[pictured above] Academic economist and Greece’s ex-Minister of Finance, Yanis Varoufakis was the guest of honour at an exclusive one-off Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) event last Monday 30 November. As well as giving a riveting address, Mr Varoufakis was joined by Dean of MGSM, Professor Alex Frino, for an in-depth public discussion on the current Greek economic climate. The event was attended by more than 250 guests, including Macquarie University Chancellor, The Hon Michael Egan AO, former Premier of NSW, The Hon Kristina Keneally and Dr John Hewson AM.
Associate Professor Richard Appleyard from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science (pictured right), along with his good friend Tim Lockrey, recently took on the Mystery Box Rally 2015. Dubbed as the ‘mad baby brother of the Shitbox Rally’, the Mystery Box Rally sees participants arrive at the departure location with no car and no idea of where they’re heading, all the while raising funds for the Cancer Council. At this year’s event Richard and Tim (team ‘Autopaedic’) overshot their target of $3000 and raised $12,481 for their participation in the event, the fourth highest team fundraising effort out of 85 teams. They also took home the award for ‘Best Themed Team’, managing to stay in their medical scrubs for the duration of the five-day event!
The Macquarie University Hospital (MUH) has always been a great supporter of ‘Movember’, and this year was no exception! To date, more than four million moustaches have been grown worldwide for this annual initiative, sparking conversations and raising vital funds for men’s health programs. In 2015, the team at Movember introduced a ‘Move’ component to its fundraising initiatives and in support of this, MUH raised funds by hosting a 24-hour treadmill relay in the Hospital foyer. The activity commenced at 4pm on Tuesday 24 November, with Hospital CEO Carol Bryant taking the first shift. Over the course of the 24 hours, the treadmill did not stop running for 24 hours and the MUH team covered a total of 133 kilometres.
Celebrations continued on Friday 27 November with the Hospital’s ‘Barber Shop BBQ’. Staff enjoyed a delicious barbeque, while keeping entertained by watching a professional barber remove the moustaches of the MUH’s Mo Bros who had grown facial hair in support of this great cause. A total of $9,467 was raised by staff for this fantastic initiative.
In the upcoming Art Gallery exhibition Homecoming, two artists, Chris Stevenson and Teong Eng Tan, who spent an important part of their working lives at Macquarie University, explore aspects of their personal history and memory. While Chris draws inspiration from her visits to the family farm in the Blue Mountains, Teong engages the abstract, saying his time at Macquarie prepared him “for yet another leap into a dizzy engagement with ‘art’”.
The exhibition opens in the Macquarie University Art Gallery this Wednesday 9 December 2015, closing for the Christmas break (Friday 25 December to Monday 4 January, inclusive), and will resume on Tuesday 5 January until Friday 15 January 2016.
Featured artwork above: Ruminations 1, Chris Stevenson
Last Wednesday 2 December, more than 250 members of our Macquarie community gathered at a lunch to celebrate the achievements of Macquarie women and highlight gender equity initiatives throughout 2015. At the event, Vice-Chancellor Professor S Bruce Dowton acknowledged the ongoing contribution of women to the success of Macquarie and highlighted some particularly outstanding achievements during 2015
The Career Service recently held an awards ceremony for the 22 students who completed the Career Success Program. The program is designed to help students enhance their employability skills by boosting their confidence, job seeking strategies and networking skills.
As part of National Science Week earlier this year, the National Indigenous Science Education Program (NISEP) ran an Indigenous Science Experience event, demonstrating the value of traditional knowledge and Aboriginal culture in science and the relevance of science. Based at Macquarie, the NISEP aims to increase the level of engagement with science of rural and regional communities of Australia with high Indigenous populations, increase confidence in science and promote continuing involvement in science through secondary and tertiary education.