Is there life after a PhD? Proceeedings from a symposium presented by the Graduate School

The flippant title conceals a real and serious question. How does one go about building a career after completing a PhD? The larger context includes the motivation for doing a PhD in the first place and the various market places which might employ PhD graduates and their needs. Most students undertake PhDs after successful undergraduate careers that awaken their interests in a particular subject and a desire to penetrate more deeply into it. The implicit expectation is usually a career in research and/or teaching in a university. The rewards and the style that can be expected of a life in the academy have, however, changed greatly over the last two or three decades. The impetus for arranging the symposium was our increasing concern that students undertaking PhD studies are not sufficiently aware of the shrinking job opportunities and intense competition now endemic in the traditional arena and, conversely, of the potential of other less often considered avenues providing for rewarding careers. There is plenty of hard, as well as anecdotal, evidence for the first proposition. For example a recent Nature (vol. 383, p195, 1996) review of an American study reports that it found that fewer than half of PhDs in academic institutions hold tenure track positions. In the light of this finding, the US National Academy of Sciences recommends that young scientists 'approach their careers with a broad view, with the well-developed set of professional survival skills that today's job market requires'.Good advice surely. But what are these skills and how do you acquire them? It occurred to us that a good way to explore this question and to illustrate the wider horizons that PhD graduates, and, better, intending PhD candidates, should be scanning, would be to enlist as speakers in a symposium people who had successfully deployed a PhD degree as a spring- board to develop careers outside the conventional sphere. To our surprise there are many such individuals and, more gratifyingly, these outstanding Australians when approached were generous in agreeing to participate in our symposium. As may be judged from the accounts collected here, the presentations were interesting, pertinent and often provocative. We are grateful to the participants for their time, their enthusiasm and for agreeing to provide the written scripts which form the basis of this publication. It was evident from the capacity audience throughout the day and the lively discussion following each talk, that students in the Graduate School do feel the need for creative and practical career advice. It seemed to us well worthwhile to make the proceedings available for continuing reference as a Graduate School Occasional Paper. For this first symposium we decided to focus on PhDs in science and engineering. Clearly, a good deal that was said was relevant to other disciplines too. Still, we hope in future to broaden the scope of related symposia to include, explicitly, career options for PhDs in the social sciences, humanities and other areas. We hope that Symposia like 'Is There Life after a PhD?; will form a nice complement to the Induction Program-- 'How to Manage Your Research Degree'--offered by the Graduate School,whose emphasis is on giving students good advice on how to equip themselves for a successful career

Optimization and biological validation of an in vitro assay using the transfected Dm28c/pLacZ Trypanosoma cruzi strain

There is an urgent need to develop safer and more effective drugs for Chagas disease, as the current treatment relies on benznidazole (BZ) and nifurtimox (NFX). Using the Trypanosoma cruzi Dm28c strain genetically engineered to express the Escherichia coli β-galactosidase gene, lacZ, we have adapted and validated an easy, quick and reliable in vitro assay suitable for high-throughput screening for candidate compounds with anti-T. cruzi activity. In vitro studies were conducted to determine trypomastigotes sensitivity to BZ and NFX from Dm28c/pLacZ strain by comparing the conventional labour-intensive microscopy counting method with the colourimetric assay. Drug concentrations producing the lysis of 50% of trypomastigotes (lytic concentration 50%) were 41.36 and 17.99 μM for BZ and NFX, respectively, when measured by microscopy and 44.74 and 38.94 μM, for the colourimetric method, respectively. The optimal conditions for the amastigote development inhibitory assay were established considering the parasite-host relationship (i.e. multiplicity of infection) and interaction time, the time for colourimetric readout and the incubation time with the β-galactosidase substrate. The drug concentrations resulting in 50% amastigote development inhibition obtained with the colourimetric assay were 2.31 μM for BZ and 0.97 μM for NFX, similar to the reported values for the Dm28c wild strain (2.80 and 1.5 μM, respectively). In summary, a colourimetric assay using the Dm28c/pLacZ strain of T. cruzi has been set up, obtaining biologically meaningful sensibility values with the reference compounds on both trypomastigotes and amastigotes forms. This development could be applied to high-throughput screening programmes aiming to identify compounds with anti-T. cruzi in vitro activity

Chemical pollution: a growing peril and potential catastrophic risk to humanity

Anthropogenic chemical pollution has the potential to pose one of the largest environmental threats to humanity, but global understanding of the issue remains fragmented. This article presents a comprehensive perspective of the threat of chemical pollution to humanity, emphasising male fertility, cognitive health and food security. There are serious gaps in our understanding of the scale of the threat and the risks posed by the dispersal, mixture and recombination of chemicals in the wider environment. Although some pollution control measures exist they are often not being adopted at the rate needed to avoid chronic and acute effects on human health now and in coming decades. There is an urgent need for enhanced global awareness and scientific scrutiny of the overall scale of risk posed by chemical usage, dispersal and disposal

Mission to Planet Earth. by Julian Cribb

tag=1 data=Mission to Planet Earth. by Julian Cribb tag=2 data=Cribb, Julian tag=3 data=The Australian Magazine, tag=6 data=2/3 March 1991 tag=7 data=28-32. tag=8 data=SPACE TECHNOLOGY tag=10 data=The secrets of an ever-changing and intricate world are about to unfold as humankind launches the biggest ever space mission - to explore our own planet. The benefits will be enormous, but Australia is discovering there's no such thing as a free launch. tag=11 data=1991/3/4 tag=12 data=91/0329 tag=13 data=CABThe secrets of an ever-changing and intricate world are about to unfold as humankind launches the biggest ever space mission - to explore our own planet. The benefits will be enormous, but Australia is discovering there's no such thing as a free launch

Food and fuel forever

This report argues that a new industry has the scope to make Australia 100% self-sufficient in transport fuels and food. Key points: Australia has just 23 days’ supply of fuel in the pipeline: a major oil crisis could cripple our economy within days. Algae culture has the potential to make Australia 100 per cent self-sufficient in transport fuels and food. It can create major new industries in aquaculture, plastics, textiles, health food, paper, industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals. It can generate an estimated $50 billion in new revenue and create over 50,000 new jobs, mainly in regional Australia. Australia’s endowment of sunlight makes it one of the world’s richest oil provinces of the 21st Century. Australia needs an accelerated national R&D effort into algae culture and algal biofuels, coupled with a national investment plan to capture this opportunity. &nbsp

The coming famine

Barring nuclear wars, pandemics and cosmic accidents, there will be about 9.3 billion people living in the world of 2050 - but they will eat as much food as 13 billion people at today’s nutritional levels. Constraints to global food production in an overpopulated, affluent and resource-scarce world will be the scientific challenge of the era

Australia's north, Australia's future: A vision and strategies for sustainable economic, ecological and social prosperity in northern Australia

The release of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Change agreement highlighted the importance of global sustainability internationally. Here, we outline a vision and strategies for developing northern Australia that demonstrate how a focus on sustainable prosperity can both expand historical approaches and current government plans and integrate the biophysical realities with the social, political, and cultural characteristics of the region. We highlight examples of the significant horizontal and vertical integration opportunities that this expanded vision and related strategies provide for (a) land (carbon farming, targeted food production systems, and native title arrangements); (b) water (water resources management); (c) energy (renewable energy production, storage, and distribution); (d) workforce (culturally appropriate ecotourism, Indigenous ranger programs, and protected area management); (e) knowledge services (health care and innovative employment opportunities); and (f) governance (greater participatory governance). We found that realisation of even 10% of these emerging opportunities over the next 10years alone could result in economic growth worth over AUD 15 billion and 15,000+ jobs for northern Australia as well as the further ecological and social benefits derived from a sustainable prosperity strategy