On Wednesday 1st of May, Mr David Smith MP, Member for Bean, visited the John Curtin School for Medical Research (JCSMR) and Phenomics Australia at the Australian National University (ANU).
During his visit, he received briefings on the latest research and infrastructure advancements from Professor Russell Gruen, the Dean of ANU College of Health and Medicine, as well as from others at the School and College, including Associate Professor Jim Hennessy, Deputy CEO of Phenomics Australia.
Additionally, Mr. Smith toured various facilities, such as the Phenomics Australia node the ANU Centre for Therapeutic Discovery, led by Phenomics Australia Scientific Director, Associate Professor Amee George, and also toured other parts of the JCSMR, including the Biomolecular Resource Facility and the Drosophila Facility.
“ Some weeks ago, I attended Science Meets Parliament on behalf of Phenomics Australia and ANU. As part of the program, I was assigned a meeting with an MP – in my case, I was assigned to Mr David Smith (MP for the Bean electorate). David has grown up and lived in Canberra and is also an ANU alumnus.
In our meeting at Parliament House, we discussed science, research infrastructure and the STEM workforce – areas David is passionate about and talked to in his maiden parliamentary speeches. After our meeting, David was keen to learn more about what we do and wanted to come and visit our facility and see our laboratory in action. On the tour of our facilities, we discussed precision medicine and the services which we provide to researchers in our laboratory in Canberra, as well as the types of services that facilities like ours are providing to academic researchers and SMEs Australia-wide. David and his advisor Nick were both very generous with their time and were really engaged and interested in what we showed them, and are also looking forward to future opportunities to engage with our sector” Associate Professor Amee George said.
Images credit to: Kassapa Senarath | JCSMR Communications
