30 November 2005
30 November 2005
Monash's longest-serving academic, Mr Barrie Milne, will retire at the end of the year after more than 40 years at the university.
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Mr Milne (pictured), from the Faculty of Information Technology, joined Monash in 1964 as a senior tutor in the Department of Mathematics and soon gravitated towards the computing aspects of the discipline.
At the time, Monash had just two computers -- the Ferranti Sirius, which was located in one corner of the university's computer room in the Engineering faculty, and the control data (CDC) 3200, which took up the remainder of the room.
Mr Milne did all his work on the CDC 3200, which had just 16,000 24-bit words of memory and, unlike today's computers, remained competitive for at least 15 years with the newer mainframes that were introduced.
He said many changes had occurred throughout the years, the biggest of which was the increase in speed and memory of computers and the decrease in their size.
"When I started at Monash, computer access was via punched cards and there was a two-hour turnaround for completion of computations and printouts," he said.
"Hundreds of staff and students were using the CDC 3200 for their work."
Mr Milne moved to Monash's computer centre in 1975 to look after the statistical and mathematical facets of computing. At the time there were six academic staff in the centre, making it unique among computing centres, which were usually seen as service organisations, not teaching or research organisations.
Throughout his career, Mr Milne has been involved in various aspects of computer timetabling. Long before Allocate Plus appeared on the scene, personal class timetables were computed for all students in Orientation Week -- a nerve-wracking task requiring data entry for all classes on campus.
"I won't say it's a fond memory, but it's a strong memory," he said.
In 1990, Mr Milne developed an examination time-tabling program for the university.
"It had to optimise many factors such as staff preferences and spacing the exams evenly for each student. It was a big success."
Although he is retiring, Mr Milne's love of mathematics and computing will still be put to use, with plans to pursue different aspects of timetabling and numerical mathematics.
30 November 2005
A Monash professor will be awarded the highest research accolade given by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the John Mitchell Crouch Fellowship.
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Professor Julian Smith, Head of the Department of Surgery at Monash Medical Centre, will be presented with the award at the Annual Scientific Congress of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in May next year.
He is the first cardiothoracic surgeon to receive the fellowship, which was established in the late 1970s.
The award is presented annually, usually to a professor, for efforts over time in advancing surgical research.
As the award recipient, Professor Smith (pictured) will receive $60,000 for ongoing research within the Department of Surgery.
Projects currently being undertaken include pioneering the use of robotics in cardiac surgery, looking into subtle cognitive changes after cardiac surgery, investigating the outcomes of cardiac surgery across Victoria, and fitting a mechanical device around the aorta to help increase cardiac output.
Professor Smith said the Department of Surgery was collaborating with various Monash departments, including Psychology and Mechanical Engineering.
He said the award was a tremendous boost to himself, the Department of Surgery and his area of specialty, cardiothoracic surgery.
'We're a relatively small specialist group, so it is great to be able to make such a significant contribution to the area.
"This brings great prestige to Monash and the Department of Surgery," Professor Smith said.
The John Mitchell Crouch Fellowship commemorates the memory of John Mitchell Crouch, a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons who died in 1977 at the age of 36.
30 November 2005
A team of mechanical engineering students from the Clayton campus have designed and built a Formula One-style car to compete in a national race.
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| Front, from left: Jarrod Hammond, Scott Randall and James Woolcock. Standing, from left: David Jennings and David Campbell. |
Students unveiled the vehicle, which can go from zero to 100 kilometres an hour in four seconds, on Monday 28 November.
It will be raced next month in a national event for student members of the Society of Automotive Engineers Australasia (SAE-A).
Monash team leader and fourth-year mechanical engineering student Mr James Woolcock said the Formula SAE competition provided an opportunity for engineering students to conceive, design, construct and then race small formula-style racing cars.
"The competition is run in Australia, England and the US and it gives students hands-on experience in an engineering project," he said.
The competing cars are assessed on the standard of design, cost-effectiveness and production feasibility. They are also assessed on acceleration performance, fuel economy, lap times and reliability in an endurance event.
The 2005 Formula SAE-A race will be held at Victoria University, Werribee, on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 December.
30 November 2005
Monash Business and Economics Forecasting Unit Director Professor Rob Hyndman has been elected to the International Statistical Institute. Professor Hyndman is the first Monash academic to be elected to the institute, which was established in 1885.
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The institute fosters the continuous improvement of statistical methodology and its application in the economic, social, biological and industrial sectors. It brings together academic, government and private sector statisticians and related experts from across 133 countries.
Professor Hyndman (pictured) said it was a great honour to be elected to the institute.
"The only way to join the institute is through nomination and election," he said. "To achieve this, statisticians have to be well-known contributors to the development or application of statistical methodology.
"I am excited about the opportunities this membership will bring for me as a researcher and for Monash's Business and Economics Forecasting Unit."
Professor Hyndman said he would now have the chance to share ideas with the world's leading statisticians and work with peak bodies including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
"The institute publishes a number of journals and holds numerous conferences and other networking events," he said. "As a member, I will get to be more actively involved in each of these initiatives."
Professor Hyndman specialises in applied statistics methodological research, particularly in forecasting. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the highest ranked forecasting journal, the International Journal of Forecasting and is co-author of the world's largest selling forecasting textbook, Forecasting: Methods and Applications.
30 November 2005
Professor Dick Gunstone of the Education faculty has announced his retirement from Monash after three decades on staff. However, his connection with the university will remain as he has been awarded the title of Emeritus Professor.
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| Education Dean Professor Sue Willis thanked Emeritus Professor Dick Gunstone for his 30-year contribution to Monash. |
Professor Gunstone's academic career began casually when he accepted a secondment to the Education faculty in 1971 as a lecturer in teacher training.
"I was on secondment from the Department of Education, so I worked as a high school teacher part-time and as a lecturer here the rest of the time," Professor Gunstone said.
In 1974, he joined the staff full-time. "I was actually assured at the time that it would be a three-year contract only," he said.
By the end of the contract in 1977, however, Professor Gunstone was already studying for his PhD and finding how much he enjoyed research.
"There was nowhere better in the world for education research than Monash, where I found an academic body of high quality that was also extraordinarily collegial," he said.
Professor Gunstone was warmly farewelled by colleagues and friends at the Monash University Club, Clayton campus, on Thursday 24 November.
30 November 2005
Monash's Law Dean, Professor Arie Freiberg, has been elected a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.
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Professor Freiberg (pictured) was welcomed by the academy at a ceremony in Canberra earlier this month.
The academy, which was established in 1971, is a non-government organisation devoted to the advancement of knowledge and research in the various social sciences.
Fellows are elected by their peers, based on the level of scholarly distinction they have achieved and their contribution to one or more of the social science disciplines.
Professor Freiberg was elected for his contribution to criminology scholarship, which was also recognised in 2001 by the awarding of the degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Melbourne.
He is Chair of the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council and past president of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology.
Professor Freiberg said his election added to the standing and prestige of Monash's Law School.
30 November 2005
Two Monash staff members have each been awarded grants of $5000 by the Don Chipp Foundation.
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| Dr Nick Economou (left) with Mr Zareh Ghazarian. |
Dr Nick Economou, the Deputy Head of the School of Political and Social Inquiry, received one of the grants. The other went to Professor Sarah Joseph, the Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law.
Dr Economou and Mr Zareh Ghazarian, who is a politics PhD student and sessional lecturer, will use the grant to fund a project titled 'The impact of the Australian Democrats on community perceptions on the role of the Australian Senate'.
"This study will examine the impact the Australian Democrats' approach and performance has had on public perceptions of the role of the Senate," Dr Economou said.
Professor Joseph said her project, titled 'Bills of rights in the age of terror', aimed to facilitate and contribute to contemporary debate about the role a Bill of Rights would play in upholding democratic values in an age of terrorism.
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| Professor Sarah Joseph. |
This is the second year the grants have been awarded. Four grants are awarded annually to Australian research projects considered consistent with the aims of the Don Chipp Foundation -- research related to the promotion of social and economic justice within the Australian community.
Two of the grants are for $5000 and two are for $2500. Thirty-four applications were received by the foundation this year.
The Don Chipp Foundation is an independent research body affiliated with the Australian Democrats. Mr Don Chipp founded the Australian Democrats, leading them to their first national election in 1977.
30 November 2005
The Monash University spin-off company, Metabolic Pharmaceuticals Limited, has been named the nation's top innovator.
The medical research company, best known for its development of novel therapies for obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, topped the 2005 Research and Development and Intellectual Property Scoreboard list of 50 Australian innovators.
The index was put together by the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia, business analysts, IBIS World, IP Australia and the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.
Dr Roland Scollay, CEO of Metabolic, said it was great recognition of the company's progress.
"I am very pleased to hear that Metabolic has been ranked number one in the index," he said.
"It's not always easy to explain the value of our intellectual property or the quality of our research and development to the public, but this innovation index would seem to confirm both areas in an entirely objective manner."
The companies listed in the top 50 were ranked by the contribution of their innovative activity to their asset value by aggregating research and development spending as well as patent, trade mark and design applications.
Metabolic ranked ahead of past winner Cochlear Ltd, which dropped to 23rd in the rankings. Meat and Livestock Australia came second.
30 November 2005
The Director of Medicine of the Bendigo Health Care Group, Professor Peter Disler, has been appointed Director of Monash's Bendigo Regional Clinical School.
The appointment is part of a restructure of the school following the departure of its inaugural director Professor Gordon Whyte.
Professor Whyte is now overseeing a new Monash medical course at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
The Bendigo clinical school restructure, announced by the Head of the School of Rural Health, Professor Geoff Solarsh, forges stronger links between the clinical school and Bendigo Health Group by filling the Monash positions with senior medical staff from the group.
As director, Professor Disler's primary focus will be delivering the school's curriculum, building relationships with the Bendigo Health Care Group and operating the clinical school.
Dr Chris Holmes, a senior physician in the Bendigo Health Care Group, has been appointed Clinical Dean of the school with responsibility for implementing the third-year program based at the hospital.
Director of Surgery at the Health Care Group Associate Professor Beth Pennington will coordinate the clinical school's fifth-year program with Professor Disler.
Professor Solarsh said the dual appointments would continue to strengthen the ongoing relationship and partnership between the Bendigo Health Care Group and the school.
"During the past three years, the strong partnership that has developed with the Bendigo Health Care Group has been an essential part of the clinical school's delivery of undergraduate medical education," he said. "This announcement cements that partnership."
Mr Graham Allardice, who was previously the school's regional manager, has been appointed Executive Officer and will take on responsibility for management and planning of all operational aspects of the clinical school.
30 November 2005
Eminent historian and Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor of History Graeme Davison will retire from Monash's School of Historical Studies on 31 December, after 23 years.
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| Professor Graeme Davison (second from right), with Faculty of Arts Dean Professor Homer Le Grand, Professor Barbara Caine and Professor Richard Larkins. |
The occasion was marked last week by a special function at the Monash University Museum of Art, attended by Monash's Vice-Chancellor Professor Richard Larkins and more than 70 colleagues, friends, historians and associates from Monash and other universities, and professional bodies.
Professor Davison will remain as Director of the Monash University London Centre, a position he took up in July.
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Professor Davison has taught at the University of Melbourne, Harvard University - where he was Visiting Professor of Australian Studies - and Monash, since 1982.
He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of the Humanities and an adjunct professor in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University.
Professor Davison has written several books including The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, The Unforgiving Minute: How Australia Learned to Tell the Time and the award-winning Car Wars: How The Car Won Our Hearts and Conquered our Cities.
Speaking at the event, which was attended by more than 180 people, Professor Davison spoke of his passion for history and his profession as an historian and academic.
"For over 40 years, as student and teacher, I have been privileged to be a historian," he said. "Research, writing and teaching history has been my delight and a source of never-ending personal satisfaction."
Head of Monash's School of Historical Studies Professor Barbara Caine said Professor Davison had played a major role in developing Australian history, urban history and public history.
"Graeme stressed the importance of how history should be written," Professor Caine said. "In the past few years he has taught an extremely popular honours subject, 'Reading and writing Australian History', which students enjoyed and appreciated enormously.
"He also combined his interest in research and teaching with an extensive public and community role. He has been on boards, or councils associated with the National Archives, Museum Victoria, the National Museum of Australia, the National Trust, Heritage Victoria, Historical Buildings Council of Victoria, the State Library of Victoria, and many others."
Professor Davison will continue his association with the school, particularly with the Institute for Public History where he has been the inaugural director.
30 November 2005
Monash Law Dean Professor Arie Freiberg and Associate Dean (Research) Professor Bernadette McSherry have been awarded almost $64,000 by the Criminology Research Council to investigate preventive detention.
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| Professor Bernadette McSherry. |
Associate Professor Patrick Keyzer, from the University of Technology, Sydney, is also part of the research project, 'Preventive detention for "dangerous" offenders in Australia: a critical analysis and proposals for policy development'.
Professor McSherry said the project would focus on the regime of preventive detention under the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 (Qld).
"We will compare this Act with existing and mooted models to assess the policy implications for preventive detention throughout Australia," she said.
"A principal objective of the Queensland preventive detention legislation -- where offenders are kept in detention after the expiry of their sentence -- is the protection of the community.
"This objective is used in a number of other social policy contexts, including the mental health field and to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
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| Professor Arie Freiberg. |
"However, preventive detention regimes provide a questionable solution to protecting the community from potential harm."
Professor McSherry said there was a general principle in law that people should be jailed only after being found guilty. Preventive detention after the expiry of a sentence could be viewed as double punishment, she said.
"We will be examining whether supervision and monitoring in the community or treatment options provide workable alternatives to continued detention."
The Criminology Research Council controls and administers the Criminology Research Fund, which provides grants to researchers in universities, government departments and other institutions in Australia.
The council supports research in sociology, psychology, law, statistics, police, judiciary, corrections, mental health, social welfare and education, with outcomes that should have the potential for application in other jurisdictions or nationally.
30 November 2005
PhD researcher Mr Jeff Crosbie from the School of Physics was awarded the Varian prize at the Engineering and Physical Sciences in Medicine conference held in Adelaide recently.
The prize, sponsored to the value of $1000 by medical company Varian, was awarded to Mr Crosbie for his oral presentation on synchrotron microbeam radiation therapy.
Mr Crosbie said his research investigated using synchrotron radiation for therapeutic purposes.
"We are at a very experimental stage at the moment, but synchrotron radiation has been mooted as a possible treatment for paediatric brain tumours as they are particularly resistant to conventional radiation treatment," Mr Crosbie said.
"We still need to gain a better understanding of the biology behind this synchrotron technology, which splits the X-ray field so the X-rays are delivered non-uniformly to the tissue."
Only two other groups in the world, from France and the US, are using this experimental technology.
Mr Crosbie, who joined Monash this year to complete his PhD under the supervision of Professor Rob Lewis, said he was thrilled to receive the award.
"It is quite a prestigious prize and past winners have gone on to grand things, so I am very honoured," he said.
Mr Crosbie shares his time between Monash and the William Buckland Radiotherapy Centre at The Alfred hospital. He also works closely on the Microbeam project with Associate Professor Peter Rogers from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
About 350 delegates from around the country attended the four-day conference. International speakers and leading figures in radiobiology ad radiotherapy discussed topics ranging from practical laboratory work to clinical research.
30 November 2005
The Berwick School of Information Technology has hosted its sixth annual Multimedia Exhibition -- the biggest yet.
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| Third-year multimedia student, Ms Emily Ryan, with her work on display. |
The exhibition, held in the BMW Edge in Federation Square earlier this month, saw more than 80 final-year multimedia students display their work.
Exhibition co-organiser Mr Matthew Butler said the exhibition had been a huge success, with a steady stream of people visiting through the day.
"The purpose of the exhibition is to showcase the work of our multimedia students and provide an opportunity for them to meet members of the multimedia industry," Mr Butler said.
"The exhibition culminated with an industry night attended by more than 450 people, including staff, students, sponsors, special guests and local and international industry representatives.
"Students displayed a range of work, including 3D game engine design, 3D video, games, educational CD ROM, interactive multimedia, dynamic web applications, database programming and Flash animation," Mr Butler said.
Also on show were the finalists from the secondary school Flash competition and the secondary school/TAFE Maya competition. Monash runs both competitions.
Students who entered the Flash competition used Macromedia Flash software to create an original short animation
The Maya 3D competition required students to create a short animation or still image using Maya Personal Learning Edition software.
Mr David Della Rocca, Global Industry Manager for Education for Alias -- a Canadian 3D graphics technology company -- flew in from Toronto to present the Maya competition awards. First and third place-getters flew in from New South Wales to receive them.
Mr Butler said the highlight of the evening was the presentation of awards to Monash's multimedia students and competition winners.
The Dean of the IT faculty, Professor Ron Weber, and the Deputy Head of the Berwick School of Information Technology Mr Lindsay Smith, presented awards to the most innovative projects at first, second and third-year level and to the best two student projects at each year level.
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| One of the Flash competition entries on show at the exhibition. |
30 November 2005
The Science faculty hosted its inaugural Celebration of Science cocktail party last week to congratulate its leading science honours students.
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| Science celebration: Professor Rob Norris and physics honours student Nadia Zatsepin. |
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Richard Larkins, Dean of Science Professor Rob Norris and Vice-President (Advancement) Mr Ron Fairchild were among senior academics, researchers and postgraduate staff to pay tribute to the efforts of Monash's emerging scientists.
Professor Larkins congratulated the honours students and encouraged them to consider an academic pathway by taking up a PhD.
Professor Norris said the event was designed to celebrate and recognise the activities and research of honours students in the Science faculty and encouraged the students to take part in a Higher Degree by Research candidature in 2006.
"There are real opportunities for you to become full research collaborators with some of our leading researchers," he told the students. "There has been a demographic change in the scientific population, so we need more young people to take up a research option."
Professor Norris emphasised the strong career and salary outcomes for research scientists and encouraged the students to discuss opportunities with staff.