The meeting was organised to discuss how countries in the G77 could use the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP), developed by the King of Thailand to successfully implement the UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In her presentation, Gayle outlined the SEP process, showing delegates how it applied to several of the SDGs. Her research into sustainable leadership is of great interest in Thailand, which is looking for practical, evidence-based guidelines for implementing the SEP.

“My associates and I have often been invited to address large audiences and conduct various research projects based on the SEP, including editing a forthcoming book of case studies by Thai experts about applying the SEP to business, health, education, community development, prisoner rehabilitation and agriculture,” said Gayle .

The G77 is equivalent to the United Nations’s G20 but for developing economies, giving them an enhanced negotiating capacity in the United Nations. The group currently includes 134 member countries, with Thailand being the chair in 2016.

“The meeting in Thailand is just one of many forums where experts and policy makers can work together to help achieve UN goals,” said Gayle . She has been invited to address the G77 again, at its meeting in June.

 Learn more about Gayle and her research.

I write to advise you that Professor Kevin Jameson has been appointed Acting Executive Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics. Professor Jameson’s appointment will take effect from 21 March 2016.

Professor Jameson currently serves as Head of the Department of Applied Finance and Actuarial Studies and Director of the Macquarie University Applied Finance Centre. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Centre for International Finance and Regulation (CIFR), and Chair of the Benchmarks Committee of the Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA). He is also, a Trustee of CEDA – the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, and a Director of SIRCA Limited.

Professor Jameson has extensive experience across a range of financial and investment organisations at Board and senior management level in Australia and around the world, and will provide excellent guidance and stewardship of the Faculty whilst arrangements for its long-term leadership are considered over the coming months. I look forward to working with him as Acting Executive Dean and to his contributions to the University’s Executive Group.

I would like to thank Professor Gabbott again for his leadership of the Faculty during his eight year tenure, and to wish him well for the future.

Sincerely,

Professor S Bruce Dowton
Vice-Chancellor

Academic promotions are an opportunity to recognise and reward the staff who have demonstrated and sustained excellence in the three elements of academic endeavour – teaching, research and community engagement.

To be considered for academic promotion, candidates must demonstrate that they meet the criteria of the level they seek promotion to and demonstrate that their all-round performance exceeds the expectations and criteria of their current level.

Congratulations to the following staff, in no particular order:

Lecturer

• Milena Gandy
• Vince Polito
• Wei Deng
• Robert Pfeifer
• Stephanie Russo
• Bingyang Shi
• Murray Taylor
• Daniel Ghezelbash

Senior Lecturer

• Michael Proctor
• Leanne Carter
• Lurion De Mello
• Meiting Lu
• Ying (Candy) Lu
• Sophia Su
• Dalbir Ahlawat
• Paul Formosa
• Saskia Kohnen
• Helen Little
• Justine Lloyd
• Lee Spitler
• Dale Tweedie
• Gregory Walkerden

Associate Professor

• Michael Batanin
• Ross Gordon
• Ayse Bilgin
• Matthew Bower
• Trevor Evans
• Diane Hughes
• Annabelle Lukin
• Kristian Ruming
• Paul Sheehan

Professor

• Dorrit Jacob
• Genevieve McArthur
• Nickolai Titov
• Shawkat Alam
• Brian Atwell
• Gillian Heller
• Phillip Taylor

Learn more about academic promotions.

Getting the student experience right is the biggest challenge that faces any university. The biggest part of this challenge is offering a learning and teaching program that is engaging and interesting, challenging, meaningful in the context of individual aspirations, and well matched to expectations.

And now, following endorsement from the Vice-Chancellor, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) are proud to release the Learning and Teaching Strategic Framework 2015-2020.

“Learning for the future sets a bold course for our learning and teaching, capturing the full potential of new technologies and changing landscapes but always keeping the capabilities of our graduates at the heart of all that we do,” says Professor Dowton, Vice-Chancellor “Our students remain our constant purpose, and this framework will help us provide each of them the greatest possibility for success in their studies.”

Developed in collaboration with the University community, Professor John Simons, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) says that “the Strategy presents an opportunity for Macquarie to build its reputation around excellent student experiences and outcomes.”

Presented in short-form, three key objectives capture a range of goals that, when combined, forms a connected learning community dedicated to the service of its students.

1. Provide connected, creative and innovative learning experiences.
2. Ensure deep, broad graduate capabilities through a connected curriculum.
3. Foster a culture that supports excellence.

“The strength of this strategy is assured by our dedicated staff, committed to achieving objectives across our community of faculties, departments, disciplines and partnerships,” says Professor Sherman Young, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching). “It highlights unique and valuable ways for every office, portfolio, department, and engages with the University’s educational mission.”

The long-form version of the strategy is anticipated for release in early 2016, detailing an implementation framework to further guide strategic planning.

Confident about this strategic approach to learning and teaching, John says: “The future is already here, and this is how we will distribute it. Macquarie will actively embrace and prepare to respond to the uncertainty that comes with life on the cutting-edge in the service of innovation and a more valuable experience for every student.”

Access a copy of the short-form Learning and Teaching Strategic Framework

• download a short-form PDF copy of the White Paper
• download a screen reader compatible version

A limited number of hard-copies are available. Request a copy by emailing pvclt@mq.edu.au

“Our international reputation is built upon the excellence of the research undertaken by our highly committed and talented researchers across a broad spectrum of research activity,” says Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Sakkie Pretorius. “The night was a true showcase of the outstanding research and innovation being undertaken at Macquarie.”

The 2015 Research Awards were this year aligned with our five Future-shaping Research Priorities which were developed as a means to support the University’s current and emerging areas of disciplinary research strength with the significant challenges of today and tomorrow.

“Their breadth and local, national and global relevance offer researchers a considerable level of stability over the next 10 years. Each recognises the world-leading research with world-changing impact undertaken across the range of disciplines by researchers at Macquarie,” says Sakkie.

The Awards also honoured Excellence in Higher Degree Research, Excellence in Higher Degree Research Supervision, Early Career Research and Excellence in Research Leadership.

Congratulations to six staff, recognised with Excellence in Research – Five Future-Shaping Research Priorities Awards

Professor Jennifer Hudson
Healthy people: Improving emotional health
ARC Future Fellow and Centre for Emotional Health Director Professor Jennifer Hudson is working to stamp out childhood anxiety. Through international collaboration with more than 15 different institutions and anxiety clinics from around the world, the team is able to create tailored, individualised treatment for children with anxiety disorders. “If we can improve the emotional health of young people, then we can have an impact on individuals across their lifespan – improving their life satisfaction, their happiness and their emotional health,” she says.

Professor Wendy Rogers
Resilient societies: Supporting surgical innovation
ARC Future Fellow Professor Wendy Rogers is on a mission to make surgery safer for patients around the world. Her team developed the Macquarie Surgery Innovation Identification Tool (MSIIT), a questionnaire that identifies how much a surgical intervention differs from usual practice. If it meets a certain threshold, the tool triggers support to make it safer for the patient. “My grand plan is to use the conceptual tools from moral philosophy and ethics to identify and understand practical issues in healthcare and to try to resolve them in ways that make healthcare safer and better for people,” she says.

Professor Stefan Trueck
Prosperous economies: Modelling electricity prices
Centre for Financial Risk Co-director Professor Stefan Trueck wants to keep utility prices reasonable in Australia. He creates statistical or econometrical models to forecast the price behaviour of electricity. This is particularly important for large customers such as retailers who buy electricity on exchange and could be at risk with extreme price fluctuations. His models help hedge those risks. “I want to do things that help people, that help the economy and help financial markets to achieve better outcomes,” he says.

Associate Professor Brian Atwell
Secure planet: Improving our crops
Associate Professor Brian Atwell wants to feed the planet. Conservative estimates show that the Earth’s temperature will rise on average 0.9 degrees Celsius over the next century, which could mean disaster for plants that are highly sensitive to their environment. Atwell’s team has found a gene in heat-tolerant rices in northern Australia that allows photosynthesis at higher temperatures, enabling higher productivity of the plant. “There will be a group of people who have an open mind about using wild plants in Australia to try to improve the 15 or 20 major foods that feed almost everybody on this planet,” he says.

Professor Nicolle Packer
Innovative technologies: Understanding disease
Professor Nicolle Packer is helping in the fight against every disease in humans. Data from all over the world come together in her team’s project, UniCarbKB, to understand how sugars attach to the surface of cells and interact to bring about diseases. With the innovative technologies and the informatics needed to analyse data, the project makes it possible to develop new targets and diagnostics for these diseases. “I truly believe these molecules are important in the way our bodies function and how they stop functioning,” she says. “As one of my post-docs has said to me, ‘It’s all about sugars. It always was and always will be.’”

Professor David Raftos
Innovative technologies: Safeguarding our oyster industry
Professor David Raftos is working to future-proof Australia’s oyster industry. Besides being New South Wales’ largest aquaculture industry, oysters are instrumental in forming estuarine ecosystems such as that in Sydney Harbour and the Hawkesbury River. Working with the Australian oyster industry, Raftos’ team discovered a set of genes in oysters that allows them to survive disease and tolerate environmental changes. “So far our results are remarkable,” he says. “In just a single generation of breeding using this new technology, we’ve had a 30 per cent improvement in the number of oysters that survive disease outbreaks.”

See the full playlist of videos online, including those highly commended in these award categories.

Distinguished Professor Award: Seven of our academic finest bestowed with a mark of distinction

Also announced during the 2015 Research Excellence Awards, the Distinguished Professor award is the highest academic honour Macquarie can bestow on a member of our academic community, recognising professors who have made an outstanding contribution to their field of scholarship or discipline and to the University.

Seven staff will carry this title in 2016, including six renominated from the first cohort awarded in 2010.

The six continuing recipients of the 2015 Macquarie University Distinguished Professor Award are:

• Professor Mark Westoby, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Professor Naguib Kanawati, Faculty of Arts
• Professor Sue O’Reilly, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Professor David Throsby, Faculty of Business and Economics
• Professor Stephen Crain, Faculty of Human Sciences
• Professor Ronald Rapee, Faculty of Human Sciences

Newly nominated in 2015:

• Professor James Guthrie, Faculty of Business and Economics

Congratulations to all our award winners.

Read about our Early Career Research and Higher Degree Research Award winners.

This week, we focus on two award categories: the Excellence in Research Award – Engineering, Medicine and Science, the Excellence in Research Award – Business, Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Excellence in Higher Degree Research Supervision.

Excellence in Research award
This Excellence in Research award category recognises excellence in higher degree scholarly research, the creation and application of research outcomes, the discovery of new knowledge or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way to generate new concepts, methodologies and understanding.

There are two awards within this category – see below for our five highly commended applicants and their research stories:

Engineering, Medicine and Science

• Diego Barneche Rosado (Science and  Engineering)
• Chengxin Jiang (Science and Engineering)
• Sadia Mahboob (Medicine and Health Sciences)
• Dr Ibrahim M. Salman (Medicine and Health Sciences)
• Dr Omar Al-adhami (Medicine and Health Sciences)

Business, Humanities and Social Sciences:

• Ka Wai (Stanley) Choi (Business and Economics)
• Dr Sarah Baracz (Human Sciences)
• Dr Miriam  Forbes (Human Sciences)
• Rosalind Walsh (Human Sciences)
• Jamie Nowlan (Human Sciences)

Applicants are selected based on ‘creative breakthrough’, ‘implementation and impact’ and their alignment with our strategic research goals.

Excellence in Higher Degree Research Supervision
This category recognises our outstanding Higher Degree Research supervisors who enable our higher degree research candidates to achieve their utmost potential.

Applicants are selected based on an outstanding track record in Higher Degree Research supervision, support for the development of students as researchers, support for students’ career development, and contribution to the development of excellent supervision practices within faculties, centres, departments, research groups or the wider University.

Here are our three highly commended researchers and their stories:

• Professor Chris Patel (Business and Economics)
• Professor Jennifer Hudson (Human Sciences)
• Associate Professor Kay Bussey (Human Sciences)

The 27^th Annual Women, Management and Work Conference (WMWC) hosted by Macquarie is shaping up to be yet another successful event. This year’s conference will be held on 6 November at the Four Seasons Hotel in the CBD and is open to anyone wanting to learn more about ‘The Power of Inclusive Leadership through Collaboration’.

Program highlights include interactive masterclasses, networking opportunities and engaging speakers, including Master of Ceremonies Donna Meredith, MD, Keystone Corporate Positioning and Principal, Interaction Associates Australasia.

Since co-founding Keystone in 1997 Donna Meredith and her team have designed and managed strategic brand, marketing and cultural change projects for more than 300 organisations both within Australia and overseas, and also provided specialist consultancy services to airlines and tourism organisations nationally and internationally on aviation, digital and distribution issues. In 2011 she became Principal of global leadership company Interaction Associates’ operations in Australasia.

We asked Donna about her life as a corporate leader, what advice she has for others, and how she continues to grow and learn.

What characteristics do you believe every leader should possess?
Today’s challenges and opportunities call for an expanded model of leadership – leaders must tap into the power of participation! Facilitative leaders empower people to work together to achieve a common goal by making it easier for their people to share responsibility for success, contribute their ideas and expertise, speak up when they have problems, take the initiative, work with others and make decisions.

What is your advice to someone looking to become a better leader?
Being a better leader is all about behaviour. While people can’t always tell what you are thinking, they can see what you are doing. Invest in your own development so that you are able to model three critical and related behavioural attributes consistently: being strategic, being collaborative, and being receptive and flexible.

What motto guides or motivates you in your career?
I’ve had a number of thoughts, sayings and ideas that have motivated me throughout my career, and I find they often involve themes of optimism and hope. It’s my belief that being positive, hopeful and optimistic (coupled with hard work, great colleagues, and yes, a little luck) have been the driving forces of my career.

What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?
In the same way that you must innovate in business, you need to innovate within yourself. I try to constantly be aware of how much I can learn from others. I am fortunate to have colleagues, mentors, friends and most of all, family, who challenge and support me in equal measure. That allows me to never get too comfortable and to always want to be ‘more’.

Event details
When: Friday 6 November
Time: 8am – 5.45pm (followed by cocktails and Gala Conference Dinner hosted by Professor S Bruce Dowton, Vice-Chancellor)
Where: Four Seasons Hotel Sydney

The conference is most relevant to mid to senior level academic and professional staff. University staff will receive a special registration rate of $852 excl. GST (a 25% discount) by selecting the Registration Type – “Macquarie University Staff”. Registration closes 26 October.

Tickets are available now. See the full list of speakers.

Academic promotions are an opportunity to recognise and reward the staff who have demonstrated and sustained excellence in the three elements of academic endeavour – teaching, research and community engagement.

To be considered for academic promotion, candidates must demonstrate how they meet the criteria of the level they seek promotion to and demonstrate that their all-round performance exceeds the expectations and criteria of their current level.

Congratulations to the following staff:

Lecturer

• Douglas Little from the Department of Physics and Astronomy
• Edward Tello Melendez from the Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance
• Simon Gross From the Department of Physics and Astronomy

Research Fellow (Level B)

• Glenn Carruthers from the Department of Cognitive Science

Senior Lecturer

• Yvette Blount from the Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance
• Colin Klein from the Department of Philosophy
• Jonathan Symons from the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations
• Morten Andersen from the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences
• Richard Garner from the Department of Mathematics
• Salahudin Muhidin from the Department of Marketing and Management

Senior Research Fellow (Level C)

• Natalie Taylor from the Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science

Associate Professor

• Christoph Baumann from the Department of Marketing and Management
• Joshua Madin from the Department of Biological Sciences
• Juan Carlos Alfonso from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
• Shirley Chan from the Department of International Studies, Languages and Cultures

Learn more about academic promotions.

With only a week to go, this year’s event has already drawn significant interest from staff and students alike eager to discuss learning and teaching best practices and innovation.

Dr Theresa Winchester-Seeto, Head Curriculum and Academic Practice Group, Learning and Teaching Centre, says all who attend will leave with new ideas to implement in their own areas.

“Our theme ‘Connect More’ offers staff the chance to see panel discussions, take part in interactive sessions and hear from a number of keynote speakers ,” says Dr Winchester-Seeto. “As in previous years, Learning and Teaching Week 2015 is about celebrating our successes and sharing these with everyone.”

Learning and Teaching Week highlights

Launch of the Learning and Teaching White Paper
A topic of great discussion over the past few months, the Learning and Teaching Strategy White Paper is the blueprint for how we can build on Macquarie’s tradition of excellent learning and teaching and deepen our connections with industry and community partners.

When: Monday 14 September
Time: 9.30am – 10.30am
Where: T1, Building C5C

Register now

Employability – the Student and Partner Perspective
Our students study at Macquarie because they believe they will find better jobs than if they go straight into the workforce. There are suggestions that employers are focused on graduate skills, attributes and professional orientation. This Keynote Panel Discussion will see both students and employers share their thoughts on this topic.

When: Monday 14 September
Time: 1.15pm – 2.45pm
Where: C5C Forum

Register now

Collaborative Innovation: Digital Transformation through Stronger Human Network
Named as one of Australia’s most influential women in 2014, Pia Waugh will share her views on the importance of tech culture. Pia will examine the importance of learning to build on the shoulders of giants rather than continually reinventing the world and how to collaborate more effectively by aligning common motivations. Her talk will also consider the importance of designing systems and information in a modular way so others can build on this knowledge and innovate.

When: Tuesday 15 September
Time: 10.30am – 12pm
Where: C5C Forum

Register now

Panel: The Student Voice
Hear our Merit Scholars give a honest and candid insight into their learning experience at Macquarie. This is an opportunity to ask questions about what they feel works and doesn’t work at Macquarie.

When: Tuesday 15 September
Time: 2.15pm – 3.15pm
Where: C5C Forum

Register now

The Big History MOOC – a Panel Discussion with Professor David Christian
Professor Christian is the man behind the Bill Gates-backed Big History Project. Join Professor Christian’s discussion on how the forthcoming Big History MOOC was developed and future plans to build on the Big History experience.

When: Wednesday 16 September
Time: 11.30am – 12.30pm
Where: C5C Forum

Register now

Nano presentations
Nanos are a snapshot into research and study conducted by staff across campus, and offer a chance to find out what interesting outcomes have been made.

When: Wednesday 16 September
Time: 12.30pm – 1.30pm
Where: Room 120 and 180, Building E5A

View the event program for the full list of Nano presentations

Wearable Technologies and Education – Preparing for a Hyper-Connected Future
Rob Manson’s presentation is guaranteed to draw a crowd from our community eager to discover what the latest technology trend is that’s changing the way we learn. As founder of buildAR, Rob is no stranger to Macquarie, having been part of the Wearable Technologies Summit held on campus last November.

When: Thursday 17 September
Time: 9am – 11 am
Where: C5C Forum

Register now

3-Minute Thesis Competition Final
Discover who will take this year’s honours, as our top students battle it out to represent Macquarie at the national competition in October.

When: Thursday 17 September
Time: 11.30am – 1pm
Where: Macquarie Theatre

Registration not required

Poster Sessions, lunch and after party
Learning and Teaching Week will wrap in 2015 with the always popular Poster Session event. Learn more about the studies conducted during the past year, including a project by Lois MacCullagh which looked at the challenges students with dyslexia face while studying.

When: Thursday 17 September
Time: 1pm – 3pm
Where: Macquarie Theatre Foyer

Register now

View the full Learning and Teaching Week 2015 program

“The Web Transformation Project will offer a substantially enhanced user experience of our digital space for our key audiences,” says Web Project Director Richard Powell. “With the help of many across campus we’ve accomplished a great deal but there is still much to do before we launch.”

Rich explains the long-term scope of the project encompass both the staff.mq.edu.au and students.mq.edu.au sites, however the October launch will only reveal our public site mq.edu.au.

“Content from our existing site has now been migrated to the new 6000-page website,” says Rich. “Last week we revealed the skeleton site to content owners to give them a first look at how the site is structured.”

Rich says given the significant number of public-facing pages in scope, content owners will be working tirelessly in the next week to make sure their content has successfully been migrated.

“We believe we’ve captured everyone who has a public-facing page, but if a page owner thinks they may have been missed, we need them to contact us as soon as possible,” says Rich.

Instructions for content owners on how to review content

• Clear instructions on what you need to do before 24 September are available on the Web Transformation Project wiki.
• It is recommended you subscribe to updates as ALL future instructions will be provided there.

Think you’ve been missed?

• Contact the Web Transformation Project team at web.project@mq.edu.au
• Contact your relevant Faculty Web Officer.

Information session
Staff are welcome to join the Web Transformation Project team to learn more about the process for the project in the lead-up to the 12 October launch.

Got a question for the team? Submit your question now.

When: Tuesday 1 September
Time: From 4pm
Where: T2, Building E7B

Keep up-to-date
This Week will provide weekly updates until the site launch on Monday 12 October.