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Professor Tim Marchant will take over in the newly-appointed position... |
New Arts and Research Deans set their agendas
An international expert in multicultural literature will soon fill the post of Dean of Arts at UOW while the newly-created position of Dean of Research will be occupied by an academic now heading UOW’s mathematics and statistics school recognised as one of the fastest growing and highest achieving schools in Australia.
As the Dean of Research is a half-time position, Professor Tim Marchant will spend the other 50 per cent of his time supporting the development of the SMART (Simulation, Modelling and Analysis for Research and Teaching) Infrastructure Facility. He will also continue to pursue his own special research interests in nonlinear optics and soliton theory.
The SMART Infrastructure Facility will make a significant contribution to the nation throughout the 21st century by providing highly analytical and scientific support for the nation’s major infrastructure projects.
Professor Wenche Ommundsen who is Professor of English Literatures and Associate Dean (Research and Graduate Studies) in UOW’s Faculty of Arts will take over the Deanship role in August.
She replaces Professor Andrew Wells who left UOW to take up a new position in Canberra.
Formerly of Deakin University, Professor Ommundsen joined UOW in 2006 in her role as Professor of English Literatures. She has previously held several positions of leadership in research and research training.
Professor Ommundsen started her education in Norway. She holds university qualifications from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland (BA Hons, Dip Ed), London University (MA) and the University of Melbourne (PhD).
Her main areas of teaching and research interest are Australian and transnational literatures.
She is an internationally recognised expert in multicultural literature, especially writing from Asian diasporas.
Professor Ommundsen has gained Australia Research Council (ARC) Discovery grants for her work on Australian literature and public culture, multiculturalism in children’s literature and Asian-Australian literary interactions.
Her passion for cross-cultural relations extends into other aspects of her academic work such as curriculum development and international exchange and collaboration.
Professor Ommundsen is a founding board member of AustLit, the online database for Australian literature, with particular responsibility for the multicultural subset. Current board memberships include EASA (European Association for Studies of Australia) and the Nordic Network in Postcolonial Studies.
Among the goals she has set herself as the new Dean of Arts are to strengthen the research profile of the faculty by exploring new sources of research funding and to develop links with strategic international partners in teaching and research.
With a strong interest in interdisciplinarity, she hopes to further collaboration between faculties and across research strengths.
Professor Marchant, who takes up the new Dean of Research position on 22 June, said that in response to the Federal Government’s Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Initiative he believed his role was to support faculties to achieve their new research goals.
He said that some of the key areas for his support were the attraction and training of research students, early career researchers and internationalisation.
Professor Marchant, who was Director of the Mathematics and Statistics in Industry Study Group (MISG) from 2007-2009, hopes to use his MISG experiences to facilitate building research links with the University’s Innovation Campus tenants.
His ties to the University of Wollongong are extensive having started as a postdoctoral student about 20 years ago.
Professor Marchant is a Fellow of the Australian Mathematical Society, Deputy Chair of the Society for Australian and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics and a member of the selection panel for the DEST Endeavour Awards.
He gained his PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Adelaide and has published 60 research papers and successfully supervised 10 PhD students.