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Advisory Council
Biographies of Members
Professor Margaret Sheil
Professor Sheil took up the position of ARC Chief Executive Officer on 17 August 2007.
Before joining the ARC, Professor Sheil held the post of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Wollongong (UOW) for five years, where she was responsible for the whole spectrum of research and development, including commercialisation.
While at UOW, Professor Sheil attracted more than $5 million in external research funding, a large portion of which was awarded to the university from ARC-administered schemes under the Australian Government's National Competitive Grants Program. She has had a long association with the ARC as a member of the Expert Advisory Committee for Physics, Chemistry and Geology (now Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences).
Professor Sheil's research interests encompass the study of biomolecular interactions and applications of mass spectrometry to biological problems. She is a former President of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Mass Spectrometry and Australian representative to the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation.
Professor Sheil is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and was a member of the Research Quality Framework Reference Committee.
Previous positions held by Professor Sheil include Dean of Science at UOW (2001-02); Lecturer/Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at UOW (1990-1999); Research Fellow in the Research School of Chemistry at The Australian National University (1989-1990); and Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Utah, USA (1988-89).
She is a former director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Smart Internet Technology Pty Ltd and several technology start-up companies, and was Chair of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee Deputy/Pro Vice-Chancellors' (Research) Group in 2006.
Professor Sheil holds a B.Sc. (Hons) and a PhD in chemistry from The University of New South Wales. She has 85 publications in international journals and was an Editor of Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry from 2006-07.
Professor Terry Hughes
Professor Terry Hughes is an ARC Federation Fellow (2002-2007, 2007-2012) and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University (since 2005). Professor Hughes was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2001, and was a member of the Expert Advisory Committee for Australian National Research Priorities in 2002. He is a Fellow and Board Member of the Beijer International Institute for Ecological Economics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, Stockholm, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Resilience Alliance. He has been awarded numerous prizes awards, including the Centenary Medal of Australia, the Silver Jubilee Award for Excellence of the Australian Marine Science Association in 2004, the 2007 Sherman Eureka Prize for Environmental Research, and the 2008 quadrennial Darwin Medal of the International Society for Coral Reef Studies.
According to ISI Science Citation Index, Professor Hughes is ranked number one globally for citations to individual researchers in coral reef science. He has published 18 papers in Science and Nature. In the past 3 years, his research has increasingly evolved in a new direction, moving from an ecological focus to a broader evaluation of the linkages between coral reef ecosystems, the goods and services they provide to people, and the adaptive governance of natural resources for human development.Professor Stuart Macintyre
Professor Macintyre has been the Ernest Scott Professor of History at The University of Melbourne since 1990. He was educated in Melbourne and undertook doctoral studies in history at Cambridge University. He has held appointments at Cambridge University, Murdoch University, The Australian National University and The University of Melbourne.
Professor Stuart Macintyre was the Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, 2007-2008 and, in 2002, was made a Laureate Professor of The University of Melbourne. He was Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1999 to 2006.
From 1996 to 1998 Professor Macintyre was President of the Australian Historical Association and from 2002-2004 he chaired the ARC Expert Advisory Committee for Humanities and Creative Arts.
Professor Macintyre has served terms on the councils of the National Library of Australia and the State Library of Victoria. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and is currently President of the Academy of the Social Sciences.Professor John Ralston AO
Professor John Ralston is the founding Director and Professor of Physical Chemistry and Minerals Processing at the Ian Wark Research Institute, the ARC Special Research Centre for Particle and Material Interfaces. He is a Physical and Colloid Chemist with complementary training in metallurgy. His research interests embrace various aspects of interfacial science and engineering. He was the driving force behind the establishment of The Wark in 1994. He has actively supervised more than seventy PhD research students over the past several decades. These students have established successful national and international careers in universities, industry and other research institutions, including at Professorial level.
Professor Ralston is the author of over 300 refereed journal articles and textbook chapters, plus numerous conference papers and industry reports, and acts as referee for major international journals. He was President of the Physical and Biophysical Chemistry Division of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) from 2002 to 2004 and is presently a Council member of IACIS. He was awarded a Senior Fulbright Fellowship in 1986, the R.K. Murphy Medal in Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering by the RACI in 1995, the RSC Australasian Lectureship in Chemistry in 1997 and an Australian Federal Government Centenary Medal in 2003. He received the Chemeca Medal, Australia’s highest award in Chemical Engineering, in 2006. He has held invited Professorships in Cape Town, Lulea, Bristol, Utah and Florida. Professor Ralston holds an Honorary Doctorate from the Abo Akademi in Finland, as well as Honorary Professorships in Materials Science and Engineering at Tianjin University in China and in the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. In 2008 he was appointed to the ARC Advisory Council.
Professor Ralston was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1993, as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2005 and to the Council of the Academy of Science in 2006. He was the AE Alexander Memorial Lecturer for the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division for 2005 and is regularly invited to give Plenary and Invited Lectures overseas e.g. on eight occasions in 2007-2008. In 2006, the 3rd Annual Australian Mining Prospect presented him with two awards: Most Outstanding Contribution to Mining in 2006 (Inaugural Award) and Finalist: Highly Commended – Minerals Processing Plant of the Year for services to the mining industry. He received the South Australian Premier’s Award for Science Leadership in 2006 and was the South Australian Scientist of the Year in 2007. Importantly he was also South Australian of the Year for 2007, the first scientist to be so acknowledged. Professor Ralston was recognized as an Officer of the Order of Australia in June 2008.
Professor Emeritus David Siddle
Professor David Siddle is Affiliate Researcher with the Emotion, Learning and Psychophysiology Laboratory, The University of Queensland. In August 2009 Professor Siddle retired from the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at The University of Queensland. He was honoured with the title of Professor Emeritus by The University of Queensland Senate in September.
Previously Professor Siddle was Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) at The University of Sydney 1997–2001 and Dean, Postgraduate Studies at the University of Queensland 1993–97. He was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) at The University of Queensland in 2001, shortly before the Senate approved a title change to Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).
He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
Professor Siddle's research interests are in associative learning with a particular focus on orienting, habituation and Pavlovian conditioning.
Professor Robyn Owens
Professor Owens is Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Western Australia.
Professor Owens obtained a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics at UWA in 1974 before completing an MSc (1976) and a DPhil (1980), also in Mathematics, at Oxford University. She spent three years in Paris at l'Université de Paris-Sud, Orsay, continuing research in mathematical analysis before returning to UWA to work as a research mathematician.
Professor Owens has lectured in Mathematics and Computer Science at UWA, as well as for short periods at Berkeley, The University of Canterbury in Christchurch, and Prince Songkla University in Thailand. Her research has focussed on computer vision, including feature detection in images, 3D shape measurement, image understanding, and representation. She is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society and a recipient of the UK Rank Prize.
Professor Owens was the Head of the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering from 1998-2002 and subsequently Pro Vice- Chancellor (Research and Research Training) until late 2009. She has championed the position of research students within the University, developed support and training for early career researchers, and worked with the University Executive on all aspects relating to benchmarking, metrics and quality in research.Ms Robyn Baker
Ms Baker is a Partner in the Corporate Practice Group of the Melbourne office of Clayton Utz.
Ms Baker has a background in life sciences and commercial law including as a Ministerial Adviser to a State Health Minister. Ms Baker’s practice focuses on the health, aged care, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and biotechnology sectors. Ms Baker’s experience includes advising on commercialisation, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory compliance, infrastructure and an extensive range of commercial agreements.
Ms Baker has held positions as a member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts and various life sciences related Boards. She was given the highest commendation for Australian Life Sciences Regulatory Lawyers in an independent review of law firms by Practical Law Company for consecutive years 2003-2008.
Ms Baker is on the Board of the BioMelbourne Network. She has also been a director of Metabolic Pharmaceuticals Ltd (an ASX listed company) and on the Salvation Army Aged Care Advisory Board (Southern Territory) and the Inner South Community Health Service Board.