News & Views Index
July 2007

 

In the UK Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills Under John Denham Ian Pearson Has Responsibility for Science and Innovation.    (31/07/07)

    Whereas his processor David Sainbury was seen as the scientists' science minister, Mr Pearson aims to be more in touch with the public. [More]

 

Australia's $210 Million Synchrotron is Officially Opened for Business.    (31/07/07)

    Australia's first synchrotron was officially opened today by Victoria's newly anointed premier, John Brumby. [More]

 

Requirements Determining Possible Dates for the Coming Federal Election.    (29/07/07) [More]

 

Federal Minister for Education Science and Training Initiates "Scientists in Schools".    (27/07/07)

   Julie Bishop has initiated the "Science for Schools" program. The program will be piloted in the latter part of this year and the aim is to place 500 scientists in 500 schools. [More]

 

French National Assembly Passes Bill Granting Increased Autonomy to the Nation's 85 Universities.    (27/07/07)

    Yesterday Le Monde reported that the French National Assembly voted to grant increased autonomy to the nation's universities within the next five years. [More]

 

A Nobel Laureates Says They Should Be Listened To.    (26/07/07)

    Burton Richter (76) is a Nobel Prize-winning American physicist. He was director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) from 1984 to 1999. [More]

 

Daniel E. Koshland Jr. Professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley,  Former Editor-in-chief of Science, Dead at 87.    (25/07/07)

    Daniel Koshland was editor-in-chief of Science from 1985 to 1995. [More]

 

COAG - Numeracy - a Review - And a Draft Submission From Two Guys Who Care.    (23/07/07)

    Professor Hyam Rubinstein heads the Department of Mathematics & Statistics at the University of Melbourne while Jan Thomas is the executive officer of the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute.  Together they have prepared, and made public last Thursday, a draft submission to the National Numeracy Review thereby inviting comment as regards the matters raised in the draft. [More]

 

Threat of Death of UK Parliamentary Science and Technology Select Committee Protested by Top British Scientists. (22/07/07)

    What Prime Minister Gordon Brown's response is to be, will be considered by many a first indication of his views of the degree of influence his nation's scientists will have on the formulation of UK science policy. [More]

 

One Year On from the UK's All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group's Report Is a Cross-Party Consensus on Climate Change Possible – Or Desirable?    (20/07/07)

    Just over a year ago -- July 13, 2006 -- Britain's APPCCG, All-Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group, brought down a fifty-two page report. [More]

 

Macquarie Bank's CEO Allan Moss: "The quality of our education system will be vital [but] the continued success of our universities is not a given."    (19/07/07) [More]

 

Shochat Committee Delivers Final Recommendations for Reforming Israeli Higher Education.    (17/07/07)

 Yesterday Israel's Committee for Examining the Higher Education System, better known as the Shochat Committee, for Former finance minister Avraham Shochat, delivered its final recommendations for reforming Israeli higher education sector to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. [More]

 

James Gentile Takes US Presidential Science Advisor John Marburger to Task.    (13/07/07)

    James Gentile, is President of Research Corporation and Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics at the University of Arizona where his research has focused on the role of metabolism in the conversion of natural, and xenobiotic, agents into mutagens and carcinogens. [More]

 

Science Gives US National Science Teachers Association's, Gerry Wheeler a Quick Quiz.    (13/07/07) [More]

 

UK Minister Attempts to Calm Fears of the Scientific Community.    (12/07/07)

    On July 9 the new science minister, Ian Pearson, told the House of Commons regarding the UK's new Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), "I express a personal oath that science will run through and be at the heart of the new department's policies. [More]

 

Reform of French University System Moves a Small Step Forward.    (12/07/07)

    Prior to his election to the French Presidency, Nicholas Sarkozy told an audience: "In the race against Stanford, Cambridge or Harvard, French universities run with their laces tied together and a backpack full of stones." [More]

 

Austrian Institute of Science and Technology Looks to be on the Starting Blocks.    (12/07/07)

The founding of an Austrian interdisciplinary graduate institute  last year looked to be all but dead in the water when the designated founding head left decrying political interference. [More]

 

University of Wollongong Deputy Vice-chancellor Margaret Shiel Takes Over as ARC's CEO.    (11/07/07)

      Professor Margaret Shiel will become chief executive office of the Australian Research Council on August 17 for a five-year term taking over from acting CEO Greg Harper who kept the chair warm after Peter Høj left to become vice-chancellor of The University of South Australia. [More]

 

Australia to Become an Associate Member Nation of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).    (11/07/07)

     Group of Eight Executive Director, Michael Gallagher, in a media release said, "Australia has now been accepted as the first associate member of EMBL... Australia was offered this opportunity in recognition of its record of achievement in molecular biology research and in complementary areas such as the physical sciences." [More]

 

Are We Really Heading Down the Path of Becoming "The Stupid Country"?    (10/07/07)

    Later this month the University of New South Wales Press will publish The Stupid Country: How Australia is dismantling public education by Chris Bonnor and Jane Caro. [More]

 

Higher Education in Japan, Opposing Views.    (09/07/07)

     "Negative feelings among foreigners can run deep. At a conference on education issues, foreign professors compared themselves with lab animals," but another's experience has been about 99% positive. She is well paid, has tenure until age 72, if  she wishes to remain that long, and is treated with respect. [More]

 

Deans of Science Once Again Try to Get the Government's and Opposition's Attention.    (09/07/07)

    You've got to give the Australian Council of Deans of Science credit for persistence. As they say in the introduction in their preliminary version of Sustaining Science: University Science in the Twenty-First Century released this past Friday, they have "been concerned about aspects of the trends shown by science enrolments for at least the past decade" and have now released their third analysis. [More

 

Range of Uncertainty in IPCC Global Warming Challenged.    (06/07/07)

    A challenge to one part of the latest climate assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [More]

 

Cambridge V-C Warns MPs of Future Decline in Quality of UK Graduates.    (05/07/07)

    Cambridge University's vice-chancellor, Alison Richard, yesterday told the British House of Commons cross-party education and skills select committee that the quality of education and research in the UK must not be compromised... [More]

 

The Bologna University Initiative Engenders Concern in Britain.    (05/07/07)

    The Bologna Process represents a commitment by forty-five European countries to undertake a series of reforms in order to achieve greater consistency and portability across their higher education systems. [More]

 

UK Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, John Denham, Announces his Ministerial team.    (05/07/07) [More]

 

A Strong Voice Remains Unheeded.    (03/07/07)

    In Canberra last month the Group of Eight Research Quality Assessment Forum took place. [More]

 

Former CSIRO Chief Executive Appointed Chairman of CSIRO Board.    (03/07/07)

    The federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, yesterday announced that Dr John Stocker has been appointed Chairman of CSIRO. [More]