Tim Besley, 78
Chairman of the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Wheat Export Authority, the CRC on Greenhouse Gas Technology and Centec Ltd, based in Sydney

Civil engineer Tim Besley, a graduate of the University of New Zealand, has had a long and distinguished career ranging from 17 years on the Snowy Mountains Scheme to chairmanship of the Commonwealth Bank from 1988 until 1999, a period which included its transition to a publicly listed company, and the Leighton Holdings Board (from 1990 to 2001). He also served as Chancellor of Macquarie University from 1994 until 2001.
As to his position on the ARC, he believes the council will continue to fund research on a competitive basis. The ARC is responsible for about 10% of publicly funded research expenditure and collaborates closely with other research funding organisations.
Outside of work one of his main interests is golf. “It provides me with a challenge, involving both concentration and relaxation,”
he said.

Geoff Garrett, 57
Chief Executive Officer of CSIRO, Canberra

With a PhD in metallurgy from Cambridge University in the UK, Dr Geoff Garrett had an academic career at universities in South Africa before joining South Africa’s national science agency CSIR. He subsequently became executive vice-president of operations at CSIR, a role which required oversight of research divisions, including aeronautics and manufacturing systems, information technology, transport, forestry, food technology and mining. He also managed CSIR’s marketing, business development and commercialisation areas.
He came to Australia to head CSIRO in 2001 with a blueprint for change to make the Australian national research organisation more commercially focused. To this end Garrett and his executive developed flagship enterprises, with 15 to 20 year plans, in six areas – preventative health, light metals, food production, energy, water and marine research.
Apart from family, his main outside interests are tennis and fishing.

Graham Goodwin, 60
Research Director of the Centre for Complex Dynamic Systems and Control; Professor of electrical engineering at Newcastle University

Professor Graham Goodwin is an internationally acclaimed authority on control and signal processing systems. He has written more than 160 international journal papers, more than three dozen plenary addresses, refereed more than 220 conference papers, written more than 100 technical reports to industry and holds five patents to his name.
Goodwin is also one of a handful of Australian engineers on the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) Highly Cited list with between 100 and 150 citations a year for the past decade.
In January 2002 he was a recipient of a federal government Federation Fellowship, which has enabled him to devote his energies to his research work.
He holds a PhD and a University Medal from the University of NSW.

Paul Greenfield, 58
Acting Vice-Chancellor at the University of Queensland, Brisbane

Chemical engineer Professor Paul Green-field is the acting vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland, which has about 34,700 students including 2700 engineering students. He is a director of UQ’s IMBcom and UniQuest, as well as National ICT Australia and the International Riverfoundation. His chairmanships include the Scientific Advisory Group of the Moreton Bay and Waterways Partnership; the Waste Technical Working Group, Basel Convention; and the Advisory Committee of IP Australia.
In the past year Greenfield helped establish Symbiosis, a $5.5 million venture fund for early stage bioprojects. He has also been involved in a major capital expansion at UQ, and identifying and implementing new funding models for capital works.
His hobbies include photography, and viewing and collecting art.

Peter Lee, 50
Executive Dean, Engineering, Science and Computing, Curtin University of Technology, Perth

At Curtin, Professor Peter Lee has introduced substantial curriculum reform and improved the university’s research performance. Curtin has about 3000 engineering students.
Before joining Curtin, Lee was the principal of the Rockingham campus and foundation professor of engineering at Murdoch University. As dean of engineering at Murdoch he established new engineering programs in instrumentation and control engineering, engineering chemistry, renewable energy engineering and software engineering.
Lee holds a chemical engineering degree from RMIT and a PhD from Monash University.
He enjoys golf in his spare time.

Peter Gray, 59
Director of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Brisbane, Professor of bioengineering at the University of Queensland and Professor of biotechnology at the University of NSW

Professor Peter Gray is the inaugural director of the prestigious Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, located at the University of Queensland. He came to bioengineering from a background in chemical engineering. He is a graduate of Sydney University and holds a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of NSW.
In the past two decades he has had a big impact on bioengineering, both from his academic postings and from his research into recombinant-DNA-derived proteins. This research led to the establishment of Actye Biotechnology.
Gray was also a founder and past president of Ausbiotech, the Australian Biotechnology Association.

Archie Johnston, 53
Dean of Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney

Professor Archie Johnston is the dean of one of the top 100 engineering faculties in the world, ranked by the London Times in 2004. In the past year, he has worked to continually improve UTS’ Faculty of Engineering reputation as a quality provider of engineering education, locally and abroad. UTS currently has 3200 engineering students.
Earlier this year Johnston became president of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans, which promotes and advances engineering education, research and scholarships on behalf of Australian universities.
“In the current uncertain environments in universities, the championing of engineering is tough, particularly where the demand from students is varied and patchy,” he said.
“The international collaboration between universities and industry needs further development. This will be a focus for me in the next year.”
As a parent of five young children, Johnston participates in a range of community activities that include being a member of the St Phillips Anglican Church Turramurra, a soccer coach with the Kissing Point Soccer club, secretary of the 2nd Turramurra cub pack, and a member of the Turramurra Public School Parents and Teachers Committee.

David Klingberg, 61
Chancellor of the University of South Australia, Adelaide

Civil engineer David Klingberg is the chancellor of the University of South Australia, which has about 1800 engineering students.
He is also chair of Barossa Infrastructure Limited and the Mawson Lakes Joint Venture, a board member of Workcover Corporation, and a director of Snowy Hydro. He is a former managing director of Kinhill, which he helped develop over 30 years from a small Adelaide-based civil consulting engineering business into one of the largest Australian national and international engineering consultancies.
In 2003, Klingberg was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to the community of South Australia, particularly through contributions to the tertiary education sector, and through engineering projects designed to improve infrastructure and services.
Klingberg is the chairman of the University Chancellors Conference and the St Andrews Hospital Building Committee. His goals for the future include continuing to assist the University of South Australia grow and prosper.
Outside work he plans a “leisurely trip around Australia and at least one overseas trip per year”, and is renovating an Adelaide City townhouse.

Gregory Hancock, 57
Dean of Engineering at the University of Sydney

Professor Gregory Hancock is dean of engineering at the University of Sydney, a faculty with 3000 students, of which 600 are female, 600 international and 600 postgraduate. It also has 300 staff, including 60 tenured academics. In the past year Hancock has managed the implementation of new Flexible First Year Programs, as well as Engineers Australia’s accreditation of the faculty.
He also balances his dean position with being the Bluescope Steel Professor of Steel Structures. Within this role, Hancock delivered keynote papers at the International Conference on Thin-Walled Structures in Loughborough, UK, in June 2004; the International Workshop on Cold-Formed Metal Structures in Hong Kong last December; and the International Symposium on Steel Structures in Seoul, Korea, in March this year.
Hancock plans to continue working on getting the four schools/departments of the faculty to collaborate more closely in areas such as materials, biotechnology and control. He also wants to improve industry links with the faculty.
In his spare time, he likes to keep fit enough to compete in ocean swims each summer.

Peter North, 71
Chairman of the Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering, Sydney, Director of bionic ear developer Cochlear, Chairman of Cochlear’s Technology and Innovation Committee, and Chairman of Streeton Consulting

Peter North was one of the founders of the Warren Centre at Sydney University – one of Australia’s most influential engineering think tanks.
The Warren Centre now has assets of about $4 million and an annual cash turnover of about $0.5 million, plus “in-kind” turnover usually several times that amount.
North was a member of the Ford Canada/US team that developed the 1963 North American Automotive Free Trade Agreement (still operating successfully); a leader in developing the 1966 XR Falcon and the original Australian Fairmont and Fairlane (still basic to Ford Australia’s product line); and a leader of the venture which developed wine company Mildara Blass Ltd (1978 onwards).
He holds a bachelor of engineering degree (mechanical engineering) from the University of Sydney (1958), and a master in business administration from Harvard University (1960).
Activities in his spare time include sailing, snow skiing, fly fishing, and supporting the introduction of the International Cadet dinghy class to NSW.

Tamarapu Sridhar, 55
Dean of Engineering and Sir John Monash Distinguished Prof-essor at Monash University, Melbourne

As well as being dean of one of the largest engineering faculties in Australia with about 4000 students, Professor Tam Sridhar is chair of the Institution of Chemical Engineers in Australia, and vice-president of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK).
His overseas honours include the appointment as the Shell senior distinguished professor of chemical engineering at Cambridge University and receiving the G P Kane Award by the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers.
He is one of three distinguished professors at Monash and the only one in engineering or science and is one of the very few engineers elected to both the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of
Engineering.
The London Times recently ranked Monash as Australia’s top engineering school.
He holds a BTech from Madras University and an ME from the Indian Institute of
Science. He was awarded a PhD from Monash.
In his spare time he enjoys golf and
reading.

Jannie van Deventer, 50
Dean of Engineering at the University of Melbourne, board member of the CRC for Sensor Signal and Information Processing and of the CRC for Spatial Information

Professor Jannie van Deventer has been dean of engineering at Melbourne University since 2003. About 4500 students are enrolled in the faculty.
Van Deventer’s research has been in the development of geopolymer technology – which converts waste to useful materials – from laboratory experiments to selected large scale commercial applications.
He said some of the challenges of the job are overcoming resistance to organisational change, persuading mature industries to adopt new technology, and improving the understanding of what it takes to commercialise new technology.
He holds an honours degree in chemical engineering from Stellenbosch University, South Africa, two business economics degrees and a PhD in minerals engineering also from Stellenbosch.
In his spare time he enjoys regular exercise and reading on politics, economics, philosophy and the cultural history of civilisations.

Mark Wainwright, 61
Vice-Chancellor, University of NSW, Sydney

Professor Mark Wainwright is now the vice-chancellor of the University after having already acted in that role for some time.
He sees as one of the main challenges for his and other universities “the failure of government to provide adequate funding”.
In his role as dean of the Faculty of Engineering between 1991 and 2001 he introduced a number of innovative programs and undertook a major restructuring of the engineering schools.
Wainwright holds an honours degree in applied chemistry and a master of applied science in chemical engineering from the University of Adelaide, and a PhD in chemical engineering from McMaster University in Canada.
He enjoys playing golf, but his job “has left little opportunity to pursue that activity”.

Dale Murphy, 50
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Higher Education Division, Swinburne University of Technology

During the past year Professor Dale Murphy has been involved in the implementation of significant organsiational change across the university.
He said tackling the challenges to higher education posed by the federal government has been a significant aspect of his job.
Among his other important activities is the development of major linkages with Chinese universities.
Murphy has a bachelor of engineering in electrical engineering from Monash University and a doctor of philosophy (DPhil) in biomedical engineering from the University of Oxford.
He enjoys travelling.

Brendon Parker, 61
Dean of Engineering at the University of NSW, Sydney, and Chair of the GO8 Engineering Deans

Professor Brendon Parker is dean of the largest engineering faculty in Australia, with some 7400 students. He is responsible for the planning of engineering science and health programs at unsw Asia which will take its first students in January 2007.
Parker has been at the University of NSW since January 2002, after six years as dean of engineering at the University of Wollongong.
One of his main achievements there was the implementation of a more problem-solving-based curriculum at Wollongong. He is trying to achieve the same at the University of NSW.
He is encouraging research in the newer areas of renewable energy and biomedical engineering.
Parker said he enjoys leading change in engineering education, and is most satisfied when he sees success in his former students.
In his spare time he enjoys sailing and bushwalking.

Engineers Australia Magazine, Volume 77 No 6, June 2005.

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