Griffith University has announced the opening of registrations, along with the first cohort of prominent program faculty members for next year’s Executive Education in Sustainability Leadership Program (EESLP).
The EESLP is an internationally renowned sustainability program to be hosted by the Griffith University EcoCentre from the 6th to the 9th of March 2018, currently delivered through the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University in Boston.
It’s a selective, small-class program that helps executives across all sectors to integrate sustainability leadership into their organisations.
Founder of Harvard Green, EESLP Director and Australian expatriate, Ms Leith Sharp (M.Ed), will return to Australia and collaborate with the EcoCentre and peak body Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability to deliver the four-day event in Brisbane, joined by a program faculty comprised of some of Australia’s leading sustainability leaders including:
Ms Kate Harris, CEO at Good Environmental Choice Australia and the Non-Executive Director of the Living Future Institute
Category: Griffith University Feed
When Hollywood meets the Outback
This week dozens of students from Griffith Film School are in Outback Queensland for the Vision Splendid Film Festival.
Their mission? To pitch, write, shoot, edit and screen a short film… all in just one week.
Griffith Film School has partnered with the festival to establish the Vision Splendid Film Institute – a two-week program of film projects, workshops and masterclasses.
Griffith Film School lecturer Mr Ashley Burgess, who oversees special projects, is leading a delegation of more than fifty students from Griffith Film School, the Queensland Conservatorium and the Queensland College of Art (Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art).
For the first time, Griffith Film School has also invited students from the Beijing Film Academy in China and the Film and Television Institute of India.
Mr Burgess said the Vision Splendid Film Institute was designed to foster international collaborations and promote Queensland’s burgeoning film industry.
“When the weather is good, this is great cattle country,” he says.
“When the weather is bad, the film industry
Running to raise awareness of suicide prevention
By Jemima Desbrow
Even the seemingly most exuberant of us still have our dark days. Forty-five year old New Zealand born husband and father of two, Justin Geange is no stranger to depression.
The charismatic plumber, formerly known as the mascot of the Brisbane Broncos and cane toad for the Queensland Maroons has silently struggled behind a façade of humour for years. Justin has not only attempted to take his own life, but endured losses of both family members and friends who took the same approach.
As Justin describes it, God had other plans for him and gave him the gift of a second chance at life. The Aussie legend has since picked up and dusted himself off from his past.
He has persevered through hardship and now provides his personal experiences as a collaborator with Griffith University’s Australian Institute of Suicide Research and Prevention (AISRAP).
With a $7,500 fundraising target, the team is participating in the
Hacking through the problems of the city
When the international hacker community Angelhack decided to launch in Australia, they also decided to ramp up the expectations by partnering with the team from the CityConnect accelerator. Griffith graduate, founder and startup mentor, Ayla Soutar rose to the challenge.
Collaborating with local startup accelerator, BlueChilli, the 2017 Brisbane hackathon demanded contestants start from scratch and produce a working prototype of their idea in a only 24 hours. The pitch to a panel of judges was done without slides in only 2 minutes
CityConnect is the latest BlueChilli Accelerator that specializes in solutions for urbanisation – the problems of the city and its people.
Ms Soutar a GU Digital Arts and Business graduate and her business partner took the contest’s top two prizes for pitching a “fractional” property ownership platform that uses blockchain technology to increase the frequency of trading shares and reduce barriers of entry to the property market.
“It’s basically a legitimate
Anastasia on song for Swiss opera contract
International success beckons for Queensland Conservatorium graduate Anastasia Bickel.
Mezzo-soprano Anastasia graduated from the Con in 2016 and recently signed a two-year contract with OperAvenir at Theatre Basel in Switzerland.
She will make her professional European debut in La Traviata, and will also perform in iconic operas including Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Strauss’ Elektra.
“This signing means the beginning of my career, so it’s very exciting!” says Anastasia, a recipient of the Joyce Campbell Lloyd Scholarship for Overseas Study.
This generous bequest is awarded to a Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University vocal student in Year 3 or higher, or a recent alumni who graduated no more than 15 months before the scholarship selection date.
“I’m thrilled to make my debut on the main stage and to observe my more experienced colleagues at work,” says Anastasia.
“I owe so much to my supportive and wise singing teacher, Dr Margaret Schindler. She transformed my singing and I can honestly
Griffith’s Tallowwood childcare centre hits 30-year milestone
Bev Olsen retains fond memories of the day the Brisbane Broncos sang ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’ under the Tallowwood Tree. How such a precious moment came about is equally as important to her as this part of the story is invested in a program that stands the test of time.
The inaugural director of the Tallowwood Childcare Centre had been playing with the children – as per usual – when she wondered out loud if league stars like Alfie Langer, Kevin Walters and Peter Ryan might pop down from nearby ANZ Stadium to say hello.
“So we all went into the office and I rang the Brisbane Broncos and invited them to visit us,” Bev says. The answer was an emphatic yes, and soon Bev and the children were writing letters to their prospective guests.
It’s a delightful story from 1997 which captures an ideology that had been integral to the business since
Changes to Griffith Business School executive
Griffith Business School has made two key appointments to its senior leadership team.
Renowned political scientist Professor Anne Tiernan has accepted the position of Dean (Engagement), while the current of the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Professor Fabrizio Carmignani, has been announced as the new Dean (Academic).
Professor Tiernan is currently the Director of the Policy Innovation Hub and works within the School of Government and International Relations.
“Anne has spent much of her career bridging the divide between theory and practice and promoting the mutual and reciprocal benefits of greater engagement between universities, government and industry,” said Professor David Grant, Pro Vice Chancellor (Business).
Professor Tiernan is regularly called on by media for independent analysis and commentary on national politics, public administration and public policy.
“Her experience and knowledge will be of tremendous value as we seek to meet the GBS strategic priority of building and enhancing our engagement activities,”
Nance wins New York Festival radio award
Award-winning journalist and Griffith’s journalist-in-residence Nance Haxton has taken out the Bronze award at the New York Festival’s World’s Best Radio Programs for her radio documentary on Stradbroke Island.
Produced for ABC Radio National’s PM program “A New Chapter for Stradbroke Island” recounts the end of sand mining on North Stradbroke Island after the Queensland Government passed legislation to phase it out by 2019.
“I’m so honoured and thrilled to have won the award,’’ said an excited Nance.
“This means so much to me both as a journalist and teacher.”
“The story is an important one as thousands of Australians have enjoyed Stradbroke as a tourism destination for so many years. The demise of sand mining will launch it into another era and one that’s welcomed by its traditional owners, the Quandamooka Aboriginal people.”
“I’m so grateful to the Quandamooka people for trusting me with their story. I find it so inspiring and ironic
A ‘refugee’ beams life into cancer research
When Sora Fallaha completed her medical analysis bachelor’s degree in Jordan, a postgraduate degree in medical science loomed as the obvious next step for the gifted young student. However, that next step wasn’t an easy step.
To understand why is to understand her heritage. Her father had moved from Syria to Jordan at the age of 18 to pursue a successful career in computers and information technology. There he met his beloved wife and they raised four children in a nurturing environment in Jordan. Civil war in Syria would later tear the family apart.
Sora was born, grew up, studied and lived in Jordan, but Sora – true to her ancestry – carried a Syrian passport. This proved a major hurdle when she approached teaching hospitals to gain the experience that was required in order for her to study a Master’s degree abroad.
“I even paid to work so I could get the
Electron caught in the act
Australia’s fastest camera has revealed the time it takes for molecules to break apart.
The experimental research, conducted by Griffith University’s Centre for Quantum Dynamics, aims to help in the design of new molecules for materials science or drug discovery.
The Centre is the only place in the country to have the machine in its Australian Attosecond Science Facility.
Research published in Nature Communications shows how scientists can measure, in real-time, the time that it takes and the separation distance of two atoms when the bond is broken in the simplest diatomic molecule.
The result in an astonishing 15 millionth of a billionth of a second at a distance of half a billionth of a metre.
The research was led by Associate Professor of Physics Igor Litvinyuk and conducted in collaboration with theorists from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Associate Professor Litvinyuk said the molecule was made of two protons and one electron which they shared.
“That electron