The Village Oracle steps away from leading DMI
Celebrating the successful and multi-faceted leadership of Professor Andrew Brooks in the Dept of Microbiology and Immunology (DMI).
Image: [LtoR] Prof Tim Stinear, Prof Katherine Kedzerska, Prof Andrew Brooks, Dr Kate Keech and Prof Sharon Leuwin
Looking around the crowded room at Professor Andrew Brooks’ farewell and listening to his closest colleagues, Prof Sharon Leuwin, Prof Tim Stinear, Prof Katherine Kedzerska and Dr Kate Keech speak, there is true emotion in the room. During his tenure, Andrew has made a difference.
He is renowned as being one who pops into offices to see how things are going, he knows who everyone is, at every level and he cares. In Sharon Leuwin’s words ‘he is akin to the Village Oracle, or Nestor from Homer’s The Iliad’ - a literary term for a wise older leader who remembers everything from the past.
I want to acknowledge the incredible work Andrew has done in leading DMI to being the most successful Department in the Faculty and probably the whole country.
- Prof Sharon Leuwin
Andrew has led with a commitment to excellence, to education (he commenced his career in teaching), fairness and equity (supporting diversity, ECR’s and women), his transparent decision making and he has worked to understand the people around him.
Image: Prof Katherine Kedzerska
Professor Tim Stinear spoke across Andrew’s career noting the myriad of areas Andrew was responsible for: leading more than 450+ staff and students, including more than 30 professors, a team of full time educators running major undergraduate teaching programs across disparate disciplines and faculties; having oversight for more than 140+ graduate research students from all over the world and supporting (arguably) the nation’s premier public health microbiology reference lab (MDU), within this collective known as the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. NHMRC grant success under Andrew's tenure has been a stand-out with success at 37% this year and 39% last year, an even more impressive record when looking at the Faculty average of 19% and national average of 12-13%.
"You must be able to talk intelligently about everything from HLA, MR1, IgG, HIV, PBMC, WGS, SCV, WTF and everything in between. You must also navigate the politics of your institution, respond to multiple stakeholders…oh and you've been thrown a pandemic for good measure," Prof Tim Stinear reflected on Andrews Brooks time in DMI.
Colleagues described Andrew as an advocate of basic science and curiosity. In his response, Andrew also spoke of the Doherty Institute which he felt was now entering an exciting chapter and moving ahead into the ‘growing up’ phase. Having been on the Executive since 2016, alongside Sharon, they likened the beginning to a start-up and that they were ‘building the plane whilst flying it’. Andrew was also key in the design of the Australian Institute for Infectious Disease (AIID) and the Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics and was critical in navigating COVID-19 as an organisation. He has a great nose for good science and those he has employed are testament to that.
Image: Prof Andrew Brooks
In summary, Andrew thanked all, including the leadership teams in the Faculty of MDHS, the School and the Doherty Institute, alongside Profs Jim McClusky and Mark Hargreaves who were an important part of his ‘unexpected career trajectory...for someone who enjoyed being in the Lab’.
Andrew remains inspired by the people he works with in the School, the great research findings - but also the smaller, daily acts of humanity and bravery that together make a difference.
Andrew, from all of us, thank you for your time, your humanity and your guidance as Head of the Department…see you in the Lab!
Treasure each other going forward – it’s the quality of the people that make the Department.