E&ERC News

● E&ERC Researcher Awarded Prestigious 2008 L'Oreal Australia For Women in Science Fellowship
E&ERC member, Dr Angela Moles' research has been awarded one of four 2008 L'Oreal Australia For Women in Science Fellowships for her work on a vast botanical study comparing 75 different ecosystems across the planet. This study is revealing a wealth of surprising new facts about the secret lives of plants and what eats them - and some important lessons about how they will fare with climate change. For the full story about this outstanding achievement and for sound and video clips, click here.

 ● Tracey Rogers talks to female science students about her work on leopard seals and the impact of climate change on the species.
She encourages students to go with their passion and to look to what it is that interested them in science and follow this as their career.

The New South Wales Department of Education and Training has made Tracey's presentation live as part of its Science Talk resource. It can be accessed here.

● E&ERC Students Bring Home Prizes from New Zealand: Louise McKenzie, Alex Campbell, Nicole Hill and Emma Birdsey were each rewarded for their excellence at the recent joint Australian-New Zealand Marine Sciences Association Conference in Christchurch. Louise and Alex won prizes for their oral presentations whilst Nicole and Emma were awarded honourable mentions for their posters.

● Work by Alexei Maklakov and colleagues in the Brooks and Bonduriansky labs is featured on ABC "News in Science": Sexes need different dinners, says study

● Congratulations to PhD candidate Dave Roberts (Johnston and Poore labs). His study on heavy metal contamination in seaweed in Sydney Harbour attracted tremendous media interest and has brought the issue to the attention of the NSW government.

● Brooks and Ballard labs in the news: Less protein means longer life, fewer kids

● Congratulations to Bill Sherwin on receiving this year's E&ERC Supervisor Award for excellence in postgraduate supervision!

● Congratulations to the winners of the 2007 E&ERC Citation Awards: see the E&ERC Awards page for details

● Congratulations to the winners of the 2007 E&ERC Citation Awards: see the E&ERC Awards page for details

● Congratulations to the winners of the E&ERC's Postgraduate Student Awards for 2007:

Outstanding Evolution and Ecology Paper

Richard Piola for "Pollution reduces native diversity and increases
invader dominance in marine hard-substrate communities" published in Diversity and Distributions

Outstanding Evolution and Ecology Postgraduate Researcher

Clare Hollely and David Roberts (joint winners)

Outstanding Evolution and Ecology Thesis

Keyne Monro. "Evolutionary consequences of growth-form plasticity in a red seaweed"

Richard Piola. "Differential tolerance of introduced & native marine
invertebrates to heavy metal pollution"

● Congratulations to Iain Suthers on his promotion to Professor!

● Tracey Rogers' lab's research is featured in a new display called National Geographic Crittercam: The World Through Animal Eyes just launched at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC, USA. Their research was also mentioned in a recent New York Times article.

● A PhD scholarship is available for research on Aedes mosquitoes in the Ballard lab.

● 30 November -- E&ERC Funding Initiative application deadline!

● 30 November -- Closing date for nominations for postgraduate and supervision prizes!

● Congratulations to Lee Ann Rollins on receiving the student prize in the recent postgraduate forum. Honourable mention goes to Alex Campbell, Liz Heagney and Tom Mullaney.

● Congratulations to David Warton on his UNSW Goldstar Award for the project entitled "Advances in statistical methods for analysing community abundance data in the environmental sciences".

● Congratulations to E&ERC staff members Emma Johnston and Matt Taylor who have been awarded NSW Young Tall Poppy Science Awards. These awards recognise the achievements of Australia's outstanding young scientists.

● Congratulations to E&ERC staff members Mark Baird, Peter Banks, Darren Curnoe, Angela Moles and Iain Suthers on receiving ARC Discovery grants commencing in 2008!

● Call for funding applications through the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre Funding Initiative (E&ERCFI)

● Congratulations to PhD Candidate Liz Heagney on winning the John Holliday Student Conservation Award

● Congratulations to Stephen Bonser on winning a Carrick Institute grant

● Peter Banks' lab in the news: Fido frightens feathered friends

● Congratulations to PhD recipient Kayne Monro on winning the Student Speaker Prize at the 2007 meeting of the Australasian Evolution Society (June 12-15, UNSW)

● New E&ERC Appointments

Angela Moles, Tracey Rogers, Russell Bonduriansky and Gerry Cassis have recently joined the Academic Staff of the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre and the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences.

● E&ERC Staff Promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2007: Congratulations to Mark Baird, Emma Johnston, Mark Tanaka and David Warton.