ISSUE 1, 2015

melbourne university magazine EBOLA THE LAB REPORT

On call with the scientists guarding against the world’s most alarming disease

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COVER STORY The fight against Ebola 14 ON THE COVER: Senior scientist Dr Julian Druce at work in the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory. PICTURE: CRAIG SILLITOE LEFT: An Ebola virus virion ISSUE 1, 2015 ISSUE 1,

4 universitynews 5

EDUCATION APPOINTMENT CLIMATE CHANGE RECONCILIATION CAMPAIGN

WINNER Lessons from the Congratulations First woman Climate change Indigenous plan Believe gift a to Maria Paget high-tech classroom (BA 1978) who governor on your plate aims for parity boost to health won a $250 book voucher for Alumna The Hon Linda DessauAM Tasteless carrots, bad pizza dough Believe – the Campaign for the opting to receive will shortly become the first woman and poor-quality steak are some University of Melbourne has reached 3010 by email to be appointed Governor of Victoria. of the impacts we can expect the significant milestone of $400 in future. If you Ms Dessau will be the 10th from Australia’s changing climate, million thanks to a major donation would prefer to member of the University’s alumni according to a new report prepared that will transform healthcare. have the magazine community to hold office as Victoria’s by leading climate scientists David The $5 million gift from Leigh delivered to your head of state. Karoly and Richard Eckard at the CliffordAO , Sue Clifford and their inbox, sign up for the digital version She served as a Judge of the Family University of Melbourne. family will endow the Clifford at unimelb.edu. Court from 1995 to 2013. Prior to From wheat, seafood and dairy Chair in Neural Engineering in au/3010 that, she was a magistrate in the products to poultry, meat, grains, the University’s Centre for Neural Children’s Court, Coroner’s Court and fruit and vegetables, the effects Engineering (CfNE). and the Melbourne Magistrates’ of global warming on a list of 55 The CfNE is a cross-disciplinary Court, a barrister at the Victorian Bar, household food items has been research and development centre with and Senior Crown Counsel in Hong compiled for the very first time in the a focus on the convergence of the Kong. She has also served as an AFL report Appetite for Change. engineering, physical and life sciences. Commissioner since 2008. “It’s definitely a wake-up call It is developing potential treatments Ms Dessau (LLB(Hons) 1973) when you hear that the toast and for conditions such as epilepsy and will take over from His Excellency raspberry jam you have for breakfast, Parkinson’s disease and spinal injuries. The Hon Alex ChernovAC QC for example, might not be as readily The University has undertaken to The new Chair will help facilitate (BCom 1962, LLB(Hons) 1967, LLD available in 50 years’ time,” says raise the number of Indigenous the development of new portable 2012) on July 1. Other alumni who Associate Professor Eckard. “Or that students and staff on campus, with diagnostic tools for faster, more have held the role are Sir George there may be changes to the cost a commitment to population parity a reliable diagnoses and better patient Ferguson Bowen GCMG (MA 1874, and taste of food items we love and key feature of its 2015 Reconciliation management, especially in Indigenous LLD 1876), Major General Sir Rohan take for granted like avocado and Action Plan (RAP). and rural communities. The next Delacombe KCMG KCVO KBE CB Vegemite, spaghetti bolognaise and The first RAP announced in 2010 generation of bionic devices and DSO (LLD 1967), The Hon Sir Henry even beer, wine and chocolate. focused on building the knowledge implants will also be delivered. A world-first high-tech classroom be controlled by a technical team to Winneke AC KCMG KCVO OBE (LLB “It makes you appreciate that global and processes to support Indigenous Professor Iven Mareels, Dean of launched at the University will help capture everything the researchers 1929, LLM 1945, LLD 1978), The warming is not a distant phenomenon development and contribute to the Melbourne School of Engineering, researchers to better understand how need.” Rev Dr J Davis McCaughey AC (MA but a very real occurrence that is Indigenous well-being. says the gift will transform this crucial learning takes place in the brain and The experimental facility will 1962, LLD 1982, Ormond College), already affecting the things we enjoy in Extending that commitment and area of research. to improve teaching. provide an essential research link The Hon Richard E McGarvie AC QC our everyday lives, including the most taking greater steps towards setting “Being able to understand the Structured like a conventional for education, neuroscience and (LLB(Hons) 1951, BCom 1971, LLD common of foods we eat for breakfast, hard targets to achieve population brain better from an engineering school classroom, the revolutionary psychology experts to unpack the 1990), The Hon Sir James Augustine lunch and dinner.” parity, the University will look to point of view will help us to develop facility allows researchers to observe new area of educational neuroscience Gobbo AC CVO KStJ QC (BA(Hons) Professor Karoly says that of ALUMNI recruit and retain more Aboriginal devices in support of better mental the class behind a large one-way and how it might inform classroom 1952, LLD 2000, Newman College), all the impacts global warming is FACTS and Torres Strait Islander students. healthcare,” he says. observation mirror and record and learning. John Landy AC CVO MBE (BAgrSc having on Australian farms, increases The University will also actively “Equally, and from an engineering analyse student and teacher actions “We can try innovative new 1954, LLD 2003) and Professor in heatwaves and bushfires pose 13,705 grow its Indigenous Australian point of view perhaps even more and interactions without disruption. teaching and learning approaches and David de Kretser AC (MB BS 1962, the biggest threat to Australia’s Number of people academic and professional workforce. important, unlocking the foundations “The conventional classroom technologies and study every aspect LLD 2012). agricultural regions. who attended University of Melbourne of the computational power of is enormously complex and our of the students’ responses,” explains Key report findings include University of Indigenous students have one of the the brain will allow us to produce understanding of learning as a Professor Clarke (pictured above). predictions that temperature changes Melbourne alumni highest success rates in Australia, but small, low-power, portable devices social activity is fairly limited,” says “We can also live-stream this will adversely affect root crops, wheat events during Professor Ian Anderson, Pro-Vice that have the capacity of today’s Professor David Clarke (BSc(Hons) to anywhere in the world. We will and fruit and nut production and 2014. Chancellor (Engagement) (MB BS supercomputers.” 1973, GDipEd 1974, MSc 1979) from build a rich database of classroom will increase heat stress in cattle and 1989, DMedSc 2012), says there is Mr Clifford (BE 1968, MEngSc the Melbourne Graduate School of interactions that will be an enduring Victoria’s chickens. still much to be done. 1971, International House), Chairman Education, a chief investigator on research resource and evidence base.” Governor-Designate, “Global warming is increasing the “We have set ourselves some of Qantas and former CEO of Rio the project. The classroom is part of the The Hon Linda frequency and intensity of heatwaves 15,181 long goals and targets,” he says. “For Tinto, is deputy chairman of Believe “The visible presence of tripods Science of Learning Research Dessau AM, has and bushfires affecting farms across Number of new Indigenous staff we aim for parity by – the Campaign for the University of in the classroom and the number Centre, which comprises 25 chief had a distinguished southern and eastern Australia, graduates who, 2020. For Indigenous students we are Melbourne. The Campaign aims to of necessary personnel can be investigators from nine research legal career. and this will get much worse in the in 2014, joined looking towards 2050. raise $500 million by the end of 2017 distracting. institutions across Australia and future if we don’t act,” he says. “It’s a the ranks of “While a long way off, the figures to support key research, scholarship “Lessons given in our state-of- is supported by $16 million of daunting thought when you consider nearly 338,000 for students are based on analysis of and engagement goals. the-art classroom can be recorded Commonwealth funding from the that Australian farms produce 93 per University of current Indigenous populations in through up to 16 high-definition Australian Research Council and cent of the food we eat.” Melbourne the school system and projections on Watch an interview with video cameras and up to 32 fixed and additional support from a range of sustainable.unimelb.edu.au/ alumni across how many might come to undertake Professor Stan Skafidas of CfNE portable microphones, which can organisations. planettoplate the globe. tertiary study.” at unimelb.edu.au/3010 6 SCIENCE SCIENCE 7 unimelb.edu.au/3010

Heart of darkness A gold mine in western Victoria has become the unlikely setting for a mission to resolve one of science’s great mysteries: what holds the universe together?

BY TIM THWAITES (BSc(Hons) 1974, TRINITY COLLEGE, JANET CLARKE HALL)

r Matteo Volpi is on his way to work, Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation heading deep into the earth down a (ANSTO) and the Italian Institute for Nuclear steep, curving tunnel known as “The Physics, plan to construct a $3.5 million laboratory Decline”. He’s aboard a four-wheel to try to detect the elusive cosmic glue known as Ddrive on the main access road to the dark matter (see page 9). Stawell Gold Mine, in western Victoria, winding Understanding the nature of dark matter is initially through ochre-coloured alluvial rock and regarded as one of the most important questions then the harder, blue-grey volcanic variety. Every so of modern particle physics. often his vehicle has to duck into a holding bay to let “If we nail it, it’s a Nobel Prize-winning a truck carrying up to 60 tonnes of rock crawl by. experiment,” says the leader of the effort, University Volpi, a post-doctoral fellow in the University’s of Melbourne Professor of Physics Elisabetta School of Physics, is travelling to a workshop Barberio, a chief investigator of the Australian 729 metres underground. Here he is taking initial Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence measurements for a study that could determine for Particle Physics at the Terascale (CoEPP). what holds the universe together. It may seem But it could mean a whole lot more for the bizarre, but to find out why the stars are in their people of the Stawell region, most of whom are places in the sky, we need to go almost as far from being confronted by the concept of dark matter them as we can easily reach on Earth. for the first time. They are hoping that the lab can A kilometre underground in the mine’s dank, provide employment and investment, technology dark environment, in a cavity surrounded by basalt, transfer and a stimulus to local industry, a source

physicists from the University of Melbourne and of education, possibly even a tourist attraction, 2015 ISSUE 1, several other Australian universities, collaborating and most certainly endless fascination. with Princeton University in the US, the Australian CONTINUED PAGE 8 Dr Matteo Volpi at the 1025-metre depth of the Stawell Gold Mine. PICTURE: STEVE McKENZIE

8 SCIENCE SCIENCE 9 unimelb.edu.au/3010 In search of the missing link

We all know what gravity is. It’s the force that keeps us grounded to Earth. It also keeps Earth tethered to

the sun and the sun part of the Milky Way galaxy instead of careering off into space. Gravity is a property of mass or matter. In the 1930s several astronomers contemplating the heavens noticed something was missing. In fact, a lot was missing. They recognised Professor Elisabetta Barberio says the that all the matter they could see experiment is creating international — the galaxies, stars, planets, dust Taking initial readings in the underground workshop, a precursor to a full-scale excitement. clouds and comets — did not have experiment; (right) part of the tunnel. PICTURES: MICHAEL SLEZAK (ABOVE) AND STEVE McKENZIE PICTURE: CASAMENTO PHOTOGRAPHY enough gravitational pull to hold the universe together. FROM PAGE 7 crystal of the salt sodium iodide provided are two potential sources of radiation It took until the 1970s for the by researchers from Princeton – and – local radioactivity and the occasional American astronomer Vera Rubin to “This is a pretty big punt for us, but it’s checking to see what light is emitted. intruding cosmic ray. Both have to be accumulate enough solid evidence a good one,” says Murray Emerson, mayor But the sodium iodide can also react taken into account in the design and from studying how the galaxies of Northern Grampians Shire, which has in a similar way if hit by other particles shielding of the new laboratory. move in space to suggest the applied for regional development funding or radiation. So the detector needs to be Volpi has visited each week or existence of another form of matter to develop the lab. “In the long term, it can located as far as possible from any sources fortnight to take measurements that is invisible to us. And it isn’t really be beneficial for our community. of these, such as sunlight or cosmic rays underground. In his orange overalls, just a small amount. It accounts for We’re right at the start of something pretty or radioactivity. goggles and gumboots, he could be taken about 85 per cent of all matter in the exciting.” And that is where the muted for any other miner, if it weren’t for the universe. Because it does not interact The Victorian government thinks so environment of the Stawell Gold Mine metre-long dreadlocks cascading down with light, it was dubbed dark matter. too. In mid-February, Premier Daniel shines. Not only does it provide suitable his back. He’s clearly made an impression Since then the hunt has been on Andrews toured the gold mine and sites deep underground surrounded by on the mine workers. Recently, courtesy for particles of dark matter. Pretty pledged $1.75 million to kick-start low-radiation basalt, it has another huge of an equipment malfunction, he had well the only thing we know about construction of the laboratory, a project advantage – access. Because it is a modern to take a few weeks’ break. When them is that they must have gravity, he says could generate up to 215 local jobs. “decline” mine, the laboratory can easily be he returned, they greeted him like a so they can bump into and move He called on the federal government to serviced by trucks, ventilation, electricity colleague back from holiday. They are things, and we can detect them provide matching funding. and even the internet. incessantly interested in what he is doing. through that action. The physicists The Crocodile Gold Corporation, What’s more, while there are at least What would secure the project is a proposing the underground which operates the mine, sees the project 15 such underground laboratories in and against it for the other half. So, you experimental particle physics group federal grant to match what the Victorian laboratory at Stawell are hoping as a way of putting something back into the northern hemisphere, this would would expect that in one half of the year in Australia. We can compete at the government has already promised. that dark matter particles will reveal the community and providing continuing be the first south of the equator. That’s a dark matter detector would encounter international level. So the Americans and So Mayor Murray Emerson is off to themselves by causing nuclei in employment for its staff and their hard-won important, because its initial job would more particles than in the other. And, over Italians are willing to work with us while Canberra to plead the case. He has sodium iodide crystals to absorb expertise, according to general manager be to duplicate a northern hemisphere several annual cycles, that’s exactly what we are learning about new techniques.” become an enthusiast, to the extent that energy and recoil. Troy Cole. As long as the mine is operating, experiment that has provided some of was found at Gran Sasso. Yet dark matter could be the just tip he has even been talking to Year 7 pupils PICTURE: ESO/HO Crocodile Gold is prepared to provide the But critics of the study suggest that of the research iceberg for the laboratory, at the local secondary college about the lab with in-kind support in the form of “We’re right at the start of it might simply be a seasonal thing. according to Barberio. A lot of useful opportunities brought by the project. “We access, technical advice and services such Perhaps more particles are detected in nuclear physics research is conducted hope one day that some of our local kids as ventilation, water and power. something pretty exciting.” warmer weather than cold, they say, or in a low-radiation environment, she will end up as professors,” he says. “At the Dark matter is so-called because it when the sun is nearer. So the Gran Sasso says. And then there’s biology. “Already very least, it may encourage them to stay MURRAY EMERSON does not interact with light – or any other MAYOR, NORTHERN GRAMPIANS SHIRE researchers were keen to help establish an there are researchers from Australian at school and consider doing science.” radiation for that matter. More than dark, underground laboratory in the southern universities at Gran Sasso studying And he’s also impressed by the it is invisible. And, because of its lack hemisphere that could run the same the effect of low radioactivity on cells, possibility of the laboratory becoming of interaction, it will penetrate almost the only credible direct evidence of dark experiment simultaneously to eliminate particularly cancer cells. Then there a tourist drawcard. About 8000 people anything, including Earth itself. matter. It was undertaken at the world’s those seasonal possibilities. are studies on general relativity, on a year visit Gran Sasso. “It turns over But dark matter is responsible for 85 per largest underground particle physics Barberio and her colleagues at CoEPP underground micro-organisms and on $1.5 million annually in tourism alone,” cent of the gravity that holds the universe laboratory, 1400 metres below Gran heard their call. She is a highly respected chemistry and materials science.” he says. “People ring up and book three together, so it must have mass. If a particle Sasso near L’Aquila, about 120 kilometres experimental particle physicist who was There seems real confidence at years in advance to go there.” of dark matter directly bumps into an north-east of Rome. a key player in the discovery of the Higgs the mine and in the local community He’s already aware how much the

atomic nucleus “the nucleus gets excited”, The Italian physicists reasoned that, as boson, the so-called “God particle”. that the laboratory will go ahead. project has captured the imagination 2015 ISSUE 1, says Professor Barberio. “It’s pushed away the sun moves around the centre of our “There is a lot of excitement Things are already gearing up. Matteo of his colleagues in local government. and the recoil is seen as light.” galaxy, it passes through a soup of dark internationally about this particular dark Volpi’s initial job is to monitor the Rarely does he go to a meeting of mayors And that is exactly how dark matter matter particles at about 200 kilometres matter experiment because we are in the environmental background radiation, these days without someone sidling particles are detected; by setting up a a second. Earth, orbiting the sun, swims southern hemisphere,” she says. “The to check that it conforms to the Gran up to him and asking: “How’s that

nuclear target – in this case, a very pure with this current of particles for half a year University of Melbourne has the strongest Sasso protocol. A kilometre down, there underground lab coming along?” 10 BEST SELLERS BEST SELLERS 11 unimelb.edu.au/3010

He’s a former IT AUTHOR, AUTHOR As in their novels, the lives of Anne Buist specialist; she’s an and Graeme Simsion have taken a twist. PICTURE: SIMON SCHLUTER

eminent psychiatrist. at all; it’s very naughty Mills & Boon.” Now Graeme Simsion Meanwhile the two had collaborated on an ultra-low-budget movie based on and Anne Buist are one of Buist’s rejected novels and Simsion – author of two books on data modelling a literary couple, – had caught the screenwriting bug. He sold his business and enrolled in a parlaying their original screenwriting course at RMIT. The Rosie careers into second Project began life as a screenplay that eventually won an Australian Writers’ lives as novelists. Guild award for Best Romantic Comedy. The birth of the novel was less than straightforward. On a New Zealand BY GARY TIPPET holiday with their son, Simsion and Buist began kicking around an idea, inspired s they sit side by side on a fat, by a friend “who was not a hundred miles black leather lounge in their from Don Tillman in personality”. They Fitzroy home, discussing workshopped it as a romantic drama, but A books and the art and Simsion soon found it worked better as a mechanics of writing, you realise what a “laugh-out-loud rom-com”. gift Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist have Buist, meanwhile, had an unsubmitted been to the PR team at Text Publishing. manuscript – “143,000 words, and just They are the true and perfect fit to the garbage” – from an idea Simsion had old publishing cliche: “Husband-and-wife given her years earlier about someone literary double act.” searching for their biological father Simsion (PhD 2006) and Buist (MMed through surreptitious DNA testing. 1992, MD 1999), married for 25 years, Simsion, now enrolled in a professional seem a couple almost symmetrically in writing course, reclaimed the idea, but sync: both high achievers academically threw out his original plot, keeping only and professionally, with an easy, open the main character of Don. affection and a pride and excitement in specialising in database modelling whose Rosie published in 2013, but it struck an Buist can’t help but giggle and nod as just had a baby and was going back to “I always knew the heart of the story each other’s passions and projects, they are first novel, The Rosie Project, became an immediate chord here and overseas, with he makes an admission: as a child and work – and, she says, she had a fear of was the Don Tillman character,” he says. even close physical matches. He is boyish international bestseller with a subsequent Text selling the rights to more than 30 teenager he was something of a nerd. rejection. But she remembered a study “Laugh-out-loud comedy comes out of and built like a flyweight, with the same movie deal. Buist, 55, is a prominent countries for about $1.8 million. It went “Oh yeah, I think so…” he says. “I was in a retirement home in which residents character and very few novelists have sharp alertness; she tiny and willow-thin. perinatal psychiatrist and Professor of to five reprints that year and four more in good at maths and science, in the radio were asked their greatest regret: “Not one been gifted even one such character in a Now in second – or for her part, Women’s Mental Health at the University 2014. Buist has been writing stories since club, I was a ham radio operator, all that of them said they wished they’d spent lifetime. You’ve got Bridget Jones, you’ve dual – careers as novelists, they are keen of Melbourne, whose own novel, a smart, she was eight, most just a paragraph or sort of stuff.” In the prototypical nerdish more time at work. It was all about not got Rumpole of the Bailey, and perhaps collaborators, inspiring, bouncing ideas sometimes dark thriller called Medea’s two. “But then I finished one at 15 and it’s trajectory, the New Zealand-born town taking risks. you’ve got Don Tillman.” off each other and swapping projects. They Curse, has just been published. still sitting upstairs, handwritten. I was still planner’s son was at university at only 16. “I thought I don’t want to get to 80 The US sports writer Red Smith used even write side by side, literally, at their They say write what you know and writing in my 20s.” The daughter of a pathologist, Buist and regret that I never put that novel in. to say writing is easy – you just sit down cottage at Lancefield. there’s more than a little of Buist and Simsion admits: “I had a desire to studied medicine at Monash but did her So I thought dammit, I’m going to do it, at a keyboard and open a vein. Simsion “No, we don’t get on each other’s Simsion – and their areas of expertise – write a novel in the way that probably half Masters and Doctorate at the University and I did – and got rejected.” disagrees. He carefully plans his stories, nerves,” Simsion says. “I think there’s in each of the books. The Rosie Project the population does – ‘One of these days of Melbourne. Her MD thesis was on storyboarding and laying out scene by recognition on both our parts that the tells of the socially inept – don’t mention I’m gunna write a book’ – and saw that as childhood trauma as a risk factor for ut she forged on. In 2010, scene in a literal pack of cards, before he other can offer something constructive Asperger’s – Don Tillman, professor of the pinnacle of artistic achievement … postnatal depression and after she while on a sabbatical at Yale, begins writing. It’s a process. to the process. I value what Anne brings genetics, list maker, timetable obsessive but I didn’t do anything about it. Fair to qualified she worked in the mother she began filling in the two- “That means,’’ he says, ‘‘I can to my writing. She’s very good with plot and wife seeker. He finds himself searching say I wasn’t really serious about it.” and baby unit at a psychiatric hospital. B hour train commute between concentrate on telling the story rather and characters: ‘What would a woman for the biological father of Rosie, a fiery, Simsion had completed his For all that, there was still the tug there and New York by writing erotic than what the story is. do under these circumstances?’ single-minded bartender, and against all undergraduate degree at Monash, of writing. “On our first wedding fiction as Simone Sinna, a “porn star” “That writing is very pleasurable … “And she’s my first reader: as I was his rules, falling in love with her. collecting “a bunch of other qualifications” anniversary we said to each other: ‘What anagram of her married name. Erotica writers who talk about the agony of writing The Rosie Effect I’d read out Medea’s Curse, inspired by Buist’s work before a PhD at the University of do you want to do in the next five years?’ publisher Siren Bookstrand snapped up creation, OK it’s a personal experience sections to see if she laughed.” with Victoria Police and with more than Melbourne. He built a successful data and I said: ‘I’d like to write a novel’. Then her first attempt, Embedded, and two but as a job being a full-time writer is

“He’s my last reader before it gets to a little nod to 1997’s Jaidyn Leskie case, modelling consultancy with more than at the next one he said: ‘Am I going to more. not the toughest gig in the world. 2015 ISSUE 1, the editor,” Buist says. “But before we get features Dr Natalie King, a bipolar, Ducati- 60 employees and offices in Melbourne, keep hearing it for the rest of our days?’” “It gave me a great opportunity to “It’s very tough trying to fit it around to that bit, it’s helping me plot and edit.” riding forensic psychiatrist and sometime Sydney and Canberra. Data modelling, Simsion told his wife: “Just one page practise story,” she says. “Lots of sex your day job.” He looks at his wife and It seems to be working. Simsion, cover band singer caught up in a series of he explains, is database specification with … if you only write one page a day, in a too – if you can’t write about sex as a smiles. “My heart goes out to you if 58, is already an Australian publishing deaths and disappearances of children. the modeller as the conduit or middleman year you’ll have a novel.” psychiatrist, who can – but I found it you’re trying to be a psychiatrist by day

phenomenon, a former IT consultant Simsion came late to fiction, with between client and technician. Of course it wasn’t that easy. She’d really restricting. It’s actually not erotic and a fiction writer by night.” 12 theessay the human genome revolution 13

CHRISTINE KENNEALLY (BA(Hons) 1990) AUTHOR OF THE INVISIBLE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE Our genetic awakening brings benefits and risks

few years ago, CeCe Moore, an ex-TV-producer-turned- for free. With large data come large responsibilities, too. genomes only because companies can profit by making everyone’s data time and family trees makes it clear that there are no predetermined blogger, invented a new type of career. In the early days How can we sensibly manage this unprecedented amount of available for matching. There is an inevitable tension here. It is entirely genetic or other physical divisions into which different human groups of genetic genealogy, when companies offered to read personal data? If we are not going to make the same mistake as the reasonable for businesses to make a profit, and it’s also sensible for throughout space and time can be discretely assigned. Modern-day a small part of someone’s genome so they could trace HGP, we must humbly acknowledge that we are at the beginning of their clients to worry about whose interests they have at heart. Because racists may wish to believe some DNA is more privileged than others, Afamily, Moore researched and blogged about DNA, the personal genome revolution and the answer is not yet clear. But these are pioneering days in the business, as well as the science, of the but nothing in the human genome can be explained by the age-old eventually becoming a little obsessive-compulsive about it. even though there is no obvious and comforting path to follow, we’ll genome, it’s essential to consider the privacy issues that can arise. foils of racism, such as platonic intelligence or beauty or purity. Today, she’s a genetic detective and she is regularly asked for help. never find it if we don’t learn a few new, but basic, principles about In 2010 I had my DNA analysed by the Icelandic company “I get emails from people literally every day who found out they’re our genomic selves. For example, we can’t hope to protect our data if deCODEme, the first company to offer an in-depth personal DNA HEALTH not who they thought they were genetically.” we don’t know how the genome gets broken apart and shuffled over analysis over the web. In 2013 deCODEme’s parent company The genome doesn’t just tell us about history, it can tell us about our The questions begin, Moore explained, when clients get their DNA generations, how it connects us all in a great big network and what was taken over by one of the world’s biggest biopharmaceutical possible futures as well. We can learn about our risk for conditions that tested and “they come out as a half-sibling to their sibling, who they we can learn from those connections. In addition, when it comes to companies, but I received no information about the change of their are affected by lifestyle, like Type 2 diabetes. People who find they are thought was their full sibling”. In the past the genome, it’s important to know that service or their new owners. Do they still at greater risk for the disease may choose few years Moore has helped half a dozen many of the individual gains come via the have my data? I don’t know. And if they to build a lifestyle that lowers the risk. individuals who were abandoned as collective. do, what will happen to it in a few years, When my husband and I had our genomes newborns, some found in dumpsters. in 10 years, in 100 years? read, he found that he had a significantly The fact that any one of us can take FAMILY Most of the big genetic genealogy higher than average risk for prostate even the first step in this process – send off Moore typically finds families by using companies take privacy seriously, but cancer. You can’t lower the risk for prostate a sample and get back roughly a million genetic genealogy databases to identify different companies make different cancer in the same way you can for Type bits of personal genetic information for distant cousins with the segments of DNA commitments to their users. It is sensible 2 diabetes, nevertheless the new piece of about $100 – is extraordinary, and to say that people have in common. Then she to read the fine print before sending in information opened his eyes. that it has gone somewhat unremarked tracks back through the family histories a sample. It’s also important to consider Now, whenever he comes across a upon is an understatement. The personal of the cousins to find a common ancestor that no matter what is said now, while any newspaper article about prostate cancer, genome revolution grew out of the Human among them. After that she works her company can be shut down, your DNA instead of flicking past, he reads it. Slowly Genome Project (HGP), a multi-million- way down again from the common sample may live on and it will point to but steadily, he’s building a personal bank dollar endeavour in which hundreds of ancestor, looking for an individual’s you forever. of knowledge about the disease. If he does scientists participated, but ironically the parents. “You build the tree up and end up having to deal with it, he’ll be fact that so few people know much about then you build the tree down,” she told ANCESTRY much better equipped. their own genome can at least partly be me. Sometimes she has found a direct Sometimes Moore’s clients don’t get More and more, findings like these explained by way the project was received. match, where it is quite obvious from the the ancestral result they expect. They will come from genome wide association Although the first draft of the human amount of DNA that two people have assume they are Irish, but the test says studies, where thousands of genomes are genome, published in 2001, was issued in common across many chromosomes their DNA is more like that of a Russian compared to one another and association with much fanfare, it was followed by that they are siblings or parent and child. Jew. “This is just my experience,” Moore between segments of DNA and health or years of deflating expectations and cynical Twenty years ago, there was no way to said. “It could be that people are drawn conditions like autism spectrum disorder commentary, most of which can be identify many of the people Moore helps. to testing who always felt like they didn’t are found. Here, too, there is power in summed up like this: it was supposed to Family relationships could be proved fit in or always had a question in their our collective genomes, and the more change everything but it changed nothing! “We can access huge amounts of by comparing the DNA of two people, mind, but the numbers are very high.” “Databases that genetic genealogy genomes that are in any one study, the The legacy was a deep scepticism among knowledge from the genome, some a father, say, and his illegitimate child, Sometimes all that Moore can find out companies use to connect their clients with wider the benefits. scientists about the value of genomic of it previously unimaginable.” but it’s a wholly new thing to be able to about a client is her general ancestry: a one another have become very valuable.” Of course, pharmaceutical companies research, an attitude not helped by the send off a sample of DNA to a genetic recent client discovered she was Mexican, realise this. The databases that genetic media’s tendency to announce that the genealogy company and have it matched which she had no idea was the case. genealogy companies use to connect gene for something – red hair, or personality or intelligence – had been against the samples sent in by complete strangers. In fact, many people are dismissive of the idea of exploring ethnic their clients with one another have lately become very valuable, and found. At the same time, the genome was not embraced much by the Moore’s approach is not just a clever way of helping people ancestry in the genome. There’s a fear that modern scientists, like the companies are opening them up to medical research or conducting humanities, which had always been suspicious about attempts to find repair some of the information gaps in their lives, it underscores the eugenicists of the early 20th century, are really looking for race in the that research themselves. Likewise, many governments have funded connections between an individual’s identity or traits and their biology. fact that new information is created when a lot of people put their genome and that it will be used against people. In fact, our collective big projects to collect genomic data so as to illuminate the common Yet despite the fact that the first draft of the human genome was genomes together. For Moore’s clients, it allows them to work around DNA can help us correct the racist ideas that make people fear the genetic origins of disease. It seems that now is a good time to catch up not something that could be immediately acted upon, the future has governments that deny them basic information about themselves. biology of ancestry. Considering one’s own personal genome and the on the genome and the benefits and risks of using its data. crept up on us anyway. Now as individuals, as well as a culture, we In Australia, because government archives are underfunded and genome of friends and family makes it stupendously obvious that Fortunately, there is no better way to teach some of these basic can access huge amounts of knowledge from the genome, some of unsupported, many wards of the state who grew up in the orphanages race is an imprecise and ultimately unhelpful notion in biology. principles and ideas about risk and the connections between a single it previously unimaginable. In addition to digging up our family’s of the 20th century struggle to find out basic facts about themselves, Everyone’s genome has been flavoured by the events of the human node and the larger networks they belong to than through the recent and distant past, the genome can teach us about the long-ago like who their parents were. In the US, many adoptees are not even past; some segments may be identifiably associated with certain ever-fascinating prisms of ourselves. past of our species, the movements of populations, the choices made legally allowed to be told who their parents were. populations, like the Y chromosomes that are typical of central by ancestors and our own possible futures as well. The personal and Such discoveries would not be possible without the modern Asia or the autosomal chunks that tend to occur in Africans or This essay includes modified excerpts from cultural enlightenment on offer is tremendous, but it doesn’t come marriage of science and business; individuals can look at their Australians. Indeed, examining the way the genome moves through The Invisible History of the Human Race.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JUDY GREEN 14 COVER STORY COVER STORY 15 “It’s very scary when a disease like Ebola gets into a country with a unimelb.edu.au/3010 very fragile healthcare system that can’t effectively block transmission.”

A laboratory in “It’s like a fire station, we’ve got to be in The laboratory is Australia’s best of Ebola’s advanced symptoms – The Institute’s director, constant readiness,” says Catton, the head of resource for containing a disease that has bleeding from the eyes, bruising, Professor Sharon Lewin, believes Parkville is playing a the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference killed nearly 10,000 people in the past year, severe weight loss and organ the Ebola epidemic highlights Laboratory (VIDRL), which is based at more than any previous Ebola outbreak. failure – make it particularly a disturbing difference between key role in protecting the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection Most of the toll is confined to West Africa, unnerving. The virus’s high fatality poor countries and rich ones and Immunity in the heart of Melbourne’s but the nature of the epidemic has sparked rate also contributes to its fearsome such as Australia, which have the Australia against the biomedical research community. “The doubts about the world’s ability to manage reputation. The most recent strain knowledge and infrastructure to world’s deadliest pressure is on us.” dangerous viruses. kills about half its victims. withstand Ebola. The laboratory must work fast to “Even though Ebola’s been around Senior scientist Dr Julian Druce “It’s very scary when a disease infectious diseases. identify a virus so hospital staff and health since 1976,” Catton observes, “it became says staff at the Doherty never like Ebola gets into a country authorities can act rapidly to contain it. In real for people in 2014.” In the past year, stopped watching out for Ebola with a very fragile health care this case, dinner must wait as he arranges the laboratory has tested 14 specimens and had prepared for any new system that can’t effectively BY KATE STANTON for a sample to be shipped to Melbourne. for Ebola, all proving negative. incarnations of the virus. “The pressure is on us,” says Dr Mike Catton, head of the block transmission,” she says. Catton and his team play a key role in The disease is relatively difficult to “We were always ready for it,” Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory. Australians, she observes, are r Mike Catton is chopping protecting Australia and the region against contract. Unlike influenza or measles, he says. “Ebola is a moving target. “really lucky” to have the VIDRL vegetables for Sunday dinner some of the world’s most notorious germs. which spread through the air, Ebola is There have always been new and emerging “Patients, once they get to vomiting and its scientists, who have the highly D when the phone rings. A man They monitor and test for a range of contracted through contact with the strains of Ebola, so you have to keep up.” and having diarrhoea – copious amounts specialised expertise needed for such a in another state has a fever; infectious diseases, such as HIV, influenza bodily fluids of an infected person. Catton believes the disease poses little of fluid with large amounts of virus – rare virus. more disturbingly, he has just returned and measles, but as the national reference And they have to be showing symptoms risk to people in Australia, which has the are really dangerous,” he says. “So on the It’s a year since Catton and his team from Guinea, one of the epicentres of an laboratory for viral haemorrhagic fevers, to be contagious. resources to prevent a serious outbreak, ground, in those countries where those moved to the Doherty, a $210 million unfolding Ebola outbreak. Catton ends they are especially equipped to handle Yet the visceral and dramatic nature but he would “think twice” about working patients are all the time, those healthcare facility jointly operated by the University the call, puts down the knife and begins Ebola, the rare and deadly virus that has face-to-face with Ebola victims on the workers are really in the firing line. of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne contacting colleagues. He knows just alarmed the world. ground in West Africa. “I’ve got the utmost respect for those Hospital. Named after Nobel Prize- what to do. guys, but I’m a backroom boy.” winning immunologist Peter Doherty, He adds: “We’re not about taking risks, who works in the building, the Institute we’re not about being cowboys. What we brought together hundreds of scientists do is actually really safe.” from different areas – research, A relative grieves as a Red Cross burial team prepares to remove the body of an CONTINUED PAGE 16 Ebola victim in Liberia. PICTURE: DANIEL BEREHULAK/THE NEW YORK TIMES

16 COVER STORY ARCHITECTURE 17 unimelb.edu.au/3010 FROM PAGE 15 ABOUT EBOLA diagnostics, teaching, medicine and public bola is a rare but serious disease Officials say they have traced the health – to collaborate in the fight against marked by fever, headache, 2014 outbreak to a small village in Guinea. infectious diseases. vomiting and fatigue. It can lead Another 1000 people died by the time the Here, at the heart of Parkville’s E to severe weight loss, bleeding, organ World Health Organisation declared it a VISIONS renowned biomedical research strip, failure and death. The virus first appeared global emergency, in August last year.

Catton, Druce and other scientists helped in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of the Humans can contract the virus from design and develop the nation’s only Congo. Scientists believe that it originated close contact with the bodily fluids of high-security PC4 (physical containment from fruit bats. infected animals or humans. Only those level 4) lab for human specimens. They can Ebola has surfaced occasionally who are already showing symptoms can now test pathogens requiring the highest since it was discovered, though the most pass the virus to others. international standard of bio-safety. recent outbreak, the 2014 West Africa Ebola is not as contagious as diseases SPLENDID Just outside the lab, Druce shows off epidemic, has claimed more lives than such as measles, influenza or HIV, but it a line of the so-called “space suits” that all previous outbreaks combined. Nearly has a high fatality rate, ranging from 25 to protect staff from pathogens during the 10,000 people have died, mostly in Sierra 90 per cent of those who contract it. There diagnostic process, in which the virus Leone, Guinea and Liberia, and isolated is no proven cure for Ebola, but symptoms is deactivated so it can be safely tested. cases have sprung up in the US, Spain can often be treated with intravenous “It’s a little bit like being deep-sea divers,” and Britain. fluids or other basic care methods. he says of the white, rubbery suits, which swell up with air pressure to push out any contaminants. An electron micrograph of When scientists step into the lab, they an Ebola virus virion. hook into a bright-yellow air cord that hangs from the ceiling and enables them to breathe. Their main concerns are sharp objects, which could puncture suits or gloves, or getting caught up in the cord. They work with specimens in safety cabinets that push a curtain of air up and away from their bodies and through a special air filter. When scientists leave the lab, they are public health guys and the epidemiologists other scientists inspires her. “You can showered with powerful chemicals that all kind of sitting together brainstorming meet people in the lift who say, ‘I test for kill viruses. “It’s a 10-minute car wash,” ideas around Ebola,” she says. “You can Ebola in a PC4 facility,’ or something like Druce says. do that for a lot of diseases but it doesn’t that, and you can come up with these The PC4 lab feels strangely familiar. usually sit in one building.” collaborations,” she says. You might have seen something like it Another lesson underscored by the in films: the unnatural chill of purified nter Dr Wendy Winnall, Ebola experience, according to Professor air, the heavy snap of airtight submarine a vibrant, enthusiastic Lewin, is the need for public health doors and the almost unnatural quiet of E member of the Doherty’s infrastructure, such as the Doherty, scientists at work. Druce describes the Kent Laboratory. She is on capable of managing the constant threat mood as “surreally calm”. the hunt for a vaccine for HIV and has of infectious disease. Unlike the movies, in which something been working with a Melbourne biotech “You need strong leadership to make invariably goes wrong, the team is at pains company to produce antibodies that sure that people are on the same page,” to emphasise the practical, careful and would help human immune systems she says. “And I think everyone struggled methodical nature of their work. These are combat the virus. with that with Ebola. Not just in Australia scientists who have trained at the highest Like HIV, Ebola is a virus that can but in the US and globally. And probably level of bio-safety – something only a mutate. Both are made from a simple it gave us a warning sign of how to do it handful of people in the world can claim. form of genetic material called RNA. better next time.” “We’re not exactly hipsters,” Catton says When the recent Ebola outbreak hit, Catton also points to the way dealing of their years of training. Winnall thought her research could with the potential for Ebola has left Its alumni have been making their mark on the built environment So few people in Australia are qualified also be used to develop antibodies that Australia better prepared to deal with since 1902 — and now the University’s Faculty of Architecture, Building to handle Ebola and other infectious fight the disease. “Antibodies are, in my other, more likely outbreaks. “All that diseases that the Doherty diagnosticians opinion, the next big thing,” she says. preparation for Ebola gets you in good and Planning is making a bold statement on the Parkville campus regularly seek support from international “But they’re very, very expensive.” stead if you’re later having to deal with the with a new home. The state-of-the-art Melbourne School of Design, counterparts. They trained for the space Winnall found a new type of antibodies new SARS or flu pandemic.” suits at the Galveston National Laboratory made in bacteria can be produced Outside the laboratory hang framed with a light-filled atrium and open studios that encourage free in Texas and modelled the PC4 lab after relatively cheaply, making it plausible to magazine covers marking the epidemics of exchanges between students and teachers, opened in December similar facilities in the US and Europe. treat large numbers of people when an years past: SARS, H1N1, Ebola. Whatever

Professor Lewin describes the recent epidemic hits. Though the protection comes next, the scientists here are prepared. last year. To celebrate the occasion, Liz Porter profiles some of the 2015 ISSUE 1, Ebola outbreak as the first test of the would last only two or three weeks, this “I didn’t go into it thinking I’ve got to faculty’s notable alumni and their stunning work. collaborative atmosphere they hoped could nonetheless help healthcare workers don my white coat and save the world,” the Doherty would create. “We had the travelling to Ebola front lines. Catton says. “But having arrived here, scientists who work on other viruses like As for the collegiate environment at I think it’s something that’s really worth

dengue and flu, the immunologists, the the Doherty, Winnall says proximity to doing.” PICTURE: MATHEW LYNN 18 ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE 19

YVONNE VON HARTEL AM PETER MALATT (BArch(Hons) 1967, (BArch(Hons) 1989) Advanced Management Program 1989) PRACTICE Six Degrees PRACTICE peckvonhartel MAJOR PROJECTS INCLUDE Meyers Place Bar: Tiny, European-style bar, MAJOR PROJECTS INCLUDE constructed with reclaimed materials and 333 Collins Street, Melbourne: Completed recognised as the venue that kick-started in 1991, the 29-storey tower is clad in Melbourne’s laneway culture. ornamented exfoliated granite and topped UTAS School of Architecture: A multi- with a distinctive copper dome. award-winning home for a university National Museum of Australia in Canberra school of architecture constructed within (together with Ashton Raggatt McDougall): a heritage-listed 1950s diesel workshop. With exotic, multi-coloured exteriors and a giant sculptural loop at its entrance, the CAREER AND INFLUENCES building comprises several spaces jigsawed As a student and for a year after graduating, around a Garden of Australian Dreams. Peter Malatt worked for Maggie Edmond (BArch 1969) and Peter Corrigan AM (BArch CAREER AND INFLUENCES 1966), whose firm would become famous for Yvonne von Hartel was 11 when she decided controversial and award-winning buildings on a career in architecture. Several student such as RMIT’s Building 8 extension. But jobs turned her off the idea of working by 1991, he was doing contract work and with small firms and, on graduation, she sharing a cold Richmond studio with five applied to the large firm Yuncken Freeman, other graduates. designers of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, They collaborated on architectural because it was “the best training ground in competitions and small residential and Australia”. Working on 140 William Street commercial jobs but had few assets beyond (the original BHP House), the Austin Hospital their six architecture degrees. On a winter’s and the masterplan for La Trobe University, day when the nearby Nylex clock displayed she acquired a taste for large corporate a temperature of six degrees, they had a projects — “the more complicated the better” name for a new practice. — that she is still expressing in jobs such Their “democratic business friendship” as the $3.5 billion Victorian Desalination became known for its inventive reuse of Plant, which along with ARM Architecture recycled materials on small jobs, such as won the Sir Osborn McCutcheon Award the Meyers Place Bar, and is famous for its for Commercial Architecture in the inventive and sustainable approach to large Australian Institute of Architects’ Victorian residential and institutional projects. Architecture Awards. With her husband Malatt, president of the Victorian chapter and colleague Robert Peck AM (BArch 1968, of the Australian Institute of Architects, MBA 1973) she worked on major jobs in Asia is passionate about architecture’s role between 1974 and 1980. When the Yuncken in enacting positive social change and Freeman partnership was restructured outraged by the proliferation of badly in 1980, its offices in Hong Kong, Jakarta, designed city apartments — “the slums of and Kuala Lumpur were transferred to the the future”. “Melbourne has a lot of ordinary couple. They also set up their Melbourne design by non-architects,” he says. practice, then called Robert Peck von Hartel Trethowan. Von Hartel received an Order A UNIVERSITY MEMORY of Australia in 2007 for her contributions “I remember Peter McIntyre AO (BArch 1950, to urban design, architecture and the GDipT&RP 1955, DArch 1993) telling us in promotion of women in business. our fourth year about studying under Roy Grounds (BArch 1951) and Robin Boyd A UNIVERSITY MEMORY in the old Nissen huts and the influence “Most of all I remember Professor Brian they had on him. Peter fought the Lewis (DipArch 1928, BArch 1944). He Buildings Department to allow us challenged us by providing a cohort of 24-hour access to the architecture students of varied backgrounds and entry studio and to rekindle that 1950s studio qualifications and urging us to take on more culture. We used to drink and smoke and more, from extra arts subjects and and draw all through the night — it was Yvonne von Hartel at the student politics to fundraising for a new a bonding experience — then go to Cafe entrance of 333 Collins Street, school and the Archi Revue.” Notturno at dawn for coffee.” and (inset) the National Peter Malatt in the tiny bar in Meyers Museum of Australia. Place, and (inset) the bar’s facade.

PICTURE: MATHEW LYNN PICTURE: MATHEW LYNN 20 ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE 21

STEFAN MEE JULIE EIZENBERG (BPD 1990, (BArch 1977, BArch(Hons) 1993) University College) HANK KONING PRACTICE (BArch 1977) John Wardle Architects PRACTICE MAJOR PROJECTS INCLUDE Koning Eizenberg Architecture, Melbourne School of Design (with Boston’s Santa Monica, California NADAAA): A “teaching tool” building wrapped in overlapping perforated zinc MAJOR PROJECTS INCLUDE panels, with a four-level atrium at its heart. Temple Israel of Hollywood: Designed Flagstaff Crisis Accommodation Centre, as a “garden in the park”, it has a North Melbourne: Short-term housing for ceiling made of undulating wood slats homeless men in four zinc-skylighted black reminiscent of a Jewish prayer shawl. wire-cut brick buildings framing a large Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh: interior courtyard. Expands the original building with an award-winning three-storey steel and CAREER AND INFLUENCES glass structure. As a teenager, Stefan Mee planned to study music but made a last-minute change to CAREER AND INFLUENCES architecture. It came about, he reckons, from Julie Eizenberg, who studied architecture a love of assembling things, something he on her maths teacher’s suggestion, met absorbed from his schoolteacher/handyman Hank Koning in the first week of their father, and a love of art materials, inspired architecture course in 1972. They have by his schoolteacher/painter mother. been working together ever since. Setting After graduation, Mee landed a job in off for the US in 1979, the day after they architect John Wardle’s tiny two-person married, they completed masters of Carlton practice. Within a year he was architecture degrees at UCLA then started project architect on his first major building, doing small design jobs in the garage of the Flagstaff Crisis Accommodation Centre their Santa Monica duplex while waiting in North Melbourne. This complex project for “green cards” so they could work in prepared him for increasingly responsible local architecture practices. design and leadership roles in a practice that But they never did. Working as was expanding into city projects, such as the volunteers to help revive an ailing high-rise The Urban Workshop, and taking shopping strip in midtown LA, they on large educational institutional jobs. He kickstarted a practice committed to was thrilled to be one of the design leaders sustainable architecture, community for the Melbourne School of Design. engagement and an approach summed up in Eizenberg’s 2006 book Architecture A UNIVERSITY MEMORY isn’t just for special occasions. The pair are “I recall my thesis supervisor, Professor best known for their award-winning work Philip Goad (BArch(Hons) 1984, PhD 1993, on schools, adaptive re-use of historic Medley Hall), saying it was important to buildings and affordable housing. write down your position on architecture every year or two as a way of clarifying what A UNIVERSITY MEMORY you had learnt and considered important. “Charismatic teachers: Blanche Merz (BSc So I have always been a keen 1941, Queen’s College) teaching maths and writer about particular lighting; the Coldicutts — Allan (BE(CivEng) projects as well as the 1944) and Beth (BSc 1934, MSc 1936, ideas and direction GDipEd 1941) — teaching construction of our practice.” using early computer programming; Hugh O’Neill AO (BArch 1956, DArch 2013, Ormond College) giving classes on Asian architecture. And talking about ideas: Stefan Mee we lived in Carlton and we would often inside the new end up in the pub — the Clyde or the Melbourne Lincoln — talking about architecture.” School of Design, and (inset) the Julie Eizenberg and Hank Koning building’s bold at their studio in Santa Monica For more on this story, exterior. and (inset) the Children’s Museum go to unimelb.edu.au/3010 at Pittsburgh.

PICTURE: MATHEW LYNN INSET PICTURE: ALBERT VECERKA/ESTO 22 CLOSE ENCOUNTER CLOSE ENCOUNTER 23 unimelb.edu.au/3010 policy. If they’re using market-based taxes. His ideal Australia is a more equal ideas to a group of investors in the hope Investment banker pricing then cultural studies is cheap Australia and on this subject he brooks of generating a few perfect corporate by comparison. And guess what! One no opposition. “The stats are there,” he matches. Known as Carnegie’s Den, it Mark Carnegie is a is easy, and one is hard. Education says. “More equal societies are better is a platform, as he puts it, “for great should be about working hard to learn societies. Suck. It. Up.” Australians to build great Australian provocateur with a something that’s hard to learn.” In fact the only thing more likely to businesses”. I catch Carnegie shortly after his raise his blood pressure than a Derrida The opposite of this approach is

disarming vision for return from the annual J.P. Morgan scholar banging on about “logocentrism” inherited wealth used solely for personal healthcare conference in San Francisco, is a booster for “unrestrained free market gain. “The idea that somebody gets to transforming society. described by Forbes magazine as “a capitalism” offering “trickle-down inherit a large dairy farm from their global, multi-day shopping spree and economics” as a universal salve. grandfather and it ends up being a BY LUKE SLATTERY advertising expo for large and small, (BA(Hons) 1983) traditional and boutique, biotech and life science companies, and the investors who ark Carnegie is by repute a love them”. tough-talking, big-thinking Mark Carnegie, with $350 million investor with a combustible in committed funding to a portfolio M temper and a taste for of companies in an arc across medical profanity. But either the Sydney-based technology, resources and high-end real venture capitalist is striving to deceive when estate, is one of those investors. we meet at his office squirrelled away in a It’s typical of the investor’s modus narrow Paddington street, or his fearsome operandi that his entrance into the reputation ignores an altogether more medical device market upends a few relaxed temperament. Carnegie pads down rules. The narrative of Australian higher the corridor in a crushed aqua linen shirt education has been dominated by the PICTURES: MICHAEL AMENDOLIA worn outside khaki chinos, his feet shod in “brain drain”, but Carnegie has been able “The stats are there. residential development – that’s just dark tan loafers. I feel an urge to check the to secure a net brain gain by propping aristocratic rent seeking from the calendar. Is it a work day or a golf day? up at least three US medical device More equal societies Middle Ages.” Equally disconcerting is the genial air companies – more are in the pipeline Education, once again, is front and of this Melbourne-born silvertail, son – and reeling them home to Australia. are better societies. centre; he wants an education system that of Sir Roderick Carnegie AC (BSc 1954, The genius of the move is that it builds identifies and nurtures talent wherever Trinity College) and a man born, by his on Australia’s expertise in medical Suck. It. Up.” it exists on the social spectrum. “I’m not own confession, “into such immense technology; an expertise grounded in saying this because I’m a do-gooding privilege that I don’t want to advocate for eight Nobel Laureates in physiology or For Mark Carnegie, greater income leftie,” he insists. “I’m saying it because more”. He offers a civilised handshake – medicine as well as Graeme Clark’s bionic equality is not merely a social justice the alternative is leaving a whole lot of neither assertive nor indifferent – and a ear and Colin Sullivan’s ResMed sleep measure. It is a means to another end: social potential on the scrap heap.” genuine, if slightly reserved smile. Once apnoea device. “People have done really economic vitality. Egalitarianism is Mark Carnegie is battle-hardened seated in a leather lounge chair he rolls out impressive stuff here and what this means portrayed by its critics as a sure way to enough to realise that he is easily a range of social and political views that is that the Americans don’t sit there and douse the fires of capitalism and reduce characterised as a walking, talking are provocative, perhaps idiosyncratic by say, ‘Oh my god you’re going to move them to coals, but for Carnegie, equality contradiction. He’s the rich guy and the standards of narrowly partisan politics, my company to Kazakhstan’. The second is a source of economic dynamism, not a wealth generator with a social vision and never less than challenging. In the thing is that the R&D tax incentive dampener. “The key thing is opportunity that critics will deride as demi-socialist. process there is the odd expletive, usually means that we’re on a level playing field and social mobility unleashing the He’s an Australian patriot who has spent half his life out of the country. A scientist by training with a keen strategic mind, his great mid-life passion is classical literature. But the contradictions are more The making of a maverick apparent than real and the social vision remarkably coherent. At a fundamental for dramatic effect, but nothing like the Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. as it doesn’t end up in the word studies at a federal level with Canada and better creative destruction of capitalism in level he’s a proud Australian who believes incontinent cussing I’d been led to expect. Carnegie believes the nation has got – cultural studies, women’s studies.” off than America. We’ve traditionally had positive ways to make a better society,” in the national achievement but thinks Education is at the core of his social the wrong end of the stick on education His scorn for “self-indulgent” tenured a really good R&D environment and a he says. we “would be able to project a better vision, and on the subject he holds, as policy. “Education is an investment,” he professors and the “self-serving pap” shitty commercialisation environment. What Carnegie terms an story, have a bigger presence in the room, he puts it, “strong and really unpopular asserts. “It’s not an expense even though or “pernicious rubbish” offered in the The really good commercialisation is “opportunity-ocracy” – a society that if we could resolve some important views”. Carnegie himself has a BSc(Hons) it turns up in the national accounts. All “new” theoretical humanities is seemingly done in Europe, while America has the places a premium on the discovery and national issues surrounding education, from the University of Melbourne and a the evidence is that money spent on limitless. He’s an old-school liberal arts worst of everything.” cultivation of talent – has the hallmarks immigration, and our treatment of BA in jurisprudence from Oxford, and is education returns to society and if you kind of guy. After Oxford, Carnegie cut his of a belief system intellectualised from Indigenous people, and if we could bring the quintessential lifelong learner: for the under-invest in education that’s bad policy. “Does the country need more teeth with investment banker James personal experience, as most belief some stability and authority to Federal past few years he has hosted a highbrow Of course that’s unpopular with an ageing engineers, computer scientists, Wolfensohn on Wall Street before systems are. Parliament.”

book club at his home. It’s a fun yet formal population. When there’s a choice between mathematicians, doctors, health and going to work for Lloyd Williams at Born into wealth, he has done In any event he may simply be, as 2015 ISSUE 1, affair, with a guest expert delivering a spending on healthcare and education, medical researchers?” He answers his Hudson Conway in London. Despite something socially useful with his and Walt Whitman said of himself, large disquisition on a canonical text such as health gets the votes.” rhetorical question in the affirmative. his membership of an ultra-exclusive others’ money. Aside from his own enough to “contain multitudes”. He is, at Macbeth or The Iliad. For his next pairing But there’s a caveat, and it bears on “But these are not only the tough subjects, tribe, he still advocates strongly for investments and those he brokers in the the very least, a resolute individualist and Carnegie will offer chosen guests the NSW Carnegie’s strict cultural conservatism. they’re the most expensive. This is where higher taxes at the top end of the income normal course of things, twice a year provocateur who never backs away from

Crown Prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, on “I’ll fund anything at university so long I really worry about current government scale, particularly tougher inheritance he calls on entrepreneurs to bring their a rumble. 24 CAREER FLEXIBILITY CAREER FLEXIBILITY 25 unimelb.edu.au/3010 Perks, pay and the real meaning of life Working on e’ve all seen them on TV – the big tech firms where perks

Wof the job include gourmet meals, games rooms, massages and gyms. Sounds great? Not to Professor Tony LaMontagne, who leads the Workplace Health research stream in tomorrow the McCaughey VicHealth Centre for The class of 2015 will find themselves entering Community Wellbeing in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. a very different world of work than their “That stuff gives me the shivers,” riting on the walls is he says. “People think it’s the company positively encouraged at predecessors of even a decade ago. looking after them but it’s not really. It’s the Centre for Workplace the company working you to the bone. W Leadership. Much of the Val McFarlane meets the men “It might be fine for the person wall space in the Centre, on the sixth floor examining how we work who does nothing but work, then goes of the Business and Economics building home and comes back to work. But for in Berkeley Street, is covered in scribbles. now – and what the most people there is danger in having There are lists, Venn diagrams, graphs … all of your social connections at work, all ideas downloaded from the brains of the Flexibility takes many forms. future might because if you lose that job or you academics who work there. “Activity-based working”, where move on, you lose your social networks It’s just one of the signs that the Centre employees no longer have their bring. at the time you most need them.” doesn’t just research the modern workplace; own assigned workstation, instead Regardless of what their it is one. Here, academic and professional using a range of areas to carry out workplace is like, LaMontagne staff share the space. There’s a formal meeting specific tasks, is just one. Teams cautions workers room, but more informal places to gather – don’t necessarily sit together, against getting booths with comfy couches and a bar with instead using videocasting to Research fellow Dr Jesse Olsen high stools, like in the hipster cafes round the communicate, or meeting says there will always be jobs where such corner in Carlton. in shared spaces. In at least methods won’t work, but for those where too wrapped up in Director Professor Peter Gahan (PhD one Melbourne bank – and they are appropriate, they can save money their jobs, a risk increased 1997) hasn’t bought a pool table for the team increasingly around the and present new opportunities. “Technology by the technology that allows – yet, but one wouldn’t look out of place. world – the definition of office allows us to get lots of people to work together and encourages – employees to be It’s exactly the kind of environment you space is being stretched even who might otherwise not be able to because on call 24/7. would expect from Gahan, who has spent his further, to include areas where of their personal circumstances, whether it is “In Western society we over-invest life researching ways of making the Australian customers can work alongside family commitments or because they live in ILLUSTRATION: FRANK MAIORANA in work for our identities, and we [in workforce happier and more productive. bank staff. different places,” he says. “If you get a lot of Australia] have some of the longest A former Director of Workplace Innovation Teleworking, or virtual different types of people together they share working hours in the OECD,” he says. at the Victorian Department of Industry, working, with employees scattered different perspectives and you come up with “Yet there’s much more to life than Innovation and Regional Development, he across the city, country or even different outcomes.” even on a screen, it’s almost as effective employee productivity in the long run. work.” has studied the impact of workplace changes globe, is also increasingly common. It’s the “getting together” that makes as meeting face-to-face. “There is still How sustainable is it to have staff working He urges job-seekers to protect over many years. At technology firm Cisco, 40 per cent the difference, regardless of whether it’s in something in us that wants to be with in this way?” their mental health by researching a “We forget the enormity of of managers manage people who don’t person or over Skype. Olsen cites the 2013 other people. It’s what makes us There’s evidence that when employees feel company’s culture carefully before technological change that has taken place work in the same location. decision by the CEO of Yahoo, Marissa human,” Olsen says. they have insufficient control over how they signing up for a new position. over a relatively short period Mayer, to put an end to staff But even with the latest work, their risk of depression doubles. And “You need to do more than read the of time,” he says. “Just think working from home. “It’s not technology, creating serendipitous everyone pays – research by Professor Tony annual reports or know what the salary about how long things like smart that she is against working “watercooler moments” when LaMontagne (see right) has put the cost range is,” he says. “Salary drives a lot mobile phones have been around. from home, she is against staff are not in the same building is of work-related mental health problems of people but over time it’s not going The first smartphone came out in working by yourself. To get hard, Gahan admits. “If we are working at more than $700 million a year. to make or break whether you stay in the mid-1990s, the first iPhone the benefits of diversity you from home or virtually we miss out on Stress-related WorkCover claims are a particular role. If you are somebody in 2007, but where would we have got to get the people the chance interactions with others in the the only ones on the rise. That’s who really, really values your weekends, be without them now? The first together. Collaboration is workplace which often lead to problems being something bosses need to be you need to know that in certain lines thing I do when I get out of bed t h e ke y.” solved and new insights and ideas.” mindful of when introducing of work you’re not going to have them. – in fact I don’t even get out This is where technology Flexibility brings risks for employees, too, in the new working practices, Olsen “A lot of workplaces might profess of bed – is check my emails.” can help. It’s expected that form of work-related stress. “We know that when we says. “Ultimately what we to have the flexibility to accommodate

Reports of the death of the next generation of have less structured forms of working that people should be doing is creating you but in the end, it may not be so 2015 ISSUE 1, the traditional office may office telephones will allow find it much harder to balance work and life. real flexibility, not forcing a new true. Know what your limits are in terms be an exaggeration, but there videoconferencing at your Work takes over,” Gahan says. way of working. You might be of how hard you want to work, and is no doubt the nine-to-five is desk, and the research has “Organisations have to think about what lauded for putting flexible working how important your life out of work changing, with flexibility the proved that if people can see that means for their workplace health in place in when in reality you are is to you.”

current buzzword. Professor Peter Gahan, left, and Dr Jesse Olsen. PICTURE: DARREN HOWE each other while they talk, and safety liabilities and the impact on just creating a different rigidity.” 26 RESEARCH RESEARCH 27 Through a child’s eyes unimelb.edu.au/3010 From boat to schoolyard to Australian future, a new research project will examine the history of our child refugees.

Professor Joy Damousi and her team of BY GABRIELLE MURPHY researchers (from left) Dr Alexandra Dellios, Niro Kandasamy, Anh Nguyen, t was with no English but Sarah Green, Samuel Malek, Dr Mary boundless energy that Tomsic, Dr Rachel Stevens and Joy Damousi started her Dr Jordana Silverstein. Left: Professor I educational journey in Damousi at primary school. a crowded inner-city kindergarten in PICTURE: CHRIS HOPKINS Melbourne. A year later, her English little improved, she was thrown into the local primary school. social and economic terms,’’ she says. in George Street, and then Napier Street, it was time to take the memories and run.” or limited the success of child refugees As the conflict escalated, many Tamils, “The schools were bursting with kids “In so doing, we want to develop an Fitzroy, as had many migrants before them.” And run she did, catching and who have arrived from the 1970s including Kandasamy’s family, were who spoke little or no English,” she recalls historical and contemporary framework Damousi’s parents were part of analysing memory as she went, through onwards, using Vietnamese, Sudanese, forced to flee. A toddler when she arrived of those days in the 1960s. “But although for current discussions on this aspect of the massive postwar influx of Greek the laneways of Fitzroy, on to school, Sri Lankan and Bosnian case studies. in Australia in 1992, Kandasamy grew up my first language was Greek, I don’t recall migration and humanitarian policy.” immigrants to Australia, one of the largest university and beyond. Of the eight scholars Damousi in Western Sydney, which she now calls any problem joining in with children in This is not a research topic for the faint- intakes in the nation’s history. Between Damousi has explored an eclectic has enlisted to work on the research, home. Her thesis will explore the effects the street and kicking the football. hearted. Refugees – and child refugees 1945 and 1959, Australia took in about range of historical themes and periods three are former child refugees. All of long-term resettlement on Sri Lankan “For us Greeks, Italians, Turkish and in particular – are a sensitive topic in 63,000 permanent arrivals from Greece, throughout her academic career: will be working on the project as PhD refugee children. Yugoslavs, Australian Rules football was modern Australia. 24,000 of them assisted by the federal Australian cultural history, feminist candidates. Samuel Malak, from Sudan, will our communal language, bringing us into Damousi also admits that her government. Many settled in Melbourne, and women’s history, the history of the Niro Kandasamy was born in Point examine the settlement experiences the mainstream and establishing an insider background as the daughter of migrants particularly in the inner-city suburbs of emotions and psychoanalysis, the history Pedro in Sri Lanka’s Jaffna District, the and needs of young Sudanese migrants status, of sorts, in the face of wog and dago brings a personal dimension to the Fitzroy, Collingwood and Richmond. of democracy, speech and oratory, site of many battles between Sri Lankan for their successful integration into labels regularly projected at us.” exercise. “But this is invariably the case Of her childhood days roaming the migration history, and the history of war forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Australian society. During the civil war These schoolyard experiences were when issues of migration and wartime streets and laneways of Fitzroy, Damousi and sound. She has even tackled football Eelam during the civil war that raged in his home country, Samuel was forced the start of a distinguished academic experiences are concerned. and her mother hold opposite views. and popular culture. from 1983 to 2009. to serve as a “child soldier” in the Sudan career that would lead Professor Damousi “My father George was a village While her daughter is unequivocal Her latest book, Memory and People’s Liberation Army. to become one of Australia’s most bootmaker who migrated from Florina about her love of growing up in the Migration in the Shadow of War: His arduous quest for safety ended respected historians and the University of in the Olympian year of 1956 and suburb, Sofia has often lamented the life- Australia’s Greek Immigrants after with his arrival in Melbourne in 2003. Melbourne’s first female – and the Faculty then arranged for my mother Sofia, a defining decision to abandon her rural World War II and the Greek Civil War, Anh Nguyen was a Vietnamese child of Arts’ first – ARC Laureate Fellow. dressmaker, and one-year-old sister Mary village, family and community to travel to will be published this year. refugee raised in Texas. She was born The Australian Laureate Fellowship to join him in 1957. They initially settled the other side of the world only to find a She now moves on to explore 18 months after the fall of Saigon and six recognises world-class research and is different type of poverty and hardship, this the changing nature of Australian when her parents decided to flee their the Australian Research Council’s highest “We want to explore how this time in an unfamiliar and strange urban internationalism during the 20th and 21st country in 1982. They were among 110 individual accolade. The fellowship environment. centuries through a study of the history refugees packed on a boat safe for 45. awarded to Professor Damousi and her history is tied to Australia’s “The very things that I adored about of child refugees and the campaigns It took more than a year for the family team of eight researchers will fund an growing up in Fitzroy, my parents undertaken on their behalf by relief to reach safety in the US. extensive five-year project looking at the international role on refugee despised,” Damousi says. “The squalid, agencies and humanitarian organisations. Damousi believes the scholars’ history of child refugees in Australia. dilapidated boarding houses, the century- “One’s background can influence knowledge and expertise will contribute Her aim, as she explains, is to generate and migration issues and old Victorian houses in desperate need and shape the topics you pursue and to our understanding of the history of new and powerful understanding of the of light and repair.” She says Fitzroy’s the questions you ask of your research,” refugees in Australia. impact and experience of child refugees in come to an understanding of streets were a gigantic playground, and Damousi says. “This is not always the case “It’s unusual, definitely rare, that as

Australia throughout the 20th and early that this landlocked landscape allowed but in this instance, clearly the experiences historians we find ourselves in a position 2015 ISSUE 1, 21st century. “We want to explore how this the impact of child refugees her to explore youthful freedoms. of some of the researchers on this project where we can double as informants and history is tied to Australia’s international “I grew up listening to Greek war have directed them to focus on aspects informers,’’ she says. “In combining these role on refugee and migration issues and in Australia in cultural, social stories being told over and over again derived from their personal histories.” roles, we hope to provide a detailed, come to an understanding of the impact by my mother – each time with more One aspect of the research will be to Niro Kandasamy was a toddler insightful and instructive history that

of child refugees in Australia in cultural, and economic terms.’’ literary flourish – but at this moment, consider the factors that have enhanced when she arrived in Australia. will benefit us all.” 28 IT TAKES TWO IT TAKES TWO 29 On paper, Glenda Fisher and Cassandra Yam don’t look like ‘I’m so grateful to they’d have much in common. Glenda (MEd 2005), 65, has spent her life in education, principally helping have been able school students with disabilities. Cassie, 20, a third-year Bachelor of Commerce student, is headed for a to meet her, let career in accounting. But after being paired through the University’s Access Connections Mentoring Program, the alone have her two women have formed a strong bond that benefits them both. They tell Val McFarlane about their relationship. as my mentor’ GLENDA CASSIE

y experience has been on herself and was reluctant to emphasise had always heard people your answer before you say it, don’t feel very different to Cassie’s. her considerable talents. saying that mentors were you need to rush … It really helped with I completed my initial I helped her with her resume and really important and they my confidence. M teaching qualifications in through my connections at the Graduate I could help you so much but It just so happened that I had an interview Special Education at Melbourne University Union, set up a mock interview panel for I didn’t know what to expect when I signed for an internship the morning after. It was in 1969. When I described what my her, with myself and two colleagues who up for the program. impeccable timing. I felt so much better and days were like back then to Cassie – rolls are experts in accountancy, which Cassie Glenda and I emailed first to arrange more prepared. I just made sure to remember marked, Wednesday afternoon sport, halls is studying. a meet-up. I was pretty nervous because what Glenda and her colleagues had told me. of residence living – she said it was like We interviewed her for an hour and a I didn’t know what I was expected to do I guess it worked because I was successful being back in school, and it was. half – she really had a tough time of it! We or what would happen. I thought that I and I got the internship. I’ve been a professional educator for 48 taught her not to be afraid to take time to would feel really intimidated because it When I first started at Melbourne years and currently work for the Catholic consider what to say and how to answer was someone who was so much more the idea of going from uni to full-time Education Office, helping senior school questions effectively. experienced than me. work seemed really overwhelming. students with diverse needs to transfer from As she was leaving she said she had an But when I met Glenda, straight away I was worried about how you go from school into further education, training or interview at a major accountancy firm the she was so friendly and so helpful and studying accounting to actually doing work. I enjoy working with young people next morning. We were delighted when caring. Even though she’s achieved so much it. But through my conversations with and seeing them succeed. Mentoring is we got an email later in the day saying that and had so much experience, she was still Glenda I learned that no one expects another opportunity to do that. she’d been offered a position. so willing to help. you to know everything right away. Cassie and I just clicked. One of her It doesn’t matter that we’re in different It was at the time when I was applying This semester I’ve been on exchange biggest challenges was to get herself an fields. Mentoring is about teaching the for internships and I was feeling a bit lost. at Boston College in the US, where I’m internship. students how to look for and acknowledge In previous interviews I was just such a studying Chinese as well as finance. She would get interviews but not what isn’t working for them and give mess. I didn’t know what to do, and I was so I always assumed I’d just go straight succeed in being offered a position which them the skills to change that and move nervous all the time. I would know what I down the accounting path, but was really disappointing for her. I asked forward, as a complement to their academic wanted to get across but I didn’t know how the more I learn about how many her to send me her resume, write down learning. to express it and remain calm and collected. different options there are after uni, the sort of questions she’d been asked I’ve found being a part of this program I was taken aback when Glenda the more I’m thinking I don’t know and what her responses were so that very rewarding and I would do it again. organised the mock interview but it helped where I’ll end up. But I’m looking I could see if there was an area where It has been an absolute joy meeting and me so much. The panel went through forward to starting my internship at she wasn’t making an impact. working with Cassie. She wanted to learn general interview questions and gave me the end of the year. I hope Glenda and Cassie is such a delightful young and that made my job 10 times easier. feedback after each one. They also gave me I will keep in touch. I’m so grateful to woman but quite shy. She shied We’ll keep in touch. I’ll be interested to tips about business etiquette and how to act have been able to meet her, let alone away from shining the spotlight follow her career. in an interview – talk slowly, think through have her as my mentor. It’s been amazing.

The University has a range of mentoring programs that alumni can get involved in. To find out more, visit alumni.unimelb.edu.au/get-involved/volunteering/mentoring

PICTURE: CHRIS HOPKINS PICTURE: STEPHEN SHERMAN PHOTOGRAPHY 30 31

RS CLASS OF alumniprofiles EA Y + 2 EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSITY 5 5 2 ’89 Y + E A So much is the same, yet so much has R changed. Here are some of the ways in CLASS OF S Taste of which the University of Melbourne has ’64 CLASS OF success been transformed over the 50 years ’14 from 1964 to 2014. GEORGE SYKIOTIS (BCom 1995) STUDENT NUMBERS eorge Sykiotis remembers the meal his 1964 mate, celebrity chef George Calombaris, 13,892 cooked the night they cemented their G business partnership on a handshake. 1989 “He was working at One Fitzroy Street and he did 22,402 a baklava souffle and calamari carbonara. That was 2014 spectacular!” 42,653 The two Melbourne men, sons of Greek migrants, complement each other. Calombaris is the frontman MALE FEMALE EACH ICON DENOTES 1000 STUDENTS with the knife skills, the chef with an outstanding creative culinary touch. The fast-talking Sykiotis is the money man who makes their plans work. PERCENTAGE OF SMOKING REGULATIONS “George is the soul of our business, I’m the heart FEMALE STUDENTS of the business,” he says. Together with two partners they run Made Establishment, which is behind some of Melbourne’s big-name restaurants including the Press Club and 1964 Hellenic Republic. 33% Much has been made of their unusual approach to establishing new restaurants. They don’t just create the restaurant, they buy the property it’s on. “The freehold is critical, because that way you have some insurance,” he says. “Rents in the city have 1989 doubled, tripled, but we keep ours at reasonable levels.” And besides, buying property was what his parents 55% did years ago. “It’s called ROI,” he says, “return on 1989 2014 investment.” 1964 Smoking banned in Campus declared Sykiotis’ skill with numbers emerged in childhood No restrictions campus buildings smoke-free when he did the books for his parents, who ran a series of cafes across Melbourne. He maintains he can still 2014 add faster than some calculators. He calls it “smelling 54.7% numbers”. His ability in commerce was cemented at the University of Melbourne, but not until after learning a PERCENTAGE painful lesson. It happened in 1999, during his second OF STUDENTS year. He was 18. FROM OVERSEAS “I started realising there was more to uni than LARGEST FACULTY just going to lectures. I was partying too hard. I failed six out of my eight subjects and ended up before the disciplinary review board.” 1964 Arts The board gave him another chance: probation and part-time studies for two years. Afraid of what his parents would say, he told them he was opening a restaurant and would therefore be studying part-time. All he had to do was find a restaurant. He did, opening 2014 1989 Education up in Lonsdale Street opposite the Owen Dixon Chambers. It proved a success so he started another. 1989 31% Eight years after starting at the University, Sykiotis graduated with a commerce degree. “I was partying too hard 1964 7% “The thing I learnt in uni was discipline and there was an opportunity to be exposed to different sources and ended up before the 2014 Medicine, Dentistry <1% and Health Sciences of information, things I would not normally have had access to. I developed some amazing skills.” disciplinary review board.” And most importantly, he adds, he was given a second chance. JENI PORT GRAPHIC: FRANK MAIORANA PICTURE: CHRIS HOPKINS 32 33 alumniprofiles stay connected alumni.unimelb.edu.au

The bigger Riding the rise “When I returned in 1994, Beijing picture in Beijing law had about 3000 lawyers … Now we have 30,000.” CORRIE CHEN YAO YI (BFT(Hons) 2008, (LLM 1996) MFT(Narr) 2011)

orrie Chen has ambitions, big ones, f there is one thing that Yao Yi, partner the kind that require millions of dollars in the Chinese law firm East & Concord and nerves of steel. She wants to direct Partners, has in spades it’s the ability to C a feature film. I adapt to change. Temptingly, the young Melbourne filmmaker A graduate of Beijing’s Renmin University, Yao’s describes her dream project as an Australian-style undergraduate degree in economic law and masters Deadwood, a riff on the old Wild West played out on in civil procedural law secured her a position at the the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s with plenty of love, Beijing Foreign Economic Law Office, a state-owned death and lawlessness revolving around the arrival of law firm specialising in foreign investment. Chinese immigrants. That was in the early 1990s when a new area of The storyline is close to her heart and her experience commercial legal practice in China was emerging. as the daughter of Taiwanese migrants. “We had just opened the stockmarket in 1992,” “I am interested in people on the fringes of society Yao recalls. “This was all new in China.” because they are not heard of very often,” she says. When a visiting partner from Minter Ellison invited “It started with telling migrant stories because that came her to work in Melbourne she jumped at the chance and naturally to me, but it’s filtering now into other genres.” applied for a scholarship to the University of Melbourne Corrie Chen arrived in Australia as an eight-year- Law School to complete a masters in company law and old in 1994. When she hit her teens her parents had the securities market. expectations about her future career, the kind involving “I was encouraged to do some research in this area,” law or accounting. says Yao, who completed her thesis over two years while “The Asian thing,” she says, “is that your ideal working at “Minters” part-time. The Australian legal profession should be contributing something to society, system was “quite different” but gave Yao “invaluable like a doctor or an accountant.” legal experience”. She enrolled in media at RMIT with thoughts of While a future in Australia appealed, she received perhaps becoming a journalist, and it was during a a call from a colleague at the Beijing Foreign Economic course on film that her lecturer saw in her a kernel of Law Office saying the firm was restructuring and she potential and “pushed” her towards committing to film. had a chance to be a partner. Yao returned home and She enrolled in the Victorian College of the Arts School a year later was one of eight partners and 16 lawyers of Film and Television, receiving a Bachelor of Film and at the new East & Concord Partners firm. Television (Hons) in 2008 and following it up with a “Changes in the Chinese legal system over the Master of Film and Television in 2011. past 20 years have been dramatic,” she says. “When I Her parents remain unsure of what exactly she returned in 1994, Beijing had about 3000 lawyers and does, but there’s no doubt her film work has touched only a couple of partnership law firms. Now we have many, dealing as it does with some of the big issues over 3000 firms and 30,000 lawyers in Beijing.” confronting Australia in the 21st century. The four-tiered Chinese court system, presided over In 2014, Suicide and Me, exploring the stories of by a judge and a panel of assessors, hears criminal and three young suicide survivors, aired on the ABC. It won civil matters, but she prefers to refer commercial matters her Best Direction in a Documentary at the Australian to the China Economic International Trade Arbitration Directors’ Guild Awards. Commission. “You can get a final arbitration awarded The 2011 short comedy Bruce Lee Played Badminton after one hearing,” she says of the commission, one of Too looked at the dreams of an isolated young man the largest arbitrators in the world. who loves badminton and Bruce Lee. It was highly Now with 61 partners, 116 lawyers and more than commended at the 2013 World of Women Film Festival. 200 support staff, East & Concord Partners is carving Reg Makes Contact, her latest seven-minute short out a niche as a medium-sized firm for mostly local “I am interested in film, now in post-production, is a story about dementia clients. and alien life forms. Post-merger, Yao’s time is largely spent managing the people on the fringes of “It’s about an old man who lives by himself in the business, integrating the two firms and building a new middle of nowhere. He’s suffering from dementia IT platform – but she still takes a hands-on approach to society because they are and he’s really obsessed with finding proof of extra- clients and China’s fast-changing legal landscape. terrestrial life. On the eve of him being forced out of his “The biggest challenge for lawyers in China is keeping not heard of very often.” home and into a nursing home, he finds an object that up with changes to regulations. I have practised for over he believes is that proof.” 21 years and I have to learn new regulations every day.” JENI PORT ANGELA MARTINKUS PICTURE: CHRIS HOPKINS PICTURE: MA ZHENG 34 alumniprofiles alumninews 35

AT HOME IN THE WORLD

Leaving Melbourne doesn’t mean “I am very glad to remain leaving the University behind connected” Singapore-based Alumni Council member Rachel Teo (BCom 1991, PGDipEco 1992, International House) is a strong advocate for the benefits of overseas An eye for risk My island home associations. Rachel kept in touch with the University following graduation but DR KATIE POTTS BRIDGET DALY only became actively involved in the (BGeomE 2009, PhD 2014) (PGDipTeach(Sec) 2013) Singapore Alumni Association when it looked like it might close down, helping hen Katie Potts makes up her mind to do eaf-hut villages, volcanic islands, windswept beaches and revive it with some other local alumni. something, it gets done. Growing up in a small emerald jungles – the Solomon Islands is the type of place It has since gone from strength to country town on the Victoria-NSW border she you might expect to see on the Discovery Channel, but for strength and each year runs a dynamic W was so determined to study in Melbourne she L Bridget Daly, it’s home. After she completed her studies in program of activities to engage and chose a degree, Geomatic Engineering, that wasn’t offered locally. 2013, Daly’s husband accepted a job with World Vision International on Enduring bonds: For alumni, graduation isn’t the end of their relationship with the University. entertain the 4500-plus alumni living “I blindly picked it, but once I started to do it I really enjoyed it.” Guadalcanal. “When the opportunity arose it was too good to pass up,” in Singapore. So much so that at just 26 she has completed her PhD and is she says. Wherever you are, you’re likely to find other alumni together to share their experiences “I have been involved with the a founding research fellow at the University’s Centre for Disaster It was a move that would prove serendipitous for her career as well. University of Melbourne alumni. At the last of Melbourne. alumni association for over 10 years Management and Public Safety. During her first weekend in town, she attended the Coconut Olympics count, there were nearly 338,000 graduates “Attending a Welcome Home event is now,” Teo says. “I am very glad to “Disaster management is where my passion lies,” Potts says. – a hotly contested event featuring unconventional sports such as in 156 countries. often the first step in making connections remain connected as I get to meet In the era of climate change and ever-more-frequent freak weather coconut curling. Between heats, Daly was introduced to the curriculum In a number of locations – Beijing, that last a lifetime,” Birtchnell says. more alumni, both younger and events, her career fits into a niche that has grabbed the attention co-ordinator of Woodford International School. Soon after, she landed Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Even in countries without formal alumni older. I enjoy meeting new alumni of governments and industry all over the world. The softly spoken, a teaching role in its primary-years program. Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam and the United associations, there are opportunities to and am always happy to learn of their articulate engineer from Wahgunyah is at the forefront of the field. Twelve months on, Daly is still pinching herself. “I never imagined Kingdom – there are active alumni connect with fellow graduates. In 2014, involvement with different sectors. Geomatics is essentially 3D mapping and visualisation of land. I’d be living and working on an island in the Pacific,” she says. associations, driven by volunteers. Each runs events for international alumni included “I encourage new graduates to “It’s quite diverse, from GPS satellites to remote sensing and While the surrounds are vastly different to Melbourne, the daily a program of events to connect alumni with exclusive dinners with travelling academics continue building their network as surveying, and it also has a land administration and planning routine isn’t that dissimilar. “It’s early starts and late nights,” she says. each other and keep them involved in the life in Uganda and Malawi, cocktail functions they will get to meet more alumni and aspect to it, which is the area I ended up in,” Potts says. “But I’m also learning a new language, culture and different ways of the University. in Taipei, Cambodia and the Philippines, through it make valuable friendships. Central to her work is the layering of information from a to approach life and teaching, which makes the experience a truly “The associations provide networks and large-scale events, hosted by Australian Indirectly there will be mentors that variety of sources to identify risk in specific locations. “Property rich one.” for all University of Melbourne alumni, state and federal governments, for alumni you may meet along the way and and address information is overlaid with topographic information, Excitable chatter can be heard from the classroom as students wherever they are in the world, at whatever living in Denmark, Germany and Oman, in time you will also likely mentor flood and bushfire overlays and then geographic information eagerly await their next lesson. They come from a variety of backgrounds stage in their career,” says Jaclyn Birtchnell, among others. someone younger.” system software is used to identify properties at risk,” she explains. – Kiribati, South Korea, Papua New Guinea, Malawi and the Solomons. the University’s Alumni Relations Manager “Getting involved with your local Indonesian-born graduate In the final year of her degree a project on the use of spatial Roles are often reversed as they teach Daly about their cultural traditions. (Advocacy and Recognition). alumni community is a way of tapping into Ryan Himawan (BCom 2012) has also information in the 2009 Victorian bushfire recovery introduced “Every day I am brimming with joy over the conversations I’ve had and “They are invaluable for new alumni in a wealth of knowledge and experience,” connected with peers in his home her to disaster management. Her PhD research took that a step the learning I’ve witnessed,” she says. that they instantly expand their social and Birtchnell says. country. “When I was there, Melbourne further by showing how land information can be used by agencies But being a teacher in the Solomon Islands is not without its quirks. professional networks, and offer the potential Alumni are urged to keep the University never felt like home to me,” he and landowners to determine if they are at risk from a particular “We don’t rely on computers,” Daly jokes, “they’re temperamental at best.” for career support, professional development informed of their mailing address and supply says. “However, now that I have left hazard. It concluded that national policy changes were needed. The technology may be unreliable and the hours long, but there are and employment opportunities. a current email address, so they can be Melbourne, I feel like I am missing it Moving between the Philippines – where her husband owns poignant moments that make it all worthwhile. “I had one student who “But they also offer the chance for invited to relevant activities. the way I missed my home during my a factory making fire-retardant insulation out of treated recycled was so terrified of speaking in front of the class that he would stammer more established members of the alumni Birtchnell says: “We love to hear where early uni years. paper – and Melbourne, Potts says her long-distance relationship and fidget his way through presentations. Working slowly, I grabbed community to share knowledge with others alumni are and what they are doing, and it “I think that it is important to stay helped her knuckle down to get the PhD done. every opportunity to celebrate his victories. Then one day, he and in the same industry and explore new means they won’t miss out on any exciting connected with my fellow alumni And while many of her friends are pulling big salaries working in his classmates wrote a rap, which they presented at assembly. It was partnerships.” opportunities.” because I believe to achieve great industry, she’s committed to the Centre for Disaster Management incredible! To see struggling students grow into a place of confidence One easy way for graduates to connect things, one needs to collaborate with and Public Safety she helped set up last year. is more precious than gold. It’s what it’s all about.” with their local network is by attending To learn more about alumni associations, fellow great individuals, and UoM grads People still sometimes mistake her for a student, but Potts Education is much greater than what happens in class, Daly says. a Welcome Home event. These events, or find your nearest one, visit happen to fill that description. says she hasn’t really encountered any problems with being one “It has the potential to transform lives. I see it happening around organised by the University’s Alumni go.unimelb.edu.au/g77n “Besides, I need friends to reminisce of the youngest risk-mitigation experts around. “I just surprise me every day.” Relations team in partnership with the Update your contact details via the In Touch with and share the nostalgia that I have people, I guess.” ANGELA MARTINKUS EMMA BRIMFIELD-WALSH alumni associations, bring new and older alumni portal at go.unimelb.edu.au/7ao for Melbourne.” 36 37 alumnimilestones stay connected alumni.unimelb.edu.au

AWARDS, HONOURS & ACHIEVEMENTS AWARDS, HONOURS & ACHIEVEMENTS For more Milestones visit unimelb.edu.au/3010

Four alumnae were honoured in the Michelle Di Fabio (BCom, BIS 2006, Stephen Jacques in 1977, becoming Internationally recognised particle 2014 Financial Review and Westpac Let Down GradCert Org. Leadership 2013, a partner of that firm in 1981. He was physicist Professor Bruce McKellar 100 Women of Influence Awards. Your Hair, GradDip Org. Leadership 2014) of called to the bar in 1982 in Melbourne, AC (DSc 1976, Ormond College) has They were Amanda McKenzie a coming-of-age Hostplus Superannuation won the appointed to the Supreme Court of become the first Australian to be (BA 2004), CEO of the Climate novel that Rising Star of the Year Award at the Victoria in 2002 and promoted to the appointed President of the Council of Australia; Shelley Penn explores Money Management and Super Court of Appeal in 2004. International Union of Pure and (BArch(Hons) 1988), Principal at stereotypes, Review’s second annual Women in Applied Physics. Professor McKellar Shelley Penn Architect; Dr Bronwyn subcultures and Financial Services Awards (Australia). Research by Professor Lyal Harris is famous for the He-McKellar-Wilkens King (MB BS 1999), Radiation contemporary The award recognises female leaders (BSc(Hons) 1976, International House) phase, a seminal quantum physics Oncologist at the Peter MacCallum women’s issues, is the debut novel early in their career who have was selected by Canadian magazine theory. Northern Lights: The Positive Cancer Centre and Epworth by Melbourne-based cultural demonstrated personal achievement Quebec Science as one of the top 10 Policy Example of Sweden, HealthCare; and Dr Jackie Fairley diversity consultant Dr Fiona and a meaningful contribution to the discoveries of 2014. Professor Harris, 40 Years/40 Women Finland, Denmark and Norway is (BSc 1982, BVSc(Hons) 1987, MBA Price (PhD 2001, International financial services industry. of Canada’s Institut National de la by Dr Juliet Flesch the fifth book by former SRC 1992), CEO at Starpharma Holdings. House). It is a dark modern Recherche Scientifique, and his (BA(Hons) 1964, President Dr Andrew Scott retelling of the Rapunzel fairytale Geologist colleague Jean Bedard analysed PhD 2002) profiles (BA(Hons) 1990, Janet Clarke Hall). Julia Marchingo (BBiomedSc, with two towers: the ivory tower Dr Kathryn radar images of the planet Venus to notable women The book explores how the BSc(Hons) 2010) and Dr Chun Yew ruled by a Professor of Women’s Fitzsimmons prove their hypothesis that certain associated with English-speaking world might Fong (BMedSc 2003, MB BS 2005) Studies and the penthouse (DipML(Ger) 2001, geological formations on Earth could the University, learn from the achievements of have been recognised for their apartment ruled by a rich man’s BSc(Hons) 2002) not be explained by the conventional including staff, the four main Nordic European originality, innovation and trophy girlfriend. has been awarded theory of plate tectonics. They alumnae and philanthropists. nations, which successfully contribution to cancer research. the Albert Maucher showed that the formations could be The book was published by the combine economic prosperity Ms Marchingo, a PhD student at the Prize by the German the result of shifts in ancient blocks University of Melbourne Library with social equality and University and the Walter and Eliza history of engineering, and Research Foundation. The national beneath the earth. The discovery in commemoration of the 40th environmental responsibility. Hall Institute, and Dr Fong, a PhD information technology. Two other prize is awarded every three years has the potential to revolutionise anniversary of the United Nations student at the University and Peter engineering alumni were also to a high-achieving early-career mineral exploration. International Year of Women. MacCallum Cancer Centre, were honoured by Engineers Australia, researcher in earth sciences. Laureate Professor Sam Berkovic awarded the 2014 Picchi Awards for being named 2014 Honorary Fellows Dr Fitzsimmons was recognised for Professor Brendan Crabb Dr Rohan Wilson (MA(CrWrtg) 2011, AC (BMedSc 1974, MB BS 1977, MD Excellence in Cancer Research. The of the organisation. Electrical her research into environmental (BSc(Hons) 1988, PhD 1992) and PhD 2014) and Angus Cerini 1984) and Professor Ingrid Scheffer awards aim to recognise, develop and engineer Andrew Yuncken change and the interactions between Professor John Funder (BA 1964, MB (BCA 2000) were among the winners AO (PhD 1998) have been awarded support the top PhD students in the (BE(ElecEng) 1968, Trinity College) humans and their environment in the BS 1965, PhD 1970, MD 1971, DMedSc of 2015 Victorian Premier’s Literary the $300,000 2014 Prime Minister’s Victorian Comprehensive Cancer has nearly 45 years’ professional deep past. The first non-German to be 2013, Newman College, International Awards. Mr Wilson won the fiction Prize for Science for their contribution Centre partnership. experience in manufacturing and awarded the prize, she has been House) received Companion of the category for his novel To Name Those to the study of epilepsy, its diagnosis, consulting, while civil engineer working at the Max Planck Institute Order of Australia (AC) awards in the Lost, while Mr Cerini won the drama management and treatment. The two Alan Wu (BA, LLB Peter Godfrey (BE(CivEng) 1978, for Evolutionary Anthropology in Australia Day Honours. Professor prize for Resplendence. clinician-researchers, whose work was 2010, Ormond International House, Whitley College) Leipzig, Germany since 2010. Crabb, the Director and Chief featured in the last issue of 3010, have College) was was an instrumental member of the Executive Officer of the Macfarlane Professor John Griffiths led the way in finding a genetic basis Australia’s only Safer Construction Taskforce that Two alumni were the 2014 recipients Burnet Institute for Medical Research (DMus 2012) has become only the for many forms of epilepsy. community-sector produced the Guide to Best Practice of Woodward Medals, awarded by and Public Health, was rewarded for second Australian to be elected participant at the for Safer Construction in Australia. the University to recognise staff for his research into infectious diseases, a Corresponding Member of the Ben Rimmer (DipML(Chin), BA(Hons) World Economic research considered to have made particularly malaria, and their impact American Musicological Society 1996, LLB(Hons) 1997) has been Forum’s 2015 Professor Michael the most significant contribution in on population health in developing (AMS). The honour recognises his appointed Chief Executive of the City Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Green (MB BS 1972) their field during the previous three nations. Professor Funder’s award work as a scholar of 16th-century of Melbourne. Mr Rimmer was most Mr Wu is the youngest member of has been awarded years. Professor Sundhya Pahuja recognises his work in cardiovascular Spanish music and as a performer recently Associate Secretary at the the Board of Oxfam Australia, and the Alan Coates (LLB(Hons), BA 1994), of Melbourne endocrinology and the development on the vihuela, medieval and Australian Government Department has previously served as Chair of Award for Excellence Law School, received the 2014 of academic health science centres, renaissance lutes. The AMS has of Human Services. He has also been Australia’s national youth council, in Clinical Trials Woodward Medal in Humanities and for championing research into elected only 70 Corresponding Professor Terry Speed a Deputy Secretary in the Department as Special Envoy for Young People Research by the and Social Sciences for her book, mental illness, obesity and Indigenous Members since 1937. (BSc(Hons) 1965, Trinity of Prime Minister and Cabinet and a to the UN Environment Programme, Australian and New Decolonising International Law: eye-health. College), Bioinformatics Deputy Secretary, Director and and on the National Commission for Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group. Development, Economic Growth Dental scientist and Laureate Division Head at the Walter Assistant Director in the Victorian UNESCO. He is currently establishing Professor Green is the Director of and the Politics of Universality. Professor Professor Eric Reynolds AO has and Eliza Hall Institute of Department of Premier and Cabinet. the Canberra Hub of the World Cancer Services at Western Health Professor Ashley Bush (MB BS 1982, Robyn Warner received the 2015 Leach Medal, Medical Research, won the Economic Forum Global Shapers and a consultant medical oncologist GDipPsychMed 1988, PhD 1993), of (MAgrSc 1987) presented annually in honour of the CSIRO Eureka Prize for Dr Melanie Plesch Community for young people. with the Department of Haematology the Florey Institute of Neuroscience has been awarded eminent biochemist Professor Syd Leadership in Science, in (PhD 1998, and Medical Oncology at the Royal and Mental Health, received the the American Leach (1920–2005) in recognition of recognition of his guidance GCertUniTeach Dr Maxwell Lay AM Melbourne Hospital. He has been 2014 Woodward Medal in Science Meat Science scientific excellence. Professor of the bioinformatics team 2010), left, and (BE(CivEng) 1958, involved in several clinical research and Technology for his research into Association’s 2014 Reynolds (BSc(Hons) 1972, PhD 1978) Professor Helen Herrman, at the Institute and his Bronwyn Tarrant MEngSc 1960) has trials that aim to introduce new the causes of and treatments for International is CEO of the Oral Health CRC at the Director of Research at contributions to the wider (GCertUniTeach been presented treatments for breast cancer patients. neurodegeneration, in particular his Lectureship Award for her University. Orygen Youth Health Research field. Professor Speed is also 2013) have with Engineers work defining the role of tau proteins contributions to improving Centre and Professor of a Professorial Fellow in the been awarded Australia’s most Will to Win: The West at Play, the in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s international co-operation, knowledge Alumna Jill Sanguinetti (BA 1968, Psychiatry at the University of Department of Mathematics National Citations for Outstanding prestigious award, latest book by political scientist and Parkinson’s disease. and understanding in meat science. University College) reflects on her Melbourne, has become the and Statistics. His team uses Contributions to Student Learning by the Peter Nicol Don Miller (BA(Hons) 1961, MA 1967), She is the first woman to win the days at boarding school in her book first Australian to be elected computational mathematics the Office for Learning and Teaching, Russell Memorial Medal Career is a critique of professional sport The Hon Geoffrey Nettle QC award, which was established in School Days of a Methodist Lady: President of the World to help researchers analyse part of the Commonwealth Achievement Award in Engineering. today. Mr Miller spent more than (LLB(Hons) 1975, Trinity College) has 1992 to honour an individual for A Journey Through Girlhood. Psychiatric Association. massive amounts of government’s Australian Education Dr Lay is recognised worldwide as 30 years on the academic staff of been appointed to the High Court. internationally recognised Ms Sanguinetti became a boarder Professor Herrman (MD 1982) experimental data. Department which promotes learning an expert in structural engineering, the University before founding the Justice Nettle began his professional contributions to the field of meat at Methodist Ladies’ College in will take up the role in 2017. and teaching in higher education. road and transport engineering, the Melbourne Centre for Ideas in 2006. career as a solicitor at Mallesons science and technology. Melbourne in 1958. 38 THE LAST WORD Grace Newton Current student and Coming clean on my polar mission scholarship recipient

BY DR KATHRYN MUMFORD (BE(ChemE ng)(Hons) 2003, BCom 2003, Ph D 2009, GCertU niTeach 2012)

he first time I saw snow I was 23 and flying into Casey been highly successful, with a number of PRB installations Station in Antarctica, after 10 days sailing through completed at Antarctic and sub-Antarctic stations. huge seas and ice in the Southern Ocean. That final Antarctica has provided some of the most rewarding and T 20-minute helicopter trip, flying around icebergs, exciting experiences of my career. It is a land of extremes, the was an incredible introduction to the continent. highest, coldest and windiest continent on Earth where wind Once at the station, there wasn’t much time to enjoy the speeds can reach 200 km/h. scenery; everyone had a job. The most important immediate task It is generally assumed that if the wind speed (in kilometres was transferring stores ashore before the ship left. It would not per hour) gets above your body weight (in kilograms), return for three-and-a-half months. you shouldn’t walk outside due to the possibility of being swept Since that first trip I have travelled to the Antarctic stations away. In October and November this happens regularly, but in at Casey, Davis and McMurdo, and the sub-Antarctic base later months you can get caught off guard. On one memorable at Macquarie Island, every second year or so as part of a January night a group of us were working in the science collaboration between the University of Melbourne and the laboratory. We didn’t notice the wind picking up and at dinner Australian Antarctic Division. time, we suited up and headed for the door – which wouldn’t I’m working with a team to develop technologies for the open due to the extraordinary wind force. remediation of contaminated sites. Before the 1980s it was We weren’t going to make it back to the living quarters common for rubbish to be dumped close to stations, later to for dinner. Luckily we had a stash of emergency chocolate so be covered by snow and ice or simply pushed out onto sea-ice hunkered down for the night. This event made me appreciate the that melted over summer, sending it to the bottom of the ocean. unpredictability of Antarctica. Although I was living comfortably, Long-lasting damage to the surrounding flora and fauna has with ready access to many modern conveniences, the tables can put a stop to these practices. Diesel, the main means of power turn quickly. generation and the source of inevitable spills, is also a problem. Most of the field seasons that I have spent in Antarctica were We are now working to clean up these areas in the simplest, over Christmas. This is when much of the accumulated annual most cost-effective way – and trying to influence other nations snow begins to melt and the contaminants that interest me begin with a presence on the continent to do the same. For now, most to migrate and interact with our PRBs. countries believe it is too difficult and costly to clean up their Christmas in Antarctica is cause for great celebration. One of sites. We want to change this. my strongest memories is of volunteering on Christmas Eve to Obviously the environment of Antarctica provides a unique go out and collect ice. Led by a runway technician, we boarded set of challenges when designing and implementing remediation one of the Hagglunds track vehicles and headed out beyond the systems. Low temperatures, freezing conditions, low soil station limits to an area of thick blue ice. nutrient contents and variable and high water flows all affect the Here he fired up a chainsaw and started cutting huge blocks suitability of systems that might be used in temperate climates. of ice to take back to the station. The biggest was carved into a One of the areas that we have been focusing our efforts on is the penguin about a metre high. Smaller blocks were cut into plates development of Permeable Reactive Barrier (PRB) technologies. of progressively smaller size. When stacked together they made This involves creating a trench filled with reactive material that a two-metre-high Christmas tree that was then decorated with traps and degrades fuel contaminants into harmless products seafood for the Christmas Day feast. And the ice offcuts made while allowing water to pass through. These developments have a nice addition to our after-dinner whiskies.

SCHOLARSHIPS PROVIDE A WORLD OF OPPORTUNITIES. I grew up in Bairnsdale in regional Victoria, and for me, the chance to move to Melbourne and study at the University of Melbourne was beyond my family’s means. Determined to realise my dream of obtaining a university education, I applied for a scholarship and was lucky enough to receive one. My goal is to focus on journalism or the arts - something that will empower me to address wider community issues. I hope to someday be a strong influential voice that can return to society the knowledge and prospects it has given to me. Visit campaign.unimelb.edu.au to find out more. Dr Kathryn Mumford is a Lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Melbourne. An intriguing offer for the insatiably curious

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