Announcement from Professor Jennifer L Martin AC, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation)
After seven years as the Executive Director of UOW’s Global Challenges Program (GCP), Senior Professor Chris Gibson has taken the decision to return to his substantive role as Senior Professor in UOW’s School of Geography and Sustainable Communities.
This move for Chris marks the culmination of a string of achievements at the helm of the GCP. The first of its type in Australia, and one of the first globally, the GCP since 2013, has supported over 500 researchers from all corners of UOW. Those researchers have collaborated on 126 projects that have cumulatively won $42 million in external funding from diverse sources. Most recently, the GCP has supported teams coming together in response to the drought and bushfire disasters, and this year the GCP secured philanthropic funding for the establishment of the Olivier Ferrer Fund. Beyond numerical measures, the GCP has established itself as a pillar of the university contributing to building capacity, ECR leadership development, gender equity and diversity, UOW’s embrace of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and an open and collaborative research culture, transcending boundaries.
Chris has been an inspirational leader who has grown the GCP from the grain of an idea, to become a key aspect of UOW’s Research and Innovation Strategy. Chris will leave the GCP with an enviable reputation for bringing researchers and the community together and supporting them to generate powerful outcomes, with social good and sustainability at the core of these outcomes.
Please note that Chris will continue in the role until the completion of interviews for the 2020 round of Seed and Project grants, before taking a short period of leave and then resuming in the School of Geography and Sustainable Communities on July 20.
Further communication will follow in due course regarding the GCP Executive Director position.
Please join me in thanking Chris for his outstanding contribution to the Global Challenges Program and to also wish him well in this next stage of his career.
Professor Jennifer L Martin AC
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation)