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BRENNAN COULD HEAD RESEARCH ÃÂÃÂÃÂiJxWl L i

The Federal Government will next week recommend to the  Executive Council th a t Professor Max Brennan, AO be appointed as  chair of the Australian Research Council (ARC) from July 1 next  year.

It will be recommended th a t Professor Brennan replace  Professor Don Aitkin who has chaired the Council since its creation  at the end of 1987.

The recommendation of the five year appointment was announced  today by John Dawkins, the M inister for Employment, Education  and Training.

"If the Executive Council accepts the recommendation,  Professor Brennan will take on a very different, but no less  challenging role than his predecessor," Mr Dawkins said.

"The ARC was established not ju st to be a new structure for  research funding and provide advice to the Government, but to take  a leading role in changing the research culture in higher education -  to make it more vigorous, more outward-looking."

"That change is now taking place, and much of the credit m ust go to  Don Aitkin and his colleagues. Don Aitkin in particular has been  tireless in his efforts to invigorate research and create new  opportunities, as well as responding to them. Max Brennan’s  challenge will be to m aintain th a t essential momentum for  creativity and productivity."

If the Executice Council accepts the recommendation,  Professor Brennan will become the Government’s leading adviser on  the higher education research system, which now receives more than  $1 billion a year. The ARC itself has direct responsibility for more  th an  $210 million in programs - up from $80 millionm in 1987.

Professor Brennan is currently professor and head of the School of  Physics at the University of Sydney, deputy chair of the Higher  Education Council, and a member of the National Board of  Employment, Education and Training.

COMMONWEALTH

PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY  MIC AH

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He was educated in Australia and held academic posts at Princeton  University in the United States, Flinders University in South  Australia and the University of Sydney. He has a distinguished  research record in plasma physics and is a Fellow of the Australian  Academy of Science.

He has held many positions on government advisory bodies,  including periods as chair of the Australian Research Grants  Committee (the predecessor body to the ARC) from 1980-82 and

chair of the Atomic Energy Commission from 1983-86.

He was made an officer of the General Division of the Order of  Australia in 1987.

September 21,1990

Enquiries:  Wayne Burns  Mr Dawkins’s media adviser

06 277 7460

