The NHMRC's CREs will provide support for teams of researchers to pursue collaborative research and develop research capacity in clinical, public health and health services.

• Find out more about the Centres of Research Excellence Scheme

A briefing on Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA) for researchers in Humanities, Social Science and Creative Arts.

The session will be led by Research Advisers Professors Margaret Harris (humanities and creative arts) and Graeme Gill (social science).

Important DECRA dates:

• 2 March 2012: Internal closing date
• 21 March 2012: ARC closing date

For enquiries and appointments for one-on-one advice on your draft:

• Jennifer Turner (all disciplines)
• Andrew Black (all disciplines)
• Mitchell Guss (Sciences)
• Margaret Harris(Humanities and Creative Arts)
• Graeme Gill (Social Sciences)

A briefing for Sciences researchers on the application process for ARC DP grants (applications in 2012 for funding in 2013).

It will outline DP requirements, emphasizing changes to the scheme in this round, and provide detailed advice on preparing your proposal.

The session will be led by Andrew Black (Director, Research Development) and include a panel discussion comprising successful researchers from the Faculty of Science. The last part of the session will focus on support for early career researchers.

Note that this briefing is specifically for DP13 applicants. Separate briefings will be held on Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA).

For enquiries and appointments for one-on-one advice on your draft:

• Jennifer Turner (all disciplines)
• Andrew Black (all disciplines)
• Mitchell Guss (Sciences)
• Margaret Harris(Humanities and Creative Arts)
• Graeme Gill (Social Sciences)

The Annual Methodological and Empirical Advances in Financial Analysis (MEAFA) Meeting brings together a multi-disciplinary audience from accounting, finance, business analytics and economics to discuss methodological advances in applied financial analysis. This is a workshop that is set in a relaxed environment and aims to stimulate discussion and encourage interaction amongst participants.

The 2012 meeting will feature extended presentations from international keynote speakers and MEAFA members. To maximise feedback, each presentation includes a detailed response by a discussant followed by a general discussion amongst participants.

The workshop is open to all participants from academia, industry and government, faculty and research students. It is fully sponsored by the University of Sydney Business School and MEAFA and provides full catering on both days.

The Sydney Institute of Criminology (University of Sydney) is hosting a one-day Comparative CPTED Conference on 24 January 2012. This one-day conference will explore recent developments in CPTED practice and theory and will bring together an exciting array of academics and practitioners from England, New Zealand, Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland and other locations. National trends and local case studies will reveal different approaches and innovative developments in CPTED practice from numerous jurisdictions.

• Find out more and register online.

The NHMRC's CREs will provide support for teams of researchers to pursue collaborative research and develop research capacity in clinical, public health and health services.

• Find out more about the Centres of Research Excellence Scheme

Internal closing date for:

• NHMRC Practitioner Fellowships
  The Practitioner Fellowship is a targeted award intended to assist experienced and productive clinical and public health researchers who wish to maintain both a research and a professional career.
• NHMRC Research Fellowships
  The NHMRC Research Fellowships Scheme provides opportunities for outstanding biomedical and health researchers with proven track records to undertake research that is both of major importance in its field and of significant benefit to Australian health and medical research.

Join a discussion with a technology specialist about ways to design interactive software to modify behaviour and influence the health choices of consumers.

The Centre for Obesity Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease (CODCD) has organised a two-hour discussion with Jennifer Wilson, director of the Project Factory. She specialises in social networks, iPhone apps, virtual reality and the use of gaming approaches to modify behaviour. She has more than 20 years experience in interactive media and was the head of innovation for NineMSN.

The discussion will be an information exchange looking at possibilities of what can be done and ideas to optimally utilise interactive software.

In this talk, Dr Richard Wu uses photographs to track the tumultuous changes in Beijing from the last days of Qing dynasty (1900) up to the end of the Nationalist regime (1949). Events explored will include the intrigue between Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu in the Forbidden City, and the invasion of the League of Eight Nations armies. The talk will also focus on the nine city gates of Beijing, some of which still stand today as the last remnants of Imperial China.

The International Colloquium on Paratuberculosis, held every 2-3 years under the auspices of the IAP, gathers together the global expertise in the study and control of Johne's disease.

Internal closing date for ARC Discovery Projects for funding beginning in 2013.

• support excellent fundamental research by individuals and teams
• enhance the scale and focus of research in the National Research Priorities
• assist researchers to undertake their research in conditions most conducive to achieving best results
• expand Australia's knowledge base and research capability
• foster the international competitiveness of Australian research
• encourage research training in high-quality research environments

Externalclosing date for:

• NHMRC Practitioner Fellowships
  The Practitioner Fellowship is a targeted award intended to assist experienced and productive clinical and public health researchers who wish to maintain both a research and a professional career.
• NHMRC Research Fellowships
  The NHMRC Research Fellowships Scheme provides opportunities for outstanding biomedical and health researchers with proven track records to undertake research that is both of major importance in its field and of significant benefit to Australian health and medical research.

This session will outline DECRA Scheme requirements, as set out by the ARC and the University, and provide a step by step guide to preparing your proposal.

Andrew Black, Director, Research Development, will lead the session with input from Margaret Harris, Director of Research Development for Arts and Social Sciences.

Please note that this briefing is specifically for DE13 applicants.

Applications for DECRA closes on the 21 March 2012. Funding Rules are available on the ARC website as well as Instructions to Applicants, Frequently asked questions and a sample application form

For enquiries and appointments including one-on-one advice on drafting your application please contact the Research Portfolio:

• Jennifer Turner (All disciplines)
• Andrew Black (All disciplines)
• Mitchell Guss (Sciences)
• Margaret Harris (Humanities and Creative Arts)
• Graeme Gill (Social Sciences)

Professor John Budd, University of Minnesota, will present a seminar on his very recent book: 'TheThought of Work' an erudite and engaging interdisciplinary synthesis of ten meanings of work that shows the centrality of work in our lives, identity politics, and society.

John W. Budd is the Industrial Relations Land Grant Chair and Director of the Center for Human Resources and Labor Studies at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of 'Employment with a Human Face: Balancing Efficiency, Equity, and Voice', and 'Labor Relations: Striking a Balance', and coauthor of 'Invisible Hands, Invisible Objectives: Bringing Workplace Law and Public Policy into Focus'.

The Australian Poultry Science Symposium is the premier avian science conference in Australia and attracts delegates from Asia, Australiasia, the Americas and Europe.

• Find out more at the Symposium website

The University of Sydney's Surveillance and Everyday Life Research Group is hosting a two-day international conference entitled, Surveillance and/in Everyday Life: Monitoring Pasts, Presents and Futures.

• Find out more and register

HUMAN ANIMAL RESEARCH NETWORK SEMINAR 3

When, and how, do animals 'become' dangerous? Perhaps surprisingly, human fear and loathing of particular animal species is a recent phenomenon in Australia. Neither sharks nor spiders were considered serious hazards to human life until the late 1920s. The subsequent stampede to science and policy to quantify, control and exterminate these beasts illustrates how readily 'dangerous' animals have been constructed in line with cultural sensitivities rather than biology. But what makes an animal dangerous? Why do ancient animosities towards snakes persist through millennia, while equally enduring fears of frogs and toads fade away? Why is the venomous platypus considered cuddly, yet furry funnel-web spiders provoke disgust? How do humans decide when it is safe to go back in the water, and why does a howl of 'Shark' empty beaches in moments? Moreover, how does perception or 'proof' of dangerousness alter the moral standing of animal species, permitting practices such as vivisection, culling or outright eradication? Drawing upon cultural theory and biology, history and current policy, this seminar will explore the aversive aspect of human-animal relations, with particular emphasis on Australian circumstances and examples.

• Find out more

The Project Grant scheme aims to fund research leading to improved health of all Australians.

Project Grant Scheme is the NHMRC's main avenue of support for individuals and small teams of researchers undertaking biomedical, clinical, public health or health services research in Australian universities, medical schools, hospitals or other research institutions.

Internal closing date for:

• NHMRC Project Grants
  The Project Grant Scheme is the NHMRC's main avenue of support for individuals and small teams of researchers undertaking biomedical, clinical, public health or health services research in Australian universities, medical schools, hospitals or other research institutions.

Speaker: Claudio Grossman, Dean
American University Washington College of Law

The Inter-American system for the protection of human rights involves norms of institutions that establish human rights obligations and supervisory organs for the 35 nations of the Western hemisphere. This presentation will examine the role of the system throughout history in fighting dictatorships and authoritarian regimes, within the process of democratic transitions, and in addressing challenges that lie ahead. It will also examine the methodologies utilized by the system, e.g., visits in loco, cases, the role of the supervisory organs within the context of a vibrant civil society, and the system's role in addressing issues such as impunity, the rights of vulnerable groups, due process and political rights, among others.

• Find out more and register online

The Australia-China Council (ACC) 2012-2013 funding round for Expressions of Interest open today.

A short list of applicants will then be invited to submit a full application for funding.

The Council's funding priorities include support for projects under the broad themes of education and science, economics and trade and culture and society.

In the 2012-2013 grant round, in addition to its established priority themes, the Council welcomes original proposals that celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Australia and the People's Republic of China.

To find out more about the funding and how to lodge and expression of interest, visit the Australia-China Council website.

In September 2011, Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote and encourage research and development activities amongst researchers from Singapore and Australia, and to establish collaborations with each other.

The aim of this first symposium is to discuss regional issues and scientific trends in emerging infectious diseases, especially in tuberculosis and influenza, and to provide a platform to forge potential research collaborations.

ternal closing date for ARC Discovery Projects for funding beginning in 2013.

• support excellent fundamental research by individuals and teams
• enhance the scale and focus of research in the National Research Priorities
• assist researchers to undertake their research in conditions most conducive to achieving best results
• expand Australia's knowledge base and research capability
• foster the international competitiveness of Australian research
• encourage research training in high-quality research environments

This conference compares the preparedness for large-scale disasters and subsequent responses in Japan, focusing on the '3-11' events: the earthquake and tsunami that devastated north-east Japan on 11 March 2011 and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant radiation leaks. We will explore whether and how socio-legal norms may have differed significantly within Japan regarding the former, primarily a natural disaster; compared to the latter, a 'man-made' or artificial disaster.

• Find out more and register online

This symposium will entail presentation of current scholarship and research in international economic law. The goal of this symposium is to promote and facilitate discussion of works in progress relating to international economic law.

• Find out more and register

Dr Jennifer Tomlinson will discuss her research into the career trajectories of female part-time managers which compares their employment experiences, career progression and networking while working full and art-time. Most had successful careers while full-time but these careers stalled once a transition to part-time work was made, for a range of reasons which the presentation will explore.

Dr Jennifer Tomlinson is a Visiting Scholar to Work and Organisational Studies in the Business School in 2012. Her research focus on gender (in)equality at work includes examining the regulation of part-time work, occupational gender segregation, gender and ethnicity in the legal profession in England and Wales, and the careers of women's returners.

This isthe third annual APGI symposium, bringing together APGI collaborators and team members from across Australia. This symposium is open to scientists, healthcare professionals and members of the public who are interested in pancreatic cancer research.

• Find out more and register

The Project Grant scheme aims to fund research leading to improved health of all Australians.

Project Grant Scheme is the NHMRC's main avenue of support for individuals and small teams of researchers undertaking biomedical, clinical, public health or health services research in Australian universities, medical schools, hospitals or other research institutions.

Internal closing date for:

• NHMRC Project Grants
  The Project Grant Scheme is the NHMRC's main avenue of support for individuals and small teams of researchers undertaking biomedical, clinical, public health or health services research in Australian universities, medical schools, hospitals or other research institutions.

Up to 80% of people suffering with chronic pain are missing out on treatment that could improve their health and quality of life.

Despite calls for improved pain education for all health care professionals, undergraduate and graduate training programs have been slow to integrate pain into their curriculum.

This symposium is open to all Sydney students studying in health related disciplines and covers the areas of acute, chronic, paediatric, cancer & oro-facial pain. The topics addressed at the symposium include: the impact of pain, denial of pain relief, pain epidemiology, neurobiology and concepts of pain.

There will be screenings of shorts from the multiaward winning documentary series Life Before Death. Don't forget the the symposium continues on Saturday 17th March.

Asian Development Bank Vice-President Stephen Groff will talk about Asia's economic transformation and the region's role in sustaining world economic growth against the backdrop of the Eurozone crisis. He will also discuss Australia's role in ensuring that growth is environmentally sustainable and socially responsible.

Mr Groff is responsible for the ADB's operations in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, including investment and technical assistance operations amounting to $4-5 billion per year.

Visiting Scholar Professor Geraldine Healey is Professor of Employment Relations and Director of the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity (CRED) in the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary, University of London. CRED is leading international centre in the field of equality, inequalities and diversity.

Her recent work has explored the intersectionality between gender and ethnicity, equality policies and practices, the career development of young black workers and inequalities in low paid and highly qualified health work and a UK/US comparative study of women and trade union leadership. She has published widely in leading international journals and her books include: Diversity, Ethnicity, Migration and Work: International perspectives (2011) with Franklin Oikelome, Equality, Inequalities and Diversity: Contemporary challenges and strategies (2010) with Gill Kirton and Mike Noon (eds), Ethnicity and Gender at Work - Inequalities, Career and Employment Relations (2008) with Harriet Bradley, The Future of Worker Representation (2004) edited with Ed Heery, Phil Taylor, and Women and Trade Union Leadership with Gill Kirton, which is forthcoming in 2012.

The Symposium will be a Question & Answer style format. There will be an

opportunity for questions from the audience.

Robert Dixon graduated from the University of Sydney in 1973 with a BS c(Vet) degree before completing his BVSc degree in 1974. Robert completed his PhD in 1980 in New Zealand and returned to the University of Sydney in 1983 to take up an academic appointment within the Faculty of Veterinary Science. For many years

Robert held the Faculty position of Sub-Dean Animal Welfare as well as serving on the University Animal Ethics Committee.

• Full details and online registration.

The NHMRC TRIP Fellowship awards provide support and training for future leaders in translating important research findings into clinical practice. The award supports protected- time for clinicians in researching approaches to applying evidence to improve care, and develop the range of skills needed for leadership in research translation.

Modelling of long-term intended learning in university curricula and the potential role of computer systems in improving the quality of university curriculum information.Clearly identifying what students are expected to learn is a fundamental principle of good teaching but one that has been hard to satisfy consistently in university teaching programs. Efforts at developing more consistent and informative descriptions of program-level intended learning outcomes have intensified in recent years, in the Australian university sector as well as overseas, but without much appreciation so far of the particular complexity of the program level as opposed to that of smaller scale learning events.

This session will discuss work on program-level learning description models using the CUSP curriculum information management system (now used at three university faculties) and the recently developed ProGoSs program goal analysis software. The discussion, led by Dr Tim Lever and Richard Gluga, will illustrate some of the potential contributions of computer-based systems to more effective modelling of program-level learning outcomes while at the same time providing a broad introduction to key issues and requirements involved.

This seminar will stream live over the internet at http://webconf.ucc.usyd.edu.au/seminar-room.

'Intelligibility and metaphor: a transit. Built works, projects, research and teaching.

Acclaimed Spanish architect Antonio Sanmartins' unique approach to architecture, a discipline which he sees "as an open site and an empty book to exhibit issues, matters, thoughts and proceedings", has seen him contribute to a number of well-known and noteworthy projects at locations around the globe.

Launchingthis lecture series for 2012, Antonio Sanmartin will be presenting several projects and built work by aSZ arquitectes (Antonio Sanmartín and Elena Cánovas) where memory and experience operate at the base of a transcription that becomes the architecture. A discontinuous reality is the site for the "transfer" between the order of things and the order of ideas. The research project "1a cosa para 2s tiempos" developed for an archaeological site in the north coast of Spain as part of the ESARQ-UIC Degree Projects, proves that their academic activity does not operate in the real world but in an equivalent or tantamount reality.

This is a free event, hosted with the support of the Spanish Cultural Centre, Instituto Cervantes Sydney.

The next stage of the nuclear age: better, worse or more of the same?

Sir Lawrence Freedman, Professor of War Studies and Vice-Principal of Kings' College London, will deliver his presentation as part of the Sydney Law School Distinguished Speakers Program 2012.

Most of the systems and concepts associated with nuclear strategy and arms control were developed during the first two decades of the nuclear age. In many ways they can be considered a success. No nuclear weapons have been used in anger since 1945. Yet if disaster is to be avoided this success must be sustained in a changing and unstable international system. This lecture will explore the ways in which the situation could get a lot worse or a lot better.

• Find out more and register online

Progress on the Blue Economy, new economics and learning for sustainability

Gunter Pauli is a successful global entrepreneur who saw the need for a network that brought together the vast number of inventors and innovators working independently on sustainable solutions for the environmental problems of pollution and waste globally. He founded The Global ZERI Network, to share creative solutions and then the Blue Economy to put ZERI's philosophy into action by connecting start-up businesses with entrepreneurs.

• Full details

Presented by Dr Jane Le.

Work and organisational studies esearch seminar.

The NHMRC TRIP Fellowship awards provide support and training for future leaders in translating important research findings into clinical practice. The award supports protected- time for clinicians in researching approaches to applying evidence to improve care, and develop the range of skills needed for leadership in research translation.

Olivera Marjanovic, University of Sydney
Business Information Systems research seminar

Health care has been one of the most important domains for Business Process Management (BPM) research and practice for many years. Through an exploratory case study conducted in a real organization named "SpecialClinic", this research aims to investigate what lies beyond process efficiency and traditional approaches to BP improvement for an industry leader with a very high-level of process automation. This presentation focuses on a complex example of customer-facing knowledge intensive BP and investigates the case organisation's approach to its ongoing improvement. The main findings of this research challenge the main objectives of BP improvement (i.e. reduced costs and improved efficiency) as they show that some organizations are making their "to-be" processes slower and more expensive, yet significantly improved in terms of quality of customer service.

In addition to the main research contribution related to new approaches to improvement of knowledge intensive BPs, this work offers some important lessons for the practitioners interested in expanding the current boundaries of BPM beyond efficiency and traditional BP improvement methods.

Based on Marjanovic O (2011) "Improving Knowledge-Intensive Health Care Processes Beyond Efficiency", 32nd International Conference on Information Systems ICIS 2011, Shanghai, China, 7th December 2011

An Exploration of the Role of Local Entrepreneurship and Multinational Firms in the Growth of Bangalore's IT Sector

K. Kumar, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Indian this paper, the growth of IT sector in Bangalore is analyzed, both in terms of number of firms and employment accounted for by them. Differences in the patterns of growth were observed along the dimensions of ownership and the nature of activity carried out by the firms. While growth in number of firms were predominantly driven by the local entrepreneurs and non-resident Indian entrepreneurs, the growth in employment was driven by the subsidiaries and joint ventures of multinational firms, and that too through expansions rather than new firm formation. These findings have implications for policy making, with respect to the role of multinational firms and the local entrepreneurship in the growth of an emerging industry.

The 5th global workshop with a theme of Digital Soil Assesments and Beyond, will highlight the achievement of the global soil mapping project. It will provide solutions to research organizations around the world that are involved in global scale studies. It will demonstrate the latest development in the digital soil mapping technology with a special focus on the use of the map product to drive policy decisions on climate change, crop and soil security.

Drugs and crime interact in a variety of ways, but certainly tend to exacerbate each other. The evidence is clear that reduced drug use is associated with reduced crime. Frontline workers often feel ill-equipped to address the complexity of presentations of young offenders who use drugs, yet access to effective community or residential treatment is often elusive. This course will provide an update on the drug use of young people, available intervention options, and how those who come into contact with young offenders who use drugs may be able to provide helpful evidence-informed and brief interventions.

• Find out more and register

How can business leaders maintain a global perspective in a shifting marketplace?

Growth depends on the knowledge and experience of the international framework within which companies operate. We invite you to join us and hear from our expert panel from project management, law, economics and business as we examine how leaders can maintain a global perspective in this shifting marketplace.
Before and after the discussion, Meet the Panel is your opportunity to talk to academics from a range of programs about postgraduate study including commerce, economics, global law, management, marketing, professional communication, project management, public policy and the Juris Doctor.
Academic members of staff will also be present to discuss further study opportunities at a postgraduate level.

How can health reforms improve outcomes for patients and health professionals and what are the biggest reform challenges?

We invite you to join us and hear our expert panel discuss how innovation, prevention and a refocus of public services will form our response to these and other future health challenges.

This session will suit professionals from a range of health areas including pharmacy, public health, medicine, dentistry, allied health, developmental disability and nursing looking to advance their career by understanding the future direction of healthcare.

There will also be the opportunity to speak directly with academics about your postgraduate study options.

Presented by Professor David Guest, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment and Galit Segev, Food Scientist and Chef

Dark, delicious and decadent, the rich flavour of chocolate has inspired passions, addictions and even literature for more than three thousand years.

Galit Segev, food scientist and chef, will reveal the science of working with chocolate, from technique tips to practical points.

Join us afterwards for an exciting array of hands-on activities including chocolate tasting.

Find out more and register.

Access to justice

The lecture will discuss recent proposals for fundamental change to the Legal Aid system in England & Wales in the context of constrained resources, the increasing cost of the criminal justice system and developments in civil justice policy.

The lecture will reflect on access to justice principles and speculate on the social and legal impact of the proposed changes. The lecture will also discuss the way in which discourse and policy on mediation is being used to support and justify the withdrawal of public funding from civil justice.

Professor Chris Peck, Dean, invites you to learn more about the Faculty of Dentistry's research on oral health.

SPEAKERS

Associate Professor Peter Dennison

Teeth for life - what we dreamed of...but there are some big challenges ahead.
In just the next 8 years the proportion of the population over the age of 65 with any natural teeth is expected to jump to 97%. Associate Professor Dennison will outline the challenges that face oral health in the next few years and look at changes needed to meet the challenge. There are points at which the evidence base gets as thin on the ground as a stiletto heel...!

Dr Manish Arora

Changing Face of Dentistry
From doctors and dentists prescribing cigarettes to their patients, to public health policies banning smoking in public places. From intervention-based dentistry to evidence-based prevention and minimal intervention, the practice of health care, including dentistry, has come a long way in the past 50 years. The Faculty is leading the way in many of these paradigm shifts, and Dr Arora's talk will describe some the exciting work being undertaken in this area.

The seminar is an opportunity to hear about this exciting research and its powerful impact on the future of oral health.

Harnessing the anti-inflammatory power of the MAPK-deactivator MKP-1 in asthma and airway remodelling.

Asthma is a treatable health condition and we have a number of effective drug treatments to tackle acute asthmatic attacks. With good asthma management, asthmatics can lead normal active lives. But, there are still a number of unanswered questions.

We now know that the airways of asthmatics can become 'thickened' or remodelled over time. The consequence of uncontrolled asthma is that permanent changes in the airways can occur and unfortunately, these cannot be completely reversed with current treatments. As development of remodelled airways is correlated with deterioration of lung function, we urgently require therapies that reduce and reverse structural changes in remodelled airways. Thus, the challenge for asthma treatment today is to identify alternative anti-inflammatory strategies with reduced unwanted effects. In order to aid the future design of efficient anti-inflammatory strategies, we need a greater understanding of the molecular mechanism/s underlying inflammatory pathways.

Our research has shown us that one of the major signalling pathways that drive the development of the pro-remodelled phenotype is the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) superfamily. Our goal is to harness the power of endogenous anti-inflammatory protein - mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 1 (MKP-1) - in order to switch off MAPKs and ultimately repress airway inflammation. Therefore, enhancing the levels and/or activity of MKP-1 may provide a novel anti-inflammatory strategy in asthma and airway remodelling and our research to date will be presented in this seminar.

Colloquium Six - knowledge-blindness: how educational research neglects the basis of education

The Education Heresies series features leading education scholars and practitioners, speaking out on how educational research, policy and practice need to be challenged and transformed.

Find out more

The American Soybean Association International Marketing (ASA IM) and the Faculty of Veterinary Science's Poultry Research Foundation (PRF) present the Animal Science Forum with keynote speaker Professor William Dozier.

Dr. Dozier currently serves as an Associate Professor at Auburn University in the Department of Poultry Science.

This one day symposium brings together some of the world's leading researchers in the field of molecular imaging. Topics covered include recent advances in multi-modality imaging, novel molecular probes and applications of molecular imaging in neuroscience, cardiology and cancer. The symposium offers an opportunity to learn about progress in the field of imaging science, and meet fellow researchers from a diverse range of disciplines and application fields.

The event will be hosted by the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Research Institute (BMRI), which is home to the collaborative ANSTO/BMRI imaging platform and part of the Australian National Imaging Facility.

Program
The program will be confirmed and posted to the BMRI website shortly.

All staff that supervise research students are invited to attend a talk by Professor George E Walker on the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate. This initiative provides a foundation for understanding the needs and goals of doctoral education.

Professor Walker will speak about the initiative - a roadmap for bringing a new paradigm to doctoral education. He is the Vice President of Research and Graduate Studies at Cleveland State University.

Come along to find out about a range of discipline-specific ideas for enhancing doctoral supervision.

Refreshments will be served on the day. To register or for more information, visit the Institute for Teaching and Learning website.

Dr Sivam Krish will present a special lecture entitled "A computable measure of creativity" as a part of the ongoing Design Lab Seminar Series, hosted by the Faculty of Architecture, Design & Plannings Digital Design Lab.

The definition of creativity is illusive. The inability to define it is compounded by our inability to map the representation of the artefact. Genetic Modelling allows us to create multiple representations of an artefact allowing us to map it's location in both geometric space and performative space. Creativity is shown to be the distance from known solutions in performative space. The performative space may also be a perceptive space. It is shown how creative solutions can be easily generated in unsaturated design spaces; saturation here is the number of distinct design solutions occupying a unit of feasibility space. When this feasibility space rapidly expands as in architecture due to new technological and manufacturing changes causing de-saturation; it is relatively easy to create "creative solutions". This phenomenon is demonstrated though a computational model of a bottle design. Design Creativity is then about capturing uncharted regions in feasibility space opened by other factors. It is also shown how alterations to the genetic models can expand design representation into newly opened feasible regions.

An entirely different type of creativity - of an intent altering type is also shown to exist. Here, the genetic representation creates designs that drift into previously unrecognized opportunity spaces discovering new uses for the design

Madness at the Point of Intersection with Crime: Epistemology and Ontology

Understanding mental incapacity in criminal law is notoriously difficult; it involves tracing overlapping and interlocking legal doctrines, current and past practices of evidence and proof, and also medical and social understandings of mental illness and incapacity. With its focus on the complex interaction of legal doctrines and practices relating to mental incapacity and knowledge - both expert and non-expert - of it, the book on which this presentation is based offers a fresh perspective on this topic. Bringing together previously disparate discussions on mental incapacity from law, psychology, and philosophy, the book provides a close study of this terrain of criminal law, analysing the development of mental incapacity doctrines through historical cases to the modern era. It maps the shifting boundaries around abnormality as constructed in law, arguing that the mental incapacity terrain has a distinct character - 'manifest madness'.

• Find out more and register

This seminar is titled: Statins and a stroll around cholesterol.

Associate Professor Andrew Brown from the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of NSW will present this seminar.

About this seminar:

The statins are the drug of choice for treating high blood cholesterol levels and cardiovascular disease, but are not without their limitations. Andrew will draw on his lab's recent work on cholesterol metabolism to suggest new approaches for treating elevated cholesterol levels. He will also briefly discuss the effects of antipsychotic drugs and certain natural products on cholesterol metabolism, which may confer anticancer potential

Education Heresies colloquia 2011-2012 - Colloquium Eight

Presenter
Associate Professor Carol Reid Associate Professor Reid is a sociologist of education whose research focuses on issues of ethnicity, race and education. She is internationally known for her work in this area and has been a visiting scholar in Canada and Sweden. Carol's research has been funded by national and international bodies including the Australian Research Council, NSW DET, Australian Rotary Health Research Fund, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Canada, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, DEEWR/Curriculum Corporation, the NSW Fire Brigade, Canadian High Commission and UWS internal grants.

Discussant
Dr Kelly Freebody is program director of combined education degrees at the University of Sydney, and a lecturer in drama, English, teaching and learning. Her research interests include literacy, social justice and qualitative research methods, particularly conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis. Dr Freebody's doctoral thesis investigated the use of drama pedagogy to explore students' interpretations of, and interaction with, notions of socioeconomic status.

There have been an important number of research focuses on teaching presence in on line learning settings. However, we need to complement this approach with the analysis of the student's role as learner in an online university. An online learner must quickly use technology and digital materials in comfort, with a high level of self-direction strategy.

In the seminar, I will describe how adult students have to achieve an on line learner role. We will analyse different strategies to promote an active role of the student based on some experiences conducted in the Open University of Catalonia (Spain).

This seminar will be available live online athttp://webconf.ucc.usyd.edu.au/seminar-room

Silence, Power, Catastrophe: New Reasons Why Media and Democracy Matter in the Early Years of the Twenty-First Century

John Keane, Professor of Politics and Director, Sydney Democracy Institute.

We're living in a new era of large-scale catastrophes, whose causes and remedies demand bold new political thinking.

• Find out more and register to attend

Following on from our highly successful Insights 2011: Inaugural lecture Series, we are delighted to bring you the 2012 schedule. Alumni, colleagues and friends are invited to celebrate four new professorial appointments. Please join us to hear our Professors present on a diverse range of topics.

Education Heresies colloquia 2011-2012 - Colloquium Nine
Presenter
Professor Anthony Welchlectures in the Master of Education (International Education) program at the University of Sydney. He specialises in national and international policy and practice, principally in education, and cross-cultural analysis and research. Professor Welch has extensive experience in many countries, including in the Asia Pacific, and has published widely, contributing numerous analyses of issues such as cross-cultural interactions; rural education, comparative research methods in education; and practical reform affecting multiculturalism.

SPEAKERS

Professor Mark Gillies
Professor of Retinal Therapeutics, Save Sight Institute

From Bench to Bedside: Translating research into patient outcomes.
Hear from Professor Gillies about retinal and stem cell experiments undertaken by his research team, a group within Save Sight Institute who are working hard to find new ways to combat retinal disease and preserve vision for people at-risk of blindness.

Professor Paul Martin
Professor of Experimental Ophthalmology, Save Sight Institute

Macular Degeneration: Charting its course and cause.
Professor Martin will share some of the exciting research by doctors and scientists at Save Sight Institute, investigating the causes of macular degeneration, and outlining what this might mean for people diagnosed with the disease.

Dr. Anita Katharina Wagner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and in 2011-12, is a visiting research professor at the National University of Singapore.

Dr Wagner is a clinical pharmacist, pharmacoepidemiologist, and pharmaceutical policy researcher. Her research focuses on: access to and affordability of medicines among vulnerable populations, particularly in low and middle
income countries.

Dr Wagner founded the global Medicines and Insurance Coverage Initiative (MedIC) of the Boston WHO Collaborating Center in Pharmaceutical Policy. MedIC is a unique partnership which aims to improve population
health by supporting the design, implementation, evaluation, and routine monitoring of evidence based medicines benefit policies.

Dr. Wagner co-directs the Harvard Medical School Fellowship in Pharmaceutical Policy Research and directs global MedIC Courses in Pharmaceutical Policy Analysis. Dr. Wagner received her Master of Public Health degree in international health and Doctor of Public Health degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.

She holds a doctorate in clinical pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences and a German master-equivalent degree in pharmacy.

Musicians, and others, have implicit understandings of the role of creative thinking and activity for their practice. For some a person is deemed creative, for others it is a product that is so deemed, and for others it is the process through which the product isformed. These views impact on pedagogical approaches and outcomes when they are conflated with assessment. In this presentation we will look at the intersections between creativity theories and practice and contrast the implications of these theories using, dare I say it, evidence from 'non-creative' disciplines and 'creative' ones. The evidence presented comes as the result of a decade long research project involving the fields of music, statistics, business, sustainability and law.

The recent publication of Patrick White's novel The Hanging Garden was made possible by the work of University of Sydney researchers who transcribed the work from manuscript in the National Library of Australia.

Professors Margaret Harris and Elizabeth Webby, together with research assistant Jennifer Moore, will talk about their Australian Research Council project on the Patrick White manuscripts acquired by the NLA in 2006, demonstrating ways in which this material freshly illuminates White's career.

Education Heresies colloquia 2011-2012 - Colloquium Ten
Panelists
Professor Peter Freebodyis a Professorial Research Fellow with the University of Sydney and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. His interests are literacy education, educational disadvantage, classroom interaction and research methodology.

Dr Helen Proctoris a lectures at the Faculty of Education and Social Work, where she is Theisis Proposal and Examination Coordinator with the Office of Doctoral Studies. Her research interests include the history of education, and gender relations and identity.

Patrick Brownlee is the manager of the Research Office at the University of Sydney's Faculty of Education and Social Work.

Chronic pain is a disease in its own right demanding new treatments

Pain normally signals that something is wrong or causing damage. For many individuals pain develops over time into a disease in its own right that causes serious ongoing suffering but serves no biological purpose.

The relationship between the concept of culture and that of human rights has long been complex and contentious. For anthropologists the effects of this symbiotic relationship between culture and human rights can be traced at a number of different levels. It has been a key point of debate in the development of anthropological codes of ethics.

Human rights, in its discursive and institutional contexts, has become another thematic aspect of anthropologists' subject matter - rights have been assimilated to culture. The capacity to participate in the dialogue between rights and culture has become integral to the political negotiation of fieldwork in many contemporary contexts, and of its ethical evaluation.

Nevertheless, distinctively historical and political perspectives in anthropological writing have also generated substantial critiques, not only of human rights discourse, but of the ways it has been mobilised in particular social and political contexts.

• Call for papers

Applications close on 14 June for the 15th Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) seclection round.

The CRC program supports end-user driven research partnerships between publicly funded researchers and end-users to address major challenges that require medium to long-term collaborative efforts. The Program links researchers with industry to focus R&D efforts on progress towards utilisation and commercialisation.

There is no specific limit to funding available for each CRC project, but since 2008 the average annual funding has been AU$3,7million.

Researchers participating in a CRC bid should contact Steven Hermans for support in securing endorsement from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).

For full details, visit the Federal Government's CRC website.

Are you a Chief Investigator about to start a new research project or a current CI interested in the maintenance of your research project? Or do you hope to be the CI of a research project sometime in the near future?

If so, then the Future Research Leaders Program half day module on Commencement and Collaboration could help you ensure your project's successful start-up and consolidation.

With many years' experience in their field, Professor Rob Baxter (Kolling Institute for Medical Research) and Professor Gabrielle Meagher (Faculty of Education and Social Work) will be presenting this workshop.

They aim to draw together key themes relating to subjects such as project commencement, management and profile establishment as well as recruitment, implementation and data management within the project team.

The 16th Australian Nitrogen Fixation Conference will be held at Q Station near Manly, Sydney on 24th-27th June, 2012, hosted by the Australian Society for Nitrogen Fixation and the SUNFix Centre for Nitrogen Fixation, The University of Sydney.

Art of Darkness: Art Nouveau, "Style Congo," and The Tervuren Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium, 1897-2011

Professor Debora Silverman, Distinguished Professor of History and Art History, UCLA

Co-presented with the Power Institute

Closing date: Go8/DAAD joint research cooperation scheme

The scheme supports exchanges for Australian researchers to spend time at partner institutions in Germany and for collaborating German researchers to spend time at Go8 universities.

Eligibility

Exchange participantsmust either be employed as academic staff members in a teaching and research orresearch only role at a Go8 university, or a PhD student involved in the researchproject submitted by an eligible staff member.

Assessment criteria

The criteria to beused in assessing Australian applications include:

• the quality of the research project;

• the experience and track record of the participating researchers/research groups and the level of involvement of early career researchers;

• the potential of the project to result in outcomes of mutual benefit to Australia and Germany.

To find out more visit the G08 website.

The International Conference of the Learning Sciences is a biennial conference sponsored by the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS). The conference brings together researchers in the sciences of learning, instruction, and design in order to address questions of how we can better understand and improve learning.

• Find out more and register

Dr Damien Belobrajdic completed his PhD at CSIRO Human Nutrition in 2003 and was awarded the ASMR(SA) Holden Young Investigator that year. Since completing his PhD he has worked with Professor Graeme Young at Flinders Medical Centre and Dr Leah Cosgrove at CSIRO P-health flagship. Damien is currently a Research Scientist in the CSIRO Food Futures Flagship and he is interested in the role of wholegrains and dietary fibre on reducing the development of metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes. His research focuses on how dietary fibre effects glucose control during the postprandial period, day long energy balance and adiposity.

Dr Namson Lau is an endocrinologist with his clinical practice in Royal Prince Alfred and Liverpool Hospitals. He is completing his PhD with the Boden Institute, where he also works with the Clinical Trials Unit as their in-house Medical Officer. His current research interests are centered on the role of macronutrients in the development of obesity and the neuroendocrine regulation of appetite and satiety.

Join us on July 9th for a CoCo-CHAI-LATTE seminar by Professor Jean-Claude Martin.

SEMINAR ABSTRACT
Emotions and their expressions by virtual characters are two important issues for future affective human-machine interfaces. Recent advances in psychology of emotions as well as recent progress in computer graphics allow us to animate virtual characters that are capable of expressing emotions in a realistic way through various modalities. Existing virtual agent systems are often limited in terms of underlying emotional models, visual realism, real-time interaction capabilities or multimodality.

In our research, we focus on virtual agents capable of expressing emotions through facial and postural expressions while interacting with the user. Our work raises several issues: How can we design computational models of emotions inspired by the different approaches to emotion in Psychology? What is the level of visual realism required for the agent to express emotions? How can we enable real-time interaction with a virtual agent? How can we evaluate the impact on the user of the emotions expressed by the virtual agent?

Facial expressions are known to be a privileged emotional communication modality. Our main goal is to contribute to the improvement of the interaction between a user and an expressive virtual agent. For this purpose, our research highlights the pros and cons of different approaches to emotions and different computer graphics techniques.

The software modules that we have designed are integrated into our platform MARC (Multimodal Affective and Reactive Characters). MARC has been used in various kinds of applications: games, virtual reality, therapeutic applications, artistic performance, ambient interaction, etc.
Recent progresses enable the design and rendering of several fully embodied characters to be animated and controlled simultaneously and independently, along with a 3D environment to enable the study of situated social interactions in virtual reality environments.

I will conclude by illustrations of the possible use of this research for eLearning applications.

The Sydney Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in partnership with the University of Sydney's School of Aerospace, Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering and the 2012 Aerospace Futures Conference proudly presents an interactive panel discussion on 'Australia in Space - The Roles of Government and Industry'

Panelists include:

• Dr Kimberley Clayfield, Executive Manager for Space Science and Technology at CSIRO
• Max Vozoff, ISP Systems and former Director of Business Development at SpaceX
• Michael Brett, Chief Operating Officer, Aerospace Concepts

This interactive discussion will be chaired by Dr Michael West from the AIAA Sydney Section.

This event is being held in conjunction with the 2012 Aerospace Futures Conference that is being held in Sydney from 10-12 July

Australia's plain packaging legislation for tobacco products represents an innovative approach to this longstanding public health issue.

Four eminent legal and public health figures will reflect on this achievement and some of the remaining obstacles, and ask what lessons can be drawn from the plain packaging story for the development and introduction of innovative policy solutions to public health issues.

The Charles Perkins Centre is pleased to invite you to a seminar by the following leading academics:

Professor Andrew Mitchell (Melbourne Law School), Professor Gillian Triggs (Challis Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney), Mr Paul Grogan (Director of Advocacy at Cancer Council Australia), Professor Simon Chapman (Professor in Public Health at the University of Sydney).

This cross-disciplinary event is co-presented by the Charles Perkins Centre, Sydney Law School, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Sydney Medical School.

Josiah McElheny was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1966, and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Josiah McElheny's work takes as its subject the object, idea, and social nexus of glass. Influenced by the writings of Jorge Luis Borges, McElheny's work often takes the form of "historical fiction"—which he offers to the viewer to believe or not. In "Total Reflective Abstraction" (2003-04), the mirrored works themselves refract the artist's self-reflexive examination. Looking at a reflective object becomes a metaphor for the act of reflecting on an idea.

This Keynote Address is a part of the annual AAANZ conference;Together <>Apart.

Throughout the epochs, civilisations that have failed to secure their soil have fallen by the wayside of history. With globalization, securing soil is crucial for the whole of humanity's future wellbeing.

The 2012 Agriculture and Environment Research Symposium - jointly hosted this year by the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment and the United States Studies Centre - will bring together experts from across the globe to discuss the different dimensions and approaches that must be considered in the development and establishment of international research and policy agreements on Soil Security.

Each year the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment's Three Minute Thesis (3MT^TM.) Challenge provides an opportunity for their higher degree by research students to communicate their research to a wider, non expert audience. The competition concept originated at the University of Queensland in 2008, and is designed to develop the relevant communication skills needed to effectively communicate your research in engaging and appropriate language suitable for the audience. It expanded to a national level in 2010, with 33 universities in Australia and New Zealand competing. The University of Sydney 3MT^TM. is held each year in second semester with the winner competing in the national finals.

The Faculty of Agriculture and Environment held its first 3MT^TM. competition in 2011 as the final session in its annual Faculty Research Symposium. In 2012 there are seven competitors for the title and cash prizes, with the final taking place once again in the afternoon during the one-day Research Symposium: SOIL SECURITY, co-hosted by the Faculty and the United States Study Centre on Tuesday 17 July 2012.

The winner receives $500, the runner-up $250, and the winner of the People's Choice Award (voted by the audience) $375.

Many biomedicalresearchers find it difficult to describe their work clearly and succinctly. Fair enough - it's complex work. Yet it is vital to be able to do so for necessities such as:

• grant applications
• reporting back to funding bodies
• reporting back to employers
• seeking funding from charities
• promoting your research
• promoting research generally
• social situations.

By the end of the seminar we hope you will be able to:

• describe your work in plain English
• describe the reason you are doing this research
• place this research in its social and scientific context.

Topics to include:

• what is plain English?
• what is jargon?
• defining your audience
• writing to impress

Presenters: Mark Ragg and Melissa Sweet

About the Early Career Researcher Development program (Biomedical)

The 2012 program for Biomedical Researchers aims to give participants support in career planning, networking and the development of research capacities. The program is for researchers who are 1 - 10 years postdoctoral. It consists of 7 half day sessions and a structured mentor program.

Demand for this course is always high so attendees must commit to attending all sessions.

To find out more, visit theLearning Solutions website.

Non-surgical obesity treatments are ineffective for most, in part due to adaptive responses to energy restriction that increase appetite & reduce metabolic rate. Not only do these adaptations oppose ongoing weight loss, they may also adversely affect body composition via hormonal changes that favor abdominal fat accretion with loss of muscle mass and bone. Thus, current obesity treatments may inadvertently increase the risk of metabolic diseases such as atherosclerosis, as well as that of structural diseases such as sarcopenia and osteoporosis.

This talk examines potential new strategies for reducing the adaptive responses to energy restriction through use of ketogenic diets or intermittent energy restriction. The potential is to provide both more effective methods of weight management for immediate use, as well as to obtain the necessary mechanistic insights to further improve the approach.

Amanda Sainsbury-Salis, PhD
With a BSc (Hons) from the University of Western Australia and a PhD from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, Amanda Sainsbury-Salis leads a research team at the Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition, Exercise & Eating Disorders that aims to help people to attain and maintain an optimum body weight and composition. Adept in translating novel research findings into human benefits, Amanda's NHMRC-funded research into hypothalamic control of energy homeostasis spans studies with conditional transgenic mice to randomized controlled clinical trials in humans. 

Oral and small intestinal sensitivity to fats in lean and obese humans:
Implications for energy intake regulation in obesity.

Presenter: Dr Radhika Seimon

Spintronics exploits the way that electrons spin as they move around electrical circuits to open up new information processing methods that are infinitely more powerful than the traditional binary system. Spintronics technology is expected to drive the next wave of faster and smaller electronic devices.

The 4th international WUN-SPIN conference will bring together experts from Europe, the USA, China and Australia to discuss recent developments in this emerging field.

WUN-SPIN 2012 call for Abstracts is now open. The conference will be co-chaired by Professor Simon Ringer and Dr Rongkun Zheng from the Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis.

The overarching focus for UPE 10 is the Next City: Planning for a New Energy and Climate Future, and research or practice-based papers will address socio-cultural, economic, ecological, and governance aspects of this theme.

If you are doing research at a university, then at some stage you will want to, or perhaps have to, communicate with non-specialists about your work. You may want to raise money for your research. You may want to talk to a charitable foundation, or to a promotions committee, or to members of a support group. You may even want to talk to the media to publicise your work.

This session builds on the skills developed in the previous session on "Writing about your research in plain English" and covers areas such as:

• the value of talking to the public - for them, for your employers, for research generally and for your career
• talking to non-specialists such as Promotions or Appointments Committees
• working out your message - what do you want to say?
• understanding your audience - what do they want to hear?
• the who, when, where, why and how of communication
• how the media works and how to gain access.

By the end of the seminar, we hope you will be able to:

• understand the benefits of talking about your work
• have a feel for what may or may not interest others
• know how to decide what to say
• know how to say it.

Presenters: Mark Ragg and Melissa Sweet

About the Early Career Researcher Development program (Biomedical)

The 2012 program for Biomedical Researchers aims to give participants support in career planning, networking and the development of research capacities. The program is for researchers who are 1 - 10 years postdoctoral. It consists of 7 half day sessions and a structured mentor program.

Demand for this course is always high so attendees must commit to attending all sessions.

To find out more, visit theLearning Solutions website.

Methuselah or the Six Million Dollar Man? Ageing, Regeneration and Repair of Tissues and Organs

Opening Address: by Robyn Williams
Professor Jonathan Stone
Associate Professor Josephine Forbes
Associate Professor Tracy Bryan
Dr Charmaine Simeonovic
Professor Chris Little
Dr Phillip Boughton
Professor Cris dos Remedios
Professor Rosanne Taylor
Professor Martin Ng
Closing Remarks: Paul Fegan

There are various underlying social determinants that affect the health of populations. The rhetoric surrounding the social determinants of health often focuses on the problem without providing actual solutions to the issue. The aim of this forum will be to provide examples of "health in all policies".

This forum provides an opportunity to engage with a wide range of stakeholders and foster ongoing exchange between reseach and policy making perspectives. It will feature the following experts in the field of the social determinants of health:

• Professor Stephen Simpson, Director, Charles Perkins Centre (Introduction & Welcome)
• Professor Peter Sainsbury,Director of Population Health in South Western Sydney
• Deb Wildgoose, Senior Project Officer, Health in all Policies Unit, South Australia Health
• Isobel Ludford, Project Officer, Health in all Policies Unit, South Australia Health
• Dr Stacy Carter,Centre for Values, Ethics & Law in Medicine, University of Sydney
• Professor Alan Cass,Senior Director, Renal & Metabolic Division, George Insitute for Global Health
• Professor John MacDonald, School of Science and Health, University of Western Sydney
• Dr Catherine Hawke, School of Rural Health, University of Sydney
• Centre for Population Health, NSW Ministry of Health

This event is presented by the Sydney Health Policy Network, The Charles Perkins Centre and Sydney's Health and Society Group.

To RSVP and find out more, visit the Sydney Health Policy Network website.

Academic careers may sometimes appear chaotic and out of our control, but there are strategies for maximising our chances of prospering and doing what we love: discovering the secrets of life, the universe and everything.

Topics will include the following:

• Thinking about future directions of your career - what is possible?
• Working collaboratively with other researchers
• Engaging with industry / government partners - who is out there?
• Research methods - thinking differently

Presenters: Prof Margaret Harris and Associate Professor Jennifer Milam

About the Early Career Researcher Development program (Humanities and Social Sciences)

The program for Humanities and Social Sciences researchers aims to give participants support in career planning, networking and the development of research capacities. The program is for researchers who are 1 - 10 years postdoctoral. It consists of 3 half-day sessions and a structured mentor program.
Demand for this course is always high so attendees must commit to attending all sessions.

To find out more, visit theLearning Solutions website.

Phyllis Butow

This seminar is titled: 'Patient-health professional communication; Current research and applications to pharmacy'.

Professor Butow will discuss current issues in medical communication, including patient-centred care, shared decision making and inter-disciplinary communication. She will describe some recent research both in her own area of expertise, Oncology, and in Pharmacy, and discuss opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration in this central aspect of medical care and research.

LAUNCH: CHARLES PERKINS CENTRE COMPUTATIONAL SYSTEMS LABORATORY

Systems Biology is the ability to obtain, integrate and analyse complex data sets from multiple experimental sources using interdisciplinary tools. Computational Biology involves the development and application of data-analytical and theoretical methods, mathematical modeling and computational simulation techniques to study the dynamics of biological, behavioural, and social systems.

The Charles Perkins Centre has an ambitious integrative strategy that aims to connect the multiplicity of factors and scales that link diet to health. These include not only the biological and medical factors, but also the social, behavioural and economic dimensions.

The Centre wishes to create a Computational Systems Laboratory to research and apply mathematical and computational approaches to integration across the disciplinary interfaces. The aim of the Lab is to offer support to the many interested computational scientists across the University and provide a physical focal point for collaboration and interaction. It will also help foster a multidisciplinary culture through close partnerships with other academics contributing to the work of the Centre.

The event will feature a mix of short talks, breakout session and open discussion. It will provide the opportunity for individuals to get involved in shaping the way the Lab forms and functions.

The Charles Perkins Centre is also delighted to have Professor Hiroaki Kitano, President of the Systems Biology Institute in Japan, visit us. As well as providing a seminar at the workshop, Prof Kitano will contribute insight into the successes and pitfalls of running a successful computational systems centre.

• Register online

Professor Wight will examine the state of social science in the contemporary world and argue that they have failed to achieve their initial lofty goals.

• Find out more and register to attend

Following on from our highly successful Insights 2011: Inaugural lecture Series, we are delighted to bring you the 2012 schedule. Alumni, colleagues and friends are invited to celebrate four new professorial appointments. Please join us to hear our Professors present on a diverse range of topics.

A major grant application is like an examination where you must score 100% - but then still might not pass. Why are some people so often successful in their grant applications? Are they better researchers (perhaps they are), or just better at communicating their ideas to a highly critical audience? Are there some simple skills that can be learnt to maximise our chance of success in grant applications?

Topics will include:

• The grant process
• What grants are available to arts researchers including grants from small granting bodies?
• What support is available once you are successful?
• Tips for success
• "Traps for young players"
• How to work most effectively with the Research Portfolio

Presenters: Associate Professor Jennifer Milam and Professor Margaret Harris

About the Early Career Researcher Development program (Humanities and Social Sciences)

The program for Humanities and Social Sciences researchers aims to give participants support in career planning, networking and the development of research capacities. The program is for researchers who are 1 - 10 years postdoctoral. It consists of 3 half-day sessions and a structured mentor program.
Demand for this course is always high so attendees must commit to attending all sessions.

To find out more, visit theLearning Solutions website.

Wit and Materiality: Meaning in the making of Renaissance Art

Patricia Simons Professor at the History of Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Co-presented with the Power Institute

Much of art history is rightly concerned with analysing meaning at the level of representation and fiction, treating actual materials as almost incidental to meaning. In contrast, this lecture will focus on how Renaissance artists took advantage of their raw materials in order to foreground their skill and wit as well as physically accentuate the meaning of their crafted objects. From techniques of marble carving to clever signatures, from raised areas of paint and gesso to jokes played with the shape of jugs, meaning often resulted from the witty as well as literal manipulation of material substance.

Patricia Simons taught at University of Sydney's Power Institute before going on to become Professor at the History of Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her scholarly interests include the art of Renaissance Europe (primarily Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands) with a special focus on the representation of gender and sexuality and interdisciplinary research on the construction of authority and identity. Her work has been published in anthologies and peer-review journals like Art History, Renaissance Quarterly and Renaissance Studies. Her most recent publication is The Sex of Men in Premodern Europe: A Cultural History (2011).

Professor Elizabeth Elliott

'Our children are our greatest asset' says Professor Elizabeth Elliott, paediatrician at the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, Westmead, and Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Sydney. Yet many children suffer brain damage even before they are born, through exposure to alcohol in the womb.

In her lecture, Professor Elliott will describe the features of FASD and the efforts currently being made around Australia to prevent alcohol use in pregnancy and FASD. She will also speak about how to identify and assist children with FASD and how to support their parents and carers. She will highlight the need to restrict access to alcohol through legislative changes and to change drinking behaviours in Australian communities.

The Emerging Health Policy Research Conference showcases the work of current doctoral and early career research workers. Professor Stephen Simpson, Director of the Charles Perkins Centre will open the conference with a presentation on 'Putting the balance back into diet'.

Participation in the conference will provide an opportunity to:

• discuss health policy responses to current local, national and global health challenges
• hear about 'in progress' health policy research
• discuss new ideas and identify opportunities for collaboration across disciplinary boundaries.

To register or for more information, visit the Menzies Centre for Health Policy website.

Registrations close Friday 10 August 2012.

Dr Andrew Hoy currently holds an NHMRC Biomedical Australia training Fellowship. He received his PhD training at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research within the Diabetes and Obesity Research Program. Following this he did his Post-Doctoral training in the laboratory of A/Prof Matthew Watt at Monash University which has lead to his current research interest in lipid metabolism and how it is perturbed in Obesity, Diabetes and potentially Cancer.

Dr Hoy is currently an active member of Australian Diabetes Society (since 2006), Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society (since 2009), Australian Physiological Society (since 2001), Australian Society of Medical Research (since 2007), Endocrine Society of Australia (since 2009), and American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (since 2011). He also holds an Honorary Associate position with the Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition, Exercise & Eating Disorders

While all researchers know the importance of being published, it is sometimes difficult to know which publications are the best to aim for. This session looks at how to improve the quality of your submissions and you can be more strategic in where and how you publish.

Presenters: Associate Professor Jennifer Milam and Professor Margaret Harris

About the Early Career Researcher Development program (Humanities and Social Sciences)

The program for Humanities and Social Sciences researchers aims to give participants support in career planning, networking and the development of research capacities. The program is for researchers who are 1 - 10 years postdoctoral. It consists of 3 half-day sessions and a structured mentor program.
Demand for this course is always high so attendees must commit to attending all sessions.

To find out more, visit theLearning Solutions website.

Biome: a cluster of researchers, practitioners and artists, considers the systems that exist in natural environments or in biological principles and methods. The symposium unearths these systems across the fields of biology, mathematics, music, behavioural studies, engineering, interaction design and architecture.

The exhibition, to be opened in the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning's Tin Sheds Gallery, asks what form our relationship with technology takes today.

The exhibition will feature a range of works that pursue speculative ideas and probes at the boundaries of art, architecture and interactive media as both disparate and co-constituted practices, and is curated by Dagmar Reinhardt, Martin Tomitsch and Marjo Niemelä,

Digital Interdisciplinations is sure to excite, surprise and challenge our accepted and developing relationships with technology.

To find out more about the syposium papers presentation, please visit the Biome website.

Exhibition Opening Night: August 9, 2012
Exhibition Dates: August 10 to September 8, Tues-Fri, 10-5pm

Symposium Papers Presentation: August 18, 2012
Tin Sheds Gallery, 148 City Road, Darlington NSW 200

Adrian Bauman

Researchers have been aware for several decades that physical inactivity is bad for health, and that accumulating half an hour of moderate activity each day can reduce rates of diabetes, heart disease, delay the ageing process and improve mental health and wellbeing.

A very recent set of research studies has started to report on 'sitting time', especially prolonged sitting, as a new risk factor, especially for diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular health. This talk will explain the scientific evidence and indicate how and why prolonged sitting is a new health concern.

The speaker:Adrian Bauman is Sesquicentenary Professor of Public Health , School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Australia. He is an epidemiologist, public health physician, and Director of the Prevention Research Collaboration (PRC), part of the School of Public Health.

This workshop will introduce the mentoring program to the Early Career Researchers. The goal of the mentoring program will be for each mentee to develop a five-year research plan.

Topics will include:

• What is mentoring?
• Benefits of mentoring for both mentees and mentors
• Structured mentoring program
• Feedback skills for mentees
• Coaching skills for mentors.

Presenters: Sandra Stopher

About the Early Career Researcher Development program (Humanities and Social Sciences)

The program for Humanities and Social Sciences researchers aims to give participants support in career planning, networking and the development of research capacities. The program is for researchers who are 1 - 10 years postdoctoral. It consists of 3 half-day sessions and a structured mentor program.
Demand for this course is always high so attendees must commit to attending all sessions.

To find out more, visit theLearning Solutions website.

"KNOWING HOW" IS NOT ENOUGH: WHY PEOPLE WITH ASTHMA DO NOT MAINTAIN CORRECT INHALER TECHNIQUE'.

Asthma in Australia remains a high burden disease despite the availability of effective medical treatment. Suboptimal patient self-management with medication treatment is a significant contributing factor to the high burden of asthma. Poor inhaler technique maintenance and its prevalence amongst asthma sufferers is fundamental part of the problem.

Although suboptimal inhaler technique can be corrected via education by health care professionals including pharmacists, the improvements do not last. Why inhaler technique declines - despite gold standard education - is unknown, however if left unresolved poor asthma control is likely to persist. In this seminar, Ludmila will discuss the findings of her PhD research on exploring the determinants of inhaler technique maintenance in people with asthma.

The Sydney University Tissue Engineering Network (SuTEN) is holding its 4th Tissue Engineering Symposium in August 2012. This two day world class event will bring in leaders from several top universities around the world. Sessions include:

• Programming Stem Cells for Bone, Blood, and Cartilage Regeneration
• Mucsculoskeletal tissue regeneration
• Cells, molecular signals and tissue regeneration
• Haematopoeitic and vascular regeneration
• General discussion of translation from bench to bed, and industrialization

This year's theme is particularly useful for early career researchers, all young researchers as well as PhD students. If you are interested, please register for the Early Career Researcher Workshop scheduled on the 27th of August as soon as possible due to the limited places available.

Find out more and register online

Registration closes 31 July 2012.

Professor Judy Kay

Join us on August 29th for a CoCo-CHAI-LATTE seminar by Professor Judy Kay titled 'Lifelong learner modelling, harnessing pervasive technology for learning'

Pervasive and ubiquitous computing are just beginning to show the potential new ways that we might learn throughout our lives.

This talk presents a vision for a key element for achieving that the lifelong user model. This is a first class citizen, in that it is independent of any particular application or learning tool. Importantly, it is carefully designed and crafted so that the learner controls it. It will provide a new means to keep useful personal information, to improve metacognitive skills of goal setting, planning and self-monitoring. Interfaces to it will provide new ways to navigate complex personal information stores.

The talk will present a set of case studies of work already completed on parts of this vision and new stages towards it.

This seminar will be available live online athttp://webconf.ucc.usyd.edu.au/seminar-room1

Dr John Prescott is a researcher in the human perception of taste, smell and oral tactile sensations with a special interest in how food preferences arise.

He holds a PhD in psychology from the University of New South Wales (1986), and has held academic positions in universities and research institutes in Australia and New Zealand, as well as honorary research positions in the UK and USA.

He has taught basic and advanced courses in human perception and learning, the psychology of hedonics, and sensory science. He is co-editor of Food Quality & Preference, the leading journal for sensory and consumer science, and member of the executive editorial board of Chemosensory Perception.

He is author of more than 70 refereed journal articles and 14 book chapters on topics including cross- cultural taste perception and preferences, perception of pungency, the genetic basis of taste perception, and flavour perception and preference.

Reforming Health Systems to Better Manage Chronic Care: The Serious and Continuing Illness Policy and Practice Study (SCIPPS)

The Serious and Continuing Illness Policy and Practice Study is an NHMRC-funded project led by researchers from the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney and ANU. It set out to improve the outcomes for those suffering from chronic illness through qualitative and quantitative studies of their experience with the health system, focusing on Western Sydney and the ACT. It used the results of these studies to evaluate interventions, especially at health system level, that aimed to improve the management of chronic illness and reduce unnecessary hospitalization.

Presented by Dr Frederick Rohan Walker, Biomedical Science University of Newcastle.

Our research group has determined that chronic uncontrollable stress affects microglial activity within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and, that these alterations are meaningfully related to corresponding changes in PFC regulated cognitive function. Specifically, we have observed that chronic stress induced microglial alterations are positively correlated with increases in long-term neuronal activation. We have also determined that chronic stress impairs spatial working memory, a PFC dependent function, and that the putative anti-microglial activation drug minocycline improves this impairment. Chronic stress is unlikely to provoke changes in microglia via a classical inflammatory pathway as we could find no compelling evidence of increased pro-inflammatory cytokine release (IL-1ß) antigen presentation (MHC-II) or apoptosis (activated caspase-3). We have confirmed also that these changes are driven by stress induced disturbances in microglia-extracellular matrix interactions. Collectively, these results confirm that microglia play a significant role in mediating the effects of stress on the PFC and highlight a completely unexplored neurobiological mechanism through which they may accomplish this.

Ian Hickie

There are few more urgent, but also more controversial, topics than determining which treatments for adolescent depression are best suited to which young people.

A whole series of questions are commonly raised by young people themselves, their parents, health professionals and the wider community. Common examples, include: when to present for help, how to get the help you need, how can you decide which treatment will provide the most benefit, can the treatments do more harm than good and how long does treatment need to continue?

In recent years, new research at the BMRI (and in collaboration with our major partners in Brisbane, Melbourne and Washington) has made a significant contribution to providing better answers to these questions.

The speaker: Professor Ian Hickie has been one of the most influential voices in recognition and funding of mental health, especially in young people.

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) is a competition for postgraduate research students to present their research topic to an intelligent, non-specialist audience in an engaging way.You will have just three minutes to present a compelling presentation on your thesis topic and its significance.

It's a great way to practice explaining your research to people who are not familiar with your field - skills that will serve you well when applying for funding or engaging media attention.

It's also a fantastic opportunity to meet other students from across the University, hear about their research, and most importantly, have fun!

Presented by A/Prof Kerry Ressler, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Emory University.

A/Prof Ressler will discuss current approaches to understanding the molecular mechanisms of fear processing in mice, as well as how this translates to fear-related disorders in humans. Through specific manipulations of fear circuits, it is hoped that novel treatments and interventions can be identified. He will then discuss new findings from human genetics research pointing to molecular genetic pathways that may further our understanding of PTSD and fear processing.

The 2012 S T Lee Lecture will be delivered by Professor Kai Hong Phua, National University of Singapore. Professor Phua will speak on the topic of Health Systems and Population Ageing in the Asia-Pacific Region: Challenges and Policy Options for the Future.

It is timely to take stock and monitor the trends and issues in healthcare systems around the region and to identify from a comparative perspective, the challenges that have arisen with changing social, economic and political conditions, and the ways in which governments are responding to these challenges. In this regard, it would be important to examine the changing roles concerning the interface between the public, private and voluntary sectors; the extent of public-private participation and integration in health and social care; and the policy implications in terms of future developments for health governance, education and research throughout the region.

Ric Tamba is an inspiring Australian innovator. He is passionate about Australian Innovation and ensuring that we have support for local innovation in the world market including the ability to employ local engineers.

Ric and his team at NTC Powertrain took the Dual Tronic Technology (DTT) pioneered by Porsche racing and applied it to everyday passenger cars, in one of the most significant industry changing innovations across the world. This technology is included in Bugatti's Veyron and cars across the Volkswagen group of companies. Ric sold NTC Powertrain to AVL in February 2011 and is currently in charge of business development for AVL in passenger car transmissions worldwide, being responsible for strategy and growth of over 40 divisions globally.

The Innovation Lecture, with registration from 5.45pm has a 6.15pm start and is followed by the presentation of Innovation Hero Awards and the Innovation Lecture. This finishes at approximately 7.30pm and will then be followed by an hour of networking drinks (8.30pm finish). The Warren Centre lectures attract discerning and senior audiences in major cities around Australia delivering excellent networking opportunities for all those interested in technology and innovation.

Robert Booy

Periodic vaccine safety scares have the potential to undermine the trust of the public, and even health professionals, in the vaccine program. Concern about the safety of Australia's own brand of influenza vaccine arose in 2010 with excess reports of febrile convulsions in vaccinated infants; the associated vaccine remains suspended for use in young children while the mechanism of injury is becoming clearer. A national government enquiry, the Horvath review, uncovered room for improvements that are being implemented. Our surveillance will be more active and able to detect new issues earlier. Further innovation in data linkage, with ethical clearance, is coming.

The speaker: Professor Robert Booy is Head of the Clinical Research team at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) where he joined in 2005. He is a medical graduate of the University of Queensland (1984) and trained in Paediatrics at the Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane. His MD is based on Hib immunisation research in Oxford during the 1990s.

• Find out more and register

Presented by Dr Carolyn MacCann
School of Psychology, the University of Sydney

While the lecture is free, seat bookings are essential as places are limited.

To make a booking, complete the online booking form or email science.forum@sydney.edu.au with your name, the names of the lectures you wish to attend, and number of seats required (limited to 5 per booking except for school groups). Bookings can also be made by calling (02) 9351 3021 between 10am and 3pm.

Renown national and international scientists will deliver presentations on steroid assays, anti-doping and steroid action.

David Le Couteur

What can really be done to promote longevity? Modern science can tell us an increasing amount about the ageing process, understanding that process is the first step in combatting many age-related conditions. It also opens the door on ways to keep ageing at bay. How can we slow the process? This lecture will provide the latest information on the relationship between nutrition and ageing, exercise, hormones and other science relating to ageing.

The speakers:

David Le Couteur is Professor Geriatric Medicine at the University of Sydney, Senior Staff Specialist in Geriatric Medicine in the Central Sydney Area Health Service and Director of the Centre for Education and Research on Ageing. His research interests include the biology of ageing, the ageing liver, geriatric pharmacology, falls and Parkinson's disease. He is Director of the Ageing and Alzheimers Research Foundation.

Stephen Simpson

Professor Stephen Simpson is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sydney, having returned to Australia in 2005 as an ARC Federation Fellow after 22 years at Oxford where he was Professor of Entomology and Curator of the University Museum of Natural History.

• Find out more and register

Tony Papenfuss of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research will be presenting findings from his genetic investigation of the Tasmanian Devil facial tumours.

Dr Papenfuss found the tumour originated from Schwann cells which protect and nourish the devil's peripheral nerve fibres. He has been looking at what are the genetic changes that trigger the Schwann cells to become tumour cells and whether it is caused by external factors or random mutations.

The disease, characterised by large tumours on the face and mouth that can spread to internal organs, has spread across more than 60 per cent of mainland Tasmania. Once it becomes visible, it appears to be fatal - usually within three months.

These findings are applicable to all cancer researchers and we encourage all to come along to this event.

In this presentation Alex Martiniuk will discuss how she plans to examine the dynamics of health systems in developing countries such as Malawi and the Solomon Islands, as well as in remote, high-need areas within high-income countries such as Australia. She will share with the audience her research questions, planned studies, and what she hopes to achieve.

This lecture is part of theResearch Fellows Seminar Series, presented by the School of Public Health.

Nutrition touches all aspects of biology - indeed the fundamental, interlinked triumvirate in biology is sex, death and nutrition. But nutrition is complex. Animals require numerous nutrients in particular amounts and ratios to maximise fitness.

Nutrients come packaged in various ratios and concentrations in foods, which are scattered throughout the environment in time and space and may contain toxins and other non-nutrient compounds. The animal must match its multidimensional, changing nutritional requirements while minimising the costs of locating, ingesting and processing appropriate foods.

We have developed a set of state-space models called the Geometric Framework (GF) to capture the multidimensional nature of nutritional requirements, the relative values of foods in relation to these requirements, the behavioural and post-ingestive responses of animals when feeding on diets of varying composition, and the growth and performance consequences of being restricted to particular dietary regimes. We have also derived the necessary theory for defining fitness in relation to nutrient intake, for describing key nutritional traits and assessing trade-offs between life-history responses. I will begin by introducing the models and then show how they have been used to address problems in life-history theory, immunity, human health, collective nutrition and community ecology. Along the way I will use examples spanning slime moulds to humans.

Roger Reddel

US President Richard Nixon said in his 1971 State of the Union address "I will also ask for an appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for whatever additional funds can effectively be used. The time has come in America when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread disease. Let us make a total national commitment to achieve this goal." Despite a huge effort in the US and in many countries throughout the world ever since that time, that goal remains elusive. How much longer will it take? In this public lecture, Professor Roger Reddel will describe some of the advances that have been made in understanding and treating cancer, and what still needs to be done.

• Find out more and register

TheSydney Cancer Conference(SCC2012)will be a dynamic forum that showcases emerging research and areas of strength in cancer research across Australia. It will also foster the development of Australia's next generation of cancer researchers.

SCC2012 is a major initiative of theCancer Research Network.

Lars Ittner and Jürgen Götz invite you to join this annual conference where distinguished national and international speakers will present the latest developments in the field. International guest speakers are Dr Jorge Pallop (Gladstone, USA) and Dr Ryan Watts (Genetech, USA).

The A&PD has become a fixed event in the Australian Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease research conference calendar, and it is expected that over 150 scientists will participate this year.

The event is hosted by the Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease Laboratory, BMRI.

Further details and program information can be found on the BMRI website.

To register, please download and complete the registration form (DOC) and return by post, fax, or email (details provided on the form).

The cost of registration (including GST) is:

• A$95 Full registration
• FREE Students

A surchage of A$45 (incl. GST) will apply to registrations recevied after 25 August, 2012.

All staff, students and members of the public are welcome to attend these sessions where candidates will present 20 minute snap-shots of their research topics, followed by Q&A Sessions, an inter-disciplinary panel discussion on student research within the faculty, and an Award Ceremony with People's Choice awards for the Best Presentations from the day.

If you're thinking of embarking on a PhD, are looking for potential research collaborators, or just want to keep up to speed with the field of contemporary research Research Visions 2012 is not to be missed.

Day Sessions will run Simultaneously in the Wilkinson Building Lecture Theatres 2 and 3.

Panel Discussion to be held in the Wilkinson Building Lecture Theatre 1 between 5 - 6pm

Is medicine too powerful, out of touch with patients and lacking in compassion? Is it overly expensive, and failing to maintain standards of care and safety? If so, why do doctors remain among the most highly trusted professionals?

Health is everyone's business.

This symposium will ask:

• What kind of ethics do doctors actually espouse?
• How should we ration scarce resources?
• How well does current education and training work?
• If knowledge is the key to medical reform, what kinds of knowledge are required?
• What kinds of evidence should underpin medical practice?

The Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine has been engaged in a program of research about the place of values in medical practice, thought and education. Our results address these questions and challenge many of the critiques of medicine. Please join us to debate these matters.

Our Keynote Speaker at the symposium isProfessor Ross Upshur, Canada Research Chair in Primary Care Research and Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Professor Upshur is additionally Adjunct Scientist at the Institute of Clinical Evaluative Sciences, an affiliate of the Institute of the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology and a member of the Centre for Environment. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Geography and Earth Sciences and Associate Member of the Institute of Environment and Health at McMaster University. He is also a member of The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Additionally, we have senior academics from five Australian universities speaking at the symposium.

Non-communicable disease prevalence is rising around the globe, shaping the work of public health policymakers and practitioners. In Australia and elsewhere, this agenda is dominated by concern about overweight and obesity. The news media routinely reports on an out-of-control obesity epidemic, costing millions and threatening future generations. This is not just a scientific challenge. It's also an ethical and political challenge. In this seminar we will consider what public health ethics can contribute to the debate on non-communicable diseases. Might some approaches to managing non-communicable diseases in populations be more ethical than others? How can we tell? We will focus our attention especially, but not exclusively, on overweight and obesity.

Come along if you would like to:

• Hear an introduction to public health ethics from one of the leading international scholars in the field
• Consider the ethical significance of issues including urban design, eating animals and obesity stigma for the public health response to non-communicable diseases
• Think about what we should do about overweight and obesity in Australia
• Be part of a conversation between colleagues from a range of practices and disciplines - we have left plenty of time for a lively debate!

Speakers

Prof Ross Upshur, University of Toronto, Canada, international leader in public health ethics
A/Prof Peter Sainsbury, South Western Sydney and Sydney Local Health Districts & The University of Sydney
Dr Jan Deckers, Newcastle University, UK
Dr Lenny R. Vartanian, School of Psychology, University of NSW
Dr Stacy Carter, Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, The University of Sydney
With additional chairs and panellists from Faculties across the University.

In this presentation Dr Jesse Jansen will discuss how she aims to examine decision-making and communication aspects of absolute CVD risk assessment and management among older aged adults (75+).

Risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events increase with age and treatment benefits are directly proportional to pre-treatment CVD risk. Older people may therefore have the greatest potential to gain from CVD treatment but there are indications this group may not be receiving the appropriate CVD care.

Clinical guidelines advocate using absolute risk rather than individual risk factors to inform clinical decisions in CVD prevention, but the recommendations for patients over 75 years are limited. This leaves clinicians with the complex task of weighing absolute CVD risk with the benefits and harms of CVD management in the elderly.

This lecture is part of the School of Public Health's Research Fellows Seminar Series.

Join us on October 10 for a CoCo Seminar by Dr Maria Northcote and Dr Kevin Gosselin titled "Threshold concepts: Professional development about online teaching".

Threshold concepts are defined as "core concepts that once understood, transform perception of a given subject" (Meyer & Land, 2003) and "troublesome knowledge" (Perkins, 2006) is knowledge that challenges the learner and can cause cognitive conflict as learners compare new ideas with their prior knowledge.

The Faculty of Architecture, Design & Planning are excited to announce the Spring Lecture Series, to be held across campus on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

Patrick Bellew | Atelier Ten

Gardens by the Bay
Principal of Environmental Designers Atelier Ten will discuss the design of Singapore's Zero Carbon Glasshouses

The CCN family (Cyr61, CTGF and NovH) and the IGF binding proteins have fundamental roles in health and disease including in tissue inflammation, fibrosis, cancer and metabolism. Presented by the Charles Perkins Centre, this symposium of talks will be delivered by distinguished national and international speakers and will focus on relationships of these proteins with their biological functions.

The series of talks will cover:

• 'IGF Binding Proteins: Novel ligands mediate unexpected functions' by Professor Robert Baxter, Sydney, Australia Doctor of Science and Head of Growth Factor Lab, Kolling Institute, the University of Sydney
• 'The CCN family of genes and proteins overview and in health and disease - past, current and future' by Professor Bernard Perbal, Paris, France, President of the CCN Society
• 'CCN Proteins in bone and cartilage' by Professor Masaharu Takigawa, Okayama, Japan, President-Elect of the CCN Society
• 'CCN Proteins in connective tissue and its diseases' by Associate Professor Andrew Leask, Ontario, Canada, Editor of the Journal of Cell Communication and Signalling

In this presentation, Machiko Kanetake discusses the application by domestic courts of 'informal' international instruments, which are neither internationally binding, nor formally given effect under domestic law. More specifically, she talks about (i) the kind of instruments employed by the courts, (ii) the purposes for which instruments are used, and (iii) the possible justification for the authority of domestic courts to employ informal instruments. In this seminar she focuses on the case of Japanese courts, and refers to other states' practices for comparative purposes.

The Institute of Criminology is pleased to announce the first seminar in the 2012-2013 Juvenile Justice seminar series, which will explore models of family intervention and their effectiveness in reducing juvenile offending behavior. In exploring the role of family intervention, the seminar will bring together key government, non-government organisation and academic perspectives. Critical attention increasingly is being paid to this area of juvenile justice practice; some jurisdictions are enthusiastic about the uptake of such programs, while others are more cautious. In light of this, it is timely that this seminar asks: how effective are family intervention programs and methods? Do they assist young people from deepening contact with the criminal justice system and prevent offending behaviour? Simply put, can and do they work?

Find out more and register to attend.

Join us on 24th of October for a CoCo Seminar by Daniel Burn titled "Social Networks in eLearning Systems"

One of the most striking changes in the use of the internet over the last decade has been the emergence of Social Networking Sites, websites whose primary focus is social interaction.

Most students attending University today are members of one or more social networking sites. Enormous learning benefits might be found by discovering ways of harnessing for education a tool this popular and attractive to students.

This presentation explores a study, in the early stages of data collection, which is building social networking tools into an existing virtual learning environment to explore how this might enhance learning.

Daniel Burn is a PhD student at CoCo lab. He has worked at the University of Sydney on eLearning software design and development for 12 years, developing eLearning tools for the Medical School and other Faculties.

This seminar will be available live online athttp://webconf.ucc.usyd.edu.au/seminar-room2

George Poonkhin Khut, Winner National New Media Art Award 2012 , joins us in this special talk for the Design Lab Series.

George will share his interest in body-focussed interactions as a way of framing attention to our experience of embodiment and the practices that surround this, and the novel ways in which interactive technologies can be used to support the special qualities of attention required for engaging with these issues in-depth, at a motor concrete, somato-sensory / experiential level.

Dr Li Ming Wen, from the South Western Sydney & Sydney Local Health Districts, is the Principal Investigator on the Healthy Beginnings Trial of home visiting to new mothers to prevent early childhood obesity. The 24 month outcome results from the trial are in press with the British Medical Journal.

This event is proudly brought to you as part of the 2012Boden Institute Seminar Series.

eResearch Australasia provides opportunities to engage and share ideas about new information-centric research capabilities and how information and communication technologies help researchers to collaborate, collect, manage, share, process, analyse, store, find, understand and re-use information.

This year's conference theme is emPowering eResearch.

Registration is now open with an early-bird price available until 30 September 2012.

Find out more at the conference website.

Should data used in scientific articles be available to all? Are we losing opportunities - and dollars - because we can't extract and re-use names, numbers, places, chemicals, organisms, graphs and tables in published articles?

Peter Murray-Rust (University of Cambridge and Open Knowledge Foundation) believes so. In this seminar he'll outline why he thinks we need to change to an open access model and how it can be done.

• Find out more about the seminar.

eResearch Australasia provides opportunities to engage and share ideas about new information-centric research capabilities and how information and communication technologies help researchers to collaborate, collect, manage, share, process, analyse, store, find, understand and re-use information.

This year's conference theme is emPowering eResearch.

Registration is now open with an early-bird price available until 30 September 2012.

Find out more at the conference website.

Taking orgasm seriously as an object of humanities-based scholarship affords a break from the critical paradigms that have patterned our understanding of sexuality.

• Find out more and register to attend

Following on from our highly successful Insights 2011: Inaugural lecture Series, we are delighted to bring you the 2012 schedule. Alumni, colleagues and friends are invited to celebrate four new professorial appointments. Please join us to hear our Professors present on a diverse range of topics.

Dr Julie Leask

Presenter: Dr Julie Leask

It has been said that vaccines are a victim of their own success - that as the collective memory of diseases like polio and diphtheria dims, people increasingly focus on the risks of vaccines and are declining them. High profile vaccine scares have led to growing levels of concern about vaccine acceptance globally. Providers report increasing questioning from parents. Local trends indicate small downward shifts in support for vaccines.

My postdoctoral research will attempt to understand and address vaccine hesitancy; find ways to engage with vaccine-resistant communities; and trial interventions to improve risk communication.

The seminar will describe these projects. I will also tell you how I came to be in this field which includes a story about school holidays, my aunt's farm and toothpaste.

If you've wrestled with issues of ethics, compliance and governance then Module 3 of the Future Research Leaders Program will help.

The module includes a workshop on 8 November 2012 that will be facilitated by Dr Stephen Assinder, Discipline of Physiology, School of Medical Sciences.

This module considers responsible conduct in research and how you can take maximum advantage of the university's governance and compliance requirements to build research strength and leadership.

Who should attend?
The program is designed specifically for researchers who are new Chief Investigators or for whom being a Chief Investigator is the next step (key target group is level B and C researchers).

What participants say:
"The online/workbook aspects were excellent. Very comprehensive and well put together. I was impressed with the 'attitude' which permeated the materials - emphasising such concepts as the trust placed in the individual researcher's personal responsibility that underlines the main governance components of robust research."

Enrol now: G08 Module 3- Governance and Compliance

Professor Anton Zeilinger

In his criticism of quantum mechanics Albert Einstein focused on the physics of individual quantum systems. He criticised the inherent randomness of individual events: "God does not play dice". He turned out to be not correct.

This talk will focus on recent experiments and will demonstrate how those fundamental points which Einstein criticised have become cornerstones of quantum communication, quantum teleportation, and quantum computation.

Professor Anton Zeilinger is best known for his work on the foundations of quantum mechanics and their applications in quantum information technology, such as quantum computation and cryptography. In 2005 The New Statesman named Zeilinger (along with Barack Obama) as one of the ten people who could change the world.

NHMRC CEO, Professor Warwick Anderson AM, will deliver a webcast on 14 November to provide feedback to the research community about the outcomes announced on 19 October.

To attend, the NHMRC has requested that all register. You can register online.

You will be able to submit questions at any time during the webscast and they will be answered during the Q & A session at the end.

To find out more, visit the NHMRC website.

Join us for a CoCo-CHAI-LATTE seminar by Associate Professor Rafael Calvo titled 'Positive Computing: How can technology support wellbeing?'
Digital technologies have made their way into all the aspects of our lives that, according to psychology, influence our wellbeing - everything from social relationships and curiosity to engagement and meaning. As computers are gradually embedded into all the life experiences that shape us, isn't it our responsibility to expect more from the way they impact our lives?

By bringing together research and methodologies well-established in psychology, education, neuroscience and human-computer interaction, we can begin to cultivate a new field dedicated to the design and development of technology that supports wellbeing and human potential.

In this seminar we will present an interdisciplinary framework for research and development in positive computing. We will provide examples of related work in e-therapy, positive psychology and Human-Computer-Interaction and look at the potential for including wellbeing considerations into the design of all technology. We will also look specifically at how this area can be informed by, and benefit, education research.

This seminar will be available live online athttp://webconf.ucc.usyd.edu.au/seminar-room2

Professor Arthur Conigravefrom the School of Molecular Bioscience is a leading authority on the molecular mechanisms that underlie nutrient-sensing, especially sensing of L-amino acids in cellular and whole body responses to dietary protein. His primary contributions have included the identification of a sub-group of class C G-protein coupled receptors as amino acid sensors, identification of the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) as a target for aromatic and small aliphatic L-amino acids, together with the development of the theory relating to GPCR-mediated actions of amino acids in macronutrient-sensing in the gastrointestinal tract.

He is currently working with Professor Steve Simpson (Charles Perkins Centre) on the origins of protein appetite in animal and human models.

This event is proudly brought to you as part of the 2012Boden InstituteSeminar Series.

The internal closing date for ARC Linkageapplications is Monday 19 November 2012. Your draft application will be checked on a "first come, first served" basis by the Submissions team.

How to submit your application to us:

1. Download a copy of your complete application
2. Email it to the Submissions team at research.grants@sydney.edu.au for review and feedback.
3. Your Research Administrative Officer (checker) will provide you with feedback on the application.

For further information get in touch with one of our Linkage Project contacts.

Join us on November 20 for a CoCo Seminar by Professor Peter Sloep titled "Networked professional learning".

A Learning Networks is an online social network that has been designed specifically to facilitate learning (professional development). It may be viewed as a dynamic collection of communities, that wax and wane, come to overlap and drift apart in response to the participants needs and wants. In such a community professional development (learning) and being professionally active can become two sides of the same coin.

In a Learning Network, learning takes place by accessing relevant resources. These are in the first instance the Learning Network's participants themselves. They are the primary sources of expertise. They then adopt a teaching role and direct fellow participants to (online) artefacts or other experts they know. However, they will also act as providers of all kinds of support - as learning coaches, mentors, critical friends, business contacts.

The great potential of the Learning Network concept lies in its facilitating the exploration and exploitation of the weak links between its participants. They are the as yet unknown sources of new knowledge and support. This is achieved by equipping the Learning Network with a variety of request-and-recommend tools that support its participants in every needed way.

Many of these tools are similar to what existing social network sites offer. However, ordinary social networks do only see their participants as the means to the end of securing income, through advertisements or selling their profiling data. This is reflected in the tools they offer.

A Learning Network, rather, is a social network that seeks to serve the learning needs of its participants. The tools developed for it should reflect this orientation.

This seminar will be available live online athttp://webconf.ucc.usyd.edu.au/seminar-room2

Learn about the newly formedBreast Cancer Special Interest Group(BCSIG) and hear from keynote speakersinvolved in thebroad themes of the BCSIG: imaging and detection, treatment and rehabilitation, biology and genetics and epidemiology and public health. There will also be opportunities for multidisciplinary dialogue followed by a light supper.

Seminar is free for all Universityof Sydney researchers.

Presented by Dr Mark Ruitenberg, School of Biomedical Sciences, the University of Queensland.

Inflammation following spinal cord injury (SCI) causes secondary pathology in neural tissue that was originally spared, thereby worsening recovery. With no effective anti-inflammatory treatments available, a better understanding of the key cellular and molecular mediators of this inflammatory pathology is critical for the development of new therapies.

We have used genetic and pharmacological approaches to study the role of complement anaphylatoxin receptors, C3aR and C5aR, in the pathology associated with SCI. Our findings reveal an unexpected anti-inflammatory role for C3aR whereas C5aR was found to serve a dual role, with signaling through this receptor being injurious early after injury but neuroprotective in the post-acute phase. Based on these findings, we propose acute C5aR antagonism as a therapeutic option to dampen the inflammatory response to SCI and improve recovery.

Associate Professor Renee Bittoun and the Smoking Research Unit invites tobacco treatment specialists, medical professionals, health workers and others with an interest in the field to attend the 2012 Smoking Cessation Update Day.

International and local speakers include Professor Robert West from the University College London, UK, Professor Bonnie Spring from North Western University, Chicago, USA and Professor Amanda Baker from the University of Newcastle.

Topics include post-cessation weight-gain and changing multiple unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, smoking cessation for people with mental health problems, smoking in pregnant indigenous women and more.

The 4th Annual Postgraduate Cancer Research Symposium aims to provide University of Sydney postgraduate students the opportunity to present their research to other students and academics from all disciplines across the University. It is an excellent opportunity to see the wide range of research being carried out, receive feedback from academics and to network with fellow students.

It gives us great pleasure to announce the 2012 Sonia Marks Memorial Lecture, Dept of French Studies, University of Sydney.

This year's lecture will be delivered by Emeritus Professor Ross Chambers, of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, who will speak on the subject of 'Learning from Teaching'.Professor Chambers is a distinguished alumnus of the University of Sydney and was the McCaughey Professor of French Studies for several years during the 1970s. His many publications span a wide range of topics including narrative theory, comparative literature and cultural studies.

Professor Chambers will be introduced by our most recent Professor Emerita, Margaret Sankey. The discussant will be Associate Professor Marie-Thérèse Barbaux.

Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh is a geriatrician whose research, clinical, and teaching career has focused on the integration of geriatric medicine, exercise physiology, and nutrition as a means to improve quality of life for the aged. She is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and is board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine in the USA. She is currently licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts, USA as well as New South Wales, Australia.

Professor Singh has designed and carried out many clinical trials involving frail elders in Australia and the USA, She has published extensively in the area of ageing, exercise and nutrition, having edited one book, authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, 80 peer-reviewed book chapters and review articles, 150 abstracts, and contributed to numerous lay publications. She serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Gerontology, and is a reviewer for most of the major international internal medicine, physiology, exercise, gerontology, and nutrition journals.

This event is proudly brought to you as part of the 2012Boden InstituteSeminar Series.

The SyReNS scheme provides funding and other support for research groups or networks spanning multiple faculties over a two-year period.

Ideally funding will lead to a substantial, sustainable, externally funded program in the future.

Expressions of interest close at 5pm, on 30 November.

Find out more about SyReNS, including how to lodge your expression of interest, at theResearch Support site.

Professor Rob Tierney will lead the final HEPBB for 2012 with a discussion on the differences and similarities between the Canadian and Australian higher education systems and policies. He'll also be recapping 2012's topics and discussing potential ideas for the series in 2013.

The Higher Education Policy Brown Bag is hosted jointly on the last Friday of each month during semester by Tim Payne, Director, Policy Analysis & Communication, Office of the Vice-Chancellor and Principal, and Professor Rob Tierney, Dean Faculty of Education and Social Work. The HEPBB provides an opportunity for all University staff to participate in a regular informal lunchtime discussion focused on topical developments in higher education policy.

Dr Clement Loy

Antipsychotics are commonly used for management of behavioral symptoms among people with dementia. While there has been a reduction in antipsychotic use for dementia in the United States, its use has continued to increase in Australian residential care facilities. Find out how Dr Clement Loy hopes to understand the gaps between evidence and practice in anti-psychotic drug use in residential care.

Find out more at the University Events website.

Each year an estimated 500,000 new mothers die in developing countries due to complications during childbirth. Infection is a major contributor to these frightening mortality rates. Birthing Kits contain the essentials for creating a hygienic birthing environment for new mothers, reducing the risk of infection and potentially saving many thousands of lives.

On Wednesday 5 December, Sydney Nursing School staff, students and alumni will be holding a Birthing Kit Packing Day.

We are calling for volunteers to help us pack 5000 kits which will be sent to help new mothers in Africa.

Register your participation

Watch the video from last year's event

The China Studies Centre will be holding its inaugural Annual China Studies Centre Conference to showcase recent research in the field.

On the 6-7 December parallel sessions showcasing the CSC academic groups' current research activities, will take place in The Quadrangle of the Camperdown campus of the University of Sydney. It will also include a special panel on China-India Engagement. Each two hour panel will include time for discussion and questions from the audience and other academic members of the CSC.

To find out more visit the China Studies Centre website.

The University will be closed from close of business Tuesday 18 December, reopening Wednesday 2 January 2012.