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RSC NEWS 26 August 2005 |
Vol 36 : Issue No. 11 |
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Editors -- Marilyn Holloway and Sue Riches
This is a special (between fortnight) post-fire issue. As a result of the explosion and fire in the Birch Building on the 5th August, the RSC News issue 11 stalled in its tracks so to speak.
Well, what can one say after such an event that has not already been said. For a while politics and postulating took a sideline and there was a tremendous sense that we all belonged to something very special and important that had to be saved and restored to its former state. It was a very good feeling and I think almost everyone caught the bug.
Valuable work has been lost, time has been lost, and for the time being territories have been re-defined and comfort zones for many have gone. However, we have all improved our knowledge of who's who in the School and we have, hopefully, greater care and consideration of the value of people around us. For the young scientists amongst us a valuable lesson has been learned about the some of the consequences of business that we're in.
Chris Easton found himself in the hot seat bigtime, but he was not found wanting! The role he played was impressive, in every sense. Throughout the whole ordeal Chris never lost his cool, he listened to everyone, made some very tough decisions, negotiated with external forces vigorously and effectively, and put this School back on track in an impressively short timeframe. A truly impressive job Chris - please accept our thanks.
CONGRATULATIONS
Mr Never Tshabang (supervisor Professor Hill) submitted his
thesis, The Chemistry of Poly(methimazolyl)borate Complexes, on
2 August.
Congratulations, Never - and a happy reunion
with your family!
Mr Christian Evenhuis (supervisor Professor Collins) submitted his thesis this week, entitled Interpolation of Diabatic Potential Energy Surfaces. Well done Chris!
AWARDS
Our congratulations also go to the following:
Ms Rebecca Warr (Professor Bruce Wild's group) who won the Stranks award for the best student oral presentation in the Inorganic Division at the RACI conference in Sydney in July.
Dr David Lupton who left RSC last month to take up a position at Stanford University has been awarded a Sir Keith Murdoch Fellowship. David is one of seven young Australians who will share over 270,000 (AUD) in fellowship grants to be used for graduate study and research in the United States.
At the recent Gordon Conference in New Hampshire, Ms Iris Li
(Professor Chris Easton's group) was invited to give a talk on her
poster, Inhibition of peptidylglycine
α-amidating monooxygenase.
OTHER NEWS
Love is certainly in the air! There have been two recent RSC weddings:
Christine Dietinger celebrated her marriage to Risto Ikonen in Helsinki on 6 July.
The wedding of Krisztian Baranyai and Karen Higgins was held at Bondi Beach on Saturday 18 June and was attended by several of Krisztian's colleagues from the White group.
Congratulations and best wishes from all at RSC.
Recent Arrivals
A sincere welcome is extended to the following people who have arrived since our last issue:
Professor Gary Weisman from the University of New Hampshire is spending August and September with Professor Chris Easton's group as a Visiting Fellow (room 103) and has been very much part of the "big bang".
Dr Prabhakar Ranganathan has taken up a postdoctoral position with Dr Edith Sevick's group (room 49, ext. 50388). Welcome "RP".
Departures
Farewell and best wishes to the following who have left the School since our last issue:
Mr Adrian Hawley has left the school to commence a PhD Scholarship at the University of Bath in UK.
Mr Never Tshabang who has returned home to Botswana
following the completion of his PhD degree.
The following was donated by Professor Ray Withers.
TRUE -questions to Oz Tourist Board
The following is from an email I received, great stuff... The questions below about Australia are from potential visitors. They were posted on an Australian Tourism Website and the answers are the actual responses by the website officials, who obviously have a sense of humour:
Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia?
A: I have never seen it rain on TV.
Q: How do the plants grow? (UK).
A: We import all plants fully grown
and then just sit around watching them die.
Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in
the street? (USA)
A: Depends how much you've been
drinking.
Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney
- can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure. It's only three thousand
miles. Take lots of water.
Q: Is it safe to run around in the
bushes in Australia? (Sweden)
A: So it's true what they say about
Swedes.
Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines)
in Australia? Can you send me a list of them in Brisbane, Cairns,
Townsville and Hervey Bay? (UK)
A: What did your last slave die of?
Q: Can you give me some information
about hippo racing in Australia? (USA)
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped
continent south of Europe.
Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the
middle of the Pacific which does not... oh forget it. Sure, the hippo
racing is every Tuesday night in Kings Cross. Come naked.
Q: Which direction is North in Australia? (USA)
A: Face south and then turn 180
degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the
directions.
Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia? (UK)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.
Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (USA)
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y,
which is...oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every
Tuesday night in Kings Cross, straight after the hippo races. Come
naked.
Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia? ( UK)
A: You are a British politician, right?
Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney
and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization
of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.
Q: Please send a list of all doctors
in Australia who can dispense rattlesnake serum. (USA)
A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca
which is where YOU come from. All Australian snakes are perfectly
harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.
Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia, but I
forget its name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees. (USA)
A: It's called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop
out of Gum trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath
them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine
before you go out walking.
Q: Do you have perfume in Australia? (France)
A: No, WE don't stink.
Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of
youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in Australia? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.
Q: Can you tell me the regions in Tasmania where the female
population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.
Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia? (France)
A: Only at Christmas.
Q: I was in Australia in 1969 on R+R, and I want to contact the
girl I dated while I was staying in Kings Cross. Can you help? (USA)
A: Yes, and you will still have to pay her by the hour.
Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first
Banwell, M.G., Loong, D.T.J., Willis, A.C. A chemoenzymatic total synthesis of the undecenolide (–) cladospolide C. Aust. J. Chem. (2005), 58(7), 511-516. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/CH05074
Barr, L., Easton, C.J., Lee, K., Lincoln, S.F. Aminocyclodextrins to facilitate the deprotonation of 4-tert-butyl-α-nitrotoluene. Org. Biomol. Chem. (2005), 3(16), 2990-2993. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/b506187c
Crossley, I.R., Hill, A.F., Humphrey, E.R., Willis, A.C. The first bimetallic metallaboratrane: [Rh2{B(mt)3}2{κ2-S,S'-HB(mt)3}]Cl and its synthesis from the fluxional rhodaboratrane salt [Rh{B(mt)3}(η4-C8H12)]Cl, (Rh&;B, mt = methimazolyl). Organometallics (2005), 24(16), 4083-4086. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/om0580203
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Hughes, J.L., Krausz, E., Smith, P.J., Pace, R.J., Riesen, H. Probing the lowest energy chlorophyll a states of Photosystem II via selective spectroscopy: new insights on P680. Photosynth. Res. (2005), 84(1-3), 93-98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11120-004-7927-6
Krausz, E., Hughes, J.L., Smith, P.J., Pace, R.J., Peterson Årsköld, S. Assignment of the low-temperature fluorescence in oxygen-evolving Photosystem II. Photosynth. Res. (2005), 84(1-3), 193-199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11120-004-7078-9
Peterson Årsköld, S., Smith, P.J., Shen, J.-R., Pace, R.J., Krausz, E. Key cofactors of Photosystem II cores from four organisms identified by 1.7-K absorption, CD and MCD. Photosynth. Res. (2005), 84(1-3), 309-316. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11120-005-2135-6
Rae, A.D., Mossin, S., Sørensen, H.O. Structure refinement of a twinned pseudo-symmetric crystal of [Mn(C10H24N4)(NCO)2]+·ClO4-. Acta Crystallogr., Sect. B (2005), 61(4), 407-417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1107/S0108768105015211
Welberry, T.R., Gutmann, M.J., Woo, H., Goossens, D.J., Xu, G., Stock, C., Chen, W., Ye, Z.-G. Single-crystal neutron diffuse scattering and Monte Carlo study of the relaxor ferroelectric PbZn1/3Nb2/3O3 (PZN). J. Appl. Crystallogr. (2005), 38(4), 639-647. http://dx.doi.org/10.1107/S0021889805015918
