Director assumes leadership of national peak body
The Director of the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL) at Charles Darwin University has been elected president of Australia’s peak tertiary environmental sciences council.
Professor Andrew Campbell said he was honoured to become President of the Australian Council of Environmental Deans and Directors (ACEDD), whose members include heads of environment schools, faculties and institutes from 30 Australian universities.
Professor Campbell said the ACEDD performed a valuable function in sharing information about environmental science teaching and research across the university sector.
Its current projects include work to better articulate the requirements of professional environmental scientists and to explore future demand for environmental scientists resulting from the emerging ‘green economy’.
Professor Campbell’s tenure as President commenced at the recent meeting of the ACEDD in Canberra, hosted by the Australian National University (ANU). Meeting highlights included a detailed briefing on current environmental policy challenges by the Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of the Environment Dr Gordon de Brouwer, and a dinner address by Nobel Prize winner and ANU Vice-Chancellor designate Professor Brian Schmidt.
Managing Director of Australian Ethical Mr Phil Vernon gave a briefing on the ethical investment (and divestment) market, and an update on the Australian Research Council was given by its Executive Director of Physical Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics and Information Sciences, Professor Clive Baldock.
The next Council meeting will be hosted by CDU in Darwin in May, 2016.
“Members are interested to get out into the field to experience the extraordinary Top End ecosystems first-hand,” Professor Campbell said.
“They are also interested in learning more about the pressures and opportunities arising from the Northern development agenda, and from current research and teaching initiatives at CDU.”
He said ACEDD members were particularly interested in RIEL research on the collapse of small mammal populations in northern Australia, Indigenous ranger programs, pest and weed management issues, savanna fire management and carbon emissions abatement.