s
QUT teaching in a class of its own February 2009
alumni magazine
contents
Research
VOLUME 12 NUMBER 1
In focus
Alumnus and environmental lawyer Chris Mcgrath is on a crusade to save the Great Barrier Reef.
Page 4.
Regulars
NEWS ROUNDUP 2
ExPERt-EASE 6
RESEARCh UPDAtE 16, 17
AlUMNi NEWS 21
KEEP iN tOUCh 22-24
lASt WORD
by Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake
- See inSide back cover
Our cover
lecturerMs Beryl Meiklejohn is one of a host of talented QUt teachers to be recognised in 2008 for their teaching and learning expertise.
See page 12 for the story.
editor Janne Rayner p: 07 3138 2361 e: [email protected] contributors
Sharon thompson, Amanda Vine, Niki Widdowson, Rachael Wilson
images Erika Fish design Richard de Waal
lin ks
alumni magazineQUt Links is published by QUt’s Marketing and Communications Department in cooperation with QUt’s Alumni and Development Services. Editorial material is gathered from a range of sources and does not necessarily reflect the opinions and policies of QUT.
CRiCOS No. 00213J
1 3 4 6
the eyes have it in diabetes research.
QUt-based international alliance vows to beat prostate cancer.
Why the Great Barrier Reef could be at risk.
QUt researchers go green.
Profiles
10 11 14
Gail Reid fashions her designs in France.
A new business guides the use of indigenous art.
QUt graduate heeds the call for humanity.
Features
8 12 15 18
QUt alumni embrace Dubai.
Biomedical innovation advances in leaps and bounds.
Award-winning writers hold mirror to society.
QUt teachers scoop Australian learning and teaching Council awards.
3 7
11
AN off-the-cuff comment from patient to doctor seven years ago was the starting point for a huge QUT research project, which recently attracted $5 million in funding.
The patient was leading QUT vision researcher Professor Nathan Efron.
The funding came from the US-based Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International (JDFI) and is the third-largest grant ever given by the Foundation to an Australian research team.
The project will look at the role of nerves at the front of the eye in detecting the onset and progress of diabetic neuropathy, a painful nerve disorder affecting around half of all diabetic patients.
The project started in 2001, when Professor Efron, who has Type 2 diabetes, was working at the University of Manchester.
As a patient, he attended the Diabetes Clinic at the associated Manchester Royal Infirmary, and in passing mentioned his eye research to his attending physicians.
“At the time, I had done little research on diabetes, and my specialist area was in research about the cornea, but I was aware of diabetic neuropathy,” Professor Efron said.
“Unbeknownst to me, the doctors treating me at the time, Professors Andrew Boulton and Rayaz Malik, were two of the world’s foremost academic experts in diabetic neuropathy, and when I mentioned that it might be useful if you could use eye tests to measure the development of the condition, they were very interested.
“We got together and had a lot of discussions, attracted
a number of small grants to further the research, and it went from there.”
In advanced cases diabetic neuropathy is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.
The only method currently available for directly assessing nerve damage in diabetic patients is to undertake a skin biopsy from the foot and run tests, which could take up to three days, whereas the quick and non-invasive eye tests would see results in a matter of minutes.
“I think our proposal to JDFI came up successfully because, as well as the scientific value, it had community appeal because it would take away the need for these biopsies,”
Professor Efron said.
“It is hard for a lot of parents to see their children go through a biopsy, and this eye test, which would take a moment, would be easy and not at all traumatic.
“This research is about bringing a new dimension in eye technology into the field of diabetes research, and about making it a better world for those with diabetes.”
Over the next five years, 400 patients with diabetes will be tested on two sites – QUT and at the University of Manchester in England – to see the value in tracking the condition in this way.
Professor Efron is the principal researcher for the team, which also includes members from Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane and the University of Queensland.
- Sharon Thompson
A leading eye researcher has more than a professional interest in improving health outcomes for diabetic patients.
An eye for research
QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
2
V-C to lead Australia’s unis
Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake has been named the chair-elect of Universities Australia, the peak industry body for the university sector. Professor Coaldrake has held the position of the body’s deputy chair during 2008, and will assume the responsibilities of chair for a period of two years from May 2009. Universities Australia represents 38 of Australia’s universities in the public interest, both nationally and internationally.
Dean of new faculty appointed
Professor Simon Kaplan has been appointed the first executive dean of QUT’s new Faculty of Science and Technology. Since 2004, Professor Kaplan has been QUT’s executive dean of IT. With a PhD in computer science, he has previously taught at the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control and the US University of Illinois. The new Faculty of Science and Technology is an amalgamation of the existing Faculties of Science and Information Technology.
Research income boost
Twenty-two research teams from QUT received a total of $6.22 million in the latest round of the Federal Government’s
ARC Discovery and Linkage grants.
QUT researchers have also attracted a share of National Health and Medical Research Council development grants with a total of nine grants worth $3.8 million announced in the latest round.
Our second
Distinguished Professor
Director of QUT’s Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities and leading researcher Professor James Dale has been awarded the university’s title of Distinguished Professor, in recognition of his outstanding achievements and potential for ongoing excellence and outcomes in fields related to biotechnology and the molecular biology of plants.
Grant for nursing training in Vietnam
The Atlantic Philanthropies has approved a grant of $6.3 million to QUT to support nursing training and development in Vietnam. The project will include intensive short-term training and postgraduate scholarships; helping to develop nursing education in lead universities; and assistance with nurse teacher conference development and policy development.
news round-up…
NEwS oF NEw AppoINtmENtS, UNIvERSItY SUccESSES, AchIEvEmENtS oF StAFF ANd StUdENtS, ANd coRpoRAtE EvENtS.Spinal cord repair researcher nets top award
When they were 15, Tim O’Shea and his friend Ben Harvey were keen rugby players.
But a week before his sixteenth birthday Ben was tackled during a game and his spinal cord was injured, rendering him a quadriplegic.
The tragedy has inspired Tim, a QUT biomedical engineering graduate and masters student, to go into spinal cord repair research.
Tim has been awarded a
$150,000 General Sir John Monash Award for postgraduate study at an overseas university for three years.
In July he will head to a world- class collaborative MIT-Harvard University facility to do his PhD.
It is research he hopes will develop improved outcomes for Ben and all spinal cord injury patients.
Tim was one of eight recipients of the prestigious General Sir John Monash Awards for 2009.
New health facilities
The QUT Health Clinics have relocated to a new purpose-built facility at 44 Musk Ave in the Kelvin Grove Urban Village. The campus clinics in podiatry, optometry, family therapy and counselling, psychology and a wound healing service aim to provide quality clinical education to students and quality patient care to the community for little or no cost. The $100 million facility, built by Baulderstone Hornibrook, also houses the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.
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QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
A NEW $15 million international network of scientists, clinicians and facilities dedicated to the research of prostate cancer is being coordinated by QUT.
Recently awarded a $2 million Smart State grant from the Queensland State Government, the Brisbane-based Australian- Canadian Prostate Cancer Research Alliance will facilitate the sharing of knowledge and resources across both countries.
Directed by QUT’s Professor Colleen Nelson, pictured below, the alliance will connect nearly 200 prostate cancer scientists and clinicians across Australia and Canada.
“In Queensland, the alliance will engage with the state’s world-class research institutes, which will encourage technological advances in prostate cancer research,” Professor Nelson said.
“The alliance will facilitate access to key expertise, unique resources and technologies through collaborations and short term exchanges of trainees, staff and faculty.”
Professor Nelson, who is also the chair of prostate cancer research at QUT’s Prostate Centre in the Princess Alexandra Hospital Biomedical Precinct, said the centre would form the main hub of the alliance.
“The alliance will bring members together for exchange of ideas at bi-annual scientific and clinical meetings, and will provide electronic-based networking and data sharing, as well as small-scale seed funding of collaborative projects,” she said.
Professor Nelson, who was a founding member of the Prostate Centre at Vancouver General Hospital, said Australia and Canada shared a collaborative spirit and had similar academic and clinical practices, which led naturally to an alliance between the nations.
“The key scientific objectives of this collaborative initiative include the employment of state-of-the-art technology for pathology, imaging and drug screening, and the development of pre-clinical model systems, pharmacology and advanced informatic tools,” she said.
“The main aim is to aid and accelerate the development of new biomarkers and therapeutics for prostate cancer.”
QUT’s lead role in this alliance follows significant pioneering work by Professor Judith Clements, pictured above, who has spent 16 years studying hormone-related cancers such as prostate and ovarian cancers.
Professor Clements was recognised internationally in 2007 for her outstanding contribution to knowledge of the kallikrein- kinin enzyme family and its potential for the early diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.
- Rachael Wilson
Prostate cancer
10,000
Second largest cause of male cancer deaths in Australia men die ofthe disease
2500
Australian men are diagnosed every year
QUT is taking a lead role in national and international prostate cancer research.
healthy alliance
4 reef
4
Breaking down a great barrier to
saving our reef
A Brisbane lawyer is on a crusade to change climate change policies to protect our Great Barrier Reef.
THE Great Barrier Reef will be lost within our lifetime unless drastic steps are taken to reduce global warming, says environmental lawyer Dr Chris McGrath.
The QUT alumnus has focused his research on the Great Barrier Reef as a case study for legislative reform in the hope of preventing Australia’s iconic national heritage from becoming unrecognisable.
Dr McGrath, pictured, who graduated in 2008 with a doctorate in law, was recognised internationally for his research into the Great Barrier Reef and his assessment of the legal frameworks to address climate change.
A research paper based on his PhD at QUT was named as one of the top five papers for environmental law research by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The paper, submitted as part of the IUCN’s Alexandre Kiss Awards, uses the Great Barrier Reef as a case study to evaluate the effectiveness of Australian and international laws in addressing climate change.
The Alexandre Kiss award is a worldwide competition which recognises the efforts of young environmental lawyers in raising global awareness of the environment through the lens of justice.
In his paper, Dr McGrath argues that current Australian and international environmental policy is unlikely to be effective in preventing climate change from causing severe damage to the Great Barrier Reef.
“The Federal Government’s goal of a 60 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will not be enough to protect the reef from severe degradation.
“We need to recognise what the science is telling us and act accordingly, not agree with it on the surface and then silently ignore it in practice.
“We are committing ourselves to crisis management as events unfold. I am frightened that somewhere around 2020 or 2030 we will simply shrug our shoulders and say, ‘it’s too late to save coral reefs’ but that is the course we are currently choosing by default.”
Born in Proserpine and raised at Cannonvale near Airlie Beach, Dr McGrath was surrounded by North Queensland’s rich environmental heritage from an early age.
A keen sailor and fisherman, he spent his youth in and around the Great Barrier Reef and continues to maintain close
ties to the region where his family still lives.
Before joining QUT in 2000, he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Queensland, graduating with a Bachelor of Science (Ecology) and a Bachelor of Law in 1998.
Fresh out of university, he took a job with the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency for two years in Townsville, before returning to Brisbane to undertake his masters degree, under the supervision of QUT academic Dr Douglas Fisher.
“It was Doug who inspired me to complete my masters and eventually go on to do my PhD.
“My main inspiration for choosing QUT was the work Doug had done on environmental law. I really liked QUT’s focus on being a university for the real world as well.
“The PhD was a great intellectual process which really led me to continue my work as a researcher to the extent that I try and devote around 25 per cent of my time to research, 25 per cent to pro bono work and 50 per cent to paid work.”
As a barrister based in Brisbane, Dr McGrath has acted on a diverse range of environmental cases ranging from greenhouse gas emissions involving coal mines to flying foxes, whaling and climate change.
In 2006 he was one of 85 Australians trained by Al Gore to present the slideshow based on the Academy Award-winning documentary on climate change, An Inconvenient Truth. He has since presented the slideshow more than 30 times to audiences totalling 2,000 people.
He believes that unless Australia acts immediately to reduce global warming there is a real risk that our environmental heritage will be lost forever.
“It is my view that we should judge our climate change policies by this simple test: Will we leave the Great Barrier Reef for our children?
“At present the answer is no.
“We are all responsible for changing the answer to yes.”
- Amanda Vine Dr McGrath’s research paper can be found at
http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/cel_op_mcgrath.pdf
Coral bleaching is jeopardising our heritage-listed reef.
QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
reef QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09 5
We need to recognise what the science is telling us and act
accordingly…
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QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
6
Dr Nicola Durrant talks about the carbon market and how it affects our everyday lives.
What does Australia’s ratification of the Kyoto Protocol mean for us?
T
he Kyoto Protocol imposes a legal duty on the Australian Government to reduce our current national greenhouse gas emissions to a level that is no more than 8 per cent above reported 1990 emissions by the end of 2012.To help countries achieve their emission reduction targets in a more cost-effective manner, the Kyoto Protocol has established emission allowances which are able to be traded between countries. This international market has acted as a catalyst for
the creation of domestic carbon markets around the world.
Australia is following this trend and intends to create a market which can link into those other domestic markets as well as the market under the Kyoto Protocol.
How will the Australian carbon trading scheme affect me as a homeowner?
A
s a homeowner you will experience an increase in the cost of your energy and fuel supplies. The purpose of the carbon trading scheme is to put a market price on the environmental damage caused by emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Under the Australian carbon trading scheme, electricity and fuel providers will be responsible for purchasing and surrendering carbon credits for the emissions from your domestic energy and fuel use. It is expected that the cost of those carbon credits will be passed on to consumers to encourage them to be more energy and fuel efficient and to reduce their emissions.What is a carbon credit and where can I get one?
E
ach carbon credit will represent the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere.Once the Australian scheme is operational, anyone will be able to register under the carbon trading scheme to purchase credits and to trade them on the market.
Research looks at reducing carbon footprints on national and personal levels.
Lawless carbon trading
expertease…
dR NIcoLA dURRANt IS A RESEARchER IN QUt’S FAcULtY oF LAw.
Cut emissions - wash less
THE carbon footprint of your clothing has everything to do with how often you wash and dry them.
Frequently washing and tumble drying a t-shirt consumes three- quarters of the energy used to make and use it, says QUT sustainability researcher Francisco Javier Navarro.
Mr Navarro has been commissioned by the Cotton Research and Development Corporation to undertake a “life-cycle assessment”
that compares the environmental impact of cotton and polyester t-shirts on their production, use and disposal stages.
THE Federal Government’s proposed carbon trading scheme could be seriously undermined by a lack of adequate legal reform, says QUT law researcher Nicola Durrant, pictured, who has completed a PhD study into the legal requirements for a successful carbon trading scheme in Australia.
Dr Durrant said that there were a number of unresolved legal issues that could jeopardise the
Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, including the Government’s decision not to introduce any new laws regarding ownership of the tradeable carbon permits.
“For the carbon market to be effective it must be supported by an appropriate legal framework,” Dr Durant said.
Dr Durrant said that because no federal legislation had been set, the legalities of owning carbon permits would be subject to the existing property law systems of the states and territories, which varied greatly and were not created with the novel concept of carbon trading in mind.
“Ultimately, this will affect the inherent financial value of the permits and may undermine the overall effectiveness of the carbon market system,”
she said.
Rachael Wilson
More information The Australian Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
www.climatechange.gov.au /emissionstrading/index.html The Australian Climate Exchange www.climateexchange.com.au/Default.aspx The Kyoto Protocol Trading Mechanisms
unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/mechanisms /items/1673.php
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QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
An architecture expert believes ‘eco retrofitting’ will save our cities.
‘CARBON neutral’ buildings and ‘low-environmental impact’
cities do nothing to combat the effects of climate change or redress environmental degradation, QUT Professor of Architecture Janis Birkeland says.
“Even the best practice ‘green buildings’ we have today only reduce negative social and environmental impacts relative to standard buildings – they are seldom self-sufficient, and almost never have net positive social and environmental gains,”
Professor Birkeland, from the School of Design, said.
“The cities of the future will have to reverse the damage already done, as well as reduce future negative impacts.
“Green buildings are conventional designs that are tweaked with energy-efficient technologies. They replace nature – the life-support system – with industrial mechanisms. It is an unsustainable process.”
In her new book, Positive Development: from Vicious Circles to Virtuous Cycles through Built Environment Design, Professor Birkeland details her vision for ‘positive development’, a truly sustainable alternative to ‘low-environmental impact’ building.
“Positive development leaves the urban environment in a better state than before development occurred. It is a new form of architecture that not only produces clean air, soil, water and food, but also has positive ecological gains such as increased biodiversity.”
However, Professor Birkeland said she wasn’t proposing that we tear down our cities because “that would take too much time, energy and irreplaceable resources. They need to be ecologically retrofitted.”
Professor Birkeland explains in her book how existing development could be converted into ‘sustainability solutions’ that increase nature’s free goods and services and improve our lives.
“Every year, poor urban design kills more people than terrorism because cities are several degrees hotter than surrounding natural areas,” she said.
“There are many ways that urban design could combat this
‘urban heat island’ effect, which killed well over 26,000 people in Europe during the 2003 heatwave. One way would be to wrap buildings in ‘green scaffolding’ that provides a range of climatic and ecosystem functions.
“We could retrofit buildings with elements like vertical landscapes that combine natural air and water purification, fish tanks for aquaponic food production, solar stacks and shower towers to support evaporative cooling, and so on.
“There are many self-funding ways of turning ‘dead’
buildings and urban spaces into living, breathing entities.
“By providing the infrastructure for nature in cities, we can generate profits, health and natural capital, while creating more public space for people.
“Sustainability is a design problem and saving the planet through design is as fun as it is challenging,” Professor Birkeland said.
- Niki Widdowson
Cities need green rethink
QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
8
QUT graduates are excelling in the hotbed of business innovation that is Dubai, with dozens of alumni currently working in the most populous city of the United Arab Emirates.
In fields ranging from development to teaching, from IT to agriculture, they are finding that Dubai, located along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula, is a place filled with opportunity, as well as chances to learn about the world and themselves.
Two grads finding success are Doug Waller, who graduated in 1997 with a law degree and now works in Dubai as the business development manager for the International Cricket Council, and David Renaud, who graduated in 2005 with a degree in IT, and now works as a solution architect for Technology Partners.
While both said the fast-paced Dubai business world demanded long working hours of them, they each agreed they had happily embraced their new lifestyles because of the opportunities on offer.
“Dubai has become like Singapore on steroids,” said David of the high-speed, competitive nature of his new life.
“It is very focussed on economics, making money – leisure time has gone out the window because there are simply so many opportunities. I have climbed more in my career in two years here than I would be able to in a decade in Australia.
“I also like the fact that it is crime-free and very safe – I believe it is truly the safest city in the world, and I feel like I never need to worry about my personal safety or that of my property.”
David, who worked in IT throughout his degree, moved to Dubai just a year after graduating.
“My first impression of Dubai was, wow, this is such a modern city, perfect roads with perfect buildings; everything was glittering and I really felt I belonged here and would enjoy it very much,” he said.
“It is an amazing city with a level of growth that cannot be seen anywhere else on earth. Even driving from the airport to my home, I could count maybe 2000 or 4000 cranes, it is impossible to count them.”
Doug has been in Dubai since July 2007 and said for him, the best thing was the cosmopolitan living style and blend of cultures.
“There is no monoculture here – there is a misconception in Australia that Dubai is a place where non-Muslims have to significantly alter their lifestyle choices or risk getting into trouble with the law, and that is not so,” he said.
“I would say that Dubai is a bit like the Gold Coast – a combination of oil wealth and beaches has attracted a glitz and glamour crowd with a taste for fine dining and sports cars, and the relationship between Dubai and Abu Dhabi is similar as that between the Gold Coast and Brisbane.”
He said the working life was demanding, with a number of new challenges cropping up all the time.
“The best thing is that Dubai is a genuinely international business environment which means your opportunities to make contacts that can grow your enterprise are limitless.
“It is very much a work hard, play hard environment, so there is naturally an expectation that employees should work hard and deliver results.
“The most challenging thing is understanding the cultural differences which influence the way people of different nationalities do business.”
David agreed that the number of different cultures living and working together was massive.
“Dubai is a melting-pot of different cultures, but it is not a multi-cultural society,” he said.
“It is very cliquey – although there are hundreds of different cultures living here, they all tend to stick with their own groups – the British hang with the British, South African with South African, etc. But being from a multicultural background like Australia, I mix with everyone and have friends from over 20 different countries.”
Both David and Doug have short-term plans to stay in Dubai.
- Sharon Thompson
A growing number of QUT graduates
are being drawn to the world’s
development hot spot, Dubai.
Dubai
QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09 9
Doing time in
QUT and the Middle East
QUT continues to build its relationship with the Middle East.
Last November QUT expats and locally- based international graduates gathered for an informal alumni reception in Dubai.
They were joined by a group of QUT academics and representatives who had travelled to the region to meet with key education leaders in Dubai, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
About 400 Muslim students from the Middle East are currently enrolled at QUT, further enriching the cultural diversity of campus life.
QUT students from urban development dis- ciplines annually take a study tour to Dubai to take an in-depth look at the city’s frenetic development program.
The tour allows students to engage with development professionals in one of the most dynamic development markets in the world.
Dubai’s frenetic development is providing amazing opportunities for grads like David Renaud, pictured.
QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
10
The Gail Sorronda TCB concept store, designed by HH Tan Architects.
Far left, a Gail Sorronda design.
Right, fashion designer and 2008 QUT Alumni Award winner Gail Reid.
From the fashion workshops of QUT to her own studio in Paris, no ambition was “too big” for the highly talented Gail Reid.
WHETHER it’s to wrap up against winter, or step out into spring, fashion has something for all seasons.
But this is where the challenge begins, as designers juggle their collections between hemispheres which rotate on different seasonal calendars.
Over the past three years, QUT fashion graduate and brain behind the Gail Sorronda fashion label, Gail Reid, has been getting her head around designing and marketing for the different fashion time zones, recently moving to Paris to be closer to the sartorial action.
“It gets confusing with these opposite European/Australian seasons,” she said.
“In Australia, we present our collections ahead of Europe, but some would say behind.
“Some labels do different collections for the same seasons in each hemisphere, but I present the same collections everywhere, just at different times.
“We all have the same deadlines, it’s the weather that dictates our difference.”
Here, on Australian shores, Gail Sorronda’s seventh collection is currently stocking the stands of fashion boutiques, with the next collection on standby for cooler weather.
“My winter collection is called Ha Ha Battles. It’s about laughing in the face of adversity, like unreliable stockists not paying, feeling paranoia and insecurity, overcoming the French language barrier and the financial crisis, it’s very fitting don’t you think?” she said.
At only 27, Ms Reid is making an indelible mark on the fashion world, and mastering the timelines of season and production.
Her monotone creations have graced the pages of international magazines and fashionable coffee table books, and have been seen at select international events.
Last year, Ms Reid opened her first retail outlet, the Gail Sorronda TCB concept store, in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, and
supplies exclusive boutiques in Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and New Zealand.
She was also selected last year to design for Target, along with the likes of Stella McCartney, and she has represented Australian fashion at G’Day LA in 2006 and again in 2007 at G’Day USA in New York.
Also in 2007 she launched her jewellery line Visual Slur, which toys with proportion, drama and a dark sense of humour.
Meanwhile, Ms Reid has relocated to the fashionably artistic capital of Paris, and is working on the next spring/summer collection.
“Paris is the epicentre of fashion, close to resources and contacts.
“In Paris you can smell humanity. It is feminine and delicate yet aggressive and forward, where progressive fashion meets extreme conservatism.”
Ms Reid entered the fashion industry as a model before she was lured to the other side of the drawing board and undertook a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Fashion) at QUT.
QUT Fashion Portfolio director Suzi Vaughan said Ms Reid was a trail-blazer who many would have said was attempting things too big, too ambitious, too soon.
“By taking this ‘think big’ approach, she has demonstrated that it really is possible to make an impact on a
highly competitive international industry,”
Ms Vaughan said.
“A graduate like this only comes along perhaps once or twice every ten years.”
In her graduation year of 2005, Ms Reid received her first big break, winning the Queensland Mercedes-Benz Start-Up Awards, which enabled her to show at Australian Fashion Week.
It’s been multiple fashion time zones since then.
- Rachael Wilson
A girl for all seasons
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QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
Connecting the dots
A creative graduate is communicating through stunning Indigenous design.
David Williams, top, creates culturally appropriate Indigenous designs.
MEANINGFUL Aboriginal designs are being created by a new unique agency to help organisations communicate with an Indigenous Australian audience.
David Williams, who graduated from QUT in 2005 with a Bachelor of Music, is the creative director of Indigenous design agency Gilimbaa, which specialises in individualised and culturally appropriate communication design.
Mr Williams, who is an accomplished didgeridoo player and visual artist, began the agency early in 2008 after the Western Australian Government discovered him through an art sales website he ran during his university degree, and commissioned him to create a logo and artwork for an Indigenous service.
Mr Williams took on a general manager to help him undertake the project, and Gilimbaa was born.
He said that Gilimbaa provided a full-design service, producing culturally appropriate communication material for clients, which ranged from government and community organisations to corporate bodies like banks, who were working to deliver their reconciliation action plans.
“We saw a need to provide highly effective, culturally appropriate design, especially for government,” Mr Williams said.
“People throw something that looks Indigenous on their promotional material, but not knowing their target, may use imagery that has no ties to the language group they are trying to communicate with.
“They may misunderstand Indigenous culture and how to represent it, which can cause offence.”
Mr Williams said it was very important to understand cultural protocol.
“For example, if you are trying to relate to a group of people in a particular area, it would be culturally insensitive to use design and motifs from different places in Australia,”
he said.
Mr Williams, who is the Gilimbaa creative director and a visual artist, said that as a descendant of the Wakka Wakka people of south east Queensland, he would always liaise with elders and local artists when undertaking design projects for other locations, to ensure he got the message right.
“People from different areas have their own stories. The stories are passed down through their song lines and relate to their land area,” he said.
“There’s a lot more to Aboriginal art than just ‘dots on paper’.
“It’s got depth and meaning to it and so do the designs that we create.
“As a result, there’s quite a detailed story behind what we deliver to clients. The designs tell a story, which gives a level of ownership to the client and the people who use the material.”
Gilimbaa’s designs are quite detailed in their representations.
Their web interface created for Indigenous workers at
Queensland Health uses a motif of a circle to represent bringing people together.
“Gilimbaa is a Wakka Wakka word that means ‘today’,”
he said.
“We are telling the traditions and stories of yesterday with the technology of today for the people of tomorrow.”
- Rachael Wilson
QUT recently launched a new $10.7 million research and training facility at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane that aims to lead Australia in orthopaedic, critical care and artificial organs research.
The Medical Engineering and Research Facility was officially opened by State Health Minister Stephen Robertson.
The first of its kind in Queensland, the facility will allow QUT biomedical researchers to work alongside medical specialists to develop new ways of healing and faster recovery times for a range of critical conditions.
Researchers will use this facility to tackle innovative solutions relating to joint replacements and fracture healing, as well as heart failure, back pain, spinal deformity and cancer surgery.
The facility will allow Queensland surgeons and researchers the chance to perform surgeries and test new techniques and devices on donor bodies in a stand- alone facility.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake said the facility signalled a
significant step forward, not only for QUT’s leading biomedical research team, but also for the future health of Australians.
“The opening of this research centre will mean that those 64,000 Australians who undergo hip and knee replacement surgery each year are one step closer to achieving better health outcomes,” Professor Coaldrake said.
“It will also provide in-demand
professional training programs for surgeons, general practitioners, anaesthetists, nurses and other health workers, giving vital hands- on experience.”
The state-of-the-art facility offers operating theatres, cell culture laboratories, materials testing laboratories, mechanical and electrical workshops and tele- conferencing technology which can link the centre to the world.
The Medical Engineering and Research Facility has been funded by a Queensland Government Smart State Facilities grant of $5 million in addition to $4.15 million from QUT.
The Prince Charles Hospital provided land as well as equipment and staff support.
Funding and equipment were also provided by industry partners, Medtronic and Stryker, each of whom contributed
$500,000 in cash and significant in-kind support in the form of equipment.
The Medical Engineering Research Facility is a joint facility of the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering and the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation.
- Sharon Thompson
QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
12
A one-of-a-kind medical research facility has been established by QUT at a leading Brisbane hospital.
• Bone replacement and cartilage replacement systems
• Promotion of bone healing
• Optimising spinal surgical procedures
• Augmentation for osteoporotic bone and crush fractures
• Innovative concepts for the attachment of artificial limbs
• Non-biological and biological replacement organs (eg artificial heart).
Research areas to be targeted
TESTING detergents and cosmetics on animals could soon be a thing of the past in Australia, thanks to work being done in QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI).
Three-dimensional models made up of skin cells to create a human skin equivalent could replace pig skin, which is often used to test new therapies, cosmetics and chemical consumer products.
Professor Zee Upton, pictured, a leading researcher at IHBI, said the human skin equivalent was originally developed for
use in her research into wound healing but could be used to test new products.
“Most people would go to rats and mice for lab testing, but when it comes to testing new wound therapies or products and cosmetics that go on human skin, pig skin is our closest alternative and is most often used,” she said.
“However, this is expensive, the test numbers are limited and of course there are ethical problems to consider, so using a human skin equivalent will reduce this use and possibly give more accurate results.
“Obviously, the ultimate goal is to avoid labs having to use animals altogether eventually.”
She said it could also be a useful finding because new legislation coming in next year states that any consumer products using animal products or tested on animals will not be allowed to be exported to the European Union.
She said the human skin equivalent, which was a finalist in last year’s Museum of Australia’s Eureka Prize for “Research that Contributes to Animal Protection”, was
An alternative to animal testing
Professor Ross Crawford, Professor Michael Schuetz and Queensland Health Minister Stephen Robertson at the new centre’s cadaveric facility.
QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09 13
Biomedical boost
displayed at IHBI last year.
“It showed the model we use, explained how we go about making it and how these skin equivalents are used to guide and minimise the use of animals when we develop new wound healing therapies,”
she said.
“We collect skin donated by consenting patients who have had surgery resulting in a surgical off-cut, and the skin is then processed in our laboratory to isolate the cells; once they are growing healthily again, we can bring them back together
and create the multi-component skin equivalent in the lab.
“So we deconstruct the skin and its cells and then reconstruct them – we cannot use the skin off-cuts themselves, as those cells are dying and we need to get the cells back to a state where they are growing healthily again.”
She said skin equivalents had been developed overseas, but could not be imported to Australia due to transport logistics and quarantine restrictions.
- Sharon Thompson
QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
14
KRISTYN Maguire first decided to become a journalist when she knew she wanted to uncover the untold stories.
She was further inspired when a radio series she helped to produce about the lives of asylum seekers won a United Nations Media Peace Award.
It was no surprise then that three years after graduating in early 2008, Kristyn decided to go to Manila in the Philippines on the Australian Government’s Australian Youth Ambassador for Development program.
She is now the communications jack-of-all-trades for an organisation called the Unang Hakbang Foundation (UHF) which translates into “first step”, which helps poor and homeless children gain an education.
“On the surface, Manila is a chaotic, gritty, urban landscape but once you look deeper you will soon discover that it has a real heartbeat about it, a throbbing pulse,” she said.
“The divide between rich and poor is very evident in here.
For example, Makati is the booming commerce district of Metro Manila and has some amazing modern western architecture while in stark contrast, the north coastline of the extremely polluted Pasig River is home to the sprawling shanty towns.
“Despite successive government attempts to improve living standards and demolish the shanty towns, the population of slum dwellers still continues to hover around 1.5 million.”
In the streets and slums, life is tough for children, many of whom have no parents to care for them and face a very bleak future, Kristyn said.
“One child said he had ‘no future to look forward to’, while a former adult client (whom UHF was unsuccessful in rehabilitating) said he was ‘just waiting to die’,” Kristyn said.
“To help overcome the despair of daily life, children often sniff industrial glue as a form of escapism.
“Even for the children who live in the slums life is still extremely hard. While things are improving in the Philippines, some young children are still forced to work to support their families or become the head of the households.”
Kristyn said that approximately 2.5 million elementary-aged children were not attending school, which meant that many underprivileged children were illiterate.
“In the Philippines, even to work at a business such as McDonalds you must be in college or have received a college education, and there are even height restrictions,” she said.
“Obtaining a good education is paramount to finding a
‘good’ job. Without it, most of these children would become street vendors, for example, selling cigarettes on the streets.
While an industrious cigarette vendor can earn as much or more than a daily wage earner, the work is illegal and extremely dangerous as you run between and after vehicles.”
As the public relations officer for UHF, Kristyn is in charge of all communication-related tasks for the organisation, such as website and magazine development, article writing for media, event organisation and publicity, and staff training.
“UHF provides specialised assistance through regular tutorial programs and skills-based training courses, to help children living in the streets and slums,” she said.
“We provide mentoring and teach practical skills, such as silk-screen printing and the basics of cooking, to help them find employment.
“We have peer tutorial programs, where children teach other children, and a community story-telling program, where UHF staff and children go into the slum communities and read aloud to children who do not have books or are unable to read.”
Also a photographer, Kristyn has captured the scenes of everyday life for children in the ghettos of Manila, pictured.
- Rachael Wilson
Humanitarian heart
A journalism graduate is helping underprivileged children in Manila’s urban slums.
Q
UARTER-LIFE crises are real. A couple of them are played out in 25 Down the winning entry in the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award 2008-09 written by Queensland’s newest playwriting star, QUT graduate Richard Jordan.As part of the prize 25 Down will be performed by Queensland Theatre Company in June this year.
Richard, pictured, who has a QUT MA (Research - Playwriting) said his first play is a “sad comedy” that focuses on the main character, James, a 25-year-old art school dropout, who’s on a downward spiral.
“It looks at the disparities between James’ experience as a young gay man and those of an older man who did it tough
before the gay laws changed,” Richard says.
“James is taking his life for granted and throwing it away.
He is having a quarter-life crisis, just treading water.”
25 Down has been carefully honed over 18 months into a tight, witty drama that’s very much in the here-and-now. It was begun in London when Richard was undertaking the prestigious Royal Court Theatre playwriting course.
“The Royal Court Theatre is a mecca for new playwrights – a lot of the British greats have come out of there. I started writing it there and did the first two drafts. I knew I was coming home so I sent the manuscript in for the award and got shortlisted. Winning the award was a wonderful welcome home.”
Just write Two emerging writers have drawn on “young people in crisis” as the basis for award- winning pieces of work.
I
N ANOTHER win for QUT writing graduates, the author of a book about growing up on a housingcommission estate won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award 2008-
09 for best manuscript by an emerging Queensland writer.
Amy Vought Barker, a QUT creative writing graduate
and researcher with the ARC Centre for Excellence
in Creative Industries and Innovation based at QUT,
was awarded the prize for her story Omega
Park.
Ms Barker, pictured, said Omega Park, a story five years in the writing, was inspired partly by her own experiences of growing up in public housing and partly by a succession
of riots that
coincided with a formative stage of the tale.
“I wrote the first 10,000 words of Omega Park for the final project of my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at QUT, and with it I won a Varuna Award for manuscript development to undertake a residency and masterclass at the Writers’ House in the Blue Mountains,”
she said.
“Around that time, three incidents of riots took place:
the Redfern riots in 2004, the Macquarie Fields riots and the Paris riots in 2005. I was deeply disturbed by a tragic set of events that seemed to be repeating with eerie similarity both in Australia and overseas.
“They all happened in isolated public housing estates, where young people were being chased, or thought they were being chased, by the police and died while trying to escape, sparking riots by angry communities.”
Ms Barker said parallel narratives of two individual boys threaded the storyline of Omega Park, set on the Gold Coast.
As part of winning the manuscript award, Omega Park will be published by University Press, making it Ms Barker’s first published story.
- Niki Widdowson and Rachael Wilson
QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
16 update Research
Koalas calls go mobile
High-tech monitoring through Microsoft Smartphones is helping scientists discover the secrets of deep koala calls. QUT IT researchers from the Microsoft QUT eResearch Centre are collaborating with a koala researcher from University of Queensland to provide the remote-controlled, solar-powered sensors which transport the bellows from the remote St Bees Island off the coast of Mackay, across the Telstra NextG network, and into a Brisbane laboratory. The microphones connected to the smart phones monitor the island’s acoustic environment for two minutes every half hour. Information gathered through the smart phones is fed to an acoustic database where the QUT researchers are developing software which will automatically recognise the koalas’ calls.
Mobile heart monitor wins recognition
An innovative project that lets heart patients undertake supervised exercise at home using a mobile phone, miniature heart monitor and GPS device, has been recognised in a prestigious international competition. The “Cardiomobile”
system, developed by scientists and engineers at QUT and
Gold Coast-based company Alive Technologies, was the winner of the inaugural Australian leg of the European Satellite Navigation Competition, last year. The unique Cardiomobile monitoring system allows people who have been in hospital for a heart attack or heart surgery to undergo a six-week walking exercise rehabilitation program wherever it’s convenient, while having their heart signal, location and speed monitored in real time. This approach was taken because 80 per cent of cardiac patients never complete recommended hospital outpatient rehabilitation programs.
New biofuel research facility
A new, unique biofuel research testing facility at QUT will help speed up the race to drastically reduce Australia’s carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. Australia’s only biofuel engine research facility, which opened late last year at QUT, will enable testing of a range of biofuels, from used cooking oil to algae, and new engine technologies with the aim of producing engines tailor-made for particular biofuels. The aim will be to provide engine manufacturers with the information they need to build the most efficient tailor-made engines for particular fuels.
Healthy tissue saved by innovative concept
Small body movements that occur while breathing are enough to cause unnecessary damage to healthy tissue when treating cancerous tumours with radiotherapy, but a unique solution has been invented by QUT physics lecturer Professor Christian Langton, pictured. Professor Langton was awarded first place for his concept in an ideas competition run by QUT’s commercialisation company bluebox. When a person is about to undergo radiotherapy, their body is scanned to ensure that radiation is sent to the right points in their body. However, simple bodily functions like breathing can move tumours away from the radiation during treatment and cause damage to the healthy tissue while leaving parts of the tumours untreated. Professor Langton has formulated a method for radiation delivery that uses dynamic ultrasound imaging which he anticipates could negate the problem of tissue movement.
UQ’s Dr Bill Ellis and Richard Mason from QUT.
Biofuel engineer Dr Richard Brown.
Cardiomobile co-developer Dr Charles Worringham.
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QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
Milking education out of mobiles
It might look like they are playing with their mobile phones, but high school students are learning like they never have before with a new game designed by QUT researchers. The Mobile Learning Kit, or “MiLK”, is a unique SMS treasure hunt game that uses simple web and mobile technologies to connect students with curriculum in everyday environments. MiLK has been so successful in helping students learn, it was named a top three finalist in the International Handheld Learning innovation competition.
Staying connected: Students using the Mobile Learning Kit, right, and creator Deb Polson.
Plato for the playground
Teaching philosophy to primary students has been so revolutionary for one Brisbane school that QUT will undertake a nation-first step by adding the subject to its Bachelor of Education degree. Buranda State School, in Brisbane’s inner south, was transformed when principal Lynne Hinton, a 2007 Outstanding Alumni Award winner, added philosophy to the school’s
curriculum 10 years ago.
Evidence that teaching philosophy has made a positive difference to the school’s numeracy and literacy standards has prompted QUT to make philosophy part of the early childhood and primary strands of the QUT Bachelor of Education from 2009.
Jamming robot puts the rhythm into algorithm
Professional and aspiring musicians may soon have an alternative to worn-out, inflexible karaoke-style backing tracks and drum machines with a new digital program created at QUT. Creative industries PhD researcher Toby Gifford has
created an artificial musical accompanist, called Jambot, which can listen to music and improvise musical rhythms and melodies to it. Mr Gifford is expecting
to complete his PhD next year and will look at the commercialisation of Jambot after that.
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QUT has dominated the prestigious Australian Learning and Teaching Council’s (ALTC) latest round of Australian Awards for University Teaching, winning more awards for teaching excellence than any other university in Australia.
QUT won three teaching excellence awards and two program awards, building on great previous success with ALTC (formerly the Carrick Institute) Awards.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake said the awards recognised continued excellence, and that QUT is leading the way in teaching quality and innovation.
“I am delighted with the success of our staff in receiving these awards, and the fact that QUT is performing so strongly in these national teaching awards is testament to the ongoing commitment we have to giving students the best university experience possible,” he said.
Neville Bonner Award for Indigenous Education Ms Beryl Meiklejohn, lecturer, Faculty of Health
As an Indigenous lecturer in health at QUT, Beryl Meiklejohn embeds Indigenous content throughout the courses across all years.
She teaches students to look at contemporary issues like the Northern Territory intervention to better equip them when working with Indigenous patients.
“I have always felt we shouldn’t just have one-off lectures or
tag-ons about Indigenous health, but make it part of everyday practice, so that it is part of a holistic learning experience,” Ms Meiklejohn said.
National Teaching Excellence Award Dr Allan Chay, director, Legal Practice Unit
With enthusiastic support from the university, Allan Chay not only excels in teaching and curriculum design for legal practice, but has pioneered interactive online course delivery.
“I think the most important thing about training new lawyers is to try and make the training as authentic as possible.
I design learning tasks to simulate real life situations as closely as I can, whether that is a letter to a client or making a presentation to court,” Dr Chay said.
National Teaching Excellence Award Dr Lisa Chopin, senior lecturer, Faculty of Science
Lisa Chopin uses a student-centred approach to her teaching, preferring to call her work “student learning”. She achieves this by getting her physiology students involved, asking them to run classes and teach themselves by marking each others’ papers and discussing and debating answers. The large volume of content in science makes this particularly challenging.
“It’s very rewarding to see science students having passionate arguments about physiology,” Dr Chopin said.
When it comes to teaching excellence, QUT is in a class of its own.
Below, left to right, Suzanne Sheppard, Judy Peacock, Julian Kapitzke and Peter Fell.
Right, Lisa Chopin, centre, with students.
QUT teaching a class above
QUT teachin g a class above
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QUTLINKS FEBRUARY ’09
Teachers make the highest grade Earlier this year, another host of enthusiastic and talented QUT staff members received eight Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the prestigious Australian Learning and Teaching Council.
The entire QUT Careers and Employment Team, eight lecturers and a professional staff member received the citations.
Teaching and learning award winners, Sandy Sacre, opposite page, Beryl Mieklejohn, left, and Allan Chay, below.
Flexible Learning and Teaching
Ms Judy Peacock, Mr Kurt Vollmerhause, Mr Peter Fell, Ms Suzanne Sheppard, Mr Julian Kapitzke
With a focus on flexibility, a QUT library services team has developed a range of high quality online products for teaching and learning. They pioneered an online information skills tutorial (PILOT) for students that has been used and adapted worldwide. They also provided an online course in information literacy (AIRS) for research students as an alternative to an on-campus unit.
“Student feedback makes it very worthwhile. Comments like
‘Pilot is the best information literacy tutorial I have come across’
are very gratifying,” Ms Sheppard said.
Innovation in Curricula Learning and Teaching Dr Robyn Nash, Dr Sandy Sacre, Ms Beryl Meiklejohn (Faculty of Health)
The award-winning Yapunyah program embeds Indigenous perspectives across health courses at QUT. Whether QUT students end up working in Indigenous or mainstream health settings, this project ensures they will be in a better position to provide relevant care to Indigenous people.
“We regard winning this award as very significant because our work enables students to contribute positively toward improving Indigenous health outcomes,” Dr Sacre said.
- Sharon Thompson
QUT teaching a class above
1. Amisha Mehta 2. Georgia Smeal 3. Rachael Field 4. Robina Xavier 5. Sharyn Pearce 6. Waveney Croft 7. Zoe Pearce 8. Alan McAlpine 9. Pamela Rowntree
Early in 2008, two experts in information technology were acknowledged with associate fellowships worth $80,000 from the Carrick Institute (now the Australian Teaching and Learning Council).
Professor Christine Bruce and Associate Professor Helen Partridge are using the fellowships to undertake research to further enhance the learning of QUT students.
Christine Bruce Helen Partridge
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
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50 years of memories
QUT’s Golden Graduates had two events to keep them in touch with their college friends of a half century ago or more on Saturday, November 8 last year.
As well as the huge annual morning tea at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre hosted by QUT, the 50-year reunion of 1958 Teachers’ Training College Golden Graduates was held in the evening at Beadles Restaurant on Kelvin Grove campus.
1958ers’committee coordinator Bailey Pashley said it was very special that grads had been able to gather with people they had not spoken to or seen for fifty years.
“It was so good, we wished we could have done it again the following week,” he said.
The Golden Graduates morning tea is sponsored by AVEO Live Well and Malouf Group Pharmacies.
Top honour
QUT’s graduate magazine Links took out a national award for excellence at the 8th ADAPE Australasia Biennial International Conference held in Brisbane last year. ADAPE is the peak organisation representing advancement professionals in the education sector.
QUT’s Outstanding Alumni Awards program was also recognised with a national award for excellence.
Nursing a 30-year dream
It’s been 30 years since QUT welcomed its first intake of nursing students.
When courses commenced in 1978 with 51 students enrolled in what was then known as the Diploma of Applied Science (Nursing), it represented a time of transition in nursing education which saw the shift in nurse training move from the hospitals into higher education.
Back then the university was known as QIT (Queensland Institute of Technology) and the School of Nursing was based at Gardens Point.
In 1992 the school moved across to Kelvin Grove and this year it has 2600 students and 45 academic staff, spread across two campuses, with the Caboolture campus opening in 2007.
Today, the School of Nursing offers a range of courses covering all aspects of nursing and midwifery including intensive care, emergency nursing, acute care, women’s health, ageing, cancer care and paediatrics.
Last September, QUT students past and present joined with members of the nursing fraternity to celebrate the school’s three decades at a range of events.
Clockwise, from top, sisters Betty and
Pat Roberts, 1958 committee members
Carmel Pryde, Frank Hennessy and Bailey
Pashley, John Patty and 1958ers Kay Dunn and Danny
Ryhne.
QUT nursing students Troy Wills, Gemma O’Brien and Charina Flaherty.
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jULIE mANNIoN, ALUmNI RELAtIoNS mANAgER
alumni NE w S
chapt er and gro up ne ws
Recent alumni events
n Welcome to new Alumni Board
More than 50 alumni and friends of the university attended the recent QUT Alumni Board AGM and volunteer reception. The Alumni Board completed its four-year term last year. Elections took place to fill positions on QUT Council and the Alumni Board.
Marisa Vecchio was elected President of the Alumni Board and to QUT Council, Brett Hooker was elected to QUT Council, and Wei-Loong Chen, Marie-Claire Grady, Morag Hocknull and Jennifer Robertson were elected to the Alumni Board for a two-year term, whilst Marisa and Brett will serve four-year terms.
n Alumni Service Awards Two QUT alumni were recognised for their outstanding service to the university with the presentation of Alumni Service Awards at the Alumni Board AGM and volunteer reception. Amanda Newbery, BBus (Journalism) and Grad Dip Communication, and Bill Deans, Diploma of Teaching in Early Childhood Education, have both made significant contributions to
QUT and have helped advance the alumni program through the generous commitment of their time, energy and expertise.
n 1973 Kedron Park Teachers’ College Reunion More than 170 graduates from the class of 1973 reunited to celebrate 35 years since graduation. A full weekend program was put together that included visiting places that held special memories for the graduates.
A special reunion song and poem were written for the occasion. www.kptc1973reunion.com
Upcoming alumni events
n An event for the Malaysia Alumni will be held on Saturday, April 18, 2009, in conjunction with the international graduation ceremony.
n A Singapore Alumni event will be held on Wednesday, April 22, 2009, in conjunction with the international graduation ceremony.
n The Outstanding Alumni Awards Ceremony will be held on Wednesday, July 22, 2009.
n The Golden Graduates Reunion will be held on Saturday, November 7, 2009.
For more information on 2009 activities and other QUT Alumni Chapters and Groups, click on the Chapters link at: www.alumni.qut.edu.au or visit the QUT Alumni Facebook page.
Join Our Alumni E-Newsletter
for special offers, alumni events and activities, QUT and alumni news.How to contact the alumni office: Web www.alumni.qut.edu.au E [email protected] P +61 7 3138 1843 Fax +61 7 3138 1514 Mail QUT Alumni GPO Box 2434, Brisbane Q 4001, Australia
Services and benefits for QUT alumni
On the address sheet with this issue of QUT Links, you will find details outlining various services and benefits that are now available exclusively to QUT alumni, including NAB@work which offers a range of preferential retail banking and wealth management benefits, discounts at QUT Bookshops, library membership (including borrowing and online
databases) and performances at the QUT Gardens Theatre.
Are you moving interstate?
If you are moving interstate to Sydney or Melbourne, the QUT alumni chapters would be glad to welcome you. Getting involved with the alumni is a great way to stay connected and network with other alumni. For more information, contact the alumni office at [email protected] and we’ll help you get connected.
New alumni groups
The alumni program at QUT continues to grow with more than 26 alumni chapters and groups now established worldwide.
Some of the recently established groups include:
• Optometry Alumni
• China Alumni.
For more information about all of the chapters and groups, visit the alumni website www.alumni.qut.edu.au.
Outgoing President Brett Hooker, and newly elected Board President, Marisa Vecchio
