UWA Logo What's On at UWA
   UWA HomeProspective Students  | Current Students  | Staff  | Alumni  | Visitors  | About  |     Search UWA    for      
 

What's On at UWA

* Login to add events... *
Today's date is Friday, March 29, 2024
Academic Events
 August 2012
Wednesday 08
12:00 - SEMINAR - Soil&Water Seminar, Aug8: : "Assessing strategies for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from wheat production: Role of grain legumes and soil liming" Website | More Information
The first Soil&Water Seminar for Semester 2, 2012, will be Assoc. Prof. Louise Barton from SEE(UWA)on Weds Aug 8. All welcome!

TITLE: “Assessing strategies for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from wheat production: Role of grain legumes and soil liming.”

ABSTRACT: Utilising inorganic nitrogen (N) fertilizer greatly influences greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural production systems in semi-arid regions. Our previous research demonstrated that the production and use of urea accounted for 70% of the total GHG emissions from wheat production in a semi-arid region of south-western Australia. Greenhouse gases were emitted during the manufacture of the urea (34% of total emissions), as well as following its application to land via carbon dioxide (CO2) hydrolysis (27%), and soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions (9%). A large proportion of N2O emissions occurred between growing seasons, and following summer rainfall events, rather than in response to N fertilizer applications, with nitrification considered to be the source of these losses.

Lowering N inputs is not considered to be an option for decreasing the contribution of N fertilizer to total GHG emissions from cropped soils in south-western Australia, as application rates are typically low. Instead, CO2 emissions resulting from N fertilizer production and urea hydrolysis could be partly mitigated by incorporating plants that fix atmospheric N (e.g. grain legumes) into the crop rotation, decreasing the reliance on synthetic N fertilizer. Furthermore, increasing soil pH by applying lime may be an approach to decreasing N2O emitted in response to summer rainfall events if nitrification, rather than denitrification, is the main soil biological source of the emissions. Consequently this seminar will present findings from a recently completed field-based study investigating if including a grain legume (lupin) in a cropping rotation, or increasing the soil pH via liming, decreased the GHG emissions from wheat production in south-western Australia.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Louise Barton is a soil scientist who has been researching nitrogen cycling in various landuses for the past 17 years. She is currently an Associate Professor at The University of Western Australia, and leads the Soil Biology Group in the School of Earth & Environment. Her current interests include measuring soil N2O emissions from cropping soils in the Western Australian grainbelt, and investigating the contribution of agriculture to greenhouse gas emissions. Louise completed her undergraduate degree at The University of Western Australia in 1991, and her PhD from the University of Waikato in 1998

13:00 - WORKSHOP - Teaching with Technology (intro to eLearning) Website | More Information
Workshop Description:

Done well, teaching with technology has the potential to enhance learning. Using technology appropriately in teaching means recognising the widespread use of technologies in society, and enabling our learners to become more widely proficient with technologies. These can be achieved by the ways we present information, communicate with students, create communities, provide engaging learning experiences, and provide authentic learning and assessment tasks. This workshop will introduce the integration of technology into practice, demonstrate and explore practically a range of technology tools available for learning with technology, and consider curriculum design for effective practice.

Intended Outcomes: By the end of this workshop, you will:

understand the role of technologies in teaching and learning become familiar with a range of uses for technology in teaching and learning contexts have had practical experience with a range of technologies be prepared to design for the integration of technologies in practice

16:00 - SEMINAR - �Pluripotent Stem Cells: States and Fates� Website | More Information
Martin Pera is Professor of Stem Cell Sciences at the University of Melbourne, the Florey Neuroscience Institute, and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research. He serves as Program Leader for Stem Cells Australia, the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative in Stem Cell Sciences. His research interests include the cell biology of human pluripotent stem cells, early human development, and germ cell tumours. Pera was among a small number of researchers who pioneered the isolation and characterisation of pluripotent stem cells from human germ cell tumours of the testis, work that provided an important framework for the development of human embryonic stem cells. His laboratory at Monash University was the second in the world to isolate embryonic stem cells from the human blastocyst, and the first to describe their differentiation into somatic cells in vitro. He has provided extensive advice to state, national and international regulatory authorities on the scientific background to human embryonic stem cell research.

18:00 - PUBLIC LECTURE - SOLD OUT - Neoliberalism and the Denial of Global Warming Website | More Information
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.
Thursday 09
13:10 - PERFORMANCE - Free Lunchtime Concert : The Winthrop Singers Website | More Information

16:45 - Internship - Internships : iVEC Research Internships 2012-2013 - Call for Project Proposals Website | More Information
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] .

18:00 - PUBLIC LECTURE - How Cultural Continuity Reduces Suicide Risk in Indigenous Communities Website | More Information
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
Friday 10
10:00 - EVENT - PIVOT Presentation : Introducing PIVOT - the new online research opportunities database @ UWA More Information
On the 1st of July 2012 UWA switched its online research opportunities database from COS (Community of Science) to PIVOT. PIVOT quickly and easily allows you to customise your online research profile so that you will be among the first to hear about relevant grant and funding opportunities. Also, PIVOT provides a feature to define ‘saved searches’ for automatic alerts on new funding opportunities corresponding to your research strengths. To introduce you to the functionalities of the system and also to show you how you can ‘claim’ your own profile, Mark Wilson from ProQuest will visit UWA and present PIVOT to the wider UWA research community.

13:00 - SEMINAR - Ireland: Church, State and Society, 1800-1870 : Seminar Series More Information
"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.

14:30 - SEMINAR - Asian Studies Seminar : Cultural Heritage in China: Shaxi, a world heritage designated historic town on the Ancient Tea Horse Road at the cross-roads of development More Information
In the last few decades, China's rapid economic growth and large-scale development of the tourism industry put enormous pressure on the country’s physical, political, economic, social and cultural environment. This often led to valuable tourism resources being adversely affected at tourist destinations. In particular the pursuit of short-term economic benefits in tourism development raises questions of ethics in terms of fairness of distribution, cultural integrity, alleviation of poverty, and sustainability. While the present political climate regarding cultural heritage protection in China appears encouraging and positive, the reality at the local level seems more complex. This paper is concerned with these issues and examines the implications of recent and potential tourism development on the rich natural and cultural heritage of a small village – once an important stop-over on the Ancient Tea Horse Road - located in a beautiful and remote valley in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains.

Sunday 12
10:00 - EVENT - 2012 Open Day : Experience what's on offer at UWA Website | More Information
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.
Monday 13
13:00 - VISITING SPEAKER - A life course approach to understanding ethnic differences in health - insights from the DASH study : Raine Visiting Professor Seeromanie Harding More Information
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.
Tuesday 14
12:00 - EVENT - "What Matters to me and why" : Conversations with UWA Academics about what really matters More Information
Lunch time talk: What Matters to Winthrop Professor Cheryl Praeger AM FAA

When: Tuesday 14th August 2012, 12pm to 1.30pm

Where: Science Library – 3rd Floor Seminar Room

'What Matters to me and why' is a series of lunch time talks and conversations with UWA Academics. The talks explore personal stories of family, place, formative influences and how these things continue to shape people's lives and academic work.

The next conversation is with Cheryl Praeger, who is the Director of the Centre for the Mathematics of Symmetry and Computation at UWA.

Cheryl will share some of her story and then there will be the opportunity for questions/conversation. BYO lunch. Tea/Coffee is available in the meeting room (at the request of the Science Library, please do not carry coffee through the library).

The Science Library is towards the southern end of the campus just past the Chemistry and Psychology buildings.

13:00 - PUBLIC TALK - Blue Stockings in the Cultural Precinct : Panel Discussion More Information
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.

13:00 - SEMINAR - Groups and Combinatorics Seminar: Spreads of symplectic spaces of small order More Information
Groups and Combinatorics Seminar

Sylvia Morris (UWA)

will speak on

Spreads of symplectic spaces of small order

at 1pm on Tuesday 14th of August in MLR2

Abstract: Spreads of symplectic spaces are used to construct translation planes, Kerdock codes and mutually unbiased bases. Several families of infinite symplectic spreads are known but these are far from covering all symplectic spreads. In particular, there is little known about symplectic spreads which create a non-semifield translation plane. For q=2 there is a unique spread of W(5,q) and for q=3 the symplectic spreads have been classified by Dempwolff. For q=4 there is a connection between symplectic spreads and the unique ovoid of Q^+(7,4). I have been using linear programming methods to find spreads in W(5,4) and W(5,5) which have non-trivial stabiliser. I will present my methods and results thus far, focussing on some interesting new examples of non-semifield symplectic spreads and their stabilisers.

15:45 - VISITING SPEAKER - Interferometry with Bose-Einstein Condensates in Microgravity � Science and Technology More Information
Inertial sensors based on interferometry with ultra cold matter waves are a valuable tool for many experiments. The spectrum of applications covers a broad area from metrology through gravimetry and geodesy up to addressing fundamental questions in physics, such as testing the validity of the Einstein equivalence principle (EEP) in the quantum domain. QUANTUS is a collaboration aiming at the implementation of such sensors on a space platform in order to perform precision measurements. The performance of such a device is mainly limited by the unperturbed evolution time of the wave packets in the interferometer. Here, microgravity conditions offer extremely long interrogation times and ultra low temperatures of the quantum object, which substantially increase sensitivity to levels not obtainable on Earth.

The successful observation of Bose-Einstein condensation in microgravity at the drop tower in Bremen (ZARM) was an important result towards realizing coherent sources for atom interferometers under extreme conditions. This talk will present the progress that has been made since then in implementing various interferometry schemes and analyzing the long-time coherence properties of the macroscopically separated wave packets. It will furthermore outline the ongoing activities towards dual species atom interferometry with Rubidium and Potassium (in order to perform quantum tests of the EEP), which will be performed in advanced drop-tower experiments as well as in the context of sounding rocket missions commencing as soon as fall 2013. The technology developments necessary to operate precision experiments in such challenging environments will also be discussed in detail.

Professor Peters is visiting UWA from Humboldt-University Berlin & Ferdinand-Braun-Institute.

18:30 - EVENT - The Shakespeare Songbook Website | More Information
A public lecture and performance by Julianne Baird, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University and Internationally Acclaimed Early Music Scholar-Performer.

What can we learn from Shakespeare’s use of music and from musical references in his plays? In this lecture-performance, renowned soprano Julianne Baird will discuss and perform music from Elizabethan and Jacobean times conceived for performance in the plays of the great Bard. William Shakespeare alludes to or includes the texts of well over 160 songs in his plays.

Music in Shakespeare’s time ran the gamut of lute songs by the famous contrapuntalist, John Dowland, madrigals and fa la’s (ballets) by Morely and, of course, the great polyphonies and verse anthems by William Byrd. But extant Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre music is much more simple and vivid, often almost ballad-like in style and the playwright seems to have had a genuine fondness for honest English popular and traditional songs. The poignancy of having Desdemona sing the Willow Song in her fatal hour shows his full commitment to music’s emotional power.

The audience of Shakespeare’s time would have expected each drama to have included at least one song per play, (with the exception of tragedies which usually contained only the heraldic and militaristic sounds of trumpets and drums.)

Not only are the musical references far more numerous, but Shakespeare defied this orthodoxy and wrote poetry for the tragedies which movingly uses musical reference as dramatic device.

Among the Elizabethan pieces performed at the lecture-recital will be “The Willow Song”, “Farewell Dear Heart” “O Mistriss Mine”, and “Ah Robyn, Gentil Robyn.” A number of pieces written for the Jacobean revivals of Shakespeare’s plays composers John Wilson and Robert Johnson will also be discussed and performed.

Cost: free, however RSVP is essential to [email protected] or 6488 1340.
Wednesday 15
12:00 - SEMINAR - Accomplished Education Researcher Seminar Series : Reflecting on how education researchers are tackling some of Australia's pressing issues Website | More Information
The Graduate School of Education invites you to participate in this inaugural Seminar Series.

With a focus on sharing personal insights into timely and relevant topics in education research, these seminars will engage participants in a lively discussion of some of the pressing issues affecting Australia’s academics, schools and society today.

Speakers and topics for 2012

15 August

Winthrop Professor Grady Venville

“Choosing science comes more from the heart than from the brain (or the pocket)”: A retrospective study of why scientists chose to study science.”

26 September

Winthrop Professor Stephen Houghton

“Are the seeds of antisociality and psychopathic traits sown early in life?”

10 October

Winthrop Professor and Chapple Chair David Andrich

“Sliding Doors in Academe: Idiosyncrasies of autobiography and controversy in psychometrics”

31 October

Winthrop Professor and Faculty Dean Helen Wildy

“NAPLAN Data: Improving student learning OR doing the work of the Devil?”

14 November

Winthrop Professor Thomas O’Donoghue

The primary school’s invasion of the privacy of the child: Unmasking the potential of some current practices

Venue Details

RSVP to Ms. Alyce Green, Administrative Assistant, GSE [email protected]

Abstracts and additional details will be distributed closer to the event date.

12:00 - SEMINAR - Choosing science comes more from the heart than from the brain (or the pocket) : A retrospective study of why scientists chose to study science Website | More Information
The ‘science pipeline’ in Australia is under threat because not enough budding scientists are moving through from school to university to science-based jobs. The aim of this research was to retrospectively survey current Australian and New Zealand scientists to ascertain why they chose to study science. The quantitative data from 722 respondents showed that, unsurprisingly, the main reasons were that they were interested in science and they were good at science. Secondary school science classes and one particular science teacher also were found to be important factors. Of more interest are their anecdotes about the challenges of becoming a scientist, some of which will be shared in this presentation.

16:00 - STUDENT EVENT - TICHR Prospective Postgraduate Student Evening : Postgraduate research and scholarship opportunities at TICHR, SPACH and PMH Website | More Information
Each year the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research hosts a Prospective Postgraduate Student Evening to inform potential students about the postgraduate opportunities available at the Institute, the School of Paediatrics and Child Health and Princess Margaret Hospital.

If you are interested in any of the 2013 projects http://www.childhealthresearch.org.au/study-with-us/become-a-student.aspx, we suggest you attend the prospective student evening or contact the relevant researcher indicated in the booklet. The listed projects are a guide only and not a definitive list.

Alternative formats: Default | XML


Top of Page
© 2001-2010  The University of Western Australia
Questions? Mail [email protected]