This, the second Wollongong edition of the WiseNet journal, is dedicated to the memory of Toni O’Neill, long-time member of WiseNet, founder of the Wollongong Women in Science group and dearly-missed friend and colleague of members of the group. Toni passed away last year, having struggled bravely with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Toni was inspirational to us in numerous ways. She was a dynamic researcher in a male-dominated and highly technical area of geosciences, namely remote sensing and geographical information systems. She was also a caring teacher and supervisor. She was committed to women in science and organised the WiseNet group from its inception. Those early years seem to me, looking from further down the track, to have been important in creating a support network for the few women academics in the Science-based Faculties at that time. Some of them, like Toni, were also juggling the completion of Doctorates with the establishment of research and teaching careers, in a potentially isolating environment. I can’t help thinking that the prominent position that women academics now play in the Science-based Faculties, despite their small number, may, in part, be a reflection of the supportive environment that was created by that early networking.
In this edition, Toni is remembered by her students and colleagues, including Wollongong WiseNet member, Lesley Head. My thanks go to Lesley for the article she wrote with Anne Skates and Melba Crawford (reprinted with the permission of Australian Geographical Studies), for organising submissions from others and for general editorial help.
As is noted, Toni was not one to baulk at crossing disciplinary boundaries. So, transdisciplinarity has also emerged as a theme of this edition. I have taken the opportunity to express my thoughts on transdisciplinary research, and obstacles to it within Universities. We are also very proud to include an article by Kirsten Benkendorff, Young Australian of the Year in Science and Technology, who’s multidisciplinary research in Biology and Chemistry was carried out, and continues on, at the University of Wollongong.
We also include reports from the Federation of Australian Science and Technology Societies (FASTS), and from one of our members, Elizabeth Elenius, on the Science meets Parliament Day organised by FASTS in November last year.
The next issue of the WiseNet journal will focus on "Women Achieving in Science", the National Conference for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology held in Melbourne in September last year. Some of the outcomes are available on the web, through the CSIRO Staff Association ("> FACE="Times,Times New Roman">http://home.vicnet.net.au/~csiro-union/)"> FACE="Times,Times New Roman">.
"> FACE="Times,Times New Roman">Once again, thank you to Andrew Netherwood for doing the layout and providing artistic input, and to Sharon Robinson for editorial assistance. Thanks to the marvels of modern IT, we have been able to enrol Sharon and Andrew’s help from far-away Scotland. Thanks also to Diana Temple, Julie Evans and Rosemary Sutton for much assistance with collecting and editing articles, for the mailout, and also for encouraging me on. Apologies to all for the lateness of the edition.
As I conclude this editorial, and prepare to finalise the issue, my thoughts naturally go to Toni, with whom I worked on the last Wollongong edition. It was in the early stages of her illness, and was a chance for us to spend time with Toni. We’d meet for dinner at someone’s place and work on the journal afterwards. Of course, I have missed Toni, and I think the group hasn’t really been the same since she passed away. But, as Lesley, Melba and Anne point out, she would tell us to get on with making the most of life, and look after one another, which I guess is what WiseNet is about.
Wendy Russell