
Key players for data collection

Leading South Australian mycologists and Flinders University academics Pam Catcheside and Emeritus Professor David Catcheside have been instrumental in building a rich data collection at the State Herbarium at the Adelaide Botanic Garden.
Some of their years of field work have now been described in a chapter authored by Pam in a new CSIRO book, Wild Science, Unexpected Encounters When Working in Nature. The chapter, ‘In search of a kingdom’ describes the “allure and importance of fungi” and how she engages in a “fungal hunt”.
Protecting community heritage

Congratulations to two Flinders University projects for receiving 2024 Community Heritage Grants. The Flinders University Museum of Art will receive $18,182 for the digitisation of at-risk magnetic media while the Flinders University Palaeontology Research Group will receive $17,980 for collection management, conservation and rehousing.
The Community Heritage Grants (CHG) program supports community organisations to look after Australian cultural heritage collections and is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts; National Library of Australia; the National Archives of Australia; the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Museum of Australia. You can see the full list of recipients here.
Women of colour in STEM

Dr Yee Lian Chew and Dr Maria Alejandra Pinero de Plaza have been selected as finalists in the Women of Colour in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Awards.
Dr Chew has been named in the ‘Rising Star Award’ category, and Dr Pinero de Plaza in the ‘Healthcare Innovator Award’.
The Award winners will be announced at an event on Thursday 5 December.
Furthering education research

Dr Tianchong Wang has been appointed as an Associate Editor of Education and Information Technologies, a leading international journal in education research. Education and Information Technologies is a Q1-ranked journal indexed in both the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Scopus, with a 2023 impact factor of 4.8. As the official journal of the UNESCO-affiliated IFIP Technical Committee on Education, it plays a vital role in advancing research on the intersection of information technology and education.
Sustainable international partnerships

Associate Professor Zhongfan Jia and his sustainable battery research at the College of Science and Engineering has joined an international research initiative with French institutes ICMPE and CEA. This follows the awarding of a new partnership grant to the Flinders University research group by the Franco-Australian Centre for Energy Transition (FACET).
The Ambassador of France to Australia, Pierre-André Imbert, and Consul-General of France (Vic) Mrs Paule Ignatio visited Flinders last week as part of the announcement of six new energy transition projects between France and Australia.
The renewable batteries project will advance development of aqueous polymer hybrid batteries for future sustainable energy storage proposes. The Flinders and French researchers aim to replace metallic cathodes with organic radical polymers to minimise the reliance on critical and strategic metals such as lithium and cobalt, and toxic and flammable solvents, in favour of more environmentally safe materials such as zinc, magnesium and calcium in energy storage.
The FACET initiatives are backed by financial support from both the French and Australian governments, each committing approximatively €1 million and AUD$1 million annually until 2027.