Monash University Retrenched Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering and School of Biological Sciences, Awarded ARC Discovery Grants. (November 9, 2011)

Pauline Doran received her B.E in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland and her PhD, Chem Eng, from Caltech. According to Bernard Lane's write-up in today's Higher Education Supplement of The Australian Professor Doran was in 2008, headhunted by Monash University from the University of NSW, where she served three years as head of School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences which had "knocked a hole in her research track record that would take time to fill".

The research projects listed on her Monash University web page, still online, are:

Nevertheless, on August 22, 2011 the Monash University administration adjudged her to be an inferior researcher and she was retrenched. Her letter of redundancy cites "a relative lack of research activity with no lead indicators for improved performance".

Professor Doran told Mr Lane: "I was told by the dean of science that my research performance was at or near the bottom in the faculty of science, and that my future success in ARC was unlikely." And this in the face of the peer reviews of her ARC Discovery proposals arriving before Monash made a final decision in her case. Professor Doran says that not only were the ARC assessors encouraging about her research plans, they seemed more understanding than Monash of the atypical decline in output occasioned by her period as head of school at UNSW.

And she told Mr Lane that she had established an unbroken track record of ARC grants in the 20 years up to her departure from UNSW. In her view: "A reliance on numerical indicators (such as Monash's retrospective measure) has time and again been shown to be flawed. You've got to apply judgment; you've got to apply life experience."

As it turned out the ARC awarded Professor Doran 1) a grant of $310,000 for research that may lead to new treatment for damaged heart tissue, and 2) a $320,000 group project, led by her, with the CSIRO [which] offers hope of better treatment for spinal injury.

In the circumstances she approached the Dean of Science, Scott O'Neill, asking that Monash reconsider their decision. Mr Lane quotes his reply: "To reverse that (retrenchment) decision now would require us to reopen the process, modify the original selection criteria to accommodate recently announced grants and find someone else to be made redundant in order to obtain the required budget savings." A spokeswoman for Monash said the university had judged performance "during a defined period of time (and) in the time assessed Ms Doran did not receive any grants". The university spokeswoman said Monash congratulated Ms Doran on her ARC grants and deputy vice-chancellor for research Edwina Cornish had "offered her support if she so requires to assist her in finding a research position at another institution".

A group of top university administrators at one of the US' so called Big Ten agreed over coffee one morning in all seriousness that they could run their university very well if it weren't for the faculty and student body.

Anyone for tennis?