Macquarie academic awarded Humboldt Fellowship 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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USD1.2 million grant win for international research collaboration 

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

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Professor Ronika Power elected to prestigious Academia Europaea 

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

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

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New funding for serpentine leafminer management  

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

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Scholarship success for Master of Professional Psychology students 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Congratulations to World Vision Student Challenge winners

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

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

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

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Emergency animal refuge inventor selected for competition   

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