Guru of the Month - Ian Lowe
 | Prof. Ian Lowe, AOEmeritus Professor |
Ian Lowe is an emeritus professor at Brisbane's Griffith University and President of the Australian Conservation Foundation. He directed the Commission for the Future in 1988 and chaired the advisory council that produced the first report on the state of the Australian environment in 1996. In 2000 he received the Queensland Premier's Millennium Award for Excellence in Science and Technology and the Australian Prime Minster's Environmental Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement. He has written a weekly column for New Scientist since 1992 and received the 2002 Eureka Prize for promotion of science and technology. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2001 for services to science and technology and for contributing to public understanding of environmental issues. He still bowls useful outswingers, sings choral music, enjoys bushwalking, film and most sorts of music, and is taking advantage of no longer having a full-time job to improve his golf game.
Ian faces our ten questions...
1. Why did you become an academic in the first place?
Good question! I got interested in research through working with researchers, building electronic equipment for them during the final years of my part-time study for an undergraduate degree. Then I taught for twelve hours a week in first year labs to pay my way through an honours year. Not only did I enjoy the teaching immensely, but I also learned a lot. So I became interested in an academic career, combining research with teaching, and went to England to do research for a doctorate.
2. Is it still the same?
Yes, except that over the years I have also come to value other functions of an academic: critically reviewing existing knowledge, as well as acting as the conscience and critic of society. I can still see the value of students being taught by people who are active researchers and in touch with the latest developments in their field, while I can also see how teaching makes me a better researcher by forcing me to clarify my ideas and explain them to others.
3. Biggest mistake you've made in your career?
After ten years in England - three years doing a doctorate and seven lecturing at a UK university - I was so desperate to get back to this part of the world that I applied for a post for which I was totally unsuited, mainly administrative work with little teaching and not much time for research. Fortunately, they didn't appoint me. Eighteen months later, my dream job came up and the rest is history.
4. The big thing you got right?
I have been flexible, moving from my initial study of electrical engineering to a doctorate in physics, a first lecturing job in materials science within a faculty of engineering and a subsequent career teaching science, technology and society: the social and political aspects of science and engineering. Even when teaching pressure was great, I kept doing research; even when my research was really buzzing, I always tried to do a good job of my teaching.
5. Powerpoint or OHP?
I started using an OHP when I spent 18 months as a school teacher, because it meant I didn't turn my back on an unruly class to write on the board. When PowerPoint became available I embraced it, for three main reasons. It was much easier to produce clear writing, much easier to include graphics and, most importantly, much easier to pace the presentation seamlessly. So I am a PowerPoint tragic!
6. Best advice you ever received?
Live your own dream, don't waste your life doing what others want you to do!
7. Worst advice you ever received?
When I was a young academic, a well-meaning older colleague advised me to specialise in some narrow field nobody else was interested in, thus becoming the world authority on some minuscule area of knowledge.
8. Biggest challenge you've overcome?
I found it difficult to adjust to being in an Australian university after twelve years overseas, especially as it meant resuming face-to-face teaching after working for the UK Open University - the world's first serious distance education university. So I would still advise young academics to spend a few years overseas to broaden their experience, but not to stay so long that it is difficult to make the transition back.
9. What advice would you give to new academics?
Strive for balance: between teaching, research and community service, between work and fun, between our culture and others. I am sure I have been a better academic because I have been a partner and a father, still play club cricket, sing choral music, walk in the bush and watch films. Not many people in their retirement wish they had spent more time at work!
10. What quote inspires you as an academic?
To every complex question, there is always a simple answer - and it is always wrong! - H.L. Mencken, US journalist
Make your explanations as simple as possible - but no simpler! - A. Einstein
The trouble with the rat-race is that even if you win, you're still a rat! - M.J.L. Hussey [late professor of Engineering Mechanics, UK Open University]
Last Updated Thursday February 24th, 2005