

Professor Webb chaired the first and subsequent audits for AUQA and is a trainer and auditor and/or consultant for national academic audit agencies in six countries. This experience will stand UNE in good stead as it prepares for an AUQA audit in July next year.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, in warmly welcoming Professor Webb to the University, said that his wide experience and strong international profile would be a great asset to the senior management team at UNE. “I am really looking forward to working with Graham as we make further developmental change at the University, and to supporting the ideas and strategies that we have talked about already,” Professor Pettigrew said.

Alexander Weiss, a German professor of ancient history who is in Australia as a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, will give a public lecture at the University of New England next week.

The lecture, at UNE’s Earle Page College on Thursday 31 July, will be titled “Consuls, curators and city councillors among the early Christians, AD I-III”. It will be part of the UNE “Aspects of Antiquity” lecture series.

Born in 1968, Alexander Weiss studied ancient history, Classical archaeology and prehistory at the University of Bonn, where he completed his MA (1996) and PhD (2002). From 2003 he has held the post of Junior Professor in Ancient History at the University of Leipzig. There he directs a project on Roman rule in the Maghreb. Since 2004 he has also participated in a project on ancient slavery conducted under the auspices of the Mainz Academy. He has been in Australia with his family for nearly a year as Feodor Lynen Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and is based at Macquarie University in Sydney.

Alexander Weiss has written two books: one on ancient slavery, and the other – with his wife – on women in early Christian groups. (The photograph displayed here is of an early Christian wall painting depicting a veiled woman praying.) He has also edited a book that is due for publication shortly.

Next Thursday’s lecture will be in the Earle Page College Gallery at 5.30 pm.

The following day (Friday 1 August) at 9.15 am, Dr Weiss will give a research seminar for UNE’s School of Humanities. This seminar will be in Lecture Theatre A3 of the UNE Arts Building. The topic will be “Sergius Paullus, Dionysios the Areopagite and Erastus the city treasurer: three early Christian Roman elite”.

Everyone is welcome to these two talks. For more information contact Professor Greg Horsley in UNE’s School of Humanities on (02) 6773 2390.

A project aimed at reducing poverty in north-western Cambodia by enhancing the production and marketing of maize and soybean is to receive $1.17 million of funding from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) between 2008 and 2011.

Professor Bob Martin, Director of the Primary Industries Innovation Centre (PIIC) based at the University of New England, is the leader of the project.

The Australia-based collaborators in the project are the PIIC (a joint venture between UNE and the NSW Department of Primary Industries), The University of Canberra and CSIRO. Collaborators in Cambodia are the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, the Maddox Jolie Pitt foundation, CARE International, and the Provincial Departments of Agriculture in Battambang and Pailin.

“The aim of the project is to improve the functioning of the production-marketing system for maize and soybean in north-western Cambodia as a key to increasing cash income, sustainable growth, and poverty reduction for smallholder farmers,” Professor Martin said. “The project will facilitate the sharing of knowledge and information at all stages of the value chain – from farmer to end-user. This will deliver practical benefits for poor rural farmers, including improved food security, increased income, and reduced vulnerability to disruptions.”

He explained that the production of upland crops such as maize and soybean had rapidly expanded in north-western Cambodia since re-integration of the former Khmer Rouge began in 1996. “However, crop yields are declining and soils are being degraded by excessive cultivation and burning,” he said. “The development has been largely driven by market demand in Thailand. Local farmers are disadvantaged by lack of market information, inadequate post-harvest technology, and poor transport infrastructure.”

The project team expects its work to have a significant impact in Cambodia within five years. This will include an increase in crop yields and profits through improved technologies. “For example, rhizobium inoculation of soybean can give a 600 per cent return on investment,” Professor Martin said. “Marketing costs could be reduced by 10 per cent, which is worth an estimated US$3.3 million per annum in the Cambodian districts of Battambang and Pailin.

Other benefits will include enhanced networks and learning between farmers and others in the value chain from production through to the market, and the adoption of no-tillage conservation farming practices and fertiliser application that will reduce soil erosion and slow down the decline in soil fertility.

The Australian collaborators in the Cambodia project are also involved in a related project, with ACIAR funding of $250,000 between 2008 and 2011, aimed at boosting the adoption of conservation farming practices in north-western NSW.

A PHOTOGRAPH of Professor Bob Martin working with members of the project team in Cambodia can be seen by clicking on the image of Cambodian farmers displayed here. Professor Martin’s colleagues are Pheng Kea (centre) from the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, and Department of Agriculture agronomist Nou Nakry.

A public talk at the University of New England next week will explain – in layman’s terms – the discovery that has revolutionised hard-disk technology and that won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics for two European scientists.

In 1988 the Frenchman Albert Fert and the German Peter Grünberg each independently discovered a new physical effect – Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR). The use of the GMR effect in the manufacture of laptop computers and portable music players, allowing information to be packed more densely onto the hard disk, is one of the first real applications in the new field of nanotechnology.

Dr Phil Dooley, a science communicator from the School of Physics at the University of Sydney, will talk on “Giant Magnetoresistance: the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics” next Monday, July the 28^th, at 6 pm in UNE’s Biological Sciences Lecture Theatre. The free talk will be part of the University of Sydney’s “Kickstart” program, which is visiting UNE for the third successive year.

The “Kickstart” program, aimed primarily at Higher School Certificate Physics students, is visiting Wagga Wagga, Dubbo and Armidale this month, and will be at UNE on Monday the 28^th and Tuesday the 29^th of July. Each day there will be workshops addressing aspects of the HSC Physics syllabus and lunchtime lectures on relativity. There will also be a workshop for teachers, titled “New Horizons”, allowing them to encounter cutting-edge physics research through sessions concentrating on practical demonstrations.

The program will include a presentation for primary school students (and parents), titled “The great physics air show”. Designed “for all kids – aged 9 to 109″, this free presentation will be in Lecture Theatre 1 in UNE’s McClymont Building on Monday 28 July at 4.15 pm.

For more information on the “Kickstart” program, or to reserve a place for the free public talk or “The great physics air show”, e-mail: outreach@physics.usyd.edu.au or phone (02) 9351 3383. For more information on the UNE venue, phone Ron Bradbury on (02) 6773 2643.

A visiting expert from the United States will draw on information collected in both the US and Australia when he examines farmers’ attitudes to retirement and succession planning in a public seminar at the University of New England tomorrow.

John Becker, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Law at Pennsylvania State University, will present the seminar, titled “Agriculture’s future: succession planning in Australia and the US”, at 4 pm on Thursday 24 July in UNE’s Lewis Seminar Room (Economics, Business and Law Building).

“There is a clear trend that the farm population is ageing,” Professor Becker said. “In the United States there are three times as many primary farm operators over the age of 65 as there are under the age of 35. This means that a significant number of these primary farm operators will be turning over ownership of their production enterprises in the near future.”

“In addition,” he said, “there are disconcerting projections about how it is increasingly difficult to find young people to continue with family traditions of farming. The sustainability of small family-owned and operated farms depends on farm succession planning.

“Farm succession planning refers to a comprehensive approach to plan for the transfer of a family business from one generation to the next. Studies have shown that low numbers of farm families have individually designed succession plans. Many families do not know how to develop a plan or where to start. Incomplete or inadequate farm succession planning often results in heirs who are incapable of running the farm business, family conflict, prolonged legal battles, and division of family-owned and operated farm business assets to satisfy heirs who want to ‘cash in’ their share of the business rather than invest in it.

“Relatively little is known about why families wait to make farm transfer arrangements. This is a substantial problem in farm succession, since the process is complex, potentially costly, time-consuming, and challenging. My presentation will draw on a variety of sources to discuss what is known about farmers’ attitudes towards retirement and succession planning, and the issues these data reflect.”

He said those sources would include data from a survey of American farmers that he had been involved with, and data from a survey of Australian farmers carried out by Dr Elaine Barclay from UNE’s Institute for Rural Futures. “There are many similarities between the situation in Australia and the United States,” he said.

Professor Becker is nearing the end of a six-month visit to UNE, where he has been working in UNE’s Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law with the Centre’s Director, Professor Paul Martin.

The Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Julia Gillard MP, visited the University of New England today to officially open three new educational facilities to which the Australian Government has contributed a total of almost $11 million.

They are the School of Rural Medicine, the new building for the Oorala Aboriginal Centre, and the Dixson Library’s Learning Commons – built with the aid of Australian Government funding of $6.5 million, $1.3 million, and $3.1 million respectively.

In opening the School of Rural Medicine, the Deputy Prime Minister (who holds, among other portfolios, that of Minister for Education) said the School had been “built on the shoulders of a very special partnership”. That partnership – the Joint Medical Program – is an expansion of the highly successful University of Newcastle medical program in partnership with UNE, Hunter New England Health, and Northern Sydney Central Coast Health.

Ms Gillard (pictured here) referred to the shortage of doctors, nurses, and other health professionals around Australia, and added that those shortages were most acute in rural and regional areas. She said there was “overwhelming evidence” that medical professionals trained in a rural setting were likely to devote all or a part of their professional life to service in such a setting. Professor Ian Wronski, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Sciences at James Cook University, reinforced that message.

“This is an historic moment for the University, the New England region, and rural and regional Australia,” said the Head of the School of Rural Medicine, Professor John Fraser. “We see the School of Rural Medicine as being a strategic hub in rural health.”

Professor Fraser, along with the Chancellor of UNE, Mr John Cassidy, and the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, emphasised the distinctive contributions of all the participants in the project – mentioning particularly the local health professionals. Professor Pettigrew thanked the University of Newcastle’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nick Saunders, Dean of Medicine – Joint Medical Program, Professor Michael Hensley, and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Health), Professor Mike Calford, and the Chief Executive of Hunter New England Health, Dr Nigel Lyons, all of whom were present at the opening.

When opening the Oorala Aboriginal Centre’s new building, Ms Gillard said that Indigenous Australians were under-represented in the nation’s education system, and that it was important to work towards “closing the gap”. “This is a very special Centre,” she said, referring to the work of Oorala as a study and educational advisory centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at UNE, and to the “passion” of its staff, led by the Director, Diane Mumbler.

She said that, when Aboriginal students arrived at university, it was important for support to be available.

Ms Mumbler thanked everyone who had enabled the newly-housed Centre “to become a really successful cultural centre” in addition to its student advisory role.

After an inspection of the Learning Commons in the Dixson Library, Ms Gillard said she was impressed by its “sense of space and light” (in contrast to the law libraries of her own university days), and the opportunities for students to use “the best of technology” and work together in groups. She said the Government believed it was “important for students to have access to the learning tools of the 21^st century”.

The Learning Commons provides physical and electronic infrastructure for both distance-education and on-campus students. It has meeting rooms and informal group discussion areas, electronic media booths, problem-based learning rooms and a Medical Reserve to support the Joint Medical Program, and social spaces including lounge areas and a coffee and snack facility.

UNE’s Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Services), Eve Woodberry, said the Learning Commons represented “a change in philosophy” – a recognition of the more “social” way of learning of today’s students.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, displayed here expands to include her in a photograph, taken in the Anatomy Laboratory of the School of Rural Medicine, with first-year Bachelor of Medicine students Daniel O’Hara (left) and Daniel Tilley, and the Vice-Chancellor of UNE, Professor Alan Pettigrew.

More than 90 students working towards postgraduate degrees through the University of New England came together at the University last week to share their research experiences.

Many of the students were from overseas, and at least 15 of them travelled to Australia specifically for this event – the 3^rd Annual Postgraduate Research Conference within UNE’s Faculty of The Professions. The conference, which ran from Tuesday the 15^th to Friday the 18^th of July, was – like its two predecessors – titled “Bridging the Gap between Ideas and Doing Research”.

In welcoming the postgraduate researchers, Professor Victor Minichiello, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of The Professions, pointed out that many of them had attended at least one of the two previous “Bridging the Gap” conferences, and that the numbers attending had increased over the years. “This demonstrates the value and support the conference is providing to students,” Professor Minichiello said.

“The program is truly interdisciplinary and international,” he said, “with students travelling to UNE from South Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, the United States, and other parts of the world. It’s inspiring to see the innovative research projects being carried out by these postgraduate students and to listen to their presentations.”

“Research training is one of the most rewarding activities of academic life,” said Professor Peter Flood, UNE’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), also speaking at the opening session. Professor Flood, too, referred to the growing number of research students in the Faculty.

The conference, convened by Associate Professor Rafat Hussain and Dr Terrence Hays from the Faculty of The Professions and organised by the Faculty’s Sue Whale, provides a friendly atmosphere for students to present their research and get feedback from academics and fellow students.

Carina Bossu (pictured here), a Brazilian student, is in the final months of her PhD program at UNE. She attended the inaugural “Bridging the Gap” conference in 2006, but was in Brazil at the time of last year’s conference. “It’s a great opportunity for postgraduate students to get to know each other and learn about each other’s research,” she said.

Emilio Morales, from Chile, is nearing the end of his first year of PhD research into the feasibility of quality-related beef branding in Australian supermarkets. He said he had received useful feedback on his own research, and valuable information on the research process in general.

Andrew Close, an Australian working at the International School of Geneva in Switzerland, was in Armidale for the conference and to meet – for the first time – the supervisor of his Doctor of Education project, Dr David Paterson. “It’s fascinating to see the process of research in real life,” he said, “and to get to know other people in a similar situation.”

Among the keynote speakers at the conference were two distinguished visitors to UNE: Professor Brian Paltridge from the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney, and Mr Bill Lawrence AM, Deputy Chief Executive of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. Professor Paltridge, the author of several books on academic writing, spoke about the factors that variably influence the style and structure of each postgraduate thesis, while the title of Mr Lawrence’s address was “A Research Framework for Safety and Quality in Health Care – the Challenge of Putting Policy into Practice”.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Carina Bossu displayed here expands to include Andrew Close (left) and Emilio Morales.