Fresh from a debut appearance at the World Roller Games in China, where she represented Australia, Griffith business student Rachel Beck will take to the rink again this week at the 2017 Oceania Artistic Championships.
The 19-year-old will be competing a lot closer to home this time around at the Mount Warren Sports Centre in Beenleigh where teams from China, Japan and New Zealand will also get their skates on from Thursday to Sunday (Sept 21-24).
“This is my first year competing at senior level so I was quite happy with my efforts at the world championships,” said Rachel who finished in 21st position. “The overall champion from Argentina has been a senior for 10 years.”
Rachel had the chance to fly the Australian flag after her strength, flexibility and seven months of hard work and unrelenting patience laid the groundwork for her triumph in the national championships.
Rachel, a sport management major at
Category: Griffith University Feed
Once-in-a-lifetime scholarship changes world for new Griffith student
A prestigious Griffith University and Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) Scholarship has changed the life of double degree student, Narasimhan Ravi.
The 20-year-old is thriving since his move from India to the Gold Coast to take up the exciting opportunity.
“Living here on the Gold Coast for the next four and a half years is going to be something amazing,” he says. “Home is not a place, it is a feeling. I completely feel at home here.
“People in India need to come to Australia to see just how nice the people are here.”
FIND OUT MORE: Griffith Scholarships
Narasimhan – or Naz – is studying exercise science and business at Griffith’s Gold Coast campus where his scholarship has driven him to succeed.
“The scholarship has certainly taken the burden off my dad in terms of living expenses,” he says. “It has also helped me to push myself to the limit in my studies and
Energy research the way of the future
Griffith University is taking on Tesla in developing powerful battery storage solutions that change the way people use energy.
Researchers are developing low-cost and high performance energy storage systems that will allow people to sell power back to the grid when tariffs are the highest.
Professor Eddie Zhang and Professor Junwei Lu have teamed up to combine their expertise to come up with a comprehensive energy solution and management system.
The battery system using the advanced Si and aluminium electrodes developed, as well as the innovative binding technologies developed by Professor Zhang’s team at Griffith would not only boost the energy storage capacity by more than one fold, but also convert the current lithium ion battery cell manufacturing.
Currently materials used are expensive and toxic but Griffith’s solution is low-cost and environmentally friendly.
Griffith University also has six people doing electric car research, including developing a wireless power charger.
People would be able to store their
Citations honour outstanding Griffith teachers
The 2017 Australian Awards for University Teaching, Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, have been announced by Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education and Training.
National Citations are awarded to those who have made a significant contribution to the quality of student learning in a specific area of responsibility over a sustained period, whether they are academic, general, sessional staff or institutional associates.
Citations have been awarded to five nominees from Griffith. These awards join a long tradition of acknowledgement for Griffith’s scholarly, innovative and student-centered teachers.
The University’s 2017 Citation winners are:
Professor Jennifer Gamble, School of Nursing and Midwifery
Leading midwifery education for transformative change in the provision of maternity care: A story of vision, partnership and research-led innovation.
Professor Jenny Gamble
Dr Sean Horan, School of Allied Health Sciences
For scholarly design and innovations in physiotherapy learning and teaching that promote engagement and professional capability in students.
Dr Kevin Larkin, School of Education and Professional Studies
For motivating and
Australia to lead world in protecting whistleblowers: Griffith expert
Australia can become a world leader in protecting whistleblowers if reforms recommended by a parliamentary inquiry are made law, according to a Griffith University expert.
Professor A J Brown, from Griffith’s Centre for Governance and Public Policy, said reforms suggested by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Corporations and Financial Services will mark “a historic step” in protecting those who speak out against wrongdoing in the workplace.
Research led by Professor Brown was cited heavily throughout the inquiry’s report, which looked at whistleblower protections in the corporate, public and not-for-profit sectors.
The recommendations were a “comprehensive approach” to better protecting employees who blow the whistle on misconduct, corrupt or illegal behaviour, Professor Brown said.
“Whistleblowers play a crucial role in a well-functioning society,” he said.
“Whistleblower protection is not just about justice. It’s also about recognising the best way for modern organisations and regulators to know when they’ve got problems, before they turn into even bigger ones.
Trust
Early Career Research Award for criminology academic
Researching Queensland’s policing procedures has proved arresting for Griffith’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice lecturer Dr Elise Sargeant.
Five years after graduating with her PhD, Dr Sargeant has been named one of the country’s most outstanding early career researchers by being awarded the prestigious Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research (2017) awarded by the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA).
Her expertise lies in the field of policing includes citizen and officer perceptions of police and policing as well as procedural justice and police legitimacy.
Research impact
Published in top-ranking criminology, sociology and policing journals, Dr Sargeant’s research has received significant scholarly recognition with more than 470 citations. Her work has also been cited in the 2015 final report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing presented to then US President Obama.
“To see my work having an impact in terms of being recognised by academia, the police and other stakeholders is reassuring.
“The
Five minutes with…Alannah Rafferty
Associate Professor Alannah Rafferty wants to make the experience of organisational change a better one for everyday employees, so her research focuses on solutions which enhance organisations’ ability to implement that change and in return, improve employee wellbeing. We spent five minutes with Alannah, who’s also Director of Research with Griffith’s Department of Employment Relations and Human Resources, to learn a little more…
In what area/s does your current research interests lie?
My major research interests are focused on organisational change. In particular, I have two major [areas of] research at the current time:
I am especially interested in employees’ change readiness attitudes at the moment. My major focus has been on understanding the structure of the global change readiness attitude and its antecedents and consequences. My research has identified that positive emotions are a critical but ignored component of change readiness. If we want to develop employees’ global change readiness then there is
Bachelor of Environmental Science accreditation shows complex degree
Gone are the days when an environmental degree was for “tree hugging hippies”.
Griffith University is the first in Australia to be accredited by the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ) for its Bachelor of Environmental Science.
The accreditation recognises the content and teaching and Head of School Professor Chris Frid said it was a remarkable achievement.
“This shows a maturing of the profession and a move away from the hippies hugging trees in the 70s,” he said.
“This is a highly trained profession that includes many aspects including science, social justice and law and shows a complexity that is equivalent to other professions such as accountancy.”
The School of Environment was one of Griffith’s four foundation schools and the first in the country to have a dedicated school and degree.
In November the 40th year of Environmental Science students will graduate.
To find out more about studying Environmental Science visit the study page.
Griffith scientists given $2.2 million grant to study bat disease
More flying foxes are colonising urban areas, leading to a cascade of negative events, including poor health of bats, nuisance to human communities and spread of Hendra virus spillover to horses.
An international team of researchers have been awarded a $2.2 million US National Science Foundation grant to study how humans are contributing to emerging infectious diseases passing from animals to people.
They aim to identify the underlying causes of flying fox urbanisation and commence a long-term habitat restoration project to reverse some of these trends.
The Griffith University team, led by Dr Alison Peel and involving Professor Hamish McCallum and PhD student Tamika Lunn, are leading the field components of the research.
“Changes in climate, combined with deforestation of winter habitat of flying foxes, creates periodic food shortages which sends the bats flying into towns and cities looking for food,” said Dr Peel, a veterinary disease ecologist.
“Many people think flying foxes are increasing
Improving knowledge and attitudes of sexuality for people with dementia
Improving the knowledge and attitudes concerning sexual expression of people with dementia amongst health professionals, has been the goal of a Griffith study.
Dr Cindy Jones from Griffith’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland has been educating and researching what is commonly seen as a challenging and sometimes taboo issue in aged care.
Her research is just one of the subjects being discussed this September at Griffith during Dementia Awareness Month 2017, the theme of which is “You are not alone”.
A webinar training program
Using a webinar training program to assist health professionals in a variety of care settings, Dr Jones study aimed to increase awareness and understanding of intimacy, sexualities and sexual behaviours specific to people with dementia.
“As well as increasing awareness of the issues, we have also been guiding formal carers on how to better support people with dementia on these challenging issues,” she says.
The study evaluated the utility, quality and effectiveness of six, once a