The E H Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation was one of the first stops on the annual Rural Awareness Tour organised by Australia’s peak beef producer body, the Cattle Council of Australia this week. The nine participants in the three-State whistlestop tour included representatives from the Federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS); Animal Health Australia and the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE). The visit was coordinated by the E H Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, a research alliance between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and included an inspection of CSU’s newly-completed Veterinary Science Pre-clinical Centre for teaching anatomy and physiology. They also discussed issues facing rural tertiary education providers as well as future directions in agricultural research and collaborative links. Director of the E H Graham Centre, Professor Deirdre Lemerle said the Cattle Council chose to highlight Wagga Wagga on this year’s Rural Awareness Tour because of CSU’s and DPI’s significant investment in agriculture. “Wagga is attracting top-quality agricultural and veterinary scientists and researchers and CSU is training the next generation of agricultural and veterinary practitioners,” Professor Lemerle said.

The words of wisdom on technology from three Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturers can be heard around the clock with their regular radio segment now available for download as a podcast broadcast every fortnight on a Thursday morning on ABC Riverina. Digital Living and its panel of Peter Adams, Dr Barney Dalgarno and Phil Roy from CSU, focuses on the latest technology for work and home as well as changes in the IT sector. The podcast of Digital Living is available through the ABC’s podcasting site here: http://www.abc.net.au/services/podcasting/subject_Science.htm. A list of recent Digital Living segments is available here: http://www.abc.net.au/riverina/stories/digitalliving.htm  

An agreement between the National Radio News (NRN), based at Charles Sturt University (CSU), and community radio station, 2MBS has expanded the number of stations subscribing the NRN’s news service to 93. NRN provides regular national radio news to nearly 4 million listeners on community radio stations across Australia in metropolitan, regional and remote areas. Based in Sydney, 2MBS is considered a national “flagship” station of community radio, with over 400 000 residents in the broadcast area. Six CSU communication students are employed as cadets by NRN for 15 months and regularly record news stories while supervised by working journalists. “NRN is not a classroom – our students work in a real newsroom with real pressures to produce 13 live, daily news bulletins for a national audience,” said NRN manager Peter Hetherington. “Exposure on such large stations is great experience for our students.”

Pharmacy students from Orange travelled to Wagga Wagga to mark the start of the 2006 academic year. The Charles Sturt University (CSU) pharmacy students met with academics, local pharmacists and industry representatives at the 2006 Commencement Dinner, which attracted more than 100 guests in April. Organised by the University’s Pharmacy Student Association, Pharmers, the annual event gives students a chance to develop a greater understanding of the industry and form personal and professional networks. Among the guests were Mayor of Wagga Wagga, Kerry Pascoe, representatives from the Charles Sturt Pharmacy Foundation and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. More than 120 students started in CSU’s pharmacy program in 2006 including 45 in Orange and 79 in Wagga Wagga. This brings the total number of students in the pharmacy program to about 340.    

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) engagement with local communities is being demonstrated in Bathurst where third-year CSU marketing students are presenting their ideas to several Bathurst businesses this month. The most challenging project is the Royal Bathurst Show which is changing dates for the first time in over 120 years and hoping to attract a younger crowd. “I see regional engagement as a really important part of the University,” said Andrew Mashman from CSU’s School of Marketing and Management. “The Show is the biggest community event in the Bathurst calendar and the date change is very important. In doing this project, the students get to understand the stakeholders in the Bathurst community much better.” At the same time, students in Internet Marketing are investigating the opportunities for several local businesses to start or grow their internet marketing strategies. Bachelor of Business (Marketing) graduate David Gibson says his involvement in last year’s project helped land him a job in sales and marketing co-ordination. His advice to students this year? “Definitely get involved as much as you can and include it in your resume. It does set you apart from other university graduates.”

Embracing the borderless nature of their chosen profession, two Charles Sturt University (CSU) veterinary science students have been selected to participate in a leadership program in the United States in June. Second-year students Fiona Kelk from Wagga Wagga and Kimberly Groner, from Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges, will have a valuable opportunity to meet their North American peers when they attend Washington State University’s annual Veterinary Leadership Experience in Idaho. Along with dairy cattle practice lecturer Natasha Lees, the CSU students will attend the week-long leadership program with the financial support of the Charles Sturt Foundation and the Australian Cattle Vets (ACV), a special interest group of the Australian Veterinary Association Ltd. “Given the intrinsic global nature of veterinary medicine and protecting animal and human health, this trip will be an ideal chance to foster ties between Australian and US students and develop leadership, teamwork and communication skills,” said Ms Lees. “This has benefits not only for the individual CSU students but the future of the profession and our work in herd management,” added the CSU lecturer.

Improving athlete’s performances and recovery times could be as simple as wearing compression garments or ‘Skins’, according to Dr Rob Duffield, lecturer in the School of Human Movement at Charles Sturt University (CSU). With Johann Edge, a researcher at Massey University in New Zealand, he is looking at what effect Skins have if worn during and after hard training sessions such as simulating an actual rugby game. If Skins reduce muscle damage, it is possible performance will improve. Athletes have been using Skins based on anecdotal evidence for some time and Dr Duffield says it is common for science to play catch-up with trends set by the sporting fraternity. “Athletes are always looking for an edge and they’ll use anything even if they only perceive that it makes them perform and feel better. The science then either proves or disproves the theory.” Although Dr Duffield is still awaiting final data to come in there is already considerable interest in his research. “We start testing the compression garments for Cricket Australia this week. If there is a performance benefit, we’ll look more in depth to see if there’s a psychological component or whether there are physiological changes occurring as a result of wearing Skins,” Dr Duffield said.

A young woman scientist from Charles Sturt University (CSU) has been selected from a worldwide pool of outstanding students in the field of chemistry to attend the 56th Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Germany next month (25-30 June). Suzy McDonald, a CSU Doctoral student, will mingle with 24 Laureates and 500 like-minded students for five days. Seven Australians were chosen by the Australian Academy of Science according to strict criteria such as an excellent graduation record, outstanding research and teaching experience and a strong commitment to a principal field of study. “It’s not very often you get to meet Nobel Laureates,” said Suzy McDonald whose research on carbon in the Murrumbidgee River is adding to the scientific knowledge of environmental processes. She is looking forward to meeting Laureate Paul J. Crutzen, who contributed to the realisation that the earth's protective ozone layer is threatened by human activity. Ms McDonald says when she finishes her PhD she would like to continue her work on environmental research and water quality issues.

Defining the shape of practical and clinical education to help prepare the professionals of tomorrow was the subject of recent discussions for Charles Sturt University (CSU) staff. With 85 per cent of the University’s undergraduate courses including practicum or clinical requirements, CSU is a leader in providing practical professional education in Australia. Academic and general staff across CSU’s campuses discussed the possible shape of a proposed University-wide institute for clinical and practicum-based education. Speakers at the forum on the Albury-Wodonga Campus examined how the institute could support the administration and funding of clinical practice, internships and practicums as well as assisting research into practical education. The forum meeting was hosted by the CSU Professional Experience Network (PEN) and recommendations from the forum were forwarded to the University’s senior management.