This is the second of our ASB Newsletters for 2001, the goal being to distribute them approximately every two months. This and the preceding newsletter from January will be on the ASB website within the next week.

Plans for the 2001 ASB meeting in Katoomba are well underway, as described below. If you have any suggestions for the meeting please contact Peter Barry directly.

We were saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Rutherford (Bob) Robertson earlier this month. An article by Alex Hope on Bob’s life and work, including his contributions to the field of biophysics in Australia, appears in this Newlsetter.

Many thanks to those who contributed to this Newsletter. Contributions on any topic of interest to your fellow biophysicists are always welcome.

Suggestions are also very welcome at any time on ways the Newsletter could be expanded or improved. Thanks to those of you who took the time to comment on the January Newsletter.

This year the ASB is planning to have its annual meeting immediately following an IUPS satellite symposium on the "Structure and Function of Ion Channels" in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. The satellite symposium is to be held September 2-5, 2001 at the Fairmont Resort at Leura, finishing at midday on Wednesday 5^th (see website: www.iups2001.org.au, for details).

The ASB 2001 meeting will be held close by, at the Carrington Hotel in Katoomba. It will start on the evening of Wednesday 5^th and finish at midday on Friday 7^th, with the conference dinner on the Thursday evening; details will be updated on the ASB website. Although the ASB meeting will cover other areas of biophysics, it is anticipated that there will also be a reasonable amount of ion channel work presented and that it may include some international participants from the previous channel meeting.

Peter Barry is in charge of organising the 2001 meeting, ably assisted by a committee including Brett Hambly, Tony Collings, David Collings and Paul Curmi. A one-page flyer will be circulated by Peter in the near future to all ASB members; please bring it to the attention of all your colleagues, ASB members or not. Details about the conference will be available on the ASB website within the next few weeks.

Bob Robertson and Biophysics, a personal appreciation from Alex Hope.

Bob seemed to see the possibilities of Plant Biophysics to shed light on the mineral nutrition of plants as early as 1950, when he visited Professor Alexander Leicester McAulay in the Physics Department of the University of Tasmania. As it happened, I was in the first year of my PhD with ALM, with some work on the electric potential differences around roots and coleoptiles behind my belt.

Bob started discussions with us on the question of how mineral ions permeated cells. The term "Free Space" was bandied about, a concept about the initial phase permeated by ions and, eroneously concluded by me after measurements of its size in root segments, to include the cell cytoplasm. This was before the concept of the plasmalemma as a rather impermeable membrane on the outside of the cytoplasm was totally acceptable. Anyway, a collaboration started between RNR in the CSIRO Division of Food Preservation and Transport (Plant Physiology section) and the Hobart Biophysics Department. Very generously, Bob recruited me as a temporary Research Officer (pay beyond the wildest dreams of a research student) with the understanding that I would be available in due course to join the Plant Physiology Unit (PPU), to be a branch of the Division at the Botany Department of the University of Sydney.

This duly came to pass, with Bob together with Frank Mercer of the Botany Department presiding over resident luminaries such as John and "Spin" Turner, and a little later, Hal Hatch and Joe Wiskich. It was the greatest place to be; Bob was the best person with people that I ever knew of, cheerful and encouraging at all times.

So Bob Robertson can be said to be the facilitator of Plant Biophysics in Australia, with Geoff Findlay joining the Unit in 1957 (Leicester McAulay was the progenitor; he sent Alan Walker to CSIRO Plant Industry to start another branch). The next generation included Hans Coster and Peter Barry, graduate students from the PPU, and so on to their students and colleagues. When we started the Australian Society for Biophysics, Bob Robertson was an early member, and attended most meetings, more especially when they were in tandem with the meetings of the ASPP. The last meeting of ASB where I met Bob was that in Canberra in 1998. Bob said to me "I liked your talk, Alex, but I did not follow it all", more a comment on my delivery and clarity than on Bob’s mind, which was perfectly sharp. With a continuing interest in the ATPase transporter way into his late retirement, Bob also pressed hard, right up to his final illness, for a big effort in artificial photosynthesis, which will eventuate from Sydney and ANU, with plant biophysicists having a large input.

I will vastly miss Bob Rob, first employer, colleague and friend from 1950 on.

Alex Hope, 26/3/01

Many of you will recall discussions at recent ASB meetings about how best to answer this question for the benefit of budding biophysicists at school and undergraduate levels. One way to address this is for those of us who work in the field to place links on the ASB web site to our own lab web sites. I would encourage all members to communicate their lab website addresses to Paul Pallaghy for linking to the ASB website under the heading ‘What is biophysics?’ Some of you already have links in place, but there is room for many more.

The Biophysical Society annual meeting in Boston was once again a stimulating scientific event with 3000 papers presented. This year the number of platform presentations was reduced with only 5-6 concurrent sessions, but this did not prevent the desire to be at 2-3 places at once. As usual most of the action took place at the poster sessions with 600 posters presented daily. Brian Matthews (originally from Adelaide) gave the National Lecture, "Structure isn’t everything but it sure helps". I particularly enjoyed the sessions on membrane proteins, solid-state NMR of biomolecules, protein-lipid interactions, peptide ion channels and toxins and the workshop on anti-microbial peptides. It was fun to see the clash between the old and the new: eg lipid domains have become lipid rafts, the hexagonal phase in lipids are now bio-nanotubes. Muscles and ion channels continue to be a major part of the meeting followed by model membranes while proteins and structural studies are beginning to gain strength. I bumped into only half a dozen Australians attending this year, the lower representation from Oz probably due to the unfavorable exchange rate. Despite feeling financially poorer, I left Boston feeling intellectually enriched and look forward to the next Biophysical Society meeting.

If I had to pick two lectures they would be:

The release of the crystal stucture of actin at 1.8A resolution by Roberto Dominguez, L. Otterbein, P. Graceffa at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute. This structure is interesting becasue it is the first to show us what actin looks like when it is not bound to an actin-binding protein.

The second lecture was given by Christopher W.V. Hogue at Sinai Hospital Toronto Canada. His lecture "BIND a database of molecular intereactions as a data mining tool" was far-reaching and of tremendous general use.

The aim of the workshop is to provide high level theoretical information combined a hands on workshop. There is a brilliant cast of International and local speakers. Workshop dates are April 18-21.

More information is now available. Website: www.med.usyd.edu.au/Fluor2000/Fluor2001PM.htm).

Contributions welcome.

Cris dos Remedios put together the following summary of the Meeting of IUPAB Council, February 10-11, London.

The principal task of this meeting was to set the agenda and select speakers for the next IUPAB Congress to be held in Buenos Aires on April 27-May 2 next year. After a day and a half of deliberations, the Council agreed on a topics and associated speakers who will now be formally invited. The final program is likely to include 3 or 4 Australian biophysicists as well as several Aussies now living abroad. Council resolved that closer links should be made with the national societies and that they be encouraged to support the congress by placing a link to the congress site (www.biofisica.dna.uba.ar) and by assisting a young scientist to attend by contributing to the cost of the airfare. The congress support PhD students by making available several travel scholarships. For more information contact iupab02@mail.retina.ar

Several task forces reported to Council. In particular, the Bioinformatics task force raised the significant concern that scientists access to the human genome database will be severely limited to 1 megabps. This limitation appears to be supported by Science despite the fact that it is a not-for-profit arm of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Council will exert pressure on Science to change its policy. Council also urges all national biophysical societies to stir up a grassroots level of discontent by urging their members to email to Science to express their dismay at its support for the commercial exploitation of information that should be public.

The Council reviewed its policy of supporting small meetings. It ratified its decision to financially support the April 18-21 Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Imaging meeting to be held in Sydney.

International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB)

Biophysical Society of Argentina

Buenos Aires, Argentina: 27 April - 2 May 2002

PLEASE FILL IN AND RETURN THE ENCLOSED PRE-REGISTRATION FORM!

Organized by: The International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB)

Hosted by: Sociedad Argentina de Biofísica (SAB)

Venue: "Plaza Houssay Complex" - Faculties of Medicine, Biochemistry, Pharmacy and Dentistry

IUPAB International Biophysics Congresses are held every three years. Recent venues have been Vancouver, Budapest, Amsterdam and New Delhi. The Buenos Aires meeting will be the first International Biophysics Congress to be held in the Southern hemisphere.

World leaders in biophysics will be presenting authoritative accounts of recent advances in Biophysics. The programme will embrace nine areas of contemporary Biophysics* including a "Special Congress Topic":

Six plenary lectures and 30 symposia are planned. In each Symposium there will be three oral presentations by invited speakers and two by speakers selected from those who have submitted Abstracts (see the specific subject descriptions *below).

Registration:

Registration will entitle participants to attend the Scientific Meetings, Opening and Closing Ceremonies and a Welcome Reception and to receive the corresponding Congress material.

Students will be granted a reduced fee.

Call for Papers/Posters:

Authors wishing to attend the Congress and present a poster (which could be selected eventually for oral presentation) are requested to fill in the appropriate box in the attached Reply Form.

Official Language:

English will be the official language of the meeting.

Facilities:

Projection facilities for 35 mm. slides, as well as overhead, video and data beam projectors, will be available.

Accommodation:

The Organizing Committee will offer accommodation at various rates, to suit all delegates.

Satellite Symposia:

Satellite symposia will be held in Argentina and other countries in the area (Brazil, Uruguay and Chile).

Travel fellowships:

A limited number of fellowships for young scientists will be available. IUPAB Travel Fellowships are intended to cover a substantial part of the travel and accommodation expenses; in addition the Congress Registration fee will be waived for recipients of IUPAB Travel Fellowships. Details of the application procedure will be provided in the Second Circular and on the Congress and IUPAB Web sites at a later date - please do not make enquiries until these details appear.

Accompanying Persons:

A full program is being developed for people accompanying participants.

Pre and Post Conference Tours:

A number of pre and post conference tours are being arranged to give participants a taste of Argentina.

Second Announcement - Invitation and Programme:

The Second Announcement is due August 2001. It will be in the web page of the Congress and sent to all pre-registered scientists. In order to receive the Second Announcement, please return the attached reply form to the Congress Secretariat.

Prof. Ponce Hornos

M. T. de Alvear 2270

(1122) Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Fax: 54 11 49 63 58 89

Dear Presidents

Sometimes the question may arise in your Society: "are we getting value for money for our subscription to FASTS?"

The Prime Minister’s recent announcement brings $2.9 billion dollars into the science and research sector. We hailed it as a useful first step.

We called for a mini-Budget response to science funding in May last year, and Innovation Statement was released in January - out of the normal Budget cycle.

FASTS has played a very active role in creating the political climate in which the Statement was made. We constantly raised issues and publicised the benefits of increasing the national investment in S&T.

Subscriptions from members have allowed FASTS to:

FASTS is recognised as a leading player in these discussions. Without our involvement, the Innovation Statement may have been a significantly different document.

Sue Serjeantson’s report follows.

Toss Gascoigne.

Science and technology have come to the forefront of the national agenda for the first time in more than a decade. Recognition of the pivotal role of innovation in the nation’s prosperity has come late, but is no less welcome for that.

The Prime-Minister’s Innovation Action Plan will boost the nation’s investment in research by three billion dollars over the next five years. By the fifth year, the investment will be an extra one billion dollars per year. As the Prime-Minister said, this is an important ‘first step’ in Backing Australia’s Ability.

There is a sea-change in recognition that intellectual capital is at least as important as labour and capital in ensuring the social, economic and environmental well-being of the nation. Admittedly, Australia has come to this realisation a little later than some other countries, but we have not missed the bus. There are fleets of buses leaving, and we want to drive them! This is the message we gave to the Prime-Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council.

The Innovation Action Plan would not have been possible without the work of FASTS’ member societies. The unified voice of scientists and technologists, together with those of business, have been critical in ensuring the implementation of the Chief Scientist’s recommendations. Of Robin Batterham’s 20 recommendations, 18 have been adopted, and the other two implemented in a modified form. The Batterham report strongly reflected FASTS proposals, as the attached table shows.

We should not under-estimate the impact of 180 scientists from across the country converging on federal parliament last November, delivering the Batterham report. This has helped make investment in science and technology a non-partisan affair, even in (or should I say, especially in) an election year. Your support for the FASTS’ Science Meets Parliament Day was critical in getting the message across the line.

The Innovation Action Plan is about more than research dollars. It is about Australia’s value system. It is about valuing our scientists and technologists. Status took a heavy knock after the Dawkins’ reforms, and in the following years when our universities and research institutions were under-valued. This situation is being reversed. There is a ground-swell of realisation in the community that we must value and reward our intellectual capital. You have helped bring about this sea-change.

When Robin Williams asked the PM on the Science Show what factors had led to his ‘conversion’ to science and technology, he replied that the presentations to the Prime-Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council had been important. He said that the positive response to the Government’s increase in research funds for the National Medical Research Council (NHMRC) had been another important factor. Some FASTS’ member societies have sent a positive note to the PM, noting the ‘important first step’ that has been taken by the Commonwealth Government.

We need the continued support of our member societies for the Innovation Action Plan, to ramp it up and top it up! Michael Lee, Shadow Minister for Education, committed to this last Friday 16 at the Go8 Forum.

The PM will Chair the Implementation Committee for the Innovation Action Plan. This is extremely important, because it means that the Government means business and is not engaged in a ‘smoke and mirrors’ exercise. FASTS will keep a close watch on this, to maintain a sense of urgency in investment in R&D and to ensure early development of guidelines for the various programs.

Lessons must be learned from implementation of the "doubling" of funds for the NHMRC, announced in May 1999. As the first step in "doubling" the funds, the Commonwealth Government announced enhanced investment of ten million dollars in medical genomics in the 1999 budget. It was not until March 2000 that NHMRC announced its Medical Genomics Program and called for expressions of interest for projects that would help build Australia’s biotechnology base, through large-scale DNA sequencing projects. Successful applicants were advised this month!

The pace of technological change is frenetic and international competition will not wait for us to sit in peer review committees for two years in order to distribute ten million dollars! FASTS will be working for rapid implementation of the Innovation Action Plan.

FASTS tries to maintain a careful balance between bleating from the sidelines and being in the mainstream of science policy development. Our membership of the Prime-Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council is part of this. Our Executive Director, Toss Gascoigne, ably assisted by Robyn Easton, works hard to ensure we punch above our weight. But nothing could be achieved without the input of volunteers, including Ken Baldwin as Chair of FASTS’ Policy Committee, our two Vice-Presidents, Jan Thomas and David Denham, members of the Board, and the Presidents of our member societies.

This year FASTS will be focused on implement the Innovation Action Plan, on how to ramp it up and top it up, and on ensuring this becomes a non-partisan issue that stays on the agenda through any changes in Government over the next five years.

The community, and the Government, has sent a strong message to us that our scientists and technologists are valued. We shall continue, through FASTS, to promote respect for the achievements of our member scientists and technologists.

March 2001

FASTS sent me a detailed table comparing their requests in FASTS' "Billion Dollar" list (April 2000) with the recommendations in Dr Batterham's "A Chance to Change", and the final figures in the Innovation Statement (January 2001).

The recommendations in the Batterham report add up to about 75 per cent of what FASTS recommended.

Expenditure in the Innovation Statement is about 58 per cent of what FASTS recommended in its total package. This proportion rises to 76 per cent, when measured against the issues in the FASTS package the Government chose to address ($2.9 billion of the $3.8 billion we recommended).

The clusters and the Board members are as follows.

Biological Sciences (including ASB): Dr Peter French

P.French@cfi.unsw.edu.au

Earth Sciences: Dr Mike Smith

mike@geoinstruments.com.au

Mathematical Sciences: Associate Professor Helen MacGillivray

h.macgillivray@qut.edu.au

Chemistry: Professor John White

jww@rsc.anu.edu.au

Aquatic Sciences: Dr Alan Butler

alan.butler@marine.csiro.au

Medical Sciences: Dr David Tracey

d.tracey@unsw.edu.au

Physical Sciences: Associate Professor John O’Connor

John.OConnor@Newcastle.edu.au

Plants and Ecology: Professor Snow Barlow

s.barlow@landfood.unimelb.edu.au

Technology: Board member to be chosen by Societies in this new cluster.

On March 26, the 33 Australian scientists whose papers have been most-frequently cited by their colleagues are to be honoured at a ceremony in Canberra. It has been likened to awarding Oscars to scientists.

The event, "Honouring Excellence in Australian Research," will honour 33 highly cited Australian authors, who will be receiving "Citation Laureate" awards. These Australian authors have published more than six high impact or world class papers in their fields.

These highly cited papers document significant research results and then become the foundation of discussion and a resource for other research papers worldwide.

The Awards are being sponsored by ISI, a Thomson Scientific company which maintains the most comprehensive database of research information in the world. ISI is based in the USA in Philidelphia.

Professor Sue Serjeantson, President of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS) said that FASTS supported the Awards, as one well-established method for measuring excellent science.

The Awards work by counting the number of times a scientific paper is referred to (or cited) in articles and papers by other authors. The more times a paper is cited, the more influential it is.

Professor Serjeantson said that excellence in science can be measured in a number of ways.

"Counting citations is one way, but some excellent work which has not been frequently cited has led to new industries and new jobs, and to ways of improving the environment," she said.

And the list, released this week:

(in descending order by number of highly-cited papers)

Professor Graham D. Farquhar

Professor Peter Hall

Dr. Bruce A. Peterson

Professor Donald Metcalf

Professor Ken C. Freeman

Professor Michael A. Dopita

Professor Jeremy R. Mould

Professor Nicos A. Nicola

Dr. Richard N. Manchester

Professor Colin L. Masters

Professor Suzanne Cory

Dr. Paul J. Fraser

Professor J. Malcolm Oades

Professor Bruce A. Stone

Professor Malcolm T. McCulloch

Professor Michael S. Bessell

Professor David R. McKenzie

Professor Donald J. Birkett

Dr. Roger Powell

Professor David H. Green

Dr. L. Paul Steele

Dr. Bruce W. Chappell

Professor Warrick J. Couch

Dr. Jeffrey N. Ladd

Dr. Neil C. Turner

Professor John O. Miners

Professor Matthew V. Vadas

Professor Jerry M. Adams

Professor Barry J. Marshall

Professor Michael V. Swain

Dr. Matthew Colless

Dr. Richard W. Hunstead

Professor Richard M. Pashley

Sue Serjeantson is resigning from the Presidency of FASTS. She has been offered a position as Executive Secretary of the Australian Academy of Science which makes it impossible for her to continue as President of FASTS.

Sue takes up her new position on Monday April 2, and intends stepping down from the Presidency on Friday 30 March.

The Board has elected Professor Peter Cullen as President, to serve out the balance of her term until Council meeting in November when Professor Chris Fell becomes President.

Later today FASTS will issue the release set out below.

There is increasing concern within scientific circles that hopes of much-needed investment in the university sector is receding in the face of domestic political pressures.

The President of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS), Professor Sue Serjeantson, said that sudden economic downturn and new spending measures by Government have added to anxiety in the sector.

"The science community appreciates the measures in the Innovation Statement announced by the Prime Minister of January 29," said Professor Serjeantson. "We described it as a useful first step, and it does set Australia on a path.

"But we need other steps to be taken, and the first is restoring core funding to the university sector. The situation has been deteriorating over several years and needs a long-term commitment.

"We have been pinning our hopes on new announcements in the Budget in May. Now it seems that Australia’s future as a modern economy is being placed in jeopardy by political pressures.

"As the projected Budget surplus recedes, where does that leave the universities and Australia’s long-term future?"

She said the health of the university sector, in its dual roles as a research and training body, was under increasing strain.

"The Government has placed huge pressure on the sector without providing any real solutions. The sector is subject to increasing expectations without being provided with the resources to meet these expectations.

"It would be useful, for instance, to have broad national agreement on what Australia expects of its university sector, and base the level of funding on this role. How many universities do we need, and how should we share scarce resources between them?"

She said that this sort of discussion is best led by Government.

Professor Serjeantson said she had written to the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Beazley, asking him to release details of his plans for science, research and the universities.

"This would widen the discussion. We need a mature and intelligent debate about how science and research are going to fit into our national priorities," she said.

Mr Toss Gascoigne

Executive Director

Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies

PO Box 218

DEAKIN WEST ACT 2600

AUSTRALIA

Phone: +61 2 - 6257 2891 (work); +61 2 - 6249 7400 (home)

Fax: +61 2 - 6257 2897

Mobile: 0408 704 442

Email: fasts@anu.edu.au (Toss Gascoigne)

Web address: http://www.FASTS.org

FASTS’ ABN: ABN 71 626 822 845

This section is available to all members. Please send notices to Ray Norton.

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join a team of researchers led by Dr Sergey Shabala to work on two ARC funded Large projects: "Ionic basis of blue light control of plant elongation and bending" and "Ultradian membrane oscillators and their ionic basis". For full details see separate attachment sent with this Newsletter of contact Sergey.

The following ad was submitted by Reg Waldeck:

Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmaceuticals is a leading pharmaceutical company in Australia with headquarters in the U.SA. We are currently seeking an Economic Analyst/Manager to join the Health Economics team. The team is responsible for Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule (PBS) listing of our pipeline products as well as pricing of both new and existing products. Other involvement lies in the areas of clinical and economic studies, marketing support, and training of representatives.

The Role

You will provide analytical and statistical support to the Health Economics team with respect to all products. The objective of such analyses is a successful PBS submission. You will have responsibility for pricing analysis. Product responsibility may vary and will depend on previous background. A close interaction with marketing on projects of an analytical nature is envisaged.

The Person

On the job training will be provided. The key requirements are:

* Extensive training, preferably at post-graduate level, in a quantitative discipline.^#

* A desire to use your maths or stats background to solve business problems.

* An effective communicator who can clearly convey key results to a lay audience

* A self-starter