MEDIA ADVISORY

1 June 2010

The Governor-General, Ms Quentin Bryce AC, and Mr Michael Bryce AM AE, will represent Australia in Shanghai and Beijing from Monday, June the 7th to Friday, June the 11th.

Ms Bryce will lead a delegation of women who will play a major role in depicting Australian achievements to an audience of 70 million people expected to visit the Australian Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo. The Governor-General was one of a number of women in the “Sisters” documentary which paired Australian women with their Chinese counterparts. (Short bios of the “Sisters” delegation are attached).

In Beijing, the Governor-General will meet representatives of the Australian and Chinese business communities. Ms Bryce will also launch the “Year of Australian Culture in China”,  and a major exhibition of art works from the Papunya community in the Northern Territory at the National Art Museum of China.

Segments of the Governor-General’s program which may be of interest to the media include:

Shanghai, Monday, June 7:

Shanghai, Tuesday, June 8:

·         0905 – tour of the Australian Pavilion, Shanghai World Expo

·         1000 – Official National Day Ceremony, including a flag raising ceremony and meeting with Chinese Government representatives

·         1045 – Public Ceremony at Performance Area, Expo Centre

·         1300 – tour of China Pavilion, Shanghai World Expo

·         1425 – Australian Pavilion National Day lunch (In Celebration of Women in Australia and China)

·         1530 – Australian National Day Concert, Expo Centre Performance Area

·         1755 – Reception in celebration of the Australia-China commercial relationship, Australian Pavilion

 

 

 

Beijing, June 9:

·         1300 - Women’s Networking Lunch with Chinese and Australian women in Beijing, Ambassador’s Residence, Beijing

·         1500 – meeting with Ms Song Xiuyan, Vice-President, All-China Women’s Federation

·         1700 – launch Papunya Exhibition at National Art Museum of China

·         1800 – meeting with Dr Xi Jinping, Vice-President, People’s Republic of China, Great Hall of the People

 

Beijing, June 10:

 

Beijing, Friday June 11:

 

NOTE TO EDITORS:  All events are on a “picfac only” basis. Copies of the Governor-General’s speeches will be available at each relevant event.

"Sisters" biographies 

Dr Erika Cretney

(Senior Research Officer, Immunology Division, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)

 

Dr Erika Cretney is one of Australia’s leading scientific researchers in biochemistry, particularly immunology.  She has thirteen years of practical laboratory experience working with organisations such as The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, The Austin Research Institute, and most recently The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. She has also worked in the private sector, assessing the commercialisation potential of scientific technologies for Genscreen Pty Ltd, a pharmaceutical development company.

 

Dr Cretney has won numerous awards and Fellowships including the L’Oreal Australia for Women Science Fellowship ($20,000) and the National Health and Medical Research Council Biomedical (Peter Doherty) Fellowship ($351,313).  She has written numerous journal articles and is regularly invited to speak at national and international conferences regarding her work.

 

Professor Deirdre Lemerle

(Director, EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Wagga Wagga, NSW)

 

Professor Deirdre Lemerle has been Director of the E H Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation since 2005.  The objective of the centre is to develop a collaborative capacity in research, extension, education and training to deliver profitable, adaptive and sustainable agricultural systems for future Australian rural industries.

 

Prior to taking on this role, Professor Lemerle spent over 20 years in weed science research as the Principal Research Scientist with the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries and as a Program Leader in the Cooperative Research Centre for Australian Weed Management.

 

Professor Lemerle is internationally respected for her research to reduce farmers’ dependence on herbicides and the benefits of biodiversity. She is on the Participant’s Committee of the Future Farm Industries CRC which has a key program ensuring that new sustainable perennial pasture systems have positive impacts on soil biodiversity

 

Her contribution to the “10 Sisters” exhibit is focussed on Research and Development for food security and agricultural sustainability.

Ms Larissa Brown

(Founder and Executive Director, Centre for Sustainability Leadership)

 

Larissa Brown was the 2008 Australian Young Environmentalist of the Year and the 2010 Victorian Young Australian of the Year. She is the founder and executive director of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership, a non profit organisation dedicated to supporting Australians to make their communities, workplaces and sectors more sustainable. Over the last three years, Ms Brown has personally interviewed 200 of the world’s greatest sustainability leaders across 20 countries and five continents on what it takes to cause real systemic change towards a sustainable world.

 

Ms Brown was named as one of Melbourne’s 100 Most Influential People and one of Melbourne’s ten most influential environmentalists by The Age Magazine in 2007. She was awarded the 2009 Australian Geographic Young Environmentalist of the Year award, the 2006 British Council award for Communicating Climate Change and the 2006 Brian Robinson Fellowship.

 

Ms Brown participated in the United Nations climate negotiations in both Bali and Copenhagen. She is a member of the Ministers Reference Council on Climate Change Adaptation which advises the Victorian State Environment Minister, and participated in the Prime Minister’s 2020 Summit in 2008.

 

Ms Brown has worked as a research scientist at the Australian National University, studied the extinction event of Australia’s mega fauna, helped save a forest by creating an ecotourism lodge in Costa Rica, rehabilitated endangered primates and big cats in Bolivia, taught snowboarding in the USA and spent a year as a high school student in Japan.

 

Professor Veena Sahajwalla

(Director Centre for Sustainable Materials Research & Technology, UNSW)

 

Professor Veena Sahajwalla is the leader of research into Sustainable Materials as the Director of Sustainable Materials Research & Technology (SMaRT@UNSW) at the University of New South Wales. 

 

Professor Sahajwalla’s research interests throughout her career have been in sustainability of materials and processes with an emphasis on environmental and community benefits. Through this interest, Professor Sahajwalla has invented an environmentally friendly process of recycling plastics and rubber tyres in steelmaking.

 

Professor Sahajwalla has established excellent working relationships and a deep knowledge of industrial processes and issues/problems. She has published in excess of 190 papers in journals and conference proceedings.


In 2005, Professor Sahajwalla received the Eureka Prize for Scientific Research. She also received the 2006 Environmental Technology Award from Association of Iron & Steel Technology in the United States for her research into recycling waste plastics in steelmaking. She was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) in 2007.

 

Professor Sahajwalla is passionate about science and engineering. She encourages young people to consider science and engineering as a career path; and is very active in communicating her ideas to students. She is one of the judges on the ABC TV show, “The New Inventors”.

 

Dr Xuemei Bai

(Senior Principal Research Scientist, Sustainable Ecosystems Division, CSIRO)

Dr Bai is a Senior Science Leader at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Her research focuses on several frontiers of urban sustainability science, including understanding the structure, function and processes in urban social ecological systems, the environmental and ecosystem consequences and drivers of urbanization, urban metabolism, urban energy system and the role of renewable energy, climate mitigation and adaptation of cities, urban environmental management, and the urban sustainability transition in Asia.

 

Prior to this, Dr Bai was a Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, a visiting professor in the practice of urban ecology at Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and a research scientist at the Japanese Center for International Studies in Ecology. 

 

Dr Bai is a member of Science Steering Committee of Human Dimensional Program for Global Environmental Change (IHDP) Industrial Transformation Core Project; member of National Academies (USA) Study Committee on Electricity from Renewables in collaboration with Chinese Academy of Sciences;  member of the Board of Contributing Editors of Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainability; member of Editorial Board of Computer, Environment and Urban Systems; and a member of the Advisory Board of the Open Environmental Journal.

 

In addition to her involvement as lead author in Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and Global Energy Assessment, Dr Bai was recently nominated as a lead author for IPCC AR 5 urban chapter by the Australian Government.

 

Ms Niki Vasilakis

(Classical Violinist)

 

Niki Vasilakis is regarded as one of the most exciting violinists to have emerged from Australia. She has performed with the Melbourne, Tasmanian, Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, as well as the Queensland Orchestra. In January 2004 she appeared with the Sydney Symphony in the Symphony in the Domain, to an audience of more than 100,000 people. This followed her successful debut with that orchestra for the Sydney Opera House’s 30th Anniversary celebrations.

 

International orchestras with whom she has performed include the Wellington Symphony Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Symphony Orchestra.

 

Ms Vasilakis released her debut album with ABC Classics self titled with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra featuring the Mendelssohn and Bruch violin concertos and was nominated for an ‘ARIA’ award for her performance.

 

Ms Vasilakis featured as a presenter and performer in the popular international television show ‘Classical Destinations’ and features in the new film called “4” based on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with violinists Pekka Kuusisto, Cho-Liang ‘Jimmy’ Lin and Sayaka Shoji.

 

Ms Vasilakis was Young South Australian of the Year 2008 in recognition of her outstanding achievements in music and her extensive commitment to community work, including volunteer programs and teaching community groups.

 

Today Ms Vasilakis continues her commitment to the wider community with visits to central Australia to run holiday music programs with indigenous children. She also donates her time to be the ambassador of both ‘Suzuki’ South Australia and ‘The Australian String Teachers Association’ where she works to encourage and inspire young individuals. Ms Vasilakis is the newly appointed patron for the Adelaide Festival Centre Foundation.