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Sydney Alumni Magazine Semester 2 2018

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Sydney Alumni Magazine Semester 2 2018 SYDNEY ALUMNI MAGAZINE ISSUE 08 — SEMESTER TWO 2018 Reflections on a trailblazing career + CULTURE Bruce Beresford calling the shots SCIENCE How native oysters can clean up Sydney Harbour CONTENTS A life dedicated to accessing Growing food where it’s Planning an underwater all areas 32 needed most 37 transformation 42 University update Welcome 02 Newsbites Information 03 Vision splendid – Michelle Leonard Profile 04 The man who looks everywhere – Laode Syarif Justice 11 One for all – Ming Long Business 16 In focus: Gerrymandering – Ruth Greenwood Opinion 20 Saving grace – Susan Macdonald Conservation 22 On my desk – Shelley Wickham Perspectives 26 Calling the shots – Bruce Beresford Culture 28 Books that changed my mind – Stephanie Fynn Perspectives 36 Sibyl Centre opening Campus 48 Classnotes Community 50 Just the facts Knowledge 52 UNIVERSITY UPDATE BEYOND RESEARCH The research conducted by people at Field Robotics (ACFR), where they the University of Sydney strives to have produced a robot that can examine understand the largest objects in the crops for diseases, assess soil quality universe and particles so small they and generate real-time information to operate outside the laws of physics; help farmers maximise harvests and the biggest threats to human welfare protect the land. and the most influential cultural In archaeology, new technologies movements. And of course, some are letting us see the very layers Belinda Hutchinson AM (BEc ’76), Chancellor significant scientific and cultural that make up precious objects and advances come through serendipity, artworks from antiquity. These insights which is why we will always give will give a whole new dimension to space for brilliant minds to roam Nicholson Museum exhibits that where they will. will eventually move to our new The University’s research culture Chau Chak Wing Museum. and achievements are assessed through In geosciences, a team is working our inclusion in the Excellence in to re-establish the native oyster reefs Research for Australia (ERA) initiative, in Sydney Harbour. These reefs will run every few years by the Australian attract and shelter other harbour Research Council. creatures, and as filter feeders, will In the 2015 report, the most help clean the harbour water (read recent to be released, our University more about this work on page 42). Dr Michael Spence AC scored highly, with 100 percent of One thing that links all the (BA ’85 LLB ’87), Vice‑Chancellor and Principal our research work rated at world projects discussed here is the standard or above; this achieved in a invaluable donor support that comes relatively austere funding environment through our successful INSPIRED where government support for philanthropic campaign. higher education is uncertain. This support is a powerful driver Which means we can be even more of all the things we do to make a better proud of our dynamic and diverse world for all of us, and it directly research environment. connects our community of alumni and Research like that done at the friends with many of the great advances University’s Australian Centre for that our researchers have and will make. Managing Editor: Pia McMorran Produced by Inside cover: Workers in 1910 Distributed to more than 170,000 Publishing Editor: George Dodd Marketing and Communications with the remains of the first members of our community. The University of Sydney Engineering School. Photo from 18/7365 ISSN 1834-3929 Alumni and Development Printing managed the University of Sydney Archives © 2018 The University of Sydney The University of Sydney by Publish Partners G3_224_MF374_0255. Level 2, F23 Administration Design: Katie Sorrenson Building, NSW 2006 and Rhys Holland 02 9036 9222 Inside back cover: sam @sydney.edu.au The RD Watt Building restoration Cover: (L), and the new Faculty of Senior executive, Ming Long. Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) Photographer: Stefanie Zingsheim building takes shape. 04 NEWSBITES SCIENCE It took a supercomputer and a consortium of Australian and international research organisations to achieve this world first: the full sequencing of the koala genome. Co-led by the University’s Professor Katherine Belov, the project mapped more than 26,000 koala genes to a high level of accuracy, allowing a powerful insight into these iconic and threatened animals and how they might be protected. The Koala Genome Consortium has made the information freely available to scientists around the world. With koala numbers declining, more information could lead to better solutions. MEDICINE TECHNOLOGY Stepping out of the FoG Actually, I can do that, Dave Freezing of gait syndrome (FoG) is one Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine of the most distressing and accident‑ learning are hungry beasts. To give our inducing symptoms of Parkinson’s researchers plenty of capacity to work, disease. As the name suggests, FoG the University has unveiled the third freezes people in place as they walk. expansion of its Artemis supercomputer. The first iteration in 2015 had its power Now, a new trial at the University’s Brain tripled just a year later. Now, it has and Mind Centre is pointing to a way expanded again, with capabilities forward. The trial found that cognitive measured in multiple petaflops and training can reduce the severity of teraflops – terms best Googled. FoG and daytime sleepiness, as well as Artemis has already worked on the p The Artemis supercomputer can make improving overall cognitive processing evolution of bees, traffic flows in cities, sense of vast amounts of data. speed. It’s still early days, but patient urban optimisation and the spread of feedback so far has been positive. the Ebola virus through West Africa. 05 PROFILE There was a time when kids didn’t just watch music, they made it. Michelle Leonard decided to bring music making back to some of the kids who needed it most. Vision splendid Written by George Dodd Photography by Noni Carroll “Elena, let’s rock it, man.” It’s fair to say this is an unexpected turn of phrase in a recording studio filled with classical musicians, about 40 choristers and a small audience invited to bring some live energy to the performance. Even more so because the Elena in question is celebrated classical composer Elena Kats‑Chernin, who wrote the piece that’s about to be sung and who will “rock” the piano as part of the orchestra. Smiling along with everyone else at her moment of levity is the person who’s about to conduct the piece, and who brought all the elements of this recording together: Michelle Leonard. A moment later there is total silence as Leonard raises her hand to begin. The sound that fills the room is lush and instantly attention‑grabbing, with Leonard guiding the choir using a fluent language of hand signals for diction, clarity, listen and stop, all responded to instantly. The piece itself is thoughtful, layered, melodic, uplifting and unmistakably of Australia. As it ends, more than one person is in tears. What makes the choir even more remarkable is that it’s made up of high school students from regional New South Wales who have never had access to a qualified music teacher. They are part of Moorambilla Voices, which started 14 years ago when Leonard had a characteristically ambitious idea. “When I was growing up in Coonamble, there was a town band; we did a musical every year,” she explains. “Schools had orchestras. Classical music was one of those things that people valued.” p Inspiring thousands of school kids and four of her own. Leonard with her youngest, Sebastian. Younger singers might later move on to the high‑school‑aged MAXed OUT company. As the young choristers develop their singing and dance skills, “I STUDIED IN THE OLD they might move on to Moorambilla's MAXed OUT company CON BUILDING ... THE STAFF DEMANDED THAT WE BECOME EXCEPTIONAL, AND SOMEHOW WE DID.” — Michelle Leonard 08 p Once inhibited school kids have enthusiastically embraced not just singing but also dance, through Moorambilla Voices. Leonard thought the disappearance of music from schools would be temporary, that Moorambilla Voices would be a stopgap. Instead it has become increasingly necessary. Earlier this year Leonard and her team spent nearly a month travelling to 51 towns in northwest NSW, from Brewarrina to Bourke. They delivered 74 music workshops to children from 105 schools, involving more than 3500 students in all. It’s a gruelling exercise that happens every year, but it allows Leonard to personally identify children with potential, Michelle Leonard increase skills in music literacy and connect with communities. About one‑third of the kids who take part are Indigenous, DEGREE but when asked whether Moorambilla Voices has an Indigenous Bachelor of Music program, Leonard pauses for a moment. “The answer is no,” Education ’93 she says, but continues, “Do we sing in language? Do we support Indigenous cultural capacity building? Of course MOST ADMIRED PERSON we do. I’m just normalising it. I want it celebrated and placed I admire the world view and in the middle of everything we do.” determination of my parents Leonard feels privileged to have built strong relationships with Indigenous community elders. “I am not an Indigenous PERSONAL MANTRA female but I have been given opportunities to share and learn,” Relentless positivity! she says. “This has been given with a spirit of great generosity, which is very much how the program operates.” 09 p The creative bar is set very high by Leonard. She says the kids not only clear it every time, they are capable of even more. 10 Like those before them, this year’s standout children It goes without saying that Leonard is a one‑off. Few people were invited to attend a camp to dance, sing, compose, paint, could hammer an amorphous idea like giving regional kids weave, play drums and learn about the cultural traditions and the chance to make music into a multilayered organisation stories of their landscape, all guided by professional musicians, that has given literally hundreds of schoolchildren unique life performers, composers, choreographers and visual artists experiences.
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