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Director's Message
Dear Colleagues,
I trust you all enjoyed another long weekend.
This week’s pic comes from the Physics of Fluids group in Centre for Plasmas and Fluids, and shows Drs. Hua Xia (left) and Sunny Hong busy in their laboratory after their recent publication in Science Advances article, “Surface waves control bacterial attachment and formation of biofilms in thin layers”. In the words of Professor Michael Shats, “this paper marks a successful start of the new research area in the School related to the physics of biomaterials.” My congratulations to the entire team and it is great to see people getting back into the lab. If your group has fresh photos from the lab please send them through to Sue. It is very pleasing to hear these stories of groups settling back into campus life.
Last Friday the DVC(RI), Professor Keith Nugent, announced the 2020 academic promotion round open. Check his email for details and I can highly recommend reviewing the College of Science Academic Performance Standard Guidelines. Please discuss your intentions concerning promotion with your supervisor and mentors at the easiest convenient time. It is well worth preparing your case with ample time.
Last week, I mentioned the need to have all hazards training up to date by the end of July. This week, Heads will be receiving a list of all their staff requiring refresher training and I request that you speak with them to ensure you can meet the end of July deadline. If you would like to check which training modules you have completed and their expiry dates please log onto https://insight.anu.edu.au/, or use the reverse proxy if you are remote (https://login.virtual.anu.edu.au/menu using the URL listed).
Finally, I would like to thank the Heads and Executive for their consideration of some remedial School budget measures to be released later this week, in step with broader University actions. I know we all understand that the ongoing impact of the pandemic will cause disruption to our usual way of business. Our measures will help build some resilience at all levels, but it is difficult to estimate at this early stage the extent of enduring impact on the tertiary sector. More than ever, now is the time to use our resources to best effect and to think laterally.
Enjoy the short week, the last one until October.
Tim | 