Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC, Governor of Tasmania, and Mr Warner generously hosted a reception for Society members on 16 October to celebrate to celebrate the 175th Anniversary of the Royal Society of Tasmania.

The Governor gave a brief history of the Society and congratulated members on their continued enthusiasm for the advancement of knowledge in Tasmania. (Governor’s remarks)

Royal Society Vice President, Mary Koolhof, responded to the Governor’s remarks thanking Her Excellency for her continued patronage. Mary acknowledged the importance of the Society’s relationships with a number of other Tasmanian institutions, in particular, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and the University of Tasmania. Mary also praised the Society’s recent excellent publications and gave a foretaste of the events organised for the anniversary celebrations. Particular thanks were given to Drs. Anita Hansen and Brita Hansen for lending their considerable talents and effort to create such an outstanding program of the 175 Anniversary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Royal Society of Tasmania Annual Doctoral (PhD) Awards

 

Nominations are now open for the Annual Doctoral Awards. Two such awards are offered each year. The final date for submitting nominations is 30 November 2018. Awards will be announced at the Society’s Annual General meeting in March 2019.

 

The Royal Society of Tasmania instituted this Award to honour two young, recently graduated doctoral (PhD) academics who have made significant advances in the course of their doctoral research.

The Awards are made annually for excellence in research in any field within the purview of the Society, including science, medicine, the arts and humanities. The candidates should have been awarded their PhD within the last three years and under the age of 35 at the time of graduation.

The Awards are not restricted to Australian nationals, however, the candidate’s work/research needs to have been carried out in Tasmania or under the aegis of a Tasmanian based organization. The Awards are for work leading to significant advances based on the PhD research. Expressions of interest must include a nomination from the candidate’s supervisor or Department Manager.

Each award is for the amount of $1,000 (AUD) and the awardees are encouraged to address the Society.

 

Full criteria for eligibility for the Award and submission requirements are set out below or see Appendix C at the Awards and Bursaries guidelines.

 

Conditions:

Appendix C

The conditions of this Award are:

• The Awards shall be made no more than three years after graduation (PhD degree).

• To be awarded in any fields – sciences, medicine, arts or humanities – within the purview of the Society.

• The Awards are to be for work leading to significant advances based on the PhD research, as evidenced by published or in press peer-reviewed papers in the national/international literature.

• The works are to have been largely carried out in Tasmania or under the aegis of a Tasmanian-based organization.

• The nationality of the recipients is not to be considered in making the Award, that is, the Award is not restricted to Australian nationals.

• The recipients shall be less than 35 years of age on the day of the PhD graduation.

• The Awards are to be made available annually, but will not be awarded if there are no candidates of sufficient quality.

• Expressions of interest are to be sought widely from all relevant institutions on an annual basis and must include a nomination from the candidate’s supervisor or Department Manager.

• Each awardee will be encouraged to address the Society.

• The value of each award is $1,000 (AUD).

 

Submission requirements:

 

Applications to be submitted online as advised by the nominated due date.

All applications must include:

• A full academic curriculum vitae including the date of birth, the date of receipt of degrees (including the date of PhD graduation) and a full list of published works. The most significant works should be highlighted with an asterisk. Where the candidate’s standing relies on many co-authored papers, the candidate’s roles in those significant publications should be indicated.

• An abstract (not more than one A4 page) of the PhD study, including the thesis title.

• A letter of nomination from the candidate’s Department Manager and/or PhD supervisor. NB: Applications will not be considered without this document, which must included a statement of the new and original contribution to the field of research.

 

Receipt of applications must be no later than 30 November in each year. The Awards will be announced at the Society’s Annual General Meeting in Hobart in March, the following year.

 

 

 

 

Stella Kent’s one act play, The Laughing Gas Cure, debuted at QVMAG in Inveresk on 30 October to great acclaim.

 

Set in the 1770s, the eccentric lead character Dr Thomas Beddoes is convinced that consumption can be cured by inhaling the breath of cows. Aided by his brilliant young assistant, Humphry Davy, he embarks on a series of experiments to prove that miraculous cures can be effected by inhaling nitrous oxide. But his friend, the foppish Joseph Banks who has recently returned from his voyage with James Cook, is less convinced. When Banks discards his dandified exterior and sets out to befriend the King and organise the establishment of Botany Bay as a penal colony, the friendship rapidly deteriorates.

 

In the end both men are bitterly disappointed. Beddoes must finally admit his experiments with gas have failed and nitrous oxide, ‘laughing gas’, is useful only to fuel riotous parties. Banks has poached the brilliant Davy from him, and his wife Anna runs off to London to be with Davy. Banks himself, even though he pulls the strings of Empire, is immobilised by gout, enraged that the experiment that is Australia appears to be failing, and realises that the sense of adventure and original discovery he once experienced in Tahiti are forever over.

 

The play traces the path of Joseph Banks from fop to gigantic president of the Royal Society, and his manoeuvring to set Humphry Davy on the path of eventually becoming President of the Society. In a harmonious marriage of science and the arts, the play examines the notion of science at a time when anecdotal evidence and natural philosophy was giving way to scientific method, the empirical method of knowledge acquisition involving careful observation, experimental testing and measurement of deductions drawn from the hypotheses.

 

The play is also full of humour and includes the enactment of early laughing gas experiments and tooth-pulling.

 

Thee play reading was followed by cake to celebrate the Society’s 175th Anniversary.

 

Take advantage of the prepublication discount until 30 October 2018

 

Poles Apart prepublication Order Online

 

A Symposium: Dinosaurs and Evolution of Life.

Hobart, Tasmania

23-24^thMarch 2019

Supported by The Royal Society of Tasmania, Geological Society of Australia (Tas. Div.) and  The University of Tasmania

 

Abstract submission deadline

12 December 2018

 

First circular: Call for abstracts

The Organizing and Scientific Committee of DEL2019, invites you to participate in a 2 day symposium to highlight recent advances in understanding the evolution of life on Earth, with a focus on Dinosaurs.

The conference is organized by the The Royal Society of Tasmania as part of their 175^thAnniversary celebrations, with support from the Tasmanian Division of the Geological Society of Australia and the University of Tasmania. The venue is the Stanley Burbury Theatre, University of Tasmania, Churchill Avenue, Hobart. The Symposium will run in parallel with an exhibition at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) called “Dinosaur rEvolution; Secrets of Survival” prepared by Gondwana Studios.

Participants will benefit from hearing Plenary Session Keynote talks by several distinguished scientists on dinosaurs, evolution and mass extinction.

• Professor John Long – Flinders University, will give an overview on the origin of the species, including dinosaurs.
• Dr Steve Salisbury – University of Queensland Dinosaur Lab, will talk about the recent discovery of dinosaur tracks in northwest Western Australia.
• Dr Stephen Poropat – Swinburne University of Technology will talk about Australian dinosaurs through the Mesozoic period and the Triassic fossils found in the Hobart area – _are they dinosaurs?
• Dr Phil Bell – University of New England, will talk on recent opalized dinosaur discoveries from Lightning Ridge, NSW.
• Professor Ross Large – University of Tasmania, will talk about research on past ocean chemistry, evolution and mass extinctions over the last 600 million years.
• Peter Norton – Gondwana Studios, is the creator of the Dinosaur rEvolution exhibition at TMAG. He will talk about bringing dinosaurs to life by exhibition.
• John Pickell – a well-known author who has published several books on dinosaurs will run a Q & A session on dinosaurs, fielding questions from the audience

Calendar of main events

• September 1, 2018: Abstract submission launching
• December 12, 2018: Abstract submission deadline
• March 23-24 Symposium

Themes of Symposium

• Recent research on dinosaurs
• Evolution of dinosaurs and birds
• Proterozoic evolution of life
• Phanerozoic evolution of life
• Mass extinction events

Submission of Abstract

Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words in Times 12 font, headed by the title, authors and affiliations. Please email to: royal.society@tmag.tas.gov.au before the deadline of December 12, 2018

 

Professor Patrick Gerard Quilty AM   

Patrick Quilty had a long and distinguished career in Earth Science and Antarctic exploration. His many contributions to the Royal Society of Tasmania have been very significant and highly regarded by members and Council. In 1986 he was elected the senior vice-president of the Royal Society of Tasmania, when the Governor was president. He became president of the Society again in 2010 and was the Chair of the RST Foundation for several years besides being member of the Awards Committee. In 1996 he received The Royal Society of Tasmania Medal for his scientific achievements and service to the Society. In 2011 he convened the highly successful two-day Mawson Symposium for the Society.

Patrick obtained his BSc (Hons) from the University of Western Australia and PhD from the University of Tasmania. He spent six years in the oil industry as a palaeontologist with West Australian Petroleum (WAPET), followed by five years as a lecturer at Macquarie University. His first visit to Antarctica was in 1965/66 with the University of Wisconsin, followed by a field trip to Macquarie island in 1968, with a party that identified the island as a unique piece of uplifted oceanic crust. From 1981 to 1999 Pat was Chief Scientist for the Australian Antarctic Division and ANARE. He made a total of 14 working trips south, including three summers in the Vestfold Hills investigating fossil whales he had originally discovered in 1989, and participated in three ANARE marine science voyages.

During his period at the Australian Antarctic Division, Patrick was very active in international Antarctic leadership, serving as a vice-president of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) for four years, and chairing the organisation of the 20^thmeeting of SCAR in Hobart in 1988, as well as symposia on the Vestfold Hills (1984) and Macquarie Island (1987).

Patrick Quilty has published over 200 scientific papers, including six in the last three years with several more in the final stages of submission. He became an Honorary Professor in Earth Sciences and IMAS at the University of Tasmania in 2010 and has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at California State University. His many awards include Member of the Order of Australia (AM), U.S. Antarctica Service medal, Inaugural Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Tasmania, and the Phillip Law Medal of the ANARE Club. Two Antarctic geographic features and five fossil species have been named in his honour.

Honorary Professor Patrick Quilty was a warm hearted and generous man, who epitomised the mission of our Society (the advancement of knowledge), and devoted much of his valuable time to Society matters. He will be greatly missed by our members.

 

 

In October 2018, the Royal Society of Tasmania will be celebrating 175 years – a terquasquicentennial anniversary.

The Royal Society of Tasmania was the first Royal Society to be established outside the United Kingdom

The Society was founded in 1843 by Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, Lieutenant Governor, as the Botanical and Horticultural Society of Van Diemen’s Land. Its aim was to ‘develop the physical character of the Island and illustrate its natural history and productions’. Queen Victoria became Patron in 1844 and the name was changed to The Royal Society of Tasmania of Van Diemen’s Land for Horticulture, Botany and the Advancement of Science. Under the Act of Parliament passed in 1911, the name was shortened to The Royal Society of Tasmania.

Today, with the aim of ‘the advancement of knowledge’, the Society is flourishing and still an important part of Tasmania’s scientific and cultural community.

To celebrate this significant milestone, the Society has put together an inspiring program of events in addition to its usual lecture programs.

 

30 August 2018

Royal Society of Tasmania Medal Presentation and Lecture

Government House, Hobart

 

30 September 2018

The Laughing Gas Cure – Play Reading

Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) – Inveresk, Launceston

 

 

16 October 2018

Reception to mark the Royal Society of Tasmania’s 175th Anniversary

Government House, Hobart

 

 

6 November 2018

Poles Apart: Fascination, Fame and Folly – Book Launch

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) – Dunn Place, Hobart

 

10 November 2018

Dinosaur Picnic

Royal Botanical Gardens, Queens Domain, Hobart

 

25 November 2018

Poles Apart: Fascination, Fame and Folly – Book Launch

Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) – Inveresk, Launceston

 

Nov – Dec 2018

Poles Apart Exhibition

Morris Miller Library foyer, UTAS, Sandy Bay Campus

 

7 Dec 2018 – 5 May 2019

DINOSAUR rEVOLUTION

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Dunn Place, Hobart

 

27 January – 24 February 2019

Louisa Anne Meredith art exhibition

Lady Franklin Gallery, Ancanthe Park, Lenah Valley, Hobart

 

March 23–24 2019

 Dinosaur Symposium

Stanley Burbury Theatre – University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay Campus

 

March 2019

Simpkinson De Wesselow art exhibition

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Dunn Place, Hobart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FEBRUARY 25 Jim Palfreyman “2016 Glitch of the Vela Pulsar” – In a world first, the only ever pulsar glitch observed in action with a large radio telescope. Right here in Tasmania.

** ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 1.15 pm March 25 **

MARCH 25 Prof Pat Quilty “Highlights of Tasmania’s Antarctic Exploration – Scott (why Scott?) and others” – Tasmania has long been a major location for Antarctica explorers. Researching their history has revealed some eye-opening surprises.

APRIL 22 Prof Hamish Maxwell-Stewart “Height, Health and History in Victoria and Tasmania 1850-1920” – How human stature can be used to explore early life disadvantage.

MAY 27 Dr Alison Alexander “Jane Franklin – the Real Founder of the Royal Society of Tasmania?” – The woman who organised, dominated, persuaded and commanded the men around her to co-operate in forming a scientific society.

JUNE 24 Dr Karin Orth “Mega Volcanic Eruptions and the Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time.” – Can Earth’s own internal heat engine driving volcanism be the harbinger of mass extinction?

JULY 22 Dr Caitlyn Vertigan “Shoot. Catalogue. Eat: Interacting with Nature at a Tasmanian Penal Station” – The early history of the Port Arthur penal station (1830-77) was filled with scientific exploration that today might be considered somewhat outside the accepted scientific regime.

** SCIENCE WEEK: AUGUST 11-19 **

AUGUST 26 Assoc Prof Jonathan Binns “Why Does an Engineer Need a PhD?” – Real problems in industry, defence and sport tackled with research and innovation, in Tasmania, Australia and the World.

SEPTEMBER 23 Dr Patsy Cameron “Voices From the Other Side of the Colonial Frontier” – A story of the social, cultural and spiritual survival of a unique people who lived on the Bass Strait islands from 1810.

OCTOBER 28 TBA “Breaking New Ground” – PhD students from the University of Tasmania will be presenting synopses and answering questions about their current research and progress. Topics TBA.

** The Annual QVMAG Staff Lecture**

NOVEMBER 25 David Maynard “Tasmania’s Forgotten Emus” – Before the thylacine there were other less well-known extinctions, including the Tasmanian emu soon after European arrival.