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The vexed nature of big environmental issues like climate change and water security underscore the role that social scientists can play in the development of public policy, according to Professor Phyllis Tharenou.

The new Executive Dean of Flinders Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences says that understanding human behaviour is an important ingredient in achieving the cultural change required to address issues like climate change.

Professor Tharenou said that governments can make decisions that change peoples’ behaviour but the ultimate success of a particular policy response relies on generating attitudinal changes.

“The problem with social science issues is that you don’t have an automatic converter like you do, for example, in medicine, where everyone is concerned about cancer. We all want a cure and you don’t have to convince people of the merits of curing cancer,” Professor Tharenou said.

“But compare cancer with climate change. Climate change is not solely a technical issue, it’s a social science issue. We have most of the technical knowledge about climate change at this minute to affect a positive outcome. The problem is our attitude to climate change, we cannot agree on it,” she said.

“If you are looking to achieve broad cultural change, then our sociologists can look at society as a whole, psychologists can look at groups and individuals, and the economists can analyse the cost and the return on investment for the community.

“All of these social scientists can contribute to an understanding of how people might respond to a government initiative on climate change or water management. Making that knowledge available can inform and contribute to effective decision-making.”

On a personal level, Professor Tharenou said she combined her study of psychology and teaching of management theory and practice in a career that has included positions at Monash University, University of South Australia, University of Queensland, Griffith University, the Queensland Institute of Technology and, most recently, the Australian Research Council.

“I’ve always been interested in bringing a number of disciplines to solving problems. In my case it’s been psychology and management,” she said.

The recent decision to have the Apollo 11 moon landing site named as a state historical resource highlights the urgent need for an international agreement on what constitutes space heritage and who controls it, according to Flinders University’s Dr Alice Gorman, leading space archaeologist.

“The designation of 100s of artefacts left at the site of Tranquility Base after the historic Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969 is a great step forward in recognising the distinct cultural heritage of space exploration,” Dr Gorman said.

“However, it raises some interesting issues about how and why we want to protect these places. Among the items that form part of the archaeological site of Tranquility Base, it’s not only objects like the controversial US flag and various pieces of scientific equipment that are important – it’s also the boot prints left by the astronauts, furrows and pits where they took samples, and the traverses that are evidence of how they moved around the site,” she said.

“Unfortunately, under the terms of the Outer Space Treaty, the lunar surface cannot be included in a heritage listing, as this would imply making a territorial claim. So in a sense, only half the site receives protection.”

The aim of the decision by the California State Historic Resources department is to eventually have the site inscribed in the World Heritage List.

“The World Heritage Convention was not designed with space heritage in mind – it does not apply to moveable objects, so historic satellites like Vanguard 1, the oldest surviving satellite in Earth orbit, launched in 1958, could not be included,” Dr Gorman said.

“It is also based on national or state legal identities, so reconciling the terms of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 and World Heritage Convention will need some work.

“It’s timely to consider how we manage space heritage at an international level, as artefacts such as those on Tranquility Base would be highly valued by collectors, and souveniring is a common activity of tourists. With the growth of the space tourist industry, we might see the possibility of moon tourism within the century.”

Other ventures to the Moon, such as those proposed by India and China, Dr Gorman said, may have an impact of sites like Tranquility Base, and their landing sites will become heritage places too.

“Few people would disagree that Tranquility Base has outstanding universal value as defined by the World Heritage Convention, but it is also a highly nationalist site, created during the Cold War to demonstrate the superior technology of the US. How will Russia, and other states from the former USSR, react to this development?”

The Australian-American Fulbright Commission has awarded the prestigious Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Political Science to Flinders University, following a national, competitive selection process. Flinders University will host the Chair for five years, from 2011.

Through the Chair, distinguished scholars from the United States will be based at Flinders to undertake collaborative research into key political issues affecting both countries.

Flinders Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Barber, said the appointment has confirmed the University’s standing as a leading centre for the teaching and researching of American Studies.

“Flinders University has a long and proud tradition in American Studies and we are delighted to be awarded this prestigious position which will add an exciting new dimension to the University’s teaching and research in the field,” Professor Barber said.

Professor Barber said Flinders appreciated the support received from Premier Rann in its bid for the Fulbright Distinguished Chair and concurred in the Premier’s view of the potential for further collaboration with American researchers on public policy that would raise South Australia’s profile in the United States.

Professor Don DeBats, Head of the Department of American Studies at Flinders, said that one of the key objectives of the Fulbright program is to encourage ongoing, collaborative research.

“The relationships formed between Flinders and the distinguished scholars from the US and their institutions could extend for decades to come,” Professor DeBats said.

The five scholars to sequentially occupy the Chair are expected to bring their own research projects to Flinders, and Professor DeBats expects there will be interest across the university, from Humanities to Law, in engaging with them.

The Fulbright Commission will work with Flinders University on an associated program of visits and presentations around Australia for the Distinguished Chairs.

“The Fulbright Commission is delighted to partner with Flinders University because of its well-established programs and expertise in American studies. It has strong links with U.S. Scholars, leading U.S. institutions and the U.S. Congress through its very successful  internship program for Australian students,” Fulbright Commission Executive Director, Dr Joe Hlubucek, said.

The Australian-American Fulbright Commission is a non-profit organisation in Australia, established through a bi-national treaty between the Australian and United States governments in 1949. The Fulbright Program is one of the largest and most prestigious educational exchange programs in the world.

Flinders University has appointed a senior Australian Research Council executive, Professor Phyllis Tharenou, to lead its revamped Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.

Announcing the appointment, Flinders Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Barber, said the University was delighted that Professor Tharenou has accepted the position as Executive Dean of the Faculty which has been restructured and renamed following an internal review earlier this year.

“Professor Tharenou brings a wealth of experience and knowledge from previous university positions and invaluable insights into Australia’s research agenda from her current position as Executive Director of Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences at the Australian Research Council (ARC),” Professor Barber said.

“Professor Tharenou will take over the leadership of the Faculty at an exciting and challenging time as the Faculty moves ahead with a new structure and focus,” he said.

Professor Tharenou - who holds a Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) from the University of Queensland - will take up her appointment on 1 February 2010 following the retirement of the current Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor John Browett.

Describing the position as having attracted her because the area is “a match for me”, Professor Tharenou said she had spent much of her time working in such areas as psychology, business and public policy in a career that has included positions at Monash University, University of South Australia, University of Queensland, Griffith University, Queensland Institute of Technology and the ARC.

“At the ARC, I have had a vantage point spanning a dozen major disciplines including psychology, sociology, social work, accounting, economics, education and finance, and had the advantage of being able to gain an understanding of contemporary issues in the social sciences and the state of the social sciences on the national stage which I can bring to Flinders,” Professor Tharenou said.

Following an internal review, Flinders has restructured its Faculty of Social Sciences, which incorporated nine separate schools and departments, into four schools - School of Psychology, Flinders Business School, School of International Studies and the School of Social and Policy Studies.

Professor Barber said the restructuring of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences was “an opportunity to reposition the social sciences at Flinders to enable a more integrated approach to public debate, policy development and the advancement of knowledge”.

“I believe it is vital that we engage across discipline boundaries to ensure that the education we provide and the research we undertake are relevant to the complex problems facing the world today,” Professor Barber said.

The rusting remnants of a Second World War battle will soon take on a new life, thanks to a project by Flinders maritime archaeology lecturer Ms Jennifer McKinnon.

In her role as a research associate of the non-profit maritime archaeology organisation Ships of Exploration and Discovery, Ms McKinnon has won funding of US$50,000 from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program to organise the creation of an underwater heritage trail off the Pacific island of Saipan.

One of 12 small islands in the Mariana archipelago, Saipan was the scene of fierce and protracted fighting between Japanese and American forces in 1944. Its shallow coastal waters are littered with battlefield remnants, including the wrecks of ships and landing craft, fragments of aeroplanes and even stranded tanks.

Ms McKinnon said the year-long project will involve local volunteers who will assist in surveying and recording the material; she will also help create interpretive material such as brochures and dive guides to assist divers in touring the sites.

Visiting the wartime wreckage is already a popular pastime for recreational snorkelers and SCUBA divers, particularly Japanese tourists.

“A lot of folks are already diving on these sites, but many have no idea about the history and their importance,” Ms McKinnon said.

“A major part of preservation and long-term conservation of these sites lies in education and public outreach.”

Ms McKinnon said the area was one of great natural beauty, characterised by pristine water and coral reefs.

“Heritage tourism is one way people can boost the local economy and encourage tourism without sacrificing the environment and heritage,” she said.

Around eight sites will be developed, each with a brochure and a laminated underwater site guide printed in English, Japanese, Korean and Chamorro. As well as interpretive signage on the shore, Ms McKinnon hopes that concrete plinths with brass plaques can eventually be added.

Ms McKinnon said some of the relics will be able to be specifically identified and linked back through historical research to military units and even individual troops.

“It would be really exciting if we could actually meet some of the people who were involved and get their stories,” she said.

Ms McKinnon has previously worked on underwater heritage trails in Florida and is currently conducting a joint project on the feasibility of a maritime heritage trail in Darwin.

“For my research, it’s all about underwater cultural heritage and how heritage tourism and underwater heritage trails assists with the management of these sites,” she said.

The long-running debate over what drove most of the world’s Ice Age megafauna to extinction has taken a dramatic turn with new research published in June in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

The findings of an international team of researchers, led by palaeontologist Dr Gavin Prideaux of Flinders University, suggest human hunting caused the extinction of the largest kangaroo ever to evolve.

Dr Prideaux said the most detailed study yet made of the dietary habits of an extinct marsupial suggest that neither a drying climate nor firing of vegetation by humans drove the extinction of the largest kangaroo ever to evolve, the 230 kilogram short-faced Procoptodon goliah.

“Opinions have been divided between the importance of increasing aridity and landscape burning or hunting by humans, who arrived in Australia around 50,000 years ago,” Dr Prideaux said.

“Our research confirms the giant kangaroo fed mostly on saltbushes that were widely available, thrive in dry conditions and form stands that don’t carry fire well,” he said.

“We also established that the giant kangaroo needed to drink more regularly than its grazing contemporaries, and yet it disappeared during a period wetter than others it had survived previously.

“By playing down the roles of aridity and landscape burning, we refocus attention again on human hunting as a more likely extinction cause.”

The team, which included researchers from the Australian National University and Utah, Vanderbilt and East Tennessee State Universities in the US, studied the anatomy of a Procoptodon goliah skeleton, as well as microscopic scratches on teeth, and oxygen and carbon isotopes contained in tooth enamel.

They believe that as the largest ever hopping animal, the giant kangaroo would have been slower to accelerate from a standing start than other kangaroos making it more vulnerable to hunting by humans as the giant kangaroos ventured to waterholes to drink.

Australia, which was once home to rhinoceros-sized herbivores, marsupial ‘lions’ and giant lizards, suffered the worst extinctions of all the continents, losing 90 per cent of larger species by 40,000 years ago.

The research project was supported by the US National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council.

Image reproduced with permission of the artist, Peter Trusler and the Australian Postal Corporation. The original work is held in the National Philatelic Collection, Melbourne.

Eminent plant scientist Professor David Day has been appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Flinders University.

Professor Day is currently Dean of the Faculty of Science and was Executive Dean of the Faculties of Science, Agriculture and Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney.

Recognised for leading high-level research groups, he was a founder of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, where he is still a Chief Investigator.

Flinders University Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Barber said Professor Day brings a wealth of experience, as a researcher, teacher and academic leader, to the role.

“Professor Day has an impressive record of achievement in the field of plant science, as the manager of high-performing university faculties and as a teacher and mentor,” Professor Barber said.

“He has a thorough understanding of the Australian research environment, and of the critical research needs of Australian society, industry and governments,” he said.

“We look forward with enthusiasm to Professor Day’s leadership of the ambitious research agenda at Flinders University, and I am delighted to announce his appointment.”

For Professor Day, a world-renowned specialist in plant biochemistry and molecular biology, the appointment marks a return to South Australia.

A graduate of Adelaide Teachers College and the University of Adelaide, Professor Day subsequently held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Illinois and UCLA that launched his academic and research career. He was a research scientist at the French Centre D’Etudes Nucleaires in Grenoble and has held senior academic posts at the Australian National University and University of Western Australia.

Professor Day has more than 200 published works and is an Institute for Scientific Information highly cited researcher. He will take up his appointment at Flinders University towards the end of the year.

Barack Obama’s success in defeating the ‘heir apparent’ for the Democratic nomination for the US Presidency brings new excitement to the race to the White House. But Obama’s candidacy also holds important economic implications for Australia, according to Flinders University’s Head of American Studies, Professor Don DeBats.

Describing the outcome of the long-running primary election battle between Obama and Hillary Clinton as “remarkable and historic,” Professor DeBats said both candidates took positions on free trade that did not necessarily align with Australia’s best economic interests.

“Traditionally Australia has wanted someone in the White House who is sympathetic to free trade and, if Barack Obama becomes the President, that won’t be the case,” Professor DeBats told Flinders Journal.

“Obama’s Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, is a free trade advocate and has voted that way in the Senate but Senator Obama has voted consistently against free trade,” he said.

“Australia also has a great interest in bringing down subsidies contained in the US Farm Bill – which dumps billions of dollars into agricultural support and distorts prices and markets to Australia’s disadvantage. McCain has opposed the Farm Bill but Obama has supported it. In this election cycle particularly, the Democrats are the more protectionist party.

“I think a lot of people in Australia are fascinated by Obama and the change he represents and promises, as are a lot of people in the United States. But before we get too carried away it’s important to recognise that there are some very real economic policy complications for Australia should he be elected in November.”

In a recently published book, ‘More than an Ally?’ Contemporary Australia-US Relations, Flinders School of Political and International Studies lecturer, Dr Maryanne Kelton analyses the relationship between the Howard Government and the Clinton and Bush Administrations.

“In its early trade disputes with the US over an Australian leather manufacturer’s increased share of the US automotive market and the imposition of US tariffs on the export of Australian lamb, the Howard Government was unable to leverage its special relationship to exact promised material gain in its trade negotiations,” Dr Kelton writes.

“Although the US signed the free trade agreement with Australia, and though it is too early to determine the financial success of the deal, the negotiations clearly failed to meet the government’s initial expectations for the agreement,” she says.

“These outcomes reflect both the exigencies of power in bilateral negotiations for any small government, in addition to a misplaced belief that a cultural affinity would deliver material gain.”

Ultimately, Dr Kelton concludes “the success of bilateralism as a strategy with the US and the delivery of successful outcomes for Australia rest on a convergence with US domestic interests.”

As the US moves into the next phase of the Presidential race, Professor DeBats said Barack Obama would be formally accepting the nomination at the Democratic Party’s convention in August almost 45 years to the day since Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech set the stage for decades of civil rights activism.

“I think Dr King would have been very proud of this moment,” Professor DeBats said.