World Leadership in Marine Resource Management
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Vol. 26 No. 3 SPRING 2007 World leadership in marine resource management Registered Print Post no 602669/00256 Hackett Hall: Renovation for your next occasion Enjoy your next function amidst the glorious gardens and grand architecture of the University of Western Australia. Hackett Hall, a historic building adjacent to the beautiful Swan River, has recently undergone extensive refurbishment making it the perfect venue for on-campus activities, weddings, engagements, birthdays, cocktail parties and corporate functions. Fully air conditioned, Hackett Hall offers seating for up to 200 people for formal dinners and caters for cocktail parties up to 450 people. Ensure your special occasion is an unforgettable one and book today! Bookings at the new Hackett hall available from March 2007. Specialists in quality catering, outstanding service and truly memorable occasions. Fully licensed New Seasonal Menu University Function Caterers The University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway, crawley, Western Australia 6009 Phone: 6488 2315 Facsimile: 6488 1115 Email: [email protected] A division of the UWA Guild of Undergraduates Vol. 26 No.3 Spring 2007 CONTENTS FEATURES In Focus: campus news and views 2 From the Vice-Chancellery 7 “Out of the dreams of a few...” 8 In pursuit of good medicine 15 Good science, good management 25 Graduate Profile: Dr Rosanna Capolingua 28 GRAD NEWS 30 GRAD BRIEFS 34 COVER: One of countless spectacular coral gardens in the pristine waters that lap Western Australia’s coastline – see Good science, good management. Photo: Gary Kendrick. CONTENTS PAGE PHOTOGRAPHS: Top: Professor Marcus Atlas performing a cochlear implant at St John of God Hospital – see In pursuit of good medicine. Photo: The West Australian. Centre: UWA students join excited medal winners from other universities at the 2005 Indian Rim Asian University Games – see In Focus. Bottom: Sponges at Jurien Bay – see Good science, good management. Photo: Simon Grove. Editor-in-Chief: Doug Durack ([email protected]) Editor: Trea Wiltshire ([email protected]) • Grad Briefs: Terry Larder (terry. [email protected]) • Production: UniPrint (www.uniprint.uwa.edu.au) • Advertising: Trea Wiltshire +61 8 6488 1914 • Editorial: Public Affairs, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Telephone: +61 8 6488 1914, Fax: +61 8 6488 1192. UNIVIEW is published three times a year, in February, June and October and is sent free to all UWA graduates. Summer edition: February 2008. Winter edition: June 2008. UNIVIEW is printed on environ- mentally friendly oxygen-bleached paper. Material from UNIVIEW may be reproduced accompanied by an appropriate credit. UNIVIEW can be viewed at http://www.publishing.uwa.edu.au UWA Internet: http://www.uwa.edu.au Changing your address? Please contact Terry Larder: Phone +61 8 6488 2447, +61 8 6488 7992 and +61 8 6488 8000, Fax: +61 8 6488 7996, Email: [email protected] 1 IN FOCUS “OUT OF THE DREAMS OF A FEW...” MEDICINE’S HALF CENTURY At the opening of the Rural Clinical School’s Kalgoorlie headquarters (l–r) Professor Campbell Murdoch, Professor Adrian Bower (Dean of Notre Dame Medical School), Prime Minister John Howard, Kalgoorlie MHR Barry Haase, UWA Medical Dean Professor Ian Puddey and UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Robson. This issue of UNIVIEW is very much caught up in year-long Extending that reach to rural and remote WA has long celebrations of the School of Medicine’s 50th anniversary. been the aim of this University, so it was appropriate that We return to the inspiring story of post-war community our half century celebrations should include the opening of support that laid the foundations for the School and that won the Kalgoorlie headquarters of the Rural Clinical School of admiration around the world. That such a sparsely populated Western Australia. State could raise so much money in record time was widely You can read about this and other medical landmarks acknowledged as a triumph – and that spirit of generosity still in “Out of the dreams of a few…” and In pursuit of good extends the reach of medicine. medicine. EXPLORING INDIGENOUS course, including Honours if enrolling at UWA. She is now oration and the UWA Amnesty applicable. in her final year, studying Group during Reconciliation HUMAN RIGHTS “Jack and Eleanor are political science and history Week. The event was for staff Every student who receives a beautiful people, kind-hearted for a BA degree. and students at UWA and it scholarship acknowledges the and generous – and they One of several Amnesty centred on Aboriginal human doors that open, the financial own the Wildcats!” enthused International volunteers on rights issues. burden that is lifted, and the Sheena. campus, Sheena recently “I invited Noongar elders opportunities that are presented became part of an Amnesty to speak because I think it along with their award. Some research mission to Canada. is important to hear about silently bless a benefactor “We conducted a fact- Aboriginal history from those who may have died, or a finding mission to investigate who experienced it,” says surviving relative who created human rights abuses in a First Sheena. a scholarship to perpetuate the Nations community and are At this event the UWA memory of a loved one. Others producing a report based on our student spoke about her own are lucky enough to meet those findings,” explains Sheena. Australian history studies. She whose generosity allows them The mission took her to hopes to continue studying at to advance their studies, or to a First Nations reserve in UWA for her Honours next continue studies threatened by Ontario, where the clearing of year and plans eventually to financial hardship. forests on traditional lands has work in the area of human Indigenous student Sheena become a contentious issue rights. Graham was delighted to accept – a tussle between forestry “In my Honours studies, her Jack and Eleanor Bendat companies answerable to the I particularly want to explore Rural Indigenous Scholarship provincial government, and a the historical development of from her benefactors recently. federal government responsible rights and freedoms from Plato The scholarship was designed Sheena, who is originally for protecting the treaty rights onwards and to chart how to assist Indigenous students from Norseman, began distance of the people. awareness of rights issues was from regional Western education tertiary studies On her return to WA, developing in countries that, Australia who are experiencing through Deakin University. Sheena organised a seminar at the same time, subjugated financial hardship to complete The single mother waited for with the Western Australian Indigenous people in the US, their first undergraduate degree her son to go to school before Student Aboriginal Corp- Canada and Australia.” 2 IN FOCUS Sheena has completed an $1 MILLION FOR CHILDHOOD CANCER RESEARCH of areas with industry and Aboriginal History unit which government to take advantage was taught by UWA lecturer of these opportunities. Blaze Kwaymullina, who, “I am looking forward to it along with Professor Sally immensely. This is an exciting Morgan and Research Fellow time for the University and Tjalaminu Mia of the UWA for myself. Western Australia School of Indigenous Studies, has not seen this kind of is editor of Speaking from the investment in the resources Heart, a collection of stories industry since the gold rushes reflecting the history, culture of the 1890s.” and contemporary experiences Mr Shanahan takes up his of Aboriginal Australians. post at UWA later this year. NEWLY-CREATED Professor Ursula Kees with Shakir Ibrahim, 10, of Padbury. NEW RESEARCH ENERGY POSITION Fifty years ago, less than 10 per cent of children with INITIATIVES POSITION leukaemia were cured; today, thanks to huge advances Professor Alistar Robertson in medical science and technology, the rate has risen to has been appointed to the a heartening 75 to 80 per cent. Now a team of cancer newly created position of Pro researchers at the Telethon Institute for Child Health has Vice-Chancellor (Research received a five-year, $1 million grant that could help raise Initiatives). that percentage still higher. Currently Dean of Professor Ursula Kees, head of the Children’s Leukaemia the Faculty of Natural and and Cancer Research laboratory at the Telethon Institute, Agricultural Sciences, is optimistic that the grant from the Children’s Leukaemia Professor Robertson will and Cancer Research Foundation (Inc.) will help the team act as a focal point both develop a fast, simple gene test that could significantly UWA law graduate and Chief externally and internally to improve treatment and outcomes for cancer sufferers. Executive of the Chamber foster collaborative research Current tests for cancers are costly and take time, and of Minerals and Energy of relationships with partners in there are many different sub-types of leukaemia. Using WA, Tim Shanahan, has been the private and public sector, high-speed computers to assess the molecular genetics appointed as the University’s particularly in the environment of cancer patients, the researchers have been developing new Director (Energy and area. new diagnostic methods. “We use advanced micro-array Minerals Initiative). technology to probe the entire human genome in one test,” Mr Shanahan takes on said Professor Kees. “We have done extensive experiments an important strategic role, on specimens from leukaemia patients and patients with newly created to reinforce brain tumours, the largest disease groups.” the University’s strong The researchers have identified a number of cancer commitment to supporting the genes, including a tumor suppressor gene associated with minerals and energy industry acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children. They are working as it rides the crest of a period closely with clinicians at the Princess Margaret Hospital of significant growth. for Children, and with overseas hospitals and research An influential and highly- institutes.