Dear staff,
Mid-year graduations are currently underway, with the University hosting 16 graduation ceremonies in the UQ Centre at St Lucia, throughout this week. This is always an exciting and celebratory time on campus – and a momentous occasion for our graduating students, as well as the teachers and staff involved in their education.
As part of this week’s graduation ceremonies, the University will be conferring honorary doctorates on three very worthy recipients – Mr Peter Harris AO, Mr Tim Fairfax AC, and the late Dr Margaret Valadian AO MBE. An honorary doctorate is, of course, the highest honour bestowed by UQ and Peter, Tim and Margaret are each being recognised for their unique contributions and impact over many decades of service to Australian society. Dr Valadian was Australia’s first Aboriginal woman to complete a university degree, graduating from UQ in 1966 with a Bachelor of Social Studies.
NAIDOC Week celebrations
This week is NAIDOC Week and we have a number of activities, events, and celebrations happening across UQ. One of the highlights of the week was yesterday’s UQ NAIDOC Week Keynote Lecture, presented by distinguished constitutional lawyer and UQ alum Professor Megan Davis.
In an insightful and forward-looking address, Professor Davis discussed her “Reflections on the Referendum” before an audience of almost 1,000 people (in person and online). If you were unable to attend yesterday, keep an eye out for UQ Update, which will include a link to a recording of the lecture on our website.
CWTS Leiden Ranking 2024
UQ ranked 3rd nationally and 41st globally in the 2024 CWTS Leiden Ranking, based on the proportion of publications in the top 1% most cited publications. Nationally, and for the second year running, UQ ranked 1st in Life and Earth Sciences and 2nd in Physical Sciences and Engineering – results which reflect our global standing in these scientific disciplines. The Leiden Ranking measures more than 1,500 global universities on scientific impact, collaboration, open access publishing, and gender diversity.
2024 QUEX Symposium
On Monday last week, we hosted the 6th annual QUEX International Symposium. This Symposium is the flagship annual event of the QUEX Institute, a virtual research institute that UQ has run in partnership with the University of Exeter since 2017, with a focus on enabling joint PhD supervision, academic exchange and interdisciplinary research in areas related to global sustainability and wellbeing.
It was a pleasure to host a number of key leaders from Exeter, including the University’s President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Lisa Roberts. A special thank you to the Symposium’s keynote speaker Professor Matthew Sanders AO, to all of the speakers and panellists who shared their knowledge, and everyone involved in the organisation of a highly successful Symposium.
New ARC Training Centre
Last Friday, we launched a new Australian Research Council (ARC) Training Centre that is headquartered at IMB – the Centre for Environmental and Agricultural Solutions to Antimicrobial Resistance (CEAStAR).
Led by Professor Mark Blaskovich, the Centre will work with industry to tackle the global crisis of antimicrobial-resistant infections, which affect people, animals and the environment. CEAStAR will bring together multidisciplinary teams and apply a ‘One Health’ approach to developing solutions to this multifaceted global problem.
Research Funding
A number of individuals and teams from across the UQ community have recently been awarded significant grants to further their research.
Two UQ researchers have secured more than $3.8 million from the Medical Research Future Fund to address healthcare challenges. Professor Lisa Nissen was awarded funding through the 2023 Primary Health Care Research scheme to strengthen health care workforce planning. And Associate Professor Kirsty Short will lead the development of a diagnostic tool for long COVID using artificial intelligence, with funding received via the 2023 Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 scheme.
Dr Monique Tourell and Dr Xin Fu Tan have been awarded ARC Early Career Industry Fellowships, with combined project funding of almost $1 million. Dr Tourell will collaborate with Siemens Healthineers and Skope Magnetic Resonance Technologies to advance her research in Ultra High Frequency medical imaging, whereas Dr Tan will partner with Masters & Young and Nihon Superior Co to progress her research in electronics manufacturing.
And finally, 10 UQ research teams have secured more than $6.5 million under the ARC’s Linkage Project scheme to advance their research in government priority areas, alongside industry partners. In this second round of the ARC Linkage Project scheme for 2023, I am delighted to say that UQ received the highest number of grants and the most amount of total funding – reinforcing our reputation as one of Australia’s leading institutions for industry partnering and research translation.
I’d like to congratulate all of the grant recipients – and wish them every success with their important projects.
Best wishes
Debbie
