Archive for August, 2012

Dr Jann Karp from the University of New England has met with the National Transport Commission to share some of her research findings from a project called “Conversations with Truckies: Looking at Life Through Glass”.

Dr Karp has spent the last three years interviewing truck drivers about life on the road and accompanying them on long haul trips to gain a better understanding of the truck driving culture.

The research Dr Karp has conducted is wide ranging and includes insights into:

• the impact of government regulation on drivers
• how truck financing influences driver conduct
• how GPS and other technologies impact on drivers
• the use of amphetamines in the industry
• how truck driving impacts family life

Dr Karp’s interest in truck drivers and their unique culture grew out of a career in law enforcement and her subsequent academic studies. Dr Karp did her PhD in the field of police corruption and currently lectures in criminology at the University of New England. She now hopes to publish her research in the form of a book.

“The presentation builds on other activities the NTC undertakes to ensure that the reality of life on the road is taken into account when developing reforms. Obtaining an understanding of the real world impact of reforms and the issues that truck drivers are concerned about is an important part of our work,” said NTC National Heavy Vehicle Regulator Project Director, Dr Sarah Jones.

“Dr Karp’s presentation was particularly timely given that the NTC is in the process of developing a national strategy on compliance and enforcement for heavy vehicles.

“Law and policy doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It has tangible effects on real people. The better we understand those effects the more effective our laws and policies will be,” said Dr Jones.

A unique partnership between two Australian and two European universities will establish an MBA (Master of Business Administration) program producing graduates with international perspectives on the social and environmental impacts of business activities.

Led by the University of New England, NSW, and ESC Rennes School of Business in France, the MBA International Social Entrepreneurship program is being developed with funding from the Australian Government and the European Union.

The two other universities involved are the University of Western Sydney and – in Spain – the Open University of Catalonia.

“Increasingly, higher education institutions around the globe need to collaborate in the development of shared courseware and internationalised curricula to help graduates develop the skills required for working in international situations,” said Professor Victor Minichiello, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of UNE’s Faculty of The Professions. “This project aims to achieve this objective in an area of high relevance to the business sector.”

“While the program will be taught in English, the students will experience a variety of social, cultural and business environments,” said Professor Alison Sheridan, Head of the UNE Business School. “They will emerge from the program as leaders able to use global business skills to address key social issues such as poverty, hunger, environmental degradation, the integration of excluded groups, and access to education and health services.”

Delivery of the four-semester program will be a blend of face-to-face and online teaching, and all students will spend time in each of the three countries – Spain, France and Australia. The program will support their travel and accommodation.

Professor Sheridan explained that an established relationship between UNE and the Open University of Catalonia had been the catalyst for the initiative. “We were exploring options for collaboration,” she said. “We identified an opportunity capitalising on UNE’s expertise in international business and the Open University of Catalonia’s expertise in social entrepreneurship, and then sought the complementary expertise of the University of Western Sydney (with which UNE has a partnership in the delivery of distance education) and ESC Rennes.

“An important dimension of the program is its blend of online and face-to-face teaching, and both UNE and the Open University of Catalonia have distinguished reputations in distance education.

“It’s all about relationships. Each of our four institutions will make a distinctive contribution to the program.”

With funding totalling $730,000, development of the program will continue into 2013 and teaching is expected to begin in January 2014.

In a free public lecture at the University of New England next week, Richard Murphy will talk about his experiences excavating Roman remains and restoring Byzantine mosaics on the site of Heraclea Lyncestis, an ancient city in Macedonia.

As the winner of last year’s Caswell and Mulligan International Travel Bursary from UNE, Richard spent two weeks in July 2011 at the archaeological field school conducted on the site by Balkan Heritage.

“I knew the city had been founded by Philip II of Macedon in the 4^th century BC,” Richard said, “and when I arrived there I discovered that I’d be excavating material from the Roman period in the 1^st and 2^nd centuries AD. We were working in the shadow of a massive amphitheatre built by the Emperor Hadrian.

“On the very first day I dug up shards of Roman pottery; it was an amazing experience. I found that getting out there and getting your hands dirty really brings history to life.”

The lecture, hosted by Classics and Ancient History within UNE’s School of Humanities, will be in the UNE Arts Building (Lecture Theatre A2) at 7 pm on Friday 7 September. Titled “Philip of Macedon’s legacy: Excavating the Byzantine mosaics of Heraclea Lyncestis”, it will be preceded by complimentary refreshments from 6.30 pm and everyone is welcome.

Richard Murphy has completed his undergraduate studies at UNE. He will be graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree (majoring in Ancient History) during one of this year’s Spring Graduation ceremonies at UNE, and is considering starting a Master’s degree program next year. “My main research interest is the expansion – and provincial government – of the Roman Empire,” he said, “so the Heraclea Lyncestis dig was perfect for my first experience of ancient archaeology. I learnt about the whole fastidious procedure of archaeology – including its meticulous recording.”

The Caswell and Mulligan International Travel Bursary, donated through the School of Humanities by Dr Gabi Caswell and her husband Stefan Mulligan, is worth $2,500. Richard was its second annual recipient. During his month-long journey last year, he travelled to Heraclea Lyncestis from Thessaloniki in Greece, and then through Bulgaria to Istanbul.

Earth scientists from the University of New England were prominent participants in the “Geology Olympics” – the 34th International Geological Congress (IGC), held in Brisbane at the time of the Olympics in London.

The IGC, held every four years, is the world’s largest gathering of geologists. And this year’s Congress, hosted by Australia and attracting more than 5,000 delegates from 112 countries, was the largest geology meeting ever held in Australia.

Titled “Unearthing our Past and Future”, the 2012 IGC ran from the 5^th to the 10^th of August at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The UNE delegates presented three Keynote addresses and many other papers, on topics ranging from the vanished islands of Fiji and the effects of sea-level change on island societies, to the lost oceans of Tibet and the discovery of huge, complex eyes in the fossilised remains of an early arthropod.

Ian Metcalfe, an Adjunct Professor in UNE’s School of Environmental and Rural Science, was one of only a handful of geologists at the Congress who delivered more than one invited Keynote address. In one of these, Professor Metcalfe presented the results of his research over the past 30 years on the formation of the South-east Asian continental crust. And in the other, written in collaboration with several other scientists, he reported on the dating of volcanic ash layers in eastern Australia using precise uranium-lead dating techniques. This is enabling the calibration of climate-change events more than 240 million years ago.

Altogether, Professor Metcalfe was author or co-author of nine presentations at the Congress.

Dr John Paterson from the School of Environmental and Rural Science was invited to present a Keynote address on discoveries, in the Emu Bay Shale of Kangaroo Island, of the well-preserved fossilised remains of soft-bodied animals from the Cambrian period. He was also the co-author of two other related papers at the Congress.

Dr Paterson was the first author of a recent publication in the leading international journal Nature documenting the discovery of complex eyes in the huge marine predator Anomalocaris that roamed the seas more than 500 million years ago.

Professor Patrick Nunn, Head of UNE’s School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences, presented a paper on the effects of climate-driven sea-level change on island societies, using examples from the Fiji Islands during a period 700 to 600 years ago. Professor Nunn was also the co-author of several other papers. And Dr Alan Baxter from the School of Environmental and Rural Science spoke about fossils found in deep-marine sediments from two ancient oceans in Tibet. He was also co-author of two poster papers on Tibetan geology, presented with colleagues from the University of Sydney and the Tibetan Geological Survey.

A field day near Kingstown, west of Armidale, will provide beef producers with insights into the latest research on feed efficiency and the use of dietary nitrate to reduce methane emissions.

The field day – “Improving efficiency and reducing emissions from beef production” – is being organised by the New England Branch of the Australian Society of Animal Production and will be at the University of New England’s “Tullimba” feedlot on Tuesday 28 August.

Roger Hegarty, Professor of Animal Nutrition at UNE, said that visitors to the field day would be able to see – and hear about – new developments in the measurement of feed intake by animals in the paddock. “In our global agricultural environment in which there is a need for increased production from the same levels of feed input, these developments are enabling a whole new generation of feed efficiency research that is shared across our local research teams,” Professor Hegarty said.

The presenters at the field day will include representatives of UNE, the NSW Department of Primary Industries, CSIRO, and Cargill Animal Nutrition.

The program, beginning at 2 pm, will include a demonstration of the GrowSafe feed intake recorders, and talks on other initiatives in estimating pasture feed intake, and on aspects of methane emission reduction.

“Dietary nitrate is known to reduce methane emissions,” said Professor Hegarty, who is a leading researcher on this subject. “While there are health risks when nitrate is consumed in an uncontrolled manner, in controlled feeding it can be safe and effective.”

The program will also include a talk on the genetics of methane production in beef cattle.

A free bus will leave UNE for “Tullimba” at 1.30 pm, and return to UNE at 4.45 pm. And the event itself – which will include afternoon tea – is free of charge.

For more information, or to notify the organisers of plans to attend the field day, contact Hutton Oddy on (02) 6770 1806 or e-mail hutton.oddy@dpi.nsw.gov.au.

Fiona Simson, President of the NSW Farmers’ Association, will speak about the challenges associated with balancing agricultural and mining land uses in the New England North West Region at a public lecture in Armidale.

The occasion, on Tuesday 28 August, will be the 2012 Rural Focus Lecture at the University of New England’s Robb College.

“Fiona Simson’s presentation, titled ‘Food, fibre or fuel – the great land use debate’, promises to be a thought-provoking examination of this critical issue,” said Dr Glenn Wilson from Robb College’s Senior Common Room. “Robb College is very pleased to be hosting Ms Simson at this event, and to be able to continue providing a forum for the constructive discussion of important issues facing rural and regional Australia.”

Fiona Simson (pictured here) helps run a 5,500-hectare mixed family farming enterprise near Premer on the Liverpool Plains in NSW.  She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts/Business, and has tertiary qualifications in workplace training and adult education.  She was elected President of NSW Farmers in 2011 on a platform of renewal, excellence and inclusiveness, and is the first woman to fill this role.  She is passionate about ensuring a strong future for agriculture, and maintaining a strong and united voice to ensure that farmers are heard and taken into account at all levels of government.

“The annual Rural Focus Dinner and Lecture, now in its eleventh year at Robb College, is an important part of the College calendar,” said Michael Barton, Dean of Robb College.  “It provides a valuable opportunity for the University and the general public to come together to learn about critical issues facing rural and regional communities from industry leaders.”

Past Rural Focus Dinner speakers have included The Hon. John Anderson, then Deputy Prime Minister, and Professor Tim Flannery from Australia’s Climate Commission.

“Our College draws a large number of its resident students from across rural and regional Australia, and we have always maintained a strong interest in this area,” Mr Barton added.  “More importantly, many of our graduates will end up employed in rural or regional areas – whether as teachers, nurses, doctors or agronomists.  Ensuring that our College residents are as well-equipped as possible to face future challenges is a key part of our mission.”

He said that members of the public were invited to attend the dinner and lecture, which would be in the Robb College Dining Hall from 6 pm (for 6:30pm) on Tuesday.  Anyone interested in attending should contact the Robb College office on (02) 6773 1701 or email robb@une.edu.au to assist with catering.  A $25 donation to the College’s Rural Focus bursaries would be appreciated.

Agriculture, Information Technology and medical training were the key areas on the agenda this week when the Argentina mission to Australia visited the University of New England.

UNE Vice-Chancellor Jim Barber said the international delegation  was in Australia to build closer ties and investigate possible collaborations between the two countries’ tertiary sectors.

“South America is an emerging market for Australia and we believe the shared interests of our countries could benefit from working together,” he said.

Professor Barber accompanied the mission to Canberra where meetings were held with the Ambassador of Argentina in Australia, Mr. Pedro Villagra Delgado, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Stephen Conroy and Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations Chris  Evans.

 “One of the projects discussed at the Canberra meetings was connecting Australian and Argentinean schools and universities to promote agriculture as a career path for students.

“UNE is ideally placed for this as we have access to the National Broadband Network and have one of the best agricultural courses in the country,” Professor Barber said.  

The Australian organizer of the mission, UNE’s Pro Vice- Chancellor of The Professions, Victor Minichiello, said agriculture has played and continues to play a key role in the development of the economies of both Australia and Argentina.

 “Both countries share similar climates in the Southern Hemisphere and have large cattle and sheep industries.

“The livestock production systems are similar and as a result the research, development and education in animal science can be readily exchanged between the two countries,” Professor Minichiello said.   

“During their visit to UNE, the delegation visited and took a great interest in UNE’s SmartFarm NBN Project, a program assisting farmers to better manage their farms and livestock using modern communication and monitoring technologies.

“In addition, we discussed the possibility of Argentina joining the UNE-UC Irvine medical simulation collaboration so that students and medical colleagues can learn from each other using virtual learning classroom connections, and the joint development of courseware to support global teaching opportunities in areas such as occupational therapy and Spanish.”

The Argentina Coordinator of the mission from the Universidad de Quilmes Juan Luis Merega  said both countries faced similar issues in relation to agriculture and it was good to see first-hand the opportunities for collaboration with UNE.

“There are about 200 students from Argentina currently studying in Australia and we believe greater collaborations between the two countries will increase the numbers of students travelling between the two countries for educational exchanges.”

Mr Merega was joined on the mission by colleagues from Univerisdad Nacional del Litoral and Universidad Nacional del Sur.

Eight Australian Institutions participated in the Argentina mission. These included the Universities of Sydney, Western Sydney, Newcastle and Melbourne, Victoria University, Swinburne University, La Trobe University, and CSIRO. 

For media enquiries, please contact Catherine Goldie on (02) 6773 2551 or 0409 215 640.

The University of New England’s Asia ConneXions project has been awarded a large grant by the Australian Government through the National Broadband Network – Enabled Education and Skills Services (NBN-EESS) program.  The Asia ConneXions project was one of 12 projects picked for the NBN-EESS program nationwide, and the only one from UNE and Armidale. 

The Asia ConneXions program connects Australian schools with schools in Korea, Japan, China, and Indonesia using high definition videoconferencing. The goals of the program are to provide rural/regional students with opportunities for global experiences by interacting with their Asian peers through videoconferencing and to motivate Australian students to learn about Asia. The Project team includes Dr Myung-sook Auh (Program Director), Professor John Pegg, and Dr Chris Reading.

Dr Auh said the Asia ConneXions program contributed to the Australian Government’s “Australia in the Asian Century” policy, which suggests that Asia is important to Australia because Australia’s close relationships with Asian countries can provide Australia with opportunities and challenges economically, politically, socially, and strategically.

“Asian language education has been promoted through a Federal government investment of $63 million over 2009-2011, but the most difficult aspect in teaching Asian languages has been to motivate Australian students to learn the languages,” Dr Auh said. “Videoconferencing is a highly effective alternative way to teach Asian cultures, which in turn helps students in learning the languages.”

Dr Auh said the new funding would allow the project to connect Australian and Asian students through high definition videoconferencing; increase the numbers of connected schools to 35 pairs of Australian and Asian schools; encourage Australian students to watch snapshots of video recordings from their videoconferencing sessions at home with their parent(s) and siblings as a way to start “global education from home”; and sustain the Asia ConneXions beyond the project period (2012-2014).

Participating schools in Armidale are (in alphabetical order) Armidale City Public School, Ben Venue Public School, Duval High School, Martin’s Gully Public School, and O’Connor Catholic College; and the other participating schools are Glen Innes High School, Glen Innes West Infants School, Kambora Public School, Nemingha Public School, Pymble Ladies College, Quirindi Public School, Tacking Point Public School, Temora High School, and Wollumbin High School.

The project’s industry partners include Samyang Data Systems in Korea, Cisco Australia, and Cisco Japan; with further support from the Australia-Korea Foundation of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the NSW Department of Education and Communities, the Catholic Schools Office Armidale, Daejeon Metropolitan Office of Education, and Asiana Airlines.

Media enquiries: Dr Myung-sook Auh, School of Education and SiMERR National Centre, UNE; mauh@une.edu.au tel-w: 02) 6773-2917, mobile, 0410-611-642.

Research by Margaret Stimpson, a postgraduate student of botany at the University of New England, has given the New England region its very own species of Banksia: Banksia neoanglica.

Ms Stimpson’s meticulous research has raised this spectacular flowering plant, until now classified as a variety of the Hairpin Banksia (B. spinulosa), to the taxonomic level of a distinct species.

The evidence she presented was so compelling that her paper for the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal PhytoKeys was accepted and published in about two months. Her name will be forever associated in the taxonomic literature with that of the species she established – “the New England Banksia”, B. neoanglica Stimpson & J.J. Bruhl.

The New England Banksia is largely restricted to the eastern edge of the New England Tableland, and is common in places along Waterfall Way.

“I love the Proteaceae – the family of flowering plants that includes the Banksia and Grevillea genera in Australia and Protea in South Africa,” Ms Stimpson said. “Surprisingly, molecular evidence in recent years has shown the family’s closest relatives are the Sacred Lotus and the plane trees. Species of Banksia survive in poor soil and still manage to produce marvellous flowers.”

Her definitive publication – Stimpson et al: “First instalment in resolution of the Banksia spinulosa complex (Proteaceae): B. Neoanglica, a new species supported by phenetic analysis, ecology and geography”, PhytoKeys 14, 57-80 – is available at http://www.pensoft.net/journals/phytokeys/article/3415/abstract/first-instalment-in-resolution-of-the-banksia-spinulosa-complex-proteaceae-b.

She wrote the paper in collaboration with Ian Telford, the Curator of the N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium at UNE, Professor Jeremy Bruhl, the Director of the N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium,  and Dr Peter Weston, Senior Principal Research Scientist at the National Herbarium of NSW, an international specialist in Proteaceae systematics.

Margaret Stimpson’s first project as an undergraduate student of botany at UNE was on the Proteaceae, and she’s been collecting specimens ever since. Now working towards enrolling in a doctoral degree program, she said: “There’s a whole heap of Banksias out there that I believe are entitled to species rank, although people have been trying to lump them together for the past 200 years. This initial success has made me hungry to solve these problems before I finish my PhD.”

She established the species rank of the New England Banksia by detailed studies of its leaves, flowers, stem and fruit, and considerations of its ecology and distribution. She explained that it has two growth forms, the more common being a multi-stemmed small shrub with many flowers but few seeds. This form occurs where there has been regular burning, and the seeds need exposure to fire to open. The less common form, found where burning has not occurred, is a single-stemmed tree with many flowers and many seeds that open spontaneously without exposure to fire.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Banksia neoanglica displayed here expands to show Margaret Stimpson during her research on the plant.

The second Armidale event in the Building Regional Prosperity Forum Series marking the International Year of Cooperatives will be held at the University of New England on Tuesday 21 August.

Rowan Dowland, General Manager (Development) at the Melbourne-based bankmecu, will speak about the future of banking and how to make sustainability more profitable.

In 2010, Ethical Investor recognised bankmecu as Australia’s most sustainable small company.  With assets approaching $3 billion and significant business growth, bankmecu has become a national leader in sustainable and responsible cooperative banking.

Mr Dowland is an expert in reporting, product innovation and responsible investment, organisational change, and building staff and stakeholder support for sustainable goals that make economic and environmental sense.

The forum series is organised by the UNE Business School and the Community Mutual Group. The focus of the August forum will be on how the mutual sector, cooperatives and the business community can adopt sustainable practices to build more resilient businesses and communities.

The forum, which is free and open to the whole community, will be from 2 to 3 pm in UNE’s John Dillon Lecture Theatre. It will start with a 30-minute presentation on building economic, environmental and social sustainability as a critical business strategy for the future, and continue with questions from the floor and further discussion.

Bookings can be made by contacting Will Winter on wwinter@communitymutual.com.au.

Those unable to attend can view the forum live through ustream at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/edu-events.