News Archive

Peter Davies has always enjoyed a good road trip.

After his first week as an undergraduate at UWA in 1973, he was on his way to the campus on his motorbike when he decided it wasn't for him. So he kept on riding, only stopping when he ran out of petrol in the Goldfields. That was the start of years of travel around Australia and the world.

In his 10 years in Albany leading a UWA international water research hub, Winthrop Professor Davies commuted to Perth about once a week. He often flew, but when flights were cancelled, he enjoyed driving his old Porsche 911 (one of his two old Porsches) from the Great Southern to Perth.

Now back on the Crawley campus where he earned his undergraduate degree with first class honours in Zoology and his PhD, Professor Davies is excited about the next journey and still imbued with a sense of adventure.

He is the University's newly-appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research). Staff come to him with ideas for research projects and he, in turn, looks out for research opportunities and how to link teams together to address large questions.

After a decade of working with the community in Albany, including Landcare, local councils and State Government agencies, he is convinced of the value of community engagement and collaboration.

"It is the way of the future for research," he said. "I want to create better links with other universities and institutions like the CSIRO, to collaborate with them, rather than compete with them. Bigger grants and better publications are just two of the advantages.

"Look at our new $62 million marine science research building: we are partners in that venture with CSIRO and AIMS: a perfect example of collaboration working to everybody's benefit."

When Professor Davies won funding for the Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management in Albany, it was the first centre of excellence outside a Perth campus. He built it up to 30 staff, all of whom were part of the decision-making process. "We recruited well and we had a great team of people."

That is the spirit Professor Davies has brought with him - as well as the guitar that has been his constant companion in work and travel, and rests in the corner of his office "only played after everybody else has gone home."

"One of the concerns I had with relocating from Albany was leaving the tight team of people I had there. But I have found an equally great bunch of people to work with in Research Services," he said.

"I consider I have the best job in the University!

"It's all about talking to people, putting together teams and making things happen. I can see so many opportunities; it's my job to join the dots.

"We need to look across faculties for the research of the future. In the past, research tended to be done with a narrow focus. Now big multidisciplinary groups are the way to go.

"Take my area, of water, for example.  It brings water law, biodiversity and social sciences together with scientific research: it's widespread rather than having a vertical or siloed focus.

"Institutes now offer new ways to do research, including UWA's Institute of Agriculture, the Oceans Institute and the Energy and Minerals Institute. We're developing plans for a Western Australian Biodiversity Institute, working with Kings Park, other WA universities, the Department of Environment and Conservation and the mining industry."

In the meantime, he is enjoying working with people, finding out what motivates them, so he can challenge them to break new ground in research.