Research
Deakin University
Professor Hodgson tells why Deakin University is the place to do research.
Q. Why have you chosen to remain at Deakin University when, with your reputation and qualifications you could be working anywhere in the world?
PROFESSOR PETER HODGSON: It is Australia’s fastest growing research institution and that makes it a very exciting, dynamic place to work. You can actually make a difference here. In my case I was offered a prestigious chair in England a few years ago. I could have gone there and done more of the same but at Deakin I was able to explore research models that were quite different, particularly in the area of how you work with the industry. We are very good at partnerships here at Deakin, at working with outside organisations. We do this in ways that don’t just benefit us and the outside organisations, but also the broader community.
The traditional research model is that there is applied research and then there’s fundamental research and, in a lot of universities, they’re almost mutually exclusive. I’m interested in the whole intersection of applied and imperial research and where industries like the car industries and other industries of the future can fit in to this.
At Deakin I can do all those things. In some ways the students at Deakin are very much applied, hands on students, while my international students probably want to do more fundamental research. It’s a fascinating balance to get right but I think we do get it right.
This has also helped by the fact we have companies coming through the front door because of my past work and also Matthew Barnett’s and Xungai Wang’s past work; we’ve actually worked in industry and so we get companies talking to us much more openly. They know we are responsive to what they want because we have a better understanding of what they want.
The other reason we are good at forming partnerships is we are a small and accessible university. People from industry can actually go and see the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) or the Vice-Chancellor and get high levels of support. This is very important when dealing with industry. They want to see the commitment of the organisation and certainly, in the early days, the ability to be able to bring in senior management from the uni to talk with the industry, is quite impressive.
Another reason for Deakin’s success is the excellent work it is doing in the Arts and Social Sciences. They are taking good, useful work and then turning it into research questions that are interesting to the general public and through that, they are able to attract Government funding. Organisations like VicHealth are interested in reaching good practical outcomes with projects that have high quality research behind them.
What excites you the most about your work at Deakin?
One of the most exciting parts of the job I have here, and again it’s a difference between this and other universities, is that I have a lot of young staff starting their research careers. Being able to show them other research models, and getting them to use them has been quite a big thing to me. That’s hopefully a big part of my legacy.
In terms of specific research I think the bio-implant research we’re doing at the moment is very exciting. It was a case of serendipity, of our willingness to accept fresh ideas. I was looking for a post-doctoral position and Dr Ciu’e Wen applied from Japan. She wasn’t in the right field but we took a risk with her and flew her out to Australia. She gave us a stunning presentation about her other research which was the work with improving metals to be used as bone implants. We realised that made a really good match with what we didn’t do – but could do. We’ve already had some excellent results.
So flexibility is important?
Yes that’s a good point. Flexibility and also we are truly multi-disciplinary. We already have mechanical engineers, chemists, physicists and mathematicians here working in groups. These people are really pushing at the boundaries of what research is about. They’re actually working together whereas other universities are so big they have the Department of Chemistry, the Department of Mathematics and so on and people from different areas don’t get to collaborate, to explore new ideas, in the same way. The real buzz here is that there are young people who actually realise that if they collaborate across each other’s fields of expertise we can make a really big play. There was no automotive research when I came here. I had never thought about how you make a car, to be honest. But within a year and a half we had $2 million in funding from Ford USA and Ford Australia and that was really because they were interested in the model, the improved model on how to do research and how to be flexible. Ford can use the top scientists anywhere in the world but they’re trying to get people who are actually going to address their problems in a holistic way, that is, bringing together the metallurgists with mechanical engineers whom you then put together with computer modellers, to work out how we make a car body lighter or safer or more efficient.
Where is Deakin in terms of overall philosophy and approach to research in Australia? Is it out there, or is research in Australia booming and the university is just part of that?
Our growth has been real and tangible. Showing people how to do research would have got us to about halfway to where we are today. The other thing that happened is that we had a few successes, a few research highlights and as a result we are attracting much better people to the university. Before, when we advertised for a head position in the Department of Engineering, we struggled to get four people to interview. Now we have a serious short-listing process.
I’ve just been at an interview today and we’ve had top researchers from other institutions basically giving us a really hard sell about why we should choose them to come to Deakin. One was from a Group of Eight university. He was really keen to come to Deakin, something unheard of when I joined here. Back then they wouldn’t even read the advertisement, let alone apply … let alone do a really hard sell.
Is the research philosophy and environment right here in Australia?
Personally I don’t think so. It’s a little bit too black and white. The reward systems change too often. Sometimes it’s driven by commercial outcomes, now it’s the research quality – talking about the impact of our research in terms of science. Personally I’ve got a much more holistic view, I’m not really worried about local external measures that much. I’m kind of a bit more global and much more interested in us having the top experts in the world, not just in Australia. The thing I benchmark myself against is to do leading edge research that will stay in the journals for a long time and have active industry engagement. Deakin, especially with the Geelong Technology Precinct and with the sort of groupings we have - biotech, nanotech, advanced materials and advanced modelling - we’re in a unique position to make a much bigger global impact than other groups in Australia
The Geelong Technology Precinct is a brilliant concept bringing industry into the university. By the end of the year we’ll have Greg Collier’s Chemgenex, we’ll have Andrew Parratt’s Bio-Deakin research with the new associate professors he’s just recruited. We’ll have the advanced technology stuff we’re starting up ourselves, we’ll have the advanced materials, and we’ll have virtual reality and advanced modelling. Now put all that together in one building and that’s where real innovation is. Having all these brilliant people in the one place mixing with each other, offering each other ideas, it is such an explosively dynamic environment.
So that wouldn't happen in more established universities where the departmental barriers are more rigid?
I think that’s one of the issues. I’ve also been able to employ staff of my own liking. We try to select people who are good scientists who are flexible and who are interested in working in a team. And sometimes they haven’t got the best CV in the world, so we have to work on developing it. It’s often hard to get great people skills as well as a great CV. It’s easier to make a better CV than it is to make a person. So if the person’s got the right motivation and they’ve got the writing and the personal skills and a good enough CV you can teach them the rest.
Where will Deakin be as a research institution in 10 years?
I’m hoping that Deakin has it’s own clearly defined niche. At the moment we have to explain what Deakin is. My vision is that we will be known as the experts in a number of specific fields. The idea is to sell the message that we’re the best university at partnerships. It was really good when we won the University of the Year award. We have to evolve around the key platforms and pillars at which we are really, really good at. Whether its Professor Sue Kenny and her work in globalisation and citizenship which I think is fantastic, or the commercial bio-tech fields, we will have to wait and see.
It’s also really important we go to the world. If we badge ourselves cleverly, if we can develop a simple message, we can make a huge impact overseas. In some areas we already are.
You have to be known internationally for what you do because the future student market is global. That’s a hard one but you only get known for your research. You don’t get known for anything else.
So will Deakin remain as Australia's fastest growing university in research?
There are challenges. A number of universities have woken up to what has happened and it’s interesting how many of them are implementing now what Professor Pip Hamilton, the DVC (Research), and I implemented in 1997/98. I read in The Australian newspaper today that Melbourne University should be nominating its research strengths rather then having a broad brush approach.
La Trobe and Swinburne are trying to do it. In the late 1990’s we took some hard decisions by saying we’re going to have Priority Areas. That meant we weren’t going to support other areas. It was a difficult decision. It was very Deakin though that once it was explained to the staff, and after the initial six months of howling and crying, they got on with it and we all moved forward. So we’ve had all these Priority Areas going flat chat for some time now. I don’t think you could do that at Melbourne or Monash. If you chose one area, but not another, it would just be a mess there. But not here at Deakin where we’ve already established our priorities and begun putting together these collaborative research groups across a number of disciplines.
It’s happening here, it has been for some time and it will continue to do so.
Deakin's Man of Steel - Professor Hodgson features in The Geelong Advertiser, 1 May 2006.
Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation website
Read The Australian article - Boning up helps researchers find new hip material.
For more information, take a look at Professor Hodgson's staff profile.
Research Output for Professor Peter Hodgson
Australia’s Universities Underpin Research and Innovation
Read Dr Bronwyn Fox's interview with Robyn Williams from The Science Show, Radio National on making lighter cars.