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Australian Research Council (ARC) Advisory
Council
Biographies of Members
January 2008
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 Geosciences.
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 (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 2-3 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 welfare of human societies.
Dr Elizabeth Jazwinska
Dr Elizabeth Jazwinska is Executive Director of Johnson & Johnson Research Pty Limited (JJR). Her primary responsibilities are to identify and evaluate new business opportunities in the Asia Pacific Region for partnering and licensing into Johnson & Johnson (J&J) global companies. The main focus of partnering is support for the J&J global pharmaceutical sector - this includes partnering and licensing of new chemical entities, chemical libraries and biotechnology platform technologies, research collaborations and outsourcing. In addition, Dr Jazwinska can facilitate links with the medical devices and consumer sectors of J&J to enable companies in the Asia Pacific region to take their products to the global market place.
Prior to joining JJR, Dr Jazwinska held a number of positions in the academic sector and pharmaceutical industry, including Business Development Manager in the Technology Transfer Office of The University of Sydney, Assistant Director in Human Genetics and Pharmacogenetics at SmithKline Beecham in the UK and Senior Research Fellow in Human Genetics at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. During her academic career Dr Jazwinska authored 62 publications in peer-reviewed journals and continues to act as an expert reviewer for international molecular and medical journals and science funding agencies.
Professor Stuart Macintyre
Professor Stuart Macintyre is currently Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, 2007-2008. 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.
Since 1990 Professor Macintyre has been the Ernest Scott Professor of History 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 to 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
Professor John Ralston is Director of The Ian Wark Research Institute and Laureate Professor of Physical Chemistry and Minerals Processing at the University of South Australia. 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 Ian Wark Research Institute in 1994 and, over the past two decades, has actively supervised more than sixty PhD research students. He is the author of over 260 refereed journal articles and textbook chapters, plus numerous conference papers and industry reports, acts as a referee for major international journals and is presently a Council Member of the International Association of Colloid and Interface Scientists (IACIS). Since 1984 Professor Ralston has been awarded over $100M in competitive grant funding from the ARC, the Department of Education, Science and Training and national and international private industry.
During his career Professor Ralston has held invited Professorships in Cape Town, Lulea, Bristol, Utah and Florida and 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 the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo.
Professor Ralston was a leader in the establishment of the Australian Mineral Science Research Institute (AMSRI) which commenced on 1 January 2006. AMSRI is a virtual institute in particle science and engineering headquartered at The Ian Wark Research Institute and involving collaborative research at the Universities of Queensland, Melbourne and Newcastle.
In November 2007, Professor Ralston was named South Australian of the Year, the first scientist to ever receive this award, as well as South Australian Scientist of the Year. He is a member of the Australian Academy of Science Council and is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
Professor Margaret Seares AO
Professor Margaret Seares is Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor at The University of Western Australia (UWA). She holds a PhD in Music, her specialty being keyboard music of the 18th Century. From 1991 to 1995 she was Head of the School of Music and Deputy Chair of the Academic Board at UWA and from 1994 1995 she was a member of the UWA Senate.
In 1995 Professor Seares accepted a two-year secondment to the position of CEO with the Western Australian Department for the Arts (now the Ministry for Culture and the Arts). She was also was a member of the boards of the Western Australian Museum, the Art Gallery of WA, the Perth Theatre Trust and Opera Australia and was a member of the Advisory Board of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
In 1997 Professor Seares was appointed for a four-year term as Chair of the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s Arts Funding and Advisory Agency. She was also a member of the Foreign Minister’s Australia International Cultural Council and a Director of the Australia Business Arts Foundation.
Since completion of her term as Chair of the Australia Council, Professor Seares has been a member of the Board of the Australia-Japan Foundation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Arts Advisory Committee and the ARC Expert Advisory Committee for Humanities and Creative Arts and Chair of the National Collections Advisory Forum.
Professor Seares is currently on the boards of the National Australia Day Council, the National Portrait Gallery, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Scotch College in Perth. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
In 2003 Professor Seares was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of her contribution to the arts and education in Australia.
Professor Arun Sharma
Professor Arun Sharma is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Commercialisation) at the Queensland University of Technology. In this role, he oversees the university’s research and research training programs, commercialisation activities and multidisciplinary research institutes.
Professor Sharma has played a leadership role in the development of Australia’s research capacity in information and communications technology. He participated in the founding of National ICT Australia Limited (NICTA) and was the inaugural Director of its Sydney research laboratory. Prior to the establishment of NICTA, he was Head of the School of Computer Science and Engineering at The University of New South Wales. He participated in the founding of the Cooperative Research Centre for Smart Internet Technology.
Professor Sharma continues to play an important advisory role to a number of organisations. He is a member of the Queensland Premier’s Smart State Council, President of the Australia India Business Council (Qld) Chapter, chair of the international scientific advisory committee for the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design and serves on the advisory committee of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation. He has also served on the ICT Sector Advisory Committee of the CSIRO and on the advisory committee of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems. His current board memberships include QMI Solutions, qutbluebox Pty Ltd, Farmacule Bioindustries Pty Ltd, Gallipoli Research Foundation and the CRC for Integrated Engineering Asset Management.
Professor Sharma was educated in the United States and India. He received a PhD in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo, his postdoctoral training in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his undergraduate degree from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani.
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