On Saturday, March 8th 2025, SRAP organised a Research Talks & Tapas event to celebrate International Women’s Day at The Spanish Club – Hogar Español Melbourne (57 Johnston St, Fitzroy, Vic, 3065) with the collaboration of the Instituto Cervantes Sydney-Melbourne.
Hosted by SRAP Victorian Representative, Mr Ivan Martinez Botella, the event consisted of talks by four leading researchers in their fields. The talks invited the audience to learn about research in different topics like bacterial infections, economics in Australia, ChatGPT bias, and the history of female chemists working at Australia’s National Science Agency. The event was well attended with over 40 people registered. The attendees enjoyed the talks and had the opportunity to network over tapas and drinks listening to live flamenco music played by Angel Mellado “El brujo de Madrid”.
Opening the event, Ms Margarita Ros, Spanish Club President, talked about the Spanish Club history and presented information related to current activities.
Margarita Ros talking
The first speaker was Prof. Begoña Heras, SRAP member and Head of the Structural Biology and Bacterial Pathogenesis laboratory and leads the Infection and Immunity Theme at the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science. Begoña presented a talk entitled “The Secret Weapons of Bacteria: How They Make Us Sick and How We Fight Back”. See Prof. Begoña Heras’ bio below.
Prof. Begoña Heras presenting
The second speaker was Dr Ana Maria Ducasse. Ana Maria is a SRAP member who lectures in Spanish language, culture and general sociolinguistics while publishing and supervising in Applied Linguistics at RMIT University. Ana Maria presented a talk entitled “Cross-lingual bias in searches on feedback in higher education through ChatGPT”. See Dr Ana Maria Ducasse’s bio below.
Dr Ana Maria Ducasse presenting
The third speaker was Dr Ana Gamarra Rondinel, SRAP member and Research Fellow/Lecturer at the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research and at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course. Ana is also a Research Affiliate with CESifo and the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute (Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU). Ana presented a talk entitled “Do Taxation and Transfer Policies Mitigate the Child Penalty? Evidence from Australia”. See Dr Ana Gamarra Rondinel’s bio below.
Dr Ana Gamarra Rondinel presenting
The last speaker was Dr Katherine Locock who leads the Botanical Pharmaceutical team in the Manufacturing Research Unit of the CSIRO in Melbourne, and holds an adjunct position at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute of Monash University. Katherine presented a talk entitled “Creating a Stronger Future for Chemistry through the Experiences of Female Voices”. See Dr Katherine Locock’s bio below.
Dr Katherine Locock presenting
From left to right, Dr Katherine Locock; Prof. Begoña Heras; Ms Margarita Ros; Dr Ana Gamarra Rondinel; Dr Ana Maria Ducasse and Mr Ivan Martinez Botella
Speakers’ bios:
Prof. Begoña Heras is the Head of the Structural Biology and Bacterial Pathogenesis laboratory and leads the Infection and Immunity Theme at the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science. Her research focuses on understanding protein structure-function relationships in bacterial infections and translating this knowledge into novel antimicrobials. Her work is consistently published in high-impact journals, including landmark studies on bacterial pathogenic proteins and toxin production. She contributes to the scientific community through student training, ECR mentoring and leadership roles, including Chair of the SCANZ Education Committee and membership on the Victorian Infection & Immunity Executive Committee and the ARC College of Experts.
Dr Ana Maria Ducasse lectures in Spanish language, culture and general sociolinguistics while publishing and supervising in Applied Linguistics. She has recently been working on a Spanish government funded multi-university five-year project on ‘Interculturality and Inter-comprehension in Assessing Plurilingual Discourse Competence feedback and Digital student feedback Literacy‘ which concludes in 2025 at University Pompeu Fabra Barcelona. Two publications connected to RMIT comprise research on the misalignment of perceptions of higher education digital feedback between students and instructors and another paper on feedback processes for L2 writing tasks. In the seminar she reports on findings from new project on the results of ChatGPT prompts in different languages (Catalan, Spanish and English) for academic searches on higher education digital feedback.
Dr Ana Gamarra Rondinel is a Research Fellow/Lecturer at the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research and at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course. She’s also a Research Affiliate with CESifo and the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute (Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU). Her research fields are taxation, education economics, early childhood, and social and economic disadvantage. Her current research focuses on the impact of student loans on post-schooling outcomes and enrolment, the effect of childbirth on household income and poverty risk, the revenue capacity of tax systems, and the several challenges associated with financial insecurity. I’m also a project member of the Breaking Down Barriers Shared Data Environment (BDB-SDE).
Dr Katherine Locock leads the Botanical Pharmaceutical team in the Manufacturing Research Unit of the CSIRO in Melbourne, and holds an adjunct position at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute of Monash University. Katherine oversees a portfolio of projects with biomedical companies to deliver new treatments, products and technologies to help Australians live longer, healthier and more productive lives. Katherine has also worked extensively with First Nations groups over the past 10 years to unlock the economic potential of Traditional Knowledge. As a non-Indigenous researcher, she places an emphasis on engagement that is First Nations initiated and co-developed, so that it is respectful and derives real benefit for communities. Prior to the CSIRO, Katherine held a position as an Associate Lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of Sydney, where she focused on the development of analogues to target memory and mood.
