NSW Centre News Fiona Johnson Chair, NSW Centre
The AMOS NSW centre has been busy organising a series of events to promote both AMOS and careers in atmospheric sciences and oceanography, to undergraduate students at the universities in NSW. We will be holding events at the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales and the University of Newcastle. These will be held during April and May and hopefully free food will encourage good attendance! Our first seminar for the year will be by Michael Logan, the manager of the NSW Severe Weather Service at the Bureau of Meteorology. The bushfires that burnt across
the Blue Mountains in October destroyed a large number of homes and disrupted many lives. They were some of the largest fires ever seen in the area so early in the fire season. Michael will discuss the weather conditions leading into and during this fire event to give an insight into how such a dangerous situation occurred. The seminar will be held on Wednesday 16 April at the Bureau of Meteorology NSW Regional Office—see the calendar on the AMOS NSW website1 for more details. 1 www.amos.org.au/regionalcentres/list/asset_id/45/cid/19/ parent/0/t/regionalcentres/title/2008%20Calendar
Brisbane Centre News Michael Hewson
Secretary, Brisbane Centre AMOS members associated with the Brisbane Regional Centre should be receiving details on future events shortly via email. Firstly, we need to have an AGM and we’ll target the end of April for that. The mooted but postponed “Climate Change Effects on Health” forum hosted by the Brisbane Regional Centre will now be included in the International Conference on Global Change and Health 2014 to be held in Brisbane in June1. Information on the associated AMOS forum, “The Climate Perspective”, will be disseminated shortly as we work out some logistics. 1
icgch2014.com
In recent weeks we have had two members volunteer to join the 2015 AMOS conference committees (to be held in Brisbane)—that’s good news! Nonetheless, it is quite critical that a few more people volunteer to be on the organising committee. Let me float an idea that might help—a lot of organisations allow for some of your working week to be set aside to contribute to social good—why not have a yarn with your seniors and see if you can get some work time to help advance your professional society in Brisbane? We’re looking forward to making the conference as successful an event as it has been in southern states—but we need some help.
Conference report
2014 Science Meets Parliament 17–18 March 2014, Canberra Hamish Clarke
PhD Student, University of New South Wales Senior Climate and Atmospheric Scientist, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage For each of the last fourteen years, an intrepid group of scientists has ventured into the heart of our nation. From Capital Hill, they are trained in the ways of communication, journalism and Twitter. They are given guided tours of the policy process and dabble in the mystical art of how to hold a political meeting. They are groomed and perfumed, wined and dined, feted and celebrated by the parliamentarians of Australia.
science and policy, I immediately signalled my interest to the Centre, only to be informed that the window had unexpectedly closed due to a clerical error.
This adventure is known as Science meets Parliament, and today I will tell you its tale.
This bullet pierced my heart but glanced harmlessly off the kevlar of the University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) Ian Macadam, who informed me that our beloved AMOS was sponsoring two places at this event. I thanked him and submitted my application. In short time Ian and I were informed by Jeanette Dargaville that the “golden tickets” were ours and we began preparations.
I first heard about the event through a single cryptic line in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence’s weekly email update from Simone Purdon. Obsessed as I am with the liminal space between
Science meets Parliament is organised by Science and Technology Australia, the peak body for 68,000 of Australia’s scientists and technologists. Their stated aims are:
Bulletin of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Vol. 27 page 25