Hats off to new Flinders fellows

Professor Craig Simmons has been elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
Professor Craig Simmons has been elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

Two Flinders University affiliates have been inducted as Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).

Announced today (Tuesday, October 21), the 2014 Fellows include Professor Craig Simmons, Director of the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training at Flinders, and Mr Barry Murphy, Chair of the Flinders Centre for Marine Bioproducts Development Advisory Board.

Professor Simmons and Mr Murphy join a further 23 ATSE Fellows this year, including key business names, leading academics, prominent commercial innovators, professional and business leaders and high-ranking public sector figures.

In electing the Fellows, Professor Simmons was recognised for his major national and international contributions to groundwater science, education and policy reform.

Professor Simmons, who was cited by ATSE as one of Australia’s foremost groundwater academics and a significant contributor to global advances in the science of hydrogeology, said his election to the Academy is a “tremendous honour”.

“Water is a major national and international issue and continues to be front and centre in so many pressing contemporary issues such as unconventional gas, mining and the Murray-Darling Basin,” Professor Simmons, the Schultz Chair in the Environment, said.

“There is a real opportunity to work closely with ATSE to continue to raise the important profile of groundwater in areas of great public interest, where science and policy must work hand in hand,” he said.

Mr Murphy, a chemical engineer and Chair of the Flinders Centre for Marine Bioproducts Development Advisory Board, was cited for his outstanding public and private outcomes in oil, coal, electricity, airports, rail and biofuels spanning more than three decades.

He was also acknowledged for his active participation in public policy debate on Australia’s future energy supplies, transport infrastructure and greenhouse science and responses.

Meanwhile, Flinders School of Nursing and Midwifery Dean Professor Paul Arbon has officially been inducted as a Fellow of the prestigious American Academy of Nursing this week.

The Academy cited Professor Arbon’s leadership in education, management and policy.

Academy Fellows include hospital and government administrators, college deans and renowned scientific researchers, with selection based, in part, on the influence of the nominee’s nursing career on shaping health policies and improving the health and wellbeing of communities.

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