A not to be missed webinar from the EAAF Shorebird Tracking Group:

• Alfred Deakin Prof Marcel Klaassen – Ruddy Turnstones in times of change
• Dr Katharine Bowgen – Winter wanderings of Welsh Curlews

When: Thurs 28^th October 2021 6PM (Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney)

Registration is open – click HERE to register. 

The 11th Australasian Ornithological Conference (AOC) 8 – 10 February 2022 to be held in Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand is pleased to announce that submissions are now open!

They are looking for contributions from all areas of ornithology and welcome submissions from community organisations, academic researchers and students, conservation specialists and more.

CLICK HERE to submit your abstract and to find out more.

Deadline to submit is 3 September 2021.

Ecological and evolutionary consequences of anticancer adaptations.

See the paper at iScience.

A field and video annotation guide for baited remote underwater stereo‐video surveys of demersal fish assemblages.

See the paper at METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION.

Darwin, the devil, and the management of transmissible cancers.

See the paper at Conservation Biology.

 – Help us in exploring our options to save frogs –

Do you have Bibron’s toadlet on your property?

If not – please help us by sharing this with your friends/family/peers

Dear CIE HDR students,

An important part of the annual CIE conference is to seek out and acknowledge your fantastic research efforts. So If you have a recent research output, please send it through for consideration in one of our Best CIE HDR Research Award categories.

In 2020, we have four research award categories:

1. Best reviewed research paper (a manuscript that has undergone part, or all of the external peer review process).

2. Best unreviewed research paper (a pre-submitted, or submitted manuscript, lacking any input from peer-review feedback)

Award Rules:

• Entries are open to all CIE HDR students;
• Published papers must have been published after October 2019;
• Papers should reflect research undertaken as part of your current CIE HDR candidature;
• Papers will be judged, scored, and ranked by a panel of CIE academics;
• Please email papers (stating category) or submissions to Tim Jessop (t.Jessop@deakin.edu.au) before September 20th to be in the running;
• Winners will be contacted by email at the end of September.

3. Best CIE HDR award for science outreach:

Here we are looking for great examples of how you are translating and communicating your science for the benefit of the broader community and ideally having an impact beyond the ivory towers of academia! I am leaving this vague in its interpretation to allow for the broadest consideration of your research outreach efforts (e.g. an account of how your science helped Nuns in Mexico sustainably harvest endangered salamanders to make cough syrup, or it could be a blog or some other form of popular science communication ).

If you would like to enter, please send me a brief email, using no more than 200 words to describe your science outreach efforts.

• Again please email submissions to Tim Jessop (t.Jessop@deakin.edu.au) before September 20th.
• The winner will be contacted by email at the end of September.

If these do not appeal, and because many of you will be presenting at the upcoming CIE conference then you automatically qualify for the:

4. Best Presentation Awards:

The CIE will also be giving out awards the for best female and best male HDR candidate presentations at the conference.

The winner of each category:

Will be awarded a voucher and certificate.

We look forward to receiving many entries and learning about your great research!

In a first for Deakin University, Professor John Endler has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the world’s oldest and arguably most prestigious science ­academy.

For more information:

• The Royal Society: Professor Endler is interested in the commonalities among the fields of Evolution, Ecology, Behavioural Ecology and Sensory Ecology.
• Herald Sun: Deakin University Professor John Endler elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
• Deakin Media: Deakin’s Professor John Endler elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
• Australian Academy of Science: Academy President and Fellows elected to Royal Society.

We are looking for a PhD candidate keen on studying the combined impact of pollution and infection susceptibility on migrating shorebirds.

The specific hypothesis of the project are that:

1) susceptibility to infections (e.g. avian influenza) will increase in a host due to high exposure to environmental pollution;

2) pollutants modulate the immune system in a specific manner that facilitates infection prevalence and/or disease severity;

3) microRNA profiles can be used as a predictive tool to assess disease outbreaks and severity.

The position is based at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway, and financed by the Norwegian Research Council and has a special responsibility within the project COAST-IMPACT (August 2020 – July 2023).

The overall aim of COAST-IMPACT is to study the impact of pollution in the coastal wetlands of East Asia by assessing the biodiversity of littoral macroinvertebrates, and the resulting impact of food availability, pollution and infection in migrating shorebirds along the East Asian Australian Flyway using these wetlands.

The field component of this PhD project will be linked to the ongoing large-scale study of migrating shorebirds in Australia (Melbourne in Victoria, and Broome in Western Australia).

Secondly, the lab component of the project will elucidate the mechanisms driving pollutant-induced immunomodulation that relate to increased infection susceptibility in the host (targeting microRNAs and inflammation markers).

Lastly, the obtained data will be used to develop diagnostic biomarkers to assess infection and exposure that will allow to improve disease outbreak predictions for the future.

For further information and to apply for this position CLICK HERE (PhD position) or contact Prof Marcel Klaassen.