The Royal Society of Tasmania

The advancement of knowledge

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The Royal Society of Tasmania 2024 Christmas Dinner and Lecture

Members and guests are invited to join us for the annual Christmas Dinner and Lecture.

Wednesday 4 December. Note a new venue: The Pickled Pear at The University Club, 38a Dobson Road, UTAS, located opposite the Engineering Faculty – ample parking, disability parking and access.

The formalities and meal commence at 6.00 pm, but please arrive earlier for a convivial drink and chat.

Please fill in and return the acceptance form to admin@rst.org.au before 13 November. Download the acceptance form using this link. Cost is $75 per person.

The lecture to be given by Dr Hanne Nielsen, Senior Lecturer in Antarctic Law and Governance, UTAS, is entitled:

“Antarctica and Popular Culture”

Dr Hanne Nielsen is known for her research on representations of Antarctica in culture and the arts, particularly in literature and media. She has a background in Antarctic Studies and has explored how Antarctica is depicted in various narratives, focusing on the intersection of polar history, gender, and cultural studies.

Dr Hanne Nielsen

Dr Nielsen has also been an advocate for women in Antarctic research, highlighting the roles of women in polar expeditions and science. Her work contributes to understanding how perceptions of Antarctica have shaped public and scientific discourses, especially in relation to environmental change and geopolitics.

What Makes a Good Timber Floor?

The Northern Branch of The Royal Society of Tasmania invites you to our next lecture on Sunday 24 November 2024, in the Meeting Room, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) at Inveresk, Launceston.

The presentation will discuss what characteristics make for an acceptable floor and how this then relates to the introduction of a new timber resource that may be lower in density than current products, customs and standards currently recommended.

All RST members, their guests, and the public are welcome.

Admission is free for RST members. Admission is $6 for the general public, admission is $4 for students, QVMAG or TMAG Friends, and members of the Launceston Historical Society.

Time: 1.30pm.
Where: Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk.

A flyer suitable for printing can be downloaded here.

This presentation will report on research which explored the use of Tasmanian plantation-grown Eucalyptus nitens timber in engineered flooring. Prototypes were developed and compared to existing products for domestic/light commercial applications.

The presentation will discuss what characteristics make for an acceptable floor and how this then relates to the introduction of a new timber resource that may be lower in density than current products, customs and standards currently recommended.

Dr Kuluni Millaniyage

Dr Kuluni Millaniyage has a diverse background in wood science and forestry research-led practice in both academia and industry.

Dr Millaniyage is an experienced researcher and innovative timber products specialist with a history of developing novel engineered timber products from plantation timber. She has a background in forestry, wood and environmental science, analysis of standards and policies, social aspects and perceptions of timber use and product development.

Generously supported by

RST Medal Winners 2024

Peter Smith Medal

Peter Warnock Smith (1924-2017) was an inorganic chemist, who at the University of Tasmania introduced new research and teaching topics, such as analytical chemistry, industrial and applied chemistry, and chemistry for engineers. Smith was a long-term contributor to the RST and was President in 2006.

The Peter Smith Medal is awarded biennially to an outstanding early career researcher in any field. The awardee receives a medal and is invited to deliver the “Peter Smith Lecture” to the Society. The inaugural Peter Smith Medal was awarded in 2018.

The Peter Smith Medal for early-career scholars

This year the recipient of the Peter Smith Medal is Dr Edward Doddridge (University of Tasmania) for his outstanding contribution to the field of physical oceanography. Through his research, he works to improve our understanding of ocean currents and the ocean’s role in our climate.

Dr Edward Doddridge is a Physical Oceanographer working at the ocean-sea ice interface with the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership. Dr Doddridge’s research uses theory, numerical models, and observations to improve our understanding of the fundamental dynamics of the polar ocean and its response to climate change. His work has revealed new details about the influence of sea ice on ocean currents, and of ocean warming on sea ice loss.

Dr Edward Doddridge
(Photo Harshula Jayasuriya).

Louisa Anne Meredith Medal

Louisa Anne Meredith (1812-1895) (née Twamley) came to Tasmania in 1840 and was a remarkable woman, a prolific artist, writer and social commentator. She was the first woman to be granted Honorary membership of The Royal Society of Tasmania in 1881. The RST has a large number of her sketches and watercolours in its Art Collection, as well as a number of her books in its Library.  Meredith contributed a great deal to the work of The Royal Society of Tasmania. Over several decades, she sent interesting specimens to the Royal Society Museum and presented beautiful and accurate watercolours of many specimens to the RST. These artworks were much admired at Society meetings as being ‘beautifully executed’. The Royal Society of Tasmania also purchased a number of her illustrations at the time.

The Louisa Anne Meredith Medal is awarded every four years to a person who excels in the field of arts or humanities or both, with outstanding contributions evidenced by creative outputs. The awardee receives a medal and is invited to deliver the “Louisa Anne Meredith Lecture” to the Society. The Louisa Anne Meredith medal was established by the RST in 2023. This year is the inaugural award of this medal.

The Louisa Anne Meredith Medal

The RST Honours Committee decided that it was inappropriate to attempt to separate two outstanding nominations for the medal. The Louisa Anne Meredith medals for 2024 are awarded to Cassandra Pybus and Fiona Hall.

Professor Pybus is well regarded internationally as an historian of colonial society in Australia, S.E. Asia, the Caribbean and North America. As a non-fiction writer, she draws on exhaustive historical research to create compelling alternative narratives about the past.

Cassandra Pybus is a distinguished historian, author of thirteen books and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She has been the recipient of several Australia Council Fellowships and a Federation of Australia Centenary Medal for outstanding contribution to literature. Between 2000 and 2013 she was Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow at both the University of Tasmania and the University of Sydney and has been Fulbright Professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC, Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Texas, and Leverhulme Visiting Professor at King’s College, London. Her recent book A Very Secret Trade interrogates the trade in First People’s skeletal remains, which is the last of a trilogy concerned with the destruction of the First People of Tasmania, beginning with Community of Thieves, published in 1991, followed by Truganini in 2020 which won the National Biography Award.

Professor Cassandra Pybus

Fiona Hall AO is an internationally respected visual artist, one of Australia’s most highly regarded and recognised artists. She works across a range of media including painting, photography, sculpture and installation.

Fiona Hall. (artshub.com.au 26/3/2015)

Fiona Hall is an artistic photographer and sculptor. Hall represented Australia in the 56th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2015. She is known as “one of Australia’s most consistently innovative contemporary artists”. Many of her works explore the “intersection of environment, politics and exploitation”. Fiona Hall is best known for extraordinary works that transform quotidian materials into vital organic forms with both historical and contemporary resonances. Hall works across a broad range of mediums including photography, painting, sculpture, moving image and installation, often employing forms of museological display. Hall’s sculptures are characterized by their intricate construction and thematic resonance with issues of environmentalism, globalisation, war and conflict. In 2013, Hall was recognised “for distinguished service to the visual arts as a painter, sculptor and photographer, and to art education” with the award of Officer (AO) in the general division of the Order of Australia.

A medals ceremony will be held at Government House on 18th June, 2025 where the medal winners will be presented with their medals by Her Excellency the Honourable Barbara Baker AC.

 

Vale Distinguished Professor James Barrie Kirkpatrick AM 1946 – 2024

Vale Distinguished Professor James Barrie Kirkpatrick AM (12 Oct. 1946 – 21 Oct. 2024)

It is with great sadness we acknowledge the death of Distinguished Professor James Kirkpatrick AM on 21 October 2024. Professor Kirkpatrick was one of our most prestigious members and a significant contributor to the Royal Society. In 2019 he was awarded the Clive Lord Medal in recognition of his research on Tasmania’s natural environment, including conservation planning, forest conservation and world heritage assessment. He was presented with the medal at Government House on 16 March 2021 by the Governor Her Excellency the Honourable Kate Warner AC and his Clive Lord Lecture ‘Cyclic dynamics in Tasmanian high mountain treeless vegetation’ was delivered online (due to Covid restrictions) and can be viewed on the RST YouTube channel.

Professor Kirkpatrick receiving his Clive Lord Medal from the Governor Her Excellency the Honourable Kate Warner AC in 2021

Professor Kirkpatrick was employed as a lecturer in the Geography Department at the University of Tasmania, in the early 1970s. In 1988 he was appointed Professor and served as Head of various academic units in the now Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences Department, where he remained for his entire UTAS tenure. He soon became the life-changing mentor and supervisor for so many students privileged to work with him and quickly spearheaded the scientific and academic charge for the recognition and protection of Tasmania’s unique biodiversity, ecosystems and geo-heritage. In 1997 he was awarded the National Eureka Prize for his outstanding 25-year contribution to knowledge and research on the ecology of endangered species and ecosystems. In 2003, Jamie was made a Member of the Order of Australia and in 2006, was awarded the Doctor of Science by the University, marking his distinguished original contribution to scientific knowledge and authoritative standing in conservation ecology. He was appointed a Distinguished Professor in 2009.

Professor Kirkpatrick was recognised internationally for his pioneering work on reservation planning methods but his research loves were alpine, alkaline pans, grassy and coastal ecosystems which kept him very much a field-based ecologist. His staggering academic output of over 500 research papers span a hugely diverse range of flora and fauna species, threatened communities, landscapes, policy and legislation, world heritage area, habitat loss, urbanisation, climate change, invasive pests, roadkill, and so much more. Professor Kirkpatrick had his first paper published in the Journal of Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, ‘Natural History of Curtis Island, Bass Strait’, in 1973, which began a publishing tradition he maintained almost annually for 50 years making him the Society’s most prolific and esteemed academic contributor. His final paper ‘Predicting Spatial Variation in the Upper Limit of Trees on the Alpine Mountains of lutruwita/Tasmania’ will be published in this coming Journal Volume 158 in December.

Professor Kirkpatrick served on numerous high-profile Boards, Councils and Committees while equally contributing scientific support to protest campaigns to protect Tasmania’s natural environment. He published a remarkable range of introspective nature books, the last three were launched at a special event held recently on the Hobart Domain on 12 October to coincide with his 78th birthday. Jamie loved the Hobart Domain and conducted numerous conservation assessments and long-term research studies to guide its management and protection. During the launch, attended by over 150 guests, former Senator Christine Milne so aptly described Jamie as a towering figure in Tasmania, an anchor in academia and a fellow activist on the front line of nature conservation in Tasmania for the past half century. Though physically frail, Jamie responded with his trademark wit and candour touching all who were privileged to be there. Jamie was one of a kind. His legacy to nature conservation will live on in his landmark publications, the students he mentored across the ages and the enormous network of friends and colleagues who stand in awe and admiration at his contribution to nature conservation in Tasmania.

We extend our sincerest condolences to Professor Kirkpatrick’s wife Christina and his children and grandchildren.

Dr Sally Bryant AM
24 October 2024

Climate Disinformation: Strategies to Defeat Decades of Denial and Deceit

The Royal Society of Tasmania invites you to its November 2024 Public Lecture by guest speaker Dr. Mel Fitzpatrick. All RST members, their guests, and the public are welcome.

Please register your interest using this link.

Where: Geology Lecture Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay Campus on Sunday 3 November, 2024.

Time: 3.30pm for pre-lecture drinks, 4pm for the lecture.

Dr. Mel Fitzpatrick has been at the forefront of climate science, activism, and education since Australia’s commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992. Over the decades, Mel has witnessed firsthand how disinformation, denial, and deception have obstructed progress on climate action, both within Australia and globally.

In this talk, Mel will shed light on the key players behind these efforts, their tactics, and how we can better inoculate ourselves and others from the pervasive disinformation that threatens meaningful change.

Dr Mel Fitzpatrick

Dr Mel Fitzpatrick is a climate scientist and educator, who over the last two decades has concentrated on effective communication of climate science to both policymakers and the general public.

A specialist in polar and alpine research, Mel has worked for the Australian Antarctic Program, the US Antarctic Program, and in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Mel was an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, contributing to the reports in both 2001 and 2007, and also worked for six years at the Union of Concerned Scientists as part of a small team developing a series of climate impact reports used for outreach and education in coastal and mountain areas.

Mel now works in the education sector, contributes as a member of the City of Hobart’s Climate Futures Portfolio Committee and continues to be passionate about bridging science and policy.

View a recording of the lecture by Dr Tobias Stål – October 2024

This talk was part of the 2024 PhD Showcase held on 6 October 2024.

Dr Tobias Stål, winner of the 2023 RST Doctoral (PhD) Award, is a geophysicist focusing on understanding Antarctica’s deep and shallow structure and properties. He completed his PhD at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania in 2021. The focus of his PhD research was a study of the Antarctic lithosphere revealed by multivariate analysis.

The Antarctic continent, with an area of about 14 million km2, is larger than Australia; yet due to the ice cover and inaccessibility, its geology and lithospheric structure are to a large extent unknown. Advancing our understanding of the Antarctic continent addresses fundamental knowledge gaps in plate tectonics and understanding the interactions between the solid Earth and the cryosphere.

Dr Stål’s PhD research addressed challenging topics, such as the identification of sub-ice lithospheric boundaries, and the determination of a new geothermal heat flow model for the continent of Antarctica. The research was enabled by innovations in computational and statistical methodologies, including the development of a new software library to enable the multivariate approaches that were ground-breaking for Antarctica.

Since graduating, Dr Stål has taken up a Research Associate position in computation physics at the School of Natural Sciences, funded by the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence in Antarctic Science.

View a recording of the lecture by Dr Katie Marx – October 2024

This talk was part of the 2024 PhD Showcase held on 6 October 2024.

Katie Marx is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Humanities, College of Arts, Law and Education. Her doctoral research focused on the concept of place attachment in Hobart, an Antarctic gateway city. From this, she has built an interest in exploring how we can support members of the public to form a meaningful relationship with remote places (such as Antarctica) that they themselves may never visit. Katie has a professional background in community development; a skillset that she draws upon when examining methods for increasing public participation in the conservation of the polar regions.

Along with Professor Elizabeth Leane, Katie is the current co-lead of the Public Engagement with Antarctic Research Action Group within the international Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. She has tutored in a range of subjects, including environmental communication and marine and Antarctic governance, and she tends to spend her summers working as a historian and guide with tour operators on the Antarctic peninsula.

In the face of mounting environmental and political challenges, it is more important than ever for members of the public to understand and care about Antarctica. Little is known, however, about the types of strategies that work (or don’t work) when it comes to engaging the public in Antarctic matters. In this talk, Dr Katie Marx shares the findings from her PhD research, which used Hobart as a case study to explore what the Antarctic sector can do to support community members to develop a stronger relationship with the far south.

View a recording of the lecture by Dr Matthew Cracknell – Sep 2024

Dr Matthew Cracknell is a Senior Lecturer in Geodata Analytics for the Discipline of Earth Sciences and the Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Sciences (CODES) at UTas. Prior to his current position, he held many short-term research and teaching positions at CODES, the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) and the School of Humanities, University of Tasmania. He also currently leads the CODES Research Program for Geophysics and computational geosciences.

Matthew received a BSc (Hons) in geophysics in 2009 and a PhD in Computational Geophysics in 2014, both from UTas. Before entering academia he was employed as a consultant geoscientist and GIS analyst for a variety of public and private bodies.

Call for Nominations for the 2024 RST Doctoral (PhD) Awards

Nominations for the annual RST Doctoral Awards open on 1 October 2024. Two awards are offered for recent PhD graduates who have made significant advances in the course of their doctoral research. The two Doctoral Awards are open for nominations from any discipline field.

The value of each award is $1,000 (AUD). Awardees may be invited to present a lecture to the Society.

Conditions of the Doctoral Awards

The awards shall be made to nominees who are no more than three years, or three years equivalent-full-time, after their PhD graduation.

The awards are intended to recognise significant advances based on the PhD research, as shown by published or in press peer-reviewed papers in national/international journals or equivalent outputs in fields where publications are not the norm.

The research should have been largely carried out in Tasmania or under the aegis of a Tasmanian-based organization.

Nominations may be made by anyone, although no self-nominations will be accepted.

Nominations must be received before COB, 15 November 2024.

Nomination guidelines are given at https://rst.org.au/guidelines-for-annual-doctoral-awards/.

Information on previous winners of the RST Doctoral Award is available at https://rst.org.au/awards/past-recipients/.

A flyer for the 2024 Doctoral awards is available via this link.

Richard Coleman, on behalf of the RST Honours and Awards Committee.

Vale Professor David Headley Green AM FAA FRS, 1936 – 2024

Professor David Green died on 6 September 2024 in Hobart. He was a long-term member of the RST and was awarded the RM Johnston Memorial Medal in 2016. Professor Green’s career in geology (igneous petrology) was truly remarkable for the breadth and significance of his research and achievements, especially his contributions to understanding the formation of magmas deep in the Earth through a radically innovative experimental approach.

Professor David Green receiving the RM Johnston Memorial Medal from Professor Matt King, RST President, in 2016. Photo courtesy of Mary Koolhof.

Professor Green was born on 29 February 1936 (a leap year), in Launceston and awarded BSc Hons (1957) and MSc (1960) degrees by the University of Tasmania (UTAS), followed by a PhD at Cambridge University (1962). For the next fifteen years, he pursued an academic research career at The Australian National University (ANU), returning to the University of Tasmania in 1977 as Professor and Head of Geology. In 1994, he was appointed Director of the Research School of Earth Sciences at ANU, a position he held until retiring in 2001. Professor Green remained actively involved in research for another two decades in his Honorary capacity at both UTAS and ANU.

Professor Green’s achievements have been recognised by numerous national and international awards, including the most competitive and prestigious awards available to geologists: Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (AAS, 1967), FL Stillwell Medal of the Geological Society of Australia (1977), Mawson Medal of the AAS (1982), Honorary Foreign Fellow of the European Union of Geosciences (1985), Honorary Foreign Fellow of the Geological Society of America (1986), Jaeger Medal of the AAS (1990), Fellow of The Royal Society London (1991), Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London (2000), Humboldt Research Prize of the Humboldt Foundation Germany (2001), Honorary Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of London (2001), Honorary Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (2001), Member of the Order of Australia (2006), and the International Gold Medal of the Geological Society of Japan (2007).

Professor Green served on numerous professional and government committees and advisory bodies, including the Australian Research Council, Australian Science and Technology Council, and the Geological Society of Australia. He held the position of Chief Science Adviser for the Federal Government and was the Chair of the National Greenhouse Scientific Advisory Committee.

In addition to a vast network of local, national and international professional colleagues and friends, Professor Green and his wife Helen Green had six children, seventeen grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Professor Green’s scholarship, wisdom, curiosity and patience will be missed by all who had the privilege of knowing him.

Jocelyn McPhie
2 October 2024