Charles Perkins Centre farewells its inaugural Academic Director

Professor Stephen J Simpson AC FRS FAA stepped down from the role of Inaugural Academic Director on 31 March after 13 years in the role. Professor Simpson continues as a Charles Perkins Centre member and in his role as a Professor in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences as an NHRMC Investigator Fellow.

At an event hosted in the Charles Perkins Centre’s in April, friends and colleagues past and present gathered to farewell Professor Simpson. Professor David James acted as MC and the farewell speech was given by Professor Mark Scott AO, Vice Chancellor and President. Professor Simpson’s valedictory speech celebrated his “continual joy… watching the careers of colleagues prosper and enjoying firsthand the culture and opportunities we have created together”.

The multidisciplinary initiative model

The Vice-Chancellor acknowledged the Charles Perkins Centre as the first, and flagship, multidisciplinary initiative (MDI) at the University, and the basis for a number of others underway and in development.

“The MDI model created by Steve and his team is such a success that we've replicated it numerous times already at the University. As we look at our strategic plan through to 2032, we revisit the CPC model to determine what other MDIs should be leveraging based on the insights garnered from the Centre’s substantial impact,” said Professor Scott.

“Our deep disciplinary excellence at the University of Sydney and the great complex societal challenges that we face will not be solved by one professor toiling alone but by the coming together of diverse areas of expertise. The insight and the magic and the alchemy that happens through that gathering and experts in their respective fields working collaboratively to attack the great unsolved challenges is what is, simply, imperative.”

The Professor Stephen J Simpson Prize for Research Communication

The Vice-Chancellor said that his first encountered Professor Simpson when he was Managing Director at the ABC.

“We aired a new primetime documentary series called Great Southern Land hosted by Steve Simpson and we all acknowledged that Simpson is great talent and potentially Australia's new David Attenborough. He presented as fabulously intelligent, articulate and a great communicator. He takes complexity and explains it in a way that that puts a spotlight on the transforming power of brilliant science.”

Professor Scott announced the inaugural The Professor Stephen J Simpson Prize for Research Communication (The Simpson Prize) in recognition of Professor Simpson’s impact not only at the Charles Perkins Centre but at the University and in our global academic community. Awarded annually, The Simpson Prize is for Charles Perkins Centre early- and mid-career researchers for a piece of writing translating complex scientific research for a wider audience. Professor Simpson is on the selection committee.

'Late Fragment'

“I’ll finalise my thanks to Steve with the words of Raymond Carver from his ‘Late Fragment’, a poem he wrote towards the end of his life:

        And did you get what

        You wanted from this life, even so?

        I did.

        And what did you want?

        To call myself beloved, to feel myself

        Beloved on the earth.

Steve Simpson has been a beloved, vital compelling presence here at the University of Sydney. Steve, we love you, we admire you, we thank you, and we wish you all the best in the years ahead," said Professor Scott.

Highlights from the Inaugural Academic Director

Professor Simpson outlined just some of the Centre’s many achievements under his leadership.

“There are so many highlights that have brought great impact, fulfilment and joy, particularly watching the careers of colleagues prosper and enjoying firsthand the culture and opportunities we have created together has been wonderful.

• Working with Qantas on our Project Sunrise partnership.
• The unveiling ceremony for this portrait behind me of Dr Charles Perkins AO by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artist, Daniel Boyd, and then the unveiling of the Blue Plaque in 2024 commemorating Charles Perkins’s place in NSW and Australian history.
• The Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence Fellowship at the Charles Perkins Centre supported by our great friend, Judy Harris.
• Another highlight was the response when I spoke at the Times Higher Education Summit in 2023. It was unimaginable in 2014 that we would become emulated internationally less than a decade later at an international forum, surrounded by colleagues from across the globe eager to learn and make theirs all that we as a community have achieved as the University’s flagship multidisciplinary initiative.
• Our CPC EMCR community; thank you to all of our EMCRs past and present – the beating heart of the CPC community, now numbering just shy of 600, who have made this place sing and will go on to be our research leaders of the future.”

“I’d argue that by having the courage and ambition to undertake the CPC experiment, Sydney has redefined what a university can be in the modern world. Not just a collection of high-performing disciplines working at their cutting edges, but an internally and externally connected community of scholarship addressing problems that society cares about.

Many congratulations to you all for making the Charles Perkins Centre happen; thank you for giving me the chance to build and lead it and thank you, Michael [Spence AC, Vice-Chancellor and Principal 2008–2020], in absentia, for the opportunity.”

As the donor of the Picasso painting Jeune Fille Endormie said as she handed it to the University, ‘Sell this, it will change many lives’. Indeed, it has. Mine especially.”

Professor David James and Professor Natasha Nassar have been appointed joint Interim Academic Directors of the Charles Perkins Centre while the ongoing international recruitment for the Centre’s next Academic Director is underway.