December’s Macquarie Minds Showcase brings together a compelling group of visionaries, researchers and experts to discuss how we can shape a brighter future.  In the lead up to this exciting event, we have been bringing you insights from Macquarie Minds presenters.

Following the key note address by Dr David Skellern AO, Macquarie academics will be appearing in a panel on taking discovery beyond research. We asked our panelists the same question – “When did chance or good fortune lead you to something exciting?” Here is what they said.

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Dr Julian Droogan, Department of Security Studies and Criminology

“I remember when I was asked quite unexpectedly by the US Department of Defence to lead a project compiling a book on emerging transnational security challenges in the Asia Pacific. I met so many fascinating authors and researchers from across our region, I was exposed to many alternative perspectives and points of view, and made a collection of friends that I still keep to this day. This project really directed my interests in the direction of Asia Pacific security, and has influenced my work and life ever since.”

 

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Professor Jennie Hudson, Director, Centre for Emotional Health

“I was on a pathway to be a clinician. Having finished my honours year and having tasted the thrill of research, I just happened to pass Professor Ron Rapee in the corridors of C3A and he suggested I consider doing a PhD. That was the start of a long and successful research collaboration that has led to improved knowledge about children’s emotional health.”

 

 

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Professor Orsola De Marco, ARC Future Fellow, Department of Physics and Astronomy

“After my first post-doc in Switzerland I returned to University College London, my alma mater, to take up a fellowship position. A couple of (rainy) months into the new job, an advert for a research position at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City caught my attention. Despite the fact that I had just started a new and very good position, I mailed the scientist in charge for that job search. They seemed uninterested in me, but suggested that if I ever passed by New York, we should have lunch together. Irked, I bought a ticket and went to New York… to have lunch.

After a little transaction we decided that I could have a year of funding to work at the Museum, something that I readily accepted. On a whim I left the security of a large group at a top university and went solo, to do research in a museum, an unlikely place for an astronomer. I have never put my finger on why exactly I took such a career risk, but curiosity drove me. The wonderful years that followed emboldened my research and made me far more daring in my work than I could ever have been: every good astro-thought that I had since, I owe to that crazy move.”

 

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Professor Mike Heimlich, Associate Dean, International and Corporate Engagement, Faculty of Science and Engineering

“By ‘chance’, I was in my third year of my Bachelor of Engineering and I was failing a required course in probability and statistics for my computer engineering major. My dreams of one day designing computer chips for Intel seemed shattered. My academic advisor suggested that I move to microwave (now wireless) engineering as my academic strengths would make this an easier major for me. Well, I somewhat reluctantly did what he said and found that he was in fact right.  Fast forward 30 years and my career in wireless engineering enabled me to be on a three-year research collaboration with Intel, helping define requirements for a brand new generation of chips!  Oh, the irony of it all…….”

 

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Professor Catharine Lumby, Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies

“I was sitting in my office in 2010 when a Professor of chemical engineering knocked on my door and said ‘I saw you on TV last night. I want to change public attitudes to water recycling. You know about public communication – want to work with me?’. I did. We brought in a $3 million grant which saw scientists and humanities scholars collaborate to change the face of science communication in Australia.”

 

 

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Associate Professor Sean Turnell, Department of Economics

“Rather than be inspired by chance, my research came about as part of a conscious effort to use the insights of economics to bring about an end to decades of economic mismanagement and human rights abuses in Burma. This led to a decade of policy work on economic reform in Burma, culminating in my appointment in 2016 as economic adviser to the country’s new democratic government, led by 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi.”

 

 

 

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Time is running out! Register now for the key note address by Dr David Skellern AO, the panel discussion on taking discovery beyond research and other exciting events during the Macquarie Minds Showcase.