Newsletter #20. AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY FOR BIOPHYSICS
WELCOME to the November edition of the ASB email newsletter.
Please visit our NEW WWW site and send me your comments. The address
is:
http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/ASB/
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NEWS ITEMS
(1) REPORT FROM ASB MELBOURNE
(2) A NEW-LOOK ASB WEBSITE
(3) MESSAGE FROM WENDY RUSSELL
(4) Report from FASTS
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(1) REPORT FROM ASB MELBOURNE
Congratulation to RAY NORTON and his willing colleagues for running
a very successful annual conference
in Melbourne this year. There were 20 student registrations and 50
full registrations. He makes the following
observations:
* Biophysics does have a unique character, and we should try to preserve
the independence of the society.
* He feels that the Budget of the annual conference is very low and
wonders how would people feel
about a higher registration fee in return for a larger number of overseas
invited speakers and some financial
assistance for interstate invited speakers?? The registration fees
for ASB97 were slightly higher than for the
Hobart meeting, but are still cheap compared with other Australian
conferences.(Note: Frances Separovic
thinks registration fees should not be increased)
* Young Biophysicist Award: need to call for applications at least
2 months before closing date for
abstracts to facilitate organisation of oral program.
My feeling is that the $$ value of the award should be reduced, or
it should only be awarded every 2nd year.
The prestige is probably more important than the $$ value. Ray says
he would prefer to see more money
allocated to the student presentation awards, with perhaps two such
awards made at each conference.
* Student presentation awards need to be made clearer to students that
they have to be ASB members to be
eligible. This should provide a strong incentive to join ASB.
* Regarding future meetings, Ray says that chairs should not fill sessions
with invited speakers as adequate
space needs to be reserved for contributed oral presentations. Electronic
registration and abstract submission
should be standard from now on, and day registrants need to be identified
by separate badges
* the number of abstract books required needs to be clarified in advance
(if everyone submits their abstract
electronically then a WWW version of the abstract book can be made
available and spare hard copies are
probably unnecessary)
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(2) A NEW-LOOK ASB WEBSITE. Pierre Moens has re-designed the website
with some comments and
directions from our new President, Glenn King. Pierre asks if there
members who want to have a link made in
the ASB page to their personnal web page? If so, please send your page
address by email to Pierre at:
pierre@anatomy.usyd.edu.au
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(3) MESSAGE FROM WENDY RUSSELL.
The Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong
SUMMER SCHOLARSHIP PROJECT:PHOTOSYNTHETIC DEVELOPMENT IN RAINFOREST
LEAVES
Supervisors: Dr Sharon Robinson, Dr Wendy Russell
A scholarship is offered for 6-8 weeks in January and February, 1998.
It
includes a stipend of $100 per week, and allowances for transport and
accommodation, if required.
The aim of the project is to study photosynthetic development in leaves
of
rainforest plants, especially those with delayed greening, which often
appear bright red or pink when young. It will be part of a larger research
project, already being undertaken by this group. The specific project
will
depend on your interests, and could include one of the following:
1) a biochemical investigation of the development of pigment-protein
complexes and enzymes in rainforest plants.
2) a physiological study of rainforest plants investigating photosynthetic
development in plants grown at different light levels.
3) an ecophysiological study of photosynthetic development of leaves
from
rainforest plants growing in natural light conditions.
Depending on the project, you will have the opportunity to develop
knowledge and skills in plant physiology, ecophysiology, biophysics
and
biochemistry; and in the following specific techniques:
Polyacrylamide electrophoresis and Western blotting
Chlorophyll fluorescence techniques
Spectrophotometry
High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC)
Molecular biology techniques
For enquiries and application details, please contact
Wendy Russell
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, NSW, 2522
ph (02) 4221 4916, fax (02) 4221 4135, email: wendyr@uow.edu.au
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(4) Report from FASTS.
1 NEW MINISTER
The modification of John Moore's ministerial responsibilities to directly
include science, technology and industry offers some interesting
possibilities for the science and technology community.
It gives science and technology a direct voice in Cabinet discussions,
a
position FASTS has long advocated and specifically recommended to Mr
Howard
in 1996.
Our view is that S&T are pivotal to a number of the biggest portfolios,
such as Education, Environment, Primary Industry, and Telecommunications;
and that only a strong direct advocate in the Cabinet room will enable
Australia to gain full benefit from the work of its scientists and
technologists.
The arrangement should also strengthen the connection between science
and
technology, and industry. This has been the weak link in Australia
- we
have many clever ideas, but the role of industry in developing them
and
bringing them to the benefit of the community has been significantly
below
standards reached by comparable nations.
The portfolio has been renamed, from Industry Science and Tourism, to
Industry Science and Technology. This seems a much more logical arrangement
by any measure.
The downside is that we have lost an enthusiastic and accessible Minister
in Peter McGauran, at a crucial time for science and technology and
for its
interface with industry.
His departure threatened to set back the process of developing new and
better policies in science, technology and industry, and consideration
of
several major reports, including the Mortimer Report, the Stocker Review,
and the Goldsworthy Report.
Minister McGauran had also been a strong supporter of the Marine Science
and Technology Plan, and it will be important to maintain the momentum
of
this initiative.
By selecting Minister Moore to fill the gap, the Government has found
a
neat solution to the changeover problem as well as boosting the presence
of
science and technology in major Cabinet discussions.
It remains now to be seen how responsive the Minister is to the policies
and ideas formulated by grassroots scientists and technologists.
We hope to be able to address him directly on issues of interest to
members
at the FASTS' Council meeting in November, as well as meeting with
him
before that date.
2. CRC INQUIRY
DIST has invited FASTS to make a submission to the inquiry being conducted
jointly by DIST and the Department of Finance.
The review will make recommendations on ways the CRCs and the CRC Program
can be refocussed to become stronger commercial entities, by attracting
private sector financing and reducing the call on public sector funding.
Submissions have to be lodged by 31 October, and the review is scheduled
to
be delivered to Government by 30 December. Peter Cullen is a logical
leader
to draft the FASTS' submission.
We would welcome ideas from Member Societies. Please send them to the
FASTS
office: fasts@anu.edu.au.
This fits the Budget timetable, and it seems that the future of the
CRC
Program will be dertermined in the Budget to be brought down on May
12 next
year. This means that decisions will be made in November-December this
year.
3. FASTS MEETS DAVID MORTIMER
While I was in Italy, President-elect Peter Cullen and Past-President
Graham Johnston met David Mortimer to discuss FASTS concerns about
his
report "Going for Growth".
FASTS' support for trying to increase growth in the Australian economy,
and
simplifying and focussing assistance to Business was reiterated; as
were
our concerns about his recommendations on the CRC Program, the R&D
Corporations, and external earnings targets for CSIRO, AIMS, ANSTO,
and
Universities.
4. FASTS' POLICY UNDER REVISION
A revised version of our 20 page Policy Document is set to be released
early in the new year, in time to influence Budget deliberations.
The current document was launched shortly after the current Government
came
to power, and many things have changed in that period. It is time to
revise
our priorities and look at new opportunities and new areas of concern.
Some things have not changed - the need to fund infrastructure in
universities, and the impending shortage of qualified teachers of
mathematics and science.
Other issues have emerged or gained greater emphasis, such as the
difficulties young scientists have in establishing a career in research,
the very real threats to the CRC program, and the need to work out
the next
generation of programs to support industrial R&D.
All Member Societies have been invited to suggest changes (direct to
Ken
Baldwin, at the ANU: Kenneth.Baldwin@anu.edu.au);
and will be given an
opportunity to discuss the draft policy at Council on November 20.
Members will have several opportunities to comment: when the new draft
is
posted on the FASTS' web before Council, and after Council when the
modified draft will be available for comment.
5. PMSEC
The next PMSEC meeting has the tentative title of "Science, engineering
and
technology for employment". Obviously it will focus on the capacity
of S&T
to generate jobs.
FASTS suggestions have been incorporated in the program for the day,
and I
have also been invited to comment on the main document to be presented
to
the Prime Minister and his colleagues for discussion.
This meeting unfortunately will be closed to the public, so we will
not be
issuing our usual invitation to FASTS' Members to nominate people to
attend.
Peter Cullen will by then have taken over as President, and will represent
FASTS at the meeting.
6. INQUIRY INTO INSTITUTES OF TECHNICAL AND FURTHER EDUCATION
FASTS has been invited to make a submission to the House of Representatives
Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training on
the appropriate roles of institutes of technical and further education;
and
the extent to which these roles should overlap with universities.
Jan Thomas is drafting our submission (JanThomas@VUT.edu.au),
and any
contributions would need to be sent to her almost immediately.
7. ANZAAS
The news that ANZAAS was moving to close down its operations was extremely
disappointing but not altogether unexpected.
Their problems were well documented, but perhaps it is still possible
to
build a new coalition which involves other groups as well as ANZAAS
to
carry on their work of promoting science and communication among
scientists.
The objectives of FASTS include promoting the public understanding of
science, and enhancing and facilitating communication in the scientific
community.
I believe that any proposals for a successor to the ANZAAS Congresses
can
only succeed if they are solidly supported by the broad science community.
While FASTS has yet to take a formal position on the matter, we will
be
part of any such discussions.
8. ANZAAS MEDALLIST
Congratulations to former President of FASTS Graham Johnston, on being
awarded the ANZAAS Medal for 1997 for his contributions to science,
in
particular to the development of science policy.
He is a member of ANZAAS, and has just set up a web site to promote
informed discussion on its future. The site already contains press
reports
from Robyn Williams, Leigh Dayton and Graeme Leech, plus the ANZAAS
accounts, a report of the AGM, and the ANZAAS constitution.
The URL of the site is: http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/pharmacology/anzaas
9. ADDITIONAL HEALTH RESEARCH FUNDS
Board Member David Tracey attended a meeting of the Australian Society
for
Medical Research (a FASTS' Member), at which the ASMR plans to lobby
Government.for increased medical research funds were unveiled.
The ASMR has employed Protocol Management Group to manage their campaign
to
increase the health and medical research budget, and calculated they
had
143 days to influence the next Budget round.
This is of course a pre-election Budget, when Governments tend to be
most
receptive. The FASTS' campaign will be built around the revised policy
document, and the "Ten Top Policies" as identified by Council and the
Board.
10. A ROCK FOR EACH OF US
This reminds us all to be conscious of the opportunity in the next
two to
three months to influence politicians on relevant budget issues. Please
let
me have your ideas on priority budget ideas prior to or at the Council
Meeting on November 20.
Joe Baker
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My apologies for the lateness of this Newsletter. The last month has been rather busy.
Regards to all from Cris (Immediate Past-President).
Cris dos Remedios DSc
Director, Institute for Biomedical Research
The University of Sydney, F13
Sydney 2006 Australia
Phone +61 2 93513209; Fax +61 2 93512813