Faculty Research Profile
Strategy and Planning
The Faculty of Science and Engineering has a strategic vision outlined for the period 2016-2020 in the document Discover. Create. Innovate. Faculty of Science and Engineering Strategic Plan 2016-2020.
The Faculty’s strategy aligns with the University strategic direction as outlined in World-Leading Research World-Changing Impact. Strategic Research Framework: 2015-2024.
ERA Performance
A summary of Macquarie University’s ERA performance can be found here. A more detailed breakdown can be found in this internal document, which lists the ERA ranking for all departments and provides a comparison with how they performed in the ERA 2012 round.
Research Funding History
Please contact the Faculty Research Office for a summary of the Faculty’s performance in the major grant rounds for previous years. The number of successful applicants for the most recent Australian Research Council awards are as follows:
Discovery Projects DP17: 66 submitted, 11 successful
Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards DE17: 31 submitted, 6 successful
Future Fellowships FT16: 7 submitted, 2 successful
Linkage Projects LP16: 8 submitted, 5 successful
Publications from the Faculty
Total numbers for the major HERDC categories A1,B1, C1 and E1.
2010 (numbers submitted in 2011) : 931
2011 (numbers submitted in 2012) : 1035
2012 (numbers submitted in 2013) : 1131
2013 (numbers submitted in 2014) : 1127
2014 (numbers submitted in 2015) : 1232
2015 (numbers submitted in 2016) : 1198
A Brief History of Science at MQ and the Faculty
Science was established at Macquarie in 1967, the year the University opened for students. The School of Mathematics and Physics was the largest of the science schools at the time, though it was later overtaken by the School of Earth Sciences. Computing began as the “first separate credited first-year computing course in Australia,” with a single IBM computer, but oddly, by 1979 was the only Australian university not to have a Chair in Computing. In 1981, Mathematics and Physics was renamed the School of Mathematics, Physics, Computing and Electronics. Biological Sciences began under Frank Mercer with an emphasis on ecology and plant physiology and one teaching unit, “Introduction to Biology”. Chemistry was originally to have been called the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, but was eventually launched as simply Chemistry. This was an awkward time, for there was low demand for the field in Australia in the 1970’s, while the high cost of equipment and an early concentration on teaching held back its research potential. By the mid 1980’s, however, the school had strengthened considerably. Earth Sciences started under Alan Voisey with 4 academic staff and an emphasis on attracting students, which it did extremely well. It effectively had two streams, Geology and Geography. In 1972, Environmental and Urban Studies developed out of Biological Sciences, through a combination of Environmental Studies and Regional Studies – not quite a school, but on its way to becoming one. In 1982, a separate graduate school, the Centre for Environmental and Urban Studies, was set up. This became the Graduate School of the Environment in 1989.
The degree obtained when science first stated was a standard Bachelor of Arts, however, after the Macquarie Science Reform Movement, a Bachelor of Science degree was introduced in 1979. Macquarie Science was unusual in offering a large range of external studies, especially in Earth Sciences and Chemistry.
For a comprehensive and fascinating history of Macquarie University, with a large section devoted to the development of the Science schools (from which the above summary was taken), see Bruce Mansfield and Mark Hutchinson, Liberality of Opportunity: A History of Macquarie University 1964-1989, 1992, Hale & Iremonger Pty Ltd, in the Library at call number LG712.M35.M37
Prior to 2008, the Faculty was made up of the following Divisions and Departments:
ELS – Division of Environmental and Life Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
– Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Department of Health and Chiropractic
Department of Human Geography
Department of Physical Geography
Graduate School of the Environment
ICS – Division of Information and Communication Sciences
Department of Computing
– Department of Electronic Engineering
Department of Mathematics
Department of Physics
Statistics was a part of the Division of Economic and Financial Studies.
The Faculty of Science and Engineering was established in its present form in 2009 as the Faculty of Science. “Engineering” was added to the title in 2015 to reflect the commitment of the University in growing Engineering toward its own Faculty status at some time in the near future. In 2016 the decision was made to move Engineering from the status of a Department, to a School with its own Dean and Deputy Dean.
The School of Engineering will be established in 2017.
Current Departments in the Faculty:
Biological Sciences
Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Computing
Environmental Sciences (prior to 2015 this was the department of Environment and Geography)
Chiropractic
Physics and Astronomy
Mathematics
Statistics
Engineering
Executive Deans of the Faculty:
2008 – 2012 Professor Stephen Thurgate
2012 – 2013 Professor Clive Baldock
2013 – 2015 Professor Peter Nelson (Acting)
2015 – present Professor Barbara Messele