Director's Message
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue26 1–31 March 2022
The new University year started in February, with ANU re-opening to staff, students arriving in Canberra, and face-to-face teaching starting again. There have been plenty of challenges, not least the continuing presence of COVID in our community, and ANU has not been spared, with significant numbers of students catching the virus. So far (touch wood) RSAA staff and students have largely avoided illness, though there have been plenty of ‘close contacts’, especially amongst those with young children back at school.
Consequently, ANU is still requiring us to wear masks indoors in shared areas and checking in with the CBR app continues to be encouraged. Nonetheless there are real signs that we are returning to something more like the pre-pandemic life: not only is there face-to-face teaching, but travel is once again (mostly) possible, and visitors will soon be invigorating our academic life. The ASTRO 3D visitor program has already re-opened and the Stromlo Distinguished Visitors scheme will restart from 1 July (applications are due 18 March!). We also have individuals visiting to give us colloquia, although our speaker this week was forced to cancel because he’d had to evacuate his home due to the Brisbane floods! On Friday we will restart our fortnightly BBQs, with free food on offer to encourage everyone to participate in an opportunity to meet as a School in a COVID-safe way outdoors.
The disruption of the usual cycle of ARC grants, on the other hand, owes little to COVID and much to the politicisation of what should be an apolitical process: politicians should decide research grant policies and funding, but then leave the process of awarding grants to researchers. I expect all the usual ARC grant programs will sooner or later eventuate, but probably with shortened periods of opening - so please develop your grant proposals without waiting for ARC announcements! There are also likely to be new opportunities for ARC fellowships in applied and translational research, which will be of interest to several RSAA academics.
February has also seen progress towards making two new RSAA faculty appointments. The selection committee has interviewed the long-listed candidates and this week will decide on the short-list. The short-listed candidates will be invited to Stromlo to meet staff and students, give a colloquium, and have a face-to-face interview with the selection committee as soon as feasible. I hope everyone will give them a warm welcome when they come.
Sadly, this is Rafat Alam’s last week at Stromlo as RSAA School Manager. Since he arrived in May 2019, Rafat has done a superb job in helping to steer the School through three very challenging years. The strong financial health of the School, the efficient administrative team, and many of the strategic initiatives of the last few years form Rafat’s highly valued legacy - he will be greatly missed. No-one, however, is irreplaceable (see also below!) and so we are rapidly progressing the search for a new School Manager, with the short-listing meeting planned for late this week. I hope that we will be able to have the new appointment in place rapidly, so there is no need for an interim manager, and I have every confidence that the excellent School administration team will carry us over the gap.
Finally, as you know, we are now starting a search for a new School Director. I will finish my 10-year stint at the end of this year and, sticking to my principle that 10 years is enough in any management position, I will be stepping down to allow new leadership to take RSAA into its very bright future. The Dean of the College of Science has begun the process for identifying my successor, which will start with an open advertisement and a nominations committee that will seek suggestions from within and without the School of potential candidates for the role - further information on this in due course.
Matthew Colless
