ARC Advisory Committee

The ARC Advisory Committee was established on 31 March 2022 as a designated Committee under the Australian Research Council Act 2001. The Committee and independent Chair are appointed by the Minister representing Education for up to three years. Members have broad expertise across research, industry, and governance. In supporting the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Committee will help guide the strategic direction of the ARC to ensure its programs achieve value and impact for Australia.

The Committee supports the CEO in setting the ARC’s strategic agenda to deliver on the three broad objectives:

• to grow knowledge and innovation for the benefit of the Australian community by funding the highest quality research
• assessing the quality, engagement, and impact of research
• providing advice on research matters.

Members

[TOC] 

Senior representatives from the Department of Education and the Department of Industry, Science and Resources also serve as ex-officio members. The current representatives are:

• Mr Ben Rimmer, Deputy Secretary, Department of Education
• Ms Helen Wilson Deputy Secretary, Department of Industry, Science and Resources

Professor Chris Moran FTSE (Chair) – Vice-Chancellor and CEO, University of New England

Professor Moran was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor and CEO of UNE in August 2023. Prior to this he served as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research at Curtin University from 2016, and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering in 2018. From 2007-2016 Professor Moran was Director of the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland (UQ). He was Founding Director of the Centre for Coal Seam Gas (UQ) and the Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry (UQ). Across a 16-year career with CSIRO, Professor Moran held a range of leadership roles, including heading the team that developed the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship Program.

He holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Sciences (with Honours) and a PhD from the University of Sydney and has a strong international and national reputation in soil science, natural resources and water management.

Professor Calum Drummond AO – Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation and Vice-President, RMIT University

Professor Drummond has been the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation at RMIT University since 2014. In this role he takes leadership in the development of discovery and practice-based research and in building and enhancing capability in research and innovation across the University. Professor Drummond has a strong interest and passion for the commercialisation of research, having joined RMIT University from CSIRO where he was Group Executive for Manufacturing, Materials and Minerals. He was seconded from CSIRO to be the inaugural Vice President Research at CAP-XX, an Intel portfolio company. CAP-XX develops supercapacitors for consumer electronic products. In 2006, CAP-XX listed on the London AIM.

Professor Drummond held an ARC Federation Fellowship hosted by CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies from 2004-2010.

 

 

Professor Deborah Terry AO – Vice-Chancellor and President, The University of Queensland

Professor Deborah Terry AO is a highly experienced leader in the Australian university sector and an internationally recognised scholar in psychology.  Since August 2020, Professor Terry has served as Vice-Chancellor and President of The University of Queensland (UQ). Prior to this, she was Vice-Chancellor of Curtin University in Western Australia, from 2014 to 2020. Between 1990 and 2014, Professor Terry has held a range of academic positions at UQ before moving into senior university leadership roles and becoming Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

Professor Terry is a Fellow and past President of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and currently serves on the Board of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNET) and the National Schools Resourcing Board. She is also a former Chair of the Board of Universities Australia and a member of the Universitas 21 Executive Committee.

Professor Terry was made an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2015.

 

Distinguished Professor Maggie Walter – Professor of Sociology and Commissioner, Yoorrook Justice Commission, Victoria

Professor Maggie Walter is a Palawa, a member of the larger Briggs Tasmanian Aboriginal family. She is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Tasmania and was the inaugural Pro Vice Chancellor Aboriginal Research and Leadership at the University (2015-2020). Professor Walter’s research develops alternative empirical evidence and theoretical explanations of the embedded inequity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. She is a national and international leader in the Indigenous data sovereignty movement.

Professor Walter has a long pre-academic career in the public service, working in the Department of Social Security and other Federal Government Departments from 1980 until 1999. Professor Walter was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (Sociology) from the University of Tasmania in 2003 and joined the University of Tasmania as an academic in 2002, first in Aboriginal Studies, and then in 2004 moved to the School of Social Sciences. In May 2021, Professor Walter was appointed a Commissioner with the Yoorrook Justice Commission in Victoria.

 

Professor Mark Hutchinson – Director ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, University of Adelaide

Professor Hutchinson is a Professor within the Adelaide Medical School, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP), and an ARC Future Fellow. The CNBP is receiving $42 million of funding over seven years. It has its headquarters at The University of Adelaide, with nodes at a number of other universities. It is partnered with universities and companies in Europe, the US and China, as well as other Australian institutions. 

From 2005 to 2009, Professor Hutchinson worked in the world leading laboratory of Professor Linda Watkins in the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Professor Hutchinson returned to the University of Adelaide in 2009 as a National Health and Medical Research Council CJ Martin Research Fellow and established the Neuroimmunopharmacology research laboratory.

From 2021, Professor Hutchinson has been the President of Science and Technology Australia.

 

Mr Mark McKenzie – Director, Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA)

Mr McKenzie is the CEO of the Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association (ACAPMA) and holds formal qualifications in Civil Engineering (BEng) and Business (MBA). He has held a variety of public and private sector roles over the last 30 years. Recent past roles have included:

• a senior professional position within the ACT Public Service (1990-1994)
• several senior management positions within the NRMA Group of Companies (1995-2001)
• a senior management position within Abbott Tout Lawyers (2002-2004)
• founding and leadership of a national consulting business (2005-2012)
• senior commercial role with the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (2013- 2015).

He was elected to the COSBOA Board in November 2015 and was Chair of the Board between October 2017 and July 2021.

Professor Michelle Simmons AO – Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, University of New South Wales

Professor Simmons AO is Director of the Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology and an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow. She has pioneered unique technologies internationally to build electronic devices in silicon at the atomic scale, including the world's smallest transistor, the narrowest conducting wires, 3D atomic electronics and the first two qubit gate using atom-based qubits in silicon.

As founder of Silicon Quantum Computing Pty Ltd, her team is at the forefront of developing a silicon-based quantum computer. Professor Simmons has twice received an Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship, and now a Laureate Fellowship. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the American Academy of Arts and Science, the American Association of the Advancement of Science, the UK Institute of Physics, the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and the Australian Academy of Science.

In 2018 Professor Simmons was named Australian of the Year.

Dr Mirjana Prica – Managing Director, Food Innovation Australia Ltd

Dr Mirjana Prica is Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL) Managing Director. She is an enthusiastic visionary who focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation to deliver commercial value. Dr Prica sits on boards and advisory groups of clusters, cooperative research centres, universities, research and industry organisations and businesses, where she leverages her 30 years of research and commercial experience in food, agribusiness, advanced materials and minerals. FIAL is a national and industry-led organisation, established by the Australian Government to drive innovation and business growth for the approximately 180,000 firms in the food and agribusiness sector.

 

Professor Susan Dodds, FAHA – Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Industry Engagement) and Vice-President, La Trobe University.

Professor Susan Dodds, FAHA has been the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Industry Engagement) and Vice-President at La Trobe University since 2019. She is a philosopher and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Humanities in 2021. Professor Dodds previously served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Tasmania. She is an active researcher and was the leader of the ethics, policy and public engagement theme of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) 2014-2021. 

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Political Science from the University of Toronto and a PhD from La Trobe University and has served on national committees, including the NHMRC Australian Health Ethics Committee (2012-2015).