A former Miss World, Ms Belinda Green will be the guest speaker at the 2010 Charles Sturt Pharmacy Foundation dinner in Orange on Saturday 16 October. Other festivities during the Charles Sturt University (CSU) Pharmacy Social Weekend include golf at Duntryleague, a tour of CSU in Orange, including a visit to laboratories, and pharmacy lectures. The event is a chance for members of the profession to enjoy a social weekend with local pharmacists, CSU academics and students. Ms Green will speak at the dinner at Racine Restaurant in Orange on the topic of challenges and adventures. Tickets for any of the weekend activities can be purchased through the Charles Sturt Foundation on 02 6338 4834 or send an email.

Garden lovers in Orange will be treated to a fascinating talk on the world’s best botanic gardens by one of Australia’s most celebrated botanists, Dr Tim Entwisle. A guest of the Central West Branch of the Royal Society of NSW, Dr Entwisle will visit Orange on Friday 15 October for a public lecture hosted by Charles Sturt University (CSU). As Executive Director of the Sydney Botanic Gardens Trust, NSW Government Botanist and Adjunct Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sydney, Dr Tim Entwisle is a regular guest on ABC Radio. “To Dr Entwisle, botanic gardens are all about ‘planting ideas’ - interpreting and studying plants from around the world to understand, appreciate and celebrate the importance of plants to life,” Head of Campus at CSU in Orange, Professor Kevin Parton said.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) will host a national conference on ageing and wellbeing later in life. The fifth National CAPS Conference will be held at University House in Canberra from Tuesday 28 September to Friday 1 October. Professor of Theology and Director of the Centre for Ageing and Pastoral Care (CAPS),  Reverend Professor Elizabeth MacKinlay, AM, said, “The theme of the conference – Resilience, Resistance and Change – aims to focus discussions on the many issues around ageing. The conference is intended for all professionals who work in this field, such as theologians, clergy, health professionals and therapists, and anyone interested in improving the quality of life for older people”. Keynote speakers at the conference include Professor Keith Meador from the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University in the USA, Professor Peter Coleman from the University of Southampton in the UK and Reverend Professor MacKinlay. The conference program is available here. Further enquiries can be made to 02 6272 6205 or send an email.  

Under the night sky of West Wyalong, two Charles Sturt University (CSU) academics will be discussing the attempts by astrophysicists to unravel some of the mysteries of dark energy and matter in the universe. A free public lecture, What is our Universe made of? will be held in the Bland Shire Council Chambers in West Wyalong from 6pm on Thursday 23 September. Lecturers in physics from the School of Dentistry and Health Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga, Dr Allan Ernest and Dr Matt Collins, will present “compelling evidence for the existence of dark matter” in our universe. They will also outline the quantum-based theory of dark matter originally developed by Dr Ernest in 2001, and currently being progressed by the team at CSU to try to understand the nature and origin of dark matter. Contact Ms Julie Sharpe from Bland Shire Council on 02 6972 2266 or send an email.

Registrations are now open to attend the third Education for Sustainability Conference: connecting classrooms and communities, which will be held at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst on Friday 29 October. Conference organiser, Ms Jan Page, a lecturer at the School of Teacher Education at CSU in Bathurst said, “This environmental education conference is jointly organised with the Bathurst Community Climate Action Network for teachers across all sectors, parents and other members of the community who are interested in action, through school or community programs or through individual households, to address the growing impacts of global warming and climate change, peak oil and food security”. The conference costs $30 for teachers and community members and $20 for students. For more information or to register please contact Ms Page on 02 6338 4367 or send an email.

Exposing young school students to important health and safety messages is the focus of a cooperative effort between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and West Albury Primary School at the annual Health and Safety Education Expo. Around 50 students enrolled in CSU’s early childhood education degree will present hands-on learning experiences and displays to 70 children between kindergarten and Year 2, who will practise contacting emergency services, discover the number of germs on their hands using 'magic' gel, crawl through tunnels to escape an imaginary fire and observe the sun safe message, ‘slip, slop, slap’. " The Charles Sturt University students researched their topics with the help of local community professionals and prepared interactive experiences for the young school children. The Health and Safety Education Expo emphasises the importance of giving young children support to promote their own wellbeing from a very young age," said early childhood education lecturer, Ms Angela Fenton, from the Murray School of Education at CSU in Albury-Wodonga. West Albury Public School will host the Health and Safety Education Expo between 9.30am and 11.30am on Monday 20 September.  

According to Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Communication and Creative Industries lecturer Dr Bruce Fell, the world’s television stations have a large part to play in lowering carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. A compelling free public lecture to be held on Wednesday 22 September will look at how everyday television influences our individual and community understanding of the world. According to atmospheric scientists, the 39 000 television stations across the globe have 350 reasons to care about global ecological sustainability. “The safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 350 parts per million (ppm), but the June 2010 measurement was 392.04ppm,” Dr Bruce Fell said. “Television can assist with the ecological debate surrounding global warming and climate change.”

Internationally acclaimed wetland ecologist, Adjunct Professor David Mitchell, from Charles Sturt University (CSU) will deliver a free public lecture from 6pm in Tumut on Wednesday 15 September entitled Water, Drought and Climate Change. He will discuss developments in the management of water in Australian landscapes. “Concern is currently growing within Australia about the possibility of profound changes in climatic conditions and their potential to undermine many of the strategies that have been developed to sustain necessary agricultural production,” Professor Mitchell said. Professor Mitchell is from the CSU School of Environmental Sciences in Albury-Wodonga and is Principal Researcher at the University’s Institute of Land, Water and Society.

Anyone thinking that the Sydney Fringe Festival is being taken over by regional university graduates wouldn’t be far from the truth with 10 productions in the program featuring theatre/media graduates from Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst. Couple CSU’s talented graduates with a multidisciplinary cultural showcase and the Sydney Fringe Festival can live up to its promise, offering the thrill of discovery and the opportunity to experience independent new works that are tangible and authentic. Theatre/media graduates are demonstrating their eclectic talents as actors, writers, directors and producers at this festival. “Charles Sturt University graduates thrive in this kind of environment,” says School of Communication and Creative Industries senior lecturer Dr Jerry Boland. “The Sydney Fringe Festival is continually growing and it’s fantastic that our past and present students can contribute to its success.” The Sydney Fringe Festival runs from Friday10 to Friday 24 September.