Issue 11. 9 August 2010.pdf - UWA Staff - The University of Western ...

UWA NEWS
9 AUGUST 2010 Volume 29 Number 11
Did you hear?
Tinnitus may be curable
by Lindy Brophy
Beethoven suffered from it. Soldiers are more likely to
get it than any other group. And rock concerts and iPods
could cause it.
It is not deafness but tinnitus, a noise (usually a ringing sound)
that one in 100 people can hear in one ear, both ears or in their
heads.
uwa physiologists are part of a group that is coming closer to
finding a treatment, by understanding more about the
mechanism of the condition.
Professor Don Robertson and Research Associate Professor
Helmy Mulders (Biomedical Molecular and Chemical Sciences),
are members of the Auditory Laboratory, which has an
international reputation for its outstanding research in auditory
physiology and neuroscience. They are authors of a study
which recently showed that noise damage could lead to
permanent changes in the brain that may result in tinnitus, even
if hearing recovers after that damage.
Dr Jenny Rodger from Animal Biology was also part of the study.
The study, in collaboration with the Royal National Institute for
Deaf People (RNID) in the UK, was published in Brain Research.
It established that an increase in a certain type of spontaneous
brain activity associated with tinnitus occurred after damage
caused by loud noise.
“Young people who go to very loud rock concerts and come
home with their ears ringing, and people who turn the volume
up very high on their iPods are likely to develop tinnitus later in
life,” Professor Robertson said.
“The highest incidence of tinnitus is in the military. In the US,
soldiers with the condition make up the single biggest group
(tens of thousands) claiming compensation after active duty,”
he said. “Guns being fired close to their ears, mortar shells
continued on page 2
In this issue P3 music – it’s how we learn P6 big national funding P10 new university social club

Tinnitus may be curable continued from page 1
exploding, all cause temporary hearing damage. But even if
their hearing returns to normal, a very high proportion of
soldiers then develop tinnitus.”
The condition varies widely from mild, occasional ringing to a
level that can cause distress and greatly affect quality of life,
even leading to suicide in some cases.
“It can come and go or be constantly present. It can get better
or worse or remain stable,” Professor Robertson said.
“And people hear different sounds. Beethoven said his tinnitus
sounded like wooden carriage wheels going over cobblestones.
“It can also be a side effect of some common drugs, including
quinine and aspirin.”
He said the group’s findings showed that changes in the
electrical activity in the nervous system were connected with
chemical changes in the brain. “That means that we may be
able to use drugs to treat the condition.”
The research found there were fewer inhibitory receptors than
normal in the part of the brain where increased activity was seen.
“The result certainly strengthens the argument that that
hyperactivity (and possibly tinnitus) are causally linked to
reduced inhibitory process in the brain. These receptors might
be useful targets for drugs.
“But a lot more work is still needed to see if these results
from an animal model apply to humans with tinnitus,” he said.
The work was funded by the RNID and the NHMRC.
Professor Robertson has been working for 20 years on the
general question of how the central nervous system responds
to changes in the inner ear.
Professor Don Robertson and Research Associate Professor
Helmy Mulders (front) with Honours students Nathanael Yates,
Chen Ji (visiting student from USTC China), Darryl Vogler, and
Christo Bester, with Research Assistant Professor Jenny
Rodger (back)
Students run businesses from the heart
Our students have scored a hat trick in an international
business competition with a community focus.
For the third successive year, UWA has won the Students in
Free Enterprise (SIFE) Australian championship and the team
will compete in Los Angeles in October.
SIFE was established 35 years ago in the US and UWA has
been competing for just six years.
Members of the SIFE 2010 team, with Hayden Teo
(centre front) holding the shield
While the students learn how to set up and run a successful
business, the competition is more about how those
businesses benefit people in the community. It is not limited
to students of commerce.
The competition has attracted students from five faculties this
year: the Business School, Law, Arts Humanities and Social
Sciences, Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences, and
Engineering Computing and Mathematics.
Involvement in SIFE is voluntary and students do not receive
credit for their work.
Each year new projects are initiated and long-running ones are
continued. Several current projects are helping school children.
Balancing Your Body’s Business assists children to develop
healthy lifestyle habits through a good diet and more physical
exercise; Finance for Life helps them to achieve financial
literacy, to understand market economics, investing, saving
ethical decision-making and, eventually, how to be financially
independent; Carbon Futures helps student to understand
their consumption of energy, transport and water and assists
them to make environmentally sustainable changes.
Another long-running project is one which helps small family
businesses to understand and review their strategic
competencies, to run, present and communicate their
business propositions better and so increase longevity
and improve operations.
continued on page 4
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UWA NEWS 9 August 2010
the University of Western Australia

photo: Matt Galligan
LEFT: Robert Faulkner helps
children learn through music
BELOW: Grace Oakley’s
textbook on early childhood
education will be published by
Oxford University Press late this
year
Sing and dance
When the University’s new Master
of Teaching (Early Childhood) starts
next year, it will be front up, hands
on and sing out.
“This is not the sort of course that can
be taught through the lecture theatre and
the iPod,” said Assistant Professor
Robert Faulkner, who divides his time
between the School of Music and the
Graduate School of Education.
The new course will take between
25 and 30 graduate students. “I would
think the ‘boutique’ nature of the course
will make it very popular,” he said.
A/Professor Faulkner and Associate
Professor Grace Oakley are designing
the course, along with A/Professor
Oakley’s co-ordinator of primary
programs, Associate Professor
Val Faulkner (no relation to Robert).
A/Professor Oakley is an expert in
children’s literacy and has published three
children’s books. Robert Faulkner was a
professional musician, who trained as a
singer at the Royal Academy of Music in
London. He is also a trained teacher and
plays piano and clarinet.
A/Professor Faulkner went to Iceland
to work in community music education
and ended up staying there for 20 years.
“I became involved in early childhood
education when my son was at
playschool in Iceland, which is the term
they use for early childhood programs,
rather than pre-primary or pre-school.
“They focus unashamedly on play but
their programs are still well structured for
learning.”
your way to knowledge
Unsurprisingly, he sees music as an
integral part of early childhood
education.
“Music is an essential part of the human
condition – it’s not optional,” he said.
“It’s part of how we learn. It is related to
language: music comes before words
when mothers and babies communicate.
It is fundamental to physical
development: rhythm is all-important to
learning to walk and, later dancing or
marching. And it’s crucial to emotional
and social development.”
While there is still a central place for
literacy and numeracy in early childhood
programs, A/Professor Oakley and
A/Professor Faulkner agree that as the
school age has come down, it is
inappropriate to simply push the same
system of learning down to children as
young as four. Children can learn through
play and music, especially singing.
“
Music is an essential
part of the human
condition – it’s not
“
optional, it’s part of
how we learn.
“I was very disillusioned to hear a
kindergarten teacher say that she was
far too busy to sing in the classroom,”
A/Professor Oakley said.
“Children can learn about events, places
and concepts through song,”
A/Professor Faulkner said. “Sometimes
in Iceland, we would have half a day
when we weren’t allowed to speak.
Conversations, instructions, everything
had to be sung – it was a wonderful way
of learning.”
A/Professor Oakley said the new early
childhood program would not so much
teach music and the arts as use them as
a pedagogical tool.
“We will be teaching children through the
use of arts, music, dance and language,”
she said.
The new program is one of a suite of
Masters degrees in Teaching, which will
provide smooth transitions for children
between pre-primary and primary school
and on to secondary school.
Helen House, project manager at the
Graduate School of Education, said
society accepted that early childhood
education was important but the
perception of people who worked in the
industry was not high.
“We will be raising the bar in this
course,” she said. “We want high quality
people. That’s why we are developing a
Masters course for people who already
have a degree.”
The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 9 August 2010 3

Punching above
our weight
Outstanding UWA staff have
attracted almost $100 million for
research in the past few weeks –
an excellent result.
Our success in gaining such levels of
competitive national funding points to
a university punching above our
weight and well on the way to
achieving our target of being counted
among the world’s top 50 universities
by mid-century.
Among recent achievements, we
received funding from the Federal
Government’s Education Investment
Fund towards a total of $63 million to
establish an Indian Ocean Marine
Research Centre.
Based at the Crawley campus, the
centre will boost marine science
capacity in Australia with more than
240 world-class researchers – from
our University, the csiro, the State
Government and the Australian Institute
of Marine Science – investigating
climate change, the sustainable use of
marine resources, conserving marine
biodiversity, coastal zone management
and security and safety.
In another development, we were
awarded possibly the highest ever
Australian Research Council
allocations to the Humanities in
Australia for a Centre of Excellence
in the History of Emotion to be hosted
by the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and
Social Sciences.
With a grant of $24 million over five
years, this new centre will address the
big question of how societies think, feel
and function, providing greatly enhanced
understandings of how to improve
emotional health among modern
Australians. It will train and mentor a new
generation of young Australian
researchers and heighten Australia’s
international reputation for excellence in
humanities and performing arts research.
While we will be hosting this Centre, our
University is also collaborating in more
than half of the nation’s newly
announced federally-funded Centres of
Excellence. Our researchers will
collaborate with universities in Australia,
Canada, China, Europe, Israel, the
United Kingdom and the United States
in research ranging from astro-physics to
geotechnical science and engineering.
Our inclusion in seven of Australia’s 13
Centres of Excellence ranks us second
in Australia in these research ventures.
In another recent development, National
Health and Medical Research Council
funding of close to $10 million was
announced for three more new Centres
for Research Excellence. These will
focus on Aboriginal health and wellbeing;
improving the diagnosis, early
intervention treatment of asbestosrelated
diseases; and continuing our
ground-breaking work in early cystic
fibrosis lung disease as well as improving
the understanding and management of
other chronic lung diseases.
Alan Robson
Vice-Chancellor
And while we were celebrating these
heartening endorsements of our
national standing, in a competition of
a different kind, a UWA-led team
became one of six international
finalists in a challenge to develop the
next generation of fully autonomous
robots that could undertake
dangerous missions in hostile
environments.
The team is up against five others
from the USA, Turkey and Japan and
is in the running for a prize of more
than $800,000 and opportunities to
apply their vehicle prototypes and
human-robot interfaces in contracts
with the US and Australian
Departments of Defence.
We can all be proud of our worldclass
researchers.
Students run businesses from the heart continued from page 2
SIFE co-ordinator Assistant Professor Doina Olaru from the
Business School said SIFE was empowering students to
make a difference in their communities.
“As these students succeed in helping others, a powerful
and lasting transformation occurs within them as well,” she
said. “They develop leadership and business skills but,
probably more importantly, they deepen their pro-social
behaviour, their sense of commitment to the community and
their knowledge of just how far-reaching their influence as
leaders can be.”
The 43 SIFE students were represented in the national finals
in Melbourne by a team of 15, led by SIFE UWA president
Hayden Teo, who has now led the team to two national
championships. Hayden was also ranked number two in the
world for his argument skills at last year’s Jessup
International Law Moot Court finals in Washington.
uwa beat 28 Australian university teams and will now line
up against the best of the world’s 2,000 universities across
48 countries which participate in SIFE.
SIFE Australia is sponsored by Qantas and the teams
presented their projects to almost 50 judges including CEOs
from businesses such as Woolworths, KPMG, HSBC and
Fonterra.
Professor Tracey Horton, Dean of the Business School, said
she was very proud of the students.
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UWA NEWS 9 August 2010
the University of Western Australia

Long term research to prevent
short-term pregnancies
Studies at UWA on pregnant sheep led the way for
changes world-wide in the treatment of mothers going
into early labour.
John Newnham, Winthrop Professor of Obstetrics and Head of
the School of Women’s and Infants’ Health, said the practice of
injecting women in preterm labour with repeated courses of
corticosteroids to help rapidly mature the baby was found to
restrict the child’s growth and affect its brain development and
other health aspects after birth.
It was one of the major discoveries of an international research
group that last month celebrated 20 continuous years of
working together, meeting every year at UWA to continue their
study of pregnant sheep, an excellent model for clinical
research in human pregnancy.
The group was formed after Professor Newnham returned from
a two-year Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship at UCLA in the
1980s.
“I had been working with sheep there and realised that there
were better opportunities to continue the work here so Alan
Jobe, a senior researcher in the lab there, visited and agreed
and we started work together, putting together a consortium
from the US, Germany, the Netherlands, India, Japan, Malaysia,
Queensland, UWA and, more recently, China.”
Alan Jobe is now a Professor at the Cincinnati Children’s
Hospital and is a Clinical Professor in Women’s and Infants’
Health at UWA.
“We have made an ideal partnership, me being an obstetrician
and Alan being a paediatrician,” Professor Newnham said.
The aim of the group has been to explore avenues to prevent
preterm birth and to better care for babies who are born too
early. Preterm birth is the major problem in human reproduction
in the developed world. In Australia, the rate of preterm birth is
eight to nine per cent, and up to $20 million a year is spent in
wa on neonatal intensive care.
The group has found that inflammation is the likely cause of a
high proportion of preterm births.
“About a third of Australian men have ureaplasma in their
genital tracts. We have found that it sits in the uterus during
pregnancy and slowly causes inflammation. By mid-term this
inflammation may cause premature birth,” Professor Newnham
said.
Professor Jobe said their work was changing the way
practitioners thought about inflammation. “And we have starting
working on new treatments for it,” he said.
The program has been funded for 20 years by the National
Institute of Health, USA, and by the NHMRC and other funding
bodies for much of that time. The Women and Infants Research
Foundation at King Edward Memorial Hospital has provided
infrastructure over the years.
Findings from these studies have been described in more than
70 original scientific articles.
“Over 20 years of intensive studies, we have contributed greatly
to the understanding of why many babies are born too early,”
Professor Newnham said. “I at last feel we are getting closer to
discovering an effective prevention.”
Professor Alan Jobe (left)
and Professor John Newnham
check on preterm baby
Joseph, with his mother
Catriona Brooks
The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 9 August 2010 5

Humanities
and health
attract the big money
Bruce Robinson, Stephen Stick and Fiona Stanley; old friends lead research centres
The pressing problems of the 21st
century – health and humanities –
are being tackled with major
national funding for UWA research
leaders.
Support for three national Centres of
Research Excellence was announced last
month by the National Health and Medical
Research Council. And the Australian
Research Council has approved more
than $3.2 million for the development of
alternative energy sources.
Winthrop Professor Fiona Stanley
has $2.5 million over five years to lead
research into Aboriginal health and
wellbeing. She said that although it was
clear what needed to be done to close
the gap in Aboriginal health and
wellbeing, the major challenges related
to implementation.
“They include lack of proper engagement
with Aboriginal people, hence services
are ineffective and often racist,”
Professor Stanley said. “Factors
including poverty, incarceration,
premature death, substance abuse and
mental health problems, along with poor
levels of education, housing and
employment, severely limit the ability of
Aboriginal people to participate and
benefit in the rage of opportunities they
need to succeed.
“We aim to address these problems and
a most exciting aspect of this new
Centre is the number of well-trained and
highly-committed Aboriginal researchers
who now have the abilities to take on
leadership roles.”
Winthrop Professor Bruce Robinson
was awarded $4.5 million to further the
work of his National Centre for
Asbestos-Related Diseases.
Asbestos causes a range of diseases
including the fatal cancer, malignant
mesothelioma. Professor Robinson and
his team have been studying the
diseases for about 20 years and have
already taken more than 15 treatment
strategies to clinical trials.
“We will continue to focus on three
areas: improving diagnosis, early
intervention strategies and improving
treatment,” Professor Robinson said.
Clinical Professor Stephen Stick’s
Centre for Research in Childhood Early
Respiratory Disease also won $2.5
million to continue its unique
collaboration between institutions in
Perth and Melbourne.
“No other working group in this area has
the capacity and access to patients to
investigate early lung disease
longitudinally from diagnosis,”
Professor Stick said.
The Centre is focused on chronic
respiratory disorders that start in early
life, with cystic fibrosis being the most
common cause of destructive lung
disease in early life.
There is no cure for cystic fibrosis.
Improvements in survival of children with
cystic fibrosis have been largely due to
slowing the progression of
bronchiectasis (dilation of the bronchial
tubes) and Professor Stick’s group
believes that bronchiectasis is
preventable.
The announcement of these nhmrc
grants came as the University was
celebrating its success in the Australian
Research Council’s Centre of
Excellence program in which uwa is
leading or collaborating in more than
half of Australia’s new Centres of
Excellence.
uwa will be home to a $24.25 million
Centre of Excellence in the History of
Emotion which will be directed by UWA
historian, Winthrop Professor Philippa
Maddern of the School of Humanities.
As a partner and collaborator in six other
centres researchers will work with other
universities in Australia, Canada, China,
Europe, Israel, the United Kingdom and
the United States in research ranging
from astro-physics to geotechnical
science and engineering.
“Emotions shape our mental, physical
and social well-being,” Professor
Maddern said. “Our research will
illuminate this crucial aspect of
Australia’s cultural and social heritage,
and invigorate Australian culture through
major reflective performances in drama,
opera and art.
“By addressing the big question of how
societies think, feel and function, it will
provide greatly enhanced
understandings of how to improve
emotional health among modern
Australians. It will train and mentor a new
generation of young Australian
researchers and heighten Australia’s
international reputation for excellence in
Humanities and Performing Arts
research,” she said.
uwa is also involved in six other Centres
of Excellence: All-Sky Astrophysics; Core
to Crust Fluid Systems; Engineered
Quantum Systems; Environmental
Decisions; Geotechnical Science and
Engineering; and Study of Cognition and
its Disorders.
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UWA NEWS 9 August 2010
the University of Western Australia

Fresh start for drug users and abusers
In an ideal world, there would be no drug abuse or
addiction.
But because the world is far from ideal, the University is hosting
a day-long seminar on the world-wide problem of drug
addiction and recovery-focused drug treatment programs.
On Saturday August 21, election day, about 200 doctors and
senior health workers are expected to learn from drug addiction
specialists from Australia and overseas how the problems are
being tackled.
The day of workshops, forums and lectures, mostly at the
University Club, is an initiative of the Fresh Start Recovery
program, which used to be known as Perth’s naltrexone clinic.
(A naltrexone implant blocks the effects of heroin and chemicals
that make people addicted not just to drugs but to smoking,
gambling or drinking alcohol.)
The clinic is run by Dr George O’Neil, a graduate of and
occasional lecturer at UWA, with the support of other UWA
graduates and former staff. Two of the speakers at the seminar
are UWA staff, Winthrop Professors Gary Hulse and Gary
Jeffrey.
Professor Hulse has worked in the area of addiction since 1987
and is the co-ordinator of Alcohol and Drug Education and
Training in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health
Sciences and a Professor in the School of Psychiatry and
Clinical Neurosciences.
“I first became involved in the Fresh Start program when the
Health Department commissioned us to review the safety and
efficacy of oral naltrexone,” Professor Hulse said.
“I’ve been working alongside George O’Neil for 10 years and he
makes the world a better place.
“I’ll be speaking about how naltrexone treatment can create a
window of opportunity for drug addicts. George has been
able to invent an implant that lasts for six months, while, in
the us, the National Institute of Health has been tyring to
develop naltrexone since the 1970s. The best they have been
able to come up with is something that lasts for one month,”
he said.
“Six months of no craving for heroin creates a window of
change for drug addicts. They can see there is light at the end
of the tunnel. They can see that vision for six months, and
where they can go with their lives if they can stay off heroin.”
Professor Jeffrey is a gastroenterologist in the School of Medicine
and Pharmacology. He is a visiting liver specialist at the hepatitis
C clinic at Fresh Start’s premises, treating patients who have
contracted hepatitis C in the course of injecting drugs.
Joining them is Professor Neil McKeganey, founder of the
Centre for Drug Misuse Research at the University of Glasgow,
one of the leading research groups working in the substance
use field in the UK.
Professor McKeganey, a sociologist by training, is a frequent
commentator on drug-related matters and, in 2008, was invited
to the White House to discuss his research. He is also speaking
at the 17th annual Western Australian Drug and Alcohol
Symposium on August 30.
For more information and to register for the seminar, go to
www.freshstart.org.au/seminar.
“
George has been able to invent
an implant that lasts for six
months, while, in the US …
the best they have been able to
come up with is something that
lasts for one month.
“
ABOVE: Professor
Gary Hulse
RIGHT: George O’Neil
treats a patient at
Fresh Start
The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 9 August 2010 7

Paper chase:
recycling wins the campus race
The paperless society never eventuated.
The advent of computers actually meant more paper was being
used, to the point where paper and printing policies are
becoming more important than ever.
The argument continues on which is more sustainable: recycled
paper or virgin stock from managed plantations.
The University’s Finance and Resources section made a
decision about three years ago to use recycled paper across
the board and an analysis after 12 months showed the section
was saving money, even though the paper was more expensive
to buy than virgin stock.
Annette Black, Business Manager for Finance and
Resources, said they did a lot of research before putting in
place a green office program.
“We adopted our policies in the early stages of the recycled vs
virgin stock argument,” she said. “Because we were
committed, we continued with it: buying recycled paper,
recycling paper within the office and changing all our printers to
default to double-sided printing.
“The paper cost us a little more, but the other recycling and
printing measures more than made up for it. After 12 months,
we found we had saved money and used less paper.”
It has become second nature for the staff in Financial Services,
Facilities Management, Human Resources and several smaller
sections to think before they print, and to make use of all waste
paper.
“With the help of Archives and Records Services we are now
progressing to electronic document management for files and
records,” Ms Black said. “And Strategic Project Management
and Parking and Security have already made the change.”
Joyce Dacruz, Associate Director Financial Services (Strategic
Procurement), said her team had worked on a policy of using
recycled paper for the whole university, but it stalled two years
ago when the recycled vs virgin pulp argument reared its head.
At that point the Office of Finance and Resources introduced
the initiative of printing on recycled paper, together with a
printing reduction strategy (all printing to be on double-sided
paper and only print when it’s absolutely necessary) to show
that environmental sustainability initiatives such as these do
work and help save money. “The analysis confirmed that we did
save money by following this initiative.”
Craig MacKenzie, Manager UniPrint, said he and his staff had
done a lot of research into the most sustainable paper and
printing methods but it was difficult to find a definitive source of
information.
Much of the research that recommends fast-growing trees in a
sustainably-managed plantation, producing virgin pulp is written
or funded by the timber and pulp industry.
“But there is no doubt that the recycling process does have a
big carbon footprint,” Mr Mackenzie said.
“We know that a lot of water and chemicals, including chlorine,
are used but we have been unable to find unbiased information.”
UWAnews is printed on a 60 per cent recycled paper called
Monza satin. Uniview is printed on Hanno art paper, certified as
produced from sustainable plantation pine.
“People these days want the best possible product, which
usually means the whitest paper. Technology, which makes it
easy to correct and change and improve printed documents,
has raised everybody’s expectations and demands for
perfection,” he said.
“But while the paper argument continues, we have made real
progress in greening the production processes at UniPrint. We
have replaced petroleum-based inks and solutions with
soy-based inks and water-based solutions.
“We buy our paper in unwrapped cartons. During busy periods,
we were filling two recycling bins a day with the wrappers that
needed to be removed from reams of paper before filling the
machines. We sometimes use between 200 and 250 reams a
day. A simple change like that meant that waste was dropped
to one recycling bin a week instead of two a day.
“We have done away with the use of film, which was silver and
mercury-based and so quite toxic, and our printing process
8
UWA NEWS 9 August 2010
the University of Western Australia

now removes the film step and goes
straight to metal plates.
“It makes the printing process more
efficient as well as reducing the use of
harmful chemicals,” Mr Mackenzie said.
He said that for all local copiers and
printers, good quality recycled paper
was fine to use. “I think staff should be
encouraged to do so.
“The key to savings made by Finance
and Resources is that the benefit was
achieved through better practices and
those savings enabled them to change
to recycled paper without increasing
expenditure.
“Recycled paper still produces too much
paper dust for us to use it exclusively on
our large production machine, which
prints 19,000 images an hour,” he said.
“But, on request, UniPrint is more than
happy to produce your jobs on recycled
paper.”
The Library uses exclusively recycled
papers in all its printers and
photocopiers.
Annie Macnab, Manager Administration,
said it was one of many ‘green’ initiatives
in the library. “In the past, recycled paper
had a bad name for the loose fibres that
got caught up in machines,” she said.
“We put our hands up to trial recycled
paper a few years ago and had no
problems whatsoever.”
Ms Macnab said it was a little more
expensive, but the University Librarian at
the time had agreed to the increase
because the intiative was worthwhile.
“We encourage people to print on both
sides of the paper, but our printers are
not set to default to double-sided
printing because student assignments
need to be single-sided,” she said.
“We also offer a free scanning service so
that students can copy and save pages
without using paper.”
In the first six months of this year,
923,009 pages were printed in University
libraries, while 507,791 scans were
made, compared with 396,901
photocopies.
Research by KPMG Finance on which
paper to use appears unbiased. The
company uses 160,000 reams of paper
a year, so set about finding the most
economical and sustainable sources.
Their investigations showed that, aside
from the chemicals used in recycling
paper, it was the best choice. They
reported that recycled paper used 60 to
70 per cent less energy than
manufacturing from virgin pulp; it
consumed 55 per cent less water; and
pointed out that paper in landfill was a
significant contributor to methane gas,
which had a global warming potential 21
times more damaging than carbon.
There are two international bodies that
certify wood for paper: The Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) and the
Programme for the Endorsement of
Forest Certification (PEFC).
FSC promotes responsible management
of the world’s forests and accredits
organisations to ensure well-managed
forestry. It has certified more than 100
million hectares of forest in 82 countries
over the past 12 years.
PEFC is an umbrella organisation for the
assessment of and mutual recognition of
national forest certification schemes,
supported by 149 governments in the
world.
Environmental Sustainable
Development (in Facilities
Management) is currently running a
pilot Green Building Program with four
groups across campus, measuring,
among other data, the amount of paper
that is being recycled.
Associate Director Helen Whitbread said
it was anticipated that the study would
provide data to assist in
recommendations for changing paper
use across campus.
“In the meantime there are many small
strategies that can be used to reduce
paper usage such as defaulting all
printers to double-sided print, taking
meeting minutes electronically, and
individuals or departments setting
printing limit goals,” Ms Whitbread said.
“In FM, paperless initiatives that take
advantage of the electronic medium are
used, such as electronically submitting
drawing designs and plans for review
before final prints are made.
“It will be interesting to see if the paper
debate changes as younger generations,
who are quite comfortable working in an
electronic environment, become a part of
the work force,” she said.
LEFT: Library officer Nick Vincent and Arts student Brad Jennings (rear) make
photocopies with recycled paper in the Reid Library
BELOW: Offset machinist Jino Penaranda and Craig MacKenzie, manager UniPrint,
load a printing machine at UniPrint
The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 9 August 2010 9

One man’s waste is
another man’s soil
by Science Communication student Caris Allen
Can caustic waste from mineral
processing be turned into healthy
soil?
The processing of alumina, from bauxite
rock, produces bauxite residue – a
barren red mud that is difficult to dispose
of. But UWA Professorial Fellow and
bauxite enthusiast Dr Martin Fey is
discovering a cost-effective, simple way
Kikuyu grass helps turn mining waste
into soil
to reclaim this waste and turn it into
plant-friendly soil.
wa’s alumina refineries produce 20
millions tonnes of residue each year,
which is disposed of at four alumina
plants in WA.
Dr Fey said the rehabilitation of these
disposal areas was a difficult process,
especially when trying to revegetate the
areas.
With the support of his research
sponsors, Alcoa World Alumina Australia
and BHP Billiton Worsley Alumina,
Dr Fey and his research team are looking
at ways to ameliorate the bauxite residue.
It is treated in three stages, and in all
stages natural acids counteract the
alkalinity of the residue. In the first stage
gypsum is added, which acts to lower
the pH by breathing carbon dioxide into
the residue. The second stage involves
leaching out the excess salt and adding
bacteria, which transforms fertiliser into
various acids. The third stage involves
growing Kikuyu grass which again
breathes carbon dioxide into the system.
Kikuyu grass is a relatively salt-tolerant
and fast growing species that is widely
grown in WA as a turf grass and a
grazing pasture. As Dr Fey explains, by
Dr Martin Fey
pre-treating the residue and growing
Kikuyu grass, it becomes more like a soil
and less like a waste product. “All we are
really doing is giving the bauxite residue
a head start.”
Dr Fey said Kikuyu grass was ideal as a
first-stage rehabilitator for bauxite residue
disposal areas because it produced large
amounts of organic matter. In
rehabilitating the land, the grass
transforms the residue to become more
soil-like and leads the way for planting
native species directly into the site.
Dr Fey believes their research has the
potential to reduce the impact WA’s
minerals industry has on its environment,
shortening the time needed to reclaim
the disposal areas. Initial results are to
be presented at the World Conference of
Soil Science in Brisbane this month.
“Ultimately it’s about affordability and
sustainability – finding efficient solutions
that will have a lasting effect,” he said.
Looking for fun …?
Get ready for your personal diary to
be filled with new friends and
events.
The uwa Staff Social Club will be
launched next month, with a target of
1,000 members.
One of the movers behind the new club,
University Protocol Officer Kim Brown,
said the idea came after she noticed
that, at the Vice-Chancellor’s Christmas
party, most staff were mixing only with
their immediate colleagues.
“We feel that people are not making the
most of being part of a very big and
very diverse group,” Kim said.
The staff sports day is one of the few opportunities for staff to have fun together:
the social club will change that
“When staff and graduate students
come from overseas or interstate, they
often don’t even know the person at the
end of the corridor, let alone anybody
10
UWA NEWS 9 August 2010
the University of Western Australia

Peer pressure
persuades people
to go green
by Science Communication student Astrid Cooling
It’s hard to give up the luxury of fresh
towels every day when staying in a
hotel.
But hotels use millions of litres of water
and chemicals to meet our high
expectations, which translates to $1 a
towel.
Psychologist Elliot Wood believes guests
can help bring change to the industry.
Most hotel bathrooms have signs
inviting guests to consider the
from another building,” she said. “They
are often isolated within an isolated city
and we want to change that.”
The Staff Social Club will be open to
everybody who has a UWA staff number.
“Membership will be just $1.50 a week
and can be salary sacrificed from your
pay each fortnight. It’s less than a cup
of coffee a fortnight to be connected
with hundreds of people and to have
functions and events available to you at
a reduced cost. Anybody can come to
our events, but they will pay more than
the social club members.”
Kim said the club would offer different
events both on- and off-campus, with a
mix of family outings, cultural, sporting
and social gatherings including some
no-alcohol events.
environment and reuse their towels.
These signs are designed to change our
behaviour. Dr Wood is working with the
Water Corporation, experimenting with
different versions of the signs to be
placed in bathrooms of two big Perth
hotels.
Each sign will take a different angle in an
attempt to influence the conservation
behaviour of guests. Popular approaches
include asking guests to help save the
environment for future generations.
Guests may also be invited to become
co-operating partners of the hotel,
helping them in their conservation
efforts.
Dr Wood explains that the wording
of these messages is important.
“Many, many thousands of dollars,
huge amounts of energy and litres
of water can be saved just by
changing a sentence,” he said.
So what phrasing has the biggest
influence on our behaviour? Social
psychology studies conducted in
America have shown that the
… join the club
“Some people who don’t drink alcohol
feel excluded from some social
gatherings or they don’t want to pay a
premium price for something that
includes alcohol. So we will be catering
for these people too.”
She said Gary Ellis, general manager of
the University Club, was enthusiastic
about the social club. Some of their
events would be held at the Club.
The Faculties and the Vice-Chancellor
are all supportive of the intiative and
Finance and Resources is supporting
an administrative officer, Toni Mison, for
one day a week, to run the social club’s
affairs.
“We will soon have a website and we
welcome suggestions from
everybody,” Kim said. “We want the
guilt-trip conservation message is not
good enough. The most effective way to
persuade guest behaviour is to use peer
pressure.
Guests were more likely to use their
towels more than once when invited to
join their fellow guests to help save the
environment. Guests were told that 75
per cent of guests staying in that room
had recycled their towels. Knowing the
bathroom behaviours of the room’s
former occupants encouraged an even
higher reuse rate. Dr Wood is not
surprised by these findings.
“If people learn about what other people
are doing, they are likely to follow,” he
said.
This kind of response is due to the
‘social norms theory’, the foundation of
Dr Wood’s research. Social norms are
the rules that people are expected to
follow in society.
Dr Wood hopes that the hotel towels
findings will one day be used to improve
the conservation behaviour of students
and staff at UWA.
Staff Social Club to reflect what the
staff want.”
Already in the pipeline are a children’s
Christmas party at Claremont
Showgrounds (one of many external
events the social club will plug into)
and a staff ball next year.
“We will have regular family events,
cultural events and Friday afternoon
get-togethers, starting on Friday
September 10.”
The free launch party, which will
include activities for children, will be in
the Undercroft from 4.30pm on Friday
September 10. Come along and find
out more about what the new Staff
Social Club can do for you.
For more information, contact Toni
Mison at toni.mison@uwa.edu.au
The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 9 August 2010 11

From Circadian
rhythms to cold
water immersion:
the best
in the West
“Imagine a society where to talk
about science is as natural as
talking about football.”
When Baroness Susan Greenfield
suggested this to guests at the annual
Australian Society for Medical
Research Week (ASMR) dinner, she
was preaching to the converted.
More than 200 medical researchers
and community leaders listened to
Baroness Greenfield, Director of the
Oxford Centre for the Science of the
Mind, a Professor of Pharmacology,
the ASMR 2010 medallist and a
flamboyant opinion leader, considered
to be one of the most powerful and
inspirational women in the world.
ASMR celebrates its work and its
members every year with a scientific
symposium in each state and awards
for young researchers presented at the
gala dinner.
As usual, UWA graduate students and
early career research staff dominated
the awards, winning 11 of the 12 major
prizes.
Baroness Greenfield, a highlyesteemed
medical researcher, says the
most important attributes a scientist
Make a booking in your diary
List of things to do on August 21:
1 Go to Save the Children Book Sale
2 Vote in the federal election.
From left, Dr Kristen Nowak (Young Scientist of the Year 2009 and director of ASMR),
Baroness Susan Greenfield and Allison Butt (ASMR President)
can have is a belief in one’s own ideas
with flexibility to modify those ideas in
the light of experimental data. “Above all,
you have to have a passion for what you
do and, ideally, a sense of humour for
when things go pear-shaped.”
An Qin from UWA’s Centre for
Orthopaedic Research won one of two
$2,000 Department of Health prizes for
her work on treating diseases such as
osteoporosis; Jasmine Tay from the
School of Pathology and Laboratory
Medicine won the other one for her
research into breast cancer cells.
Eleanor Drummond (Anatomy and
Human Biology) won the $1,000 WA
Biomedical Research Institute prize for
her work in Alzheimer’s disease. Other
$1,000 awards went to Angela Fuery
(Paediatrics and Child Health), also for
research into Alzheimer’s, and Tahmina
Anwari (Anatomy and Human Biology)
for research into Circadian rhythms and
It may not be as important as voting in the Federal
election, but you get more chances.
If you can’t make it to the Undercroft between 6am and
5pm on Saturday, the sale is also open on Friday August
20, from 5pm to 9pm. It continues on Sunday from 8am
to 5pm, then until Wednesday, at these times:
Monday (9.30 – 6.30); Tuesday, half price day (9.30 –
6.30); Wednesday, bargain box day (9.30 – 2pm).
The charity has more than 100,000 books, CDs, DVDs and
sheet music for sale.
Save the Children supports disadvantaged children in Australia
and many third world countries.
You can volunteer to help at the sale by calling 9387 6215.
their links to medical conditions
including diabetes and metabolic
disorders.
The study of paediatric brain tumours;
work on controlling gene expression;
research into ageing and its
progressive loss of muscle mass and
function; the effects on the lungs of
early exposure to arsenic coupled
with influenza; and whether cold
water immersion for recovery
influences food intake in athletes all
won $750 prizes for uwa staff and
graduate students.
Irving Aye (Women’s and Infants’
Health) won a $500 award for
cholesterol research, part of which
showed that proteins which transport
cholesterol can protect the placenta.
Baroness Greenfield returns to UWA
on August 26 for a UWA Extension
lecture in Winthrop Hall, The Future of
the Brain, the Brain of the Future.
New Courses 2012
and current students
The University is turning its attention to the
implications of New Courses 2012 for current
UWA students, and students commencing in
2011.
Faculties have recently been engaged in discussions
about proposed transition plans for their students
and a communications strategy for current students
is being developed in collaboration with the Guild
and relevant working parties.
New Courses 2012 will open up a range of options
for current students and students commencing next
year, including the opportunity to enrol in one of the
new professional postgraduate courses. For more
information about our new courses visit www.
newcourses2012.uwa.edu.au and register online for
the latest updates.
12
UWA NEWS 9 August 2010
the University of Western Australia

UWA NEWS classified
Good riddance
to bad breath.
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as well as the sufferer’s self esteem. But thankfully ‘malodour’
can be successfully treated using new knowledge and techniques
practised by Dr Chai Lim and his team.
Call now for
a consultation 93891482
visit www.drchailim.com.au
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Print?
Whatever you need to print, UniPrint
can print it. From a newsletter to
an annual report. A brochure to a flyer.
What’s more, we can also design it,
create quality artwork and see the
whole job through from start to finish.
See UniPrint too for all your copying
and binding needs. UniPrint is your
printer on campus.
UniPrint-it!
6488 7790
uniprintjobs@admin.edu.uwa.au
uniprint.uwa.edu.au
The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 9 August 2010 13

UWA NEWS classified
NEW STAFF
Please welcome the following new
staff who joined the University from
June 1 to July 28, 2010.
James Allen, Security Officer,
Facilities Management, Security and
Parking
Tracey Beveridge, Digital
Marketing Officer, Engineering,
Computing and Mathematics
Clint Bracknell, Assistant Professor,
School of Indigenous Studies
Dr Lauren Callahan, Animal
Veterinary Officer, Animal Care
Services
Dr Venkatesh Chenniappan,
Research Assistant Professor,
Electrical, Electronic and Computer
Engineering
Carol Cheung, International Centre
Intern, International Centre
Melanie Clark, Graduate Research
Assistant, Psychiatry and Clinical
Neurosciences
Anita Creasey, Administrative
Assistant, Graduate School of
Education
Winthrop Professor Holly Cullen,
Law
Dr Mary Davies, University
Librarian, Library
Mark Dickinson, Senior Technician
(Workshop), Physics
Sarah Dougiamas, Administrative
Assistant, Music
Samantha Edwards, Research
Officer, Primary, Aboriginal and Rural
Health Care
Kelly Elliott, Executive Assistant,
Natural and Agricultural Sciences
Joanne Gooden, Lecturer,
Paediatrics and Child Health
Mathew Green, Database Analyst,
Office of Development
Jody Harrison, Administrative
Assistant, Music
Carey Hemingway,
Communications Officer,
Architecture, Landscape and Visual
Arts
Sharyn Hickey, Graduate
Research Assistant, Population
Health
Jennifer Hinkley, Dental Clinic
Assistant, Oral Health Centre of wa
Anne-Marie Holt, Lecturer,
Population Health
Chun-lian Hu, Research Associate,
Physics
Dr Yiqun Hu, Research Assistant
Professor, Computer Science and
Software Engineering
Lorien Hunt, Process and Systems
Officer, Financial Services
Daniel Hutton, Senior Graphic
Designer, Centre for Learning
Technology
Andre Jiggins, Computer Systems
Officer, Medicine, Dentistry and
Health Sciences
Anna-Carin Johansson, Faculty
Administrative Officer, Graduate
School of Education
Professor David Kandiah,
Medicine, Dentistry and Health
Sciences
Winthrop Professor Stuart Kaye,
Law
Marit Kragt, Assistant Professor,
Agricultural and Resource
Economics
Denis Kulikov, Senior Information
Analyst, Planning Services
Sten Littmann, Research
Associate, Centre of Microscopy,
Characterisation and Analysis
Dr Jie Liu, Research Assistant
Professor, School of Earth and
Environment
Danielle Macdonald, Information
Architect, University Website Office
Jemma Marris, Research Assistant,
Centre For Forensic Science
Lisa Martin, Research Associate,
School of Surgery
Antoinette Maynard, Procurement
Assistant, Financial Services
Alison McQueen, Lecturer,
Paediatrics and Child Health
Angela Moorehouse, Assistant
Arts, Humanities and Social
Sciences
Kellie Mouchemore, Graduate
Research Assistant, Medicine and
Pharmacology
Stephen Naughton, Research
Officer, Plant Biology
Jay Nicholson, Laboratory
Manager, Biomedical, Biomolecular
and Chemical Sciences
Lindy Nield, Senior Research
Officer, Population Health
Glenn Prestidge, General
Assistant, Plant Biology
Kathryn Riordan, Accounting
Assistant, Student Services
Research Assistant Professor
Thomas Rufford, Research
Assistant Professor, Mechanical and
Chemical Engineering
Grace Ryan, Administrative
Assistant, Humanities
Dr Yong Song, Research Assistant
Professor, Womens and Infants
Health
Christopher Wanty, Research
Associate, Biomedical, Biomolecular
and Chemical Sciences
Kylie Wilson, Project Officer, Office
of Development
Betty Woko, Dental Clinic Assistant,
Oral Health Centre of wa
Kim Wragg, Accounts Officer,
Animal Biology
NOTICES
FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY
Tuesday 10 August 2010 at
7:30pm for 8pm
Science Library meeting room,
Third floor
Dr Ed Barrett-Lennard
Productive use of saltland in
Western Australia: seriously,
why bother?
“Increasing salinity is one of those
forms of degradation of Australia’s
natural environment where the
adverse effects have been
overstated, and the bulk of the
suggested strategies for improving
sustainability have either been
over-optimistic, misguided, or just
plain wrong.”
Adjunct Associate Professor Ed
Barrett-Lennard is a member of the
Centre of Excellence for
Ecohydrology. He is a former
Director of the Centre for the
Management of Arid Environments
(Kalgoorlie), with many years of
research in the productive use and
rehabilitation of saline land.
Free Banking for UWA Staff
Unicredit is your free banking
service, both on-campus and off. *
There are no transaction fees for counter service, and when
you’re not on campus, you’ll have free access to the second
largest ATM network in the country: rediATM and NAB ATM.
Why not join the 4.5 million Australians who bank at a place
which is not a bank at all. As a ‘mutual’, all profits are retained
to provide better rates and service for all members.
- Friendly personal service on campus - no long queues
- Visa Access with no application or ongoing fees
- No hidden fees for internet transfers and bill payments
- Unlimited free ATM withdrawals on a huge ATM network
5 s t a r a w a r d w i n n i n g
“Outstanding Value”
Visa Access &
On-Call Savings
UWA Branch
Nedlands Branch
1st floor, Guild Building 80 Broadway
11am - 3pm, Mon - Fri 9am - 4pm, Mon - Fri
Ph 6488 1218 Ph 9389 1011
Call into your UWA branch
for friendly personal banking
service, or phone 9389 1011.
www.unicredit.com.au
Car Loans - Home Loans - Term Deposits - Xmas Saver - Financial Planning - Insurance - Visa Access
* UWA Staff who open a new membership are exempt from member maintenance fees for the first year. Thereafter a $2 monthly fee applies only if total balances are less than $500. Offer available for a limited time
and subject to change, terms apply. This information does not take into account your personal needs or financial circumstances and you should consider if it is appropriate for you. To decide if a product is right for
you, Unicredit recommends you read our Terms and Conditions and fees brochures which are available from www.unicredit.com.au or by visiting a branch. The University Credit Society Ltd. AFSL/ACL 244168
14
UWA NEWS 9 August 2010
the University of Western Australia

UWA NEWS classified
Developing
Commercialisation Skills
FREE two-day workshop
September 15 – 16
Club Capricorn Resort and Conference
Centre, Yanchep
The Office of Industry and
Innovation (oii)invites postgraduate
students in their second or
subsequent years to learn about
intellectual property and
commercialisation practices as they
relate to university-based research.
OII will cover the cost of the
workshop, meals and
accommodation, but a cancellation
fee of $100 may apply if you don’t
turn up after registering.
For more information and registration
form, go to oii’s home page on the
uwa website or call Laura
Birchenough on 6488 7212.
THE FUTURE OF FORESTRY AND
FOREST SCIENCE CONFERENCE
30 September – 2 October 2010
Melbourne University
registrations are now OPen
The University of Melbourne’s
Department of Forest and Ecosystem
Science is hosting the celebration of
100 years of Forestry education in
Australia. The Future of Forestry and
Forest Science Conference offers you
an open forum to reflect on the
development of forest science and
forestry education over the past
century and consider the future of
forest science.
To download the registration form
or view the conference program
visit the website http://www.
forestscience.unimelb.edu.au/
centenary/conference.html
For further information regarding the
conference program and registration
please contact:
The Future of Forestry and Forest
Science Conference
forestry2010@eventplanners.com.au
PHYSICS SEMINAR
Come and experience a new
phenomenon
A Collaboration based on Red
Sprites
Peter McLeish, filmmaker
Friday August 27 3.30 – 4.30pm
Room 2.15 Physics building
Red sprites are an upper atmospheric
optical phenomenon associated with
thunderstorms. The first images of a
sprite were taken in 1989 and within
the next few years, the space shuttle
captured 20 more images.
Despite nearly a century of anecdotal
report from airline pilots, most
scientists didn’t believe in sprites until
the first images were recently captured
on high-speed video.
The blink of eye lasts 250 milliseconds:
sprites often last only ten.
Professional Video
Production
Is now available to all departments on
campus, and off. with the ever
increasing demand for more
professional multimedia productions,
we have never been busier. While we
mainly work within Science, we can
write and produce broadcast-quality
footage on any subject.
For more information, please
contact Simon Harris:
sjharris@iinet.net.au
What are your ideas for
equity and diversity?
uwa’s Diversity Initiatives Fund can
help you to get an equity or diversity
project up and running.
Applications for this year’s grants are
now open. They are invited from
individuals, groups, schools or faculties
seeking funding to assist in the
development of targeted diversity
initiatives that will enhance equity for
students and/or staff.
The purpose of the Fund is to provide
financial assistance to new projects
that aim to enhance educational and
employment access, participation and
outcomes for groups of students and
staff identified as priority areas of
focus:
Women and men in non traditional
work or study areas
Culturally and linguistically diverse
staff/students
People with a disability
Indigenous staff and students
flexible work practices and life balance
Sexual orientation and gender identity
The Diversity Initiatives Fund has been
in operation for fourteen years and
over that time has served to kick start
many uwa projects and initiatives that
have proved so successful they have
become ongoing.
Applications for funding close on
Friday September 25.
An application form can be
downloaded from the Equity and
Diversity web site at www.equity.uwa.
edu.au or by contacting Lesley
Roberts on 6488 3873. Applications
should be sent to Equity and Diversity,
mbdP 350.
RESEARCH GRANTS
AND CONTRACTS
Grants awarded July 12 – 23
BHP BILLITON IRON ORE PTY LTD
Associate Professor Kerrie
Unsworth, uwa Business School:
‘Tool Time of Maintenance Crew
Members at bhP-Billiton - Newman’
– $20,925 (2010)
Associate Professor Kerrie
Unsworth, uwa Business School:
‘Tool Time of Maintenance Crew
Members at bhP-Billiton waio Port
Hedland’ – $20,925 (2010)
CRC MINING
Associate Professor Melinda
Hodkiewicz, School of Mechanical
and Chemical Engineering: ‘Online
Energy and Reliability Database -
Asset Data’ – $117,400 (2010)
DIMERIX BIOSCIENCE PTY LTD
Associate Professor Kevin Pfleger,
Dr Sanam Mustafa, uwa Centre for
Medical Research: ‘GPcr Heteromer
Project’ – $57,000 (2010)
GEOTHERMAL POWER PTY LTD
Sean Webb, School of Earth and
Environment: ‘Perth Metro Scope of
Works I’ – $120,000 (2010)
Sean Webb, School of Earth and
Environment: ‘Perth Metro Scope of
Works ii’ – $120,000 (2010-11)
GRAINS RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Associate Professor Daniel
Murphy, School of Earth and
Environment: ‘A National Soil Quality
Monitoring Framework’ – $1,553,250
(2010-14)
GREEN ROCK ENERGY LTD
Sean Webb, School of Earth and
Environment: ‘Perth Metro Scope of
Works ii’ – $120,000 (2010-11)
MEDICAL AND HEALTH
RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE
FUND
Mr Guicheng Zhang, School of
Paediatrics and Child Health: ‘New
Independent Research Infrastructure
Support niris 2010 ‐ Gene by
Environment Interactions on Asthma in
Children’ – $10,000 (2010)
Dr Anita Chua, School of Medicine
and Pharmacology: ‘New Independent
Research Infrastructure Support niris
2010’ – $10,000 (2010)
Assistant Professor Wendy Davis,
School of Medicine and
Pharmacology: ‘New Independent
Research Infrastructure Support niris
2010’ – $10,000 (2010)
Dr Graeme Zosky, UWA Centre for
Child Health Research: ‘New
Independent Research Infrastructure
Support NIRIS 2010’ – $10,000
(2010)
MURDOCH CHILDRENS
RESEARCH INSTITUTE EX
NHMRC
Associate Professor Sylvia
Metcalfe, Winthrop Professor
Jonathan Emery, Doctor Sandra
Younie, School of Primary, Aboriginal
and Rural Health Care, University of
Melbourne, Deakin University: ‘The
Faxes Study - Offering Carrier
Screening for Fragile X Syndrome’
– $30,000 (2010)
NHMRC INTERNATIONAL
COLLABORATIVE ICIHRP GRANTS
Professor Helen Milroy, Dr David
Paul, Professor Jillian Milroy,
Professor Darlene Oxenham,
Associate Professor Tamara
Mackean, School of Indigenous
Studies, School of Primary, Aboriginal
and Rural Health Care: ‘Educating for
Equity - Exploring How Health
Professional Education Can Reduce
Disparities in Chronic Disease Care
and Improve Outcomes for
Indigenous Populations’ – $2,083,132
(2010-14)
ROYAL PERTH HOSPITAL
MEDICAL RESEARCH
FOUNDATION
Julie Proudfoot, Professor Trevor
Mori, School of Medicine and
Pharmacology: ‘Distribution of
F2-Isoprostances in Plasma
Lipoproteins’ – $15,000 (2010)
Dr Emilie Mas, Assistant Professor
Anne Barden, School of Medicine
and Pharmacology: ‘Effect of
Supplementing n-3 Fatty Acids and
Aspirin on Circulating Resolvins and
Protectins in Healthy Volunteersam’
– $13,400 (2010)
RURAL INDUSTRIES RESEARCH
& DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Assistant Professor Jonathan
Clements, Centre for Legumes in
Mediterranean Agriculture: ‘Quinoa as
a New Crop in Australia’ – $120,000
(2009-12)
In a campus emergency
dial 2222
SOUTHWEST FOUNDATION FOR
BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH EX NIH
Winthrop Professor Lawrence
Abraham, School of Biomedical,
Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences:
‘Integrative Genomics of Vanin Gene
Expression in Relation to CVD Risk’
– $150,780 (2010)
ST LUKES COLLEGE KARRATHA
Associate Professor Martin
Forsey, School of Social and Cultural
Studies: ‘Northwest Shelf Education
Initiative Impact Assessment’ –
$50,000 (2010)
UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA EX
PHARMACY GUILD OF
AUSTRALIA
Associate Professor Rhonda
Clifford, Sajni Gudka, Professor
Gregory Peterson, Doctor Luke
Bereznicki, School of Biomedical,
Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences,
University of Tasmania: ‘Investigating
Alternative Methods of Confirming
HbA1c to Determine Patient Eligibility
for the Diabetes Medication
Assistance Service’ – $25,842 (2010)
WA DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE AND FOOD
DAFWA EX RURAL INDUSTRIES
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
(RIRDC) CORPORATION
Associate Professor Megan
Ryan, Doctor Clinton Revell,
Richard Snowball, School of Plant
Biology: ‘Commercial Seed
Technology for Bituminaria
Bituminosa Var Albomarginata’ –
$14,000 (2010-11)
WA DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE & FOOD EX WA
NATURAL RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT OFFICE
Dr Sora Marin Estrella, Dr Andrew
Storey, School of Animal Biology:
‘Effects of Nutrient Enrichment and
Toxic Lyngbya Blooms on Benthic
Invertebrates and Migratory Shorebird
Communities of Roebuck Bay
Ramsar Site (09060)’ – $141,561
(2010-11)
WA HEALTH PROMOTION
FOUNDATION
Winthrop Professor Jane
Davidson, School of Music: ‘Act
Belong Commit to Singing - A Healthy
Way to Live’ – $35,000 (2010)
WATER CORPORATION WA
Associate Professor Nicolas Fay,
Assistant Professor Elliot Wood,
School of Psychology: ‘Provision of
Scope and Quote on Data Analysis to
Enable Decisions to be Made on the
Effectiveness of the Margaret River
Behavioural Change Program’ –
$11,500 (2010)
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN
INSTITUTE OF SPORT (WAIS)
Winthrop Professor Mohammed
Bennamoun, Assistant Professor
Jacqueline Alderson, School of
Computer Science and Software
Engineering, School of Sport
Science, Exercise and Health: ‘cfd
Visual Hull Recognition Project’ –
$52,500 (2010)
Security staff will call the emergency services, direct them to you
and come to help you while waiting for their arrival.
It is more efficient and effective to dial 2222 than to call 000.
The University of Western Australia UWA NEWS 9 August 2010 15

Two sides of
the same coin
the last word …
In the minds of many academics pure science and
applied research are worlds apart.
Yet an applied research centre last year produced a third of the
University’s publications in Nature and Science, all from industry
co-funded projects, demonstrating that astute research project
design can satisfy both academic and industry priorities.
The Centre for Exploration and Targeting (CET), promotes a
philosophy that applied research and pure science are two
sides of the same coin. CET research projects have achieved a
high success rate in their ARC Linkage bids and have also won
a much-coveted ARC Discovery Grant (in 2008) – a grant
always associated with pure science research. Outcomes of the
ARC Discovery Grant are already being applied to relevant
industry programs, bringing value back to applied projects and
building on fundamental science.
ARC’s visionary Linkage program is fundamental to our
success. The program allows us to design projects which are
fully funded by industry to address their issues, but also to do
that little bit extra that is traditionally too high-risk for industry to
fund alone, yet holds the potential for a very high impact
outcome.
In strategically designing research programs, the CET
approaches research from an industry starting point. We start
with the actual problem in the real world and work back to look
at the fundamental science issue that we have to crack. This is
a paradigm shift from the traditional approach of many
academics who investigate fundamental processes and then
seek the application.
Traditionally, as scientists we often don’t know if our research is
used and by the same token, people in industry have little
access to evolving cutting edge science because they do not
have the time, facilities or academic expertise.
Since mineral deposits are essentially ‘freaks of nature’, in that
they are anomalous expressions of much larger earth
processes, if you want to understand them, you have to
understand how the planet works. Every question that comes
from industry has at its core a fundamental science question.
The high esteem in which CET is acknowledged among its
industry and academic peers results from the world class
excellence of its researchers coupled with its ability to work so
effectively with industry. This is also reflected in its membership
of more than 60 companies.
Walking the balance between industry confidentiality and
academically publishable results has not been an issue for CET.
The solution to the specific industry problem is the commercially
sensitive aspect of the research, but the fundamental science
solution generally is not.
The role of CET is to help create a competitive advantage, not
destroy it. Similarly, partner companies have been sensitive to
our need to publish. A balance can always be struck.
CET certainly satisfied the University’s quest for academic
acknowledgement and peer review, publishing three of UWA’s
nine Nature and Science papers for 2009 with fundamental
outcomes from its research projects.
Dr Marco Fiorentini
CET Research Fellow
This effort ranked the University second in Australia for Nature
and Science publications.
One CET publication noted the discovery of how ancient ore
deposits hold the key to the Earth’s evolution as well as helping
pinpoint concentrations of metals important for the State’s
economic development. The secular evolution of platinum was
the subject of a second paper. The third publication detailed
modelling of the nickel content of the ancient oceans.
CET’s business works in two ways. Firstly we encourage
academics to realise the value of their research to industry.
Secondly we educate our industry partners on the real cost of
research.
We have learnt to cost out the budget clearly and look for
opportunities such as arc grants, working with organisations
like amira International to link up the right projects and industry
partners to support pure science as well as its application.
We identify the science that needs to be done, we connect it
with industry and then build the funding model to suit the
specific project. I think we have shown that you can unlock and
fund tremendous research opportunities by knowing how to
align these elements.
It’s fair to say that the cet has changed the perception of
academics towards the high impact of industry-focused research
and the value proposition of fundamental research to industry.
UWA NEWS
EDITOR/writer: Lindy Brophy, Public Affairs
Tel: 6488 2436 Fax: 6488 1020
Email: lindy.brophy@uwa.edu.au
Hackett Foundation Building, M360
Director of Public Affairs: Doug Durack
Tel: 6488 2806 Fax: 6488 1020
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UWA NEWS 9 August 2010
the University of Western Australia