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Australia picks new chief scientist

Two months after Australia’s chief scientist Penny Sackett announced her surprise resignation, the government has found a replacement. Ian Chubb will be the country’s new chief scientist from 23 May, on a three-year term.


Chubb started his career as a neuroscientist, but has spent the past few decades in senior administration roles at various universities and research councils. Most recently, he was vice-chancellor of the Australian National University in Canberra from 2001 to 2010; and was also voted the Australian Capital Territory’s ‘Australian of the Year 2011’.

He told the Sydney Morning Herald that he was surprised by Sackett’s resignation in February, which occurred for ‘professional and personal reasons’ halfway through her five year term. “We had a chat and we are going to meet for a coffee or lunch over the next week or so,” the newspaper quotes him. “I guess I’ll know better how the land was lying after that.”

The Australian is already probing into how forceful Chubb will try to be about the political hot potato of climate change. “I think my view is we have to do something about climate change; what the government does is the government’s business and that’s politics,” he told them. “I think the role of the scientific community is to provide all of the evidence that is available, arguing that there is climate change and there is human intervention, and something needs to be done about it.”

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