Dear staff,
As we start the week, I want to share with you the exceptional achievements of members of our UQ community.
On Saturday night, our Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement) Professor Bronwyn Fredericks received the Education Award in the 2022 National NAIDOC Week Awards. This award recognises Bronwyn’s decades of outstanding work to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by making a difference to their educational outcomes.
It was wonderful to see her tireless efforts acknowledged on the national stage and in such celebrated company – alongside other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander trailblazers such as Ash Barty and Dr Stanley Grant Senior.
As we all share our congratulations with Bronwyn, I encourage you to find out more about the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by participating in NAIDOC Week activities running until 10 July. The theme this year is Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!
As National NAIDOC Week occurs during the semester break, we will hold our own celebrations in August. This will be another great opportunity to participate in a range of activities to support our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
Our UQ Gatton campus marked a major milestone at the weekend, welcoming current and past staff and students and the Gatton community to campus to celebrate its 125th anniversary. It was a real pleasure to meet and chat with the community, including 100-year-old former Gatton campus nurse Gloria Collins. Thank you to those staff from Gatton and the Advancement and Community Engagement team who put together a terrific program and were able to seamlessly transition to accommodate Saturday’s wet weather.
The latest event in our Regional Roadshow series was timed to coincide with the Gatton celebrations. As I met with local business, industry and community leaders across the Lockyer Valley and the Southern Downs, I was struck by their enthusiasm to engage with UQ at both a strategic and practical level. I look forward to building on these relationships as we work to launch our Queensland Commitment.
Our researchers continue to make a huge difference to lives not just in our own state, but around the world. Last week, UQ was again the highest ranked Australian university in the 2022 Nature Index of high-quality research outputs. We were also number one in Australia for the Earth and Environment and Life Sciences subject areas. To have continued our output at such a high level during the pandemic is an outstanding result.
Congratulations to IMB and UniQuest on today’s announcement that a drug candidate derived from the K’gari funnel web spider has been licensed to Brisbane startup company Infensa Bioscience. We look forward to updates about the progress of further research into its potential to prevent damage caused by heart attacks and stroke.
I’m sure many of you are also monitoring the current COVID-19 situation and the importance of keeping our vaccinations up to date. I would strongly encourage those who have not yet organised their booster vaccination to do so as soon as possible. Our web page includes details on how to do this and what to do if you test positive.
I will be hosting the VC’s All Staff Forum at 10am on Monday 11 July. You can RSVP to attend at the various campus and livestream locations and submit questions via the online form.
Next week, we host 14 graduation ceremonies at St Lucia. Graduations are some of my favourite events in the academic calendar – the campus has a real buzz and excitement. This July, we will confer more than more than 5000 students, and I look forward to welcoming many of their families and friends to celebrate this special occasion.
On that inspiring note, I wish you all the best for the coming week.
Debbie
