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News from Monash

Margaret GardnerProfessor Margaret Gardner announced as new Monash Vice-Chancellor

Following an extensive international search, Professor Margaret Gardner AO has been announced as the ninth Vice-Chancellor of Monash University, and the first woman to serve in the role.

Professor Gardner will take up her position on 1 September 2014, succeeding Professor Ed Byrne, who will become President and Principal at King’s College London. Professor Gardner is currently Vice-Chancellor and President of RMIT University and previously held a range of senior academic roles, including serving as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at The University of Queensland.

Professor Gardner said she was delighted and honoured to be joining Monash. She added:

Monash University is one of the world’s top 100 universities. It has an international presence unique for Australia and rare anywhere in higher education. Monash is striving to be among the top research universities in the world and has the expansive vision, the brilliant staff and outstanding students to succeed and make a distinctive contribution to the Asia Pacific and to the world.”

Current Monash Vice-Chancellor Professor Ed Byrne said:

Monash is a fantastic university, and the privilege of leading it has been the high point of my career. I am particularly proud of the progress that has been made on the international agenda in recent times, most notably the establishment of Joint Graduate School and Joint Research Institute in China and the depth alliance with the UK’s University of Warwick."

Warwick Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift added:

We at Warwick are delighted that Monash, a close partner of the University of Warwick, has made this excellent appointment to lead Monash as its new Vice-Chancellor. We look forward to working with Professor Gardner and will of course continue to work closely with Professor Byrne, who will lead Monash for the next nine months.”

Read the full announcement on the Monash website.


ARC logoMonash to receive $74 million to improve brain research and beat disease

Professor Gardner joins Monash at an exciting time. The University has been awarded almost 74 million Australian Dollars in funding from the Australian Research Council – more than any other Australian university - to lead three new national Centres of Excellence. Two of these Centres are directly supported by activity within the Monash-Warwick Alliance:

One of the centres, the $26 million ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology will be led by leading polymer chemist Professor Thomas Davis of the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, alongside Professor Sebastien Perrier, Professor of Polymer Chemistry at Warwick, two of the first joint research appointments earlier this year under the Monash-Warwick Alliance, together with co-investigator Professor Dave Haddleton, Professor of Chemistry and Head of Inorganic and Materials Section at Warwick.

The Monash-Warwick Alliance is also involved in the $28 million ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging led by Professor James Whisstock, which will see the creation of two joint professorial posts in this area in the new year, one based at each of Warwick and Monash. This research collaboration brings Monash and Warwick Medical Schools together in an ambitious project that aims to attract world-class expertise in cryo-electron microscopy (Monash) and super-resolution light microscopy (Warwick) to transform our combined imaging capabilities.

Find out more about the new funding on the Monash website.