Curtin University of Technology has named Department for Planning and Infrastructure director general, Greg Martin, as chair of its Planning and Transport Studies discipline.
Curtin University of Technology has named Department for Planning and Infrastructure director general, Greg Martin, as chair of its Planning and Transport Studies discipline.
Mr Martin, who will be appointed as a professor, will also become executive director of the Planning and Transport Research Centre (PATREC) – a joint collaboration between the state’s four public universities.
In this role, which takes effect from September, he replaces Professor Fred Affleck, who will become Curtin’s director of research management systems.
Mr Martin’s appointment coincides with moves by a number of academic staff to Curtin from other Western Australian universities in recent months.
In May, Edith Cowan University executive dean of education and arts, Professor Robyn Quin, announced she was leaving after less than a year in the role to take up Curtin’s newly created post of pro vice-chancellor, teaching and learning.
Another new position, Curtin’s inaugural chair of health services research in the school of public health, was filled in the same month by former University of Western Australia centre for health services research director, James Semmens.
Professor Semmens took leading members of his research team with him as part of the move, including colleagues Dr Katrina Spilsbury, Dr Renate Zilkens, Aqif Mukhtar and Dr Antony Clark.
Meanwhile, Murdoch University’s deputy vice-chancellor research, Professor Andris Stelbovics, left in April after a 23-year career at the university to take up the executive dean post in Curtin’s division of science and engineering.
ECU has lost several senior academics in the past year, with high-profile researcher and former Telstra business woman of the year, Linda Kristjanson, moving to Curtin in 2006 to become pro vice-chancellor, research and development.
ECU deputy vice-chancellor, Professor John Wood, is the latest to leave the fold, having accepted the role of inaugural executive general manager, university programs, with global education provider IBT Education Ltd in May.
However, the university had a win in recruiting Shearmans PR founder and director, Carla Shearman, who announced the closure of her public relations consultancy last December and accepted a lecturing role at ECU in the school of communication and contemporary arts.
