10 September 2008
10 September 2008
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| Professor Helen Bartlett |
The newly appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor at Monash University's Gippsland campus, Professor Helen Bartlett, is looking forward to the role and lists regional engagement as one of her top priorities.
Professor Bartlett comes to Monash with 25 years' experience in the education sector, having worked in senior leadership roles in health and social sciences at universities in the UK, Hong Kong and Australia.
Her most recent role was Foundation Director of the Australasian Centre on Ageing at the University of Queensland.
Her research interests focus on health and community care with current projects addressing issues around Australia's ageing population such as the social inclusion of older people and healthy ageing.
Professor Bartlett said it was an exciting time at Monash with many opportunities for the Gippsland campus to strengthen its relationship with business, industry and the community.
"It is important for Monash Gippsland to contribute to the development of the Gippsland region by working with government, business and industry through its courses and research," Professor Bartlett said.
Professor Bartlett said the campus has the benefit of picturesque surrounds and leading expertise in specialist areas, which contribute to a quality student experience.
"I am keen to explore new ways of communicating these benefits not only within Gippsland, but also to other regions and a targeted international market," Professor Bartlett said.
"It is timely to create a future with a new vision for the role of the Gippsland campus."
Professor Bartlett will continue her leadership role on the Australian Research Council Ageing Well Research Network, membership of the Australian Association of Gerontology, Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal on Ageing and membership of many other international editorial boards.
10 September 2008
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| Dr Rajendran Parthiban |
Monash lecturer Dr Rajendran Parthiban believes his success as a teacher is the result of him actively engaging his students in class and moulding his teaching to their specific needs.
Dr Parthiban, from the School of Engineering at the Sunway campus in Malaysia, was one of seven Monash academics recently awarded an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.
He received his citation for adopting a new teaching approach that has significantly improved the pass rate for the engineering subject of electromagnetics, which involves complex mathematics and physics.
Dr Parthiban said a key aspect of his approach to teaching was observing how students learned and what interested them most.
"I try to adopt teaching techniques that suit their learning styles, I believe this is the key to my success," he said.
"Previously, tutorials in this unit were highly didactic: tutors solved the problems in front of the students who, in general, became passive listeners.
"I took a different approach and introduced a problem-based approach in tutorials to engage students. With this approach, students discuss among themselves on how to solve the problems in tutorials. Then, they explain to the class how they reached their solution.
"I also allocated enough time for consultation so that students can clear their doubts on solving the problem both before and after tutorials."
Dr Parthiban, who joined Monash at the start of 2006, said he enjoyed seeing the positive results of his teaching methods.
"The really satisfying part is seeing the students we supervise or teach succeed not just in the assessments and exams, but also in their career and life," he said.
Dr Parthiban said the challenges ahead in his current role included sustaining the performance he had achieved in teaching and learning.
"I also should strive to make similar achievements in research," he said.
10 September 2008
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| Dr Ken Ng |
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| Dr Ian Larson |
Researchers from Monash University have designed a nano-sized "trojan horse" particle to ensure healing antioxidants can be better absorbed by the human body.
Dr Ken Ng and Dr Ian Larson from the University's Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences have designed a nanoparticle, one thousandth the thickness of a human hair, that protects antioxidants from being destroyed in the gut and ensures a better chance of them being absorbed in the digestive tract.
Antioxidants are known to neutralise the harmful effect of free radicals and other reactive chemical species that are constantly generated by our body and are thought to promote better health.
Normally our body's own antioxidant defence is sufficient, but in high-risk individuals, such as those with a poor diet or those at risk of developing atherosclerosis, diabetes or Alzheimer's disease, a nutritional source of antioxidants is required.
Dr Larson said orally delivered antioxidants were easily destroyed by acids and enzymes in the human body, with only a small percentage of what is consumed actually being absorbed.
The solution is to design a tiny sponge-like chitosan biopolymeric nanoparticle as a protective vehicle for antioxidants. Chitosan is a natural substance found in crab shells.
"Antioxidants sit within this tiny trojan horse, protecting it from attack from digestive juices in the stomach," Dr Larson said.
"Once in the small intestine the nanoparticle gets sticky and bonds to the intestinal wall. It then leaks its contents directly into the intestinal cells, which allows them to be absorbed directly into the blood stream.
"We hope that by mastering this technique, drugs and supplements also vulnerable to the digestive process can be better absorbed by the human body."
The research project will proceed to trials early in 2009.
Dr Ng said although the research was still in its early stages, the longer term aim of the project would be to include similarly treated nanoparticles into food items, similar to adding Omega-3 to bread or milk.
"For catechins, the class of antioxidants under examination and among the most potent dietary antioxidants, only between 0.1 and 1.1 per cent of the amount consumed makes it into our blood. If we can improve that rate, the benefits are enormous."
10 September 2008
Jan Carlo Barca, PhD Student, Faculty of Information Technology (1:13 1.9mb) Alternative video formats: |
PhD student Jan Carlo Barca from the Faculty of Information Technology is exploring the use of motion capture animation to control physical multi-agent systems, or robots.
The 30 year old student, of Norwegian Italian decent, has studied multimedia in Europe and Australia for eight years and is completing his PhD at the Berwick campus.
Mr Barca said the high standard of research and international reputation is what attracted him to Monash.
"Another factor was that I could focus completely on my research, as I had to move away from the comfort zone of my own country," Mr Barca said.
"It has been one of the best decisions I have made."
Mr Barca is researching a new marker for optical motion capture.
"At the end of my undergraduate degree in Information Technology, I still had so many questions about my area of interest -- motion capture for control of physical multi-agent systems -- so completing a Higher Degree by Research (HDR) was an obvious next step for me," Mr Barca said.
"Optical motion capture has a number of application areas. It can be used for animation, the control of machines and for motion analysis. I'm interested in how it can be used to control groups of semi-autonomous machines."
Mr Barca said research was one of the best ways to contribute to the world of human knowledge.
"It's exciting to think that something I have developed or discovered may help to improve the way that things work in my chosen field," Mr Barca said.
"Completing a Higher Degree by Research at Monash has resulted in me becoming more scientific.
"The research community at Monash has been very supportive, which encourages both personal and academic growth.
"If you have a strong desire to know more and to make a difference, I highly recommend undertaking a research degree at Monash.
"It has been one of the most character building and personally rewarding experiences I have ever had."
For more information about Higher Degrees by Research visit the Postgraduate students website.
For more information on Research Month visit the Research Matters website.
10 September 2008
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| Young Suai weaver. Photo courtesy Friends of Suai. |
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| Taryn Lane, East Timor Women's Association, Dr Sara Niner, and Coordinator Friends of Suai Pat Jessen. Photo courtesy City of Port Philip. |
Dr Sara Niner, a postdoctoral research fellow from the Faculty of Arts, has told a public forum of the challenges faced by traditional weavers in Timor-Leste (East Timor).
The forum was held last week at the St Kilda Town Hall as part of a major exhibition that includes more than 40 hand-woven textiles, or tais, from the region.
Dr Niner said the hand-woven textiles produced by East Timorese women were a vital part of their culture, especially after decades of destructive conflict.
"It's mostly poor rural women, including many widows, who make up the bulk of the weavers. Selling tais is the only way many of these women can make money to pay for essential items," Dr Niner said.
It is estimated that East Timorese women produce 30,000 textile pieces a year with a value of around US$600,000.
"While women are eager and capable entrepreneurs, they have few marketing skills, and are often held back by lack of money to set up a business," Dr Niner said.
"Another challenge is the fact that the currency in East Timor is in US dollars, which means local prices are higher compared to neighbouring West Indonesia.
"Yet for many village women there are few other ways to make money.
"What would help is a coordinated and dedicated craft development program in East Timor based on the current economic realities of production and trade and the different social situations of women weavers."
The textiles exhibition is on display at the St Kilda Town Hall, corner of Brighton Road and Carlisle Street, St Kilda until Tuesday 30 September.
10 September 2008
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| Professor Rick Krever, Sierra Leone. |
Monash University's Taxation Law and Policy Research Institute (TLPRI) is playing a key role in helping African countries build their tax systems, providing training programs for administrators in countries including Sierra Leone and South Africa.
The institute is also providing technical assistance including helping to draft taxation laws.
Staff from the institute have been visiting Africa for about a decade, often working in conjunction with international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund.
Their experience in providing post-conflict help to rebuild tax systems in countries including East Timor, Kosovo and Afghanistan, has proved useful in Africa.
TLPRI director Professor Rick Krever, who has assisted with technical changes to Sierra Leone's income tax system, said much of the institute's work in Africa focused on the implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT), a consumption tax similar to Australia's Goods and Services Tax (GST).
"The TLPRI has contributed to a number of VAT training programs for African tax administrators in conjunction with its counterpart, the African Tax Institute at the University of Pretoria in South Africa," Professor Krever said.
"We also organised a conference in Pretoria in 2007 to bring together the latest research expertise on the theoretical and practical aspects of VAT."
Professor Krever said the recent publication of the research would make it accessible to policy makers and administrators across Africa, as well as tax policy advisors and officials in other developing countries.
For more information visit the Taxation Law and Policy Research Institute website.
10 September 2008
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| Applications for the 2009 Monash research scholarships close 31 October. |
The Monash Research Graduate School (MRGS) has launched an online scholarship application system, the first of its kind in Australia.
The fully automated system allows post-graduate students with internet access to apply for Monash research scholarships from any location in the world.
Students no longer have to complete hard copy forms and provide photocopies of documents. Instead, they can complete their application online and upload scanned copies of their documentation.
"The system was so much easier to use than the original paper-based one," said Sheri Hussain, a PhD student from the Monash Institute of Medical Research's Centre for Urological Research.
"Rather than running around to get my documentation in by the due date, I could submit my application from the convenience of my office.
"Another great feature of the system is the ability to save my application in stages and come back to it when I have time without losing any of the information that I have previously entered."
Since its launch on Friday 1 August more than 30 people have accessed the system and 50 per cent of those have been from overseas.
"I will definitely use the system again," Ms Hussain said. "It's completely user-friendly making applying for a scholarship a much simpler process. It's fantastic that MRGS has developed such a cutting-edge and convenient technology for the benefit of Higher Degree by Research students."
Applications for 2009 Monash research scholarships close on Friday 31 October. Students can apply online by visiting the Monash Research Graduate School website.
10 September 2008
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| Joseph Beuys. Photo W J Hannappel. |
The Monash University Faculty Gallery at the Caulfield campus has launched a new exhibition -- 40 Years Video Art -- (German) Digital Heritage.
The exhibition provides an overview of historical as well as current trends in video art, including its early beginnings in film and television. Fifty-nine individual art works are featured, all produced in Germany between 1963 and 2004.
Professor Claudia Terstappen from the Department of Fine Arts initiated the exhibition in conjunction with the Photography and Video Research Network.
"The featured video works specifically reveal the development of video art work from monitor presentations to installations that took place in the 1980s. The exhibition allows us to focus on a broad sphere of contemporary art, cross-pollinated with television, film and photography," Professor Terstappen said.
"At the same time it creates an awareness of a medium that requires as much care in its life-span of existence as any other artwork; an important issue that art historians, artists, museums and galleries face."
40 Years Video Art includes artists such as Rebecca Horn, Valie Export, Nam June Paik, Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramovic/Ulay, Katharina Sieverding, Klaus vom Bruch, Dieter Kiessling, Ulrike Rosenbach and Ingo Guenther.
Jeanne Faust, one of the video artists in the exhibition, has been invited to Monash as an Artist-in-Residence. Faust will discuss her work in a Wednesday Lunch-Time Art Forum on Wednesday 17 September at 12.30 pm.
Additional lectures will be scheduled during the exhibition, which is on display until Saturday 27 September.
"This truly impressive selection of works emphasises the richness of video art that has shaped the understanding and knowledge of digital media today," Professor Terstappen said.
The exhibition is supported by the Goethe Institute, Australia.
For more information visit the Faculty Gallery website.
10 September 2008
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| Allan Lam Tat Cheong and Keefe Chie Ziyang |
First year accounting and finance students Allan Lam Tat Cheong and Keefe Chie Ziyang have won Best First Year Entrant in the 2008 UBS Investment Banking Challenge, proving pathways to university study lead to success.
Impressed by its reputation and success rate, the international students chose to study at Monash College as a direct entry route to Monash University.
Conducted Australia wide for undergraduate and postgraduate university students, the UBS Investment Banking Challenge began in 2005 and in 2008 expanded to seven universities, including Monash.
The students said the competition gave them the opportunity to meet people in the industry.
"The competition presented a rare chance for us to get some basic ideas of what life would be like working at an investment company," Allan said.
"We got an idea of what highly regarded companies like UBS would expect from university graduates and had the chance of learning from the excellent performance of the overall winners," Keefe added.
Monash College accounting teacher, Andrew Phillips, who taught both students, said he was very impressed by their efforts.
"The competition helped them to further develop their confidence, communication skills, and teamwork," Mr Phillips said.
"They even taught themselves some of the finance components needed for the competition, content you don't normally learn until second or third year."
"Obviously the strong foundations they received from Monash College have served them well for the transition into Monash University, hopefully resulting in more success in the future, at university and beyond."
3 September 2008
Worldwide, there is a growing shortage of high quality academic staff for the university sector. In Australia, the academic workforce is aging, with probably only farming having an older age profile. A recent University of Adelaide study concluded that there was an increase of more than 80 per cent in the academic workforce aged over 50 between 1991 and 2006. The huge expansion of universities in China, Korea, India and South East Asia means that we can no longer expect to attract large numbers of academic staff from these countries. And with a plateau in the number of Australian students undertaking research higher degrees over the last decade, the situation is likely to worsen.
So far, Monash University has continued to attract excellent academic staff and in most fields the shortage of candidates has not yet impacted negatively on recruitment. However, in some areas the problem is already apparent and it is inevitable that in the coming years it will spread to other areas.
To respond to these challenges, we must provide an exciting and rewarding work environment. Results from the staff attitude survey last year recorded a big improvement from two years before, and showed a level of staff satisfaction that compared well with other universities and with the commercial sector. But the survey results also indicated that there was plenty of room for improvement and all work areas are working hard in response.
Staff must be adequately rewarded for their work. The consistent underfunding of universities over the last dozen years has made this difficult to achieve. Unless the current reviews of higher education and innovation deliver substantially increased levels of university funding, it will be difficult to address this significantly in the current round of enterprise bargaining. Recent discussions I have had with senior members of Government and with Government departments reassure me that they are aware that university funding must be increased. So there is perhaps room for cautious optimism on this front. Given the global nature of the academic market, this will be essential to the viability of the university sector as a whole. Monash will certainly be seeking to deliver the best salary outcome that is compatible with the University's long-term financial sustainability, and also to provide our staff with the best possible work environment and conditions.
As well as responding to the needs of the present, Monash also wants to provide our staff with forward-looking opportunities for personal and professional development. In this context, I am pleased to announce the launch of the new performance development process for our academic staff.
This new process has been endorsed by the Council and the senior management group of the University. It is essential that it is followed by all academic supervisors when providing feedback and performance development opportunities to their staff.
The process emphasises the development aspect of performance and creates a focus on career development through personal and professional growth. It does this by applying three guiding principles: growth, feedback and accountability.
The first principle, growth, is about providing every academic staff member with personal and professional development opportunities.
The second principle is feedback. This means actively seeking constructive feedback -- through supervisor reviews, other evaluations (such as 360 degree feedback), output measures, and performance discussions, or more informally through day to day conversations.
The third principle, accountability, equates to transparent documentation of academic staff members' goals, workload and achievements.
The Human Resources Division will be delivering a series of information sessions for all academic staff members and appropriate training and education workshops for supervisors of academic staff members. I encourage all members of the academic staff to avail themselves of this opportunity to learn about the new process.
For further information on the new Performance Development Process: Academic Staff, visit the Performance Development Process website.
10 September 2008
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Name: Shane Thomas
Org Unit: School of Primary Health Care
Title: Professor and Director of Primary Care Research
Dept: General Practice
How long have you been with Monash University?
Two years now, it seems much shorter.
Prior to working at Monash, where were you located and what was your role?
I was Professor and Director of Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney.
What challenges are ahead in your current role?
Energising and encouraging staff and students to do high quality research requires perseverance, a sense of humour and resources.
What is it about your job that holds your interest or is particularly satisfying?
Helping people become world competitive in their research.
What is your favourite place in the world and why?
Beijing, because it is so dynamic and different from my previous experience. Drive along the boulevards and you could think you are in a very large European city. Turn left or right into the side streets and you are obviously in China maybe some centuries ago. It is unique.
What is the best piece of advice you have received?
Early ripe, early rotten.
What is something about yourself that most of your colleagues wouldn't know?
I study Samurai sword or iaido which came about from watching a group of frenzied older guys in the Okinawa Budokan a few years back. I thought "that looks like fun" so I decided to do it too. It is the perfect blend of fitness of mind, body, spirit (and psychopathy!).
Archive of 60 seconds with...10 September 2008
The stained glass ceiling of The Great Hall at the National Gallery of Victoria was created by Melbourne artist Leonard French, the same artist who created the Sir Lindesay Clark window that dominates the west wall of the Robert Blackwood Hall at the Clayton campus.
The iconic window at Clayton, titled Alpha and Omega, is made up of 41 stained glass sections, representing planets, air and earth. The outer perimeter contains representations of man and woman reaching outwards through the four seasons.
The 14 metre high Great Hall ceiling is 51 metres long by 15 metres wide and is made up of approximately 10,000 pieces of glass imported from Belgium.
Each 30 cm square weighs about 4.5 kg and was inserted into 224 triangular panels that weigh approximately six tonnes.
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| The Great Hall ceiling, National Gallery of Victoria. |
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| Alpha and Omega, Robert Blackwood Hall, Clayton campus. |