Monash Magazine October 2015 | Page 2

2 www.MONASH.edu OCTOBER 2015 Monash University contents 20 Pharmaceutical science | Smarter medicine 24 Biomedicine | Light of life page 4 In the aftermath of a coalmine fire that blanketed a town in smoke for six weeks, residents and researchers are teaming up for a health study of global significance. Monash – Delivering Impact 26 Issue #10, October 2015 HeaLth and safety | Homes of recovery 29 04 07 Society | Agents of change 08 Biomedicine | Body parts printed to order Medical research | Lessons of the heart on film Medical research | Medicine on the move: bench to bedside CRICOS Provider Number: 00008C ISSN 2200-386X (Print) ISSN 2200-4459 (Online) Enquiries managing Editor: Margot Burke Telephone: [phone] Email: [email protected] eSubscribe to Monash magazine: www.monash.edu/monashmag/subscribe Website: www.monash.edu/monashmag Education | Chemical attraction Public health | The science of recovery Published twice a year by Monash University Building H, Level 9, 900 Dandenong Road, Caulfield East, VIC 3145, Australia 30 Written and designed by: Coretext, www.coretext.com.au The information in this publication was correct at the time of going to press. Views expressed within the magazine are not necessarily the views of Monash University. 32 © Copyright Monash University. All rightS reserved. 34 03 News Education | Hands across the water 12 18 Snapshots Urban design | High-rise wetlands 35 In print 14 Civil engineering | Costly awakening for 19th-century pipe dreams 16 Metals research | Manufacturing in 3D page 24 Professor Andrew Peele, director of the Australian Synchrotron. Cover photo: Eamon Gallagher The choice to shape a nation with a strategy for science There is a strong view in some quarters that Australians can’t be first at anything, so we should be “fast followers” instead. The notion that we’d willingly accept that we should never aim to be better than second is puzzling. Of course, we can’t lead in everything, researchers to become entrepreneurs; for start-ups to grow to scale; for universities to foster talent and ideas. The choice to create choices for business. The leaders who made these choices may not have had the iPad and the bulk of research and innovation will be done outside our country. But there in mind when they allocated resources to national missions. They are areas where we have particular needs, strong capacities, excellent capabilities did have in mind an idea of a better world, and they knew that and comparative and competitive advantages. We need to support such areas to markets alone would not create it. ensure that they flourish. We also have to identify them, and invest intelligently. For too long, we have been encouraged not to focus and spend our Australia too has the choice to shape our nation with a strategy for our science. We have challenges that are unique – rationed resources strategically. That’s “picking winners” – and unlike much of and we can position our science to meet them. We rely on the the rest of the world, that is something we tell ourselves we should never do, global science enterprise – and we can contribute to it to allow us even if the alternative is picking randomly or not picking anything to access the places where decisions are made. at all. We forget that the innovations hailed as evidence of Science isn’t just something scientists do. It is something in markets at work – from touchscreens to smartphones which every single one of us has a stake. I hope the people and to the internet – came about through the choices that nations made. ideas presented in this publication will remind us of what we can build and the benefits it could offer us all. The choice to invest in higher education. The choice to pursue ambitious research missions tied to aspirational national goals. The choice to couple these missions with incentives for Professor Ian Chubb AC Australia’s Chief Scientist