Thank you to each and every one of you for continually adjusting our sails, with grace, diligence and humour. I am looking forward to seeing you in our virtual AMD on 16 December (and hopefully in person at our AMD in March) to run through some of the major successes you have contributed to this year. It is noteworthy that our income and new grants to October have already exceeded both our targets and any prior year’s income – a contribution of around one third of the Faculty’s research income and one seventh of the total University research income.
Congratulations to Catherine Bennett for her ongoing contribution to a balanced interpretation of our COVID pandemic, leading to her being named in the top 21 valuable people in Victoria for 2021: her work throughout the pandemic to provide facts without spin was recognised by the Herald Sun and syndicated outlets in a feature that named 21 of Victoria’s most talked about or valuable people in 2021. Among those who ‘touched our lives, set the agenda for our state or had us talking’ in 2021, Catherine was acknowledged for her ability to ‘dumb down’ scientific language and keep people informed when ‘political double speak might have made that otherwise impossible.’
Thanks to the GLOBE team, who worked with our national partners to develop and submit a response to the draft National Obesity Strategy – you can read it here.
We are sad to say goodbye to four members of our Leadership group – thanks to Cathy Mihalopoulos, Marj Moodie, Sharon Brennan-Olsen and Martin Hensher for your excellent contributions over the past years. While your daily presence will be missed, your legacy will live on!
We’re also farewelling our Communications Coordinator, Judy Baulch, who finishes up with the Institute on 17 December. As you may be aware, Judy has been on secondment from the Deakin Research Marketing and Communications (DRMC) team and they require her back to assist with multiple new projects. Judy commenced her role with IHT in March 2019 and has been instrumental in the establishment of our communication strategies and platforms, including the website, podcasts, social media, internal newsletters and Annual Reports. We acknowledge the significant amount of foundational work she has done to establish the IHT brand and she has contributed much to building both our internal and external profile. We wish her well in her return to DRMC and hope that she will have some ongoing involvement with Institute. A new Communications Coordinator is in the process of being appointed and more information will be provided once this is finalised.
A reminder to please fill out our Member Survey if you have not already – it is key to continuing to build an Institute that supports you comprehensively to achieve your research endeavours.
As the end of the year rapidly approaches, I encourage everyone to have a well-deserved break over the holidays. Now that restrictions are relaxed, take the time catch up with family and friends.
Wishing you all a safe and enjoyable festive season.
Welcome to the Institute
A warm welcome to our new members, associate members and honorary appointments for November 2021.
Associate Member
Megan Adam, Associate Research Fellow, GLOBE
PhD students
Darab Mohsen Ghaffari, PhD Student, DHE
Nicole Ward, PhD Student, DHE
