ON THE MOVE
campusreview. com. au
ECU NAMES RESEARCH FELLOW
As part of a push to recruit more than 20 new professors capable of boosting its research activity, Edith Cowan University has appointed metabolomics, biostatistics and machine learning expert professor David Broadhurst as its fourth professorial research fellow.
After completing research stints in the UK and Canada, Broadhurst has most recently been working as part of a team leading the Western Australia Phoneme Centre.
Broadhurst said in a statement:“ I am delighted to be working at ECU, alongside a team of talented and enthusiastic academics with diverse scientific backgrounds. I’ m eager to … develop a strong collaborative research base.”
NEW PVC FOR WSU Internationally recognised expert and researcher in online and digital learning, professor Kevin Bell, has joined Western Sydney University as its pro vice-chancellor( digital futures).
Bell arrives direct from Boston in the US, where was executive director of curriculum development and deployment at Northeastern University. He will be charged with facilitating and leading innovation, while also supporting digital technology integration. In a statement, Bell – whose doctoral dissertation was focused on gamification in higher education – said he was“ keen to explore how we can leverage some of the same principles of gaming to develop better, self-motivating content for students … and build up their knowledge through practice”.
SULLIVAN TO JOIN ANU
ANU’ s Crawford School of Public Policy has secured the services of Melbourne School of Government director professor Helen Sullivan.
ANU vice-chancellor professor Brian Schmidt said Sullivan, who will join Crawford later this year as its director, would prove a“ transformative leader”.
“ She will help us build our reputation as an Asia-Pacific leader in policy research, design and analysis, while providing outstanding education and training for policy leaders,” Schmidt said. He lauded Sullivan’ s award-winning research, international leadership experience, and standing as an expert in democratic accountability and the evaluation of government policy.
UTAS ADDS ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADER
A US expert in community initiatives has been recruited to drive a program of entrepreneurship at UTAS. Elaine Mosakowski has joined the university’ s Institute for Regional Development as professor of Community Entrepreneurship at the Cradle Coast campus, relocating to Tasmania from Indiana in the US, where she worked in the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University.
Mosakowski, who will also have a research role engaging with emerging industry and businesses in the state, said she aimed to inspire locals to leave a positive imprint on their communities and encourage them to experiment with different ways to learn through embracing education.
MAKING RIPPLES AT CSU
Charles Sturt University is aiming to leverage the not-for-profit sector expertise of Dr Dianne
Jackson. The university has named the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth chief executive the deputy director of the university’ s Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education( RIPPLE). RIPPLE director professor Jennifer Sumsion said Jackson was widely regarded as a successful leader with expertise across health, human services, education and policy.
“ She has exceptional skills, experience and networks, and she brings a respected insider / outsider perspective, having created linkages between research, policy and professional practice,” Sumsion said.
CON’ S ARTIST TAKES CHARGE
Accomplished string musician and Sydney Conservatorium of Music alumnus professor Anna Reid has been appointed head of school and dean of the‘ Con’.
University of Sydney vice-chancellor Dr Michael Spence said Reid, who has twice acted as the Con’ s director – first for a period between 2011 and 2012 and again since July last year – had demonstrated great leadership and depth of industry knowledge during her tenure.
In a statement, USYD highlighted the international recognition of Reid’ s 20 years of experience in research and her collegial approach to learning and teaching in the higher education sector.
“ She is a dedicated music educator,” Spence said.
STRICTLY SPEAKING | BOOMLET
In the wake of the Brexit referendum and economic pessimism in Britain, an optimistic commentator in the EU-based Politico was forecasting a boomlet for financial consultants and lobbyists in London and Brussels. A boomlet? Is that a‘ real’ word or creative journalism for a small spurt in economic growth? In fact, boomlet has had a century of use, according to the Oxford English Dictionary( OED) online, as shown in one of its earliest citations( from 1897):“ During the recent West Australian boom – or, as some of my stock exchange friends prefer to call it‘ boomlet’ …” But since then the word has sputtered into life in the OED’ s records only sporadically, being otherwise sustained on the lips of stock exchange specialists. Its structure( boom +-let) is obvious enough, though out of context you may wonder whether the root word is boom, meaning‘ thunderous sound’ i. e. boooom! or‘ economic growth’. The diminutive suffix‘-let’ goes better with the second sense, though there’ s a slight sense of the‘ damp squib’ about the economic boomlet. The Oxford( 1902) notes that-let was the favourite 19th-century diminutive for forming nonce-words, freely generating examples such as courtlet, crownlet, dukelet, hooklet, jokelet, keylet – all of which have disappeared without a trace. Boomlet has survived, but remains so uncommon that it still looks like a freshly coined word.
Written by emeritus professor Pam Peters, researcher with Macquarie University’ s Centre for Language Sciences.
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