unikenissue 52 • july/august 2009 UNSW 1949-2009 How far we’ve come

Restoring sight stem cell breakthrough Cheryl Kernot on the new entrepreneur

d r ary s r eco e r v

contents ON THE COVER 9-12 UNSW 1949-2009 nni How far we’ve come the a Starting from nothing just six decades ago, r UNSW has become one of ’s top research th intensive universities. We mark the milestone in fo

pictures and quotes. 60 ON THE back COVER 20 60 and beyond We meet one of the University’s first sons and one of its newest daughters. elcome to this special edition “Stephen Fielding has fallen hook, FEATURES of Uniken commemorating line and sinker for some of the most 5 Sight for sore eyes the 60th anniversary of the commonly paraded furphies of the A chance discovery has led to sight being restored W climate change naysayer brigade.” University of . in some sufferers of blinding corneal disease. In 60 short years, we have a record Matt England, joint Director of the 7 Singing the same song in a different tune of extraordinary achievement. We are Climate Change Research Centre on A remote Indigenous community is preserving the results of the Independent Senator’s ranked amongst the top 50 universities its culture and language through an animation climate change study trip to the United in the world and are one of the of traditional songlines. States – Sydney Morning Herald leading Australian research-intensive 8 Fear and loathing in the suburbs universities. Obsessive compulsive disorder is one of the “Superannuation is a good idea. But it Our motto, Scientia Manu et Mente most debilitating disorders in the west – a UNSW should not be a magic pudding for the researcher is assessing the scope of the problem. – Knowledge by Hand and Mind, wealthy, a poor deal for low-income 13 In Profile continues to be a critical part of our people and a straitjacket for too many A renowned composer takes up a key role which distinctiveness. Our achievements of the rest.” blends his passions of music and language. have been built through engagement Professor Julian Disney, Director Social 14 Opinion with business and industry, on a Justice Project on the complexities Cheryl Kernot from the Centre for Social Impact strong tradition of social justice. We and inequalities of the Australian on the new breed of entrepreneur. have developed defined strengths superannuation scheme – Sydney 15 Opinion in professional and scientific fields, Morning Herald Australia has precious little “middle-class welfare” focusing on contemporary and and gives Scandinavia a run for its money in terms social issues, and our research is “In times of uncertainty the demand of equity in social welfare, Peter Whiteford from the underpinned by fundamental and for forecasting takes off... People tend Social Policy Research Centre argues. enabling knowledge in science and to make more predictions but they’re 18 The legal battle facing Palestine the humanities. also more likely to be wrong.” Emeritus Professor Hal Wootten, who was the Our progressive and engaged Vic Edwards, Australian School of Foundation Dean of Law at UNSW, spent three nature is evident in our international Business, on the vagaries of predicting months in Palestine last year. As a result, links research excellence in areas which corporate failure – Sydney Morning have been made between UNSW and a law include Water, Environment and Herald. school in the troubled area. Sustainability, Next Generation REGULARS Materials and Technologies, Social “We construct the sex offender as ‘the Policy, Government and Health Policy, other’ but they’re not, they’re living 16 Learning and Teaching ICT, Informatics and Robotics, and amongst us, with us, between us.” 17 Community Engagement Business, Law and Economics. Our Criminologist, Philip Birch from 19 On the couch research strengths inform the shape the School of Social Sciences and of our innovative degree programs, International Studies on his research that challenges the notion that sex Cover: Design by Linda Li based on the traditional platforms of rigour and relevance. offenders are psychologically damaged, We are the first truly international lonely, insecure or dysfunctional Uniken is produced by the UNSW Office of Media – Canberra Times and Communications university in Australia – with long- T 02 9385 1583 standing and deep links and many “This isn’t just about misuse, it’s death. E [email protected] thousands of alumni throughout www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/uniken.html Overdosing on opioids can be fatal.” the Asia–Pacific region, and a high Managing editor: Mary O’Malley Associate Professor Alison Ritter from proportion of Australian students from Editor: Susi Hamilton the National Drug and Alcohol Research international backgrounds. Editorial team: Judy Brookman, Denise Knight, Centre on emerging evidence that Steve Offner, Fran Strachan and Peter Trute I take this opportunity to pay tribute the number of Australians addicted to Sub-editing: Bob Pickering to all those who have worked so hard, prescription painkillers is on the rise Design and production: Gadfly Media over six decades – students, staff and – SMH online Proofreading: Pam Dunne members of our communities - to Special thanks to Linda Li, Adele Symonds make UNSW the great university it is “Every year with every influenza and Katie Bird. today. I am confident our next 60 years there are deaths in Australia. So, we Australia Post print approved will be just as extraordinary, and that PP224709/00021 would certainly expect to see deaths UNSW, Sydney NSW 2052 we will continue to be a peer in good from swine flu.” CRICOS Provider No 00098G standing with the best globally. Professor Raina MacIntyre, head of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, on swine flu after the Frederick G Hilmer Government upgraded its pandemic Vice-Chancellor and President alert – ABC Radio’s AM Program

 UNIKEN ief br in Creativity wins in funding boost Flying the flag for UNSW A dynamic canvas of light, projections and street theatre will be staged as part of Lots in Space – a joint celebration of the University’s 60th anniversary and NIDA’s 50th. This is the first collaborative effort of its kind between the two institutions. The production, directed by NIDA’s inaugural artist-in-residence Peter King, will use the unique architecture of the University Mall as the stage for a montage of performers, projected images, textures, colour and light on Tuesday 21 July. Staff and students are very welcome to attend a special “Open Dress” preview of the production on the Monday night, from 7:30 to 8:30pm. Uniken marks the anniversary with a special feature (beginning page 9). Anniversary dates for the diary: 5 Sept – open day and alumni homecoming at UNSW; 16-18 Oct – 60th anniversary events in Beijing China – global lecture series, graduation celebration, gala The College of Fine Arts (COFA) has won a $48 million grant to transform alumni dinner and cultural events; 7 Nov – Back to Bacchus Ball at its campus at Paddington. The successful bid, under the Education the Roundhouse. Investment Fund and announced in the Federal Budget has allowed the commencement of work on the Gateway@COFA redevelopment. The project will build state-of-the art teaching, learning and studio/ laboratory facilities, and a large installation gallery with an unprecedented technical capacity to present world-class digital art and design works. A key part of the project is to re-orient the COFA campus onto Oxford Street, one of Sydney’s most significant traffic arteries and a key cultural and commercial corridor. This aligns with the City of Sydney Creative Precincts 2030 Plan. In other funding successes for the University, $20 million has been earmarked for the new virology institute, to be located at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, which will support UNSW’s world-leading National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR). The Commonwealth funding matches the amount provided by the NSW Government for the state-of-the-art facility, which will bring together 300 of the nation’s top scientists working on viral hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.

At the forefront of health UNSW will train the next generation of the state’s frontline public health officers, under a partnership with NSW Health. It is the first time in 20 years that NSW Health has partnered with an academic institution to provide the training program, which provides education and support to the public health leaders of the future. Fourteen public health officer trainees this month completed their first formal workshop through the School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

Photo: Grant Turner, Mediakoo Turner, Grant Photo: The Wisdom of Confucius The new Confucius Institute at UNSW will be opened on Thursday 30 July 2009. The influential Shanghai Jiao Tong University has been selected as the Chinese partner for the new Institute. The Institute will provide a focal point for showcasing China research and fostering collaborations across UNSW and with our partner university. UNSW already hosts Australia’s largest Chinese language program, which will be enhanced by offering Chinese language training for business and the wider Training the frontline: Professors Lisa Jackson Pulver and Raina MacIntyre with Australian community. NSW Health employees

UNIKEN  in brief A fragile victory Building great links UNSW did well in the latest round of ARC Linkage Grants, Tough fight:25-year-old with the highest total funding for a NSW university and the Liam Paterson with Professor Dedee Murrell equal second highest nationally. A total of 238 projects, worth $71.3 million, were funded across Australia in this round, the second to be announced for 2009. UNSW was awarded $19 million for 20 projects, with some $7 million of this coming from ARC and just on $13 million from partner organisations. “It cements our position as a leader in research that is relevant to industry,” said Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Les Field.

Celebrating fellowship Two UNSW academics have been awarded prestigious Australian Laureate Fellowships. Professor George Williams from the Faculty of Law has been funded for his project “Anti-terror laws and the democratic challenge”. Professor Richard Bryant from the School of Psychology has been acknowledged for his work aimed at enhancing mental health in Aboriginal children. Just 14 Laureates were selected from a highly competitive field of 148 researchers. Professor Williams is the only Laureate from the humanities. Each Fellowship is for five years, is fully funded by A UNSW dermatologist who has been fighting to help so-called “butterfly babies” the Australian Research Council, and is accompanied is celebrating the Federal Government’s decision to help the victims. by funding for a research team. This is valued at an The Government has announced it will give $16.4 million over the next four average of $2.7 million. years to help pay for the hospital-grade dressings they require. The Australian Laureate Fellowships replace the Professor Dedee Murrell, a UNSW Conjoint Professor and Head of Dermatology Federation Fellowships Scheme. at Sydney’s St George Hospital, established the epidermolysis bullosa (EB) registry In other news, the Director of UNSW’s Cancer four years ago and has been lobbying both sides of government for funding, along Research Centre, Professor Philip Hogg, has been with the patient support groups. awarded this year’s prestigious Cancer Institute NSW “This is a relief to families and friends of those with EB,” says Professor Murrell. Premier’s Award for Outstanding Cancer Researcher, “These dressings were never provided by the Australian government and they can the highest cancer research honour in NSW. be very expensive, up to $6,000 a month for a new baby with a severe condition,” The NSW Government award acknowledges the she says. potential for Professor Hogg’s research to change There is as yet no specific treatment to prevent the ulcers, nor heal them cancer treatment and improve the survival chances significantly faster, besides dressings, although cell and gene therapy trials are of patients. underway. There are about 1,000 patients with the condition in Australia.

Sleeping with the enemy Mitsubishi backs mining It has been linked to learning impairment, stroke and premature death. UNSW will be positioned as a regional leader in sustainable Now UNSW research has found that snoring associated with sleep apnoea mining practices following a $1.1 million investment by may impair brain function more than previously thought. mining group Mitsubishi Development. Sufferers of obstructive sleep apnoea experience similar changes in brain The company has committed the funds to establish a new biochemistry as people who have had a severe stroke or who are dying, the Mitsubishi Chair in Sustainable Mining Practices in UNSW’s research shows. School of Mining Engineering, the first investment of its kind A study by UNSW Brain Sciences, published in the Journal of Cerebral in Australia by the company, and the largest contribution Blood Flow and Metabolism, is the first to analyse – in a second-by-second from an individual company received by the School. time-frame – what is happening in the brains of sufferers as they sleep. The Chair will head a new Australian Centre for Previous studies have focused on re-creating oxygen impairment in Sustainable Mining Practices. The Centre, currently in awake patients. the planning stage, will be an international centre of “The findings show that lack of oxygen while asleep may be far more excellence in sustainable mining research and education, detrimental than when awake, possibly because the normal compensatory with a particular focus on the Asia–Pacific region. It will mechanisms don’t work as well when you are asleep,” says New South provide education for local and international students Global Professor Caroline Rae, who is based at the Prince of Wales Medical at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and for Research Institute. mining industry professionals.

 UNIKEN earch s Photo: Grant Turner, Mediakoo Mediakoo Turner, Grant Photo: Sight for sore eyes WS & re Contact lenses coated with patients’ stem cells NE are being used to restore sight to sufferers of blinding corneal disease. Steve Offner reports.

People of vision: Dr Stephanie Watson and Dr Nick Di Girolamo. Transplant recipient Ben Barter next page.

en Barter hadn’t completely given up on seeing again, but he’d team of researchers led by Dr Nick Di Girolamo and Dr Stephanie come close. A rare congenital condition – aniridia – meant his Watson from UNSW’s Centre for Infection and Inflammation Research, Beyes were affected by stem-cell deficiency causing painful ulcers Ben Barter’s vision had significantly improved. He had gone from being and scarring. By the age of 25 he could barely make out his fingers in legally blind to being able to read the top line on a standard eye chart. front of his face. “That was a big change. Any improvement in your eyesight has a big When, at 35, he was asked to take part in a UNSW trial of a impact on your life,” he says. procedure aimed at restoring his sight, he jumped at the chance. The two other patients with damaged corneas who took part in the “I had tried so many other things, I thought ‘What do I have to trial also had their sight restored. The procedure has since been hailed lose?’,” he says. as a breakthrough and a paper detailing the technique has appeared in Barter, an accountant, is one of an estimated 10 million people around the high-impact journal Transplantation. the world with blinding corneal disease of which stem-cell deficiency is “Not only have we improved patients’ vision, which is fantastic, but one of the most painful. Causes of the condition include genetics, burns, we’ve been able to treat the painful ulcers and inflammation ontheir infections, surgery and chemotherapy. Treatment is notoriously difficult. eyes and reduce their pain and discomfort,” says Watson, the surgeon But within weeks of the experimental procedure, carried out by a (continues page 6)

UNIKEN  Connecting cultures: Cummins Patrick Photo: Dr Amanda Kearney and the Brolga “Any improvement ancestor animation Photo: Rick Munitz Munitz Rick Photo: in your eyesight has a big impact on your life.” Ben Barter, patient

who managed the patients and performed the procedures. The technique itself is deceptively simple. A tiny biopsy taken from the patient’s eye provides stem cells that are cultivated on a common US Food and Drug Administration-approved contact lens. The lens is then placed over the eye for about 10 days, during which time the stem cells transfer from the lens, repairing the damaged ocular surface. To date the procedure has been limited to treating corneas damaged by limbal stem-cell deficiency. However, researchers believe it could have wider applications. Di Girolamo says: “If we can do this in the eye, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in other major organs such as the skin, which behaves in a very similar way to the cornea.” The non-invasive nature of the technique makes it particularly attractive. Watson adds: “There’s no suturing, no major operation: we just harvest a minute amount – less than a millimetre – of tissue from the ocular surface. “The patient only needs to come into the hospital for a couple of hours to have their eye prepared and the lens put in place. They come back the next day so we can make sure the lens is still in place. The lens is then removed after around 10 days,” she says. The technique’s other appeal is that it uses no foreign human or animal products. Di Girolamo says: “The stem cells are the patient’s own and they are cultured in the patient’s own serum. “If you’re going to be treating these sorts of diseases in Third World countries, the potential is enormous. You don’t need any fancy equipment. All you need is the surgeon and a lab to culture cells.” While the breakthrough was a culmination of more than two years’ hard work in the lab, chance also played its part. The stem cells’ potential to repopulate the eye from a synthetic material was only noted when a surgeon at the Prince of Wales Hospital peeled back a therapeutic lens from a patient’s eye and noticed some white matter clinging to its inner surface. The substance was subsequently identified by Di Girolamo as cells. It was one of those moments, Di Girolamo says. “I thought, hang on a second. If the eye can provide the contact lens with cells, what about the other way round? Why not provide the contact lens with cells and put them back onto the patient’s eye?” Eighteen months since the first operation, the procedure has been performed on an additional two patients. Like the trial subjects, their sight and ocular comfort has significantly improved. “We still don’t know if the change will be permanent,” Di Girolamo says. “If it is, that’s fantastic. If it’s only temporary then we have the ability to repeat the procedure using either fresh or frozen stem-cell stocks that we can store and revive upon request. This may provide patients with several more years of quality vision.” And while the procedure is ideal for people with unilateral eye conditions, it also works for patients who have damage in both eyes, as Ben’s improvement shows. “Ben has a congenital condition, so both his eyes are affected,” Di Girolamo says. “Because we weren’t able to take stem cells from a healthy cornea, we took them from another part of the eye altogether – the conjunctiva. “After we put them onto the eye, the stem cells were able to change from the conjunctival phenotype to a corneal phenotype,” he says. “That’s the beauty of stem cells.” •

 UNIKEN Singing the same song, to a different tune A remote Indigenous community is preserving its culture and language through new technology. As Fran Strachan reports, it is hoped that an animation of songlines might become part of the school curriculum.

group of female elders from the remote Yanyuwa community in “We knew it was important to preserve the language in a form the Northern Territory are sitting cross-legged on an office floor that future generations will relate to. The elders have been very Ain Brisbane. open to both the process and the new medium and have been happy Opposite them sits a young white anthropology student who is asking to gradually unwrap their stories from the traditional processes of permission to undertake her doctoral research in their community. storytelling,” Kearney says. Amanda Kearney knows it’s a big ask, and one that could make or The first animation in the series recounts the journey of a tiger break her thesis. shark to Yanyuwa country. The songline was traditionally used for After a pause, one of the elders speaks. “Yeah, you can do this. It’s the initiation of young men and to help the dying send spirits back to about time we had a woman up there. We’re sick of all the fellas.” their country. It was a pragmatic invitation that marked the beginning of Dr Kearney’s The animations will teach the younger generations about their ongoing academic and emotional relationship with the Yanyuwa culture, their country, the ecology and geography of the region and community at Borroloola, 10 hours’ drive south-east of Darwin. help bridge the divide between the older and younger generations. Throughout her doctorate at the University of Melbourne and then Kearney hopes the animations will become part of the curriculum for as lecturer at Monash University’s Centre for Australian Indigenous teaching Yanyuwa and other Indigenous youth throughout Australia. Studies, she continued her visits to Borroloola. It’s a research area she still nurtures in her new position as lecturer in Sociology and Thirty years ago there were 260 Yanyuwa Anthropology at UNSW. “I’ve always been intrigued by humanity and how people maintain speakers, now there are only a handful. emotional connections to places, particularly when those connections have been disrupted by the colonial process,” she says. “These animations bring the young people a sense of identity. If what It’s traditional language that keeps the Yanyuwas’ connection to they construct as their identity is never spoken at school or given any their land alive. Their traditional dialogue embodies the community’s context or value, then they’re increasingly vulnerable,” Kearney says. spirituality, cultural values, customs and land ownership. But as the Returning to Borroloola recently, Kearney presented the latest community’s elders die their language is dying with them. Thirty years animations to the community. ago there were 260 Yanyuwa speakers, now there’s only a handful of “I had a few great chats with kids and one young fella made the elders who still speak the endangered language. comment (after watching the animation) ‘that’s what I’ve pictured in my “The constant comment from the older people was ‘These kids head my whole life’ – which is pretty satisfying,” says Kearney. have no law’. The elders were becoming very concerned that the For Kearney, the last songline being immortalised on DVD won’t younger generations were losing the essence of what it means to be signify the end of her research in Borroloola. She is anticipating funding Yanyuwa and the system of law that comes from ancestral knowledge,” for a large-scale project that will examine the relatively unexplored Kearney says. area of sea rights, marine tenure and differing cultural ideas of what In close consultation with the community, Kearney and a Monash constitutes the sea. colleague, Dr John Bradley, decided to conserve the Yanyuwa language “The Yanyuwa community has been both gracious and generous ever by producing a series of short digital animations. The animations are since that first invitation. They’ve educated me and enhanced my life as based on traditional Yanyuwa stories, or songlines, that provide a title both an academic and an individual, so until they say, ‘Bugger off. We’re deed to country. done working with outsiders’, I’ll keep going back,” she says, smiling. •

UNIKEN  Photo: Rick Munitz Munitz Rick Photo:

It ranks among the 10 worst illnesses in the developed world in its impact on income and quality of life.

obsess about hygiene and spend many hours in the bathroom; some may be consumed with fear that their loved ones will meet a grisly end, checking over and over that doors are locked or that an oven is turned off; others may refuse to go through certain doorways or need to knock or tap something repeatedly. Without intervention and help, it can overwhelm sufferers. The World Health Organization ranks it among the 10 worst illnesses in the developed world in terms of its impact on income and quality of life. In a recent paper in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Grisham, a lecturer in the UNSW School of Psychology, and international colleagues assembled the first comprehensive picture of OCD in the community. They based their findings on the Dunedin study, which has followed the lives of more than 1,000 randomly selected children born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1972 and 1973. The researchers estimate that between one-fifth and one-quarter of the population have subclinical OCD – obsessions or compulsions that meet at least some of the diagnostic criteria. School of thoughts: Dr Jessica Grisham thinks nature and nurture About one-third of them also have another play a part in the disorder. anxiety disorder or depression. So, about one person in 15 has at least some symptoms of OCD. Psychologists and he wept, she fretted and her heart psychiatrists are divided on its causes: it thumped. Consumed by anxiety, she can run in families, suggesting a genetic Fear and Sfaced one of the worst horrors she could component, but it can also follow from imagine: a hairbrush. She was suffering from traumatic experiences. Both nature and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). nurture, it seems, are involved. loathing in This intelligent 36-year-old teacher was In a second paper, in the British Journal of obsessed by a fear that she and her loved ones Psychiatry, Grisham and colleagues at UNSW, could suffer some terrible medical calamity in New Zealand and in Britain found evidence the suburbs from a head-lice infection. that specific cognitive characteristics evident in When that fear drove her to try to withdraw children aged between nine and 12 predicted her children from school, however, she an adult OCD diagnosis. It is a debilitating condition realised she needed help. That was how she “It’s normal for children to have little rituals, that affects up to one in 15 came to be sitting with clinical psychologist such as flicking a light switch or not stepping Dr Jessica Grisham and confronting her fears on a crack. That’s just part of childhood and people – yet at its core is through a type of cognitive-behavioural therapy most people grow out of it. It’s when it becomes irrational fear. As Bob Beale called exposure-and-ritual prevention. distressing to the child … that parents should reports, a UNSW psychologist Grisham recalls that after the patient picked take notice,” Grisham says. up the brush and began running it through her The good news is that good treatments are is at the forefront of research hair, it took more than an hour for her anxiety now available and they are successful for into obsessive compulsive to subside. most people. Cognitive-behaviour therapy Having faced and overcome her fear of lice, that includes exposure-and-ritual prevention, disorder. the patient then had more fears to deal with. and/or medication treatment, has led to a One was her irrational conviction that she was success rate of between two-thirds and three- HIV-positive, which led her to have repeated quarters for all people seeking treatment. The pathology tests for reassurance. She kept the relapse rate is low. negative test results in a bedside drawer and Successful treatment will allow people to constantly read them, still not believing that resume a normal life, says Dr Grisham. she was healthy. “It can be very challenging facing one’s worst A 19th century French writer described OCD fears, but for people who have seen their lives as “the disease of doubt”: some people may up-ended by OCD it is well worth it.” •

 UNIKEN ary s Photo: Max Dupain Max Photo: ver UNSW i Celebrating 60th ann 60 years

“... UNSW was the epitome of the hungry fighter seeking success and recognition.” - former Chancellor, the late Gordon Samuels

UNIKEN  UNSW: A portrait 1952 1949–1960 Among the first Wallace Wurth, graduates was June 60th anniversary the University’s Griffith, the University’s first President and 1950 first female graduate Chancellor Celebrations on the former 1952 Kensington Racecourse at the First graduation ball, Trocadero 1955 Main Building, University foundation stone laying ceremony of Technology

1949 1968

1969 Drama students outside the Old Tote Theatre 1970s–1980s Laboratory attire 1970 1975 1976 Sir John Clancy Auditorium, Celebrations to mark Hard at work in the student photo by Max Dupain UNSW’s Foundation Day newspaper, Tharunka, office

1969 1988

1996 1997 1998 1999 The man who goes on to 1993 The Quadrangle wins Professor Merilyn Sleigh The Scientia opens become the first Indigenous Library Lawn clock unveiled Australian Design Award is the first woman to surgeon in Australia, Kelvin be appointed dean. She Kong, graduates as a doctor headed the Faculty of Life Sciences.

1989 2009

Thank you to UNSW Archives for access to their photographic collection

10 UNIKEN Looking back over 60 years 1960 The Roundhouse under 1966 1963 Sir Robert Menzies opens construction Queen Elizabeth opens the Library Medicine and Science 1960s buildings The University’s outreach 1964 to Asia and beyond View of the main walkway from Anzac Parade, photo by Max Dupain

1949 1968

1987 Aboriginal Student Support 1980 Program begins, as well as The main walkway the scheme to assist entry of disadvantaged students 1980 1980s 1982 The University clown, The Wizard, Students try their luck on High with former Vice-Chancellor Rupert 50,000th degree awarded to Street, before the crossing is Jane Ingham. She graduated Myers. The Wizard spanned official marked. and student power. as a doctor (MBBS).

1969 1988

2002 Ron Fitch becomes 2006 The new Law 2009 the world’s oldest Building opens Current - Chancellor, PhD recipient, after David Gonski receiving a doctorate in engineering at 92 years 2007 of age. UNSW’s solar car breaks the 2008 world record for the fastest The Lowy Cancer Research Centre is solar-powered road trip from due to be completed at the end of 2009. Perth to Sydney

1989 2009

For more on UNSW’s 60th anniversary, go to the website: http://www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/60thanniversary.html

UNIKEN 11 ry a nnivers

a What they said … h

t In its 60 years, the University has had more than 200,000 students graduate. Thousands of staff

60 and countless guests have also spent time on campus. Here is what some of them have said about University life. All interviews mentioned are part of UNSW Archives’ Oral History Program. Academic life “… they [academics] certainly should, in their community life, insist, within the law, upon the maintenance of the freedom of their minds; and should at all times resist unauthorised political interference with their work, or administrative procedures within the university itself which could frustrate them in the kind of work they are in a university to do.” – then Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies delivering the inaugural Wallace Wurth Memorial Lecture, August 1964 “… I’d always been interested in universities and it was a new university, I thought it might be interesting to try it. Also I knew something of academe from my experience at Sydney [University] – how academics approach life and so on.” – Gordon Samuels, former Chancellor, on his appointment to the University The “I must confess Council, interview 1996 and 1997 the last place I changing thought I’d be, having “Australia as a whole needs to develop a culture in which relevant campus served nearly two years qualifications are respected and in which regular upgrading hard labour in the UNSW Law “It was my good fortune to be of skills is a normal part of any career.” – then Prime Minister library twenty-five years ago, was taught at the Law School. The new Bob Hawke receiving his Doctorate of Laws and delivering the receiving a higher teaching degree building is tangible evidence of the occasional address, April 1987 without having to study and deliver maturity and standing which the Law “One might say that it is through the intellectual life generally endless assignments to teachers at this Faculty has achieved since its humble that we become human … this is one of the few forms in which origins in 1971. It now has the home it same university.” – Peter Garrett receiving we can give meaning to the idea of human freedom.” – Donald so richly deserves.” – Chancellor David his honorary doctorate, October 1999 Horne, then Professor of Political Science and Chairman Gonski, September 2006 of the Faculty of Arts at UNSW, delivering the occasional Campus life “It was a bit of a TAFE campus really I thought at address at a graduation ceremony, April 1985 “[I dressed] like all the other students. We didn’t the time [in the mid-1970s]. It wasn’t like Sydney put on a tie. We put on a jacket (sports jacket) at Uni with a bit of that history and quasi Oxford- Changing the world all times.” – Tan Siak Tee, international student Cambridge look about it … I remember I had “I put to Garth [Nettheim, former Dean of the Faculty of in the 1960s, interviewed November 1999 Law] the idea of establishing a very practical human rights 38 hours a week class time. I always thought how bloody art students could have nine hours a “You’d have a get-together after the games. Always. training program aimed at acquainting and empowering week …” – Greg Combet on his undergraduate And the opposition team would come in, if they those working in non-government organisations in the degree in mining engineering, interviewed July 2002 wanted, and they were all invited.” – Bryan Palmer, Asia–Pacific region. He enthusiastically endorsed the UNSW rugby coach, interviewed October 1982 idea, and introduced me to people without whom the “People from Sydney University always [used to] now well-established Diplomacy Training Program look down on this University. They called it ‘the “One case comes to mind about a resident who could not have become a reality.” – José Ramos- Tech’…” Jill Shaw, former librarian, interviewed came in from Canberra. He was very shy. The Horta, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Co-Laureate and April 1988 tutors were thinking of ways to get him involved former Visiting Professor at UNSW, delivering the Changing the status quo in meeting people and eventually he became the Wallace Wurth Memorial Lecture, August 1997 manager of the football team: he used to wash “… wherever I went, I talked to people about the the guernseys and bring the oranges. He became “UNSW played an important role in all of this injustices that I had encountered everywhere so well liked by the other residents that when [husband Fred Hollows’ nationally acclaimed that I went, and I happened to be on my soap- we won the grand final, he was carried off the work on eye health in Indigenous communities]: box, talking to the Student Co-ordinator over at they gave Fred time away from the field in triumph … These are the sorts of things the Aboriginal Student Centre … And he said to Department of Ophthalmology at the Prince that can happen in college.” - Joseph Martins, me, ‘Why don’t you apply for a job – here?’ and of Wales Hospital which enabled him to former Master of Warrane College, interviewed I said, ‘I haven’t got any tertiary qualifications keep the National Trachoma and Eye November and December 1993 for that.’ And he said, ‘Well you’ve got as much “…they don’t know what caused it [the fire in Health Program on the road.” – Gabi qualifications as anyone.’” –Paul Behrendt, the Main Building, October 1957]. I have a Hollows writing in the Campus First Aboriginal Fellow – interviewed July bit of an idea – one of the chaps who was a Review, November 1995 and November 1989 watchman, I reckon. He was a chap who “A lot of the women in those days didn’t used to fossick and stick his nose into lots work and were stuck at home, I guess, of things … Anyhow, I reckon he was and didn’t have the opportunities. It smoking and just threw the cigarette was very good in that you got to down and the gas was leaking a know them.” – Helga Angyal, bit and I think that’s how she U Committee member blew up.” Harry Reed, on the Wives Group, University Watchman interviewed in – interviewed May July 1989 1980

12 UNIKEN Photo: Patrick Cummins Patrick Photo: in profile Grand designs A prodigious composer has fallen into a job that might have been created just for him. Anabel Dean reports.

e is not a blazing comet but a star that creative practice. He has maintained his output cultural nuances of our times. His celebrated shines brightly. He’s a composer with a of chamber, orchestral, operatic and vocal symphonic cantata, Journey to Horseshoe Bend, Hvivid musical imagination and a highly works, which have been performed, recorded recounts the enduring story of white man’s developed sense of his craft. He is a teller of and broadcast by leading groups and musicians interaction with Indigenous Australians. stories, dramatic works known for their great around the world. His three operas, Black River, Going into beauty and vitality. As the new head of the school, Shultz will Shadows and The Children’s Bach, won So it seems only fitting to ask Professor have a broad portfolio of disciplines to inspire critical acclaim both at home and abroad. Andrew Schultz, new head of the UNSW School him further. “One of the reasons I was so They underscore the composer’s belief in the of English, Media and Performing Arts, what interested in this place is because text is almost power of music and the unique way music composition might reflect his own life. as important to me as music. I absolutely love communicates. “Probably a pretty tedious one,” he jokes. words.” Shultz’s notebooks are filled with sketches, Schultz’s humility belies his faultless career. Schultz works quickly. He has already almost snippets of music and words but if he is stuck He studied at the universities of finished two of the eight chamber works for an for ideas “I just need to go to a film or a play and Pennsylvania, then at King’s College Australia Council fellowship due for completion where the experience of sitting somewhere London, before becoming Head of Composition in 2010, as well as another piece for the Sydney completely immersed, or cut off, seems to and Music Studies at the internationally Philharmonia Choirs later in the year. produce a creative response. renowned Guildhall School of Music & His music attempts to make sense of his “Trying to get into the space where the piece Drama in London. In 2002, he returned to experiences growing up in Australia. He was lives is a very intangible but wonderful thing, Australia with his young family to take up an born in Adelaide in 1960 and his father’s work and when it happens you absolutely know that appointment as Dean of Creative Arts at the as a Lutheran minister took him to towns you’re there.” University of Wollongong. Then, last year, the throughout western New South Wales and Schultz likes to think there will be many opportunity at UNSW presented itself. Victoria. The family settled in Queensland such creative spaces at the school. The “This came out of the blue … It’s freakish when he was about 10 years of age and soon co-existence of high-quality staff and that this position is so close to my interests and, afterwards Schultz began to play the clarinet students working across a diverse group of in a way, a lot of the things I have done until and started composing. disciplines will provide unlimited opportunity now have prepared me for this role.” “By the time I was in Year 12, I was besotted for “something distinctive and unusual” to Schultz’s vocation has continually challenged by it [composing],” he says. be created. him to reconcile the strictures and demands of He has now established a reputation for It will, no doubt, be a spellbinding academia while vigorously pursuing his own work that sensitively defines the political and performance. •

UNIKEN 13 opinion Credit: Harry Afentoglou/Fairfax Images Afentoglou/Fairfax Harry Credit: Savvy and socially conscious: the new entrepreneur Even before the global financial crisis there were ideological rumblings in business schools for a change in the focus of courses. Associate Professor Cheryl Kernot from the Centre for Social Impact argues business needs both brains and heart.

talented entrepreneur never lets a “millionaire by 30” gamblers, another type of Today’s business students crisis go to waste. Take the global business player has been quietly emerging: Afinancial meltdown. As the world’s the “social entrepreneur”. The difference may be the first to expect business educators rake through the financial is in the bottom line. Social entrepreneurs to incorporate social good rubble, there is one especially uncomfortable and enterprises use conventional business question on their minds. If it was a high-risk, models to deliver social or environmental into their careers. short-term “profit extraction” mentality that returns. For some, the sole raison d’etre wrecked the system, where did the business is to meet a specific social need, like the But, while greed may no longer be good, schools go wrong? The Harvard Business Mightylight project dreamed up five years market conditions are about as tough as School has articulated some very public self- ago by Matt Scott, then a student at the they get. With businesses cutting costs and criticism and is currently subjecting itself Stanford Business School. With the help of an margins, is social return a feel-good idea to the same case-study technique it usually Indian partner, his efficient, portable solar- we can’t currently afford? Not if trends from reserves for dissecting the performance powered lights have replaced expensive business schools are anything to go by. A of corporations in crisis. At Massachusetts and dangerous kerosene lamps for tens steadily increasing number of US business Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of of millions of people without access to courses with social-benefit content suggest Management, business students are learning electricity. The lights are sold at a reasonable it is not just money that matters and that the how to weigh the effects of their actions on price, not given away. It’s capitalism, not ideological tide had started to turn before the society, not just investors, and the Stanford charity. The success of social enterprises financial crisis. The Aspen Institute’s Beyond Graduate School of Business is developing since the first tentative steps in the 1980s is Grey Pinstripes study of more than 110 US critical thinking on leadership in small remarkable; micro-finance for the poor, for schools shows a 79 percent increase in groups, not in impersonal lecture halls. example, has attracted 600 million clients. courses relating to social-benefit and social- For one group of creative entrepreneurs The for-profit sector has responded by sectoral management from 2005 to 2007. In this soul-searching represents a new building social and environmental add-ons, February this year, the Bridgespan Group, a opportunity to be heard – and emulated. under the corporate social responsibility global not-for-profit consultancy, surveyed While the global financial crisis has kept (CSR) banner, with many hybrids in 10 top US graduate business schools, all of the spotlight on the world’s fast money, between. which reported social-benefit content and

14 UNIKEN Pulling our welfare weight Contrary to popular perception, Australia has very little middle-class welfare and our social security system is up there with Scandinavian countries in addressing disadvantage, according to Professor Peter Whiteford from the Social Policy Research Centre.

ustralia’s income-support system is a higher share of its benefits to the poor under scrutiny. The Commonwealth – the poorest 20 percent of households AGovernment used social-welfare receives 42 percent of all benefits, while payments as a means of delivering part in the United States the corresponding of the first two stages of its economic- group receives 25 percent of benefits and stimulus package. In the recent Budget, in Japan about 16 percent. it increased age pensions significantly A range of indicators shows this and announced the introduction of paid approach has been extremely successful. maternity leave but also continued to cut For the past 20 years, Australia has had back on so-called “middle-class welfare”. the most progressive benefit system in The review of Australia’s Future Tax the OECD. Australia actually has less system is due to report at the end of this middle-class welfare than any other year and will make recommendations to OECD country. It also has the most reform the benefit and tax systems. efficient system of benefits in inequality In a paper for the Australian Social and poverty reduction of any developed Policy Conference this month, I look country – for each dollar of spending at how Australia’s social security on benefits Australia reduces income compares with other rich countries in the inequality by about 50 percent more than Organisation for Economic Co-operation the United States, Denmark or Norway, and Development (OECD) and assess how twice as much as Korea, roughly two and the Australian tax and benefit systems a half times as much as Japan or Italy, score in effectiveness and efficiency – how and three times as much as France. In much inequality and poverty are reduced addition, Australia has one of the most for each dollar spent. progressive systems of direct taxes of any Australia is very unusual in the way it OECD country and the tax system is also pays for and delivers benefits. In most one of the most “efficient” in reducing identified demand from students as a key driver. other OECD countries social security is inequality of any rich country. Bridgespan forecasts high future demand for financed with earmarked contributions, On some measures Australia business graduates as the not-for-profit sector with benefits usually related to the reduces income inequality by about as moves away from handouts and donation drives past earnings of workers. In contrast, much as countries like Denmark and to innovative business ideas. in Australia, government benefits are Sweden, usually seen as the epitome Australia is on the verge of a similar shift. financed out of general tax revenue; of redistributive welfare states. Even Opportunities will expand rapidly as the benefits are flat-rate and in most cases are though Australia spends less than the UNSW-based Centre for Social Impact (CSI) income-tested or assets-tested. So in most OECD average on benefits, the formula rolls out its suite of “social” business courses European countries, for example, the level for distribution is so progressive that from September. By next academic year, of benefits you receive when you retire or Australia redistributes more in absolute CSI’s Graduate Certificate in Social Impact, if you become unemployed is higher for terms to the poorest 20 percent of the an Australian first, will be offered at UNSW’s higher-income workers than for the lowly population than any other OECD country Australian School of Business, the Melbourne paid. In Australia the reverse tends to be except Denmark. Business School at the University of Melbourne the case. If this summing-up sounds too good to and the Faculty of Business and Enterprise at In Australia we see social security as be true then it may well be that it is. Or the Swinburne University of Technology. being to help those most in need, so that it may be that debates are not pointing The picture that is emerging is in sharp the government acts like Robin Hood and us to the more fundamental issues of contrast to the pre-crisis stereotype of young, “takes from the rich to give to the poor”. disadvantage. A reliable and sustainable rich MBAs writing their own cheques. Today’s In most other countries, people see social benefit system is essential, but the business students may be the first wave of a security as insurance against risks, acting solution probably lies in more effective new generation that expects to incorporate more like a piggy bank that everyone community services that prevent problems social good into their careers. The infusion contributes to and can expect to draw on. from occurring in the first place.• of social content into business curricula, Australia actually pursues both objectives, worldwide, will entrench values-based business but on balance, our system emphasises The Australian Social Policy Conference practices and demonstrate it is possible to wield redistribution more strongly. Australia is organised by UNSW’s Social Policy an MBA to save the world – not just run it. • relies more on income-testing and targets Research Centre

UNIKEN 15 Photo: Patrick Cummins Patrick Photo:

Steer your learning & teaching own course Rapidly changing information technology is giving students more control over their study routines – and outcomes. Louise Williams reports.

here’s really no nice way of saying it. If you are wondering how to engage Temployees in an environment of downsizing, you are worried about how to manage your workforce survivors when you’ve had to retrench a good number of their colleagues and friends. This is one of the post-global-financial- crisis business scenarios under scrutiny at the Australian School of Business (ASB), based on the real-life problems currently keeping managers awake at night. The case-study project is part of a new blended learning model that is using information technology to revolutionise course delivery and student engagement. The AGSM MBA Managerial Skills course is no longer constrained by the conventional one night a week, semester-long classroom format. Instead, students can opt to learn and stay together over two three-day residential blocks, four weeks apart. Some students are local but others fly in from interstate and overseas. In between classes, students network online and have access to just about Wired for sound education: there are many new ways to deliver courses. anything, from their lecturers to blogs and virtual campus “coffee shops”. spending less time in Sydney, could, for business studies with, for example, subjects The student assigned to the “environment example, add one semester to an intensive from other faculties or overseas exchanges. of downsizing” challenge has to draw on summer-school program to achieve a full- This means Gen Ys and Zs accustomed to the literature, come up with an improved time study load for the year. Many courses downloading exactly what they want when management plan and tools to measure its will also be available in fully online formats, they want it, will be able to better customise success, then wrap it all up in a podcast, with virtual consultation with lecturers degrees to fit their personal ambitions, which is video-streamed to five classmates and peers, and online interactive learning interests and timetable preferences. for evaluation and feedback. communities. “In the past, degrees were prescribed. It “It does take a leap of imagination to The flexibility in learning modes will be was pretty much like buying a CD: the limits start teaching this way but technology is matched by greater freedom to tailor the of technology meant everyone got the same enabling us to offer so many new options,” content of degrees: an important pillar of the 15 songs and no more,” says Dean of the ASB says Associate Professor Julie Cogin, Acting new ASB 2015 vision for business education. Professor Alec Cameron. Associate Dean (Education) at the ASB. ASB 2015 aims to equip business graduates “We can’t make a radical move to an iPod Starting with the upcoming summer for uncertain times by building their capacity model of total personal choice but we can school, a wide range of undergraduate and to respond to change and to understand the shift to something in between. We will retain postgraduate ASB courses will be available wider impact of business practices on society, quality core subjects but offer a far wider in intensive, technology-enhanced formats not just share prices and profits. range of options.” for the first time. The explosion of learning While the core academic knowledge Cogin says: “The generational culture possibilities will change the shape of banks for professional disciplines, such as change means students expect instant degrees. Undergraduate students wanting accounting, actuarial services and marketing, gratification, so they need to have constant to travel or work, or international students will remain at the heart of any qualification, options to connect, rather than being isolated wanting to reduce their living costs by there will be more opportunities to enhance between lectures and tutorials.” •

16 UNIKEN Photo: Renee Nowytarger, Newspix Newspix Nowytarger, Renee Photo: community engagement

A tight-knit family ... Volunteers help pack The Smith Family Christmas hampers. Keeping the family together Despite the financial crisis, The Smith Family is surviving due to ongoing support from its donors. As Ann-Maree Moodie reports, that’s due in part to a UNSW project.

s the not-for-profit sector deals with stay loyal to the organisation and to provide the way they engage with the organisation,” the dramatic decrease in donations a sustainable fundraising floor and volunteer says Henry, who is also an Advisory Council Adue to the global financial crisis, The pool,” she says. member of the ASB. Smith Family is in an enviable situation. It The management project, which replaced Variants in the degree of “stickiness” doesn’t have the same cash flow as last year an elective subject and was credited to between different stakeholder groups meant but it is certainly benefiting from stronger the students’ degrees, was conducted that some stakeholders didn’t see The Smith relationships with its donors. under the supervision of ASB marketing Family’s value as unique compared with It’s all been a matter of timing. Last year, academic Scientia Professor John Roberts. similar not-for-profit organisations. The Smith Family identified a weakness in All stakeholder categories were incorporated But the most surprising result was that its business model. It didn’t know why some in the research, with larger groups surveyed the individual donors, primarily people donors stayed with the organisation while who provide educational scholarships for others left. Where was the value proposition “We found that individual disadvantaged children and teenagers to for the organisation, and for its stakeholders? attend school, were the most engaged group Enter five AGSM MBA students from the sponsors needed ... attention of stakeholders, yet they were not receiving Australian School of Business (ASB) who and support, otherwise they the attention that might be expected from accepted an invitation to investigate and to their commitment. model the charity’s stakeholder relationships. would go elsewhere.” “We were very good at maintaining The objective of the project was to improve the relationships with our corporate clients but value exchange between The Smith Family by an email questionnaire. Interviews with we found that individual sponsors needed just and its stakeholders, thus leading to better individual donors and board members were as much attention and support,” Henry says. decision-making and allocation of resources. also conducted. “Otherwise they’d go somewhere else.” The conclusions drawn from the research The researchers concentrated on five Brought in as a change-agent CEO in 1999, surprised all involved. key areas of “satisfaction”: the quality Henry is leading The Smith Family through “We knew that in all our 12 categories of of communication provided by The the second half of a 20-year plan to shift the stakeholders, including individual donors Smith Family; the external perception organisation’s role from one of welfare to one and sponsors as well as large corporates, we of the organisation’s performance; the of education. were not necessarily giving them the level of stakeholders’ level of involvement; their “As a CEO, I was always dealing with attention, or the right kind of attention, that degree of motivation; and whether they different people around the board table, we needed to,” says Elaine Henry, the CEO of felt acknowledged for their work, financial driving the virtues of a particular stakeholder. The Smith Family. support and loyalty. Now the organisation and the board know “We wanted to improve the ‘stickiness’ of “The research found that our stakeholders who are our most important stakeholders and our stakeholders, meaning that we wanted to hold enormous trust in The Smith Family where we should be directing our attention, heighten the reasons for our stakeholders to but they aren’t all necessarily happy with energy and resources,” she says. •

UNIKEN 17 The international language of justice Emeritus Professor Hal Wootten, who was the Foundation Dean of Law at UNSW, spent three months in Palestine last year. He writes that, as a result, links have been made with a law school in the troubled area.

isiting An-Najah University in the West I was struck by the fact that while Centre, Andrea Durbach, to visit Nablus Bank city of Nablus last year, I heard international donors, including Australia, had and discuss the development of his faculty’s Vtalk of a new dean of Palestine’s largest contributed to capacity-building in the judiciary UNESCO Chair of Human Rights law school, who wanted to “open his faculty and legislative drafting, little was being done and Democracy. to the world”. Dr Akram Daoud’s ambition to help law schools produce graduates with the He also sat in on some classes, discussed was brave in a school financed by fees paid by professional skills and values needed. law teaching and postgraduate possibilities students from a poor society and isolated by A major obstacle was the lack of funding for with staff, and explored the manifold issues geographical, security and linguistic factors. Palestinian graduates and teachers to visit and in running a modern law school with Many current law teachers studied when study in Australia. Professor Dixon and the Head of School. the Soviet Union was the main provider of I lobbied the Australian government to Staff have established a working group to scholarships. As the world has developed, it extend AusAID programs to Palestine, stressing consider ways of building the relationship. is English, not Russian or Arabic, that must that the need to support capacity building One possibility is that UNSW students may underpin the changes necessary if Palestine there is a matter on which the international assist potential postgraduate students from is to develop the legal structure of a modern, community is in agreement, and is something Palestine to develop their English by building sovereign, democratic state. Israel is urging it to provide. relationships over the internet. One challenge is the development of an The government was receptive and extended Professor Dixon sees Dr Daoud’s visit in integrated body of law out of the five layers Palestine AusAID’s Australian Leadership the wider international context. “When the history has bequeathed it: Ottoman, British, Award Scheme, which is designed to support international community is focused on a two- Jordanian, Israeli Army and, recently, short-term visits for professional development, state solution for Palestine, it is pleasing that Palestinian. In every field English offers the and it is studying problems in extending the UNSW can contribute a capacity-building best access to modern scholarship and practice. Postgraduate Scholarships Scheme. relationship with the Palestinian law schools Dr Daoud is determined that his graduates Professor Dixon invited Dr Daoud to visit to complement the cooperative relations we will have the opportunity to study in English- UNSW to experience a modern English- have with the highly developed law schools of speaking countries and is keen to develop the speaking law school and discuss avenues for Israel.” burgeoning relationship with Australia. cooperation. Dr Daoud, who studied in France, feels for That relationship started last year, when Dr Daoud showed particular interest in his students. “Because Palestinian students UNSW’s Professor David Dixon, another dean UNSW’s postgraduate programs, its interactive have always lived in Palestine, they have only keen to link his faculty to the world, encouraged teaching methods and the work of its centres, known problems, always conflict. So they need me to visit law schools and explore possible including the Kingsford Legal Centre. He to get another point of view, to know there is contacts during a private trip to the region. invited the Director of the Human Rights something different in the world.” • Photo: Grant Turner, Mediakoo Turner, Grant Photo:

Law links: (l–r) Professor David Dixon with Dr Akram Daoud and Professor Hal Wootten.

18 UNIKEN Photo: Patrick Cummins Patrick Photo: A physical reaction on the couch His YouTube teaching videos contain paint tins, bicycle wheels, Star Wars characters and M&M’s chocolates. Physicist Adam Micolich admits being influenced by Julius Sumner Miller’s egg-in-the-bottle experiment. He spoke to Dan Gaffney.

Physics is a challenging subject that combines experimental Career options? You can do anything. There aren’t a lot of people observations and mathematical descriptions. A lot of physics is about out there whose job title is “physicist” but many people do actually seeing what’s going on. One of the nice things about YouTube is that it have a physics background. I like to tell my students as a bit of allows you to get everyone on the same page in a visual sense. Instead a joke that the physics students actually go out and steal all the of having to wave your hands around, you can actually show students interesting problem-solving jobs that the engineers all think that what you’re talking about. they’re going to get one day. So you’d be surprised where physicists turn up – everywhere from the financial sector through to computing, I think it’s quite important to tie complex concepts back to engineering, construction, automation – all sorts of things. something tangible and real for people. And having that interest factor motivates you to want to learn too – otherwise it’s really easy to Research is an extension of teaching because you have this lose a grip on what’s going on. As a student I understood the concepts a knowledge you’re passing on. You want to push the boundaries of lot better if I had something that motivated me to try to understand why it and naturally take those problems where they go. Often, you only something worked – some puzzle I wanted to understand or something get to teach the very basics of some of these problems and there are interesting that I could try to explain to someone else. natural questions that hang off the end. If you keep following these you eventually end up with questions that no-one knows the answer to As a kid I think there were a lot of influences. As a child of the ’80s – some are useful and some of them are less useful – but, nonetheless, I remember Dr Julius Sumner Miller quite well – getting the egg to they’re interesting. disappear into the bottle. He was definitely a motivation for me and I don’t know that there is an equivalent that exists these days. So part You can get into all sorts of interesting projects if you start of my motivation is to pass [what I know] on to the next generation – I talking to other scientists. In the past we did a project looking think of [young] people, like my niece, not having these role models to at whether Jackson Pollock’s art is fractal [a rough or fragmented get them interested and inspired. geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-sized copy of the whole]. And there you need to understand The M&M’s demonstration [trying to guess the number of some mathematics and you need to understand some art theory – so chocolates in a jar] was inspired by a conference I was at a couple by combining different people’s areas of expertise you can create of years ago. People were looking at how random objects could be more interesting problems than you get from looking at them from packed into geometric [vessels] to improve packing [efficiency]. So one perspective alone. • when I was preparing for this class I thought it would be a really interesting way to take this idea in a slightly different direction and An interview with Adam Micolich can be seen on the Science and get the students thinking. Technology channel of UNSWTV at www.tv.unsw.edu.au.

UNIKEN 19 Photo: Patrick Cummins Patrick Photo: standing 60 and out beyond 60th anniversary

panning the generations at UNSW are Dr Keith Bowling and energy. He now chairs UNSW’s Pioneers’ Group, which brings together Jessica Ngo. They have more in common than might first be graduates of more than 30 years. “It’s been a wonderful privilege to be Sapparent – both are from one of the University’s founding faculties, part of the University, especially during the pioneering phase, but we Engineering, and have their eyes on renewable energy as the way ahead. didn’t realise the significance at the time.” “It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come,” Bowling says. A chemical For Ngo, it was the potential of renewable energy that got her engineer by profession, Bowling started his studies at Sydney Technical hooked. The first-year student in Renewable Energy Engineering and College and did a conversion course through the University of Commerce was inspired by stories about green energy helping those Technology, as it was called then, in 1950. That was the beginning of a in developing countries. “I want to help people in developing countries long association – he completed his PhD at Kensington in the original but I didn’t want to be a doctor. This seemed to be one way to do it,” Nissen huts, taught undergraduates and is still involved almost 60 years says the 18-year-old, who has already helped build a model pulley on. Bowling went on to have a long career in industry and with the powered by solar energy. “It’s such a new and exciting field and I want CSIRO , but for decades he has taken an active interest in renewable to help be a part of that.” •

20 UNIKEN