What's On at UWA

Prof French is a physician/scientist who holds the positions of Winthrop Professor of Clinical Immunology in the School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UWA and Consultant Clinical Immunologist at Royal Perth Hospital and PathWest Laboratory Medicine, Perth.

The Warren Jones Oration is given annually by an esteemed speaker of international significance, to inspire us to follow in Warren Jone’s footsteps and contribute to a better world. Enrty is free, but bookings are essential, via Jacky Jarrett.

Professor Douglas Hilton PhD FAA FTSE (Director, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and Head of the Department, of Medical Biology, The University of Melbourne) will present this year's oration on “The Decade Ahead – Challenges for Australian Health and Medical Research”.

Professor Douglas Hilton is the 6th Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI). For his entire research career of 27 years he has worked on a single topic - the molecular regulation of blood cell production and function.

Douglas began his scientific career in 1984 as a vacation student in Professor Ian Young’s laboratory at the John Curtin School of Medical Research. In 1986 he undertook his BSc (Hons) and then his PhD at WEHI working with Prof Nicos Nicola and Prof Donald Metcalf, with whom he discovered Leukemia Inhibitory Factor. He spent two years as a post-doc at the Whitehead Institute, MIT in Cambridge working on the structure/function relationship of the erythropoietin receptor. He retuned to Australia in 1993 and established a laboratory within the Cancer and Haematology Division at WEHI. In the following 5 years he cloned the IL-11 receptor, IL-13 receptor and an entirely novel family of negative regulators of cytokine signaling; the Suppressors Of Cytokine Signaling or SOCS proteins. In the last few years he has worked with Dr Warren Alexander and Dr Benjamin Kile to establish a new program using large-scale mouse genetics and genomics to dissect the molecular regulation of blood cell formation.

A public lecture by William Forde Thompson, Professor and Head, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, NSW

Professor Bill Thompson is one of the world’s foremost scholars in the area of music psychology. Together with other researchers he has demonstrated that emotional communication is a multimodal process that operates similarly in both music and speech.

This lecture presents his recent research on the processes involved in vocal emotional communication, including analyses of acoustic cues used by singers and speakers to express emotions, examination of facial expressions used during emotional communication, and investigations of sensitivity to emotional speech among individuals with musical impairments (amusia).

Winthrop Professor Jane Davidson, Callaway/Tunley Chair of Music at The University of Western Australia, and extensively published scholar in the area of music psychology, will give a response to Professor Thompson’s lecture.

A short musical performance will be included as part of this event.

Emotional communication in song and speech

Professor Bill Thompson is one of the world’s foremost scholars in the area of music psychology. Together with other researchers he has demonstrated that emotional communication is a multimodal process that operates similarly in both music and speech. This lecture presents his recent research on the processes involved in vocal emotional communication, including analyses of acoustic cues used by singers and speakers to express emotions, examination of facial expressions used during emotional communication, and investigations of sensitivity to emotional speech among individuals with musical impairments (amusia).

Winthrop Professor Jane Davidson, Callaway/Tunley Chair of Music at The University of Western Australia, and extensively published scholar in the area of music psychology, will give a response to Professor Thompson’s lecture.

A short musical performance will be included as part of this event.

Recent decades have seen a rapid increase in urban development throughout Perth. Such expansion has resulted in the unfortunate removal of large amounts of endemic vegetation.

The vegetation that is retained is often already predisposed to premature decline, and is further impacted upon by many inciting and contributing factors often leading to further decline and subsequent death. The managers of these trees allocate large budgets to their ongoing maintenance, removal and replacement, often driven by the fear of limb failure and risk to life and property.

This talk will discuss the various factors that cause premature decline of trees in the Perth urban area, the importance of correct diagnosis, and alternative methods for sustainable management of the tree population.

A UWA engineering qualification combines practical and theoretical learning in an exciting and engaging environment that will make you a sought-after graduate, with an internationally recognised education.

To find out more about how to become an engineer, come along to one of our free Engineering Information Evenings and talk to us about commencing your engineering career at UWA.

The information evenings will cover course and career options, the types of engineering available to study, what the course entails, entry pathways and how to apply through TISC.

This lecture examines one of the most intense cities in the world. Hong Kong's irregular coastline and steep terrain has resulted in built-up areas that are compact. rich in spatial experience, all parts close to hills and water and connected by an exceptional public transport system.

The lecture will present how the authors of the book, The Making of Hong Kong: From Vertical to Volumetric, see value in these conditions: a metropolis with a small urban footprint, 90 per cent use of public transport for vehicular journeys and proximity to nature which has arisen from a culturally and topographic specific condition.

This fascinating book. with over 200 original illustrations. adds to the current urban debate around high density compact cities and interconnected public transport systems as one means of reducing urban energy use and carbon emissions.The lecture will explore why urban intensity is vital for more than ecological reasons and presents propositions based on these observations.

Briony Elliot, postgraduate student (PhD), will give a talk on Molecular Epidemiology of Clostridium difficile in Australia in the Microbiology & Immunology Discipline Seminar room, this Friday, 23 September 2011 at 9:00am. Australian isolates of C. difficile are extremely diverse and include a highly divergent clade that has led to a re-evaluation of the evolution of this important nosocomial bacterial pathogen.

Psychology should be at the heart of good public policy – but often it is not. Many policy makers assume they know, because they are human and live in society, all they need to know about human behaviour. Or they assume that economic theory will provide all the critical insights necessary to underpin effective policy. As pointed out in the recent U.K. Parliament’s report on “Behaviour Change”, “Many of the goals to which governments aspire—such as bringing down levels of crime, reducing unemployment, increasing savings and meeting targets for carbon emissions—can be achieved only if people change their behaviour. Consequently, understanding how to change the behaviour of populations should be a concern for any government if it is to be successful”. However, systematic assessment of the relevant behaviour and the influences on such behaviour in advance of policy design is rare. While the application of psychology to real-world problems has often driven research in psychology, policy makers have not always made use of this literature and psychologists have not always communicated it in a usable form.

The 5th Asia Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity (5APCEI) will be held in Perth at The University of Western Australia between 26-28 September 2011. The conference is co-sponsored by three of Perth’s other universities; Curtin University, Murdoch University and Edith Cowan University.

This is the first time since the APCEI began in 2003 that the conference has been held on the Australian west coast. It is hoped that with the conference theme Educational Integrity: Culture and Values, the geographical location and the fact that spring is a beautiful time to visit Perth, we will be able to welcome colleagues from all over the world to this meeting.

Who should attend?

•Educators •researchers

•administrators

•students

•employers

•ethicists

•anyone interested in developing and maintaining a culture of ethical scholarship is invited to attend this participative and interactive conference

Register at: http://www.apcei.catl.uwa.edu.au/registration

Despite many decades of close economic and diplomatic ties between Australia and Japan, mainstream media coverage of that country continues to reinforce long-standing superficial stereotypes of a static, harmonious, mono-cultural and inward looking society. In reality, Japanese society has long been far more complex and multi-faceted than media stereotypes would suggest. Additionally, significant socio-economic and demographic shifts in recent decades, including a slowing economy, greater internationalization, population aging, and declining birthrates, have further contributed to this complexity and diversity.

Speakers: Professor Vera Mackie, Institute for Social Transformation Research, University of Wollongong and Associate Professor Leng Leng Thang, Department of Japanese Studies, National University of Singapore.

This public lecture will look at how, in the context of globalization, transnational movement and socio-cultural change, meanings and practices associated with family and kinship are being re-shaped. Professor Mackie will discuss the implications of these shifts on family dynamics within Japan, while Professor Thang will highlight the experiences of Japanese lifestyle migrants who, for varying reasons, have chosen to move to Southeast Asia or Australia. The issues raised in both presentations have implications beyond Japan, as similar demographic and socio-cultural processes are also at work across East and Southeast Asia, and in Australia.

Cost: This lecture is free and open to the public.

Christopher Tonkin, Associate Lecturer, School of Music, UWA and a leading composer discusses some of his recent works.

We invite you to join us for this final lecture by Kevin Goss in his role as head of Future Farm Industries CRC.

This public address is a reflection on the wicked, unintended consequences that can arise from rapid economic development, the high cost of government policy inertia to deal effectively with them when known, and the difficult transition to sensible, affordable solutions. Most of all Farming on the Edge presents a vision for sustainable food, fibre and energy production from Australian farmed landscapes.

This lecture is free and open to the public, however seating is limited. ***Please RSVP your attendance to Barbara Williamson: [email protected]

Essential Skills for a Successful Career in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Business, Law and Education. A workshop for postgraduate students and early career researchers.

UWA's Institute of Advanced Studies and the Office of Research and Research Training invite you to participate in a one-day workshop designed for postgraduate students and early career researchers in the humanities, social sciences, business, law and education.

The workshop will provide you with important skills in pursuing your career. Sessions on publishing, funding, ethics and career development will include presentations and discussion with plenty of opportunity to engage with presenters and each other.

Speakers and panellists include:

*Professor Andrew Wells, Deputy CEO, ARC – Humanities and Creative Arts; *Professor Mandy Thomas, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Graduate Studies), ANU; *Dr Kylie Brass, Policy and Project Manager, The Australian Academy of Humanities.

Cost: $55 - Postgraduates | $70 - Early Career Researchers

Professor Davidson will examine works from the UWA collection which form the current exhibition, Recent Past, interrogating her emotional responses to the works.

  We are living in a period of ecocultural disintegration. The complexity and diversity of culture and ecology (ecocultural diversity) is being removed and/or homogenised by powerful forces all tied to modernity, global development and now, climate change. In some respects we are now all in the position of Indigenous peoples who have a lived experience of the desolation of their endemic sense of place and culture. But now, as global ecosystems and the climate change, the whole earth as ‘home’ becomes alien to us.

Despite the scale and power of these transformations to our home at all scales, we generally lack the concepts to understand the negative and positive dimensions of our situation. This presentation will examine what I call  ‘psychoterratic states’ with particular emphasis on the concept of solastalgia, developed by me to explain the lived experience of negative environmental change to a loved home environment. In this case, the loved home environment is Perth and its location within South West, Western Australia.

I will conclude with some thoughts about positive concepts that oppose solastalgia that might bring about genuine sustainability and human happiness ... even in Perth.

Bio,

Glenn Albrecht undertakes internationally relevant transdisciplinary research in the domain of sustainability and ecosystem health and has also produced research papers/publications in environmental history, transdisciplinarity, sustainability, environmental politics, environmental and animal ethics.

Glenn is on the editorial board of the international journal Ecohealth and is a member of the International Association for Health and Ecology. He has been the J.W. McConnell Visiting Professor in Ecosystem Health at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario in 2003, 2005 and 2007 where he has conducted research and teaching.

**** All Welcome ****

With the possibility of a double-dip recession in the US and sovereign debt crisis facing the EU, UWA experts in finance and economics will assess the case for optimism and answer your questions on the future of the local, national and global economy at an open public forum. Find out whether there is indeed a case for optimism!

Presenters and topics covered:

Winthrop Professor Ken Clements BHP Billiton Research Fellow and Head of Economics (Prospects for the Australian Dollar )

Winthrop Professor Raymond da Silva Rosa Head of Accounting and Finance (The Case for Optimism? Lessons from the ‘Nanny Market Economies’)

Winthrop Professor Richard Heaney Professor of Finance (The GFC and Australian Superannuation Fund Performance)

RSVP: www.business.uwa.edu.au/school/eventregistration

Emeritus Professor Eric Cassell from New York Presbyterian Hospital has a distinguished international reputation in the field of moral problems in medicine, with special focus on the care of the dying and the nature of suffering. His widely cited works include: The Healer’s Art, The Place of the Humanities in Medicine, Changing Values in Medicine, Talking with Patients, Doctoring: The Nature of Primary Care Medicine and The Nature of Suffering.

A public lecture by Thomas McLean, Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century British Literature, University of Otago, New Zealand.

Most Australians know Kosciuszko as the name of a mountain. But Tadeusz Kosciuszko was one of the most important figures of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

This lecture will offer a brief overview of Kosciuszko’s remarkable life—his youth in Poland, his service in the American Revolution, his attempts to bring a similar revolution to his homeland, and his life in exile after the failure of the Kosciuszko Uprising. But its main focus will be the literary and artistic works created in Great Britain to commemorate the Polish general.

This event is free and open to the public.