Jeremy Davey from the University of the Sunshine Coast will lead the Sunshine Coast Road Safety Research Collaboration, a joint venture between the university and the Queensland Motor Accident Insurance Commission. The project has five-year funding and will be based at USC.

Fred Watson is Australia’s first Astronomer at Large. The appointment was announced by Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews yesterday. Professor Watson retired this year from the Australian Astronomical Observatory. His brief is to “promote Australia’s world-leading astronomy and astrophysics capabilities to audiences here and overseas.”

The University of South Australia announces Richard Irons is the new director of Student and Academic Services. Mr Irons is now academic registrar at the University of Derby in the UK. He will start at UniSA in November.

The Academy of Social Sciences in Australia has named three winners of the Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Researchers; Renee Zahnow (University of Queensland), Emma Hutchinson (University of Queensland) and Tamsyn van Rheenen (University of Queensland).