What's On at UWA

The Winthrop Singers return to a refurbished St George's College Chapel for the first Evensong service of Semester 2.

Featured music is by composers from UWA

Introit: Tunley Jesu Dulcis Memoria Canticles: Caitlin Woods Anthem: Joyce Ubi Caritas

A new animated best-worst values instrument for young children, which adds pictorial context to both verbal and textual presentation of the values items. Primary school children (from 5 to 12 years old) were asked to choose which of five values presentations was most like them and which was least like them.

Paul Sharp is founder of Two Hands Project and works on issues of plastic pollution, particularly in the marine environment. Two Hands Project is a collaborative approach to dealing with plastic pollution: take 30 Minutes and Two Hands to clean up yOUR world anytime, anywhere.

Two Hands embodies the spirit of the huge national/international clean up days but asks what you can do with your two hands in 30 minutes, at a location near you, on any day of the year. We are taking it all back to grass roots, looking at what you can do to care for the place(s) that are near to you or important to you, anytime that you want. Whether you’re doing this to improve the health of our oceans, reduce the risk to wildlife or to simply clean up unsightly trash in one of your favorite parks or beaches, what you can do with your own Two Hands is easy.

Sharp will be talking about his recent experiences in the North Pacific, where he was part of the 5 Gyres/Algalita Marine Research Foundation Tsunami Debris Expedition.

twohandsproject.org

American soprano Julianne Baird returns to The University of Western Australia as IAS Professor-at-Large to perform in this special event. Baird is renowned as an early music specialist and possesses a magnificent voice. She will be joined in recital by Paul Wright (violin) and other outstanding performers in an evening of chamber bliss.

A public lecture by Alan Grodzinsky, Director, Center for Biomedical Engineering, MIT.

It is widely accepted that Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disorder in the world, causing major health problems, pain and disability for adults young and old. Yet today, there are still no disease modifying Osteoarthritis drugs (“DMOADS”) that can halt or reverse the progression of disease, only drugs that may temporarily alleviate painful symptoms in knees, hips or other affected joints. Osteoarthritis is a disease of the whole joint, including cartilage, bone and other soft tissues.

In this lecture, Dr Grodzinsky, UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Visiting Professor-at-Large, will discuss current challenges to diagnosis, tissue degradation, and drug discovery for Osteoarthritis.

A public lecture by Associate Professor Meredith Blake, Law School, UWA.

With an ageing population and the medical technology available to prolong life, action and inaction connected with the ending of life in the clinical setting raises confronting issues for modern society. The issues engage the disciplines of religion, philosophy, ethics, medicine, and economics, as well as the law, and therefore represent a complex, multi-layered challenge for legal regulation. One of the problems which the law faces in this context is its struggle to deal with scientific and philosophical concepts from these other disciplines.

When is it in the best interests of a person to cease life-sustaining medical intervention? Should persons be able to request medical assistance in hastening death? In what circumstances can doctors decide not to resuscitate profoundly disabled young children? These are some of the questions which illustrate this challenge. The place which the sanctity of life occupies in society explains why these sorts of questions are troubling, especially when that principle is ‘in conflict’ with both objective and subjective assessments that a life is of unacceptably poor quality. Given the significance of these issues, it is especially important that the law responds coherently and transparently.

These are some of the difficult questions which will be addressed in this lecture.

Cost: Free, but seats are limited. RSVP to [email protected].

The 2012 Joseph Gentilli Lecture by Naomi Oreskes, Professor of History and Science Studies University of California & 2012 UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Professor-at-Large.

This event has reached capacity, no more registrations can be taken.

Would you like to give an outstanding student an opportunity to use some of the most advanced computing facilities in WA? If so, please nominate a project for the iVEC research internship program. iVEC welcomes proposals for internship projects suited to a 10 week period over December 2012 to February 2013. Selected undergraduate students (3rd and 4th year and honours students) will receive up to $6,000 tax free over the 10 week internship.

Nominated projects must clearly demonstrate that the intern will be involved in exploring aspects of supercomputing, eResearch, large-scale storage, high-speed communications or scientific visualisation and must utilise iVEC Facilities.

Projects can come from any research field and should be submitted in early August.

Sponsored positions can be accommodated. In previous years, sponsored intern projects allowed iVEC to increase available places from eight to fourteen.

For more information and for application forms, see our website http://www.ivec.org/research_interns or email Valerie Maxville at [email protected] .

A public lecture by Dr Michael J. Chandler, Emeritus Professor, The University of British Columbia, Canada.

There is overwhelming evidence that Australian Indigenous peoples’ mental health and social and emotional wellbeing is well behind that of other Australians and is a key contributor to the health gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The cumulative effect of inter-generational trauma and ‘malignant grief’, combined with social and economic disadvantage, has resulted in high rates of psychological distress, substance abuse and self-harm. Suicide rates among Indigenous Australians are a national tragedy. For example, in Western Australia between 2004-2008 Indigenous suicides were triple that of other West Australians.

Similarly, the rate of Aboriginal youth suicide in Canada is a serious problem. However, ongoing research by Professor Michael J. Chandler amongst Canada’s First Nations communities has found that youth suicide is not necessarily an “Aboriginal” problem per se, but may be a problem for only some communities. The communities that take steps to preserve their cultural past and control their civic lives tend to have fewer suicides. That is, a sense of identity and ‘cultural continuity’ can help Aboriginal people, and especially youth, to see that they have a future.

Professor Chandler’s 2012 Australian lecture tour is timely and important. It will not only inform the important ongoing academic research around cultural continuity and suicide prevention in Aboriginal communities, but also has the potential to influence public debate and government thinking in this critical policy area.

Professor Michael J. Chandler’s visit is generously sponsored by: *UWA’s School of Indigenous Studies; *Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation; *Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Centre for Research Excellence in Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing; *WA Commissioner for Children & Young People; *WA Mental Health Commission: *Centre for Social Impact at the UWA Business School

This week's service will feature West Australian music - Jerusalem by choir conductor Dr Nicholas Bannan, Nunc Dimittis by UWA student Francis Cardell-Oliver, and music by Dom Stephen Moreno of New Norcia.

Introit: Bannan - Jerusalem Responses: Rose Moreno - Te Deum Cardell-Oliver Nunc Dimittis Anthem: Moreno - Agnus Dei

"The Irish Catholic Community and the State in the 19th Century: Setting the Scene"

Professor Oliver Rafferty SJ, the 2012 St Thomas More College Chair of Jesuit Studies, will present the first in a series of six lectures on nineteenth century Irish history.

The Chair of Jesuit Studies is jointly recognised by the the University of Western Australia and the University of Notre Dame Australia, and aims to bring a leading academic from the worldwide Jesuit community to Perth each year.

Professor Rafferty is visiting from Heythrop College, University of London, where he specialises in Irish and Ecclesiastical history. He will present the remaining five seminars in the same locations, and at the same time, on Fridays 17th and 24th August, and Fridays 7th, 14th, and 21st September.

Glowing plants, drug-delivering artificial cells, smell-changing bacteria, propelling mouse tissues… Today, new kinds of biological designs are increasingly gaining public awareness and shifting biological imagination towards new horizons. Next to scientists and engineers, do-it-yourself biologists are claiming crucial roles as the hackers, artists, designers, cultural theorists, and entrepreneurs of the biophilic era. As Synthetic Biology is becoming the go-to-discipline to those who are interested in the biochemical design space, engineering principles become the driving force behind designed biologies.

But what do we mean by “design” when we talk about biological design?

In this two-part talk, Orkan Telhan will trace the long history of biological design rather quickly through a series of designed and commercialized biological artifacts and offer a more discursive view on the evolution of the biologically designable beyond specific disciplinary agendas. Secondly, Telhan will reflect on the outcomes of his research residency at SymbioticA and briefly discuss his current project on “Biosynthesis and the Futures of Sandalwood.”

Current SymbioticA resident Orkan Telhan is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and researcher whose investigations focus on the design of interrogative objects, interfaces, and media, engaging with critical issues in social, cultural, and environmental responsibility. Telhan is Assistant Professor of Fine Arts - Emerging Design Practices at University of Pennsylvania, School of Design. Telhan is working towards his PhD in Design and Computation at MIT School of Architecture and Planning. He was part of the Sociable Media Group at the MIT Media Laboratory. He studied Media Arts at the State University of New York at Buffalo and theories of media and representation, visual studies and graphic design at Bilkent University, Ankara. Telhan's individual and collaborative work has been exhibited in a number of venues including Ars Electronica, ISEA, LABoral, Archilab, Architectural Association, Architectural League/ NYC, and the MIT Museum.

The Class of 1992 will be celebrating their 20th Year Medical School Reunion at The University Club on Saturday the 11th of August 2012 from 7pm to 11pm. This affair will be a cocktail event with tickets costing $100 per person.

UWA opens up the whole campus to the public.

Come and find out about the courses on offer, career options, scholarship opportunities, our valuable research, community programs and facilities.

There's also residential college tours, hands-on activities, live music and entertainment, and plenty of fun activities for the whole family.

As part of National Science Week, the Science Library is once again hosting the SCINEMA Film Festival

Two collections of short films on selected topics will be screened in the Science Library Foyer during Open Day, and they are as follows:

11:00am - 12:45pm - ‘A Climate for change’

12:50pm - 3:00pm - ‘Space & Astronomy’

Entry to enjoy these two collections of films is free, so come along and enjoy!

The overall aim of Professor Harding research programme is to focus on how the timing and duration of social exposures are related to ethnic differences in health and health related behaviours over the life course. Professor Harding established the first large scale cohort study of ethnic minority children in the UK, designed to examine the contribution of social, biological and economic influences on health. The Determinants in Adolescent Social well-being and Health (DASH) study has created a unique longitudinal social-epidemiological resource that can be used to examine ethnic specific effects, particularly in relation to the effects of deprivation and family life on cardiovascular, mental and respiratory health. About 6,000 children aged 11-13y took part in the baseline survey in 2002/3, 80% of whom are ethnic minorities.

For Blue Stockings Week this year (13-17 August), the Berndt Museum is presenting a panel discussion on the important role of women within the UWA Cultural Precinct. Blue Stockings Week is a commemoration of the Blue Stockings Society, an 18th century club for 'clever ladies and their gentlemen friends'. The club encouraged women to discuss intellectual topics over a cup of tea, thereby bucking the trend of succumbing to the frivolous topics and endeavours expected of women during that time. The name emerged from the habit of dressing down during the club's meetings, whereby the women wore blue woolen legwear, as opposed to the silk stockings traditional to evening meetings.

The panel will consist of Emeritus Professor Margaret Seares AO, Professor Sandy Toussaint and Curator Lee Kinsella.