Australia is the only developed country in the world where children are suffering from trachoma, an endemic bacterial eye infection.
This is one of the key discussion points to be raised by Associate Professor Anne Roiko at the World Science Festival next week, as part of its Water Talks: The Dirt on water and disease.
Not unlike the common ‘pink-eye’ or conjunctivitis, repeated reinfection of trachoma, combined with the body’s immune reaction, often has devastating consequences.
In some of Australia’s remote indigenous populations, up to one in 20 children can be affected by the condition, which is preventable with adequate sanitation and clean water.
“Everyone in the world should ave access to clean, safe water and adequate sanitation but unfortunately this is not the case for all Australians,” Associate Professor Roiko from Griffith’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland said.
“This country has not yet taken up and engaged with the 17 sustainable development goals as laid down
Category: Griffith University Feed
New national anti-corruption watchdog needed
A call to establish a national anti-corruption commission with wide-ranging powers, is one of the key outcomes generated from the National Integrity Conference held in Brisbane this week.
Professor David Grant (Pro Vice Chancellor Business) welcomes attendees to the TI conference 2017
The conference, co-hosted by Transparency International Australia and Griffith University’s School of Government and International Relations, heard from an array of guest speakers, including High Court Justice Stephen Gageler, NAB whistleblower Dennis Gentilin and Queensland Attorney General Yvette D’Ath.
The two-day think tank ended with the release of a discussion paper canvassing key issues for the design of a federal anti-corruption commission as part of a fresh assessment of Australia’s systems of integrity, accountability and anti-corruption.
Professor A J Brown, leader of the Australian Research Council Linkage Project ‘Strengthening Australia’s National Integrity System: Priorities for Reform’, said the paper will stimulate debate on the big questions about the purpose, role and powers of any new federal agency.
“With momentum
World Water Day: balancing the needs of humans and nature
We all know water is important, but have you ever thought about how our consumption of this precious resource affects the environment around us?
Leading water experts will tackle complex issues associated with a resource 1.2 billion people lack access to when World Science Festival Brisbane launches next week coinciding with World Water Day.
ARI Director Professor Stuart Bunn
Professor Stuart Bunn, director of Griffith’s Australian Rivers Institute, says ‘Water: It’s Not a Privilege‘ discussion will address important issues.
“The major challenge for science and society is to balance the water needs for humans and nature,” he said.
“How do we meet basic human needs for safe drinking water and water supply for food production – yet also ensure that aquatic ecosystems and other services they provide are protected?
“Our science is showing we cannot sustain the old ways of water management – ‘to impair then repair’.
“We need a new approach to tackle problems of water supply
Law Futures research – finding solutions to 21st century problems
Griffith University launched the Law Futures Centre at South Bank campus on Wednesday, March 22.
Acting Director and international lawyer Professor Don Anton says the centre’s researchers are already responding to 21st century challenges to law and legal institutions.
“Griffith Law School is placed in the top 50 law schools in the world and research in law is a key strength of the University,’’ he said.
“The centre will continue to leverage off these strengths and expand our research presence nationally and internationally. It will undertake interdisciplinary research responsive to domestic and global change.”
Two of the current nine Australian Research Council Future Fellows in law, Professor Elena Marchetti and Associate Professor Susan Harris-Rimmer, feature in the line-up of the Centre’s staff from Griffith Law School – with other academics from law, environmental sciences, international relations, business, health, criminology and humanities.
The centre’s four research programs focus on solving legal problems posed in the areas of:
Law,
The Nathan Dash to get hearts racing
Take your marks. Get set. Go.
That command will ring out around Campus Heart next week as the Nathan Dash is run and won on Tuesday, March 28
Open to staff and students, the 660m sprint goes through the centre of campus, starting at the Campus Heart travelling along the Johnson path, through the underpass to The Hub circling down past the Centre for Interfaith and Cultural Dialogue and returning back down the Johnson path to finish where it began.
The Nathan Dash 2014
Griffith Sport Marketing Coordinator Lana Mastop said the event continues to grow after being brought back in 2014 after an eight year hiatus.
“It promotes the fantastic fitness culture at Griffith that is nurtured by the University’s many sporting facilities.
“We’re confident the event will attract a combination of highly trained competitors and those just looking for a fun way to participate with their colleagues and peers.”
The Nathan Dash will offer the winning participant
Robots: threat or friends?
Technology superstars like Bill Gates and Elon Musk have described Artificial Intelligence as “humanity’s biggest existential threat” with the potential to “destroy us all”.
But Griffith University’s senior lecturer in ICT, Dr David Tuffley, doesn’t think we need to worry.
“The reality of it is if you can your head straight with this whole idea then there’s plenty of opportunities for people to do great things,” he said.
“Some countries like Japan are already getting quite dependent on robots to do all sorts of things.
“In the west we’re coming along pretty fast with that because there are lots of jobs that people don’t want to do. They’re either dirty, remote, or poorly paid, or for whatever reason they’re hard to get people to do, and these are the jobs robots are moving into.”
Dr Tuffley will share his insights into our future living with smart machines at a main stage event at World Science Festival
GRIDD Director honoured with Wunderly Oration Medal
Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery’s (GRIDD) Director Professor Jennifer Martin is the second woman to receive the prestigious Wunderly Oration Medal in its 27 year history for her work promoting women in science.
Professor Martin was awarded the medal when she delivered the oration at the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) Annual Scientific Meeting in Canberra this week.
Professor Martin was invited to speak at TSANZ on the value of gender equity in scientific research globally.
The Wunderly Oration honours the memory of Sir Harry Wyatt Wunderly, the first Commonwealth Director of Tuberculosis, and has been presented at TSANZ meetings since 1988.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be the 2017 Wunderly Orator and to be recognised outside my own field for my achievements,” Professor Martin said.
Professor Jennifer Martin in the lab with her staff. Credit: Desley Pitcher
Notably, GRIDD (formerly the Eskitis Institute) has a female director and four of its six member leadership
Griffith grad raising mental health awareness in world of work and study
Griffith graduate Ingrid Ozols
A passion for improving mental health in the workplace has been the fuel behind the successful career of Griffith University graduate Ingrid Ozols.
The founder and managing director of Melbourne-based mental health service mh@work, Ingrid’s passion is in providing essential workplace mental health and training services.
Now EPIC, a not-for-profit disability employment service, is commencing a wide roll-out of the mh@work program including face-to-face Managing Mental Health in the Workplace workshops, with content created by Ms Ozols.
Uni Mental Health and Awareness Week
The move comes as Griffith gets ready to host its annual Uni Mental Health and Awareness Week (March 27-31) with events across its five campuses.
Ms Ozols completed a Masters of Suicidology with Griffith’s Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention in 2015 and wants to support employers to “be brave” by removing the fear of employing people with mental health challenges and disabilities.
“There’s still a lot of stigma around
Griffith ramps up world-first malaria vaccine campaign
Griffith University’s fight towards a cure for one of the world’s most deadly diseases is edging closer after human clinical trials of a malaria vaccine developed by the Institute for Glycomics were a success.
Researchers have shown the world-first whole blood-stage malaria parasite vaccine PlasProtecT®, tested in collaboration with the Gold Coast University Hospital, is safe and induces an immune response in humans.
Now efforts are turning to an international fundraising campaign to enable further evaluation of the vaccine in clinical trials, before researchers can shift their focus to malaria endemic countries.
The Malaria Vaccine Project, officially launched by His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd), Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, aims to raise $500,000 to get the research to the next stage through Rotary fundraising efforts.
Speaking at the Institute on Monday (March 27), Sir Cosgrove said the work represented Australian science and innovation at its very best.
“This is
Bullying and harassment in the workplace: Australian universities
The act of harassment and bullying is a very real and serious concern in workplaces across the country, and according to a study by members of the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing, the same can be said of staff members at Australian universities.
In 2011, Professor Glenda Strachan helped conduct a survey of permanent and fixed-term staff across 19 Australian universities. She found that from the over 22,000 responses, one-quarter of them had experienced harassment or bullying at work in the previous five years, with the women academic staff being the highest rates.
“Thirty five per cent of women academic staff said they had experienced an instance of harassment or bullying in the previous five years in their workplace,” said Professor Strachan.
“Women were more likely to report this than men, by about a ten per cent difference.”
About 40 per cent of those who reported their harassment said they had taken or