Hi everyone,

In case any of you haven’t already received this email from Erik, I urge you to go and listen to Jenny Graves on Monday, if you possibly can. She always speaks well and is an inspiration for everyone … but especially women in science (god knows how she managed such a brilliant career, with kids and everything! She once said that you have to work bloody hard for 10 years per kid … i.e., if you have four kids you have to work bloody hard for forty years!). She has been doing molecular genetics forever, since the days when we thought a restriction digest was pretty damn cool and PCR hadn’t been invented … and she’s still going strong!

Cheers,

Dot.

From: Biological Sciences
Sent: Thursday, 29 September 2016 12:10 PM
Subject: High profile seminar - Monday 12-1 pm

Hi all

On Monday, we are privileged to have a seminar by Distinguished Professor Jenny  Marshall Graves AO, FAA from Latrobe University. Her talk will be at 12 pm in Lecture Theatre 2. The title is “Sex, genes and human evolution” (see attached abstract). Professor Graves has a multitude of title, Distinguished Professor at Latrobe, Professor Emeritus, ANU; Thinker in Residence, University of Canberra and , Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences and for good measure, Order of Australia. She has published seminal Nature and Science papers (with a H-Index of 55).  Her >20 papers in Nature and Science include key work on Devils, Platypus, Humans, and to make it even more special, reptiles. See further details below

Please spread the word around your network.

Erik

Brief Bio (from her website: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/she/staff/profile?uname=jgraves)

Jenny Graves made seminal contributions to the understanding of mammalian genome organization and evolution, exploiting the genetic diversity of Australia's unique animals as a source of genetic variation to study highly conserved genetic structures and processes. Her studies of the chromosomes and genes of kangaroos and platypus, devils (Tasmanian) and dragons (lizards) has shed light on the organisation, function and evolution of mammalian genomes, and led to influential new theories of the origin and evolution of human sex chromosomes and sex determining genes. She is (in)famous for her prediction that the human Y chromosome is disappearing. She made critical discoveries that the epigenetic silencing of mammalian X chromosomes occurred by transcriptional inhibition, and is mediated by DNA methylation.

Jenny has been involved in international comparative gene mapping and sequencing projects since the mid-1980s, promulgating the value of comparative genomics and the special value of including distantly related species. She initiated projects to sequence the genomes of marsupials and the platypus, and was Foundation Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Kangaroo Genomics.

Jenny received a BSc Hons and MSc from the University of Adelaide for work on the epigenetic silencing of one X chromosome in female marsupials. She then used a Fulbright Travel Grant to do a PhD in molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley, which she received in 1971 for her work on the control of DNA synthesis in mammalian cells. In 1971, she returned to Australia as a lecturer in Genetics at La Trobe University, becoming a Professor in 1991. In 2001 she moved to the Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University as head of the Comparative Genomics Research Unit and Director of the ARC Centre for Excellence in Kangaroo Genomics. She has recently returned to Melbourne as Distinguished Professor at La Trobe University, but also holds honorary positions at ANU, the University of Canberra and the University of Melbourne.

Jenny has published more than 420 scientific works, including 4 books. She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1999 and served on the Academy Executive, first as Foreign Secretary, then as Secretary for Education. She is 2006 L’Oreal-UNESCO Laureate, and has received many awards for her work, including the MacFarlane Burnet Medal for research in biology, and an AO.

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