Penelope Dobson is the new deputy chair of ANSTO. The pharma industry executive joined the board in 2014.

ANU’s Colin Klein has $450 000 from the university to fund five years’ research on links between, “computationalist theories of mind” and neuroscience. The grant will fund post docs and host conferences.

La Trobe U announces Abbas Kudrati, a part time professor of practice in cyber security has won a Middle East Security Award from the Chief Information Security Officer Council. When not a LT U he is CISO at KPMG.

Energy entrepreneur Lachlan Blackhall will lead a new ANU programme on integrating battery storage with the electricity grid. Dr Blackhall is a founder of Reposit Power which develops systems to aggregate distributed energy storage into electricity networks

The Australian Research Council has announced panel chairs for the inaugural round of the engagement and impact assessment: Richard Dunford (UNSW): social sciences. Gerard Goggin (UniSyd): creative arts and humanities. John Grundy (Monash U): science and tech. Terry Nolan (UniMelb): health and life sciences. Maggie Walter (UniTas): Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research.

Jane Hamilton is the new dean of business at La Trobe U. She moves up from professor of accounting at LTU.

Ben Eggleton becomes director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute. He is now director of the university’s Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems.

Laki Kondylas is the new head of strategic projects at Flinders University’s New Ventures Institute. He moves from the SA Department of State Development.