Swinburne U appoints its own chief scientist

It’s a great way to build the brand

It’s Virginia Kilborn who will, “provide leadership in science within and outside the university, driving scientific relationships and policy with government, industry and schools.”

Smart move. It’s in-line with VC Pascale Quester’s MO, “my vision for Swinburne is that we need to differentiate from the pack and that our DNA at Swinburne is fundamentally STEM and technology and preparing the human capital required to make it sing,” (CMM July 9 2020).

And it is brilliant for building recognition.  Swinburne U reports a big student recruitment problem is, “unfamiliarity with the brand.” So, the more awareness of science at Swinburne the better. The university’s new consumer brand is “Next Gen_Now,” which is intended to position Swinburne U, “at the cutting edge of what is happening right now … it’s the way tech companies position a new product, and that’s very deliberate” (CMM April 30).

Professor Kilborn is a radio astronomer who became dean of science in April 2019. Science is to merge with the school of software and electrical engineering, under Alex Stojcevski, (CMM May 3).