On the mOVe
campusreview.com.au
BRAINy
APPOINTmENT
FOR USC
The University of the
Sunshine Coast has
appointed professor
Jim Lagopoulos as its
first director of the
Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience –
Thompson Institute.
Lagopoulos formerly played a leading role
in neuroimaging at the University of Sydney
and was director of clinical imaging at the
Brain and Mind Research Institute at USYD.
“The institute’s focus will be the provision
of clinical services, advocacy for patients
and carers, translational research, and
professional and community education,”
a university statement read. “The intention
is to have a positive impact on the mental
health of the community and make major
contributions internationally.”
dIPLOmAT
RETURNS HOmE
TO JCU
Strictly Speaking | bokeh
James Cook University
has welcomed on
board career diplomat
Bill Tweddell as its
new chancellor. The
Townsville native and former Australian
ambassador to the Philippines officially took
up the role in late March.
Tweddell’s career highlights include
serving as ambassador to Vietnam, deputy
high commissioner to the UK, deputy high
commissioner to India, high commissioner
to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and consul
general to Hong Kong and Macau.
JCU vice-chancellor Sandra Harding said
Tweddell’s decision to become chancellor
“speaks volumes about his confidence
in the potential of the university and its
burgeoning role in the region”.
UTS LAUNCHES
INdUSTRy
LIAISON ROLE
The Australian Business
Deans Council (ABDC)
has appointed professor
Stephen Taylor, from
the University of
Technology Sydney as its inaugural research
scholar – a role the council said “has the
goal of expanding collaboration between
universities and industry”.
Most recently, Taylor was associate dean
research at UTS Business School, and
is also former chair of ABDC’s Business
Academic Research Directors’ Network.
“Collaboration between universities,
professional bodies, stakeholders, industry
and government will ensure business
education and research in Australia
supports national agendas and focus,”
Taylor said.
gOvERNESS
JOINS CdU
CAmPUS
Polly Smart has been
announced as the
new administrator
for Charles Darwin
University’s Nhulunbuy
campus.
An experienced outback educator, Smart
– who has officially begun work in the East
Arnhem-based mining town – has lived and
worked as a governess and teacher in remote
South Australia for her entire adult life.
Most recently, she managed the
Open Access College (primary years) at
the School of Air in Port Augusta, after
previously “spending many years teaching
children on sheep and cattle stations in
Outback South Australia”.
“Remote and isolated as it is, Nhulunbuy is a
bustling metropolis by the standards I’ve been
used to,” Smart said.
CURTIN AddS
dvC FOR
RESEARCH
The director of
the University of
Queensland’s
Sustainable Minerals
Institute, professor
Chris Moran, will be Curtin University’s new
deputy vice-chancellor, research.
Moran will take up the post in August.
He was previously the founding director of
both UQ’s Centre for Coal Seam Gas and its
Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry.
In a statement, Curtin said one of Moran’s
key aims was to further expand his “theme
of connectivity of disciplines”.
Curtin vice-chancellor Deborah Terry
said Moran’s expertise and experience
would help the university strengthen its
research profile and “build the critically
important links with industry”.
BONd
NOmINATES
CHANCELLOR
Bond University
has announced the
nomination of Dr
Annabelle Bennett as
chancellor.
Bennett’s appointment to the role was
subject to her being elected as a councillor
at Bond’s annual general meeting, which
was scheduled for April 19.
She would become the university’s eighth
chancellor, with the incumbent, Dr Helen
Nugent, retiring from the role.
Bennett recently retired as a highly
respected judge of the Federal Court
of Australia. She has a wide-ranging
background, including a PhD in cell biology
at the University of Sydney. She is regarded
as an international specialist in intellectual
property law.
This unusual word was borrowed from Japanese less than 20 years ago for a special out-of-focus effect
that up-to-date photographers may strive to achieve rather than avoid. In Japanese, the word is written
as boke, but said with two-syllables (bow-kay) so that it sounds rather like an Australian pronunciation
of ‘bouquet’. Its essential meaning is ‘blur’ or ‘haze’, and it can apparently be used by the Japanese to
refer to ‘a mental haze’ or ‘senility’ as well. But with a fast camera lens, bokeh becomes an aesthetic
effect for photographers to exploit in enhancing an image, adding a bright softness around it and
blurring out what may be a nondescript background. It creates arresting images of faces – and flowers
– according to advertorials for the pricey lenses that can engineer bokeh. Photographers rejoice in the
compressed perspective it yields, a 2014 citation in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary online
states. Though photographers past have strived to capture depth in their images, photorealism is out of
fashion, and the Japanese loanword bokeh puts an artistic spin on blur, at least in English. It activates
appreciative adjectives for the image, such as “smooth”, “silky”, “sweet” (not to mention “superb”), to
promote a new aesthetic, with or without the flowers.
Written by emeritus professor Pam Peters, researcher with Macquarie University’s Centre for
Language Sciences.
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