Month: September 2023

Honours Yarns – Where an Honours Year can take Paulines! 

Posted on by Richard Morgan

From the Senior Tutor, Katie Newcombe

On Thursday 7 September, around the cozy Senior Common Room fireplace, we were joined by two Old Paulines, Mr Codey Swadling BA/LLB (Hons I) (USyd) MSt (Oxon) (In College 2016-18, Graduate House 2019-22) and Mr Ed Barker BSc (Hons I) (in College 2019-20, Graduate House 2021) for “Honours Yarns” – a seminar hosted by the Senior Tutor and Assistant Senior Tutor for students from all study disciplines considering Hons research at the end of their undergraduate study. 

Codey and Ed both completed Honours whilst at College and shared their experiences of planning and completing their Honours research – from the application process to working with supervisors to finishing the final draft! Both men used their Honours year as a launching pad for more academic and professional adventures in the years that followed.

Ed shared with students how his Honours research was formative and helpful for his work in Zambia the following year where he worked on cattle ranches in disease and pathogen inspection practices, culminating in a report for the European Union. Ed is now a studying for the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at Sydney and hopes to complete a PhD in animal science.

Codey shared his experiences studying at Oxford following his Honours year and how his undergraduate research put him in a wonderful position to capitalise on this opportunity. Codey is currently Tipstaff to the Honourable Justice Anthony Meagher of the NSW Court of Appeal.

It was a great seminar prompting lively discussions amongst our students, great questions, and hopefully inspiring our students to aim high! 

Graduate House Monday Dinner Seminar Series hits 60 with a dose of insulin

Posted on by Richard Morgan

A fitting speaker for the 60th Monday Dinner Seminar1 held in Graduate House was Sydney-based Endocrinologist Professor Roger Chen. Roger is Senior Staff Specialist in Endocrinology at St Vincent’s Hospital, Visiting Scientist at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Conjoint Professor in Medicine at the University of New South Wales and Clinical Associate Professor in Medicine, University of Sydney.

Roger’s talk “From Toronto to the Gila Monster and Beyond” discussed the history and advancements in the prevention and treatment of Diabetes, noting it has been 100 years since the invention of Insulin in Toronto, Canada. This life saving drug has linkages across many diseases because of the interaction of hormones feeding glands, through the endocrine system in the human body. He explained how recently development of insulin manufacturing and delivery methods have greatly improved from a delivery system taking many minutes to just a few seconds these days.

In the mid 1990s, Drs John Eng and Jean-Pierre Raufman found that a hormone in the venom of the Gila monster—a large lizard native to the southwestern United States—stimulates the body’s insulin production.  

Beyond the Gila Monster, ‘smart insulin’ is in the developmental stages in laboratories including at the Garvan Institute, UNSW and Sydney University. There is emerging evidence of the protective effects of these and sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, such as preventing heart disease. Also, the relatively new injectable Ozempic is being used these days for its spin-off properties of weight loss which is now causing supply problems.

Roger made very clear that we all must take away the key message that losing weight greatly improves one’s health and lowers chances of type 2 diabetes (he said his work would be greatly reduced if we could teach people how to eat!), and we are yet to create an oral insulin delivery medication, something that will greatly improve the lives of many who suffer diabetes.

A lively Q&A followed his presentation and with the Chalmers Common Room filled by Med, Science, Law and Humanities students and one or two studying Business/Commerce, this seminar had much to inspire a range of future careers.

  1. Since its inception in 2019 ↩︎

A 50th anniversary: Old Pauline visits China

Posted on by Richard Morgan

The first Australian prime minister to have visited China was Old Pauline Gough Whitlam1 (in College 1935-42). Tony Wright has written in SMH (8 Sep 2023) about the 50th anniversary of Gough’s visit to Beijing in October 1973. Gough had previously visited as Leader of the Opposition in 1971 which led to the other Old Pauline PM at that time, Sir William McMahon2, (in College 1927-31) to state that Whitlam has allowed himself to be “played as a fisherman plays a trout” by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.

As a result of his 1973 visit Prime Minister Whitlam emerged as a diplomatic ‘trailblazer’. See a clip of SMH story here.

PICTURED ABOVE: Gough Whitlam arriving at College for the 1982 Union Dinner.

  1. The Hon E G Whitlam AC QC was the ALP Member for Werriwa in Sydney 1952-78, Leader of the Opposition 1975-77, Minister for Foreign Affairs 1972-73 and 21st Prime Minister of Australia 1972-75. ↩︎
  2. The Rt Hon Sir William McMahon GCMG CH PC, or better known throughout his life as “Billy”, was the Liberal member for Lowe in Sydney from 1949 to 1982; the longest serving Federal minister ever at 21 years from 1951-71; the 20th Prime Minister of Australia 1971-72. ↩︎