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.

The study originated from an idea proposed by the NSW Cancer Council scientist Dr Visalini Nair-Shalliker, and then was shaped by a team of Macquarie urologists and scientists, with Professor Howard Gurney in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences as principal investigator.

“Some forms of prostate cancer are very slow growing and rarely spread to other parts of the body and ideally should not be treated with aggressive surgery. Such patients are watched carefully on an ‘active surveillance’ program but 30 to 50 per cent progress and require a prostatectomy or radiotherapy,” said Howard.

“Preliminary evidence shows that the use of high dose vitamin D might slow cancer growth, and this study will test whether the use of high dose vitamin D in such patients will slow cancer growth and reduce the need for aggressive therapy,” he concluded.

The study will be coordinated by Macquarie University and will be undertaken in more than 10 centres throughout Australia with 120 patients.

Preliminary results are expected in about three years and, if positive, will trigger a larger international randomised study to prove the effectiveness of Vitamin D in this setting.

In the fourth installment of our Pioneering Minds Podcast series, listeners meet this week’s guest, Professor Jeanette Kennett from the Department of Philosophy.

Jeanette is a pioneer of neurolaw – a new interdisciplinary field that investigates the relationship between neuroscience and law. In her interview with Ben Mckelvey, she discusses the implications of this field on moral agency, criminality and culpability, the establishment of the neurolaw database, and how she was drawn to questions of justice.

Missed others in our podcast series? Meet Rifaie Tammas, last week’s featured interview, and hear from others in our series.

The Network is part of a broader University strategy developed under the Strategic Research Framework to support ECRs and help them achieve world-leading research at Macquarie. The launch  marked the first event for the Network and will be followed by regular professional development and networking opportunities throughout the year and beyond. According to Professor Lesley Hughes: “Macquarie is building a network that is both supportive and informative to help early career researchers develop their careers.”

Professor Hughes, who has driven the establishment of the Early Career Researcher Support Strategy, says the strategy aspires ‘at the most basic level to raise the bar of ECR support and provide opportunities for all’. Both Professor Hughes and Professor Pretorius acknowledged the many challenges facing today’s early career researchers.

Professor Pretorius described the ECR Support Strategy as an example of our commitment to supporting researchers who have the hunger and aspiration to become future research ‘black belts’. His message to early career researchers was to find balance and not to ‘prioritise what is on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities’, also emphasising the importance of family, friends and wellbeing to a flourishing career.

Early career biologist and 2015 recipient of the NSW Young Tall Poppy Award, Dr Rachael Gallagher, spoke about early career researchers deserving the very best in support and mentorship that Macquarie University can offer and urged her peers to make the most of the opportunities available.

Professor Hughes encourages ECRs to make the Network their own by engaging with events and contributing feedback and suggestions.

Discover more about the Network via the ECR website, Faculty ECR Representatives or via the monthly ECR News email.

Learn more about recent research success stories and external research prizes and award opportunities.

• 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.

A specialist social media team has joined Group Marketing at Macquarie, taking the wheel of the University’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts, and generating new and exciting content across these platforms. The team has been working on a new series of Pioneering Minds podcasts that share the exciting stories of nine different Macquarie researchers.

“There is no shortage of big ideas and fascinating people here at Macquarie and the philosophy behind the podcast was to allow our audience to dig a little deeper than what Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have on offer,” says podcast interviewer and social media team leader, Ben Mckelvey.

The series was launched earlier this month with an in-depth and personal discussion with Distinguished Professor David Christian, who gave his unique perspective on historical study, his time in Soviet Russia, the economics of vodka, his relationship with Bill Gates and the founding of the Big History program. The episode has been well received with around 300 people having already listened to the first instalment of the series.

The second episode discusses papyrology and the forensic investigation of the gospel of Jesus’ wife with Associate Professor Malcolm Choat.

While only two episodes have been released so far, there are already plans in the works for another season. The podcasts will come to represent the innovative and stimulating collection of stories the University has to offer.

“We’re keen to continue building a rich library of Macquarie stories that complement our other media and marketing activities and highlight the key fields of research, learning and teaching here at the University,” says John Chatterton, Chief Marketing Officer.

Listen to the first two instalments of the podcast series below or subscribe to the series through iTunes or SoundCloud.

Professor Sakkie Pretorius, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), presented the 2016 Research Weather Report on Thursday last week. Titled The ERA of Black Belt Performance, Professor Pretorius thanked Macquarie’s academics, professional staff and higher degree research (HDR) candidates for three years of work that have translated into a rapid acceleration of Macquarie’s research performance and quality.

“No other university in Australia has achieved what we have in the past three years,” said Professor Pretorius. “Our academic black belts, our professional staff and our HDR candidates – they are the ones who made this possible.”

Macquarie’s external research income has improved from $48 million in 2013 to approximately $67 million (unaudited) in 2015. Macquarie’s HDR completions have increased from 297 in 2013 to 594 in 2015. While Macquarie’s weighted publications have remained relatively unchanged at 1849 in 2013, 1833 in 2014 and approximately 1830 (unaudited) in 2015, the quality of this work has greatly improved.

The increase in Macquarie’s research quality was demonstrated through the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2015 evaluation. One hundred per cent of Macquarie’s research at the 2-digit Field of Research Code (FoRC) level was rated ‘at or above world standard’ by ERA 2015. No discipline areas at Macquarie received a rating of ‘well below world standard’ at either the 2-digit FoRC or 4-digit FoRC level.

“Macquarie has already achieved the 2024 targets we set ourselves for ERA in the Strategic Research Framework,” said Professor Pretorius. “It is now time to defend our areas of strength and build capability and quality across the University.”

Professor Pretorius and Professor Peter Nelson, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Performance and Innovation), will be visiting the faculties and MGSM for town hall meetings this week, providing an opportunity for all staff and HDR candidates to ask questions.

If you missed the presentation, or if you would like to view it again, it is available to watch online: