Stuart Kells and Ian Gow win the Ashurst Business Book Prize, for their La Trobe U Press host study of global accounting firms, The Big Four. Dr Kells is an adjunct professor at La Trobe U. Professor Gow is at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Corporate Governance and Regulation.

Ranjeny Thomas (University of Queensland) is awarded the Eric Susman Prize (internal medicine) by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Professor Thomas works on immunotherapy of autoimmune diseases.

The Australian Academy of the Humanities has appointed a working group of academy fellows for its arts and culture advocacy group, A New Approach; Malcolm Gillies (now ANU emeritus professor) chairs and members are, Ien Ang (Western Sydney U), Tony Bennett (Western Sydney U), Stuart Cunningham (QUT) and Jennifer Milam (Uni Melbourne).

Neil Quigley has a second term as VC of the University of Waikato.

Catherine Whelan will join University of Notre Dame, Sydney next month as dean of the business school. She comes from Georgia College & State University in the US.

Robert Cunningham is the new dean of law at Curtin U, replacing Paul Fairall. He steps up from deputy head of the law school.

Mitch Parsell is leaving Macquarie U, where he is associate dean, learning and teaching in the human sciences faculty. In July, he becomes academic executive director at the University of Tasmania.

Caroline Williams starts at the University of Queensland as chief librarian. She moves from the University of Nottingham.

University of Wollongong theatre academic Mark Rogers has won the Sydney Theatre Company’s Patrick White Playwrights Award.