Award for innovative hearing software

Auditory training software developed by Dr Sharon Cameron and Professor Harvey Dillon from the Department of Linguistics has been awarded the prize for Service Delivery – Hearing and Auditory Rehabilitation at the 2023 Hearing Technology Innovator Awards in the United States. The training software, Sound Storm, is an updated version of the LiSN & Learn auditory training software that was developed as part of Dr Cameron’s NHMRC Public Health Training Fellowship and has been proven to reverse spatial processing disorder (SPD) in children after just 10 weeks of use at home. SPD is a type of auditory processing disorder that impacts the ability to understand speech in noisy environments such as classrooms and is a common long-term consequence of protracted otitis media (middle ear disease) in the first five years of life. Development and evaluation of the software was conducted while Dr Cameron and Professor Dillon worked at Australian Hearing Hub partner National Acoustic Laboratories. They have both since moved to Macquarie University, where they are continuing to investigate auditory processing disorders.

Macquarie Business School maintains strong position in 2024 QS Business Master’s Rankings 

The 2024 QS Business Master’s Rankings have been announced and Macquarie Business School has remained in the top two Australian business schools for each business masters ranking.

• Master of Marketing – #1 in Australia (#28 globally)
• Master of Applied Finance – #2 in Australia (#39 globally)
• Master of Management – #2 in Australia (#71 globally)
• Master of Business Analytics – #2 in Australia (#71-80 globally)

Commenting on the result, Professor Eric Knight, Executive Dean of MQBS, said, “This result is a testament to our incredible academic and professional staff in the Macquarie Business School and I would like to extend my gratitude to them for all their hard work and dedication to the school and our students. As a faculty, we work to rethink, reimagine and rewrite the rules of business, so our community of students, staff, alumni and partners can find their purpose and make a difference. This result will certainly energise us for the future.”

Read more here.

Commercialisation award for the Australian Hearing Hub

Macquarie University’s Australian Hearing Hub (AHH) has won the award for Best Knowledge Exchange Initiative in the 2023 Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA) Awards. The award was accepted on behalf of the AHH by Macquarie’s Dr Kathryn Sunn, Director, Commercialisation, and Katrina Avery, Director, Partnerships, at the KCA Annual Conference on the Gold Coast on 11 October. The KCA Awards recognise excellence in research commercialisation, highlighting its impact on society and the critical role played by technology transfer and research commercialisation professionals in translating publicly funded research into real-world solutions.

2023 Chloe Munro Scholarship recipient

Dr Madeline Taylor, from the Macquarie Law School, is a recipient of the Clean Energy Council’s 2023 Chloe Munro Scholarship for Transformational Leadership. Now in its third year, the scholarship supports women who are emerging leaders in the fields of clean energy, energy management and carbon abatement. As one of four ‘Executive Ready’ winners, Dr Taylor will undertake the seven-month development program for middle to senior leaders. Read more here.

Anneke Rowe Courtemanche, Manager, Global Leadership Program (GLP), and Emma McCullough, GLP Advisor and Sustainability Challenge lead at the Green Gown Awards ceremony earlier this month.

Green Gown Awards nomination for Global Leadership Program

The Global Leadership Program was thrilled to be nominated as a finalist in the 2023 Green Gown Awards Australasia for its online sustainability challenges, under the ‘Creating Impact’ category. The category recognises those who have achieved significant sustainability-related outcomes using minimal and/or limited resources. The sustainability challenges are popular online, self-paced, action-based, co-curricular programs designed to both educate participants in major sustainability issues and to establish long-term behavioural change through small-habit building.

Academy of Social Sciences Fellow announced

Professor Michelle Arrow, from the Department of History and Archaeology, has been elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. The fellowship recognises outstanding contributions to the advancement of social science knowledge and impact. Professor Arrow is one of Australia’s leading scholars in Australian postwar political, social and cultural life. Her research has made significant contributions to knowledge of histories of the post-war Australian political and social landscape, popular culture, feminist and gay and lesbian activism, and the depiction of history in the media. Through both sole-authored and collaborative research, she has investigated the ways that activism centred on questions of gender and sexuality have had a transformative impact on the rights and protections of Australian citizenship in the late 20th century.

Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Fellowship

Professor Johanna Westbrook, Director of the Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research at the Australian Institute for Health Innovation, has been made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS). Professor Westbrook is recognised internationally for her research evaluating the effects of information and communication technology in healthcare. AAHMS Fellows are elected by their peers, based on their exceptional contributions to the fields of health and medical science.

Google Award for Inclusion

Macquarie University Hearing ECHO Lab researchers, Dr Yvonne Tran and Dr Kelly Miles, have won a prestigious Google Award for Inclusion Research for 2023. The award celebrates academic research in computing and technology that champions the needs of historically marginalised groups across the world. Dr Tran and Dr Miles’ research focuses on the development of sensor-fusion empowerment networks designed to make communicating in noisy environments more accessible for people who use hearing devices – and ultimately to support everyone who finds it challenging to communicate in noisy spaces. Competition was keen, with a pool of international applicants vying for the award and its US$65,000 prize money. Dr Tran and Dr Miles’ project was selected for its unique approach and its potential to instigate substantial societal transformation.

Macquarie University is proud to announce its notable performance in the 2024 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, solidifying its position as one of Australia’s top 10 institutions in higher education. The Rankings assess research-intensive universities across their core missions, encompassing teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

What sets Macquarie apart in these rankings is its performance in the Research Quality, International Outlook and Industry pillars. These achievements underscore our commitment to disseminating new knowledge and groundbreaking ideas on a global scale.

Macquarie has particularly excelled in the three newly introduced indicators: Research Strength, Research Excellence and Research Influence. While Research Strength provides insights into research quality using percentile-based benchmarks, Research Excellence identifies the top 10 per cent of global research. Research Influence, on the other hand, considers the number of citations on a paper as well as the importance of the citing papers, offering a more comprehensive view of research excellence.

The ranking achievement is intrinsically linked to Macquarie’s strategic vision and long-term strategy of supporting research excellence. This approach is most recently exemplified by the establishment of ten new University Research Centres. These Centres build upon existing and emerging strengths across various academic disciplines to deliver excellence, collaboration, innovation and value creation in the service of significant scientific and social challenges. They are a testament to Macquarie’s commitment to addressing global challenges through consilience and pioneering research and innovation, complementing the strong performance in the research-related indicators of the THE rankings.

Find out more about the World University Rankings 2024 methodology.

Macquarie Business School ranks second for career impact among NSW business schools

Macquarie Business School has ranked in the top five for career impact – second among NSW business schools – in the AFR BOSS Best Business Schools list.

Executive Dean Professor Eric Knight spoke to the Australian Financial Review about the school’s focus on industry engagement and ensuring practical skills and experience in education that meets industry needs. Read more here.

US fellowship for orthopaedic surgeon

Academic orthopaedic shoulder and elbow surgeon, Associate Professor Sumit Raniga, has won a prestigious award from the Shoulder and Elbow Society of Australia (SESA). Presented every two years, the SESA Travelling Fellowship Award has previously provided recipients with a month of travel to visit leading European orthopaedic centres. Associate Professor Raniga is the first recipient to be offered a choice between visiting Europe and the United States. As part of the fellowship, he will receive a full scholarship to visit the Mayo Clinic, Harvard University and the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, plus two other centres of excellence of his choice. He expects to leave Australia in September 2024. As part of his visit, he will present at the closed meeting of the American Shoulder and Elbow Society in San Antonio, Texas.

Director of Research Training and Senior Lecturer at Macquarie Law School named finalist in Lawyer’s Weekly Women in Law Awards 2023

Dr Madeline Taylor has been named as a finalist in the Academic/Researcher of the Year category of the Lawyer’s Weekly Women in Law Awards 2023. The Women in Law Awards is the most highly regarded awards program across Australia and is the benchmark for excellence, recognising exceptional women in the Australian legal industry. This prestigious national awards program presents an exceptional opportunity for leading women to showcase their achievements and celebrate the recognition they deserve. Winners will be announced on Thursday 23 November at the Crown Melbourne. Read more here.

Four fellowships awarded to Faculty of Arts

Congratulations are in order for the Faculty of Arts’ recipients of the 2024 Macquarie University Research Fellowship (MQRF) scheme.

Ms Ceridwen Dovey, from the Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language, and Literature (MCCALL), received the fellowship for the innovative project ‘The Art of Planet Hunting: The role of artistry and imagination in visualising exoplanets’, which aims to understand what is at stake when astronomical artists synthesise scientific and creative knowledge to depict exoplanets (planets outside our solar system). This research is urgent because the golden age of exoplanet discovery has only just begun, thanks to next-generation advanced telescopes. While artists’ visualisations of exoplanets make an essential contribution to public understanding of the universe, there is little scholarship on artists as co-creators of astronomical knowledge. This project will develop new conceptual frameworks for analysing exoplanet imagery, grounded in both the aesthetics and ethics of how scientific data about exoplanets is creatively interpreted.

Also becoming a Fellow is Dr Emma Mitchell, School of Social Sciences, for the project ‘Children caring: shadow care infrastructures sustaining low-income families’. Children in low-income families are more likely to take on caring duties due to lack of income and available supports. The hidden care load children carry intensifies as the pandemic, environmental crisis and economic turbulence disrupt already stretched support infrastructures. This project uses a child-focused, creative approach to investigate how children’s care activities help sustain low-income families and impact child and family wellbeing. Expected outcomes include the development of child-centred care theory and a better understanding of the care capacities and care gaps that shape children’s experiences of poverty. Benefits include refining supports for children and families to improve their quality of life and promote positive health and employment outcomes in the long–term.

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Department of Security Studies and Criminology, also received a MQRF for the project, ‘Reforming Australia’s policy approach to hostage diplomacy and wrongful detention’. This project offers the first comprehensive study of how states respond to the significant international issue of wrongful detention. It aims to analyse the Australian government and partner countries’ existing policies on wrongful detention to identify scope for meaningful domestic policy reform. By examining international best practice, this project will also investigate the broader geopolitical and diplomatic implications of the international growth of hostage diplomacy, and the prospects for tackling this emerging phenomenon through international collaboration. Intended outcomes include multiple peer-reviewed journal articles, a DECRA application, influencing policymaking and improving outcomes for victims and their families.

Finally, Dr Kurt Sengul from MCCALL was successful for the project, ‘Media populism, democracy, and the public sphere in Australia’. This project aims to provide the first significant study of media populism in Australia across digital and traditional media. Adopting an innovative and interdisciplinary conceptual approach, it will benchmark evidence to help journalists, scholars and policymakers understand the implications of media populism for liberal democracy and an inclusive public sphere. The project will develop a new theory of media populism; inform policymakers on the role of media populism in processes of political polarisation, extremism and the erosion of democracy; and devise recommendations for media practitioners on how to avoid amplifying populist discourses for a more vibrant and multicultural public sphere.

Dr Cornelia Sattler from the School of Natural Sciences won the 2023 BMC Ecology and Evolution Image Competition with a striking image (pictured above) of the invasive orange pore fungus (Favolaschia calocera), after spotting the bright orange fruiting bodies growing on dead wood in the rainforest within Nightcap National Park in northern NSW.

This is the third year that BMC has run the international photo competition, which was established to showcase the wonder of the natural world and to celebrate those working to understand it.

Dr Sattler, an ecologist whose own research focuses on insect pests, took the photo while visiting rainforest in Nightcap National Park in northern NSW.

“We were in dense rainforest, and it was almost dark, everything around me was green – and this shiny, bright fungus caught my attention; it was quite beautiful,” she says.

Returning from the rainforest, she found out that the fungus was not native to the area. “The fungus is originally from Madagascar; the spores are quite sticky and have been transported all over the world via animals and hikers.”

National Measurement Institute top honour  

Honorary Professor Mark Taylor was recently awarded the National Measurement Institute’s Barry Inglis Medal for sustained contributions to Australian metrology at the 2023 measurement awards.

Professor Taylor’s research expertise is in environmental contamination in aerosols, dusts, sediments, soil and water, and the potential risks to human health. He has published widely on these topics.

He has developed new techniques to study contamination in a huge range of human environments. This includes blood lead levels in children, firefighter exposure to PFAS chemicals and soil health for residential veggie patches.

Professor Taylor is Victoria’s Chief Environmental Scientist at the Environment Protection Authority Victoria.

Read more about the award here.

Churchill Trust Fellowship awarded

Professor Bronwyn Carlson, Head of the Department of Indigenous Studies, has been awarded a prestigious Churchill Trust Fellowship to investigate community approaches to rethinking colonial commemorations and their wider impacts. In 2023 she co-authored a book entitled Monumental Disruptions: Aboriginal People and Colonial Commemorations in So-Called Australia and coedited and contributed to a global collection entitled, The Palgrave Handbook on Re-thinking Colonial Commemorations. This achievement builds on Professor Carlson’s stellar year, which has seen the release of four books, multiple keynotes, reports and her world-leading expertise across both the online and in-physical community space go from strength to strength. Find out more here.

Almost $1 million grant awarded to develop evaluation framework for high upfront-cost therapies

Professor Wendy Lipworth from the Department of Philosophy is part of a multi-institutional research team that has been awarded $999,541 in funding for the project ‘Development of a generalisable evaluation framework for high upfront-cost therapies: clinical, economic, ethico-legal, social and cultural considerations’.

Gene therapies repair faulty genes and may improve or possibly cure some serious diseases, however there is limited evidence on long-term safety and effectiveness. They can also cost up to $1 million per treatment.

This project, led by the University of Sydney, will develop a new approach to compare costs and benefits of gene therapies that will incorporate patient and stakeholder views and preferences and can be used by government to inform funding decisions. Professor Wendy Lipworth and Honorary Professor Ian Kerridge, also from the Department of Philosophy, will lead the ethics phase of the project at Macquarie.

ISAM Young Investigator Award

Senior Research Fellow Dr Hui Xin Ong of Macquarie Medical School and the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, has received the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM) 2023 Young Investigator Award. The award recognises scientists under the age of 40 who have made significant contributions to the field of aerosols in medicine.

Dr Ong’s research focuses on developing pharmaceutical and medical device technologies that can be used for the treatment of respiratory and infectious diseases, and methodological platforms to help promote the translation of new discoveries to clinical practice. She is currently working on establishing pre-clinical models to predict the effects of inhaled drugs in humans. The award was presented at the 2023 ISAM Conference, which took place in Saarbrücken, Germany in August.

UNICEF funding awarded to study the School Readiness Program in Timor-Leste

Professor Sandie Wong, Professor Rebecca Bull, Professor Linda Harrison, Associate Professor Fay Hadley, Dr Frances Gentle and Honorary Senior Lecturer Dr Kathy Cologon from the Macquarie School of Education have been awarded funding by UNICEF. The aim of the project is to design and conduct a study exploring the effectiveness of the School Readiness Program in Timor-Leste.

The School Readiness Program was developed in response to very low levels of early childhood school attendance in Timor-Leste, resulting in children often being ill-prepared for school and needing to repeat their first year at great expense. Working in collaboration with UNICEF Timor Leste, the Timor Leste Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, and research colleagues in Timor Leste, the team brings expertise in early childhood, assessment of child development, and rich knowledge of the Timor Leste context. This project will result in the design of a culturally relevant and robust evaluation of the program.

Third place for Macquarie team at national computer hacking competition

Macquarie’s Women in Cyber team placed third in Australia in the female-only category at DownUnderCTF 2023, the national computer hacking competition. Placing third in such a highly-contested competition is a great outcome for Macquarie’s team. CTF – short for Capture the Flag – is a computer security challenge where competitors race to find secret codes in the form of a text string called flags, which have been disguised within a deliberately-vulnerable program or website.

DownUnderCTF is the largest online Australian-run Capture the Flag competition, with last year’s competition fielding more than 4100 registered users and over 1900 registered teams. High school and university students compete for prizes in their categories, but the online game is open for anyone to play with people often joining in from all over the world.

Team members Izabella Lloyd-White, Zahlia Hamer, Yvonne Smith, Vrinda Maini and Evelyn Choukhman were supervised by Dr Natasha Fernandes, and they are all part of the Women in Cyber Computing Club which was formed this year to train female-identifying students in penetration testing and hacking skills.

Our excellence in industry collaborations recognised 

At Cooperative Research Australia’s annual Awards for Excellence in Innovation dinner on 11 July, Macquarie was recognised for its excellence in promoting collaboration between research and industry. Professor Dan Johnson, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation and Enterprise), accepted the Research Institution Leadership in Industry-Research Collaboration Award on behalf of Macquarie. The award formally recognises and celebrates university leadership excellence in industry-research collaboration and engagement. 

One of the key contributors to this achievement was the University’s partnerships in the field of hearing. Macquarie has established a long-lasting partnership with Cochlear Australia, resulting in the establishment of the Australian Hearing Hub in 2013. Additionally, the University recently partnered with Google as part of its Digital Future Initiative.  

$800,000 grant for Crohn’s research 

A research team led by MQ Health gastroenterologist Professor Rupert Leong has been awarded a grant of $800,000 from the McCusker Charitable Foundation, with the possibility of additional funding in the future. The study will explore microbial metagenomics and develop a clinical trial on microbial manipulation to treat Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s is classified as an inflammatory bowel disease associated with intestinal microbial dysbiosis, inciting dysregulated immune responses resulting in chronic inflammatory gut damage. The McCusker Charitable Foundation is a prestigious supporter of Australian medical research. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders changing the world

Professor Bronwyn Carlson, Head of the Department of Indigenous Studies, has been named as part of Cosmos magazine’s prestigious list of the top 52 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders changing the world. The list was developed in consultation with the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) and the five members of ACOLA. Professor Carlson’s research interests include Indigenous engagements on digital platforms, Indigenous identities and Indigenous futurisms. She has a wide publication record and is the founding and managing editor of the Journal of Global Indigeneity and the Director of the Centre for Global Indigenous Futures. Professor Carlson is also an active member of the Australian Sociological Association and an editorial board member for the Journal of Sociology. 

Pictured: Australasian Newborn Hearing Screening Committee

Sharing our expert knowledge on newborn hearing screening

The Honourable Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs, recently announced that Macquarie was awarded $150,000 from the National Foundation for Australia–China Relations in the 2022–23 grants round. Building on a history of collaboration between audiology experts in Australia and China, the foundation will support Macquarie in deepening its connections with China by funding a delegation exchange to promote shared learning. Experts from the Australian Hearing Hub and the Australasian Newborn Hearing Screening Committee will visit China to showcase Australia’s world-leading Newborn Hearing Screening program, encourage research and clinical exchange, and inform the development of resources for practitioners in Australia and China.

The University has also secured $50,000 from the NSW Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade to invite and host delegations from Southeast Asia to visit Australia. The first delegation from Thailand will visit on 17 July. The program is guided by an expert working group chaired by Professor Catherine McMahon, Head of the Department of Linguistics – and Professor Greg Leigh, Director of the NextSense Institute, and Conjoint Professor of the Macquarie School of Education. 

Pictured L to R: Associate Professor Noushin Nasiri and Professor Karu Esselle with members of the MetaSteerers Team from UTS, Dr Khushboo Singh and Dr Dush Thalakotuna

Macquarie 2023 Eureka Prize finalists

Congratulations to Associate Professor Noushin Nasiri, School of Engineering, who was announced on 19 July as a finalist in the 2023 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher – an award coincidentally sponsored by Macquarie.

Associate Professor Nasiri invented Sun-Watch, a smartphone-connected, wearable device designed to alert users to UV radiation overexposure in real time. The device relies on a nanostructure that allows a large surface area within the minuscule design and can be customised to individual skin types. Sun-Watch will soon enter its next research evaluation stage. 

Congratulations to Macquarie’s Professor Karu Esselle and the multi-institution MetaSteerers team, who are finalists in the Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia. Their low-profile antenna system allows the Australian Defence Force to remain hidden while transmitting large volumes of data or tracking suspicious radio activity across a wide bandwidth.

Winners will be announced at the Eureka Prizes award ceremony at the Australian Museum on 23 August. Best of luck to our finalists.

Alastair Heron Prize 

Associate Professor Carly Johnco, School of Psychological Sciences, has been awarded the 2022 Alastair Heron Prize from the Australian Psychological Society College of Clinical Psychologists. This biennial award encourages and rewards clinical psychologists for their work in adult ageing. As the population ages, there is a growing need to understand the processes and consequences of human ageing and develop appropriate therapies for addressing psychological problems among older people. 

ABC TOP 5 Media Residency Program

Dr Geraldine Fela, Department of History and Archaeology, has been selected as a participant in the ABC TOP 5 Media Residency Program in the humanities category. Each year, the program calls upon Australia’s higher education sector and research organisations to find the top five early career scholars across three categories: humanities, science and the arts. The selected researchers-in-residence can spend two weeks working alongside ABC’s award-winning journalists and producers, gaining first-hand experience in delivering content through radio, television and digital platforms. Dr Fela’s research expertise lies at the intersection of labour history, gender and sexuality history, and social history.

Book prize for environmental academic 

Associate Professor Emily O’Gorman, Macquarie School of Social Sciences, has been named the joint winner of the inaugural Environmental History Book Prize from the Australian and Aotearoa and New Zealand Environmental History Network for her publication Wetlands in a Dry Land: More-Than–Human Histories of Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin, published in 2021. The two winning books received high praise for the extraordinary scope and depth of their research, imaginative and lucid writing, and innovative approaches. 

Congratulations to Associate Professor Christian Schwab from Australian Astronomical Optics-Macquarie (AAO) on being awarded a prestigious Humboldt Fellowship in the experienced researcher category.  

The fellowship will allow Associate Professor Schwab to pursue research into novel optical fibres for ultra-precise exoplanet spectroscopy at the Astrophysical Institute in Potsdam (AIP), a global leader in astronomical instrumentation and a cotutelle partner of Macquarie. The primary aim is to enable the precision needed to detect Earth-like planets with upcoming radial velocity instruments.

“As we continue to improve other noise sources, optical fibres have become a bottleneck for the highest precision astronomical spectrometers, aimed at finding ‘Earth’s twins’,” says Associate Professor Schwab. 

“The Humboldt Fellowship spans three years; being able to start a long-term collaboration with AIP working closely together on new fibres for astronomy is really exciting.”  
The project includes collaborators at the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology in Jena, Heidelberg University and KU Leuven. 

Associate Professor Courtney Fung appointed to the Advisory Board for the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations 

Associate Professor Courtney Fung (pictured in the left-hand image above), from the Department of Security Studies and Criminology, has recently been appointed as an Advisory Board member for the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong. The Advisory Board brings together distinguished Australians with diverse perspectives and expertise across business, community, education, the arts, academia and national security. The Advisory Board will help guide the Foundation in its work to support governments, businesses and communities build links and strengthen constructive engagement with China. 

USD1.2 million grant win for international research collaboration 

Congratulations to Associate Professor Darrell Kemp, from the School of Natural Sciences, who has been awarded a Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) grant, valued at USD1.2 million over three years. HFSP grants are highly competitive and are only awarded to international teams involving at least two countries. Associate Professor Kemp’s research team includes Dr Casper Van Der Kooi from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and Associate Professor Michiyo Kinoshita from The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, in Japan. Their research project is titled ‘Shiny signalling: the production, detection and neurobiological processing of brilliant colours’. 

Professor Ronika Power elected to prestigious Academia Europaea 

Professor Ronika Power, from the Department of History and Archaeology, has been elected to the Academia Europaea following a rigorous peer review process. Formed in 1988, the Academia Europaea is the pan-European academy of science, humanities and letters, with a membership of more than 5000 eminent scholars. Its objective is the advancement and propagation of excellence in scholarship in the humanities, law, the economic, social and political sciences, mathematics, medicine, and all branches of natural and technological sciences anywhere in the world for public benefit and for the advancement of public education in Europe. 

Membership of Academia Europaea is via invitation, which is extended only after peer group nomination, scrutiny and confirmation as to the scholarship and eminence of the nominee in their chosen field. Election to the Academia Europaea is a personal honour that is a distinct recognition by international peers of excellence in science and scholarship within the European convocation of learned and professional scholars. Members are drawn from across the whole European continent, as well as European scholars and scholars of Europe resident in other regions of the world.

New funding for serpentine leafminer management  

Congratulations to Dr Bishwo Mainali and colleagues in Applied BioSciences who have been awarded $1,452,268 from Hort Innovation Australia for research to develop a behavioural and biological system to manage endemic and exotic leafminers in protected cropping systems. Protected cropping (crops grown in greenhouses and other structures) is Australia’s fastest growing horticulture sector with a current value of $1.5 billion per annum – a 3.5-fold increase since 2014. 

Scholarship success for Master of Professional Psychology students 

A record six students from the Macquarie Master of Professional Psychology have been offered New South Wales Education Department scholarships. The Psychology Graduates Scholarship Program supports high-achieving psychology graduates to complete a Master of Professional Psychology and become school psychologists working in metropolitan, regional and rural public schools across the state. 

A scholarship covers course costs up to $38,000, plus extras including a textbook allowance, supervised placements in schools, a one-year full-time internship when they finish study, and a permanent position as a school psychologist. 

Dr Josephine Paparo, Master of Professional Psychology Course Director and Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology, says the scholarship program offers an excellent pathway for graduates who want to work with children and young people in the diverse environments of NSW public schools. 

“All our students do placements as part of the course, but the only way to get a placement in a public school is through this program,” she says. 

Master of Psychology Practica and Skills Training Coordinator Danya Braunstein says to become a school psychologist in the Department of Education requires specific experience that many graduates don’t have. 

“Working in schools requires a comprehensive knowledge of assessments, and that’s something that the provisional psychologists can learn during their placements and internship,” she says. 

“This is the perfect opportunity for them to learn vital skills on the job.” 

Congratulations to World Vision Student Challenge winners

Congratulations to the overall winners of our World Vision Student Challenge, Team WoVi (Eshna Chand, Alexander Macgregor, Nomundari Amin-Erdene and Tsolmon Bolormaa – pictured in right-hand image above) and Team Macquarie Visionaries (Tanya Pandit, David Milne, Omar Alanazi and Ginelle Castelino), as well as runner-up, Team SANNrising (Alisha Dsouza, Shafayet Shihab, Naomi Lopes and Nayana Kumar).  

This year, teams demonstrated the power of group thinking and collaboration by submitting solutions aimed at tackling climate change and the root causes of poverty. 

The winners were announced at the final on Friday 12 May after two months of work to refine their pitches. The process included coaching sessions from academic mentors in the Department of Marketing and Louise Cummins, Chief Marketing Officer at World Vision Australia.  

Emergency animal refuge inventor selected for competition   

School of Natural Sciences Lecturer Dr Alexandra Carthey has been selected for the 2023 cohort of the Taronga Conservation Society’s HATCH Accelerator Program for ecopreneurs, for her ‘Habitat Pods’ initiative. Habitat Pods are lightweight, modular and biodegradable emergency refuges that can be rapidly deployed to protect wildlife following fires and other disasters. Dr Carthey is one of six entries going head-to-head in a public pitching competition at Taronga Zoo on 28 June, with the winner taking home $50,000 for their initiative. 

Macquarie University has been awarded $1.5 million in the latest round of Medical Research Future Fund grants to create a one-stop digital platform for faster and easier medication reviews by pharmacists.

This research is in response to reports during the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety that found aged-care residents were at increased risk of harm from medication errors, with each resident experiencing on average three to four medication-related problems.

The new platform will allow all stakeholders, including pharmacists, general practitioners, aged-care staff and aged-care residents and their carers to monitor the medication review process.

Australian Institute of Health Innovation researchers Dr Karla Seaman and Dr Magda Raban are leading the project’s multidisciplinary research team, which includes researchers from Macquarie and Edith Cowan Universities, pharmacists, nurses and general practitioners.

“Involving all stakeholders more routinely in the review of medication, and having the review recommendations followed, is a very effective way of improving care for residents,” Dr Seaman says.

“The integrated approach will make optimal use of medication reviews for the safer use of medicines in residential aged care, as well as reducing the burden on aged-care staff,” Dr Raban says.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Sakkie Pretorius says it is extremely pleasing to see high-quality health research led by early- to mid-career researchers receiving significant funding.

“This funding will allow us to pioneer further knowledge and innovation in aged care and wellness, which is a key part of our Healthy People research priority, and an area of increasing importance as our population ages,” he says.

“We can be proud of the important work we are doing at Macquarie to improve not only the quality and safety of aged care, but also residents’ quality of life.”

Project partners include Best Health Solutions, Heritage Care, Aged Care Industry Information Technology Council, Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and Consumers Health Forum of Australia.

Smart Sensing Network funds hearing innovation project

Dr Kelly Miles, a Research Fellow in Macquarie University Hearing’s ECHO Lab, has been awarded $99,234 in grant funding from the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) Grand Challenge Fund. Dr Miles’ project, The MOSAIC Study (Motion Optic and Sound Sensors to Assess Interactive Communication), is a collaboration with Western Sydney University, Cochlear Ltd and Google Research Australia. The MOSAIC Study aims to revolutionise how people with hearing devices listen and communicate. The team is working to develop next-generation signal processing algorithms, machine learning, and hearing and communication devices that use sensors to detect conversational difficulties and prevent communication breakdown. NSSN is a not-for-profit innovation network funded by the NSW Government through the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer. The Grand Challenge Fund provides funding for research on five ‘Grand Challenges’: ageing, bushfires, clean tech, smart places and buildings, and water.

Research project about early childhood education pay and conditions receives funding

A multidisciplinary team of Macquarie University researchers specialising in early childhood education (ECE), industrial relations, workforce and economic analysis has received $270,690 in funding from the ACT Government for the project ‘Early Childhood Education Pay and Conditions Research’. Professor Sheila Degotardi, Dr Tamara Cumming and Dr Natalie Brand from the School of Education, alongside Professor Rebecca Mitchell, Associate Professor Jun Gu, Professor Louise Thornthwaite and Associate Professor Kompal Sinha from Macquarie Business School, aim to identify pay and employment conditions that will positively impact the attraction and retention of ECE educators. The research team will generate findings and recommendations that will inform ECE policy and industrial relations reform as well as workforce initiatives planned by large and small ECE employers.

Professor of Respiratory Medicine recognised by Lung Foundation Australia

Professor Matthew Peters from Macquarie Medical School has been named as one of the Lung Foundation Australia’s Lung Health Legends for 2023. Professor Peters, who is also Head of Respiratory Medicine at Concord Hospital, is Co-chair of the Woolcock Institute’s Lung Cancer Research Network and has had a long-term interest in lung cancer research with a focus on preventative health. The Lung Health Legend Awards recognise people who have made a positive impact on the lives of Australians affected by lung disease or lung cancer.

Humanities and social science disciplines shine in QS Subject Rankings

Macquarie’s teaching and research excellence in the humanities has once again been demonstrated with impressive results in the QS Subject Rankings 2023. Linguistics rose one spot to 27th in the world, while classics and ancient history and philosophy continue to rank in the top 50. Psychology, accounting and finance maintained their positions within the top 100, while modern languages made significant progress, jumping from 151-200 to 101-150.

50 Australian women at the cutting edge of science announced

Professor Ronika Power from the Department of History and Archaeology and Professor Alison Rodger from the School of Natural Sciences have been featured in a round-up of 50 Australian women at the cutting edge of science by the Royal Institute of Australia’s Cosmos Magazine. The list was compiled in honour of International Women’s Day 2023 to showcase “exceptional and interesting” women scientists and researchers across Australia. The list features incredible and inspiring women scientists from across disciplines including anthropology, archaeology, physics, technology, health and medical sciences, and chemistry.

NEAS Endorsement for Macquarie University College

Macquarie University College has received NEAS Endorsement for its English Medium of Instruction (EMI) course suite. The EMI Centre, launched in 2021, focuses on designing and delivering bespoke programs for higher education providers using English as the medium of instruction. As part of its customised services, the EMI Centre specialises in developing the English language proficiency of educators, as well as methodology and best practice for teaching in English.

The suite of courses aims to assist educational institutions globally to address the gap between policy and practice in the delivery of courses in English and enhance the skills of professionals within client institutions. In receiving the NEAS endorsement, the course suite was commended for the extensive research undertaken to inform its development and the expertise of its staff. Noted highlights included the comprehensive needs analysis undertaken in the varying markets in Asia Pacific and Latin America, and its flexibility in the development and delivery of bespoke programs to suit client needs. An EMI Centre Advisory Board has been established to provide ongoing guidance and quality assurance, with best practice industry standards used to validate decisions and design.

Macquarie’s commitment to student learning and teaching excellence has been recognised, with Dr Joel Fuller, Department of Health Sciences and Dr John Turchini, Macquarie Medical School receiving citations at the 2022 Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT). 

Both were awarded in the health category for their approaches to teaching and support of learning that influences, motivates and inspires students.  

For the past six years, Fuller has convened, lectured and tutored first-year masters-level fundamentals to aspiring physiotherapists in the Doctor of Physiotherapy course. With this award, he has been acknowledged for his excellence in inspiring and supporting postgraduate physiotherapy students through innovative teaching and the creation of authentic, student-centred and practical learning approaches.  

Turchini has more than 10 years’ experience teaching anatomy, histology and pathology and his approach to teaching is to influence, motivate and inspire students to learn. His goal is to transform otherwise dry subjects into exciting and engaging topics through gameplay and interactive lessons. He has been recognised for his innovative approaches to teaching that inspire students to consider pathology as a career, and he is an example himself as a practicing histopathologist at Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology.  

The Awards were established in 1997 by the Australian Government to celebrate and reward excellence in university teaching. Since then they have become a valued form of recognition for university educators that acknowledge the positive impact they have on students.  

Congratulations to the 2022 recipients. 

Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite appointed to international commission on improving mental health services. 

Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, Founding Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, has been appointed to a prestigious international commission on improving mental health services. 

Braithwaite has been appointed as Commissioner of The Lancet Commission on Transformative research to scale mental health interventions. 

This prestigious international appointment reflects Braithwaite’s leadership in the field of implementation science, developing strategies and methods to facilitate the uptake of evidence-based research into regular use to improve the health system. 

Macquarie staff receive Medals of the Order of Australia 

Congratulations to the Australia Day 2023 Honours List recipients from Macquarie University, who have been recognised for their excellence and contribution to our society. 

Emeritus Professor Peter Curson, Department of Health Sciences, has received an Honorary Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in recognition of his service to tertiary education.  

A population geographer with a strong interest in medical geography and population health, Curson is Emeritus Professor of Population and Health, a former Head of Human Geography and a former Dean of the Division of Environmental and Life Sciences.  

With a career spanning 50 years, he has held professorships at both Macquarie and Sydney universities. He has written extensively on infectious disease epidemics and pandemics and how communities respond to them; his most recent publication is a book on the Black Death in Australia. 

Honorary appointments to the Order of Australia are made to people who have given extraordinary service to Australia but are not Australian citizens.  

The medal will be presented at a ceremony at Government House later this year. 

Dr Coral Kemp, Honorary Senior Lecturer from Macquarie School of Education, was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her contribution and service to special needs education. Kemp joined Macquarie University as a lecturer in 1991 and has been an Honorary Senior Lecturer since 2015. She has received several awards for her service, including Outstanding Contribution to Special Education by the Australian Association of Special Education in 2017. 

Emeritus Professor Richard Howitt, School of Social Sciences, was awarded Member (AM) of the Order of Australia for his significant service to education and to the Indigenous community. Joining Macquarie University in 1992, Howitt’s work as a geographer has been commended for its innovation and significance over time.  

As a non-Indigenous Australian, Howitt’s research focuses on Indigenous rights and the interface between Indigenous communities, natural resource development, governments and corporations at the scales of the project, the community, the landscape, and the nation. 

Dr Michael Mitchelmore, Honorary Associate Professor from Macquarie School of Education, was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to mathematics education and to the community. Mitchelmore joined Macquarie University in 1990, working at various times as Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, Associate Professor of Education, and Director of the Centre for Research in Mathematics and Science Education. Mitchelmore has been an Honorary Associate Professor since 2012. 

A number of Macquarie alumni were also recognised, including respected Aboriginal elder Patricia Ellis (Advanced Diploma in Community Management, 1999; Bachelor of Community Management, 2007) who received an OAM for her work in revitalising the Aboriginal Dhurga language. 

Ablaze documentary recognised at the Australian Directors’ Guild Awards

Dr Alec Morgan, Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature (MCCALL), was awarded ‘Best Direction in a Documentary Feature’ at the 2022 Australian Directors’ Guild Awards ceremony in December for his documentary Ablaze. Ablaze was co-directed by Tiriki Onus and continues to be recognised with a slew of nominations and awards.

Morgan is a founding member of the Creative Documentary Research Centre at Macquarie, recently launched at the State Library of NSW. Professor Tom Murray is Director of the centre and associate producer of Ablaze.

Pictured (L to R): Kim Terrell, Managing Director Hearing Australia; Professor Greg Leigh AO; Hon. Bill Shorten; Elizabeth Crouch AM, Chair, Hearing Australia

Lifetime Achievement Award for Professor Greg Leigh AO

 Professor Greg Leigh AO has been honoured with Hearing Australia’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of 40-plus years spent furthering hearing research and support in Australia.

Leigh is Conjoint Professor at the School of Education and Centre for Language Sciences, Director of NextSense Institute, and senior leader at NextSense, which is an Australian Hearing Hub member and not-for-profit organisation working with people who are living with hearing and vision loss.

The award was presented by the Hon. Bill Shorten at Hearing Australia’s 75th anniversary celebrations, recognising Leigh’s contribution to building better research knowledge, education and services for Australians who are deaf and hard of hearing.

His achievements include playing a central role in advocating to establish Australia’s world-leading newborn hearing screening programs, leading the establishment of the Master of Disability Studies, which is delivered by NextSense in affiliation with the University, and an ongoing commitment to cutting-edge research and mentoring PhD students.

Executive Dean elected as Society Fellow

Congratulations to Professor Lucy Marshall, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering for being elected as a fellow of the Modelling and Simulation Society Australia and New Zealand (MISSANZ).

MISSANZ fellows are recognised for their dedication to promoting the aims of the Society, and for significant contributions to modelling and simulation. View the list of Fellows.

Pictured (L-R): Dr Ingrid Yeend, Macquarie University; (behind) Ms Jermy Pang, National Acoustic Laboratories; (in front) Dr Lyndal Carter, Cochlear; Dr Joaquin T. Valderrama, National Acoustic Laboratories, Macquarie University and University of Granada; Dr Paola Incerti, National Acoustic Laboratories; Dr Kiri Mealings, Macquarie University

Spain’s highest honour for hearing researcher

Hearing loss researcher Dr Joaquin Valderrama has been awarded Spain’s highest civil honour.

Dr Valderrama, an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Linguistics, was recognised for his leadership of the not-for-profit association Spanish Researchers in Australia-Pacific from 2019 to 2021, and for sustaining a productive international research collaboration with Spain’s University of Granada.

Spanish Ambassador to Australia, Her Excellency Ms Alicia Moral Revilla, presented Valderrama with the Knight’s Cross of the Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic during an event at the Australian Hearing Hub on 25 November 2022.

The Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic was first created in 1815 by King Ferdinand VII and is currently granted to individuals and institutions that promote international relationships between Spain and other nations. Knights and Dames of the Order are bestowed by King Felipe VI of Spain; recipients receive the official title of ‘His Lordship’ or ‘Her Ladyship’ and are allowed to add a golden heraldic mantle to their coat of arms.

Valderrama has accepted a Maria Zambrano European Fellowship in order to continue his research into hidden hearing loss at the University of Granada. He will retain his links to Macquarie, and to Australian Hearing Hub member National Acoustic Laboratories, where he was employed as a research scientist before taking up his new role.

Researcher appointed as Visiting Professor at Japan University 

Congratulations to Associate Professor Morten Thaysen-Andersen, who has been appointed as a Visiting Professor at Nagoya University. Thaysen-Andersen has been recruited to set up a cutting-edge glycoproteomics lab within renowned glycoscience research institute, iGCORE.

New Society formed to further Glycoscience

Congratulations to Distinguished Professor Nicki Packer and Associate Professor Morten Thaysen-Andersen from the School of Natural Sciences who have, alongside key colleagues from across Australia, formed the Australian Glycoscience Society.

Known colloquially known as Glyco@Oz, the new society was launched at the fourth Australasian Glycoscience Symposium on the Gold Coast in November 2022. The society already has 130 members, with Thaysen-Andersen elected to the role of President for a three-year period.

Pictured (L to R): Professor Shlomo Berkovsky, Professor Johanna Westbrook, Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, Australian Institute of Health Innovation

 Awards for AIHI researchers

Congratulations to Professor Johanna Westbrook and Professor Shlomo Berkovsky from the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI), who were recognised at Research Australia’s recent Health and Medical Research Awards.

Westbrook received the prestigious Health Services Research Award in recognition of her leadership in health services research and defining contributions to the development of the field. Berkovsky received a commendation in the Data Innovation category for his research into privacy issues associated with mobile health apps.

AIHI Founding Director Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite says the awards were a pleasing recognition of the work of Westbrook and Berkovsky and their teams.

“Being placed among the nation’s brightest scientific minds and advocates at the Research Australia gala event is a major achievement and reflects the valuable contributions they have made,” he says.

Research Australia is the peak national alliance for health and medical research.

HDR student’s sweep at Synthetic Biology Conference 

Congratulations to Higher Degree Research student Carly Retief for receiving the award for the best Early and Mid-Career Researcher (EMCR) talk and best EMCR science communication talk at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology conference in November. The recognition was for her presentation Phun with Phytases: Heterologous phytase expression in an insect host.

Macquarie Business School named among best in the world

Two new global rankings have included Macquarie Business School among the very best in the world for business education.

Macquarie was one of only two business schools in Australia to be included in CEO World Magazine’s 2023 World’s Best Business Schools top 100. The Wharton School claimed top position in the list of 100 best schools.

Macquarie Business School’s Master of International Business was also named in the top 50 globally and the top five in Australia in the QS International Trade Rankings. This ranking considers programs worldwide that prepare students for a career in international trade. Macquarie’s program is known for providing students with an understanding of core business disciplines with an international focus that enables them to explore global career options.

Successful Cooperative Research Centres Projects Announced

Congratulations to Professor Anina N. Rich, from the School of Psychological Sciences, who has been awarded funding of $593,688 from the Cooperative Research Centres Projects program (CRC-P). Rich will assess the impact of smart helmets on cognition and rider safety using cognitive science measures of attention and load (response time, accuracy, eye movement, pupil dilation), combined with established and innovative measures of riding safety.

The project is a collaboration with Forcite Helmet Systems, Harley-Davidson Australia, Transport for NSW, APPRO Photoelectron and NSW Smart Sensing Network. The university partners are Macquarie University, Western Sydney University and the University of Canberra. The total project value is $5,654,275, with $1,650,505 in grant funding awarded.

CRC-P support companies working to commercialise cutting-edge ideas in collaboration with researchers and innovators. Nineteen projects were awarded in this round.

Macquarie professor announced as Australia’s representative on the Global Partnership for AI

Professor Farah Magrabi has been nominated by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources as one of Australia’s representatives for a three-year term on the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) secretariat.

The GPAI secretariat sits within the OECD and aims to foster international collaboration on the responsible use and development of AI through two centres of expertise. Professor Magrabi will be working with the International Centre of Expertise in Montréal in Artificial Intelligence.

Australia joined the GPAI in June 2020, as one of the founding members, with the goal of helping to support and guide the responsible development and use of AI; facilitate international collaboration in a multi-stakeholder manner; and be a global point of reference for multidisciplinary research on AI.

Membership of the GPAI allows Australian experts to collaborate with international counterparts to build capacity and understanding in the use AI technologies that address national and global challenges such as drought, bushfires, energy stability and pandemics.

Dr Rimante Ronto recognised for teaching excellence

Senior Lecturer in Health Sciences Dr Rimante Ronto has been recognised with an Early Career Academic Award for Teaching Excellence by the Council of Academic Public Health Institutions Australasia. One of the keys to Dr Ronto’s win is her use of digital tools in teaching, which enhance active learning while supporting diverse learning styles, fostering student engagement and supporting the development of digital literacy and critical thinking.

Macquarie iLearn team recognised for their innovative work

The iLearn Insights team, led by Shamim Joarder, has won the CAUDIT Innovation in Teaching and Learning Award. The award celebrates digital innovations that have had a transformative effect on teaching and learning activities in the higher education and research sector. Congratulations to the team on this award.

ARC Centre of Excellence award

Congratulations to Professor Bronwyn Carlson, Department of Indigenous Studies, who is a Chief Investigator (CI) on a successful ARC Centre of Excellence grant led by Monash University: the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Carlson will be the Deputy Director for a Centre led by Professor Jacqui True from Monash University, together with a team of 29 other CIs and principal investigators (PIs), six other universities and 47 partner organisations. A total of $34,999,990 has been granted over seven years.

As Deputy Director (Indigenous), Carlson will support the Centre in its commitment to Indigenous research ethics, approaches and governance models, and will assist the centre director to define the overall research strategy. As a Node leader at Macquarie, she will also coordinate, manage and support all Macquarie team members including new recruits and PIs.

She will also lead the Indigenous pillar as well as two of its three workstreams: The Violence of Colonialism, and Racial Analysis and Anti-Racism Praxis. The Indigenous pillar will apply Indigenous scholarship to understand violence as shaped by dominant norms/beliefs and institutional structures, including colonial, racialised and gender hierarchies. As pillar lead, Carlson will be responsible for ensuring the three workstreams are meeting their annual research objectives within the timeframes and budgets specified.

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) – 2022 Sustainability Awards finalists

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) announced Macquarie Law School’s Professor Cathy Sherry as a finalist for a 2022 AASHE Sustainability Award in the Campus Sustainability Research category. The award recognises outstanding scholarship in higher education, with Professor Sherry being nominated for her article ‘Learning from the Dirt: Initiating university food gardens as a cross-disciplinary tertiary teaching tool’, which documented the process of creating food growing spaces for teaching and research on a high-density university campus. AASHE is a US organisation with more than 900 university members from around the world. Finalists were selected from more than 430 submissions.

ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme success

Distinguished Professor Ian Paulsen, DECRA Research Fellow Dr Amy Cain, Dr Sasha Tetu and Research Fellow Dr Liping Li from the School of Natural Sciences and Dr Ming Li from the School of Engineering have been awarded funding of $682,792 to develop a multifaceted technology platform that enhances single cell genomics. The project will improve much-needed capabilities in separating single cells from complex bacterial communities, mapping important cells within tissues, and rapid genetic sequencing. The state-of-the-art research equipment will support a wide variety of applications by generating significant advances across multiple sectors, including producing fuels, plastics and industrial biochemicals in microbes, and identifying agricultural pests and diseases.

Nationally, 45 projects were funded, by ARC with a success rate of 33.8 per cent.

National Health and Medical Research Council grant success

Congratulations to Professor Greg Leigh and Professor Teresa Ching from the School of Education and NextSense Institute. They have been awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council Targeted Call for Research grant, led by Associate Professor Valerie Sung from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. The grant, ‘Building on newborn hearing screening success: towards national standards and data management: ANCHOR (Australian National Child Hearing Outcomes Registry)’, will develop the structure and prerequisites for a database for Deaf or hard-of-hearing children in Victoria and Queensland as a prototype that can be rolled out nationally. They have been awarded funding of $1,436,994 over three years.

2023 Macquarie University Research Fellowship Scheme

Congratulations to the recently announced recipients of the 2023 Macquarie University Research Fellowship (MQRF) Scheme.

Dr Geraldine Fela from the Department of History and Archaeology was recognised for the project ‘Here to Stay! Remembering the 1998 Waterfront Dispute’. This project will interview 40 workers, union officials and key decision makers from Patrick Corporation and the Coalition government involved in the 1998 waterfront dispute. As the climate crisis pushes us towards a new period of turbulence and transition in Australian working lives, it is of crucial importance that we hear from those who experienced a similar period of abrupt transformation 25 years ago.

Dr Catherine Gascoigne from Macquarie Law School was recognised for the project ‘Towards a new legal framework for adjudicating causal questions in international investment law’. This project aims to develop a new model for analysing causation in international investment law disputes. Specifically, it seeks to analyse the current deficiencies in international investment law jurisprudence (particularly the use of historical causal principles that are unsuited to this area of law) and show how they can lead to unjust outcomes.

Dr Christian Gelder from the Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature was recognised for the project ‘Mental health modernism: Modern literature and the aesthetics of mental health’. Focusing on the period between 1908 and 1948, this innovative and interdisciplinary project will deliver the first literary history of mental health psychology.

Dr Alistair Sisson from the School of Social Sciences was recognised for the project ‘The politics of housing data: examining the uneven quantification of housing problems’. This project examines the drivers and consequences of the range of efforts to quantify housing problems in Australia. The project will advance critical understanding of quantitative data among policymakers, advocates/activists, researchers and the public, including how such data can challenge or reinforce established policy paradigms and power relations.

2022 Macquarie University Fellowship for Indigenous Researchers scheme

Congratulations to Rose Barrowcliffe, Department of Indigenous Studies, who has been awarded a Macquarie University Fellowship for Indigenous Researchers (MUFIR) award for the project ‘Making the right to know possible: metadata for discovering and accessing records relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’. This research aims to develop methods for integrating Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) protocols and Indigenous knowledges into the metadata of archival records.

Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Shortlist

Dr Peter Edwell, Department of History and Archaeology, was shortlisted in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for his book, ‘The Case that Stopped a Nation: The Archibald Prize Controversy of 1944’. The book recounts the 1944 Archibald Prize scandal involving William Dobell’s winning portrait of fellow artist Joshua Smith, and the court case that ensued. The judges’ comments state “…this book about the portrait that shocked and stunned a nation, and the impact it had on Dobell, makes a substantial contribution to Australian art history.” Read more on The Lighthouse.

Two Macquarie researchers named in the Clarivate™ Highly Cited List 2022

Emeritus Professor Richard Kefford from Macquarie Medical School and Associate Professor Richard McDermid from the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences have been named among the most influential scientists in the world by the Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researchers list, for producing multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top one per cent by citations for field and year. This is the second year McDermid appears on the list for his influential research into space science. Internationally-renowned Kefford has appeared on the list for consecutive years for his acclaimed melanoma research.

Our alumni shine as finalists in the Australia China Alumni Awards

Ten Macquarie alumni have been named among finalists in this year’s Australia China Alumni Awards, which recognise the achievements of Australian-educated Chinese alumni.

Among them is Alan Bai (Graduate Diploma of Accounting (1997), Master of Applied Finance (1998)) in the Community Service Award category. Through the Chong Ren Foundation, Bai has helped finance school buildings and IT equipment in underprivileged areas of China, including for communities devastated by the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

Macquarie law alumna The Hon Dr Helen Sham-Ho OAM JP took out the coveted Alumni of the Year category at last year’s awards, in recognition of her service to the community, social justice and multiculturalism. Sham-Ho was the first Chinese-born Member of Parliament in Australia, serving in the New South Wales Parliament for four terms.

The 2022 winners will be celebrated at upcoming ceremonies in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Shenyang.

Five Macquarie University researchers awarded prestigious DECRA Fellowships

Congratulations to Macquarie University researchers, Dr Zixin Huang, Dr Jean-Simon Lemay, Dr Hamid Karimi-Rouzbahani, Dr Emma Burns and Dr Daozhi Xu on being awarded highly competitive DECRA Fellowships from the Australian Research Council with a total award of $2,007,289.

Dr Zixin Huang’s project ‘Quantum-enabled super-resolution imaging’ will aim to design large scale, quantum-enabled imaging systems to boost the resolution of state-of-the-art instruments by three to five orders of magnitude.

Dr Jean-Simon Lemay will investigate ‘New foundations for algebraic geometry’ which aims to use differential categories to create new foundations for algebraic geometry, and to generate new knowledge on the connection between algebraic and differential geometry.

Dr Hamid Karimi-Rouzbahani will research ‘Characterising brain networks of intelligence through information tracking’. The outcomes of this project will be fundamental insights into the mechanisms of human intelligence and new connectivity analysis software that will have wide application in brain research.

Dr Emma Burns will investigate ‘The power of teacher-student relationships to optimise student outcomes’, aiming to determine how teacher-student relationships support adolescents’ motivation, engagement, and achievement in mathematics, science and English.

Dr Daozhi Xu will explore ‘Chinese Australian writing on indigenous country’. This project will produce the first major study of Chinese Australian writing about indigenous people, culture, and country from the 19th century to the present.

Nationally, 200 DECRAs were funded, outcomes can be viewed on RMS.

Competitive Phase-A study in adaptive optics to include Australian Astronomical Optics

Congratulations to Professor Jon Lawrence, Dr Michael Goodwin, Tony Farrell, Helen McGregor, Dr Jessica Zheng, and Lew Waller from Australian Astronomical Optics (AAO-Macquarie), who have finalised an agreement with the US consortium AURA to conduct a competitive Phase A study for an adaptive optics bench for the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii.

The adaptive optics bench is a significant component for the Gemini North Adaptive Optics project that will provide the Gemini North telescope with a state-of-the-art adaptive optics facility enabling the capability to obtain very high resolution near-infrared images over almost the entire sky. This will allow targeting of distant galaxies to study their formation and evolution, back to a time in the early universe when galaxies were first forming. It will also allow astronomers to gain insight into the physics of star formation within the Milky Way galaxy.

The Phase A study will be led by AAO-Macquarie representing the Astralis Instrumentation Consortium with Astralis partner ANU and their investigator Franois Rigaut; as well as international partners the French Aerospace Lab ONERA, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique and the French company ALPAO.

A number of international teams are competing in this 12-month Phase A study. At the conclusion of the study, AURA will select one team for the contract for final design and construction of the facility.

Anniversary and accolades for MindSpot

On 10 October, Macquarie’s pioneering online mental health clinic, MindSpot, celebrated its 10^th anniversary. Two days later, Executive Director Professor Nick Titov was presented with an Exceptional Contribution Award at The MHS Mental Health Service Awards of Australia and New Zealand.

The MindSpot team celebrated with stakeholders and supporters at a virtual event hosted by Deputy Vice Chancellor (Medicine and Health) Professor Patrick McNeil.

Professor Titov received the award in recognition of his ongoing contribution to mental health research and treatment.

This latest honour comes on the heels of a Training Excellence Award for MindSpot Academy at the 2022 Australian Business Awards. The academy was launched in 2020 and is the only program in the world to offer a specialised digital mental health clinical training pathway for mental health professionals.

Formed in 2012, MindSpot is not-for-profit service that has built a reputation as a world leader in the online mental health space, and has provided free assistance to more than 200,000 Australians experiencing stress, anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, chronic pain and substance abuse.

As well as providing online and telephone treatment, MindSpot has a range of resources available on its website, including the recently launched The Big Five, which provides advice on the keys to maintaining good mental health.

Telstra Digital Health Award for Johanna Westbrook

Professor Johanna Westbrook, Director of the Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, has been named as one of the 2022 Telstra Brilliant Women in Digital Health and Aged Care. Johanna is known for her research on the effectiveness and safety of clinical IT systems in hospitals and in aged care. She has recently built on her groundbreaking work on the effects of electronic medical management systems (eMM) in adult hospitals with the completion of the largest and most comprehensive study of eMM in paediatric hospitals.

Responsible Gardening program named finalist in 2022 New South Wales Sustainability Awards

Congratulations to the Gardening Responsibly Team, including Distinguished Professor Michelle Leishman from the School of Natural Sciences, for being recognised as Finalists in the 2022 NSW Sustainability Awards, in the NSW Small and Medium Enterprise Transformation Award category. Distinguished Professor Leishman is the program’s Expert Advisor and led the development of the plant risk assessment tool that underpins the program.

The collaborative initiative takes a groundbreaking approach to finding and promoting plants with a low risk of becoming invasive weeds, allowing industry to add-value to current sales and demonstrate their strong commitment to sustainability and the protection of the environment.

Winners of the NSW Sustainability Awards will be announced on 25 October at the Gala Awards night.

Best Article Award for Centre for Emotional Health researcher

Dr Natasha Magson from the Centre for Emotional Health has been awarded the Emerging Scholar Best Article Award for 2022 from the Journal of Youth and Adolescence for her paper, Risk and Protective Factors for Prospective Changes in Adolescent Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The paper was mentioned in Time Magazine and has already been cited more than 630 times since it was published last year.