Delivered by Professor Mike Calford; Provost, University of Tasmania.
Professor Mike Calford has extensive experience at senior executive level with the universities of Newcastle and Wollongong. This followed a successful career as a researcher in neuroscience and as a leading academic principally at the Australian National University, The University of Queensland and the University of Newcastle after postdoctoral periods at City University of New York and Oxford. His PhD is from Monash in Physiology.
Most recently Mike was Executive Director of the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute. This reflected his passionate interest in the value of combined health service and university entities and his contribution as a Board member of The Hunter Medical Research Institute, NeuRA (formerly the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute) and the CRC for Asthma and Airways.
As Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research at Newcastle, Mike succeeded in expanding the institution’s research endeavour, forming the Newcastle Institute of Energy Resources (NIER) in partnership with private and public enterprises. At the same time, working with the faculties to increase research quality of existing groups, he helped achieve an outcome of 18 fields of research being rated in the top category in ERA 2012 (equal 7th rank in the country).
Mike’s interest in academic leadership was sparked by a stint as Chair of the Animal Welfare Committee of the NHMRC, which sets standards and oversees the operation of all animal care and ethics committees. He went on to lead a large biomedical school (including pharmacy) and then, as Pro Vice-Chancellor, to head the Faculty of Health and Medicine at Newcastle. There he learned the value of working closely with community groups and hospitals to deliver professional training across a very broad region including the rapidly expanding cities of Gosford and Wyong (Medicine, Nursing, Midwifery, Oral Health and Podiatry) and the regional centres of Orange (NSW Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health), Tamworth and Taree (Rural Clinical Schools and Departments of Rural Health) and Port Macquarie (Nursing).
Mike is a strong advocate for and has enjoyed extensive experience in the provision of Australia-based higher education to Asia – with both overseas campus and onshore activities.
His research centred on the plastic nature of the brain to achieve self-repair or compensation after trauma or stroke and, while his personal contribution in the laboratory has been curtailed, he continues to publish and work with colleagues. He intends to contribute to projects led by long-term colleagues at the Menzies Research Institute.
The Arthur Cobbold Memorial Lecture has been established by the University of Tasmania and Dr Elizabeth Cobbold as a memorial to Arthur’s contribution to the School of Medicine, and to medical education.
RSVP / Contact Information: E. UTAS.Events@utas.edu.au; T. 6226 2521