School Director's Report
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue68 1–30 November 2025
Welcome to the last Lunations of the year!
Firstly, some very nice news to finish 2025 was provided by the level C-D academic promotion outcomes. Please join me in congratulating Amit Seta who has been promoted to level C, and Christian Wolf and Francis Bennet who have been promoted to level E. These promotions are well deserved recognition of their expertise and achievements, as well as ongoing high-level contributions to the School, University and discipline. Congratulations to all!
New ARC grants have been announced during the past month, with the School seeing a number of successes including 3 RSAA led proposals that will bring in more than 2 million dollars of new funding. Specifically, Melissa Ness was funded for a project on Discovering Stellar Origins with a Groundbreaking Map of the Galaxy, Matthew Colless on Mapping dark matter and testing gravity with galaxy surveys, and Mark Krumholz and Roland Crocker on How do cosmic rays shape the ecology of galaxies?
The DECRA 26 outcomes were also announced by the ARC this week. Giacomo Cordoni has been awarded a DECRA for his project titled Decoding Stellar and Galactic Evolution through Star Clusters. Giacomo’s DECRA is one of only 5 astronomical sciences fellowships awarded nationally. Preparation of Discovery Projects and Fellowships represents significant effort, and in addition to these successes I would like to acknowledge the work of our colleagues whose projects were not successful this year.
At our September Faculty meeting the committee endorsed a new policy to enhance the clarity and consistency of support for relocation of staff and students. This policy can be found on the intranet, and will be incorporated into materials provided to incoming staff and students. Increased transparency and equity in relocation allowance is the latest recommendation from the School review to be actioned.
The Interim Vice Chancellor has released the results of September's ANYOU pulse staff survey which focused on Engagement, Wellbeing, Leadership, Psychological Health, and Culture. The detailed summary of survey results is available on the ANYOU website. I have been provided access to the RSAA specific results, which have been discussed at the IDEA committee. I will present the RSAA results at the December All School meeting.
Thank you to all those who contributed to our four strategy sessions on delivering a student experience equal to the world's best, conducting research that transforms society and creates national capability, being a standard-bearer for equity and inclusion and strengthening our national mission and meeting our unique responsibilities.
The last week of November I joined the University Leadership Group where the process was started for the new University Strategic Plan. The Interim Vice Chancellor outlined how the development of the plan will be collaborative and consultative, enabling shared ownership of and accountability for ANU’s future through a collective process. Schools and Colleges will be asked to collate their capabilities and opportunities in the early part of next year. Through our recent planning processes RSAA is very well placed to participate actively in this important process.
Finally a reminder that the 2025 Mt Stromlo End-of-year party will be on the afternoon of the 13th December. It will be in the CSO Common Room. There will be lots of fun, food, and fingers crossed, great weather! The main dinner will be at 6:00pm, however nibbles and beverages will be available from 4:00pm onwards. There is no cost to attend for both Stromlo-ites and families. If you could please RSVP using the Google Form for catering purposes:
Please read on to learn about activities in what has been another busy month right across RSAA.
Stuart Wyithe
Image: Congratulations to our recent academic promotion receivers: L-R Christian Wolf, Francis Bennet and Amit Seta.
