Melissa Banks leaves James Cook U to head international education at Austrade.

 Stephen Bartlett (Uni Sydney) is elected a fellow of the American Physical Society, (it’s for physicists).

Peter Binks joins Griffith U as VP Industry and External Engagement. He is a previous CEO of the Business Higher Education Round Table.

Adam Boyton is confirmed as the federal government’s National Skills Commissioner. Mr Boyton has acted since October last year and now has a five-year appointment. He is a former MD of Deutsche Bank, chief economist of the Business Council of Australia and staffer to former NSW state Liberal Party leader John Brogden.

Philip Brown starts next week as CEO of the Institute of Health and Management, which provides “quality postgraduate higher education courses for nurses.”

Matthew Dodd (ancient geology) Jason Eshraghian (AI in med tech) and Mark Wong (insect decline) have Forrest Research Foundation Fellowships for next year at UWA.

Toni Hay, Denuja Karunakaran and Samantha Nixon win the 2020 Queensland Women in STEM awards. Ms Hay works on community climate change adaption programmes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Queensland and NSW. Dr Karunakaran and Ms Nixon are at the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience.

Chris Leishman is appointed professor in property and housing economics at Uni SA. He moves from Uni Adelaide.

Ryan Lister (UWA) and Steven Tingay (Curtin U) are the Western Australia Scientists of the Year.

Christine McLoughlin became the University of Wollongong’s fourth chancellor (her appointment was announced in April). She replaced Gillian Broadbent who served for 11 years.

Recently resigned federal LNP MP John McVeigh becomes director of the University of Southern Queensland’s Institute for Resilient Regions. Dr McVeigh’s former seat covers USQ’s Toowoomba campus. The university states his appointment, “follows a rigorous USQ selection process.”