Anne discusses how the human brain makes sense of the squiggly lines we call writing, how far the bounds of neuroplasticity really go, and how the brain damage interviewer Ben Mckelvey suffered as a result of a stroke may be similar to the effects of dyslexia on children.

Missed others in our podcast series? Meet Professor Jeanette Kennett, last week’s featured interview, and hear from others in our series.

27 diverse student societies were also present, and more than $1400 was raised to support the work of the UN Women International Committee Australia to end violence against women and girls in the Pacific region.

As of today, visitors to mgsm.edu.au will encounter a brand new website for the Macquarie Graduate School of Management. A key component of the Shared Identity project, the new site aligns MGSM with the University’s new identity while still maintaining a distinct brand look for the leading business school. Other major improvements include responsive mobile-friendly design and a new site structure that better meets audience needs.

[Front row, left] Emeritus Professor Jim Piper from the Department of Physics and Astronomy. [Back row, centre] Dr Lee Spitler from the Department of Physics and Astronomy. [Back row, far right] Dr Alfonso Garcia-Bennett from the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences.

‘Science Meets Parliament 2016’ Science & Technology Australia President, Emeritus Professor Jim Piper and delegates Dr Lee Spitler from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Dr Alfonso Garcia-Bennett from the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences met with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in his office at Parliament House earlier this month.

The 16th annual Science meets Parliament brought 200 working scientists to Canberra for a two-day program of professional development and networking aimed at helping them better communicate their science to the media, policymakers and parliamentarians.

[Left] The newly refurbished Department of Linguistics. [Right] Unveiling of the ‘We Are Ubuntu’ artwork by the Head of the Department of Linguistics, Associate Professor Jan-Louis Kruger (pictured right), and Macquarie University Visual Voices Art Group artist, Olegario Gonzalez.

The long awaited refurbishment of The Linguistics Department C5A building has been completed, in the record time of five months, by the company Inaphase. The new interior has proven to be a hit among staff, showcasing crisp modern features in neutral tones, complemented with splashes of turquoise and copper.

To celebrate, the Department of Linguistics held an opening last Friday afternoon in the elegant space, during which they unveiled the newly installed artwork created by members of the Macquarie University Visual Voices Art Group. The group was established in August 2014 by speech pathologist Christine Sheard in the Macquarie University Speech and Hearing Clinic. The group encourages people with some physical paralysis and language communication difficulties (aphasia) following stroke, to use art as a medium to practise friendship, social participation, renewed self-identity and autonomy.

The unveiled piece pictured is called “We are Ubuntu” from three artists from the group, John Giliberti, Olegario Gonzalez, Alasdair MacLennan and their artistic facilitators Viviene Mewing, Romny Vandoros and Karlene Wilcox; who named the piece after the African term ‘ubuntu’ which means “l am what I am because of who we are”. The artwork rejoices in the fact that communication can occur in more ways than just via speech and that its ultimate success resides also in the attitudes and engagement of people in all our social contexts.

Congratulations to the Macquarie University Catering team on receiving the New South Wales Banquet and Catering Award at the Meetings and Events Australia (MEA) industry awards for the second consecutive year.

The Award recognises organisations that provide catering services for business events either as a stand-alone catering business or as a banquet department providing food and beverage services for conferences and events.

This adds to the long list of awards the team have received throughout the years for their outstanding effort.  Learn more about their achievements.

Late last month more than 800 mathematics teachers from across New South Wales, including many from regional and remote areas came to campus to take part in the Higher School Certificate (HSC) Mathematics Review day.

Run by the Mathematic Department in partnership with the Mathematical Association of New South Wales, and with the assistance of the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards New South Wales, the day included a number of sessions reviewing each of the mathematics papers from the 2015 HSC. It was an opportunity to highlight areas of concern and provide information and insight to help classroom teachers better prepare their students.

On World Hearing Day last Thursday, Professor David McAlpine, Director of Hearing Research at Macquarie University’s Australian Hearing Hub, called on the Federal Government to develop a campaign in order to combat hearing impairment in Australia.

Despite the fact that one in six Australians have a hearing impairment, hearing health has been largely overlooked by the government in comparison with other health issues that have been addressed with prominent campaigns, for example to help people to quit smoking.

“Most Australians are completely unaware of the hearing damage they may be experiencing in everyday life, let alone the importance of getting their hearing checked regularly,” said David.

David argues a campaign is needed  to combat the idea our hearing is a second-class sense, particularly as hearing impairment results in a wide range of adverse health, social, and financial impacts. He says Australians need to be made aware of the causes of hearing-loss, how to prevent it, and the importance of getting regular hearing checkups. GPs, on the other hand, need to encourage their patients to get hearing tests regularly.

David says the message is more important now than ever in order to stop more Australians from damaging their hearing.

“Hearing loss has a profound impact on the lives, employment, and finances of many Australians. When you add in the costs to relationships, performance at work, and impacts to health, there is an urgent need for more Australians to know about the risks, and have their hearing checked more often.”

Don’t miss an interview with David on Sky News tomorrow night, Tuesday 8 March from around 8.20pm.

More information

• Read more about the World Hearing Day campaign.
• Explore the latest research from the Australian Hearing Hub.
• Learn more about Professor David McAlpine.  Below, listen to more about the important role hearing plays in our communication and social interaction, how we can better protect our ears from harm with ‘noise diets’, and how a young Protestant boy from Belfast discovered his love for all things academic.

• are aged 9 – 11 years
• speak Mandarin at home
• speak English as their second language
• are right handed

The study will take place at the Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University.

Eligible participants will complete language and memory tasks and then listen to sentences while their brain responses are recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) – a harmless and non-invasive technique.

The entire visit takes approx 2.5hrs, and participants will receive a $40 Coles/Myer voucher.

Contact sithembinkosi.dube@mq.edu.au or call Thembi on ext 2937 or Carmen Kung on ext 6765 to express your interest.

This study has been approved by the Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee, ref no. 5201400780.

Participants need to be between 30 and 55 years of age, and will be asked about their lifetime noise exposure history in an online survey (approx) 20 minutes.

Participants will also be required to attend a 3.5 hour lab appointment at the Macquarie University Hearing Hub, where researchers will conduct a series of listening tasks to determine whether there is a link between a participant’s noise exposure and their auditory functioning. Participants can be provided with a written report about their hearing (including the results of their audiogram), and will receive $40 for their time.

The study will continue until June 2016.

Express your interest via email: prevention@nal.gov.au

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

The Macquarie delegates, from the ARC Centre for Cognition and its Disorders (CCD), the Centre for Language Sciences (CLaS), and the Department of Linguistics, included Distinguished Professors Stephen Crain and Katherine Demuth, Associate Professor Rosalind Thornton, Postdoctoral fellows Nan Xu Rattanasone and Weiyi Ma, and PhD students Hui Chen, Ben Davies, and Kelly Rombough.

 “I am delighted that our colleagues had eight presentations at the conference, representing the academic excellence of Macquarie University,” said Dr Weiyi Ma, who presented research comparing English and Mandarin speakers to determine how children acquire language syntax and word recognition.

Considered to be the most prestigious conference in the field of language acquisition, the conference program included presentations from an array of research areas, ranging from linguistic theory to cognitive development. PhD student Ben Davies, whose research focuses on the variant forms of grammatical units, says that the conference has allowed him to sharpen the focus of his research.

“It has allowed me to see where my topic sits within the broader area of language acquisition, and has given me perspective on what questions I should be asking and attempting to answer in the future,” he said.

Conference attendees included experts from research institutions worldwide as well as US universities Stanford and MIT. PhD student Kelly Rombough, whose research looks at children’s production and understanding of grammatical units, says that the conference offered her a great chance to engage with others in her field.

“As a PhD student it was a great opportunity to meet a number of well-known researchers in my field of work.  I had the opportunity to discuss my research project one-on-one with both students and highly qualified and world-renowned researchers,” she said.

Macquarie has one of the largest concentrations of researchers  focusing on how children learn language. Their participation in this conference – which only accepts around 14 per cent of paper presentation applicants – provides further evidence of the outstanding calibre of this research group.

• aged 30 – 55 years
• with normal (or ‘near normal’) hearing
• with a history of noise exposure at work and/or during leisure activities.

Eligible participants will be asked to answer an online survey (approximately 20 minutes) and attend a laboratory appointment (approximately three hours) at the Australian Hearing Hub.

Participation includes a free hearing test and payment of $40 in appreciation of attendance.

Contact prevention@nal.gov.au to express your interest.

This study has been approved by the Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee Ref no. 5201400862

For Erica Crome, an Early Career Researcher with the Centre for Emotional Health, taking on a cadet has proven to be a valuable resource, including an increased cultural sensitivity within her research team as well as hands-on assistance with daily research tasks. “Increased communication between the Office of Indigenous Strategy and the Centre for Emotional Health has also sparked many new ideas for collaborations on future research projects,” she says.

“I am passionate about Indigenous health equality, and I believe the strongest contribution I can make to closing the gap is to help empower future generations of Indigenous health researchers and clinicians,” says Erica.

With the goal to work in autism and social anxiety research, cadet and second year Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) student Taylor-Jain Mcalister has her eyes firmly set on completing her masters in clinical psychology and ultimately a PhD.

“I’m extremely passionate about psychology,” says Taylor-Jai. “In my first year I had multiple psychology-based volunteer jobs, but I’ve been aspiring to work in research for many years. When I learned of the cadetship, I jumped at the chance.”

Taylor-Jai says she had a few cadetship opportunities to choose from, but after learning about Erica’s work, it was an easy choice. “Erica works in many areas of research, all focused on areas I connect with – plus she was able to connect me with some of my academic idols, Jon Brock and Anna Kelly!”

“The cadetship has been an invaluable experience,” she adds. “I’m always being challenged and inspired by the work, and Erica is really great at seeing my potential and giving me responsibility. I really feel like I’m learning more about my interests in psychology and about the research process.”

For more information about how you can take on a cadet, contact Teneale Lavender (teneale.lavender@mq.edu.au) or call ext 9970.

Learn more about the program below