Create It Comp
2019-04-29 08:00 - 2019-09-30 17:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
With engineers, anything is possible! To celebrate Engineers Australia’s 100th birthday, we are encouraging Australians to think about how engineering has helped them in all parts of their lives.
So, if anything is possible and you had unlimited time, money, help, and skill, what would you engineer? Show us your creation, and you have a chance to win an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil!

Think it Think about your life, and the life of the people around you, and show us what problem you can solve, or what idea you can come up with to make life easier. It could be big or small, helful of fun, or a mix of these.
Create it Draw, paint, build, or design your idea. You could use paints, pencils, a computer program like PhotoShop, cardboard, or even Lego! It could be a simple, quick sketch or very detailed – it’s up to you.
Share it Share your idea with us for a chance to win an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. We have a category for both primary and high school students, as well as adults – teachers and parents can enter too!

Check out our website for tips and Terms and Conditions.
Entries close 30 September 2019.

Sunday Family Program: The Great Gut Microbe Hunt
2019-07-21 11:00 - 2019-09-15 15:00 | Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton, VIC, 3053, Australia
Discover how amazing our bodies really are at Melbourne Museum on Sundays during Term Three as we search for microbes and anything else you might find in your tummy. Design your own ‘microbe mobile’ and see what beautiful things live inside your gut.
Suitable for ages 5-12. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Free with Museum entry.

Preschoolers Little Scientist Club
2019-08-27 10:00 - 2019-09-17 11:00
Preschoolers Little Scientist Club at Deer Park Library
For four weeks children can explore the world of science with fun, hands-on experiments and science equipment that they can take home. Budding Einsteins will spend an hour each week having fun with science and will finish in week four with a grand science expo. Booking required.
Deer Park Library at 10-11am
on Tuesdays the 27 August and 3, 10, 17 September

Space for girl guides and scouts
2019-09-13 20:00 - 21:30 | Briars Astronomy Centre and Observatory, 450 Nepean Highway, Mount Martha, VIC, 3934, Australia
The evening aims to build awareness of the Australian night sky and help troops of Girl Guides and Scouts of any age in the journey towards their Outer Space/Astronomy badge/achievement award.

If you belong to an adventurous troop of Girl Guides or Scouts of any age who are seeking to navigate their way amongst the stars and who are working towards their Outer Space or Astronomy badge/award, then this focused evening of stargazing, navigating the night sky and big question answering is for your group.
You or your Group Leaders can book with the Mornington Peninsula Astronomical Society at their registered observatory on the Mornington Peninsula, south east of Melbourne.
There you will be walked through the key requirements of the achievement award, followed by practice outside under the night sky with telescopes and binoculars.
Please note that only current Girl Guides, Scouts or Cubs or their Leaders or Parent/Guardian can book. Booking by other members of the public, are not possible.
The observatory is marked on Google Maps and on the Melways at map reference 151/E1.

Walrus of Peace
2019-09-19 09:00 - 2019-10-10 21:00 | Dudley House, 60 View Street, Bendigo, VIC, Australia
Is ochre the new spray paint?
Walrus of Peace investigates a non-toxic, environmentally friendly, recyclable, alternative set of materials for temporary street art installations.
Bendigo Artists Inc (Australia)
Street art is a popular form of creative expression, but it has lots of environmental and ethical issues. The paints and acetate used are pretty harsh on the artists and the environment.
The Walrus of Peace project, by a collective of Bendigo artists, investigates a non-toxic, environmentally friendly, recyclable, alternative set of materials for temporary street art installations. The materials include ceramic slip (aka mud), ochres, natural pigments and natural binders (wax, resins and oils).
The technique dates back 35 000 years and has been used to create rock paintings across the country. Walrus of Peace shows how we can incorporate ancient knowledge into contemporary practice to help move towards a more sustainable future.
Outdoor installation, accessible everyday at all times.

Frogs and Dogs - Glenroy Library
2020-02-29 10:00 | Glenroy Library, 737 Pascoe Vale Road, Glenroy, Victoria, 3046, Australia
Join Merri Creek Management Committee’s Waterwatch Coordinator and Dr Natalie Catalynd, frog researcher from Canine Ecological, to learn about local frogs, and meet a dog that helps researchers “sniff” out frogs.
You will learn how to identify frog species, fun froggy facts, and why frogs are an important part of our ecosystem.
You can also can help increase our knowledge of frogs via the fun, free and easy frog census app.
This is a free event for beginners, with older children welcome. Bookings essential.
This event is proudly supported by the City of Moreland, The Royal Society of Victoria and Inspiring Australia (Victoria).

Fake Out: citizen science challenge
2020-08-14 17:00 - 2020-09-10 17:00
Do you believe what you see? Did Obama really say that (he probably did but not on video)? What are Spiderman and Iron Man doing in Back to the Future? Deep fakes, like YouTuber EZRyderX47’s Back to the Future deepfake video (image featured here), are getting better and better and humans remain the best judges of the truth despite the efforts of AI. Can you tell real from fake? And if you could, would you share it? Take the ‘Fake Out’ challenge and find out.
Fake Out has been created by Dr Simon Cropper, Dr Gergely Nyalasy, Sarah Lorenz and Jennifer Nguyen from the University of Melbourne and citizen scientist responses will help inform their research into deep fakes.
More information and to take the ‘Fake Out’ Challenge

Our Resilient Future - Water, Agriculture & Biodiversity
2020-08-20 19:00 - 20:30
Enormous changes and transitions are already upon us, and we find ourselves unprepared. This summer’s devastating bushfires and the unprecedented disruption to industries and the business of government here in Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic have given us a disquieting insight to the sustained uncertainty we’ll be facing under a rapidly changing climate in the decades to come. Under these new conditions, referring to what happened in the past will be unhelpful in predicting the future. One thing is clear: policy, operational, regulatory, investment, management and other decisions will be made under increasingly ambiguous conditions, and integration will be needed across all sectors and levels of our society to set us on a preferred climate path and prepare us for the outcomes we can no longer avoid.
The scale of environmental, economic and cultural transformation required is immense; a seriously intimidating scope of change for planners and policy makers to even approach, let alone implement. Yet short-term, incremental changes can only help us to “cope” (until we can’t), rather than flourish. How do we enable our communities and industries to transform? How do we build agency for regional communities to drive a self-determining transformation over these long time-scales when the state-based decision-making and economic reality is itself so changeable?
It seems impossible, but there are success stories we can learn and build from. We propose that we can’t plan for an uncertain future if we’re not prepared to take a systems perspective and focus on resilience. Join us for a series of six-minute presentations across the disciplines that consider the formation of localised resilience strategies for regional Victoria, drawing on the experience and unique challenges of the Goulburn Murray region as a case study. We will look at the challenges and changes ahead for the agricultural sector, the persistence and survival of our biodiversity, and the interactions of these in a near future projected to feature less water from annual rainfall across our state, with related drying conditions, heat waves, extended fire seasons and the increasing likelihood of a rolling, resource intensive emergency management campaign that will reduce our society’s capacity to be proactive.
Presentations:
A Place-Based Approach: The Goulburn-Murray Resilience Strategy
David McKenzie, Chair, Goulburn Regional Partnership
Claire Flanagan-Smith, Principal, Community & Strategy, RM Consulting Group
Climate Change & Systems Transformation
Associate Professor Lauren Rickards, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
Preparing for Biodiversity Decision Making
Professor Brendan Wintle, School of Biosciences, The University of Melbourne

Agricultural Transitions
Professor Richard Eckard, Director of Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre, The University of Melbourne
Preparing for the Transition of the Water Sector
Dr Briony Rogers, Director of MSDI Water, Monash Sustainable Development Institute

Building Community Agency
Professor Sarah Bekessy, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
We will be joined by some of our speakers during the meeting to further discuss their work and potential for application in service of transformational initiatives in the State of Victoria.
A part of the Possible Impossibles program for National Science Week.
In light of COVID-19 restrictions, this meeting will be conducted online as a Zoom webinar, with presentations pre-filmed and speakers answering questions from RSV members and guests in the webinar (invitations to register are sent via email and also listed on the Society’s membership page). The webinar will be livestreamed via the Society’s Facebook site – please tune in at the allotted time to follow the proceedings and add your questions and comments.

Brewing Futures
2020-08-21 19:30 - 20:30
Join us from the comfort of your living room as Jon Seltin, Head Brewer from Brick Lane Brewing Co., winds the clock forward on beer brewing. How will climate change and advances in sensory science affect beer production? How might our beer tastes change in the future?
On this behind the scenes brewery tour, bring your curiosity and engage your palate to discover emerging brewing technologies and trends while sampling some great brews and important brewing raw ingredients. But be on the lookout, not everything you taste will be as it seems!
This is an online event only. Ticket holders have been forwarded a Brewing Futures tasting kit prior to the event for consumption during the event – follow along at the Royal Society of Victoria’s live stream page at https://www.facebook.com/royalsocietyvictoria/live/ .
A part of the Possible Impossibles series for the 2020 National Science Week program.
About our Host:
Jon Setin is Head Brewer at Brick Lane Brewing, an independent brewery in Melbourne producing beers and ciders.
Passionate about the science involved with making great beer, Jon runs engaging workshops about this topic. He has even presented beer workshops at Parliament House Melbourne for public audiences! Prior to Brick Lane, Jon was Head Brewer at Hawkers Beer and Bright Brewery.
Jon is also Chair of BIRA (Brewing Interlaboratory Reference Analytes), an industry led proficiency testing scheme for organisations performing beer analysis.

Possible Impossibles Online Forum
2020-08-23 16:00 - 17:00
How can Science offer us a path of hope for our post COVID lives and world? What tools can Science give us to help society recover, rebuild, and thrive in the future?
The Victorian Parliament will partner with the Royal Society of Victoria to host a live online community forum exploring how science can help create the sort of future Victorians want.
To be held on Sunday 23 August 2020 as part of National Science Week, the Possible Impossibles online forum will be hosted by award-winning ABC journalist Natasha Mitchell.
The forum will be streamed live from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm on the Facebook pages of the Victorian Parliament and the Royal Society of Victoria. Tune in to join in!
People who wish to participate in the discussion can register their questions in advance by emailing them to community@parliament.vic.gov.au.
Four scientists working at the forefront of environmental science, new technologies, medical science and space exploration will answer questions from an online audience and reflect on the way science can respond to community demands to improve people’s lives.
Scientists featured at the Possible Impossibles forum include:

Professor Elizabeth Croft is the Dean of Engineering at Monash University. Her research in industrial robotics and human-robot interaction advances the design of intelligent controllers and interaction methods that support human-robot collaboration. She has won national and international awards for her scholarship, advocacy for women in engineering, and educational contributions. She is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Engineers Australia, Engineers Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Dr Kudzai Kanhutu is an infectious diseases physician and deputy chief medical information officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH). She is a past Superstar of STEM and recipient of the Victorian Department of Health excellence in culturally and linguistically diverse care award. Her current work portfolio includes patient care, research and project management with a particular focus on the role that digital technologies can play in addressing health inequity.

Associate Professor Julie Mondon is the Director for Environmental Science Marine Biology degree at Deakin University. Her research emphasis is in marine and coastal ecology and environmental impact, with special interest in aquatic ecotoxicology, investigating the toxicological impact of contaminants on marine and estuarine organisms living in these exposed environments. This expertise has led to working in catchment, industrial and urban waste contaminant impacts across tropical, temperate and Antarctic ecosystems: pollution exposure and response in aquatic organisms at multiple levels including crustaceans, molluscs, fish and sharks to develop biomarker response tools to identify risks and harm at the organism, community and ecological levels.

Dr Gail Iles is a Senior Lecturer in Space Physics at RMIT University and serves on the Board of Directors of the Space Industry Association of Australia. Dr Iles has 15 years’ experience of working at nuclear facilities and synchrotrons around the world to explore the properties of materials such as structure, magnetism and superconductivity – particularly from samples grown in Zero-G. Dr Iles was an astronaut instructor at the European Astronaut Centre in Germany and holds a medal for extensive time spent experimenting in zero gravity. In 2011, she was presented the WISE Champion Award by HRH Princess Anne, for inspiring children, particularly girls, to study STEM subjects. Dr Iles conducts extensive outreach in schools and locations around Victoria and is the science correspondent on the Neil Mitchell radio show on 3AW.

Forum MC:

Natasha Mitchell is a multi-award winning ABC science journalist, presenter, producer and podcaster. She hosts the weekly science and culture show on ABC Radio National, Science Friction, awarded best science & medicine podcast at the 2019 Australian Podcast Awards. She was founding presenter of one of the ABC’s most popular radio programs, All in the Mind, for a decade, and host of the flagship daily program, Life Matters from 2012-2016. Natasha was vice president of the World Federation of Science Journalists and a recipient of the MIT Knight Fellowship. She has an engineering degree from Monash University and postgraduate diploma in science communication from the ANU. She regularly comperes at events and festivals around Australia, including four dialogues with the Dalai Lama and scientists.

Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Stupidity? Diversity, Inclusion and AI
2020-10-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Online, Australia
The advent of Artificial Intelligence came with promises to overcome the human limitations of speed, processing and information storage, opening up a whole new world of possibilities for how we live and how we work. However, AI has yet to deliver on those promises and now faces ethical and moral dilemmas never encountered before. With COVID-19 now shaking the fabric of every society without discrimination on the basis of gender, race or faith, the world has become even more reliant on technology and data for sustaining the social order. We now compensate for social distancing with virtual connections and Zoom’s boxes have replaced human interactions as the COVID-19 normal.
Meanwhile, the history of our global civilisation is marked by racial, gender and economic divides. A product of human intelligence, Artificial Intelligence has been shown to exacerbate our human biases. It is time to re-evaluate our increasing dependence on technology and AI and question what it means for diversity and inclusion. Join Dr Muneera Bano on a time travelling journey; exploring how our decisions in the present, based on our experiences of the past, are critical for the future directions of humanity and AI.
About the Speaker
Dr Muneera Bano is a Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering at Deakin University. She specialises in the field of socio-technical domains of software engineering, focusing on human-centred technologies. Muneera works at the intersection between computers and humans – looking for ways to engineer technology to work better with the people that use it. Her research interests include requirements engineering, service orientation, sentiment analysis and evidence-based software engineering.
A passionate advocate for women in STEM, Muneera Bano was announced as the Most Influential Asian-Australian Under 40 in 2019. A ‘Superstar of STEM and member of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee for Science and Technology Australia, Muneera has a strong commitment to smash society’s gender and cultural assumptions about scientists. She is the Go Girl, Go For IT 2020 Ambassador with the aim to inspire the next generation of girls in STEM careers.
A part of the RSV’s 2020 contribution to the Inspiring Victoria program. The webinar will be livestreamed via the Society’s Facebook site – please tune in at the allotted time to join proceedings and contribute your questions and comments.

Spinning Yarns
2020-10-22 19:00 - 20:30
Introspection is something of a feature of our lives in 2020; never mind the trajectory of the global pandemic and the fate of the planet, how did we each, individually start out from our distant personal origins to arrive at this curious point in time and space? So we’ve asked four scholars, scientists and seekers of a better world: What’s keeping you off the streets, and up at night?
The unsurprising answer is that a life of enquiry is never short of things to do! Throughout Victoria’s 2020 pandemic lockdowns, our speakers have dauntlessly continued their labours, producing scientific research and products for the public good, campaigning for a brighter future informed by scientific knowledge, or dutifully preserving the beautiful legacy of scientific instrumentation from earlier times, holding something of the story of long-gone people rising to the challenges of their own times.
Join us for four, short presentations from four very different Councillors of the Royal Society of Victoria, variously taking us through earlier times, their passion projects of today and concerns for tomorrow.
Speakers:

Function, Precision and Beauty: Finding and Preserving the Instruments of Ludwig Oertling – Mrs Nicola Williams
I was a lecturer in chemistry at Monash in the 1980s, during the time when university governance was changing from a collegial to a business model. One result was that anything that didn’t earn money was considered not worth keeping, and this included old instruments and glassware. I’d been interested in historical instruments for some years, so I began to collect the instruments which were being thrown out ‘as the space was needed.’

There and Back Again: My Roundabout Path to Seasonal Prediction (and why I love it) – Dr Catherine de Burgh-Day
My academic education started with a desire to study Meteorology, culminated in a PhD in Astrophysics, and then led to me working at the Bureau of Meteorology. It may seem like it was a bit of a detour, but I wouldn’t have it any other way, and it turns out Astrophysics and Seasonal prediction have a lot in common! I’m going to give you a brief history of my still-short career, and also tell you about what I work on now: Everything to do with predicting the conditions in the upcoming weeks and seasons, from developing the models and science through to talking to farmers about what they need to know on the ground. I hope that by the end of this you’ll see why every change in direction I took along the way is one I am glad I did, and each one taught me things I bring to the table at the BoM every day.

What Keeps Me Up at Night – Mr Rob Gell
Familiar to many as a television presenter of Victoria’s weather for many years, Rob is today a director of three companies working to deliver positive sustainability outcomes. They are all exploring new technology opportunities in environmental monitoring, energy management and water conservation: Attentis® has developed Australia’s first real-time integrated environmental sensor network operating at regional scale; ReThink Sustainability offers range of sustainability advisory services, particularly in energy efficiency and management; and Circular Things has developed the Eco Water Wall, an innovative water tank design.

Loose Ends, and Going Round in Circles: A Life [Good] in Medical Research – Professor David Walker
Professor David Walker is a physiologist with a long interest in fetal and neonatal development. His research has become centred on perinatal brain damage and the causes of cerebral palsy. Previously situated with the Hudson Institute and now working with RMIT’s School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, David’s major research questions are around the basic chemical energy system employed by all body cells.
A part of the RSV’s 2020 contribution to the Inspiring Victoria program. The webinar will be livestreamed via the Society’s Facebook site – please tune in at the allotted time to join proceedings and contribute your questions and comments.

Soil Carbon: Climate Solutions Right Under Our Feet
2020-11-12 19:00 - 20:30
A joint presentation with Soil Science Australia
What if we could reverse climate change, increase biodiversity and feed everyone? Does that sound like a win-win-win scenario for people and the planet? Join Dr Samantha Grover as she explores the possibilities of soil carbon. From microbial processes to global policy settings, she will discuss how carbon moves from the atmosphere into soils, how land management can increase or decrease the stores of carbon in our soils and how we, as food consumers, can adjust the settings in our food systems to help achieve net zero emissions in our lifetimes.
With examples from the Soil-Atmosphere-Anthroposphere Lab’s research, we will virtually visit Melbourne backyards, Australian agricultural landscapes, Victoria’s beloved Alpine National Park and our northern neighbour Indonesia’s high carbon peat soils, shining a light on the fascinating secrets of soil carbon underground.
About the Speaker
Dr Samantha Grover is a soil scientist and lecturer at RMIT University. She leads the Soil-Atmosphere-Anthroposphere Lab, whose research explores the connections between soils, climate change and people.
As a soil scientist, she applies techniques from soil physics, soil chemistry and soil microbiology with micrometeorology to explore the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. She collaborates with economists, social scientists and policy analysts, as well as other biological and physical scientists, to generate whole-of-system knowledge. Through her interdisciplinary work, university teaching, public engagement as a Superstar of STEM, Victorian President of Soil Science Australia, various Board and Committee roles and a growing media profile, Samantha communicates her research to create impact. As we enter the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, she aspires to make a nationally and internationally significant contribution to reversing climate change and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
A part of the RSV’s 2020 contribution to the Inspiring Victoria program. The webinar will be livestreamed via the Society’s Facebook site – please tune in at the allotted time to follow the proceedings and contribute your questions and comments.

Inspired by Nature: Engineering Multifunctional Materials
2020-11-26 19:00 - 20:30 | Online, Australia
Dr Nisa Salim’s research focuses on novel designs, materials and scalable formulations for the production of multifunctional materials inspired by nature, a promising approach to help solve human challenges.
The research underpins the molecular level understanding of the structure of these materials and how these are translated into functionalities at the macro level. In a recent discovery, Nisa’s team created ‘hair-like’ fibres that are extremely light weight, yet strong and can also efficiently store energy. These fibres are designed in such a way as to have tiny holes that are interconnected and uniformly scattered within the fibres; similar to a ‘sea sponge’. These fibres are then glued together with a special binder polymer to make composites; exactly the way a silk worm makes its cocoon by combining two proteins.
Such composite structures can perform a double duty; for example, acting as a strong, lightweight body part for a vehicle, and also as a battery to power that vehicle. Join the 2020 winner of the Royal Society of Victoria’s Phillip Law Postdoctoral Award to explore how these bio-inspired materials will support the faster realisation of autonomous emergency care and sustainable e-mobility.
About Dr Nisa Salim
Dr Nisa Salim is a Vice-Chancellor’s Initiative Research Fellow at the Swinburne University of Technology. She received her PhD from Deakin University in 2013 in materials engineering. Nisa’s research is mainly focused on advanced carbon materials and functional fibres. She has published over 35 high impact journal papers, 3 book chapters, and 1 patent. Nisa has won many awards in her research career including AINSE Gold Medal for outstanding PhD and Smart Geelong Early Researcher award, a Victoria Fellowship, an Endeavour Fellowship, an Alfred Deakin Fellowship and many more. Nisa’s vision is to develop smart, engineered materials that are enablers for digitalisation and the Internet of Things – living materials that sense, actuate and harvest energy.
Her research interests are in nanomaterials, nanostructured materials, graphene, materials science and polymers at interfaces. She supervises a number of Masters and PhD students, and teaches in the domains of nanofabrication, nanomaterials, graphene and materials science.

State of the Climate 2020
2020-12-02 16:00 - 17:30
The Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO play an important role in monitoring, analysing and communicating observed changes in Australia’s climate. Observations and climate modelling paint a consistent picture of ongoing, long term climate change interacting with underlying natural variability. These changes affect many Australians, particularly the changes associated with increases in the frequency or intensity of heat events, fire weather and drought.
Australia will need to plan for and adapt to climate change.
November 2020 marks the release of the State of the Climate report. This sixth, biennial report draws on the latest monitoring, science and projection information to describe variability and changes in Australia’s climate. This report is a synthesis of the science informing our understanding of climate in Australia and includes new information about Australia’s climate of the past, present and future. The science underpinning this report will help inform a range of economic, environmental and social decision-making and local vulnerability assessments, by government, industry and communities.
Join Dr Lynette Bettio to unpack the latest State of the Climate report, the changes we’ve seen and the implications for the future, informing the important decisions that will need to be made to help our country to persist and thrive in the years to come.

A joint briefing between the Royal Society of Victoria and the Victorian Departments of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR).
About the Speaker
Dr Lynette Bettio leads the Long-range forecasting team at the Bureau of Meteorology in the Operational Climate Services Section, which is responsible for the preparation and analysis of Australia’s instrumental climate record, issuing outlooks of likely climate conditions for the coming seasons. Lynette examines and communicates on changes to Australia’s climate including long-term trends in rainfall and temperature and the interaction with extreme events. The communication of seasonal forecasts, to help in part to manage this variability, is another passion. Another focus is drought across Australia and how the Bureau can best communicate and inform around this.
Lynette had an upbringing in north-eastern Victoria, and moved to Melbourne to study science at the University of Melbourne. An interest in weather and climate, gained in part from growing up in an agricultural area, led to a major in climate sciences. She continued this interest with a PhD in climate science from the University of Melbourne. She is a member of the World Meteorological Organization expert team on drought.

Scaling Australian Manufacturing through Digital Platforms
2020-12-10 19:00 - 20:30 | Online, Australia
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) is also referred to Industry 4.0 in Europe, where it has been framed as the “4th industrial revolution.” It describes the digitalisation of modern manufacturing.
Industry 4.0 will be an enabler for the re-shoring of Australian manufacturing in a cost effective and globally competitive way, even for low volume production and small batch sizes. It will enhance our sovereign manufacturing capabilities and, where the COVID pandemic has revealed gaps in our vital supply chains, we will now have the capability to plug these gaps. This is where Australia has an opportunity to make the most of technology transfer from the mining sector to our manufacturing sector.
Digital twins of manufacturing processes were once described in the vaguest of terms, but have now been clearly defined as a faithful digital representation of a product, its production and performance. Further, cognitive digital twins (which leverage cognitive computing, the IIOT, data science and advanced analytics) can enable real time data analytics from manufacturing that lead to the development of self-correcting manufacturing processes. They also accelerate the transition from idea, to design, to prototype, to production.
To demonstrate the capabilities of these new tools and processes, a new, immersive facility has been built to showcase the digitalisation of manufacturing. Supported by the Australian Federal Government, built by Swinburne University and CSIRO and located in the centre of the Clayton additive manufacturing precinct, the National Industry 4.0 Testlab for composite additive manufacturing is focussed on a world-first process for digitally enabled manufacturing of carbon fibre-reinforced composites at an industrial scale.
Its goal is to enable Small and Medium Enterprises to test new technologies and business models created with Industry 4.0 techniques in a pre-competitive environment, with the aim of minimising technical and financial risk. It will act as a hub for significant international collaborations, manufacturing products to support aerospace, automotive, space and satellite technologies, as well as the emerging urban air mobility market.
About the Speaker
Professor Bronwyn Fox is the 2020 recipient of the Royal Society of Victoria’s Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research. She is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at the Swinburne University of Technology. Prior to this, Professor Fox was founding Director of the University’s Manufacturing Futures Research Institute with a mission to support the transition of Australia’s manufacturing sector to Industry 4.0 – the fourth industrial revolution.
After attaining her Bachelor of Science (chemistry) from the University of Melbourne, Dr Fox received her PhD in Engineering from the Australian National University in 2001 on the topic of aerospace composites. Since that time, Bronwyn has grown her own internationally recognised research groups, industry projects, and national industry de-risking infrastructure at Deakin University (2001-2015) and at Swinburne University (2015-present). She has created a Composites Manufacturing Ecosystem in Australia that brings together industry-research partnerships, contributes to a vibrant national manufacturing capability, supplies products and services globally, and plays an important role in high tech job creation. These accomplishments are underpinned by her research excellence, her innovative methods for building research-industry partnerships, and her leadership.
Professor Fox was one of the founders of the Carbon Nexus facility at Deakin University, which catalysed the creation of an industrial research precinct. Leveraging her specific knowledge of materials science and engineering, Professor Fox has built multidisciplinary teams to work with the manufacturing sector to ensure they are digitally equipped and linked into global supply chains.
Bronwyn is an internationally recognised expert on carbon fibre and composite materials and is Chair of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (Victorian Division), a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Schools Event: International Day of Women and Girls in Science
2021-02-11 10:00 - 12:00
Live stream with us on the International Day for Women and Girls in Science and be inspired!
Secondary students and teachers are invited to join this senior Victorian forum to explore the opportunities and challenges for girls and women in exploring careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine and Mathematics (STEM).
Get a sneak preview of what lies ahead for young women considering a career in the sciences and join the discussion. The scientist’s world of enquiry, invention and intervention offers us a wealth of important roles, from protecting threatened species from extinction, to protecting our society from the next pandemic, to shaping the future through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and of artificial intelligence and the way we work in an increasingly automated world.
Join the live event at 10am-12pm, Thursday 11 February 2021. Passcode: [REDACTED]
Event program

10.00am: Welcome and introduction
10.10am: Be inspired by speaker’s Dr Muneera Bano (Deakin University), Associate Professor Misty Jenkins (WEHI) and Dr Amy Coetsee (Zoos Victoria), to explore the opportunities for careers in STEM.
10.50am: Panel discussion – Listen to Dr Gillian Sparkes, Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, Dr Amanda Caples, Victoria’s Lead Scientist, and Dr Andrea Hinwood, Victoria’s Chief Environmental Scientist.
11.20am: Virtual open Q & A – Be part of the conversation with our Panellists and Speakers.
12.00pm: Event concludes

This event is delivered by the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, Dr Gillian Sparkes in partnership with the Royal Society of Victoria. The event is an annual collaboration between the Commissioner, Victoria’s Lead Scientist Dr Amanda Caples and Victoria’s Chief Environmental Scientist Dr Andrea Hinwood.

Stewardship of Country - The Common Ground
2021-02-24 18:00 - 20:00
Seeking a new model for the management of Australian landscapes so our natural systems are conserved and regenerated for future generations.

Join the Royal Societies of Australia and Inspiring Victoria for the first in this series of three webinars, aiming to generate a discussion of landscape and environmental stewardship that bridges Indigenous, agricultural, scientific, economic and social perspectives, with supporting ideas for practical action and public good. We seek to contribute to a new model for the management of the Australian landscape so that our natural systems are conserved and regenerated for the benefits of future generations.
Webinar One – The Common Ground: A Convergence of Traditions
This first webinar in the series focuses on the convergence of knowledge traditions, acknowledging the capacity for traditional European farming practices to adapt, the remarkable advances in the ecological sciences based on European classification systems, and the complex Australian Indigenous knowledge systems developed and maintained over a truly astonishing stretch of time, offering a deep cultural understanding and relationships with “country” to help us determine our common future in Australia.

Speakers (from left):
Keynote: Adjunct Associate Professor Mary Graham (National Congress of Australia’s First Nations, University of Queensland)
Presenters: Professor Peter Bridgewater (Canberra University), Mr Justin O’Brien, Dr Chris Brady & Mr Peter Christopherson (Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation), Mr David Pollock (Wooleen Station)

Panellists (from left):
Dr Mark Stafford Smith (CSIRO), Ms Verity Morgan Schmidt (Gheerulla Creek Consulting), Dr Tyson Yunkaporta (Deakin University)
This webinar will be streamed via Facebook Live at no cost; you can register your attendance (and receive reminders from Facebook) on the Facebook event page. If you would prefer to join the webinar via Zoom, all are welcome: registrations are available via the ticketed links below.
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Stewardship of Country - Resilience and Regeneration
2021-03-10 18:00 - 20:00
Seeking a new model for the management of Australian landscapes so our natural systems are conserved and regenerated for future generations.
Join the Royal Societies of Australia and Inspiring Victoria for the second in this series of three webinars, aiming to generate a discussion of landscape and environmental stewardship that bridges Indigenous, agricultural, scientific, economic and social perspectives, with supporting ideas for practical action and public good. We seek to contribute to a new model for the management of the Australian landscape so that our natural systems are conserved and regenerated for the benefits of future generations.
Webinar Two: Resilience, Regeneration and Escaping the Iron Law of Business-as-Usual
This second webinar in the series focuses on untangling the knots in our system that frustrate beneficial change, from the fixed thinking enforced by our political culture to the slow-changing traditions of agricultural land management and business practices founded in European soils and ecosystems. We also look at how business, entrepreneurship and private property have an effective role to play in conserving and rebuilding ecosystems and biodiversity.

Speakers (from left):

Keynote: Dr Nicholas Gruen (CEO, Lateral Economics)
Presenters: Ms Carolyn Hall (The Mulloon Institute), Ms Jody Brown (La Trobe Station), Mr Nigel Sharp (Odonata).

Panellists (from left):
Dr Mark Stafford Smith (CSIRO), Ms Verity Morgan Schmidt (Gheerulla Creek Consulting), Dr Tyson Yunkaporta (Deakin University)
This webinar will be streamed via Facebook Live at no cost; you can register your attendance (and receive reminders from Facebook) on the Facebook event page. If you would prefer to join the webinar via Zoom, all are welcome: registrations are available via the ticketed links below.
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Stewardship of Country - From Past to Future
2021-03-24 18:00 - 20:00 | Online, Australia
Seeking a new model for the management of Australian landscapes so our natural systems are conserved and regenerated for future generations.
Join the Royal Societies of Australia and Inspiring Victoria for the final in this series of three webinars, aiming to generate a discussion of landscape and environmental stewardship that bridges Indigenous, agricultural, scientific, economic and social perspectives, with supporting ideas for practical action and public good. We seek to contribute to a new model for the management of the Australian landscape so that our natural systems are conserved and regenerated for the benefits of future generations.
From Past to Future – Australian Stewardship of Country
This final webinar in the series takes us to a broad view of the past to define our approach to the future. We range from the natural history of our continent’s diverse landscapes and species, including the traditional approaches taken by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to support that diversity, to redefining our relationships with the living world to better rise to the challenges we must collectively face to secure our country’s future.

Speakers (from left):

Keynote: TBC
Presenters: Professor Kingsley Dixon (Curtin University), Dr Michelle Maloney (Australian Earth Laws Alliance, Griffith University), Mr Barney Foran (Charles Sturt University)

Panellists (from left):
Dr Mark Stafford Smith (CSIRO), Ms Verity Morgan Schmidt (Gheerulla Creek Consulting), Dr Tyson Yunkaporta (Deakin University)
This webinar will be streamed via Facebook Live at no cost; you can register your attendance (and receive reminders from Facebook) on the Facebook event page. If you would prefer to join the webinar via Zoom, all are welcome: registrations are available via the ticketed links below.
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Changing Forests in a Changing Climate: What Might the Future Hold?
2021-03-25 19:00 - 20:30
Over the past 25 years the forests of south-eastern Australia have taken a pounding — the Millennium Drought, the Eastern Alps/Canberra fires of 2003, the Great Divide bushfires of 2006/7, the Black Saturday fires of 2009, the 2017-19 drought, and, most recently, the unprecedented 2019/20 fire season. Model projections of climate in the coming decades suggest that the frequency and intensity of droughts and fire are likely to increase.
This raises an obvious, and troubling, question: Are the region’s forests able to persist under this onslaught of climate-driven disturbance?
In answering this question, we need to consider whether there is a role for forest management and, if so, what that might look like. Join Professor Patrick Baker, who will put recent climate variability into a broader historical context, discuss the implications of expected future climates for forests and forest dynamics, and consider forest management practices that might help to buffer south-eastern Australia’s forests against climate-related disturbances.
About the Speaker
Professor Patrick Baker is a Professor of Silviculture and Forest Ecology at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on native forests, their dynamics, and the factors that influence them. Over the past 20 years he has worked in three separate discipline areas – forest ecology, silviculture, and palaeoclimatology – to better understand how forest management might be used to make forests more resistant and resilient to various agents of global change.
Streamed online as part of the Inspiring Victoria initiative in 2021.
He is currently a Charles Bullard Fellow at Harvard University and was previously an ARC Future Fellow and an adjunct research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. Before coming to Australia, Patrick was a research scientist for The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii and the US Forest Service.
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket.
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Platypus and the Changing Environment - What's Needed to Help Populations Thrive in Future?
2021-04-01 10:00 - 11:00 | Online, Australia
What do platypus like to eat and where do they prefer to live? These fascinating and iconic animals feed only in water. In this presentation two scientists who have studied them from different perspectives, will bust myths about platypuses being fussy feeders who require pristine habitat.
Learn how we can all contribute to making our rivers a better place for platypus. Dr Richard Marchant (Senior Curator, Entomology, Museums Victoria) and Dr Melody Serena (Conservation Biologist, Australian Platypus Conservancy) will discuss the factors vital to maintain healthy platypus populations, based on over 30 years research in Victoria and NSW. Followed by discussion and questions from the audience.
Presented as part of Neighbourhood Houses Victoria’s Climate Change and Environment Program.
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The Anthropocene: Where on Earth are we Going?
2021-04-08 19:00 - 20:30 | Online, Australia
Human pressures on the planet as a whole – the ‘Earth System’ – have now become so great that scientists have proposed that we have left the Holocene, the 11,700-year geologic epoch that has been humanity’s accommodating home, and have entered a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene. Originally proposed by atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen, the Anthropocene is characterised by extremely rapid changes to the climate system driven primarily by human emissions of greenhouse gases and growing degradation of the planet’s biosphere, driven by a range of direct and indirect human pressures.
Where is the Anthropocene headed? The current trajectory of the Earth System is a rapid exit from the Holocene, accelerating towards a much hotter climate system and a degraded, ill-functioning biosphere. Perhaps most concerning is a possible ‘fork in the road’ beyond which lies ‘Hothouse Earth’. The key element of this trajectory is a ‘tipping cascade’, in which a series of interlinked tipping points – the melting of polar ice, the conversion of forest biomes to grasslands or savannas, changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation – take control of the trajectory of the Earth System and move it to a much hotter, biodiversity-impoverished, but stable state.
To avoid this possible tipping cascade requires fundamental changes to human societies. These changes include not only advances in technologies but also more fundamental changes in societal structures and core values. In essence, we must become stewards of the Earth System, based on transformed societies that focus on systems approaches to economies, a greater level of equity within societies, and a focus on restoration of a well-functioning biosphere. All of these changes are possible, but they will only occur if we develop a life-centric approach to our existence rather than a human-centric approach. Indigenous Australians have developed rich traditions and might show us the way forward to a much more life-centric society.
About the Speaker

Professor Will Steffen is an Earth System scientist. He is a Councillor on the publicly-funded Climate Council of Australia that delivers independent expert information about climate change, an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University (ANU); Canberra, a Senior Fellow at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden; and a Fellow at the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm. He is the chair of the jury for the Volvo Environment Prize; a member of the International Advisory Board for the Centre for Collective Action Research, Gothenburg University, Sweden; and a member of the Anthropocene Working Group of the Sub-committee on Quaternary Stratigraphy.
Streamed online as part of the Inspiring Victoria initiative in 2021.
From 1998 to mid-2004, Professor Steffen was Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, based in Stockholm. His research interests span a broad range within climate and Earth System science, with an emphasis on incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis; and on sustainability and climate change.
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. RSV Members are prompted to enter their promotional code to access a member’s ticket. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket.
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2021 Midsumma Lecture Series - Queers in Science
2021-04-21 18:30 - 19:30 | Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton, VIC, 3053, Australia
As part of the Midsumma Festival, QueersInScience is presenting a two-part lecture series displaying the amazing work of queer scientists in Australia. This year’s Series is being held in partnership with Melbourne Museum and the Royal Society of Victoria, supported by the Inspiring Victoria program. LGBTQIA+ experts will present four talks on timely scientific topics across two events.
Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Wednesday 21 April, 6.30pm–7.30pm
Talk 1: “A Retirement Postponed by a Virus”
Professor Michael J Toole
Pronouns: he/him
Adjunct Professor, School of Public Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Talk 2: “Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic”
Professor Deborah Williamson
Pronouns: she/her
Doherty Institute / Royal Melbourne Hospital / Melbourne University, Melbourne, Australia
Director of Microbiology, Lab Head, Dame Kate Campbell Fellow
Lecture 2: Ecology now
Wednesday 5 May, 6.30pm–7.30pm
Talk 1: “Sex in a changing world”
Professor Bob Wong
Pronouns: he/him
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Head, Behavioural Ecology Research Group
Talk 2: “Ancestral biology and designing a connection to your traditional ecological knowledge”
Guy Ritani
Pronouns: they/them
Creative Director of PermaQueer, Queensland, Australia
There is the choice between an in-person experience attending the lectures at Melbourne Museum and afterwards have the opportunity to mingle with the speakers and audience members over some nibbles and drinks, or alternatively to enjoy our lecture from the comfort of your home using our online streaming option.
Prices: Museums Victoria Member $8 | Adult $12 | Concession $10 | Online webinar $5
If you require financial assistance to attend this event please contact QueersInScience via email.
FIND OUT MORE AND BUY TICKETS AT MUSEUMSVICTORIA.COM.AU

STEM and Society: SealSpotters
2021-05-12 18:00 - 19:00
Dr Rebecca McIntosh
Mr Ross Holmberg
Join Dr Rebecca McIntosh and Ross Holmberg from the Phillip Island Nature Parks team as they prepare to launch the annual SealSpotter Challenge, when citizen scientists around the globe jump online to count Australian fur seals and contribute to vital conservation research.
The SealSpotter program allows anyone with a computer to help with the management and protection of our oceans by counting seals in images captured with a UAV drone. The count enables scientists to analyse seal population and marine debris entanglement data faster and more accurately, leading to a greater understanding of the fur seal’s world and the threats they face.
Last year citizen scientists participated from every continent on the planet – including Antarctica! By offering a taste of what scientists in the field see and experience, Rebecca and Ross and the team at Phillip Island Nature Parks have started a movement, bringing the wider community along with them to affect necessary behavioural change and achieve their conservation goals.
How many seals will you find?

Streaming online via Facebook Live and the Victorian Parliament’s website.

This special series of online presentations explores the science and stories behind the game-changing work undertaken by Victoria’s scientific community. Our leading experts will talk about the work they’re doing to engage the community and affect meaningful change in their field of study and in our everyday lives. Presented by the Victorian Parliament, with the Royal Society of Victoria and Victorian Parliamentarians for STEM. A part of the Inspiring Victoria program.
Images courtesy of Phillip Island Nature Parks.

Why the World Needs Ecologists
2021-05-13 19:00 - 20:30
We are drowning in bad news. Two pages into the (1000pg) United Nations Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and you’ll be pleading for Tolstoy. Even David Attenborough is depressing these days.
Ecosystems collapse and species loss is being documented across the planet, with profound existential ramifications. Habitat degradation and loss remains the key driver of biodiversity loss, but climate change and invasive species promise to compound the damages we have wrought.
To save you days of morbid reading, Professor Brendan Wintle will provide a short and cheerful summary of the global extinction crisis, including Australia’s prominent and expanding role in species’ extirpation.
“To live without hope is to cease to live” (Dostoyevsky). So Brendan will celebrate the hopeful and crucial role that ecologists can play (and are playing) in co-designing and implementing solutions to the extinction crisis in partnership with private land conservation organisations, Indigenous land managers, developers, and governments. Science, civil society, business and policy makers can work constructively to bring the transformative change needed to ‘bend the curve’.
Brendan will give positive examples of some great collaborations that seek to keep our unique species, ecosystems and cultures intact, and will finish with a suite of practical measures that society and individuals can pursue to bring benefits to nature and people.
About the Speaker

Professor Brendan Wintle is the Director of the Threatened Species Recovery Hub, based at the University of Melbourne. He specializes in modelling and dealing with uncertainty in environmental decisions, and measuring cost-effectiveness of conservation programs.
He has served on Forest Stewardship Council reference committees, and various Commonwealth and State science advisory bodies including the Regional Sustainability Planning Advisory Committee, the Monitoring and Evaluation (MERI) advisory group, and the ‘Save the Tasmanian Devil’ Science Advisory Group.
Brendan completed a Forestry Degree in 1994 before working as a senior forest policy officer in the Queensland State Government. He completed his PhD in 2004 entitled “Characterizing and dealing with uncertainty in species distribution models” at the University of Melbourne. He won an Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship to work on the design of wildlife monitoring programs before taking up a position with the University of Melbourne’s School of Botany as a lecturer in Conservation Ecology.
He holds an ARC Future Fellowship: “Climate adaptation strategies for conserving biodiversity in rapidly changing landscapes”.
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket. Presented with the support of the Inspiring Victoria program.
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Next-Gen Spatial Tech for Forest Management
2021-05-20 18:00 - 19:30
New spatial technologies – like remote sensing, global positioning systems, ground based sensors, monitoring and other ICT interventions – are set to revolutionise our understanding of our forests and improve our capacity to manage and sustain them. Join three proponents of these powerful new systems for environmental monitoring to learn more about their potential applications for the management of water resources, forest growth rates and bushfire risks, enabling our forest estates to adapt and persist through rapidly changing conditions.
Keynote:
The Democratisation of Remote Sensing
Professor Nicholas Coops
Canada Research Chair in Remote Sensing
Head pro tem, Department of Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia
It’s hard to remember a time when we couldn’t experience our world through images produced by satellites and airplanes. These remote images have allowed us to see things as never before, to gain insight and shift perspective.
The technology has exploded in the past five years – it’s everywhere, with vast amounts of forestry data generated every day. Remote sensing – collecting imagery of the Earth’s surface – is cheaper and easier than ever before, and is revolutionizing the way we measure and monitor our forests. We can now see everything from a single leaf to the entire planet.
Professor Nicholas Coops is a researcher investigating innovative ways to use these technologies to help understand the process occurring within out forests and developing tools and methods to manage them sustainably. He is the most recent co-recipient of the Wallenberg Prize (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Forest Science) for his work on the 3-PG model; the other two co-recipients were Australian Dr Joe Landsberg and American Dr Richard Waring. This groundbreaking work in developing forest growth models is based on tree ecophysiology, further developed for large area application using geospatial forest analysis and remote sensing techniques. Nicholas completed his PhD at RMIT University.
Presentation:
New, Precise Positioning Technologies for CM Accuracy and Near Real Time Geostationary Satellite Monitoring of Bushfires
Professor Allison Kealy
Acting Chief Research Officer & Research Program Director
Advanced Satellite Systems, Sensors and Intelligence, SmartSat CRC
Professor, Geospatial Science, RMIT University
Allison’s presentation will cover three new technologies: first, the dedicated new Space Based Augmentation System (SBAS) that Australia is in the process of acquiring and its role in improving positioning accuracies to within 3- 5 cm; second, the operational introduction of Japan’s Himawari-8 geostationary remote sensing satellite in detecting and monitoring bushfires; and third, the AquaWatch IoT satellite sensor system for monitoring water usage.
Professor Allison Kealy is President and Fellow of the International Association of Geodesy, Commission 4 (Positioning and Applications) and co-chair of the International Federation of Surveying (FIG) Working Group 5.5 on Multi-Sensor Systems. Allison is a technical representative to the Institute of Navigation (US) and is the 2017 recipient of the US Institute of Navigation, Captain PVH Weems award for sustained contributions to advancing the art and science of navigation, and promoting and expanding the use of PNT among worldwide science and engineering communities. She is the most recent recipient of the Professional Eminence Award, Asia Pacific from the Spatial Industries Business Association – Geospatial Information and Technology Association (for Australia and New Zealand).
Presentation:
Situational Awareness for a Rapid Response: Enabling Early Detection of Natural Disasters Through Intelligent, Integrated Sensor Networks
Mr Rob Gell AM
Director, Attentis Pty Ltd
Director, ReThink Sustainability Pty Ltd
President, The Royal Society of Victoria
Among many roles, Rob is a Director of Attentis. This Australian company designs and manufactures intelligent multi-sensors that incorporate fire, flood and air composition detection with micro-climate weather, noise, vibration, ground movement and specialised sensing to deliver early notification of fire ignition, floods and airborne pathogens. Deployed across a regional network, these provide instant first responder notification, detailing the type of threat, location, images and live conditions to enable rapid investigation and the most effective deployment of resources, including aerial response and ground crews.
Rob’s expertise is as a geographer and a coastal geomorphologist, specialising in the environmental processes that continually shape our coastlines. Today he works as an environmental and communications consultant. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an Inaugural Fellow of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand.
Chair:

Dr Peter Woodgate
Chair, SmartSat CRC
Our MC for the evening will be Dr Peter Woodgate, Chair of the SmartSat CRC, Chair of the Steering Committee for the 2030 Space and Spatial Industry Growth Roadmap, which is building a growth roadmap for both industries, and a member of the Australian Space Agency’s Space Industry Leaders Forum. Peter is also Chair of the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network. Peter served as CEO of the Australia and New Zealand Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI) from June 2003 to December 2017 and has held senior positions with the Victorian Government and RMIT University.

Presented as a partnership between the Institute of Foresters of Australia, the Royal Society of Victoria and the Inspiring Victoria initiative.
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. RSV and IFA Members are prompted to enter their promotional code to access a member’s ticket. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket.
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Location, Location, Location: Immune Protection by Tissue-Resident T-Cells
2021-05-27 19:00 - 20:30 | Online, Australia
T cells are specialised immune cells that are central to the complex, adaptive immune response to infection and disease. T cells are “trained” to recognise specific fragments or components of viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens (e.g. a component of the influenza virus or tuberculosis bacterium).
During an infection, those T cells that recognise the infectious agent will be activated to respond – either killing infected cells or coordinating the attack. Following infection, a pool of memory T cells remains in the body to provide better and faster responses upon re-encountering the same pathogen because they are already trained to recognise it. Some memory T cells permanently reside in the site of infection where they are poised to mediate local immune responses should the pathogen come back. They are hence regarded as “tissue-resident memory T cells” and reside in tissues that are common sites of infection, including the skin, intestine and liver, where they elicit site-specific responses.
Join Professor Laura Mackay from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, whose work has been instrumental in the discovery of these cells and their role, to learn about recent advances in understanding the biological functions of these cells and their critical role in providing protection against infection and cancer. Laura’s work offers new insights to treatment and opportunities for the development of novel immunotherapies.

About the Speaker
Professor Laura Mackay holds appointments at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity at the University of Melbourne and A*STAR in Singapore. She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and Bill & Melinda Gates International Scholar, a University of Melbourne Dame Kate Campbell Fellow, a Sylvia & Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation Senior Medical Research Fellow, and an NHMRC Leadership Investigator. She is also the current President of The Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia-Oceania (FIMSA).
She is the recipient of Awards including The 2019 Prime Minister’s Prize for The Frank Fenner Life Scientist of the Year, The Gottschalk Medal (Australian Academy of Science), The Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher, The Woodward Medal in Science and Technology, The Michelson Prize for Human Immunology and The Victorian Young Tall Poppy Award.
For a number of years, Laura has been at the forefront of research on immunological memory, and how memory T cells protect the body against disease. Her work was instrumental in the discovery that a subset of immune cells called tissue-resident memory T cells are critical for the control of infection and cancer. The current focus of her Laboratory is on the molecular signals that govern tissue-resident memory T cell differentiation, with a view to harness these cells for the development of new immunotherapeutic strategies against disease.
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. RSV Members are prompted to enter their promotional code to access a member’s ticket. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket.
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Liveable Cities for All: Are We There Yet?
2021-06-10 19:00 - 20:30
For many years, Melbourne has dined out on being recognised by The Economist as “the most liveable city in the world;” and is now second to Vienna. While this global recognition is a source of great pride and an excellent marketing tool – is this measure of “liveable” fit for purpose, when considering the residents of Melbourne?
Drawing on almost a decade of research, Professor Billie Giles-Corti will consider:

What is a liveable city?
How are we measuring liveability?
Are we creating liveable cities in Australia for all?
If not, why not?

And perhaps most importantly, why our definition of and support for “liveability” is important if we are concerned about creating cities that facilitate healthy and sustainable lifestyles that support both individual and planetary health.
About the Speaker
Professor Billie Giles-Corti is a Distinguished Professor at RMIT University and Director of the Healthy Liveable Cities Research Group.

She is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Principal Research Fellow and directs the Centre for Urban Research’s Healthy Liveable Cities Research Group at RMIT’s Centre for Urban Research. Prior to joining RMIT in 2017, she was a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the University of Melbourne and Director of the McCaughey VicHealth Community Wellbeing Unit.
For over two decades, Billie and a multi-disciplinary research team have been studying the impact of the built environment on health and wellbeing. She currently leads an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Liveable Communities established in 2014; which works closely with local, national and global policy-makers and practitioners. She is a Chief Investigator on the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre, responsible for working with sectors outside of health; and leads a National Liveability Study funded by TAPPC. She is also the Liveability Lead for The Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub, which is supported through funding from the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Programme and her team is currently mapping policy-relevant urban liveability indicators across all Australian capital cities.
Streamed online as part of the Inspiring Victoria initiative in 2021.
She has published over 300 articles, book chapters and reports, and by citations, is ranked in the top 1% of researchers in her field globally. She is an Honorary Fellow of both the Planning Institute of Australia and the Public Health Association, a Fulbright Scholar and in 2016, was awarded an NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship as the top ranked female fellow in public health in 2015. She is a member of the Victorian Office of the Government Architect Design Review Panel; and from 2003-2016 was a member of the Heart Foundation’s National Physical Activity Committee (Chair 2007-2009).
Tickets are available below to participate in the webinar via Zoom and/or Eventbrite. RSV Members are prompted to enter their promotional code to access a member’s ticket. Alternatively, you can watch along via Facebook Live at the appointed time without buying a ticket.
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STEM and Society: The Anthropocene
2021-06-16 18:00 - 19:00
Human pressures on the planet as a whole – the ‘Earth System’ – have now become so great that scientists have proposed that we have now left the Holocene, the geologic epoch that has been humanity’s accommodating home for the last 11,700 years. It’s proposed we’ve entered a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene, characterised by extremely rapid changes to the climate system and the biosphere, driven primarily by a range of direct and indirect human pressures.
Professor Will Steffen
Professor Brendan Wintle
To understand what these changes mean for nature, ecosystems, and the future of humanity, and what we can do about it, join Professor Will Steffen, an Earth System scientist and researcher at the Australian National University, and Professor Brendan Wintle, Director of the Threatened Species Recovery Hub based at the University of Melbourne.
Professor Steffen’s research focuses on the incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis; and on sustainability and climate change. Professor Wintle specialises in decision support for threatened species conservation, ecological modelling and monitoring, and measuring the cost-effectiveness of conservation programs.
Will and Brendan will describe how we must become stewards of the Earth System to secure our prosperity and conserve our natural and cultural heritage, based on transformed societies, with a greater level of equity and a focus on the maintenance of a well-functioning biosphere.

Streaming online via Facebook Live and the Victorian Parliament’s website.

This special series of online presentations explores the science and stories behind the game-changing work undertaken by Victoria’s scientific community. Our leading experts will talk about the work they’re doing to engage the community and affect meaningful change in their field of study and in our everyday lives. Presented by the Victorian Parliament, with the Royal Society of Victoria and Victorian Parliamentarians for STEM. A part of the Inspiring Victoria program.
