By Andrew O’Neil, Professor of Political Science
As chaos reigns in the Trump White House with the resignation of President Trump’s Chief of Staff, North Korea has for the second time within a month tested a missile that can strike US territory.
Professor Andrew O’Neil
While the July 4 test demonstrated a missile capable of hitting Alaska, reliable reports indicate yesterday’s test affirmed a strike radius that can hit the west coast of the United States.
The significance of this can’t be underestimated.
This latest ICBM test places increasingly intense pressure on the US to carry out decisive action to degrade or destroy Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction.
Senior American military officials, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joe Dunford, have been candid in recent weeks about the potential inevitability of military action against North Korea.
If North Korea follows up the latest missile tests with a nuclear test – which is entirely plausible given
Category: Griffith University Feed
MBA scholarships open for next-gen thought leaders
Are you part of the next generation of game-changing, responsible business leaders?
Griffith Business School, in partnership with The Courier Mail’s Queensland Business Monthly, is today launching the QBM Griffith MBA Responsible Leadership scholarships.
Aligning with the program’s core values of sustainable business practices, responsible leadership and an Asia-Pacific perspective, it awards the winner a full Griffith MBA scholarship valued at approximately $51,000.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE SCHOLARSHIP
Entrants are encouraged to demonstrate that they measure success in sense, rather than dollars.
“We look for someone who can clearly articulate how the scholarship will enable them to influence the organisations where they work for the better, and thus their communities too,” said Griffith MBA Director, Associate Professor Chris Fleming.
Griffith MBA Director Chris Fleming
“Last year, our first year of running this scholarship, we had an amazing array of outstanding candidates – it made our job very hard!”
Assoc Prof Fleming added that he hoped the
The eureka moment that could help save the Great Barrier Reef
A Griffith University research team are finalists in the 2017 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes for their work aimed at improving Great Barrier Reef water quality.
The team, led by Associate Professor Andrew Brooks of the Griffith Centre for Coastal Management, has transformed how sediment sources are identified and targeted, resulting in a significant shift in government policy and practice.
As finalists in the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage Eureka Prize for Environmental Research category, the team will attend the Award Dinner in Sydney in late August.
Along with climate change, poor water quality from catchment runoff is a key threat to the Great Barrier Reef.
Associate Professor Brooks said catchment models had been central to focusing management efforts but models were only as good as the data they were built on.
Griffith undertook a comprehensive research program, funded through the Australian Government’s Reef Rescue program, within the Normanby Basin in Cape York, the fourth largest catchment draining to the Reef.
The
How GOLDOC internships inspire future careers
Griffith students oozed professional confidence when describing their internship experiences at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC).
The latest group of current students to complete a 12-week full-time internship with the Games organising body presented their reflections at a seminar on Griffith’s Gold Coast campus last week.
Human Resource Management student Georgia Arnold looked confidently to the future on the back of her time as a HR Operations intern. “The internship experience bridged the gap between my studies and the workplace,” she said. “I now have the graduate skills and attributes needed for graduate positions.”
Plan for the future
Rachael Saw, who is studying Human Resource Management and Marketing, echoed her intern colleague’s sentiments. “Before my internship I thought wherever you went, that’s the path you follow. Now I realise it’s so important to have a plan for my future.”
Narayan Neupane, a Master of Information Technology student, described new insights in technology
Ochres reveal colouring of colonialisation
Ochres have always been a part of the cultural practices of Aboriginal peoples.
A study published in the journal Nature, reports ground ochres among the earliest evidence for human occupation of Australia, 65,000 years ago.
The multidisciplinary team working on these finds includes Dr Jillian Huntley, a Research Fellow at Griffith University’s Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit, whose research investigates the physicochemical properties of the earliest pigments used by modern humans across Australasia.
Dr Huntley applies scientific techniques to reveal patterns in prehistoric ochre use.
“Unlike other archaeological materials, differences in pigments are not always obvious” she said.
“Ochres that look the same in colour and texture can be from different sources, or prepared and used in a variety of different ways.
“Understanding the chemical, mineral and morphological properties of ochre is often the only way to see differences between them.”
Dr Huntley says it was a privilege to be entrusted to work on the internationally significant ochres recovered from the recent
Griffith to introduce new social science degree in 2018
Economics, environmental sustainability, global security threats, media communication and social change, politics in Asia, and social justice are not only some of the biggest issues facing the world today—they’re also the majors offered in Griffith’s new Bachelor of Social Science.
According to a recent article in ScienceNordic, social scientists are key to tackling global challenges, as, for the first time in history, our world is being shaped more by humans than by nature.
Dr Ben Fenton-Smith, convenor of the new social science degree, to be introduced in 2018 at Griffith’s Nathan and Gold Coast campuses, agrees.
“There is no question that social scientists are going to be in huge demand in the next 20–30 years. As our use of data, technology and information increases, we are going to need social scientists to make sense of it,” he said.
“Climate change is a good example of an issue that social scientists are uniquely equipped to
Renowned researcher returns home to FNQ
One of Australia’s foremost researchers into Parkinson’s disease, Professor George Mellick from the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD), returns home to North Queensland next week to encourage locals into future scientific study.
And it should come as no surprise that the former Mareeba boy will reinforce a strong belief that many jobs in the future will require employees to have related skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), during the inaugural ‘Future-proof your career, The Griffith STEM Roadshow’ in Cairns.
“I love Cairns and the Tablelands. It is always home to me, and I want our current crop of FNQ school leavers to have every opportunity to be the thought leaders and problem solvers of the future, confirmed Professor Mellick.
“A degree in STEM is a great start to an innovative career. We have the world’s best research and some of Australia’s top university teachers at Griffith University. It’s great to
App maps geography of crime fear
People are more worried about being attacked in places they think lack a sense of community rather those perceived as having high levels of social cohesion, a Griffith University study has found.
The pilot study published online in Applied Geography, led by PhD candidate Michael Chataway from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, used mobile technology to measure people’s fear of crime in their immediate environments.
Tertiary students living at the Gold Coast were surveyed over three months, using a smartphone app within 10 distinct locations.
The app used GPS sensors built into participants’ smartphones to trigger a series of surveys on perceptions of crime, based on movements within local areas.
The participants were surveyed in relation to three perceptual indicators of personal victimisation: being attacked in an area, being robbed or mugged and being harassed or threatened.
Researchers found participants were less worried about personal crime in areas where they thought people in and
West Side Story opens in Brisbane
Love and death. Romance and rivalry. Welcome to West Side Story, the Queensland Conservatorium’s main stage musical for 2017.
The show, which turns 60 this year, headlines the Queensland Conservatorium’s 60th anniversary line-up.
Hailed as ‘the greatest musical of all time’, the show features a Grammy-winning score by legendary composer Leonard Bernstein and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, including hits like Maria, America, Somewhere and Tonight.
Inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story is set in New York’s Upper West Side in the mid-1950s where racial and social tensions have reached boiling point.
The blockbuster production will feature a triple cast, comprising the entire musical theatre cohort, accompanied by the Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra.
Final year Bachelor of Musical Theatre student Courtney Monsma is one of three students playing the lead role of Maria.
“It is a dream role,” she says.
“It is amazing to be on stage in the Conservatorium Theatre with a huge set, an orchestra, costumes… it’s what I’ve been working towards for years.”
The
How to land that grad job
By Tonya Evara, marketing student at Griffith Business School
So, you’ve graduated. Congratulations! You’ve just returned from your solo Contiki trip around Europe and you’re wondering: now what? Perhaps the hangover has worn off and you’ve been scouring Seek for months, living off Mi Goreng noodles? Or maybe you’re in the final few semesters of university and praying for the light at the end of the tunnel?
Well, I’ve got both good and bad news for you. The good news is: Generation Y is the most educated generation in Australian history. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), in 1976 only 5% of young adults had a bachelor degree or higher qualification compared to more than a quarter (26%) in 2011.
The bad news: all of these gradates means you’ll be graduating into a highly competitive job market. A report from Graduate Careers Australia in 2015 shows that 68.8% of recent grads were able to secure a full-time job within four