Education and training: an update
I would like to start this month’s column by congratulating students who have recently had papers accepted in international journals, including Kylie Ireland, Mark Stanaway and Mark Castalanelli. A number of our students have now published their research, with some students having multiple publications. This is a great achievement, particularly prior to submission of their theses.
As a reminder, all CRCNPB students are entitled to apply for a publication incentive - a cash bonus for publishing their work. The incentive is based on a tiered scale (conditions apply; read the Application for Student Publication Incentive Form in the members area of the website for details). I encourage all of our students to write as they go, with the publication incentive providing a reward for those who actively do this.
Mark Castalanelli needs to be congratulated twice in this newsletter, as he has recently been offered a position with the entomology group at the WA Museum. As luck would have it, at the same time Mark was also offered a postdoctoral position in the US, but has chosen to stay in WA for now. Good luck Mark in your new position.
From older to younger students – earlier this month I was asked to speak to a group of Year 6 and 7 students who were visiting the Post Harvest Laboratory at Murdoch University. The lab visit was organised by Mrs Manjree Agarwal who works with Assoc/Prof YongLin Ren. We introduced the students to the concept of plant biosecurity, before talking about grain and the need to protect it from pests and diseases. Following the lab visit the teacher passed on the following message:
“A big thank you to everyone for last Friday, it was a truly valuable learning experience. The children absolutely loved it and were raving about what they saw - no doubt they were checking their porridge for creepy crawlies!!”
We hope to continue the school education program if the CRC re-bid is successful, with some exciting ideas already planned to encourage the next generation of plant biosecurity scientists.
Those who are interested in the postgraduate Plant Biosecurity Program, you will be happy to hear that we have approached two new universities to join the teaching consortium, which will really strengthen the program. More details will be made available on the website soon.
We are also looking forward to our first graduations later this year, with a Certificate student having recently completed her course with straight distinctions and a Masters student due to complete later in the year. This is a fantastic achievement after only running these courses for a short time. Enrolments for 2012 will re-open later this year.
