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Life Sentences: Sir Robert Askin
Jackie Chan opens education Centre
Earthquake theory stretched in Asia study
Australia and China join forces in bird flu battle
Surgeons, intelligence agencies to gain from scholarship winners

Life sentences: Sir Robert Askin

The Australian Dictionary of Biography is part of the History Program in the Research School of Social Sciences at ANU. The 17th edition covering Australians who died between 1981 and 1990 was launched late last year, and will soon be online at www.adb.online.anu.edu.au Below is an edited entry.

ASKIN, SIR ROBERT (ROBIN) WILLIAM (1907-1981), bank officer and premier, was born on 4 April 1907 in Sydney.
Askin enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 30 March 1942. In 1946 he returned to the Rural Bank to manage its travel department.

Known as `Slippery Sam’ – a nickname he had acquired in the army – he also ran an illegal starting price bookmaking operation.

Askin joined the Liberal Party of Australia in 1947. Preselected in 1949 from more than 20 candidates, he won the seat of Collaroy in the NSW Legislative Assembly in June 1950. He represented the newly created constituency until the seat was abolished in October 1973. From November 1973 until his retirement he represented the new and equally safe seat of Pittwater.

Askin was elected leader of the Liberal Part in NSW in 1959. He sold a printery that he had used to produce the Manly-Warringah News in 1953-57, thus becoming the first party leader devoted to the office full time. `First, last and always’, he declared, `I am a politician – a professional politician’.

The party Askin now headed had been characterised by the Sydney Morning Herald as a `self-seeking rabble’. He accepted the challenge. In 1961 he led the successful `No’ campaign in a referendum to abolish the Legislative Council; he argued for election by popular vote. He backed the drive by the extra-parliamentary party for `new blood’ in the legislature. And, above all, he strove to gain office. His first tilt, in March 1962, ended in failure.

His second attempt, on 1 May 1965, was to succeed. In November 1973 Askin became the first premier of NSW to win a fourth successive term.

The day before the re-election of the Whitlam government Askin embarked on a seven-week overseas tour, ostensibly to attract investment. A heart attack in June 1969 had kept him away from work for two months and in March 1971 he tried to ease the dual burden of premier and treasurer by appointing an assistant-treasurer. He suffered another heart attack in November 1974.

On 3 January 1975 he resigned as premier and treasurer and left the parliament. Although Sir Henry Parkes had served longer as premier, Askin had eclipsed the record of seven and a half years’ continuous service set by J. J. Cahill.
Askin died on 9 September 1981 at Darlinghurst and was cremated.

The Sydney Opera House and the Eastern Suburbs Railway were the two landmarks for which Askin most wanted to be remembered.

Edited from an article by Murray Goot

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Jackie Chan opens education centre

International movie star Jackie Chan opened the Jackie Chan Science Centre in March.

Part of the new John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) building, the Centre is designed to inspire the next generation of Australian scientists by giving them an insight into the past success stories and current research at JCSMR.

In 2006 Mr Chan made a generous donation to JCSMR that funded the eponymous centre. "Jackie has a strong commitment to the education of young people and to provide them with opportunities that were not available to him when he was a child," said JCSMR Director Professor Judith Whitworth.

"It was an easy call for us to use this donation to help establish a dedicated Jackie Chan Science Centre as part of the public area of the new JCSMR Building, which will showcase our history, current science, and provide viewing windows into laboratories."

Chan's relationship with ANU extends back to 2002, when he made an initial donation for cancer research in memory of his mother and long-time Canberra resident Lee Lee Chan.

Part of ANU, JCSMR is Australia's national medical research institute. It was created in 1948 as a result of the vision of Australian Nobel Laureate Howard Florey and Prime Minister John Curtin.

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Earthquake theory stretched in Asia study

Geologists at ANU have suggested a new cause for the seismic instability that regularly rocks Central Asia.

Scientists from the Research School of Earth Sciences at ANU argue that the frequent and dramatic earthquakes in the Hindu Kush mountain range are likely to be the result of a slow, elastic stretching of a sub-surface feature called a boudin.

Their findings run contrary to the theory that earthquakes usually result from the abrasive collisions between tectonic plates.

"We've always thought of earthquakes as being brittle, but our research shows that the slow, ductile stretching of certain geological features can build up energy that is then suddenly released, causing major seismic upheaval," said Professor Gordon Lister.

Using computer modelling, the researchers were able to show that the long, hard boudin that sits vertically beneath the Hindu Kush is being stretched as its lower parts are pulled into the Earth's mantle, resulting in seismic disturbances.

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Australia and China join forces in bird flu battle

A team of ANU researchers will lead a new joint research centre with China conducting leading-edge research into treatments for Avian Influenza (Bird Flu).

The new Australia-China Centre for Phenomics Research, funded by the Chinese and Australian Governments, will be located in The John Curtin School of Medical Research.

The joint undertaking - thought to be the largest funded program in biosciences between China and Australia - was instigated by the University's Dr Edward Bertram following his involvement in a China-Australia exchange program supported by Australian Technological Sciences and Engineering and the Australian Academy of Science.

"The funding will be used to study alterations in the genome code that lead to increased resistance to Avian Influenza," said Dr Bertram. "It's hoped that this work will help us to identify targets for designing new treatments to boost the immune system against Avian Influenza."

The Australian funding of $1,536,200 comes from the China-Australia International Scientific Linkages Fund from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and matches funds from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and support from the Australian Phenomics Facility.

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Surgeons, intelligence agencies to gain from scholarship winners

Allowing surgeons a real-time, high-resolution view of their patient's internal organs and sending unhackable information further than ever before are the goals of two ANU students who’ve won scholarships from the Fulbright Commission.

PhD students Ramtin Shams and Sarah Beavan will be able to continue their work at leading US research institutes later this year thanks to the scholarships.

Ramtin is developing a new kind of medical scanner that would be able to create very detailed, three-dimensional images of the insides of humans.

Sarah is working towards a system that will allow unhackable quantum-encrypted information to be sent over large distances - something that has been previously impossible because of technological limitations.

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ANU Reporter 
Autumn 2008