Ben and Dr Ian Henry, Leader of the Scientific Computing Facility at Max Planck Institute, investigating the structure of a new promising anticancer target generated by Ben in the MPI-CBG 3D virtual reality cave.

Taking the next step in his research career is what Dr Ben Lewis achieved by successfully applying for a 2018 Senior Research Fellowship in Medicine at the Technische Universität Dresden (Technical University of Dresden, TUD), Germany.

Only three Senior Research Fellows in Medicine were awarded in 2018, and of the 25 Senior Research Fellowships awarded by TUD in 2018, only three were from Australia.

Ben's interests are focused on using the 3-dimensional (3D) structure and chemical composition of enzymes to understand drug metabolism and to develop new drugs. As a Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer researcher, Ben is devoted to researching the biochemical and molecular processes involved in the initiation and progression of cancer and how these processes can be targeted for the design of new anticancer agents.

"I’ve been extremely fortunate to form a number of key collaborations at the Carl Gustav Carus University hospital and the Max Plank Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics [MPI-CBG], one of which has opened up a further collaboration in Italy with the Department of Experimental Medicine at the University of Perugia, from my time spent in Dresden," said Ben.

"I have already submitted one research grant with my German colleagues, but my real aim is to secure large Commonwealth funding through the NHMRC and secure some internal Flinders funding so I can establish a 'Structural Biology and Molecular Targets Laboratory'.”

Ben has published 40 articles, comprising 762 citations, with a h-index of 14. His principal areas of interest are breast cancer, prostate cancer, and metastatic melanoma research in addition to characterising the structure-function relationships of drug metabolizing enzymes.

(Left to Right): Dr Ben Lewis, Prof Peter Spieth (Anesthesiology and Intensive Care; TUD), Assoc Prof Roman Rodionov (Internal Medicine and Angiology; TUD), and Prof Norbert Weiss (Director TUD Centre for Vascular Medicine)

Dr Ben Lewis

Dr Ben Lewis is a medical researcher at Flinders University whose interests are focused on developing innovative methods of drug therapy, including a gene directed pro-drug therapy model for targeted cancer treatment. Ben has been an integral part of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at Flinders University since 2002 with his research focussed on the molecular determinants of diversity in drug and chemical metabolism. Ben completed his PhD in 2011 under the supervision of Flinders' Professor John Miners and was successively awarded a Flinders University Research Fellowship.

T: 8204 4031
E: ben.lewis@flinders.edu.au
Campus: Flinders Medical Centre
College: Medicine and Public Health
Role: Lecturer/researcher in Pharmacology

This is a feature for Inspiring Research where we profile Flinders’ Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in our ECR Spotlight. This initiative appears regularly and aims to connect our research community and strengthen research communications within the University. You will get insight into who our ECRs are and how their research and achievements are making a difference.

The featured ECRs welcome dialogue, debate, and conversation and we hope that it may shape future intra-, inter- and/or trans-disciplinary collaboration with Flinders’ colleagues. Please feel free to comment on their spotlight, and/or contact them directly. Also, you can contact the ECR Spotlight coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, with your queries and comments.

Inspiring Research is profiling recipients of the inaugural Flinders University Impact Seed Funding Grants – awarded July 2018.

Today we’re meeting Dr David Smith, College of Medicine and Public Health, and highlighting aspects of his research project "Conceptualising and quantifying psychological treatment pathways for borderline personality disorder: a Bayesian network approach".

David’s project aims to innovatively use a Bayesian Network approach on effective Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) psychological treatment pathways.

BPD is a serious mental illness that can cause a lot of suffering. There is a desperate need for development of best care pathways for up to 68,000 South Australians with the debilitating psychiatric disorder.

The network would describe how states of BPD such as symptoms, environmental, and social factors are related by probabilities to potential treatment outcomes. This tool would support decision analysis for mental health clinicians working in the community and hospital emergency departments.

Flinders University Impact Seed Funding Grants provide an opportunity for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to develop their careers and enable key research projects or promotion of research outcomes. Flinders University has partnered with our community of donors to provide the opportunity for ECRs to receive financial support to develop and fortify their skill sets. Our supporters want to make a difference by building our researchers’ capacity and capabilities to make a positive impact. Please contact Dr Marina Delpin if you wish to know more about this initiative.

The Masters of Education (Leadership and Management) attracts a significant number of International students. They travel to Australia for two years, usually with a deeply held desire to learn about how they might improve the lives of colleagues, and communities, in some way, when they return home.

Four years ago, when teaching within that program, I began to question the assumed unproblematic nature of the presentation of Western leadership and management theories/models to diverse students without understanding the diversity.

As it turns out, the expectations, by International students, that overseas study is designed to facilitate the transport of Western theory to their country, as the solution, makes the indigenous knowledge they bring, struggle to appear. Few students question transferability, yet the transference of Western-based theories may actually be of limited value to the real concerns and issues associated with the management of organisations in other countries and other cultures.

Over the last four years, I have redesigned a topic within the Masters of Education (Leadership and Management) course through a number of phases of both conceptual and pedagogical research, which builds on the ideas of Raewyn Connell (Southern Theory) and the Portuguese intellectual and sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos (abyssal thinking, cognitive justice and intercultural translation).

Santos (2016) argues that, in aiming to transform the world in some way, we benefit from a diversity of perspectives, which exceeds a limited Western understanding of the world. Rather than subscribing to a single, universal and abstract hierarchy among knowledges, cognitive justice favours context dependent hierarchies of knowledges.

For International students to contemplate social transformation in their home country, we need to prepare the ground for students thinking about the knowledges they bring, and the importance of unique contextual and cultural factors. Such a dialogue with students, learns from local knowledges without conferring lower status because of differences and the assumption of one universal Western worldview. Intercultural translation allows for dialogue and interpretations across cultures, at the same time as raising the awareness of reciprocal incompleteness of knowledges –“one foot in one culture and the other in another” (Santos, 2016, p. 219). Through such a dialogue, non-Western and indigenous understandings have a place and a voice.

To read about the topic re-design and future plans, exploring cognitive justice and rethinking the teaching of educational leadership with International students, please see my paper which was published in the Journal Studies in Continuing Education.

Dr Bev Rogers

Dr Bev Rovers is a Lecturer in Leadership and Management within the Masters of Education program at Flinders University. Bev was previously a secondary principal in both country and disadvantaged areas of Adelaide, and Director of Teaching and Learning within the Department of Education and Child Development, prior to joining Flinders University in 2014. Her research interest is in rethinking and challenging current dominant and culturally limited Western models of educational leadership. Her current research focuses on the impacts of professional learning on leaders’ practice and exploring culturally sensitive leadership interactions in diverse contexts.

T: 8201 3445
E: bev.rogers@flinders.edu.au
Campus: Bedford Park
College: Education, Psychology and Social Work
Role: Lecturer/researcher in Educational Leadership

This is a feature for Inspiring Research where we profile Flinders’ Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in our ECR Spotlight. This initiative appears regularly and aims to connect our research community and strengthen research communications within the University. You will get insight into who our ECRs are and how their research and achievements are making a difference.

The featured ECRs welcome dialogue, debate, and conversation and we hope that it may shape future intra-, inter- and/or trans-disciplinary collaboration with Flinders’ colleagues. Please feel free to comment on their spotlight, and/or contact them directly. Also, you can contact the ECR Spotlight coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, with your queries and comments.

Inspiring Research will be profiling recipients of the inaugural Flinders University Impact Seed Funding Grants – awarded July 2018.

Today we’re meeting Dr Linlin Ma, College of Medicine and Public Health, and highlighting aspects of her research project "Targeting hEAG1 channel with gold nanoparticles for diagnostic imaging and targeted treatment of colorectal cancer".

Linlin’s project aims to develop the potassium ion channel hEAG1 as a biomarker for gold nanoparticle -based diagnostic imaging and targeted chemotherapeutic treatment for Colorectal cancer (CRC). As CRC is well known for its very low chemotherapy success rate and acquired resistance, any new method of improving this success rate would be welcomed.

CRC is the third most frequently diagnosed malignancy and the fourth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. The global burden of CRC is expected to increase by 60% to more than 2.2 million new cases and 1.1 million deaths by 2030. It is particularly a problem in Australia/New Zealand, as we have the highest morbidity in the world. The current treatments rely on surgery and chemotherapy and are a considerable burden for patients physically, psychologically and economically.

Moreover, a rising incidence of CRC in younger individuals has opened an urgent need for non-invasive screening methods with improved accuracy to substitute the inaccurate stool test and the invasive colonoscopy. Nanoparticle-based technologies are considered a promising strategy with the potential to revolutionise cancer diagnosis and treatments. Impact Seed Grant funding will enable testing of the feasibility of the idea and generate solid preliminary data, and, in doing so, showcase the huge potential of the novel approach for further explorations for cancer treatment and survivability.

Linlin will be working with her research mentor Professor Ross McKinnon, College of Medicine and Public Health, who will provide expertise in molecular oncology and bring a broad knowledge of cancer research to the project. As the project is multidisciplinary, integrating the research fields of ion channel biology, nanotechnology, and molecular oncology, Linlin will also be collaborating with nanotechnology researchers Professor Joe Shapter and Associate Professor Ingo Koper, Flinders’ College of Science and Engineering.

Flinders University Impact Seed Funding Grants provide an opportunity for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to develop their careers and enable key research projects or promotion of research outcomes. Flinders University has partnered with our community of donors to provide the opportunity for ECRs to receive financial support to develop and fortify their skill sets. Our supporters want to make a difference by building our researchers’ capacity and capabilities to make a positive impact. Please contact Dr Marina Delpin  if you wish to know more about this initiative.

In each issue of Inspiring Research we will be profiling recipients of the inaugural Flinders University Impact Seed Funding Grants – awarded July 2018.

Today we’re meeting Dr Catherine Attard, College of Science and Engineering, and highlighting aspects of her research project "Conservation genomics of the world’s largest animal, the blue whale" that has been awarded a 2018 Impact Seed Grant.

Catherine’s project will use cutting-edge genomic techniques to address ecological and conservation-orientated questions about the world’s largest animal, the blue whale. It aims to accurately determine the number, distribution, degree of connectivity and adaptive evolution of subspecies and populations in the species worldwide. The project will have a global impact by informing the national and international management of the species. Such scientific-based conservation is crucial to promote the recovery of blue whales from 20th century whaling.

More broadly, Catherine conducts genomic research to answer fundamental questions in ecology and evolution, and applies those answers to management and conservation. She is a key member of the Molecular Ecology Lab and the Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab at Flinders, where she works with research leaders Professor Luciano Beheregaray and Associate Professor Luciana Möller. Luciana and Catherine together developed a long-standing research program on endangered blue whales, with the Impact Seed Grant allowing Catherine to broaden its geographic scope and move it from genetic to more powerful genome-wide techniques. Among numerous other achievements, Catherine with the research team have developed and implemented advances to captive breeding and reintroduction programs; improved Australian fisheries management of the heavily-stocked and economically-important golden perch; and used DNA to uncover dangerous human impacts on multiple species.

Impact:

Catherine’s Impact Seed Grant research is expected to inform the management of blue whales by the International Whaling Commission, the Australian Government, and overseas nations. The latter includes management in the eastern Pacific and NZ through collaborations with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US Government, Oregon State University in the US (who conduct blue whale research in NZ), and the Centro de Conservacion Cetacea in Chile. Her research benefits the environment and, consequently, humanity due to the recreational, health, and economic value of the environment.

The project is anticipated to have widespread public and media impact. Testament to this is Catherine was recently granted a SA Tall Poppy Award for her extensive science outreach, and is a finalist for SA Tall Poppy of the Year with the winner to be announced at the SA Science Excellence Awards, Friday 10 August. Her outreach includes TV stories on 60 Minutes, ABC News 24 and children’s science show Scope, as well as numerous radio interviews. She has articles in The Conversation, popular science magazines Australasian Science, Wildlife Australia and Australian Geographic, and print newspapers The Australian, The Advertiser, and The Times. Altogether, her research has conceivably reached over one million people, and the Impact Seed funding will help continue this impressive research impact.

Flinders University Impact Seed Funding Grants provide an opportunity for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to develop their careers and enable key research projects or promotion of research outcomes. Flinders ECRs are in the right environment to breed success. Flinders University has partnered with our community of donors to provide the opportunity for ECRs to receive financial support to develop and fortify their skill sets. Our supporters want to make a difference by building our researchers’ capacity and capabilities to make a positive impact.

A keen research communicator, Dr Sam Elliott has recently participated in Flinders’ Researcher Professional Development opportunities and produced his own video abstract. Video abstracts are not a set requirement for all publishers as yet, but they are becoming more prevalent across the publishing space. They also provide a clear snapshot of the research that can be utilised by media and other social news networks to create reach beyond a published article.

The team spoke with Sam about the experience and what impact and reach it has had.

What conference did you attended?

The 6th International Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise Conference 2018, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. There were 200 delegates from all corners of the globe.

Why a video abstract?

While a video abstract was not required by the conference committee, I decided to create a one prior to attending the conference because I wanted to bring some visibility to my research area and strengthen my profile internationally before Day 1 of the conference.

Did you achieve your aim of increasing your visibility and profile at the conference?

Yes. The video abstract was posted onto my Twitter feed, with the twitter handle #QRSE2018, enabling it to reach the broader community of scholars who may not know of my work. This was two or three days prior to the conference. As a result there were some notable outcomes including an increase in followers, retweets, profile views and video abstract views (650+ views and 2000+ impressions). It was also an excellent medium for meeting new people at the conference. From day 1, I was approached by academics who had seen the video abstract and wanted to know more about my work, which allowed me to encourage them to attend my session. 

Did the Conference Organisers use you video abstract?

The conference had a strong digital media presence so my video abstract was trending on big screens during lunch and break times. The conference organising committee also said that they will look to encourage more of this work for the next biennial conference. 

Sam Elliott on Twitter

Getting excited for @QRSE2018 conference. I'm that excited, I even created a video abstract - take a look! Thanks to @ShapeResearch @Flinders @IanPotterFdn and @andyjstapleton for support! Full paper available now: https://t.co/ix12o6FfKo #QRSE2018 #sportparents https://t.co/WS7KmLbdFT

Dr Sam Elliott

Role: Lecturer in Sport, Health and Physical Activity and Member of the SHAPE Research Centre
College: Education, Psychology & Social Work
Campus: Bedford Park
E: sam.elliott@flinders.edu.au
T: +61 8 8201 3495
W: flinders.edu.au/people/sam.elliott

If you are interested in learning more about the services and support that are provided at Flinders in this area, please contact the Researcher Professional Development team.

The first animals that crawled out of water and onto land – the greatest step in evolution - had many obstacles to overcome. Multiple physical changes had to occur for these vertebrates to survive on land, including developing limbs from fins, having lungs with which to breathe air and the first appearance of fingers and toes.

The many anatomical changes to their skeleton have been well-studied, but there is less known about the changes in the brain that accompanied this transition. This group of fish are some of our earliest ancestors, and identifying changes in the shape of their brains goes in part to understanding our very own evolutionary history.

Changes in brain shape reflect reliance on various sensory abilities, and can help pinpoint the origins of certain behaviours. For example, some dinosaur skulls show “flight-ready” adaptations (large expansions for regions relating to information processing and motor control), suggesting that these dinosaurs had already evolved the capability for flight before the origin of birds. My research aims to identify similar changes at the critical juncture as fish moved from water to land, using modern scanning technology and 3D modelling software in conjunction with exceptionally-preserved 3D fossil material and living fishes. So far we have revealed that the trends that characterise lungfish brains today can be traced all the way back to the Devonian, over 400 million years ago.

Alice’s article describing the new technique for reconstructing brains in fossil animals can be accessed at Royal Society Open Science.

Dr Alice Clement

Dr Alice Clement is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Vertebrate Palaeontology Group at Flinders University. Her current research focusses on the first terrestrial vertebrates and their closest fish relatives. Alice uses exceptionally-preserved three-dimensional (3D) fossils from the Devonian “Age of Fishes” as well as living fishes to identify changes in the bodies of these animals as they made the greatest step in evolution, the first transition from water to land almost 400 million years ago.

Role: Postdoctoral Research Associate
College: Science and Engineering
Campus: Bedford Park
E: alice.clement@flinders.edu.au
T: +61 8 8201 3498

This is a new feature for Inspiring Research where we profile Flinders’ Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in our ECR Spotlight. This initiative will appear regularly and aims to connect our research community and strengthen research communications within the University. You will get insight into who our ECRs are and how their research and achievements are making a difference.

The featured ECRs welcome dialogue, debate, and conversation and we hope that it may shape future intra-, inter- and/or trans-disciplinary collaboration with Flinders’ colleagues. Please feel free to comment on their spotlight, and/or contact them directly. Also, you can contact the ECR Spotlight coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, with your queries and comments.

Imagine you are driving on a busy road and trying to pull over to a safe place whilst avoiding multiple road distractions. If you speak multiple languages, you are more likely to stay focused, ignore the distractions and succeed.

The advantages of speaking a language in addition to your native tongue have been known for some time. Recent research has revealed that the benefits of bilingualism may extend even further. Individuals have been observed to possess heightened cognitive abilities, including focused attention and inhibiting distracting information – skills that are critical for our everyday, increasingly complex lives. These studies to date, however, have failed to control for Socio Economic Status (SES) and literacy - factors that can drive superior cognitive abilities.

Our study addressed this knowledge gap by testing a group of illiterate bilinguals from low SES. Through comparing their performance on cognitive tasks to illiterate monolinguals from low SES, we found that bilingualism has a positive effect on cognitive abilities, with that group demonstrating significantly higher cognitive performance.

As bilingualism bestows positive effects over and above the effects of SES and literacy, we recommend that there is a need for maintaining bilingualism for individuals living in low SES circumstances. Bilingualism may be the only single life factor that can provide cognitive benefits for these individuals compared to higher SES bilinguals, who can be exposed to a number of positive life experiences for cognition, such as playing video games and learning music.

More information about this finding can be found in my article, co-authored with Dr Britta Biedermann and Professor Lyndsey Nickels, Effect of socio-economic status on cognitive control in non-literate bilingual speakers published by Bilingualism, Language and Cognition.

Dr Vishnu KK Nair

Dr Vishnu KK Nair is a Cognitive Scientist with a background training in Speech Pathology. He is currently a Lecturer in Speech Pathology. Vishnu is interested in examining the effects of bilingualism on cognitive and linguistic processing in bi/multilingual healthy individuals and individuals with aphasia. This research area is highly interdisciplinary and combines related fields such as cognitive neuropsycholgy, experimental psychology, psycholinguistics and speech pathology. He is also an Associate Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University.

Role: Lecturer in Speech Pathology
College: Nursing and Health Sciences
Campus: Bedford Park
E: vishnu.nair@flinders.edu.au
T: +61 8 7221 8837

This is a new feature for Inspiring Research where we profile Flinders’ Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in our ECR Spotlight. This initiative will appear regularly and aims to connect our research community and strengthen research communications within the University. You will get insight into who our ECRs are and how their research and achievements are making a difference.

The featured ECRs welcome dialogue, debate, and conversation and we hope that it may shape future intra-, inter- and/or trans-disciplinary collaboration with Flinders’ colleagues. Please feel free to comment on their spotlight, and/or contact them directly. Also, you can contact the ECR Spotlight coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, with your queries and comments.

Australia has seen a steady inflow of immigrants who are finding employment in the hotel sector, leading to these workplaces having a high ethnic diversity of staff. In spite of legislative measures that prevent discrimination, hotels still need to implement appropriate diversity management practices to manage this workforce. In doing so, workplaces can maximise the advantages of employee diversity. So, how are the successful hotels doing it?

I research how Australian medium-sized hotels manage ethnically diverse employees. These hotels, which employ 20 – 199 staff, contribute to 35% of the industry value, but are underrepresented in research.

My research revealed that hotel general managers use self-initiated informal diversity management practices. These include informal recruitment, training and development, and performance management practices. For instance managers used ‘shadow system’ training, whereby ethnically diverse new employees were paired with employees from a similar ethnic background - this led to improved workplace operational skills.

While it is interesting to note that ethnically diverse employees are managed through informal practices, it is important that these practices be formalised so that they can be sustained over the long-term, regardless of management turnover. When informal diversity practices are effective, we encourage these practices to be recorded for the long-term benefit of the hotel. By doing so, a better quality of service can maximised and challenges, such as employee turnover, can be minimised.

Dr Ashokkumar Manoharan

Dr Ashokkumar Manoharan is a Lecturer in Strategic Management in Flinders Business, College of Business, Government and Law. Ashok has an interdisciplinary educational background including a PhD in Management from UniSA and an MBA, M.Sc., and Bachelors in Hotel Management. His research area focuses on organisational culture, workforce diversity and diversity management with a particular emphasis on cultural diversity in the Australian hospitality industry. One of Ashok’s articles on managing ethnic diverse employees in Australian hotel industry can be found at Science Direct.

T: 8201 2838
E: ashokkumar.manoharan@flinders.edu.au
Campus: Bedford Park
College: Business, Government and Law 
Role: Lecturer in Strategic Management

This is a new feature for Inspiring Research where we profile Flinders’ Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in our ECR Spotlight. This initiative will appear regularly and aims to connect our research community and strengthen research communications within the University. You will get insight into who our ECRs are and how their research and achievements are making a difference.

The featured ECRs welcome dialogue, debate, and conversation and we hope that it may shape future intra-, inter- and/or trans-disciplinary collaboration with Flinders’ colleagues. Please feel free to comment on their spotlight, and/or contact them directly. Also, you can contact the ECR Spotlight coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, with your queries and comments.

Education institutions worldwide are undergoing swift transformation under the influence of neoliberalism. These moves constitute a retreat from social justice, as equity agendas are being subsumed by discourses of excellence and entrepreneurism. This presents as socially and politically benign, yet the transformations we are witnessing within and beyond sites of education are neither neutral, nor benign, but give rise to raced consequences, among others. This has implications for how teaching for social justice plays out in schools and universities.

My work with pre-service Australian teachers and higher degree research candidates leads them to examine local and global relations of race, class and gender, and how these dynamics work through schools, teachers and of modes knowledge production. My research centres on the entwined phenomena of ‘race’ and whiteness, and asks how racism in its complex contemporary forms might be transformed through education. Racism in this sense operates at multiple sites, via sophisticated means. Areas I specifically pursue, include the contemporary phenomena of super-wealth, voluntourism, remote Indigenous Education, and ethical internationalism of higher education.

To read a recent publication that explores questions of race and whiteness, please see my paper published in the Journal Race, Ethnicity and Education.

Dr Sam Schultz

Dr Sam Schulz is a lecturer in the sociology of education, coordinator of the Graduate Diploma in Research Methods, former teacher in South Australia’s Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, and editor of the Journal Critical Race and Whiteness Studies. Sam's core teaching comprises qualitative research methodologies and critical approaches to education. Her research includes; race and whiteness studies, super-wealth, ethical internationalism of higher education, and teaching for social justice. As a core body of work, Sam has explored cultural reproductions of race using white governmentality as a conceptual lens, and is extending this work to explore intersections between neoliberalism, education, and the global phenomena of voluntourism and tertiary mobility encounters.

T: 8210 5459
E: samantha.schulz@flinders.edu.au
Campus: Bedford Park
College: Education, Psychology and Social Work
Role: Lecturer, Sociology of Education

This is a new feature for Inspiring Research where we profile Flinders’ Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in our ECR Spotlight. This initiative will appear regularly and aims to connect our research community and strengthen research communications within the University. You will get insight into who our ECRs are and how their research and achievements are making a difference.

The featured ECRs welcome dialogue, debate, and conversation and we hope that it may shape future intra-, inter- and/or trans-disciplinary collaboration with Flinders’ colleagues. Please feel free to comment on their spotlight, and/or contact them directly. Also, you can contact the ECR Spotlight coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, with your queries and comments.

When we look at a global map of the Earth’s river network, fingers of blue lines appear to densely cover our continents. What that map doesn’t show is that around half of those rivers don’t have water in them for some or most of the year. These temporary rivers are a critical freshwater resource, both as a water source at the surface and as drivers of groundwater replenishment. Because temporary rivers are difficult to get to and have more complex and unpredictable hydrology, relatively little is known about how they function.

Through a combination of field measurements and computer modelling, we can learn the fundamental secrets of temporary stream hydrology. In 2014, historic environmental flows were released in the US’ Colorado River to reconnect the river to its dying delta. We evaluated what happens when water is purposefully released down a large, dry river that was once flowing all year. To promote sustainable groundwater management in our arid Australian climate, we are using similar methods to evaluate and understand what happens to infrequent flows in a Central Australian remote river. This streambed recharge of the groundwater sustains large horticulture and animal ranching operations. Closer to home, we are measuring and modelling what factors cause the temporary Pedler Creek to flow through McLaren Vale, feeding countless vineyards and supporting our highly valued wine industry.

Dr Margaret Shanafield

Dr Margaret Shanafield’s research is at the nexus between hydrology and hydrogeology. Current research interests focus on surface water-groundwater actions, as well as diverse projects that encompass international development through to fibre optics and ecohydrology. Margaret’s main passions are the use of multiple tracers to understand groundwater recharge patterns in streambeds, and understanding the dynamics of intermittent and ephemeral streamflow. Since 2015, Margaret has been an ARC DECRA fellow, measuring and modelling what hydrologic factors lead to streamflow in arid regions.

T: 8201 5129
E: margaret.shanafield@flinders.edu.au
Campus: Bedford Park
College: Science and Engineering
Role: DECRA Fellow Chief Investigator

This is a new feature for Inspiring Research where we profile Flinders’ Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in our ECR Spotlight. This initiative will appear regularly and aims to connect our research community and strengthen research communications within the University. You will get insight into who our ECRs are and how their research and achievements are making a difference.

The featured ECRs welcome dialogue, debate, and conversation and we hope that it may shape future intra-, inter- and/or trans-disciplinary collaboration with Flinders’ colleagues. Please feel free to comment on their spotlight, and/or contact them directly. Also, you can contact the ECR Spotlight coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, with your queries and comments.

Is social media a tool or a distraction? Bonafide social media science superstar Upulie Divisekera will be joined by data scientist Adam Dunn to reveal how social media can help your research career and open up new opportunities you never knew existed. The seminar will be held at the Science Exchange, 55 Exchange Place, Adelaide from 5:30 PM on Tuesday 10 October 2017.

Presented by RiAus (the Royal Institution of Australia), as part of their ECR Network which offers workshops and networking events for Early Career Researchers, this event is now open for booking.

The event will also be livestreamed at Australia's Science Channel - australiascience.tv.

Increasing effectiveness in Social Work Practice

What are the theoretical underpinnings of the social work skills used with children, adults and families? To date, theory is largely absent from the contemporary skills literature. Reviewing the literature has uncovered that there is a lack of explicit theoretical perspectives and the widespread adoption of a managerial theoretical perspective.

Even though publications in this field have content contributing to an understanding of social work skills, none of them elaborate on the process through which skills are effectively operationalised in social work practice. My research has revealed a need for qualitative case studies that explore how specific theories, and through which techniques, inform the skills underlying effective social work assessments and interventions with children, adults and families.

To read about this further, please see my paper published July 2017 in the British Journal of Social Work.

Dr George Karpetis

Dr George Karpetis is a senior lecturer in social work and the Program Director of the Masters of Social Work, at Flinders University. George completed his Masters degree in England, his PhD in Greece, and he is an accredited social worker both in England and Australia. Adopting the psychoanalytic perspective in practice, George worked as a clinical practitioner for 20 years. For the last 12 years, he has been lecturing on mental health social work and he is an editorial Board member for the Social Work Education and Psychoanalytic Social Work peer-reviewed journals. In his published research, he evaluates the effectiveness of theories in clinical, teaching and supervision practice. Currently, he is researching how child protection practice errors are generated by the implicit theories adopted by practitioners and educators.

Role: Senior Lecturer in Social Work
College: Education, Psychology and Social Work
Campus: Bedford Park
E: george.karpetis@flinders.edu.au
T: 8201 2270

This is a new feature for Inspiring Research where we profile Flinders’ Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in our ECR Spotlight. This initiative will appear regularly and aims to connect our research community and strengthen research communications within the University. You will get insight into who our ECRs are and how their research and achievements are making a difference.

The featured ECRs welcome dialogue, debate, and conversation and we hope that it may shape future intra-, inter- and/or trans-disciplinary collaboration with Flinders’ colleagues. Please feel free to comment on their spotlight, and/or contact them directly. Also, you can contact the ECR Spotlight coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, with your queries and comments.

Are you putting your friends and family at risk of foodborne illness?

In Australia, the incidence of salmonellosis, a foodborne gastrointestinal illness, has been increasing over the last decade, with eggs identified as the main cause. Flinders University researchers have found that over 50% of Australians surveyed were handling eggs in a dangerous manner when at home, putting themselves, family and friends at risk of foodborne illness.

Our study revealed the need for the general public to be educated in safe food handling practises and to raise awareness of the risks associated with raw eggs. We found that just over a third of surveyed study participants always washed their hands, and only one in three always wiped down the bench after handling raw eggs. Interestingly, there was no difference in responses between male and female participants. Participants employed as Environmental Health Officers or Food Handlers were more likely to handle eggs in the safest manner.

For more information please read the full article Knowledge and Attitudes towards Handling Eggs in the Home: An Unexplored Food Safety Issue? authored by Dr Harriet Whiley, Associate Professor Beverley Clarke and Dr Kirstin Ross published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Dr Harriet Whiley

Dr Harriet Whiley is a lecturer in Environmental Health. As an environmental microbiologist her research is aimed at informing the environmental health profession of best practice to protect human health from pathogens present in the environment. Her research areas include food safety, water quality and risk assessment.

Role: Lecturer in Environmental Health
College: Science and Engineering
Campus: Bedford Park
E: harriet.whiley@flinders.edu.au
T: 7221 8580

This is a new feature for Inspiring Research where we profile Flinders’ Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in our ECR Spotlight. This initiative will appear regularly and aims to connect our research community and strengthen research communications within the University. You will get insight into who our ECRs are and how their research and achievements are making a difference.

The featured ECRs welcome dialogue, debate, and conversation and we hope that it may shape future intra-, inter- and/or trans-disciplinary collaboration with Flinders’ colleagues. Please feel free to comment on their spotlight, and/or contact them directly. Also, you can contact the ECR Spotlight coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, with your queries and comments.

Science is more fun with others! Build your networks across universities and disciplines at this special networking event. You might even find your next collaboration! Did you know that at least 2 successful ARC grants have arisen from researchers who have met at ECR Network events? This could be the opportunity for your next research grant.

Through speed networking and open discussions you could find your next collaborator, discover some of the varied experience and research around South Australia, and have a fun time among your peers.

There'll be entertainment and free food and drink. This event always fills up quickly.

Presented by RiAus (the Royal Institution of Australia), as part of their ECR Network which offers workshops and networking events for Early Career Researchers, this event is now open for booking.

A new feature for Inspiring Research will be profiling Flinders’ Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in our ECR Spotlight. This initiative will appear monthly and aims to connect our research community and strengthen research communications within the University. You will get insight into who our ECRs are and how their research and achievements are making a difference.

The featured ECRs welcome dialogue, debate, and conversation and we hope that it may shape future intra-, inter- and/or trans-disciplinary collaboration with Flinders’ colleagues. Please feel free to comment on their spotlight, and/or contact them directly. Also, you can contact the ECR Spotlight coordinator, Dr Marina Delpin, with your queries and comments.

Giselle Rampersad - Innovation future for Australia

Giselle has an interdisciplinary educational background including a PhD in Innovation and Technology Management from the University of Adelaide Business School and an MSc in e-Business and Internet Systems from Durham University (UK). Her research area is in innovation and technology management, with a particular emphasis on devising strategies for firms in managing innovation and developing policies with governments in building innovation capacity. She is part of the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute and also researches on developing innovation skills in students. A link to one of Giselle’s articles on managing innovation within industries can be found at Science Direct.

Dr Giselle Rampersad Role: Senior Lecturer in Innovation and Entrepreneurship College: Science and Engineering Campus: Tonsley E: giselle.rampersad@flinders.edu.au T: 8201 5746

Innovate or stagnate: What will Australia look like in the future without innovation?

With the decline in traditional manufacturing, most notably the closure of car manufacturers, Australian jobs have been being lost. As a result, families are suffering. This is not the Australian dream.

The National Innovation Agenda challenges us to do more. Innovation is critical to create new products, jobs, and industries to replace the old.

My research has examined the development of innovation capabilities in firms and industries. It focuses on various sectors including defence, medical technologies, ICT, clean technology and nanotechnology. At the firm level, my research has investigated a number of factors for driving innovation, including a clear and explicit innovation strategy, partnerships, culture and processes to capture and cultivate ideas. At the industry level, it has uncovered strategies to optimise coordination, build networks and measure innovation performance.

What may be surprising is that innovation is not a whimsical, mystical process. It is too important to be left to chance. While creative thinking is a fundamental component, there is more to innovation. The most successful firms view innovation as a systematic, purposeful process that deliberately leads to the development and commercialisation of new products and services. This is important in realising our desired vision of prosperity for the future.

Applications for the Vice Chancellor's Awards for Early Career Researchers are now open. The award recognises and values the outstanding contributions to the University of individual Early Career Researchers, embarking on their research career. These awards will recognise, reward and encourage excellence in research across all Colleges.

Up to ten awards can be made each year. Each award is valued at $2,500, and should fund opportunities to broaden the recipient's networks and enhance their standing and recognition as a staff member of Flinders University.

Information on eligibility and criteria for the award, as well as the nomination form are available on the Vice Chancellor's Awards for Early Career Researchers policy page.

Nominations should be forwarded to dvc-research@flinders.edu.au or to marie.reitano@flinders.edu.au by the closing date of Tuesday 29 August 2017.

Science is more dependent on interdisciplinary collaborations than ever before. Professor Tanya Monro will share her experience and tips establishing and managing these vital and valuable partnerships at the next ECR Network workshop to be held on Tuesday 15 August 2017.

Presented by RiAus (the Royal Institution of Australia), as part of their ECR Network which offers workshops and networking events for Early Career Researchers, this event is now open for booking.

The event will also be livestreamed at Australia's Science Channel - australiascience.tv

You'll never go to a workshop as honest or useful as this. Find out from a grant examiner just what they look for, and what they don't bother reading. It'll be frank and fearless, but you'll learn from the best and find out what makes a successful grant application.

After a sell out event in 2016, Professor Alan Cooper (Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA) is back to reveal the secrets of writing a killer grant application to Australia's Early Career Researchers.

Presented by RiAus (the Royal Institution of Australia), as part of their ECR Network which offers workshops and networking events for Early Career Researchers, this event is now open for booking.

The event will also be livestreamed at Australia's Science Channel - australiascience.tv

Vice-Chancellor Professor Stirling, centre, and Deputy Vice-Chanceller (Research) Professor Robert Saint with the Early-Career Research Award recipients (from left) Dr Joshua Newman, Dr Lucinda Bell, Dr Cameron Shearer, Dr Christèle Maizonniaux, Dr Harriet Whiley, Dr Michael O’Callaghan, Dr Renee Smith, Dr Lucy Lewis.
Absent: Dr Sonja Vivienne and Dr Nikki McCaffrey.

Ten early-career researchers have been acknowledged by the Vice-Chancellor Professor Colin Stirling. The awards recognise the outstanding contributions of individual staff members to reward and encourage excellence in their research efforts.

This year’s award recipients were:

MEDICINE, NURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES:
Dr Lucinda Bell, School of Health Sciences (research focus – early childhood nutrition); Dr Lucy Lewis, School of Health Sciences (physiotherapy); Dr Michael O’Callaghan, School of Medicine (epidemiology); Dr Nikki McCaffrey, School of Medicine (palliative care).

SCIENCE & ENGINEERING:
Dr Cameron Shearer, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences (nanotechnology): Dr Harriet Whiley, School of the Environment (environmental health); Dr Renee Smith, School of Biological Sciences (microbiology).

EDUCATION, HUMANITIES & LAW:
Dr Christèle Maizonniaux, School of Humanities and Creative Arts (French); Dr Sonja Vivienne, School of Humanities and Creative Arts (digital media).

BEHAVIOURAL & SOCIAL POLICY:
Dr Joshua Newman, School of Social and Policy Studies (political science).

Up to ten awards can be made each year to PhDs to help fund opportunities for them to broaden networks and enhance their standing and recognition.

Article sourced from the Office of Communication and Engagement.