Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Professor Shahbaz Khan, Director of the International Centre for Water, Senior Principal Scientist and Research Leader with CSIRO Land and Water and Regional Coordinator of the Asia Pacific office of UNESCO IHP-HELP, continues to attract accolades for his world leading water research. Professor Khan has been awarded the Modelling Society of Australia and New Zealand (MSSANZ) Biennial Medal for Natural Systems, after also recently winning a prestigious Eureka Award. Based at the CSU Wagga Wagga Campus, Professor Khan says, “The recognition is great news for CSU and CSIRO research”. CSU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Vice-President (Research) Professor Paul C Burnett says, “It is fantastic to see that Professor Khan’s work and contribution to new knowledge in this area is being so widely recognised. He and his team should be proud of what they have achieved.” The Biennial Medal will be presented in December at the MSSANZ 2007 conference in New Zealand.

A group of Charles Sturt University (CSU) students are out to "put the sting" into their more fancied rivals when they compete in the water polo competition in the upcoming Australian University Games, to be held on the Queensland Gold Coast from 23 to 28 September. The CSU Bluebottles, comprising nine CSU students from its Albury-Wodonga and two from Bathurst campuses, boasts seven regular top grade players who have represented the Ovens & Murray Association, NSW and Australian Country Teams. In July, the Bluebottles walked away with a bronze medal at the Australian universities’ East Coast Challenge and are confident of an even better performance on the Gold Coast. Team captain Matt Hogan, who played for the last three years in England and before that had stints with the Cronulla Sharks and Canberra Dolphins in the Australian National League, said, "We are going to the Gold Coast confident in our ability to be competitive. After our top three finish in Sydney we can go to the Australian University Games believing we are a medal chance.” The Bluebottles are looking for support from the Border community to get to the Games. Anyone interested can send an email to csubluebottles@hotmail.com

Building Bridges is the theme of this year’s annual early childhood conference to be hosted by Charles Sturt University (CSU), together with the City of Wodonga. The aim of the conference is to build many bridges: between Victoria and NSW, between early childhood educators and primary school teachers, between student teachers and teachers, and between educators and the public. The two day conference, to be held this Friday 17 and Saturday 18 August for the first time in Wodonga, features guest speakers with national and international experience, including the motivational Cathy McGowan, leading educator and Principal of Benalla Primary School Heather Leary and CSU’s Professor Sue Dockett and Associate Professor Bob Perry. The program also includes research completed and presented by CSU final year education students at the University’s Albury-Wodonga Campus on such topics as autism, computer literacy and language in early childhood. Teachers and parents across southern NSW and North East Victoria have been invited to attend.

Following the outbreak of equine flu that has threatened the Australian horse industry, experts from Charles Sturt University (CSU) will provide information and advice at a public forum in Wagga Wagga on Wednesday 29 August. Dr Sharanne Raidal, senior lecturer in Veterinary Science at the School of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences on Wagga Wagga Campus, says, “This is a very important issue for the Australian equine industry. Halting the spread of disease can only be achieved through strict compliance with DPI instructions regarding movement of horses, personnel and equipment. This means keeping horses at their current locations, and restricting movement of people and vehicles. CSU equine facilities at Orange and Wagga Wagga are providing a good example of doing the right thing by suspending classes and imposing industry-standard precautions to contain the outbreak of equine flu in NSW.”

Members of the Riverina equine community at a Charles Sturt University (CSU) Equine Influenza (EI) forum have been urged to work together so that NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) quarantine restrictions, imposed in response to Australia’s first EI outbreak, are upheld by everyone in the community. Participants emphasised that the disease poses a threat to all horses, ponies and donkeys. Around 130 people attended the forum which was organised in Wagga Wagga by the CSU School of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences. A panel of CSU equine health experts, led by Director of Veterinary Science Professor Kym Abbott, outlined the status of the EI outbreak, how the highly contagious virus is transmitted and ways to prevent its spread through the nation’s equine population. CSU veterinary science lecturer Dr Sharanne Raidal stressed the importance of community vigilance and compliance to halt the advance of equine flu, which can be transmitted by humans, vehicles and equipment.

Happiness is desired by all, yet achieved by only a few. But according to Dr Timothy Sharp, it does not always have to be like this. Dr Sharp will show participants how to get more out of life using principles from positive psychology during a seminar hosted by Charles Sturt University (CSU) on Friday morning 7 September on its Albury-Wodonga Campus. “My colleagues and I are achieving some wonderful results with individuals and organisations all over Australia, and I look forward to sharing the knowledge and experience we’ve gained over the last few years to Albury,” said Dr Sharp, who has three degrees in psychology and has worked as a clinical and academic psychologist. Australia's leading expert in positive psychology, in 2003 Dr Sharp founded The Happiness Institute in Sydney, NSW. The seminar will start at 9.30am at the boardroom, CSU’s Gordon Bevan building, off Old Sydney Road, Thurgoona.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) students will put local food on show at a Sustainable Food Day to be held on Wednesday 5 September at its Thurgoona site. The event has resulted from their participation in the national 2007 Students of Sustainability Conference held recently in Perth, where as their coordinator Peter Barrett says, “We ate vegan food all week and it was pretty good!”.  The Sustainable Food Day will run from 12noon at the Gums Café on the University’s Thurgoona site and is part of the activities that the students have held since they returned from the Perth conference. “As much of the food as possible comes from local sources, making every dish as sustainable as possible. We will also have recipes and information for CSU students and staff and the public to take with them and make delicious sustainable food at home,” Mr Barrett said.

Lessons from agriculture in the Middle Ages could today help farms in Australia become more sustainable. Back in that era, farmers didn’t hold individual titles over land but farmed collectively on common property or "commons". A modern day adaptation of this concept is cross-boundary farming, where farmers agree to pool their land resource and manage it as a whole. A free one day forum on cross-boundary farming will be hosted by the Institute for Land, Water and Society (ILWS) at Charles Sturt University (CSU), Wagga Wagga Campus, on Friday 7 September. The forum will consider the opportunities and pitfalls of cross-boundary farming, the environmental benefits, property rights, relationships between and within farming families as well as workloads. There will be two panel sessions presenting various practical and political points of view on the practice.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) is contributing to the health of inland Australia through the development and funding of an Asthma Alert webpage, which will send asthma sufferers email or SMS alerts when environmental conditions pose a significantly increased risk of triggering an asthma attack. The webpage will be unveiled when the Wagga Asthma Collaboration Committee launches its 2007 Spring Thunderstorm Asthma Campaign at 10am on Wednesday 5 September at the CSU staff club, Wagga Wagga Campus. Committee Chair, Dr Bruce Graham, a lecturer at the CSU School of Biomedical Sciences, says this year’s campaign theme is Research, Education and Asthma. Professor Deidre Lemerle, Director of the E H Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, CSU and NSW DPI Research, will outline asthma research links at CSU. Rebecca Turnbull, CSU medical science & biotechnology student, will also detail research about pollens in asthma. Australian Bureau of Statistic figures show 318 Australians died from asthma in 2005.