In this edition I am pleased to congratulate Ms Pattaraporn Khuwuthyakorn on submission of her PhD thesis for examination. Patt completed her thesis on ‘Hyperspectral Vision Methods for Automatic Recognition of Emergency Plant Pests’ and has produced some exciting results, including a patent, so congratulations Patt! In the next two months I expect that at least another five PhD theses will be submitted, so we are certainly on track to reaching our original target of 32 PhDs.

Our students are also setting the standard when it comes to publishing their work. David Savage now has four published journal articles and several of our students have published two papers and continue to submit more. Remember that all students who publish their papers in refereed journals are eligible for a cash incentive. So far we have awarded almost $30,000 to students via this incentive.

The postgraduate curriculum is currently undergoing a review that was scheduled to be held during its third year of delivery. The purpose of the review is to examine the finer points of delivery and assessment and to look for any potential areas of improvement. The interim report from this review is expected to be delivered to the curriculum parties in May, after which we hope to re-open enrolments in the Diploma and Masters. Keep an eye on our website for further updates.

The Plant Biosecurity CRC is now calling for expressions of interest from potential PhD candidates. Candidates must have, or will obtain before the end of 2012, an Honours degree at level 2A or above. Areas of interest include but are not limited to: Biology of Emergency Plant Pests, Diagnostics, Surveillance, Entomology, Plant Pathology, Predictive Simulation Models, Remote Sensing, Risk Analysis, Social Science and Taxonomy.

Projects are available through our Australian participant universities (Charles Darwin University, La Trobe University, Murdoch University, Queensland University of Technology, University of Adelaide, University of Queensland and University of Western Australia), and at our overseas partners, Lincoln University (NZ) and Kansas State University (USA).

All of our students have at least one supervisor from a non-university research organisation and their projects may be based with that organisation or at their University (or both). Other benefits of being a student with our CRC include attendance at our annual Symposium, and an extensive professional development program, preparing you for the future. The annual stipend is $30,000, plus a generous allowance for operating, travel and professional development.

Candidates must be able to commence on or before 1 January 2013. For further information, contact the CRC Education and Training Program Leader, Dr Kirsty Bayliss [1] (08 9360 2814).

As a reminder I also have a Facebook page and Twitter account. These are designed for the promotion of formal qualifications in biosecurity and resources for biosecurity education and awareness. You can follow us @BiosecurityEdu or ‘Like’ us on Facebook [2].

Kirsty Bayliss
Education and Training Program Leader

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