Professor David Ellsworth, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney

David Ellsworth

 

David is lead scientist for the Hawkesbury Forest Experiment and the Eucalyptus Free Air CO2 Enrichment experiment at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment. A highly-cited researcher in the fields of ecology and environmental science, David’s particular focus is on the response of forests to climate change. David holds a number of academic qualifications, including a doctorate in plant eco-physiology from the University of Wisconsin, and before joining UWS in 2007, he was a professor at the University of Michigan, Duke University, and Brookhaven National Laboratory in the United States.

 

A transcript of the Occasional Address, delivered by Professor David Ellsworth:

"Thank you for your generous introduction, Pro Vice-Chancellor Cheetham. Chancellor Shergold, Pro Vice-Chancellor Cheetham, Professor Kolt, Academic colleagues, Distinguished guests including Auntie Sandra, ladies and gentlemen, parents and supporters of the graduands, and most importantly the graduands gathered here today to receive your degree, including the newly-minted Dr. Lin.

The first thing I must say today to you is ‘congratulations’. I offer my congratulations to each and every one of you, for all your hard work and dedication to scholarship, on completing your degree from the University of Western Sydney. The completion of your degree is a great personal achievement, and you and your family should be proud of that accomplishment, proud of the scholarship, and endurance, that gained you your degree today. For this, I salute you.

I salute you today as you receive your degree, now able to recognise you no longer as students but as scientists. As biologists, chemists, medical scientists and health scientists, forensic scientists, food scientists, and environmental scientists. Your degree is your foundation for success in today’s science, medicine and technology-oriented society and more importantly serves as the engine of tomorrow’s economy. I ask all of the graduands to take a good look around you, and celebrate not only your own achievements but also those of your colleagues and fellow graduands who are gathered here today.

On a personal note, by being here today I must confess that you are all wiser than I have been. You see, you have all made it here to celebrate your achievements with the University and your friends, families and supporters. Now, today, in seeing the joy and celebration among you all gathered here today I can feel very much that I share in your special day today. So for allowing me to share in this graduation and the celebration of your accomplishments I thank you all.

You, today’s UWS graduates, together with past UWS graduates, can look forward to the many benefits that come along with having undertaken tertiary studies at our bold, young and innovative University. We have a proven record of excellence in research, training and education here at UWS, and a tradition of extending the boundaries of scientific knowledge. Thus, today you join a highly respected group as graduates of the University of Western Sydney, a group represented in the professions, business, industry and government both in Australia and overseas. Your degree granted today opens the door to achieving employment and career success, and you will bring outstanding professional knowledge and skills.

I have no doubt that you understand that the extensive body of knowledge that you have received in undertaking your studies at UWS and the associated skills in your field provide a sound foundation for your future. However, you may not recognise it now, but in the knowledge that you hold from your education  ---  you also have considerable power. This little fact may be a bit uncomfortable for some of you at first, some may even be surprised to hear it, but as an educator I assure you that it is true that knowledge is power. You, today’s graduands, hold the power not only to shape your own future but also our shared future for Australia.

Having lived in other countries, some of these even more under-developed than my country of birth, I have seen here in Australia the incredible advances that our knowledge brings us. We have the opportunity to advance, not only scientifically and technologically, but also socially and environmentally. We gain this through our educational system and by people like you seeking tertiary education. Upon receiving your degree, what you do with the power that has been conferred on you lies in your own decisions. I trust that you will recognise this, and decide well for your future, and for our shared future.

I wish to impart on you an awareness of this power that you have. It is the ability to keep us at the head of the group of nations of the world. It is the ability to put your knowledge into practise, and use it to advance. In the twenty years since my Bachelor’s degree was conferred, we have advanced in so many ways scientifically and technologically as well as socially. But what I have learned over time, without realising it, is that the power to continue these advancements and many others that we cannot even contemplate rests within us.

YOU are the ones who will allow us to continue to do so. It is your knowledge and expertise that is needed to move us ahead, and to bring to bear on some of the challenges of our times. These challenges, the health issues that we face including tackling heart disease, cancer and diabetes, the environmental issues that we face like managing global climate change and adapting society to cope with it, and so on, can and will be addressed by the knowledge and experience that you have gained in your education, combined with the spirit of innovation that I see in Australia.

Your studies have provided you with the skills of critical thinking and analysis that you will apply throughout your working lives. We live in a regional, national and global system of the information age that requires managing large amounts of information and synthesising that information. Your education has not ended with your degrees being conferred, because you will need to continue to advance and move your skills ahead to suit your life and work ambitions as the world changes.

May you all advance in your chosen fields, develop your interests, inspire others, and advance us down the road to continue building a scientifically strong, technologically savvy, environmentally conscious and socially responsible Australia. While we come together to celebrate the completion of your University studies, we all hope that the knowledge you have gained, and the power that rests within it, gives you an unquenchable thirst for continuing to advance and continue to grow, and cultivate that knowledge as you walk your chosen path in life.

I trust that each member of today’s graduating class will leave the University of Western Sydney with happy memories of time spent at the University, committed friends and professional networks as well as confidence in the knowledge and skills that you have acquired. And I hope that you all remember, though it may sound like an Americanism, the expression “The West is the Best”. Western Sydney and the spirit of innovation and diversity that we house here shall remain home to all of you.

I thank you, and again congratulate you all on this most auspicious day and the occasion of your graduation."

 

Photo:Sally Tsoutas