Lectures Archive

View a recording of the lecture by Dr David Harris – June 2023

The presentation will explore opportunities and technologies to facilitate decarbonisation of industrial systems through integration of renewable energy supply, storage and utilisation in practical commercial and industrial value chains.

Dr David Harris is a Chief Research Consultant with CSIRO Energy, based in Brisbane, and led CSIRO’s national low emissions and hydrogen-based energy research programs for more than 25 years. He now leads the development of major industrial-scale programs and projects across multi-sector energy value and supply chains, focusing on supporting demonstration and deployment of practical energy technologies that enable large scale renewable energy production, storage, transport, and utilisation.

UTas PhD Candidates – “Downhill Walking: A Way Forward in Blood Glucose Management” and “Using AI to Improve Safety at Sea”

The Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania, invites you to two public lectures by PhD candidates Misha Anstari and Stan Kaine, at 1.30pm on Sunday 22 October 2023. The lecture will be held in the Meeting Room, QVMAG, Inveresk, Launceston.

Admission is free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania. General admission – $6. Students, QVMAG or TMAG Friends, and members of the Launceston Historical Society – $4. Full Covid vaccination and the wearing of face masks are highly desirable.

Misha Anstari will discuss how regular exercise is key to preventing and managing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) as it improves blood glucose control. However compliance to exercise is poor. Eccentric exercise, which involves the muscle lengthening under load is less metabolically demanding on the body, and may be an attractive alternative to conventional exercise. This research investigates the use of downhill walking (eccentric exercise) on the management of blood glucose control and other health-related parameters.

Misha Anstari

Misha is a professional physiotherapist who is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Tasmania. Her research is centered around the use of eccentric exercise to manage blood glucose levels in individuals with type 2 Diabetes mellitus. She earned her Bachelor’s and Post-professional Physiotherapy degrees in Pakistan, where she also worked as a clinical therapist and taught before starting her Ph.D. program at UTAS.

Stan Kaine will discuss how, in a data driven world, access to up-to-date sea state information that could affect vessel safety is paramount. Research is being undertaken to convert the six degrees of vessel accelerations into sea state to allow unsafe situations to be avoided by both the vessel capturing the data and other ships transiting the area via AIS transmissions or the internet. Machine Learning is a key component in making this information available in near real time.

Stan Kaine

Stan founded a software development company, Point Duty, in 2004 with an initial mission to help track the flow of child abuse material over the internet and assist Law Enforcement to find the perpetrators. The company now has a broader data capture and analytics function.

Stan’s degree is in Computer Science, which when coupled to a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering and a Diesel Fitting Apprenticeship gives him a unique insight into boundaries between IT and the “Real World”.

View a recording of the lecture by Professor Nick Shakel – April 2023

Recent advances in the treatment of liver disease have seen previously incurable conditions effectively treated. However, the number of cases of fatty liver disease, hepatitis and liver cancer are increasing and predicted to do so for decades. Despite recent breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment we are seeing increasingly more Australians die from liver disease especially in disadvantaged groups.

Professor Nicholas Shackel is a specialized hepatologist managing all aspects of adult liver disease. He has both a medical degree and a PhD with a track record in both basic and applied research, having trained at both the Australian National Liver Transplant Unit and Duke University in the USA. Prof Shackel has interests in the diagnosis and management of liver cancer, importance of nutrition in cirrhosis and the noninvasive assessment of liver disease severity.

View a recording of the lecture by Kerry Sculthorpe – July 2023

The presentation will reflect on some of the key moments which preceded the Uluru Statement and offer insights into the wider context in which it was formulated. It will advance some ideas about what a Voice might look like and how it might operate. It will offer a personal view of the consequences of a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’ win in the referendum.

Kerry Sculthorpe is a senior member of the Palawa community. Her involvement in community affairs has spanned more than forty years. She has experience in policy and administration. Kerry has held elected and appointed positions at the community level and has been a strong advocate for Aboriginal rights. She is a former senior executive of the Australian Public Service and more recently has served on the government’s Voice co-design committee considering local and regional arrangements. In her retirement Kerry tries to get her opinions on Aboriginal issues published in the newspapers.

Trash Talk: The Plastic Peril in our Oceans

The Royal Society of Tasmania, in conjunction with marine science presenters, Beer Aquatic, invite you to a lecture by Marine Biologist, Dr Peter Puskic, on Thursday 31 August 2023. The lecture will be held at the Hobart Brewing Company, 16 Evans Street, Hobart.

No prior registration is required to attend – just come along to a fun and informative presentation. Bar food and drinks available.

Admission is free, and everyone is welcome to attend.

The message-in-a-bottle is a longstanding romantic trope. But what message are we sending when that’s a plastic bottle, rotting its way into the ocean’s foodweb? Dr Peter Puskic, a marine biologist with expertise on the impacts of plastic pollution on marine wildlife, will guide us through the lifecycle of a bottle adrift at sea, from humble beginnings to the belly of seabirds, to remote tropical beaches and to its final resting place at the bottom of the ocean

Dr Peter Puskic is an interdisciplinary marine scientist with expertise in understanding the impacts of Anthropogenic stressors on environments, wildlife, and human communities. A highly experienced field biologist, he focuses mostly on marine wildlife physiology and population monitoring (turtles, seabirds, marine mammals), plastic monitoring and clean ups. He has conducted fieldwork in remote and challenging environments.

The Tamar/kanamaluka: 200 plus Years of Mud and Misunderstanding

The Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania, invites you to a public lecture by Dr Ian Kidd, at 1.30pm on Sunday 24 September 2023. The lecture will be held in the Meeting Room, QVMAG, Inveresk, Launceston.

Abstract

For many years since European settlement, the Tamar/kanamaluka has been seen as a unique system and management decisions were based on riverine science with dire consequences for estuarine health and sedimentation. Poor decision making and the paucity of knowledge/science continued into this century in what must surely be a classic Dunning-Kruger scenario. With hysteresis now clearly evident, remediation requires a greater understanding to that which created the present state. Solutions to provide such remediation will be presented.

Historic photo of Trevallyn from Royal Park.

Dr Ian Kidd graduated from UTas (1980) with a BSc in physics. He worked in various roles from tutoring, the public service, to building, before completing a Graduate Diploma of Computing. He spent 20 years in the computer industry before assisting Prof Jenny Davis with research into the Tamar/kanamaluka. That assistance became an obsession and Ian completed a PhD on the topic of the Tamar estuary in 2017.

Making it ‘Real’: Geological Visualisation Methods for Research, Education and Public Outreach

The Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania, in conjunction with the Tasmanian Branch of the Geological Society of Australia, invites you to a public lecture by Dr Michael Roach, at 1.30pm on Sunday 10 September 2023. The lecture will be held in the Meeting Room, QVMAG, Inveresk, Launceston.

Methods for generation of geometrically correct, three-dimensional, photorealistic, virtual models have developed rapidly in the last decade. These techniques are applicable at a wide range of scales and are very suitable for digitising both natural geological exposures and geological specimens. This presentation will outline methods for generation of 3D digital models and will showcase selected models from around Australia drawn from the AusGeol virtual library. The use of these 3D models, virtual tours, and new analysis software will be showcased for applications in geological education, geological research and public outreach.

Dr Michael Roach

Dr Michael Roach is a geophysicist and long term staff member in the discipline of Earth Sciences and CODES at the University of Tasmania. About 10 years ago Michael saw the potential for the application of emerging digital visualisation methods for geological education and research. Since then, he has pioneered the application of these techniques for teaching, research projects and public outreach.

Waste Management and Resource Recovery in Launceston: The Carbon Story

The Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania invites you to a public lecture by Michael Attard, at 1.30pm on Sunday 27 August 2023. The lecture will be held in the Meeting Room, QVMAG, Inveresk, Launceston.

The City of Launceston owns and manages the second largest regional landfill in Tasmania. Recycling and reuse are major Council priorities to reduce the impact on the environment and operational costs This supports a circular approach to the purchase, use and reuse of materials. The presentation will explain how the Council goes about diverting valuable materials away from landfill through recovery projects.

Michael Attard is the Team Leader for Sustainability at the City of Launceston. He is a waste and recovery professional working with the City of Launceston for the past seven years to lead and deliver sustainability outcomes for the organisation. He has a science background and has previously worked in diverse roles such as abalone hatchery manager, parasitology for Atlantic salmon, and ecosystem health assessment for Kanamaluka the Tamar Estuary.

View a recording of the lecture by Michael Mansell – July 2023

The lecture will centre around the debate about Aboriginal self-determination, giving Aboriginal people direct decision making as opposed to Aboriginal subordination (advising others to make decisions about us).

Michael Mansell is a Tasmanian Aboriginal leader who, as an activist and lawyer, has worked for social, political and legal changes to improve the lives and social standing of Tasmanian Aboriginal people.

View a recording of the Mid-Winter Dinner lecture by Dr Shasta Henry – June 2023

Our guest speaker, Dr Shasta Henry was the previous Royal Society of Tasmania Student Councillor and science communicator for Melbourne based think-tank, Future Crunch.

Shasta gave us a future’s perspective that will explore the Adaptability Quotient, the new IQ, which is the trait that makes humans better than robots. AQ is the measure of how skilled individuals are in making intentional change in an environment that is evolving at speed. According to the Harvard Business Review, it is the new competitive advantage.

Future Crunch are a team of unlike minds, a collection of different specialists, who are united by their mission to foster intelligent optimism. Future Crunch have shared their inspiring key-note presentations to the staff and boards of global banks, universities, software developers and community organisations to name just a few. Their fact-based talks highlight how humans fit into a future of exponentially expanding technologies, and how we are uniquely adapted to carry on thriving.

Shasta is a recent graduate from the University of Tasmania. She is an entomologist and science communicator. Her doctorate focused on the long-term impacts of fire on the invertebrates of the Wilderness World Heritage Area as well as insect taxonomy. As a communicator, Shasta has presented in a number of different forums around Australia, including speaking as a Young Tassie Scientist, on ABC radio and at the TEDx Hobart 2022 conference.