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A wonderful afternoon at the Kent Ridge Alumni Family Day (18 Aug 2018)

Did you see us at the Kent Ridge Alumni Family Day (18 Aug 2018)?
It was the first time that the NUS Biodiversity Crew (Dr Amy Choong & Xu Weiting) and Life Sciences Society (LSS) undergraduates participated in this alumni family day.

The guests were a diverse lot – visitors, exchange students, current students and alumni from other faculties and ex-students visited the booth. They were drawn to the booth by the games designed by LSS and intrigued by the specimens we brought along to share stories about – a common palm civet specimen, cocoa and coffee plants. Visitors learnt about pedigree and genetics through the games and discovered more about civets and the tragic link with kopi luwak.

That evening, NUS President Tan Eng Chye graced the event and visited the booths. We warmly welcomed him with civet stories and he was intrigued that NUS also has civets.

We enjoyed ourselves so the four-hours passed by rather quickly as the team made the effort to interact with as many visitors as possible. They in turn enjoyed learning about the new things that are happening at the Department of Biological Sciences in NUS’ Faculty of Science.

Special thanks to all the LSS volunteers (Genevieve Tang, Nicholas Yeo, Leanne Teh, Wong Zhi Wei, Benjamin Tan, Loshini D/O Sunthar, Nicholas Seng & Muhammad Faiq), Fatin Nadzirah Bte Zahari, Tan Xing Zhi for manning the booth. And Mrs Ang-Lim Swee Eng, Mr Kaka Singh and Mr Ismail Bin Arshad for helping to take the plant photos and to collect the plant specimens.

2018-08-18 20.01.05

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Undergraduate part-time assistants (NSWS) wanted for mesocosm experiments with aquatic plants (Jan–Sep 2018)

We are looking for undergraduate part-time assistants under the NUS Student Work Scheme (NSWS) to help out with mesocosm experiments involving aquatic plants from January 2018 to September 2018.

Project description: Restoration of reservoir water using aquatic plants in mesocosm experiments

What you will learn

  1. Identification and collection of aquatic plants for experimental work
  2. Collection of growth and other relevant plant data as part of routine sampling of outdoor experiments in the reservoir
  3. Monitoring of water quality parameters using multimeter probes
  4. Methodology for chlorophyll-a analysis of reservoir water
  5. Fish trapping and macroinvertebrate sampling
  6. Identification and counting of freshwater phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish
  7. Learn more about Singapore’s freshwater fauna and aquatic ecology in general

Candidates should be:

  1. Able to work during term time and during the semester break
  2. Physically fit and able to work outdoors for extended periods of time
  3. Willing to learn new techniques

Non-biology majors are welcome to apply

Contact

Please contact Dr. Maxine Mowe, Post-doctoral research fellow, Freshwater and Invasion Biology Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore at dbsmadm@nus.edu.sg.

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Four days in a Wilderness First Aid Course

I spent the first of four days in a wilderness first aid training course with colleagues from the Department of Biological Sciences (aka NUS Biodiversity Crew). This course brings everyone up to speed and prepares us for difficult situations in the field.

Ted, Amy, Morgany, Poh Moi, Frank, JC & Tommy were able to make it today and already this group makes me feel confident about student care on local or overseas field trips. Many of us have had some first aid training, either formally or from field situations. However, our exposure to incidents have been relatively low (thankfully so) hence the need for a refresher.

20150129 Widerness First Aid

It is excellent that we are working together and we are having highly interactive sessions with the trainers from ARIS Integrated Medical an experienced group who are glad to work with a field-savvy group.

Group scenarios have been productive and the many hands working together here has been efficient, communicative and builds an appreciation for each other. It took years for Tommy to secure the funding and get several of us together for four days, so this is a precious experience. Certainly the FTTAs, LOs and lecturers in a field module should work together again like this in future.

First published at Otterman speaks….

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E-waste recycling & hard disk shredding! NUS U Town, Fri 12 Sep 2014: 10am – 4pm

NUS’ Office of Environment Sustainability is organising an inaugural electronic waste (“e-waste”) recycling drive in NUS on Friday 12 Sep 2014: 10am – 4pm. Anyone can drop off their e-waste at the NUS University Town near the bus stop and if you are driven through, there is a drop-off point at the Stephen Riady Centre.

This e-waste drive ensures your unwanted electronics / electrical equipment and accessories are disposed off in a safe and environmentally responsible manner. Let your friends know. and make good use of this inaugural e-waste recycling drive in NUS.

This free recycling is provided courtesy of Apple.

I see they offer shredding of hard disks, so peace of mind ensured for your data on old hard disks. See OES’ Facebook page for more.

OES U Town E waste ex

If you are unable to make the date, there is existing e-waste recycling locations in Singapore offered through Funan Digital Mall and Starhub – see details at the NEA webpage.

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Recycle your E-waste at Blk S2 and at Utown (From 20 to 27 Aug 2014, 11am)

E-waste recycling

This one-week E-waste recycling exercise is part of Dr Amy Choong’s efforts for her GEK1515 Environmental Biology students.  To make it convenient to staff as well, she has invited Cimelia staff to install two bins at these two locations (Utown Education Resource Centre and between S2 & S3) for a week so that you can also dispose of your e-waste.

Please make use of this opportunity to get rid of broken appliances.

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U@live featuring Bernard Harrison – 26 February 2014: 7.30pm @ Shaw Foundation Alumni House

OAR presents:

Join us for an evening with Bernard Harrison! – 26 February 7.30pm

We welcome you to join the former CEO of Wildlife Reserves Singapore as he discusses a review of our prevailing moral and ethical practices when dealing with the fellow species we share the earth and its resources with.

Details of the event are as follows:

A unique feature of U@live is that not only will it be viewed by a live audience, it will be streamed live through a dedicated website (www.nus.edu.sg/ualive). The event will also incorporate a new interactive application that allows users to post questions and vote for their favourite questions in real time. The event will consist of a 10-minute talk by the speaker followed by a 20-minute interview conducted by Mr Viswa Sadasivan and a 30-minute Q&A session open to the live and online audience.

Date: 26 February 2014 (Wednesday)
Time: 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm (Registration at 6:45pm, Seated at 7:15pm, Cocktail reception after event)
Location: Auditorium (2nd Storey), Shaw Foundation Alumni House, National University of Singapore, 11 Kent Ridge Drive, Singapore 119244

We sincerely hope that you will be able to join us for this event.

Register HERE

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Job opportunity: Help us out at the Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey!

The Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey (CMBS), is a  national project that takes stock of Singapore’s marine ecosystem and species diversity, species distribution and abundance. It began in 2010 and will conclude in 2015. Besides regular surveys, the project includes two intensive 3-week expeditions in which local and international researchers come together to study the various marine taxa found in our waters.

The first expedition surveying the northern shores (Johor Straits) was held in October 2012 and we are now gearing up for an encore in May, this time in the southern waters of Singapore.

Sorting!

We need help!

 

TMSI is recruiting four student assistants to help out during the Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey workshop.

If you have a passion for biodiversity research, fieldwork, or just want to learn and interact with local and international marine scientists, this is a golden opportunity to garner the necessary experience.

Job Scope

The successful candidate will be involved in various aspects of the expedition, such as logistics, equipment cleaning and maintenance, field collection, dredging, sorting, preservation, photo taking, data entry and assisting researchers.

Candidates should be:

Be able to stay in expedition base camp (at St John’s Island) for the duration of the expedition (20 May to 8 June).

Enthusiastic and able to work well with others.No prior experience necessary, but that will be a bonus!

For more information please visit http://megamarinesurvey.blogspot.sg, in particular the posts about the Northern Expedition (http://megamarinesurvey.blogspot.sg/search/label/Northern%20Expedition#.USw0CaVvhtE)

Please contact Joelle Lai, Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research at dbslcyj[@]nus.edu.sg if interested.

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Hennig XXVIII @ Singapore Botanic Gardens, Uniquely Singapore

We had the privilege of hosting the 28th annual meeting of the Willi Hennig society at the Singapore Botanic Gardens this year, making us the first Asian host for this international conference. Lasting from the 22nd to the 26th of June, it saw the active participation of its members, who contributed talks and posters relating to the science of phylogenetic systematics.

As evidenced by this photo, much fun was had by all.

The Willi Hennig society also awards up to three prizes for outstanding student presentations at each annual meeting. These include the Willi Hennig Award, the Lars Brundin Award and the Don Rosen Award. For Hennig XXVIII, the awardees were Maria-Theresa Aguado (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain), Sujatha Narayanan Kutty (NUS, Singapore) and Gwynne Lim Shimin (NUS, Singapore) respectively. This marks the third year in a row where students from Evolab have attended Hennig meetings and consequently won at least one of these awards for their presentations.

Hennig XXIV (2005):  Kathy Feng-Yi Su (Hennig award), Farhan B Ali (Rosen award), Nalini Puniamoorthy and Shiyang Kwong (Honorable mentions)

Hennig XXVI (2007): Kathy Feng-Yi Su (Brundin award)

Congratulations to Sujatha and (more awkwardly) myself! You can see us proudly displaying our awards during the banquet below.

More information about the conference and the associated mini-symposium “Darwin, Wallace and Evolution: Celebrating a major paradigm shift in science” can be found at NUShub and on Reuters’ Environment Blog.