News – Page 43

Evaluation of Climate Indices for Assessing Climate Change Impacts on Tasmanian Viticulture – Dr Andrew Pirie – 22 June 2014

Dr Andrew Pirie
MSc. Agr., PhD., Proprietor, Apogee Vineyard

will present

Evaluation of Climate Indices for Assessing Climate Change Impacts on Tasmanian Viticulture

in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk at 2.00 pm Sunday 22nd June 2014
Admission: $5 General Public, $3 Friends of the Museum, $2 Students
Free for members of The Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organization of this event
RSVP by Thursday 19th June 2014:
Email [email protected] or telephone 6323 3798

The world’s viticultural regions occupy a relatively narrow band of climates. This suggests that economic production from grapevines is relatively sensitive to regional climatic variation. Accordingly, climate change impacts on the world’s wine–producing areas are likely to be substantial. Growing season temperature (GST) is one index used for describing the temperature regime of wine regions and will be used to judge climate-change impacts on Tasmanian viticulture. Should there be 2.5 degrees Celsius of average global warming by 2050 years, a change in vine cultivars will be needed to maintain high standards of wine quality.

Dr Andrew Pirie qualified with MScAgr and PhD from the Department of Agronomy and Horticultural Science at the University of Sydney. His major academic interest has been vine physiological responses to the environment. Tasmania emerged from these studies as a potential high quality wine producing area in 1973, and in 1974 he and his brother David established Pipers Brook Vineyard in northern Tasmania, one of the first major plantations of the modern era of viticulture in Tasmania. Since then he has been CEO of Tamar Ridge Estates and a Research Associate at the University of Tasmania.

What is special about Australian Caves and Karst? – Andy Spate -Tuesday June 3 – 8.00pm

What is special about Australian Caves and Karst? Presented by Andy Spate in The Royal Society Room -Tuesday June 3 – 8.00pm

Andy Spate has been involved in cave and karst science and management for more than 50 years. His professional career started in the CSIRO Division of Land Research and then moved on to the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service where he was a Senior Project Officer specialising in earth sciences as well as firefighting and other national park activities.

He retired in 2001 to set up his own consulting company, Optimal Karst Management, which has been retained in all Australian states, and in New Zealand, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, South Africa and elsewhere to provide cave and karst management advice. Some of these consultancies have involved the nomination of World Heritage sites and UNESCO Global Geoparks or the review of nomination documents and management plans for such sites.

He is the author, or co-author of more than 140 published papers, conference presentations, book chapters and substantive consultancy reports.

Australia has 19 World Heritage Properties – many of these have karst-associated values. We had one UNESCO Global Geopark until it was torpedoed by stupid political ideologies. Australia has a program of recognising significant ‘national’ landscapes – again many of these have karst values and provide some recognition of karst.

There are other areas such as the Nullarbor limestone karst and wonderful sandstone karst and pseudokarst landscapes of northern Australia which are worthy of World Heritage or similar status which are again precluded from proper recognition by Australia’s political and cultural systems.

This talk reviews the karst areas of Australia in regard to their international and national significance and comments on what Australia’s karst resources
offer the nation.

Vaccination: its Benefits, Risks and Problems of Community Acceptance – Dr Katie Flanagan – 25 May 2014

Dr Katie Flanagan,Head of Infectious Diseases Services, LGH, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Immunology, Monash University will present

Vaccination, its Benefits, Risks and Problems of Community Acceptance

in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk
2.00 pm Sunday 25th May 2014
Admission: $5 General Public, $3 Friends of the Museum, $2 Students
Free for members of The Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organization of this event
RSVP by Thursday 22nd May 2014:
Email [email protected] or telephone 6323 3798

Dr Flanagan will briefly discuss the history of vaccination and describe how vaccines work. She will go on to describe epidemiological and scientific evidence for the benefits of vaccination, including their effects on immunity to other infections. She will describe risk in terms of adverse reactions to vaccines, including some of the more controversial issues that have been widely advertised in the media, some leading to a decrease in vaccine uptake. This will lead to a discussion regarding community acceptance of vaccination, some of the reasons for vaccine refusal, and the effects this is having on disease incidence throughout the world. Hopefully this talk will dispel some of the myths held by the general public, and provide the evidence base for modern day vaccination practices.

Dr Katie Flanagan, BA(Hons) MBBS DTM&H MA PhD CCST FRCP FRACP, leads the Infectious Diseases Service at Launceston General Hospital in Tasmania, and is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Dept of Immunology at Monash University in Melbourne. She obtained a degree in Physiological Sciences from Oxford University in 1988, and her MBBS from the University of London in 1992. She is a UK and Australia accredited Infectious Diseases Physician. She did a PhD in malaria immunology based at Oxford University (1997 – 2000). She was previously Head of Infant Immunology Research at the MRC Laboratories in The Gambia from 2005-11 where she conducted multiple

“Volcanoes on the seafloor” presented by Professor Jocelyn McPhie Tuesday May 6th 2014

Tuesday 6 May 8.00 pm Royal Society Room

Professor Jocelyn McPhie is a geologist specialising in volcanology. She completed undergraduate and post-graduate degrees at Macquarie University and the University of New England, followed by a Fulbright Fellowship in the USA, a von Humboldt Fellowship in Germany, and a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship in Canberra. She then joined the University of Tasmania where she is currently the Head of Earth Sciences. She teaches in the undergraduate program, and conducts research in physical volcanology and links between volcanic and ore-forming hydrothermal processes. Her expertise in unravelling complicated volcanic successions has led to numerous consultancies conducted for companies exploring for ore deposits in volcanic regions.
Volcanoes on land regularly capture our attention, usually because they have produced spectacular or destructive eruptions. Land volcanoes have also been the focus of conventional volcanological research. However, volcanoes on the modern seafloor are more abundant than those on land, and submarine volcanic successions dominate the rocks that form the continents. Submarine volcanoes are also closely associated with important metal ore deposits. Research on underwater eruptions uses data from a combination of field work, modelling, and experiments. Of particular importance for eruption dynamics are the different physical properties of water versus air as the medium in which eruptions operate. Research underway at UTas has demonstrated that these physical properties have a major impact on subaqueous explosive eruptions, leading to the definition of a new eruption style. Our current research is focussed on devising a practical, intensity-based classification of submarine eruptions that will streamline how we communicate and allow identification of key research questions going forward.

MR Banks Lecture – Prof. Emily Hilder – Taking separations from the laboratory to the sample to the individual – April 1 2014

Taking separations from the laboratory to the sample to the individual – Prof. Emily Hilder

The fundamental physical processes of separation science were identified over a century ago, with progress in the field since driven by the demands of biological, pharmaceutical, environmental and forensic science and realised through developments in technology. With these developments has come the demand for faster separations of more complex samples, using smaller, ideally portable devices. This presentation will introduce examples of how technology for separation science is being made smaller, faster and ‘smarter’ with a focus on new developments in materials science that are making this possible.

Emily Hilder is Professor of Chemistry in the School of Physical Sciences and Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science (ACROSS) and Director of the ARC Training Centre for Portable Analytical Separation Technologies at the University of Tasmania. Her research focuses on the design and application of new polymeric materials to improve analytical separations and on ways to make analytical systems smaller and more portable. She has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and is an Editor of the Journal of Separation Science.

All are warmly invited to the lecture on Tuesday 1 April at 8 pm in the Royal Society Room, TMAG (entry from Dunn Place off Davey Street).

Press Release – Award Announcements

MEDIA RELEASE – 19 March 2014

Awards announced by The Royal Society of Tasmania

The Royal Society of Tasmania has announced its latest awards honouring
outstanding achievements by Tasmanian researchers. For 170 years the Society has
been promoting Tasmanian historical, scientific and technological knowledge for the
benefit of Tasmanians.
Exciting new research into the physiology and clinical consequences of high blood
pressure has won Dr Martin Schultz from the Menzies Research Institute Tasmania
the Society’s Doctoral Award. Dr Schultz’s research program highlighted novel
clinical discoveries and the outcomes can immediately be applied to lifestyle
intervention.
‘The Society commends Dr Schultz for his work and is confident that it will have
widespread impact,’ said Prof. Ross Large, President of The Royal Society of
Tasmania.
Professor Brad Potts from the University of Tasmania has won the Clive Lord
Memorial Medal for his work on eucalypt genetics. The medal is awarded to a
scholar distinguished for research in Tasmanian science or Tasmanian history. While
Prof. Potts’ particular focus has been Tasmanian eucalypts, he is the most highly cited
researcher world-wide on eucalypt genetics and has over 200 publications.
‘This award is recognition of the dynamic group of scientists and students working on
eucalypts at the University of Tasmania, strong support from industry and national
and international science collaborators as well as the fantastic living laboratory
afforded by Tasmania’s eucalypt forests,’ said Prof. Potts.
Professor Potts’ research has taken him to numerous countries around the world
where eucalypts, particularly the Tasmanian blue gum, are grown.
‘Australia’s iconic eucalypts are the most widely planted hardwood trees in the world,
and the Tasmanian blue gum is one of the most widely grown eucalypt species,’ Prof.
Potts said.

The prestigious Royal Society of Tasmania Medal, first awarded in 1927, has
been awarded to eminent oceanographer Prof. Trevor McDougall for his
internationally recognised research on ocean mixing and how it is represented in
climate models. His work on ocean physics is fundamental to understanding ocean
circulation and the way that heat is transferred between the ocean and the
atmosphere in the climate system.
Prof. McDougall was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society of London in 2012 and
was nominated as the leading figure in the thermodynamics of seawater. He is now at
the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales in
Sydney and is also an Honorary Fellow at the CSIRO Marine Labs in Hobart.
Interested community members will have the opportunity to hear more about Prof.
McDougall’s work later this year when he delivers The Royal Society of Tasmania
Lecture in Hobart.
The M R Banks Medal (first awarded in 1997), awarded to a scholar of distinction
in mid-career, has been won by Prof. Emily Hilder from the University of Tasmania
for her exciting work in the field of chemistry.
Prof. Hilder is Professor of Chemistry in the Australian Centre for Research on
Separation Science (ACROSS) and Director of the ARC Training Centre for
Portable Analytical Separation Technologies at UTAS. Her research in separation
science has focussed on the design and application of new polymeric materials to
improve analytical separations and on ways to make analytical systems smaller and
more portable.
Prof. Hilder’s ground-breaking research has included the development of the
MilliSpotTM polymer technology and the ACROSS bomb-detection project.
She will deliver the M R Banks Lecture on 1 April 2014 at 8 pm in the Royal
Society’s lecture room at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
Interested members of the public are warmly invited to attend the Society’s lectures.
Membership of the Royal Society of Tasmania is open to all. Members come from
many walks of life and have a variety of interests.
Since 1849 the Society has published its Papers and Proceedings featuring research
that focuses on Tasmania or is particularly relevant to Tasmanians. Contributions are
of international standard.
More information about the Society is available at: www.rst.org.au
For further information please contact the Society’s publicity officer, Mary Koolhof:
[email protected]

The Tasmanian Aborigines and the Constitution of Modern Human Behaviour – Associate Professor Richard Cosgrove – 27 April 2014

Assoc. Prof. Richard Cosgrove will present ‘The Tasmanian Aborigines and the Constitution of Modern Human Behaviour.’

in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk – 2.00 pm Sunday 27th April 2014
Admission: $5 General Public, $3 Friends of the Museum, $2 Students
Free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organization of this event
please RSVP by Thursday 24th April 2014:
Email [email protected] or telephone 6323 3798

Research has shown that for the past 40,000 years, the Tasmanian Aborigines used a flaked stone technology similar to European Neanderthals, who lived between c.300,000 to 30,000 years ago. Paradoxically, the people who first crossed by boat from South East Asia to Sahul, the early land mass of New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania, were anatomically and behaviourally modern. They possessed a hafted stone axe technology, ocean going watercraft, practised art, caught deep sea fish, and had ceremonial burials. In this regard, Australia and Tasmania are unique, as there is no correlation between the appearance of these modern behaviours, and the material cultural ‘package’ used in Europe to identify the point at which such behaviours emerged. The purpose of this presentation it to briefly discuss the archaeological variability from Sahul in a global context, and to discuss the Tasmanian Aboriginal people’s response to the changing ice age environments.

Assoc. Prof. Richard Cosgrove gained a BA from the Australian National University, followed by a PhD. on Tasmanian Aboriginal archaeology in 1992, focusing on the comparative palaeoecology and ice age landscapes occupied by Aboriginal people and their habitation sites of Southwest and Southeast Tasmania. He has research and teaching experience in human behavioural ecology, rock art studies, palaeoecology, zooarchaeology, stone artefact analysis and hunter-gatherer archaeology. His field work and research has included both national and international sites in England, China, Jordan and France. He has advised the Tasmanian forest industry, ICOMOS, the World Heritage Centre, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Lands and Sea Council, and has worked closely with both Aboriginal communities and Environmental Protection agencies on indigenous cultural heritage management.

Order of Australia

The Royal Society of Tasmania congratulates the following members on their recent awards:

Dr Margaret Davies OAM: ‘For service to science in the field of herpetology’ (Australia Day Honours List, 2014)

Margaret is the Honorary Editor of all The Royal Society of Tasmania publications.

Mr Anthony (Tony) Culberg OAM: ‘For service to the community of Tasmania’ (Queen’s Birthday Honours List, 2013)

Tony Culberg served as Honorary Secretary of The Royal Society of Tasmania from 2009 to August 2015.

A number of other Royal Society members have been honoured in the past.

The Sciences were Never at War: Edward Jenner, FRS, English Cowpox, and the Vaccination of Napoleonic France – Professor Michael Bennett – 23 March 2014

Prof. Michael Bennett, Professor of History, UTAS will present The Sciences were Never at War: Edward Jenner, FRS, English cowpox, and the vaccination of Napoleonic France

in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk
2.00 pm Sunday 23rd March 2014
Admission: $5 General Public, $3 Friends of the Museum, $2 Students
Free for members of The Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organization of this event
RSVP by Thursday 20th March 2014:
Email [email protected] or telephone 6323 3798

In 1798 Edward Jenner, FRS, published his findings showing the inoculation of cowpox provided immunity to smallpox. While the practice was still in its infancy in England, reports and samples of English cowpox “vaccine” were disseminated around the world. This talk considers the introduction of vaccination in Napoleonic France; a remarkable achievement in that Britain and France were at war, and the event involved a London physician, travelling on a special passport, bringing samples to Paris. In 1801 a French address to the Marquis Cornwallis at Amiens praised this action, declaring, “The friends of science never interrupt their fraternal intercourse; and while their governments wield the thunder of war, to decide their political contests, men of letters always remain in peace”.

Michael Bennett is Professor of History at the University of Tasmania and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. The author of four books on late medieval and early modern England, he has published papers on European, Australian and Tasmanian history. His most recent project is the early global spread of vaccination, circa 1798-1815. He is currently completing a book on The War against Smallpox to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2015.
Professor Bennett will highlight the role of international collaboration in the global spread of vaccination during the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon himself was a great supporter of vaccination, and an admirer of Jenner.

Discovering Tasmania’s Eucalypts – March 4 2014 at 8.00pm

DISCOVERING TASMANIA’S EUCALYPTS presented by

Professor Brad Potts
School of Biological Sciences,
University of Tasmania

March 4 2014 in The Royal Society Room at 8.00 pm following the AGM at 7.30 pm

While representing only 30 of the more than 700 eucalypt species, the Tasmanian eucalypts have a unique place in the history and science of this iconic Australian genus. They include species of global significance such as the tallest flowering plant and the widely grown Tasmanian blue gum. The University of Tasmania has a long history of internationally recognized research in eucalypt genetics. The first major study of eucalypt chromosomes was undertaken in the 1930s, the first DNA study in the early 1990s and scientists are now exploiting whole genome sequences. This talk overviews the scientific discovery of the Tasmanian eucalypts from the early explorers to the unprecedented insights now being provided by modern genetics.

Brad Potts is the Professor of Forest Genetics in the School of Biological Sciences (Plant Science) at the University of Tasmania. He specializes in eucalypt genetics, with his research spanning diverse fields from tree breeding, evolutionary biology to community genetics. The Tasmanian eucalypts have been a focus of his research and with students and colleagues he has published over 200 scientific papers, exploring the genetics and the evolutionary processes that have shaped the island’s eucalypt flora.