Margaret Sheil steps down from ARC

Professor Margaret Sheil will be stepping down from her position as CEO of the Australian Research Council in April 2012 to take up a position as Provost of the University of Melbourne.

Professor Sheil has been with the ARC since August 2007, having been appointed by the Howard Government.

Prior to her appointment to the ARC, Professor Sheil was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Wollongong from 2002 to 2007. She joined UOW as a lecturer in the Department of Chemistry in 1990, was promoted to Professor of Chemistry in 2000 and appointed Dean of Science at UOW in January 2001.

Prior to joining UOW she held positions as a Research Fellow at the Australian National University and the University of Utah, USA. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE) and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI).

While heading the ARC, Professor Sheil promoted a number of reforms to the organisation, including the introduction of new arrangements that take into account career interruptions such as child-rearing.

The Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr praised Professor Sheil’s stewardship of the ARC and her role as an advisor on science and research policy.

“Her high-quality, professional counsel has been informed by her years of experience in the university research sector,” Senator Carr said.

“Her strong leadership and dedication to a fair and robust research sector has seen the ARC develop and run the first round of the Excellence in Research for Australia initiative, and make numerous improvements to its research funding schemes,” he said.

Besides her role as CEO of the ARC, Professor Sheil participated as a member of the Cooperative Research Centres Committee; Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council; National Research Infrastructure Council; Board of the Australia-India Council, Advisory Council of the Science Industry Endowment Fund and National Research Foundation of Korea.