Our goal is for Macquarie to rank among the top 200 research intensive universities in the world by 2014. We have a clearly defined strategy to achieve this goal, with a research development program, an ambitious research recruitment scheme and our unique Concentrations of Research Excellence (COREs).

Dr Andrew Barron has always been interested in animal behaviour. But when it came time to choose between the familiarity of mammals with their big brains, emotive faces and recognisable behaviour, and the complex and intriguing world of tiny-brained insects, insects won hands down.

While his early research concerned flies, today he focuses on how bees, with their small and supposedly simple brains, generate incredibly complex patterns of social behaviour.

Particularly interested in how honeybees organise their division of labour, Barron also studies the neural mechanisms underlying the honeybees' symbolic dance language, which forager bees use to communicate the location and value of food resources to nest mates. It is this line of research that has opened an unexpected window into the mechanisms of drug addiction in humans.

Read more in Quest - Macquarie University's research magazine.

The Macquarie University Hospital, due to open in 2010, promises to be the most modern healthcare facility in the country.

It will be a fully digitally integrated hospital, home to Australia's first Gamma Knife (considered the gold standard for focused radiation treatment of brain tumours and other brain disorders), and a cyclotron for the production of radioactive isotopes for medical imaging.

The Macquarie University Hospital will also bring together teams of the best clinical leaders to offer an exceptional standard of patient care.

Read more at the Australian School of Advanced Medicine and at the Macquarie University Private Hospital websites.

Senior managers from six of Australia's not-for-profit organisations were awarded scholarships by the Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM). Funds for the scholarships were raised through the 2008 MGSM Appeal.

The managers, from World Vision, Variety, Mercy Foundation, Divine World University, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Australian Youth Orchestra, were granted a place on the five-day Foundations of General Management program.

Read more in Macquarie Matters - Macquarie University's magazine for Advancement (Autumn 2009).

We are establishing a new set of teaching and learning principles, restructuring our academic organisation and renewing our curriculum. We want to ensure that our teaching is designed to prepare graduates for a lifetime of learning and to equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to become the leaders of tomorrow. Our graduates will value social responsibility and ethical practice and act with responsibility, discipline, and competency.

Macquarie alumnus Derek To recently bequeathed one-third of his estate for the future establishment of three University scholarships. Created to encourage outstanding students to undertake bachelor degrees in accounting, economics and mathematics, To hopes these awards will also help Australia retain its intellectual talents.

"Australian citizens are smart, we are very well educated", he said. "But because of globalisation we have lost a lot of talented people overseas. We need to keep them here to make a better, more prosperous Australia."

The To Family Scholarships will be available to students who have completed the HSC or equivalent. Applicants will be assessed on a range of criteria including academic merit, evidence of leadership skills, participation in extracurricular activities and socio-economic circumstances.

Read more in Macquarie Matters - Macquarie University's magazine for Advancement (Autumn 2009)

When Nick Walsh, who lives in Singapore, had a stroke while holidaying in Thailand, it was immediately clear that something was terribly wrong. After all, until the stroke occurred, Nick was a seemingly healthy five-year-old boy, enjoying a holiday with his parents.

His parents were soon to discover that their son had a rare condition in his brain known as an arterio-venous malformation, or AVM - an abnormal tangling of arteries and veins.

"After the stroke, a tube was inserted into the fluid-filled spaces of Nick's brain to drain the brain water," said neurosurgeon and Dean of the Australian School of Advanced Medicine at Macquarie University, Professor Michael Morgan.

Morgan has a long-standing relationship with the Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) as he has been teaching in Malaysia for 15 years and has trained many Malaysian neurosurgeons. In 2007 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the hospital which means that Macquarie will provide post graduate surgical training for doctors at UKM. It is intended that over time the Memorandum will expand to other faculties at Macquarie.

Read more in Macquarie Matters - Macquarie University's magazine for Advancement (Autumn 2009).

More than 21 million litres of water a year will be saved on the Macquarie University campus thanks to a new water recycling system that uses the latest in reed bed technology.

Construction of the new system - including pipe infrastructure, tanks and reed beds - is now complete, and the University has commenced stage one of its water quality testing requirements.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Steven Schwartz said wastewater would be treated before being used to irrigate the University's seven hectares of playing fields.

"The new system is fundamental to our commitment to embed sustainability into campus culture and university life," Schwartz said.

Read more in Marketing Unit's media releases.

Located within the high-technology corridor of Sydney's North Ryde, Macquarie's main campus will be an example of sustainability coupled with state-of-the-art modern facilities that will thrive into the future. Just one of our recent initiatives will save more than 21 million litres of water a year on the Macquarie University campus.

Meanwhile, construction has begun on the new Library and the Macquarie University Hospital, the first private teaching hospital to be located on a university campus in Australia.