Rathjen nets top job at Adelaide science faculty

Leading stem cell scientist Prof Peter Rathjen has been appointed executive dean of the new Faculty of Sciences at the University of Adelaide.

Formerly the head of the Department of Molecular Biosciences, Rathjen will be responsible for scientific education and research across the four campuses of the university.

The new faculty was created earlier this year by the merger of the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

Rathjen said that Adelaide was enormously strong in the sciences, and he hoped to be able to help drive the university to the next level of achievement.

"The reorganised faculty has a crucial role to play in underpinning the economic revival of South Australia, " he said.

"Fundamentally, I see its role as helping to reinvent the future. We must ensure that our scientists are conducting research that is relevant to the needs of the state, the nation and the international community to which we belong. We must also ensure that the education programs we offer meet the needs of students, industry and the wider community."

Rathjen said that he would be encouraging scientists in the faculty to form partnerships both within the university and with external collaborators, and to look for commercialisation opportunities.

He noted that at the Waite agricultural campus, close relationships had sprung up between the university's researchers and those from CSIRO and the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), which share space on the campus.

Rathjen himself has had significant first-hand experience with commercialisation of research through his involvement with South Australian biotech company BresaGen.

"These partnerships are critical to the creation of new industries and businesses based on the commercialisation of collaborative research efforts," he said.

He explained that one of his tasks would be to develop the university's policies to facilitate the development of new policies for commercialisation activities. "Our policies are not yet what they need to be," Rathjen said.

Recent administrative appointments at the university had demonstrated an increased focus on innovative science and biotechnology, he said, pointing out that the deputy vice-chancellor of Research, Prof Edwina Cornish, played a part in the development of horticultural biotech company Florigene. The University's new vice-chancellor Prof James McWha also has an agricultural background.

"Adelaide is placing a pretty heavy bet on its future in the sciences, particularly biotechnology," Rathjen said.

Even with the new responsibilities, Rathjen plans to continue his research into the control of stem cell differentiation. His team is part of the new Centre for Stem Cells and Tissue Repair, which won the bid for funding as the Biotechnology Centre of Excellence recently.