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Appointments and Achievements
New appointments always provide the opportunity to create positive change, re-shape culture and redefine organisational potential.
This section provides insights into the first impressions and ambitions of freshly minted higher education leaders in our First Hundred Days section, and also carries news of the latest appointments and achievements from the sector.
March Appointments
27th March – 31st March 2023
20th March - 24th March 2023
13th March - 17th March 2023
6th March - 10th March 2023
27th February - 3rd March 2023
27th March – 31st March 2023
- The Australian Academy of Science announces the nine ECRs, who will attend this year’s Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting, * Ifrah Abdullahi (La Trobe U) * Siobhon Egan (Murdoch U) * David Klyne (Uni Queensland) * Lynn Nazareth (CSIRO) * William Reay (Uni Newcastle * Kate Secombe (Uni Adelaide) * Enakshi Sinniah (Uni Queensland) * Cottrell Tamessar (Uni Newcastle) * Rachel Visontay (Uni Sydney)
- Winners of the Banksia Foundation’s National Sustainability Awards include the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre (members include CSIRO, Griffith U and James Cook U). Philip Chan (Uni Sydney) wins the Ethical Sourcing Award.In NSW Prue Carr is sworn in as education minister, and deputy premier, in the brand new Labor Government.
- Florian Mueller (Monash U) is inducted into the Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) Academy
- National Health and Medical Research Council reports awards
Biennial awards: Caleb Dawson (Walter and Eliza Hall) Doug Hilton (Walter and Eliza Hall), Kevin McGovern (St Cecilia’s Church) Queensland Aphasia Research Centre (Uni Queensland)
Research excellence awards: * Susan Davis (Monash U) * Louisa Degenhardt (UNSW) * Greg Fox (Uni Sydney) * Graham Gee (Murdoch U) * Eddie Holmes (Uni Sydney) * Caroline Holmer (Burnet Institute) * Vaughan Macefield (Monash U) * Tafi Marukutira (Burnet Institute) * Jose Polo (Uni Adelaide) * Alistair Stewart (Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute) * Wai-Hong Tham (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute) * Doug Tjandra (Monash U) - Education Minister Jason Clare announces a panel to advise on “key targets and specific reforms” in the next commonwealth-states’ National School Reform Agreement. Lisa O’Brien, (Australian Education Research Organisation) chairs, with member including,* Jordana Hunter (Grattan Institute) * Stephen Lamb (Victoria U) * Lisa Paul (former sec DoE) and Pasi Sahlberg (Uni Melbourne). Yes, that Professor Sahlberg, while he joined Southern Cross U in February ’22, he left for Melbourne “several months ago.
- From May, Raj Shekhawat will become research dean of Flinders U’s College of Education, Psychology and Social Work. He moves from the university’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
- At the University of Adelaide, Grayson Rotumah and Dylan Crismani are appointed joint leaders of the Centre of Aboriginal Studies in Music.
- Phillip Vaughan is appointed Chief Human Resources Officer at Uni Queensland. He returns after seven years in HR at Monash U.
- Steven Weller moves from Uni Newcastle to be ED for engineering and information sciences at the Australian Research Council.
- High school maths maven Eddie Woo becomes a professor of practice at Uni Sydney’s School of Education and Social Work.
20th March - 24th March 2023
- Alex Brown, professor of indigenous genomics at the Telethon Kids Institute and ANU, joins the board of CSIRO. Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic states Professor Brown is the first Indigenous scientist appointed to it.
- Nic Cola is appointed CEO of RMIT On-Line. He will move from Group GM at Helloworld Travel.
- Marco Herold starts work as CEO of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute.
- Warwick McKibbin (ANU) is a member of the advisory council for a Brookings Institution initiative, a model for an “office of carbon scoring” which would report the climate impact of proposed US Government legislation.
- New Queensland Government industry research fellows include, * Hamid Ahmadi (Uni Southern Queensland) * Mobashwer Alam (Uni Queensland) * Yahia Ali (Uni Queensland) *Matthew Bourne (Griffith U) * Gloria M Monsalve-Bravo (Uni Queensland) * Ping Chen (Uni Queensland) * Kameron Dunn (QUT) * Denys Villa-Gomez (Uni Queensland) * Linh Hoang (QUT) * Sundaravelpandian Kalaipandian (Uni Queensland) * Veronica Martinez (Uni Queensland) * Umme Mumtahina (CQU) * Syed Naqvi (Uni Queensland) * Andy Nguyen (Uni Southern Queensland) * Md Masus Rana (Uni Queensland) * Jiayong Tang (Uni Queensland) * Osman Tursun (QUT) * Min Zheng (Uni Queensland).
13th March - 17th March 2023
- Marion Baird (Uni Sydney) is appointed a member of the Fair Work Commission Expert Panel.
- Paul Barnes becomes manager of the Queensland Disaster Research Alliance (the allies are, CQU, James Cook U, Griffith U, QUT, Uni Queensland, Uni Southern Queensland and Uni Sunshine Coast).
- The CEO of the Commonwealth Government’s new Centre for Australian-Indian Relations is Tim Thomas, ex KPMG.Chair of the centre’s advisory board is banker Swati Dave.
- Per Davidsson (QUT) receives the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, (it’s from Swedish research agencies).
- Peter Eastwood is Murdoch U’s in-coming DVC R. He moves from Flinders U, where he is director of the Health and Medical Research Institute.
- Leah Heiss (Monash U) becomes chair of the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards.
- Former Vic Labor Health Minister Jill Hennessy becomes a board member of the Hudson Institute (of medical research).
- Paula Kruger is the new MD of Sydney radio station 2SER, owned by Macquarie U and UTS. She moves from the ABC.
- Louise Maple-Brown will start next month as deputy director for research at the Menzies School of Health Research. It is a joint appointment with Anna Ralph, who started in February. Both have built research programmes at the school and have senior clinical roles at Royal Darwin Hospital.
- Megan Munsie (Uni Melbourne) is elected to the board of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.
- Jack Rejtman joins Research Strategies Australia as Principal Consultant. He has a background in tech transfer and research commercialisation, including at Monash U and Uni Melbourne.
- Andrew Stewart starts at CQU as Dean of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences. He moved from Victoria U.
- Mamello Thinyane is appointed inaugural Optus Chair of Cyber Security at Uni SA. He moves from United Nations University Institute, in Macao.
6th March - 10th March 2023
- “Nationally recognised public sector and policy leader” Gail McGowan will become Murdoch U chancellor in May, replacing Gary Smith.
- Rebecca Ostergaard is CSIRO’s inaugural chief digital officer. She moves from WA’s Office of Digital Government.
- The Special Interest Group on Software Engineering 2023 awards are out including Chunyang Chen and John Grundy (both Monash U). Sigsoft is a special interest group of the US based Association for Computing Machinery.
27th February - 3rd March 2023
- The Australian Academy of Science announces $3m in research grants, shared by, * Nicholas BlackburnThe Australian Academy of Science announces winners of the J G Russell Award (to top up ARC early career grants); Kaitlin Cook (ANU), Damien Esquerré (ANU), Scarlett Howard (Monash U), Rachael Lappan (Monash U) and Giorgio Poggesi (UWA).
- Charles Sturt U chancellor Michele Allan is the new chair of the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre.
- Jaclyn Broadbent becomes Deakin U’s PVC, Sessional Academic Experience.
- Kate Groves joins the Australian Academy of Science asphilanthropy director.
- Michael Hamilton becomes PVC and Chief Executive of Charles Darwin U TAFE.
- Michael Kassiou (Uni Sydney) is announced academic lead for the NSW Organoid Innovation Centre.
- At Uni Wollongong Marc In Het Panhuis moves from chemistry and molecular bioscience to Dean of Sport, with charge of the university’s new sports strategy.
- Data management provider Informatica names Anthony Perera its Asia-Pacific data analytics champion for 2022
- Jaala Pulford becomes chair of MTP connect, the federally funded agency charged with commercialising med tech, biotech and pharmaceuticals. She is a former Vic Labor minister for innovation and medical research.
- Julie Shinners becomes University Secretary at Uni Southern Queensland, moving from director of the VC’’s office.
- At Swinburne U, Alan Duffy becomes inaugural PVC Flagship Initiatives. He moves from Director of the Space, Technology and Industry Institute, which will be co-led by Andrew Ang and Rebecca Allen.
- Tony Weiss (Uni Sydney) is chair of the expert panel of the NSW Biosciences Fund
- Lisa Whitehead (Edith Cowan U) wins the WA Nurse /Midwife of the Year Award
Looking for previous appointments? Visit our Appointment Archive here.
