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

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