BaMBi Parasitology Awards

At the annual Australian Society for Parasitology Meeting, held in Adelaide in the first week of July, BaMBi had a number of successes in the awards given out for the different types of presentation.  Julie-Anne Fritz won one of two Early Career Researcher awards for her talk.  Rob Summers won the award for best traditional poster, Natalie Spillman won the award for best poster + (2 min) oral presentation, and Adele Lehane was runner-up in the student talk category.  An outstanding outcome for the School.

( Posted 14/08/2008 )

BaMBi Awards

Kiaran Kirk has been awarded the annual ANU Vice-Chancellor’s Award for excellence in research supervision.  Adele Lehane, a PhD student in Kiaran’s lab, was awarded an Early Career Researcher poster prize at the recent ‘Molecular Approaches to Malaria’ meeting in Lorne. This meeting, held every four years, is one of the major international meetings in the area of malaria parasite biology.

( Posted 13/04/2008 )

Australian Society for Plant Scientists Goldacre Award

The 2007 Goldacre medal, which is awarded yearly to an early career researcher in plant science, was awarded to Ulrike Mathesius during the annual ComBio Conference in Sydney, accompanied by a lecture about Ulrike’s work on the molecular signals that control root-microbe interactions. This award was established in 1965 in recognition of the plant physiologist Peter Goldacre, and as an encouragement for young researchers.

( Posted 31/03/2008 )

BaMBi Awards

BaMBi featured prominently in the awards given out to students and early career researchers at the annual meeting of the Australian Society for Parasitology/Parasitology Network held in Canberra in early July.  The awards were presented at a dinner at Parliament House.  Rowena Martin was joint-winner of the award for a presentation by an early career researcher.

Alison Knight won the prize for the best combined poster/talk presentation, and Simon Cobbold won a student poster prize.

( Posted 3/09/2007 )

Rebeiz Foundation for Basic Research 2006 Paper Prize

On June 16, 2007, the First Rebeiz Foundation for Basic Research 2006 Paper Prize was awarded to Drs. Britta Förster, Ulrike Mathesius and Barry J. Pogson (right) for their paper on the ‘‘Comparative Proteomics of High- Light Stress in the Model Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (Proteomics 6:4309-4320, 2006).’’ Since Förster and her two coworkers could not attend the ceremony, the award was mailed to the recipients at the Australian National University, Canberra. The paper was chosen for the award by five world leaders in photosynthesis research. To place this award in context there were 2,092 papers published on photosynthesis in 2006.

( Posted 29/08/2007 )

BaMBi PhD students win places at overseas courses

Two PhD students in the School, Ms Adele Lehane and Ms Rebecca Barwick have won places at prestigious overseas courses.  Adele will participate in the eight week Biology of Parasitism course to be held at Woods Hole in the US, from June of this year, and has been awarded a $8.3 K grant from the ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology to support the trip.

Rebecca will participate in the EMBO-FEBS Molecular and Cellular Biology of Membranes Summer School in Cargese, Corsica, France in June and has been awarded a grant by the organisers to support her participation.

( Posted 16/05/2007 )

ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Legume Research

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Legume Research has been renewed for an additional three years of funding, until the end of 2010, with $6.9M. This Centre was established in 2003 and involves research at the ANU and Universities of Queensland, Melbourne and Newcastle. The Centre investigates the signaling networks leading to meristem formation – the plant equivalent of stem cells.

Work in the Mathesius lab in BaMBi, part of the ARC Centre, has focused on plant and bacterial signals that regulate root organ development. Future work aims at identifying new developmental signals from legumes plants.

For more information on the Centre see http://www.cilr.uq.edu.au/

The picture shows the specific accumulation of phenolic compounds in meristematic cells in a plant root, which are being studied for their potential role in cell differentiation.

( Posted 20/03/2007 )

Congratulations to Alison Knight

Alison Knight, PhD student in the Nematode Molecular Genetics Group, was awarded the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science Prize for the best presentation at the ANU College of Science conference ‘Bringing Science Together’ on 11 December 2006. This conference aims to promote interactions among PhD students in all areas of science (see http://info.anu.edu.au/mac/Newsletters_and_Journals/On_Campus/ 096PP_2007/01PP_January/_science.asp). Alison’s paper ‘Characterisation of a C.elegans nematode gene that is critical for nematode survival‘ described her work towards her PhD.

( Posted 31/01/2007 )

PhD Student Retreat

As 2006 drew to a close, a group of BaMBi PhD students headed to the Kioloa Campus on the NSW south coast for a two day retreat. The first day involved a surfing lesson, relaxing, multiple rounds of table tennis and toasting marshmallows over candles (total fire ban). The next morning, after a slow start and a big breakfast, there were presentations from Stefan Broer, David Tscharke and Rhys Hayward about 'Publishing Papers', 'PostDoc Funding' and 'Jobs in Defence Intelligence', respectively. It was a great chance to learn, relax and make some new friends. Thanks to all involved.

( Posted 2/01/2007 )

Carrick Award for Teaching Excellence to Barbara van Leeuwen

Assoc. Prof. Barbara van Leeuwen, Chair of the BaMBi Teaching Committee, has been awarded a Carrick Award for Teaching Excellence.  There were only 26 of these awarded nationally and Barbara’s award in this category follows on from her citation award earlier in the year. The Teaching Excellence awards “celebrate a group of the nation's most outstanding university teachers in their fields. They give recognition to university teachers renowned for the excellence of their teaching, who have superb presentation skills and who have made a broad and deep contribution to enhancing the quality of learning and teaching in higher education.” [Carrick website]

( Posted 8/12/2006 )

New Promotions

Congratulations to Stefan Bröer who has been promoted to Professor, to Carolyn Behm, Barbara van Leeuwen and Naresh Verma who have been promoted to Associate Professor, and to Ulrike Mathesius who has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.

( Posted 8/12/2006 )

NHMRC R.D. Wright Career Development Award to David Tscharke

David Tscharke has been awarded an NHMRC R.D. Wright Career Development Award.  This is a five year research fellowship, to be taken up in January 2007.

( Posted 8/12/2006 )

Tall Poppy Awards to David Tscharke and
Ulrike Mathesius

BaMBi staff members Dr Ulrike Mathesius and Dr David Tscharke have been awarded 2006 'Young Tall Poppy Awards'. David was also selected by one of the Award sponsors, Agilent Technologies, to receive a special named award.
 
The Young Tall Poppy Program identifies and acknowledges outstanding young Australian researchers and engages them to foster a stronger interest in science in schools and the broader community. There are just three award recipients from ACT and 12 from NSW representing a wide spread of research fields.

( Posted 8/12/2006 )

New paper in Nature

Three groups in the School, together with collaborators at the University of Melbourne, have published a paper in the top-ranked international science journal Nature.  The paper describes a novel ‘transporter mechanism’ used by the single-celled malaria parasite to take up the essential nutrient, phosphate, from its host red blood cell.  The mechanism is ‘energised’ by sodiums ions which, as members of the team have shown previously, floods into the red blood cell through novel channels induced by the parasite in the surface membrane of the red blood cell.

( Posted 8/12/2006 )

Carrick citations for Barbara van Leeuwen and Rosemary Martin

Dr Barbara van Leeuwen and Professor Rosemary Martin, both based in BaMBi, have been awarded Citations for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning by the Carrick Institute.  The Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education was launched in August 2004 and has, as its mission, the promotion and advancement of learning and teaching in Australian higher education.  There were 210 Carrick Citations awarded nationally, to people who have made a significant contribution to the quality of student learning in a specific area of responsibility over a sustained period
 
The citations read:
 
Professor Rosemary Martin:  For leadership in teaching through a sustained record of innovation in enquiry-based learning and assessment, and for creation of a supportive learning environment.
 
Dr Barbara Van Leeuwen:  For the design and delivery of innovative biotechnology courses incorporating ethical, scientific and legal issues raised by such new technologies.

( Posted 8/12/2006 )

Inaugural College of Science Teaching Award to Susan Howitt

Dr Susan Howitt has been awarded one of two inaugural ANU College of Science Awards for Teaching Excellence.  As noted in the citation for the award, Susan's many teaching and learning achievements include playing a key role in developing research-led and research oriented courses in BaMBi.

( Posted 8/12/2006 )

ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology

This Centre was funded by the Minster of Science from July 1 st 2005 . It is a new enterprise incorporating seven teams at UWA, Usyd and ANU ( Barry Pogson in BaMBi and Murray Badger in RSBS). Plants are sources of many essential products, including food, fuels, and vitamins. These products result from energy metabolism in sub-cellular compartments (organelles) called mitochondria, chloroplasts and peroxisomes. The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology aims to use functional genomic analysis to discover and characterise molecular components and control mechanisms that underpin plant energy metabolism. At the ANU research will foucs on photosynthesis, mechanisms of drought and oxidative stress tolerance, and the roles of carotenoids and auxin in plant development. Benefits include enhanced control of biomass and yield, water and nutrient efficiency, synthesis of nutrients important for human and animal health, and plants better able to tolerate the environmental stresses of Australia . See http://www.plantenergy.uwa.edu.au/ and http://www.anu.edu.au/bambi/people/academic/pogson.php for more details.

( Posted 8/12/2006 )