The advancement of knowledge
Presentation by Professor Holger Mienke
The Royal Society Room
Tuesday, 2nd August 2011 Commencing 8.00 pm until 10.00 pm
Professor Holger Mienke is the new Director of the Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research and Head of the School of Agricultural Science at UTAS. He came to us from Wageningen University and held senior positions in DPI in Queensland before that.
Presentation by Dr Bob Mesibov
QVMAG – Inveresk
Monday, 1st August 2011 Commencing 7.30 pm until 9.30 pm
Dr Mesibov will discuss a curious feature of two millipede species in the State’s northwest. The range of the widespread millipede Tasmaniosoma hickmanorum (Polydesmida: Dalodesmidae) has a 400 sq km ‘hole’ which is filled with the range of T. compitale. The boundary between the two species is 200km long, does not follow habitat boundaries and in places is only 100 m wide. In this presentation Dr Mesibov will report the latest results from fine-scale mapping of this boundary and will discuss other strange features of the biology of these two millipede species
Dr Mesibov has been an Honorary Research Associate of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery since 1994. He was the editor of the Museum’s Invertebrata newsletter (1997-2002) and is currently president of the Society of Australian Systematic Biologists. He has a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in the USA. Since migrating to Tasmania in 1973 he has worked as a mine assayer, high school teacher, forester, forest ecology/zoology/forest management consultant and museum-based zoologist. Now retired, he lives in Penguin and studies millipedes and other litter invertebrates.
Presentation by Various. See detail below
Sir Stanley Burbury Theatre, University of Tasmania.
Tuesday, 19th July 2011 Commencing 7.30 pm until 10.00 pm
Chaired by Professor Peter Rathjen, Vice-Chancellor, University of Tasmania
1. Mr Alistair Graham, Natural Resource Planning. 2. Dr Jen Schweitzer, University of Tasmania. 3. Mr Tim Woods, CarbonEdge
1. The Kelty report – Implications for forest policy. 2. Maximising soil carbon: can soil carbon storage offset rising CO2? 3. What price for carbon
Presentation by Professor Mike Coffin
The Royal Society Room
Tuesday, 5th July 2011 Commencing 8.00 pm until 10.00 pm
Mike Coffin commenced as Executive Director of UTAS’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) in January 2011, and is inspired by the unique opportunity to build a new institute that aims to become a global centre of excellence for temperate marine, Southern Ocean, and Antarctic studies. He is a marine geoscientist whose research expertise encompasses episodic Earth-Ocean system phenomena and processes. Educated at Dartmouth College (AB) and Columbia University (MA, MPhil, PhD) in the USA, he has pursued an international career that reflects the boundless nature of the global ocean. Mike has previously worked at Geoscience Australia (1985-1989), the University of Texas at Austin (1990-2001), the University of Tokyo (2001-2007), and the UK’s University of Southampton and National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (2007-2010).
Tasmania is a primary gateway to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica, placing the University of Tasmania in a unique strategic position to pursue preeminent global excellence and reputation in Antarctic, Southern Ocean, and temperate marine research. With this in mind, IMAS has been established by the University to build a critical scientific concentration around its internationally recognized expertise in marine and Antarctic research, previously spread among diverse faculties, institutes, and schools across the Hobart and Launceston campuses. The bringing together of the elements of IMAS will give a focus that is intended to provide national and international leadership in studies of the Southern Ocean and its margins. This research concentration will also provide both CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research and the Australian Antarctic Division with a complementary research environment, infrastructure, and underpinning education and training services. The vision of IMAS—to advance, unify, and enable temperate marine, Southern Ocean, and Antarctic studies—will be achieved by innovative science and a focus on measurable benefit to society, enabled through building a network of national and international research, education, and training collaborations.
Presentation by Emeritus Professor John Mulvaney
QVMAG – Inveresk
Sunday, 3rd July 2011 Commencing 3.00 pm until 5.00 pm
Emeritus Professor John Mulvaney AO, CMG, was Professor of Prehistory at the Australia National University, a member of the Australian Heritage Commission, Chairman of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies and a member of the 1974–75 Inquiry on Museums and National Collections. He is the author, co-author or editor of 20 books.
John Mulvaney commenced archaeological excavations in Australia in 1956. Between that date and 1969 the dated antiquity of human occupation extended from 5,000 to 30,000 years; present estimates are some 50,000 years. This illustrated talk will concentrate on key excavations which produced this evidence, including Lake Mungo, and Kenniff and Kutikina Caves. The significance of these exciting discoveries will be assessed.
Presentation by Various. See detail below
Sir Stanley Burbury Theatre, University of Tasmania.
Tuesday, 21st June 2011 Commencing 7.30 pm until 10.00 pm
Chaired by His Excellency, The Honourable Peter Underwood AC, Governor of Tasmania
1. Mr Tim Woods, CarbonEdge. 2. Dr Martin Moroni, Forestry Tasmania. 3. A/Prof. Mark Hovenden, University of Tasmania.
1. What price for carbon? 2. How much carbon is in our forests? 3. Implications of rising CO2 levels for forest productivity.
Presentation by Dr Jason Whitehead
The Royal Society Room
Tuesday, 7th June 2011 Commencing 8.00 pm until 10.00 pm
Jason has been the Derwent Estuary Program’s Scientific Officer for 4 years and prior to that, he was the programs Stormwater Officer for a year. He has a PHD from the University of Tasmania – in Antarctic geological and diatom research. Jason has worked in a range of sectors, from university, industry, tourism, community and in environmental management. Having worked abroad, Jason was keen to return to Tasmania and work on estuaries
The Derwent estuary, together with Mt Wellington, provides an idyllic natural setting for the city of Hobart, Tasmania’s capital city. The estuary is heavily used for recreation, marine transportation, boating and fishing, and is internationally known as the venue for the Sydney-to-Hobart Yacht Race. The Derwent is Tasmania’s fourth largest port, and has been an important centre for industrial development. Despite a long history of environmental degradation, the Derwent estuary is still an important and productive ecosystem, which requires careful and committed management if its natural values are to be enhanced and maintained in perpetuity. The Derwent Estuary Program (DEP) was established in 1999 and has been nationally recognised for excellence in coordinating initiatives to reduce water pollution, conserve habitats and species, monitor river health and promote greater use and enjoyment of the estuary. The DEP is a regional partnership between local governments the Tasmanian State Government, commercial and industrial enterprises, and community-based groups. The DEPs major sponsors include: Brighton, Clarence, Derwent Valley, Glenorchy, Hobart and Kingborough councils, the Tasmanian State Government, Southern Water, Tasmanian Ports Corporation, Norske Skog Boyer, Nyrstar Hobart Smelter and Hydro Tasmania. The DEP estuary management objectives are science informed, through collaborative research with the CSIRO, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Research Institute, and research consultants.
Presentation by Andrew Parsons – Honorary Librarian
University of Tasmania
Tuesday, 17th May 2011 Commencing 7.30 pm until
Andrew succeeded Graeme Rayner as Senior Librarian (Physical Collections) at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) Library in late February 2010. Prior to this succession, Andrew worked in the Resources & Access (R&A) section of UTAS Library for a little over 18 months, for the most part supervising reclassification of UTAS Library’s northern collections from Dewey to Library of Congress. Before his relocation to R&A in mid-2008, Andrew worked at the Australian Maritime College (AMC) Library in Launceston for 12 years, first as Cataloguer then college Librarian. He was actively involved with the integration of the AMC and UTAS libraries during 2007, transferring to UTAS Library when amalgamation of the two libraries became official in January 2008.
Honorary RST Librarian, Andrew Parsons, Senior Librarian (Physical Collections) at the Morris Miller Library will give a conducted tour. You will have the chance to: Look at the Royal Society’s collections on Level 5 of the Morris Miller Library, See the rare books room, See some of the materials scanned as part of the recent ‘Tasmanian Treasures Online’ project, View the recent Level 2 redevelopment, Find out how you can have access to library collections. Members of The Royal Society of Tasmania are welcome to bring guests on the night.
Presentation by Dr George Merridew
Nuala o’Flaherty Auditorium QVMAG- Inveresk
Monday, 6th May 2011 Commencing 7.30 pm until 10.00 pm
George Merridew was born in Devonport. He graduated MBBS at the University of Tasmania in 1972 and since 1986 has practised in Launceston in anaesthesia, intensive care, pain medicine and the inter-hospital transport of the critically ill. George is a Group Captain in the RAAF Specialist Reserve, with a clinical background well suited to medical care in difficult situations, including his ADF deployments to peacekeeping, the 2002 Bali bombing and Iraq. During his medical course George had joined the RAAF Undergraduate Scholarship Scheme and 4 years of uniformed RAAF service during which he was already planning a career in anaesthesia. His military glimpses of field work kindled subsequent acute medical work outside western hospitals and their air conditioning and reliable supplies of water, oxygen, electricity and numerous expert staff. After the Permanent Air Force, George gained his anaesthetic specialist qualification in 1983 in Adelaide, travelled with his wife and children to work in the UK, Hong Kong and the USA. Then he returned to his home state.
George’s presentation will describe the Crimean War hospital quickly designed and fabricated in England for assembly in Turkey as easily the best military hospital for 1500 years. It is still in style. Created by the great Victorian engineer I.K. Brunel, it had flushing toilets (with instructions) among many other attributes in marked contrast with Florence Nightingale’s dismal hospital in Constantinople.
Presentation by Dr John Hayman
Royal Society Room
Tuesday, 3rd May 2011 Commencing 8.00 pm until 10.00 pm
John Hayman graduated MBBS from the University of Melbourne in 1957, later studied pathology at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and spent 20 years as hospital pathologist in the Gippsland Region of Victoria. His parish included Bairnsdale, the home of the ‘Bairnsdale Ulcer’, a progressive mycobacterial skin ulcer that was first described in patients from the district in 1948. He obtained his MD by thesis in 1992 on further studies of this disease. Since 1948 the infection has been described in over 30 different foci, including several in West Africa and all Australian states except, interestingly, NSW and Tasmania.
John became aware of the problem of Charles Darwin’s illness when studying evolution and the concept of ‘inclusive fitness’ and first thought that Darwin’s symptoms might be those of abdominal migraine. This, like the numerous, very variable diagnoses that have been proposed earlier, explains some symptoms but not all. Abdominal migraine led, however, to the diagnosis of the Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome, which explains almost all of Darwin’s symptoms. CVS explains Darwin’s episodes of nausea and vomiting and their initiation by stressful or even pleasurable events, his headaches, abdominal pains, his sea-sickness, his eczema and his recurrent boils. Somewhat tenuously, the diagnosis also explains his spelling difficulties, his tone deafness and his difficulty in learning German. His experiences while in NSW and Tasmania lend support to this diagnosis. If the diagnosis is expanded to that of a mtDNA abnormality, inherited from his mother and shared with his maternal uncle Tom, all of Darwin’s symptoms can be included such as his later stroke-like episodes. It is important that the exact nature of Darwin’s illness should be established. It confronts those who deny evolution and who would like to show that Darwin was psychologically flawed with an ‘imagined’ (psychogenic) illness rather than a ‘real’ complaint. Secondly, it is of help to those who suffer from this little known disorder today. Like Darwin, these patients, including Tasmanians, suffer from misdiagnosis, misunderstanding, inappropriate treatment, and, worse that Darwin, unnecessary investigations and inappropriate surgery. The thesis is presented with a view to its discussion and critical examination, in the hope that CVS/mtDNA abnormality becomes the accepted diagnosis for the ‘mysterious illness’ of Charles Darwin, an illness that has been the subject of controversy for over 150 years.
