Canberra Science Calendar

The Australian Academy of Science was founded on 16 February 1954 by Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. Physicist Sir Mark Oliphant was founding President.

This photo of Foundation Fellows was taken at their first meeting, on 7 May 1954, at the ANU's University House which had been officially opened in February of that year.

Back row: Herbert Green, John Jaeger, Thomas Room, David Catcheside, Otto Frankel, Charles Priestley, Richard Woolley, Joseph Pawsey, Frederick Courtice, Rutherford Robertson, Edmund Cornish.

Middle row: Edwin Hills, John Anderson, Max Lemberg, Ian Mackerras, Patrick Murray, Alfred Gottschalk, Victor Trikojus, James Prescott, Sydney Sunderland, Leonard Huxley, Arthur Birch.

Front row: Noel Bayliss, John Eccles, Thomas Cherry, David Martyn, Hedley Marston, Mark Oliphant, Alexander Nicholson, Albert Rivett, Ian Clunies Ross, Leslie Martin.

Biographical information on Academy fellows is online.

Photo credit: Australian Academy of Science

A Bill to establish the Australian National University in Canberra was passed by Federal Parliament in August 1946.

Mark Oliphant, Keith Hancock, Howard Florey and anthropologist Raymond Firth were appointed as an Academic Advisory Committee for the new institution. This picture was probably taken in Easter 1948 when the committee met with the ANU's Interim Council in the Institute of Anatomy Building, now the home of Screensound Australia.

Oliphant, who was knighted in 1959, would become inaugural Director of the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, one of four foundation schools of the ANU Institute of Advanced Studies.

Hancock, who was knighted in 1953, served as Director of the Research School of Social Sciences from 1957 to 1961 and Professor of History from 1957 to 1965.

Florey had been knighted in 1944 and shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology with Ernst Chain and Alexander Fleming for the discovery of penicillin. He declined the offer to become inaugural Director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research but served as an advisor to the school and as a Chancellor of the ANU from 1965 to 1968.

You can find out more about the ANU's history online.

Photo credit: ANU Archives (ANUA 226.895)

Our final awesome image for 2012 is the massive ancient pebble in the middle of the Australian continent.

Rising about 350m above ground and extending 2.5kms below, Uluru is about 3.6km long and 1.9km wide, with a circumference of 9.4km.

It is a monolith (single massive stone or rock) and an inselberg (isolated formation in a level surrounding).

The geological history goes back at least 550 million years.

It’s hard to find a comprehensive treatment of Indigenous myths about Uluru’s origins, this is the best we could find.

And in the spirit of Christmas, here’s a creationist myth in the form of a journal article.

Our “awesome image” for October shows the underbelly of NASA’s Curiousity Rover and its six wheels on the surface of Mars.

Curiousity carries the most advanced scientific payload ever used on Mars, more than 5 times heavier than earlier Mars rovers. Its two-year assignment is to investigate whether conditions have ever been favourable for microbial life on Mars and to search for any evidence of its existence throughout the planet's history.

The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on November 26 last year. A rocket-powered 'skycrane' delivered the rover to the floor of Gale Crater on August 6, 2012.

The image was compiled from a mosaic of smaller images by Glen Nagle, the Education and Public Outreach Manager at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex. In the Canberra hinterland at Tidbinbilla, the centre is managed by CSIRO and is one of three tracking stations which communicate with Curiousity and other NASA and international space missions.

You can find out more about the Curiousity Mission and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex online.

The Australian Feral Camel Management Project’s latest survey estimates the number of feral camels in Australia at 750,000. A few years ago their best estimate was a million.

“Since then there has been a major drought, the feral camel management program has come into effect and population survey techniques have been improved,” says Jan Ferguson, Managing Director of Ninti One, which manages the AFCMP.

The project has culled 85,000 camels since it began, but three quarters of a million camels able to walk up to 70km a day in search of feed and water are an awesome environmental problem.

“They can converge on a natural waterhole used by native animals and drink it dry within days,” Ferguson says.

“This has a devastating effect on the local flora and fauna and shows exactly why we need to control the population density.”

You can find out more about Australia’s camels online.

Photo credit: SA Department of Environment and Natural Resources, an AFCMP partner.

During a two-year trial at Rio Tinto's West Angelas mine in the Pilbara a fleet of 290-tonne autonomous trucks moved more than 42 million tonnes of material in approximately 145,000 cycles.

Rio recently ordered 150 of the vehicles which are fitted with radar, laser sensors, high-precision GPS, an obstacle detection system, and artificial intelligence which learns the geography of a mine site.

Wireless communications enable the trucks to send information to and from a supervisory computer in Perth which controls their movements. At the mine face, GPS data from the excavator guides a truck to the correct loading site. The truck requests permission to approach, the excavator operator indicates the exact loading site by raising the machine's bucket, and the truck moves to that point autonomously. The control system divides the dumping area into dumping nodes and tells the truck exactly where to dump each load.

The autonomous truck technology is part of Rio’s Mine of the Future project which will see the first driverless ore train begin operations in the Pilbara in 2014.

This is one of many images taken by researchers from the Australian Wetlands & Rivers Centre at the University of NSW during a national aerial survey of more than 4,800 wetlands in late 2008.

Supported by State and Territory governments and funded by the National Water Commission, the survey tallied an estimated 4.8 million waterbirds across more than 100 species and found that just 20 wetlands supported about 40% of the population during dry seasons.

Wetlands with the biggest populations – between 30,000 and 300,000 – included the WA sites of Eighty Mile Beach and Roebuck Bay on the north-west coast, Lake Gregory south of Halls Creek, Lake Argyle near Kununurra, and Lake MacLeod on the mid-west coast, plus the Lower Lakes and the Coorong at the mouth of the Murray River, and Nanjbagu Billabong in Kakadu.

Research leader, Professor Richard Kingsford, estimates that waterbird numbers are likely to have rebounded by at least 10-20% following recent flood years.

You can find out more about the Wetlands and Rivers Centre and the Water Commission online.
http://www.wetrivers.unsw.edu.au/
http://www.nwc.gov.au/

Photo credit: Richard Kingsford

On the tip of an anther of Snowy River Wattle (Acacia boormanii), two polyads each contain 12 pollen grains.

The polyad form is common in Australian acacias. Anthers usually carry four polyads, in this case two have fallen.

Each polyad is about 45 microns (0.045mm) in diameter in this image captured by Dr Roger Heady at the ANU's Centre for Advanced Microscopy.

It was produced using cryogenic scanning electron microscopy in which the sample is chilled to -190°C and scanned in a vacuum chamber. Recorded on 70mm film, the image was scanned digitally and artificially coloured.

You can find out more about the Centre's work online. http://microscopy.anu.edu.au/

Now the Director of CSIRO's Centre for Complex Systems Science, John Finnigan began his research career with a Bachelor of Science in aeronautical engineering from the University of Manchester. After four years working on wing design for Hawker Siddeley in the UK, he joined CSIRO's Division of Environmental Mechanics in Canberra and later gained a PhD in micrometeorology from the ANU.

While his research career has been based at CSIRO he has spent time working at the University of Colorado, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and at the University of Edinburgh.

Nicky Grigg gained a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) and a Bachelor of Engineering (Environmental) from the University of Western Australia. She moved to Canberra and earned a PhD at the ANU for experimental and mathematical modelling research into how burrowing animals affect sediment biogeochemistry in estuaries.

She then joined the CSIRO Complex Systems Science initiative to work on the implications of nonlinear dynamics on mathematical modelling of ecological systems and has continued to work on modelling biogeochemical and ecological responses to human impacts. Her work is becoming more interdisciplinary as she is now engaged in projects seeking integration of biophysical, social and economic factors to address questions of resilience and adaptation in the face of global change.

David Newth earned a Bachelor of Information Technology and a Bachelor of Applied Science (Class 1 Honours) from Charles Sturt University where he also gained a PhD for research into the growth and stability of complex networks such as ecosystems and neural networks.

After working as a lecturer at CSU he joined CSIRO's Centre for Complex Systems Science. His current work is concerned with the stability and complexity of ecosystems and societies, the evolution of cooperation in social groups, and analysis of large social and ecological networks.

You can learn more about the CSIRO Centre for Complex Systems Science online.

Photo credit: Carl Davies

Professor October is Mahananda Dasgupta of the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility in the Department of Nuclear Physics of the ANU, pictured with Duc H Luong and Dr Maurits Evers.

An international leader in accelerator-based nuclear fusion and fission research, Mahananda's work is focused on increasing our understanding of the quantum interactions of nuclei that will underpin opportunities with the next generation of accelerators. She obtained her PhD from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai after gaining Bachelor and Masters degrees in Science at the University of Rajasthan.

Since joining the ANU she has received many honours, including an ARC Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship in 1998, being named as the 2004 Women in Physics Lecturer by the Australian Institute of Physics, and gaining the Pawsey Medal from the Australian Academy of Science in 2006. This year she was elected as a Fellow of the Academy and received the inaugural ARC Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship.

Dr Maurits Evers did his undergraduate studies in physics at Rheinische-Friedrichs-Wilhelms University in Bonn before spending a year at the ANU funded by the German Academic Exchange Service. After a postgraduate year at Bonn he gained a Diploma in Physics from Germany's Institute for Theoretical Nuclear Physics at Julich before returning to the ANU where last year he completed his PhD studies with a thesis titled "Systematics of near-barrier nuclear reactions using quasi-elastic scattering".

Duc H Luong gained a Bachelor of Science degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology before coming to the ANU where he gained an Honours degree in Physics and is now studying for his PhD by researching the break-up of weakly bound nuclei.

You can find out more about the research by Mahananda and her colleagues online.

Photo credit: Tim Wetherell

Dr Lars Petersson has been with National ICT Australia for eight years as project leader for NICTA's Smart Cars and AutoMap projects, developing advanced driver assistance systems and automatic map creation through video analysis. Previously a researcher at the ANU, he gained a Masters Science degree in Engineering Physics and a PhD in Computer Vision and Robotics from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Now a research engineer at NICTA, as a Year 12 student Dr Gary Overett participated in CSIRO's student research scheme at the ANU's Robotic Systems Lab. He then studied software engineering at the ANU, focusing on robotics and computer vision. After completing an Honours thesis in computer vision he took a year off to live in China before embarking on a PhD supervised by Lars. His thesis explored the application of computer vision object detection algorithms in highly time-constrained applications, research which is being applied to create maps of road signs from more than 450,000 kilometres of geo-tagged video.

You can find out more about their work online.

Professor June is John Spriggs of the Faculty of Education at the University of Canberra who supervised Dr Norah Omot's PhD studies.

Norah's thesis analysed the interplay between consumer preferences and suppler responsiveness in the sweet-potato market of the highlands of Papua New Guinea.

A program leader with Papua New Guinea's National Agricultural Research Centre, Norah's studies were sponsored by a John Allwright Fellowship from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.

“By identifying market orientation, Norah's thesis can assist sweet-potato smallholders with growing to demand and generating income for their families,” says Dr Caroline Lemerle, ACIAR's research program manager for agricultural systems management.

Norah has been involved in two ACIAR/NARI projects, to improve the marketing of fresh produce in the PNG highlands and to support women's participation in horticulture by developing their business skills.

Norah is now running NARI's 'Enabling environment' program to identify and overcome socio-economic barriers to sustainable agricultural development in PNG.

The John Allwright Scholarship honours the Tasmanian farmer who was president of the National Farmers Federation and a long serving ACIAR board member and adviser.

Professor April is Will Steffen, Executive Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, with PhD student Luciana Porfirio.

Will gained a Bachelor of Science at the University of Missouri before moving to the University of Florida where he gained a Masters degree followed by a PhD.

From 1998 to mid-2004 he served as Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program in Stockholm. After two years as a Visiting Fellow with the then Bureau of Rural Sciences in Canberra he joined the ANU as Director of both the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies and the Institute for Environment.

He served as the ANU’s Pro Vice-Chancellor before taking up his present position, and has since been appointed to the Government's Multi-Party Climate Change Committee and the Climate Commission.

Luciana Porfirio obtained a Licentiate in Landscape Planning and Design at the University of Buenos Aires in 2005 with a thesis characterising the landscape structure in the rural–urban gradient of Montevideo, Uruguay.

She then joined Professor Brendan Mackey as a research assistant at the ANU’s Wild Country Research and Policy Hub before starting a PhD on the study of ecosystem services in the ACT region under Will’s supervision. She is applying remote-sensing based methodology to estimate the impact of human developments on ecosystems and characterize the services the region’s ecosystems provide to humans.

Scientist of the Month for February is Assistant Professor Dennis McNevin of the University of Canberra's Faculty of Applied Science, with PhD candidate Samantha Venables.

Dennis gained a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering at the University of NSW before becoming a science teacher and studying a Diploma of Education at the University of Western Sydney. He missed the lab and returned to the University of Sydney to do a PhD.

After undertaking postdoctoral research at UC and the ANU he took up his current position where he is responsible for UC’s Forensic Studies teaching and research programs. A member of the Steering Committee for the National Centre for Forensic Studies, he has developed and delivered forensic biology training courses for Indonesian, Thai and Iraqi forensic scientists.

Sam moved to Canberra from rural NSW in 2005 to pursue a career in forensic science. After completing the Bachelor of Forensic Studies at the UC she completed an honours project under Dennis's supervision in 2008. She is now almost halfway through her PhD project which is focused on improving the application of known human genetic markers in the populations of Indonesia and the Pacific Islands.

Find out more about Forensic Studies at UC online.

Doctor December is Judy West, Executive Director of the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

Judy has pioneered the application of information technologies to showcase biological collections and provide the results of taxonomic research to the general public. She believes showcasing taxonomic and conservation research and highlighting the diversity and adaptability of Australian flora are important roles for the Australian National Botanic Gardens, where about 30% of Australia's known plant species grow. Over 400,000 visitors and hundreds of school groups visit the Gardens annually.

You can find out more about the Australian National Botanic Gardens online.

Doctor October is Jim Prescott, of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, who manages the MOU Box, an area off Western Australia's Kimberley coast shared by Australia and Indonesia. Jim works with Indonesian scientists and traditional canoe fisherman to assess stocks and harvest rates of trepang – sea cucumbers – and other target species so that the fishery is sustainable.

You can find out more about AFMA’s work online.

Professor August is Graham Durant, Director of Questacon, Australia's National Science & Technology Centre.

Graham believes that inspiration is too important to leave to chance. In 2009-10 more than 446,000 people enjoyed Questacon in Canberra while more than 180,000 attended science education events hosted across Australia by the Shell Questacon Science Circus, Questacon Smart Moves, Tenix Questacon Maths Squad and other outreach initiatives. More than 564,000 people also visited Questacon exhibitions in capital cities and regional centres around the country and more than 133,000 people attended a Questacon exhibition in Indonesia.

You can find out more about Questacon online.

Doctor June is Jean Finnegan who leads a group at CSIRO Plant Industry who are researching the process of flowering in plants.

The current focus of her work is the genetic mechanism which regulates flowering in response to low temperatures. Plants that evolved in regions where the winters are severe respond to the prolonged cold of winter by flowering soon after the weather gets warmer. In plants like canola, some varieties carry a gene called FLC which is turned off by the cold so that flowering is delayed until spring when conditions are favourable for seed development. Other varieties of canola do not have a functional FLC gene so do not need to experience a winter before they flower.

You can learn more about Jean’s work online.

Professor April is David Lindenmayer, one of Australia's leading researchers in wildlife management and nature conservation. Based at the Fenner School of Environment & Society at the ANU, his work focuses on the myriad of living things in native forests and other Australian ecosystems. He runs several large-scale, long-term monitoring programs in forests, woodlands, plantations and agricultural areas of southeast Australia.

You can find out more about David’s work and the Fenner School online.

Professor February is Tony Peacock, Chief Executive Officer of the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre.

Headquartered at the University of Canberra, with research teams in several research institutions around the country, Tony and his team are creating technologies and strategies to reduce the impact of feral animals like foxes, fish, rabbits, pigs, and dogs on Australia’s economy, environment, and people.

You can learn more about the Invasive Animals CRC online.

Professor December is Penny D Sackett, Chief Scientist for Australia, who met Ted at the Ministerial Entrance to Parliament House where she will lead this month’s meeting of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council.

You can learn more about Professor Sackett and her role online.

Professor October is Warwick Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of the National Health and Medical Research Council. When Ted met Warwick he took the opportunity to demonstrate the positive health outcomes that could be gained if humans were encouraged to have a daily walk and chase sticks.

You can learn more about the NHMRC online.

Professor August is Marcela Bilek, a Federation Fellow who is Professor of Applied Physics at Sydney University.

Ted joined Marcela at the Heliac prototype fusion reactor, the centrepiece of the National Plasma Fusion Research Facility at the ANU's Research School of Physics and Engineering and the only device in the southern hemisphere exploring ways to produce clean energy through nuclear fusion.

You can learn more about Marcela and her work online.

Professor June is Brian Schmidt who met Ted at the Mt Stromlo Observatory which is still recovering after being devastated by bushfire in 2003.

Ted was glad he had four feet firmly on the ground after Brian explained his discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

You can learn more about Brian and the universe online.

Professor April is Judith Whitworth, a former Director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the ANU and Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer who chairs WHO's Global Advisory Committee on Health Research.

Judith and Ted met at ‘The John’ where Judith is now Howard Florey Professor of Medical Research.

You can learn more about the John Curtin School online.

Professor February is Margaret Sheil, CEO of the Australian Research Council. In 2007-08 the ARC provided more than $500 million to Australian researchers under the National Competitive Grants Program.

Margaret and Ted met for coffee at the ARC’s offices in Brindabella Park, the office precinct at Canberra Airport noted for its energy-efficient buildings.

You can learn more about the ARC online: www.arc.gov.au.

Disclaimer: Professor Sheil’s involvement in the 2009 Canberra Science Calendar does not imply any endorsement of Science Media or its service.