Former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick is elected an honorary fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

Curtin U senior lecturer Katharina Wolf is the Public Relations Institute of Australia’s educator of the year.

William Locke will become director of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education in February. He will move from University College London where he is now director of the Centre for Higher Education Studies and deputy director of the Centre for Global Higher Education. 

The PVC digital learning appointment QUT announced in May is filled. Kevin Ashford-Rowe, moves from Australian Catholic U.

UTS dean of arts and social sciences, Mary Spongberg is moving to Southern Cross Uwhere she will be DVC Research.

Monash U is establishing a robotics research facility to be led by Dana Kulic. Professor Kulic will move from the University of Waterloo in January.

The Great Barrier Reef Foundation has announced $300 000 funding for Peter Harrison(Southern Cross U) and Matthew Dunbabin (QUT) to propagate coral by larval reseeding.

Robert Wood is to join UTS to lead the Future Academy in the university’s business school. Professor Wood joins from UNSW. The Future Academy’s, now being planned, will “focus on helping individuals reskill and upskill.”

Sports scientist Ben Jackson from UWA is the Western Australia Young Tall Poppy for 2018.

Naomi Dempsey is Victoria U’s new PVC Students. She is promoted from student services director at VU.

Curtin U planetary scientist Katarina Miljkovic receives a L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Fellowship.

Xuemei Bai from ANU has won the Volvo Environment Prize for her research on the causes and consequences of urbanisation.

Virginia Haussegger is the ACT Australian of the Year. She leads the University of Canberra’s 50/50 by 2030 Foundation which works for gender equality in public-sector leadership.