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Bin briefrecent appointmentsVale Professsor FrancisDr Jane Mitchell from UQ’sUQ’s first Professor of VeterinaryPreventative Medicine died onDecember 17, 2003, aged 88.Professor John Francis tookup the position in 1952 withwhat was then the Faculty ofVeterinary Science where hewas Head from 1952 until 1980.He served as Dean of theFaculty from 1955 until 1960.Retiring in 1983, ProfessorSchool of Education said theinternship represented an effortwithin the School to internationalisethe teacher educationprogram.The students received supportto participate in the exchangeby the Commonwealth-fundedUniversity Mobility in Asia andthe Pacific scholarship, andEducation Queensland.Francis was responsible for theoriginal development of theSchool of Veterinary ScienceFarm and its Droughtmastercattle heard. He took a key rolein the establishment of theVirology Research Unit, now theJohn Francis Virology Laboratory.AppointmentsThe University of QueenslandSenate in December voted topromote 12 leading academicsfrom Associate Professor toProfessor effective January 1this year.The appointees are: ProfessorLinda Blackall, ProfessorIan Cameron, ProfessorGeoffrey Cleghorn, ProfessorSusan Hamilton, ProfessorMichael Jennings, ProfessorDavid Kavanagh, Professor JurgKeller, Professor Brian Key,Professor Jeffrey Lipman,Professor Doune Macdonald,Professor Victor Rudolph andProfessor Maree Smith.Canadian internshipThree Bachelor of Educationstudents last month began a 12-week internship at secondaryschools in Vancouver, Canada.Simon Fox, NicoleDenington and Yoshiko Ozawa,students in the Graduate Entryprogram, underwent acompetitive selection processto be chosen for the exchange.The students will beenrolled in the Bachelor ofEducation program at theUniversity of British Columbia(UBC).After returning to Australiaat the end of May they will beeligible to graduate and startwork as secondary schooolteachers.Clean-up dayA clean-up day will be held atUQ on Sunday, March 7, tocoincide with the nationwideClean-Up Australia Day.The event is being organisedby the United Nations StudentAssociation and will take placebetween 9am and 11am.People wishing to participateshould meet at the UQUnion Complex. All participantswill be provided with gloves andrubbish bags.New scholarshipsUQ will offer more than 300 newscholarships this year as part ofthe Federal Government’shigher education reforms.UQ has been allocated thehighest number of CommonwealthLearning Scholarships inthe country with 319 worthbetween $2000 and $4000 each,totalling more than $1 million.Two types of scholarshipswill be available: one valued at$2000 a year for up to four yearsto help low-income studentsmeet the cost of education’ andanother valued at $4000 a yearfor up to four years to help meetthe accommodation costs forlow-income rural students whohave to move away from hometo attend university.For both scholarships,students must be in a full-timestudy in a Commonwealthsupportedplace.UQ has been allocated 135Commonwealth EducationCosts Scholarships. The totalgrant amount is $1,006,000.Information on how to applyfor the scholarships will beposted on the UQ websitewww.uq.edu.au later this month.Professor MinchinChair of MolecularPharmacologyBy bringing together some of thebest minds and some of the bestdrug research facilitiesin thecountry, UQ’s new Chair ofMolecular Pharmacology is hopingto save thousands of lives.That is the plan of Professor RodMinchin who recently joined UQ’sSchool of Biomedical Sciences fromthe University of Western Australiawhere he was Associate Professor ofPharmacology.He said his new role would bringtogether scientists from manydisciplines to spur on research in drugdiscovery and drug development.“If there is enough infrastructureand enough talented people, which wehave here, then we increase thelikelihood of developing newtherapies,” he said.He said his focus would beparticularly growing the drugdevelopment stage at UQ, somethingthat has been almost non-existentbefore in Australia.“We already do great work in drugdiscovery and at the other end inclinical trials,” he said.“But by adding in that pre-clinicalphase of development, we can valueaddto the work we do.”Professor Minchin studiedtoxicology at the National CancerInstitute in Washington DC and hasspent time at the University of NewSouth Wales as a QEII Fellow.He said he believed UQ was theplace to be in terms of biotechnology.“There is a lot that can be donehere with the support UQ and theState Government is giving,” he said.“Right now in Queensland, wehave the resources and the skills tobring together a critical mass that canachieve great things.“There is the potential here to savethousands of lives with the work weare doing and that will be the payofffor the Queensland public.”Dr UngererUnderstanding thethreat of terrorismA newly appointed UQ academicis warning Australians not to becomplacent when it comes toterrorism threats.Dr Carl Ungerer, from UQ’s Schoolof Political Science and InternationalStudies, believes the threat of a terroristact in Australia has been heightenedsince the case of suspected terroristWillie Brigitte last year.“I think Brigitte clearly showedthat there is a potential threat toAustralia,” he said.“Here was a man with known linksto Al Qaeda who was thought to beplanning a terrorist act in Australia.“Australia’s profile as a target hasbeen raised because of our involvementin Iraq but we are also a targetjust because we are a liberal westerndemocracy.”He said 2004 would see furtherunrest in the region, particularly asIndonesia moved towards directelections.“That won’t be the cause of problemsbut in such a chaotic politicalatmosphere, it is easier for extremiststo emerge,” he said.Dr Ungerer is a new addition to theteaching staff this year coming fromformer Labor leader Simon Crean’soffice, where he was foreign policyadvisor before the leadership change.He previously worked for theDepartment of Foreign Affairs andTrade (DFAT) as well as the Officeof National Assessments.At UQ, he will lecture in InternationalRelations where he will teachthe next generation of diplomats aswell as further his own research.“We are developing at UQ a coregroup of people who are well-versedin Australian foreign policy andsecurity issues,” he said.Dr Ungerer said he planned tomake the international relationscourses practical so students wouldperform roles expected of diplomats.22 UQ NEWS, february 2004