2002 was the first year that researchers from the Institute of Advanced Studies were allowed unfettered access to Australian Research Council and National Health and Medical Research Council competitive grants. The Institute gave up 10% of its recurrent budget as the price of entry to the competitive grants system. The Institute has given up a further 10%, for access to the Government's Institutional Grants System and the Research Training System which allow competitive allocations of block funding and scholarship funding on the basis of various formulae.
With respect to the competitive grants system, we did well beyond even my optimistic expectations. We did extremely well in relation to the money we gave up as our price of entry. We also did well within the Institute. When all the Institute's Schools and Centres are compared on the basis of total money won from the ARC, relative to their new (reduced) recurrent budgets, the Research School of Chemistry was second only to the Mathematical Sciences Institute. On a national scale, the Australian National University won more grants in the 2002 round than any other Australian university.
This grant success was mirrored in many other ways. Professor Gottfried Otting, formerly from the Karolinska Institute Stokholm, Sweden, took up his Federation Fellowship during 2002. This is the most prestigious fellowship awarded by the ARC. Three members of staff, Drs Michael Collins, Elmars Krausz and Bruce Wild, were promoted to professor. This was the highest rate of success of any School or Faculty in the ANU during the 2002 promotion round. Dr Mark Henderson was promoted to Research Fellow. Professor Lew Mander was awarded the David Craig Medal, which is the Australian Academy of Science's most prestigious award for chemistry. Dr Edie Sevick had a very "big" year. Within a period of ten days after giving birth to her second child, it was announced that her position would be converted to continuing (i.e. tenured). From her hospital bed she did interviews with various international science magazines, regarding an experiment she and Dr Genmaio Wang had conducted at Christmas, which tested a new but very fundamental theorem in statistical mechanics: the Transient Fluctuation Theorem, first derived by my former postdoc, Dr Debra Searles, and myself.
Dr Michael Sherburn from Sydney University, took up a continuing position in Organic Chemistry late in 2002 in the area of organic synthesis, methodology and host-guest chemistry. We wish Michael well in setting up this new group.
There were a number of departures and retirements during the year. Dr Andrew Torda left Australia to take up a position as Professor of Bioinformatics at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Our first Rita Cornforth Fellow, Dr Nicola Brasch, left to take up a tenure track position at Kent State University, USA, and Dr Kate Jolliffe commenced an ARC QE11 Fellowship at the University of Sydney. We all wish these young scientists well in their future endeavours. Among our support staff, Reet Bergman, Jenny Rothschild and Geoff Lincoln each retired after long and highly valued service to this School and to the University.
Denis J. Evans
Dean