Among this week’s notable success stories, Professor Giselle Rampersad advocates how to build stronger female representation in Defence industries, a prominent law alumna wins a national award and Professor Fran Baum joins a WHO advisory group.
Discussing how to build stronger female representation in Defence industries
Professor Giselle Rampersad was a panellist for an event presented by BAE Systems Australia at the Osborne shipyard on 10 June, speaking on the topic “Building Diversity in the STEM Pipeline”. The other panellists at the event were Chief Scientist for South Australia Professor Caroline McMillen, Dr Sarah Baker from the SA Department for Education, and Penny Johnston from TAFE SA. The event was attended by BAE Systems Maritime Australia Managing Director Craig Lockhart, along with Jim Cuthill (Shipbuilding Director), Danielle Mesa (Chief People Officer) and more than 200 people at Osbourne and 160 others joining online. Some of Flinders’ 2020 Digital Diploma graduates were in attendance – and this year, Flinders has more than 60 women enrolled in the Diploma (last year had 50 men and 1 woman).
Professor Rampersad also features as one of the high-flying SA women profiled in the new series of the South Australian Museum’s popular ‘Her Story: Inspiring Women in STEM‘ displays, to mark International Women in Engineering Day on 23 June.
AusStage project manager announced
Liz Larkin (pictured right) is the new AusStage Project Manager, continuing her broad span of work at Flinders University since 1995. Her past positions, in senior administration, executive, business, program and project management roles, have been attached to Physics, Medicine and Admissions, Rural Health, General Practice, Drama, Digital Humanities, Screen and Media, Transition to University, Science and Engineering, Research Higher Degrees and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health.
Ms Larkin was the Project Manager for the 2009-2011 NeAT funded Aus-e-Stage project and worked in close collaboration with the former AusStage Project Manager on this sister project. She was the inaugural Digital Humanities Project Manager for Flinders University until 2015.
She maintained her connection with AusStage over the ensuing years undertaking additional technical writing work (manuals) and specialized AusStage data input (venue geocoding). In 2021 Liz returns to the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences to take up the position of Project Manager for AusStage, the Australian Live Performance Database. As an avid arts, music and performance supporter she is thrilled to be once again contributing directly to this space and looks forward to liaising with all AusStage associates.
Grants for wildlife research
The Nature Foundation SA has announced Scholarship Grants for several Flinders University students, including Jack Bilby to study “Risk During Natal Dispersal; A Case Study using the Western Quoll (supervised by Associate Professor Mike Gardner), Imogen Sach to study “Behavioural and physiological responses of koalas to drones” (supervised by Dr Diane Colombelli-Negrel), Larissa Iasiello to study “Assessing artificial light and anthropogenic noise impacts the behaviour and physiology of three seabirds species” (supervised by Dr Diane Colombelli-Negrel), and Claire Moore to study “The spatial distribution of Kangaroo Island koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in the post-fire landscape, and their use of fire-altered habitat fragments” (supervised by Dr Julian Beaman, Professor Karen Burke Da Silva).
Professor Baum joins WHO advisory group
Professor Fran Baum has been appointed to the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the World Health Report on the Social Determinants of Health Equity. The Report will aim to revitalise global and national commitments to action on the social determinants of health, and increase knowledge on how to undertake implementation, in the context of the glaring inequities revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This appointment recognises Professor Baum’s international reputation, her extensive technical expertise on social determinants of health and her commitment to health equity.
New WHO designation for testing centre
The International Centre for Point-of-Care Testing has been re-designated as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Sexually Transmitted Infections Point-of-Care Testing for a four-year term. The new designation recognises the transformational work of Professor Mark Shephard, Dr Susan Matthews and their committed scientific and administrative team managing life-changing point-of-care testing networks for the detection and management of chronic, acute and infectious diseases (including diabetes, emergency medicine, SARS-COV-2 and STIs) to some of the most remote communities in Australia.
National award for Law alumna
Flinders alumna Alexandra Douvartzidis has been named winner in the Media and Telecommunications category in the 2021 Lawyers Weekly 30 under 30 Awards. Ms Douvartzidis, who is now a solicitor working for HWL Ebsworth Lawyers in Adelaide, is a former president of Flinders Law Students Association. The national awards, sponsored by Lawyers Weekly and principal partner Taylor Root, reward the best and brightest emerging leaders across Australia’s legal profession by celebrating their myriad accomplishments over the past year.
Cancer PhD candidate wins award
Congratulations to FHMRI student Alana White (pictured left), who was awarded Postgraduate Oral Presentation Award recently at the Australian Society of Medical Research Scientific Conference. In the first year of her PhD, supervised by Dr Lauren Thurgood, Alana’s presentation was titled ‘Adipocytes in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: contributors of lipids and promoters of disease progression’.
Congratulations also go to fellow FHMRI students Chandler Morris (Honours) and Dr James McEvoy-May, who were Poster Prize winners at the conference.