CRC for Plant Biosecurity - education and training

Education and training update

CRICHTONA — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:16:29 +0000

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 (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.

Kirsty Bayliss
Education and Training Program Leader

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Education and training update

CRICHTONA — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:27:10 +0000

In this issue I am very pleased to report on the incredible success of our postgraduate courses in plant biosecurity. These courses are delivered by four of our partner universities – Charles Darwin, LaTrobe, Murdoch and the University of Adelaide. The courses are designed for students to gain knowledge and an understanding of plant biosecurity at the highest level of industry requirements, whilst also providing a world-first university degree in plant biosecurity.

For the first semester of 2012 we have had an intake of more than 20 new students in the graduate Certificate, the majority of which come from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. We have also attracted new students from industry, including some who work in the agronomy field. We now have students from every state and territory of Australia, which is a wonderful achievement. Our next aim is to start recruiting more international students.

Based on current enrolment data we now have more than 35 students in the graduate certificate, four in the diploma, and three in the Masters. There have been two completions in the Certificate and one completed Masters. Both the Diploma and Masters are expected to re-open for enrolments in mid 2012. For further information please contact me.

The new PBCRC PhD scholarships will be available from July 2012. If you would like more information about developing PhD projects or the larger training projects that are being planned, please talk to me at the upcoming project planning workshops in Melbourne or Perth. Honours scholarships of $5000 remain available and more information about these can be found here.

Kirsty Bayliss
Education and Training Program Leader

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Education and training update

CRICHTONA — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:58:53 +0000

In this edition I would like to congratulate Alex Rea – who is due to submit his PhD thesis for examination on 16 December – and Kylie Ireland – who had her PhD thesis passed in early December. Both Alex and Kylie studied Phytophthora-related projects – Alex examining the taxonomy of the pathogen and Kylie the epidemiology. Well done to both of you.

The 2012 Grain Storage and Biosecurity Training Program is now open for enrolment at Charles Sturt University (CSU). As you may be aware, the training program offers a certificate of attainment in the competency unit Maintain Grain Quality in Storage (AHCBAC406A). The training program consists of self-paced study plus a hands-on workshop in Wagga Wagga. Enrolment is open until the end of January 2012, with the workshop held from 11-13 April 2012.

For the convenience of participants in the training program who do not have the required certification for farm chemical use, CSU will also be offering an optional one day training program immediately prior to the workshop. Alternatively, participants requiring chemical use training may make their own arrangements. Participants who have already been certified for pesticide use (e.g. via ChemCert, SmartTRAIN, etc.) will have met this requirement and do not need to undergo this training again. You will find detailed information about the training program as well as a registration form here. For further information, please contact Dr Paul Weston.

Since the wonderful announcement that the CRC was successful in its rebid I have received many enquiries from people interested in studying with us. Rest assured that new PhD scholarships will be available, and as soon as projects are approved these will be advertised on the CRCNPB website. A number of other exciting new education projects are also on the drawing board, so watch this space for news on these over the coming months.

For those of you who cannot get enough of all things related to biosecurity education, I have also recently launched 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.

Kirsty Bayliss
Education and Training Program Leader

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Education and training: an update

CRICHTONA — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 01:12:33 +0000

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.

Education and Training: An update

CRICHTONA — Thu, 05 May 2011 02:09:03 +0000

In this edition the Education and Training Program Leader - Kirsty Bayliss - is pleased to announce that Mr Paul Royce has submitted his PhD thesis for examination. Paul was the CRCNPB's first PhD student, and his submission has been a long awaited event! Congratulations Paul. You can read more about his PhD here. Congratulations is also due to Nichole Hammond and Alistair McTaggart who have both had their PhD theses accepted. It is very pleasing to hear the examiner reports on the student projects which are all coming back very favourable.

In March, the pilot Grain Storage and Biosecurity course was conducted by Charles Sturt University. This new course has been developed in conjunction with key stakeholders from Viterra, GrainCorp and CBH group and with input from Plant Health Australia and Murdoch University Stored Grains Associate Professor YongLin Ren. The course builds on the Grain Quality Protection Industry Course that was first offered in 1990 but has been substantially revised to incorporate industry best practice regarding grain biosecurity, stored grain pests and fumigation requirements.

The course has both an on-line study component, and a face to face workshop at CSU, Wagga Wagga. The workshop was delivered by Dr Paul Weston (CSU), Assoc Prof John Kent (CSU), Dr Jo Holloway (I&I NSW), Dr Jo Slattery (Plant Health Australia), and Gerard McMullen (GP McMullen Consulting).

The Program covered:

marketing and grain quality management
biosecurity risk management
integrated pest management in grain storages
grain pest insect identification
grain inspection, detection, monitoring and sampling
OHS risk management
fumigation of grain storages, and
use of pesticides, label interpretation, legal obligations and calibration of application equipment.

At the conclusion of the workshop the following comments were received from the students:
‘The course was very applicable and focused exactly on our needs and problems.’
‘The material covered, the discussions and even the formal assessments were very relevant and useful.’
‘There will be direct, practical benefits for the workplace.’
‘The course and material is very relevant to the AQIS staff inspecting and certifying grain prior to export.’

The opinion of everyone involved is that the course is highly relevant to the grains industry, especially in this time of deregulation. The CRCNPB looks forward to a successful future for the course and encourages anyone interested to enrol in next year’s course which will be held in March 2012.

Education and Training: An update

CRICHTONA — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 23:10:49 +0000

Congratulations to Mark Castalanelli on the recent submission of his thesis. Mark investigated the biology and systematics of Trogoderma species, with special reference to morphological and molecular diagnostic techniques for identification of Trogoderma pests. An outcome of his study will be a new molecular diagnostic method for the identification of Trogoderma. Mark is currently employed with the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia and is interested in pursuing a career in bioinformatics.

Expected hot on Mark’s heels are Paul Royce, Steven Coventry and Rachel Powney and we wish them the very best as they complete the final stage of their PhDs.

Congratulations must also go to our students who were finalists in three of the four Science Committee Awards at the Science Exchange:

Wayan Mudita (for Collaboration)
David Savage (for Science Excellence), and
Sharon Van Brunschot, who won the Science Committee Award for Innovation.

Congratulations must also go to:

Brian Garms (Board Award for Best Student Poster)
John Weiss (Board Award for Best Student Oral Presentation), and
Rebecca Zappia (People’s Choice Award for Best Poster).

During the Science Exchange the students continued to receive positive feedback from a number of their peers and researchers, which highlights how successful the postgraduate courses have been.

Enrolments in the postgraduate courses in plant biosecurity have now closed for 2011. A total of 20 students have enrolled this year, which means numbers have doubled in 12 months.

The curriculum was collaboratively developed by five of our participant universities. The continued success of the curriculum hinges on the continued presence of the CRC, the linkages forged between the CRC and universities teaching the courses, and the continued support of government agencies that are enrolling their staff in the courses. If you are still thinking about enrolling I encourage you to talk to some of our current students and hear first hand of how enjoyable the courses are.

More information is available on the postgraduate curriculum website.