Faculty round-ups: in brief

Art and Design

PACE collaboration

Monash has formed an alliance with the US-based Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE).

The $16 million agreement, which involves the faculties of Engineering and Art and Design, will provide training to undergraduates, postgraduates and staff in product development activities as well as industry-specific software and hardware.

Award winning sculptors

Mr William Eicholtz (BA(Fine Art) 1993) has won Australia's richest sculpture prize -- the $80,000 Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award for his work 'The Comrade's Reward'.

Ms Deborah Halpern (GradDipArts(Visual Arts) 1990) received one of three Highly Commended awards and $3000 for her work 'Portal to Another Time and Place'.

The $25,000 Wyndham City Council prize for 2005 has been awarded to Mr Robert Bridgewater (BA(Fine Art) 1993) for his work 'Covered Person'.

Victoria's richest undergraduate student art prize for sculpture -- the $16,000 Baldessin Foundation Travelling Fellowship -- was awarded to Mr Sean Reid, who completed his fine arts (sculpture) degree in 2004. It is the first time a Monash student has won the prize.

Mr Michael Doolan: invited to exhibit his work is Seoul. Photography: Melissa di Ciero

World best in ceramic art

Monash fine arts lecturer and ceramic artist Mr Michael Doolan (BA(CerDes) 1983, MA 2001) has been invited to exhibit his work at the Trans-Ceramic-Art exhibition in Seoul, Korea, as part of the 3rd World International Ceramic Biennale held from 22 April to 19 June 2005.

Mr Doolan is the only Australian included in the exhibition, which showcases contemporary ceramic art and the diversity of culture reflected in ceramic arts.

Arts

Countering terrorism

Monash University and Victoria Police have launched a project that will lead to new methods of counter-terrorism policing in Victoria.

The three-year project, involving Dr Sharon Pickering, Dr David Wright-Neville, Dr Jude McCulloch and Dr Pete Lentini from the School of Political and Social Inquiry, aims to strengthen community relationships with the police and consolidate and integrate community policing principles when responding to terrorist threats.

Professor Alan Shiell: seeking to make the Australian healthcare system more efficient.

Business and Economics

$3.5 million to test health initiatives

The Centre for Health Economics and the Centre for Policy Studies have received a $3.5 million grant to build an economic model for testing health initiatives and plans.

The funding, from the National Health and Medical Research Council, will be shared with the University of Canberra's National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling.

The Centre for Health Economics also has a new director, Professor Alan Shiell, who has taught and consulted in the UK, Canada and Australia. Professor Shiell said the centre would focus its research on how to make the Australian healthcare system run more efficiently.

Education

Director for two centres

A new director has been appointed to lead the Krongold Centre for Exceptional Children and the Elwyn Morey Child Study Centre in the Faculty of Education.

Professor Dennis Moore, who also holds a chair in educational psychology at Monash, took over from the centres' previous director, Associate Professor David Harvey, who retired in late 2004.

Engineering

Monash Engineering and IT number one

Monash University's Engineering and Information Technology faculties have been ranked number one in Australia and number 18 in the world in the Times Higher Education Supplement world university rankings.

The ranking was based on a survey of 1300 academics around the world. Monash's Faculty of Science also ranked in the world's top 100 science faculties, coming in at number 41.

Information Technology

Malaysia, South Africa appoint new IT heads

Monash alumnus Professor Lee Poh Aun and leading IT academic Dr Jacques Steyn have been appointed heads of the School of Information Technology at Monash University Malaysia and Monash South Africa respectively.

Professor Lee has more than 30 years' teaching and research experience in probability theory, statistical data analysis, image processing, modelling of computer communication and queueing networks.

Dr Steyn joined Monash as a senior lecturer in 2003. Previously he worked as a senior lecturer at the University of South Africa and was associate professor in the School of Information Technology at the University of Pretoria.

Law

New human rights chief

A new director has been appointed to the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law. Professor Sarah Joseph took up her appointment as chair of human rights and director of the centre in January.

She replaced Professor David Kinley, Castan Centre director since 2000.

Medicine

World's largest stem cell precinct

The world's largest dedicated stem cell research precinct opened in the Science Technology Research and Innovation Precinct at the university's Clayton campus in February.

The precinct consists of the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories owned and operated by Monash University, and the Major National Research Facility, operating under the auspices of the Australian Stem Cell Centre. It brings together leading researchers in stem cell science from across Monash and nationally.

Tasty polymeal cuts heart disease

A combined meal of seven foods including wine and chocolate could reduce cardiovascular disease by 76 per cent, a team of researchers from the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine has found. The study found that a 'polymeal' of wine, fish, dark chocolate, fruits and vegetables, almonds and garlic, eaten daily (or four times a week in the case of fish) increased men's life expectancy by an average of six-and-a-half years and women's by an average of five years.

MUARC

Firearms findings

A landmark study into gun law reform in Australia revealed firearm-related deaths fell by nearly 65 per cent between 1979 and 2000. The overwhelming success of gun amnesty and buyback schemes led the research team to ask if 'vision zero' -- the total elimination of firearm-related homicides and suicides from society -- was possible.

Mr Geoff Sussman: cutting the costs of wound care.

The centre's chair of injury prevention, Professor Joan Ozanne-Smith, said Victoria had led the way nationally and internationally in gun law reform.

Pharmacy

Nursing home wound care costs slashed

A Monash University study has revealed nursing homes could cut wound care costs by almost half, reduce nursing hours by one fifth and slash wastage by 75 per cent -- simply by using modern wound management practices.

Mr Geoff Sussman from the Victorian College of Pharmacy said the findings could have massive implications for residential aged-care facilities, where one in every four patients presents with a wound at any given time -- saving government and private providers millions of dollars each year.

Mr Lucas Buchanan: seeing the 'big picture' of crocodile evolution.

Science

Ancient crocodile holds clue to evolution

Monash University researcher Mr Lucas Buchanan has identified a new species of crocodile that lived in Australia 40 million years ago.

Researchers uncovered the fossil skull and bones last year in a lakebed north of Gladstone in Queensland. Mr Buchanan said the discovery shed light on the 'bigger picture' of crocodile evolution.