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Professor David Lindenmayer and Associate Professor Philip Batterham discuss building resilience in farming communities and drought preparedness.

This interview was recorded on 22 March 2019.

International Women's Day (IWD) is held annually on 8 March to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

Sam Mostyn is a non-executive Director and Sustainability adviser, with a long history of governance roles across business, sport, the arts, policy, and NFP sectors.

The Prime Minister of Tuvalu, The Rt Hon Enele Sosene Sopoaga, will discuss the impacts of climate change on Tuvalu, noting the implications of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5° C.

The Prime Minister is a firm believer in the survival of Tuvalu despite growing climate impacts and he will describe some of the measures that Tuvalu is taking to protect itself against these impacts.

There have been recent media reports from well-known sources claiming that Tuvalu is not sinking. Some of these commentaries have been picked up by elements in the Australian parliament. Prime Minister Sopoaga will respond to these claims.

He will highlight the fact that climate change is a global security issue, particularly associated with people displaced by the impacts of climate change. He will describe how he believes that the UN Security Council should respond to this security challenge and why Tuvalu has proposed a UN General Assembly resolution to commence negotiations of a legal agreement to give protection to people displaced by climate change.

He will outline his expectations for the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Council of the Parties (COP) in Katowice, Poland. Of importance to Tuvalu is to guarantee that the Paris Agreement “rule book” delivers a strong outcome that puts us on track to a 1.5° C pathway.

The 2019 Schuman Lecture was delivered by Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC, ANU Chancellor, on Thursday 26 September 2019.

The director of the European Council on Foreign Relations wrote recently that Europe could become either 'a co-equal power in a tripolar world' - or 'roadkill in a Sino-American game of chicken'.

How well Europe's major players address, collectively and individually, their current serious political, security, economic and social challenges, does have global implications, including for Australia. In this year's Schuman Lecture, Gareth Evans argues it is very much in the general interest that Europe not continue to punch geopolitically below its global weight.

The Robert Schuman Lecture series celebrates the remarkable achievements of European integration since its modest beginnings in the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, announced in a declaration by French Foreign Minister Schuman. The Australian National University has recognised this achievement and foresight by coordinating the annual Schuman Lecture since 1996.

40 years ago the Voyager spacecraft hurtled towards the furthest regions of our solar system. On board was a golden record with the sounds and songs of Earth. If you were to choose a song to go on a new Voyager mission what would it be?

Professor Carola Garcia de Vinuesa and Professor Matthew Cook discuss the evolution of personalised medicine and the opportunities for health care in Australia.

This interview was recorded on 28 March 2019.

Against the backdrop of the #metoo movement, the conviction of abusers and pushback against misogyny throughout history, how do we separate art from the artist and should we?

Hosted by Double J's Zan Rowe, this event aims to challenge your thinking and moral perspectives.

Dr Natalia Kanem, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNFPA

In the 2019 Mitchell Oration, Dr Natalia Kanem of UNFPA will discuss the remarkable gains in sexual and reproductive health and rights since 1969, and point to the remaining economic, social, institutional and other barriers that prevent women, girls and young people from making their own decisions and fulfilling their potential.

Australians have access to mass amounts of potent drugs online, equivalent to “billions of doses” every day.
ANU researchers found “alarming” amounts of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and carfentanil available on the dark web.

Futurist Mark Pesce speaks as part of the 3Ai Masterclass series at the ANU on Friday 5 April 2019.

We live & thrive in an era of ‘supertools’ - tools that vastly amplify our innate human cognitive capacities. Three of these are so much a part of the fabric of our work that we tend to overlook them: the spreadsheet, the Web, and the smartphone, yet these three alone have touched and transformed nearly every aspect professional practice.

In an age of artificial intelligence, each of these supertools is being transformed again, delivering incredible capacities - in simulation, in learning, and in communication, so that everything that has come before, amazing as it is, will all seem merely a prelude. Welcome to the Dawn of the Supertools.

In recent years, international institutions, multilateral agreements, and long-established global norms have come under pressure at a seemingly unprecedented rate. This is particularly alarming in the field of arms control and international security.

Is this trend a result of an inherent deficiency or imbalance in the international legal framework, painstakingly woven together over the past half century to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction?

Are we in the midst of a paradigm shift away from multilateralism in arms control and international security? Or are these concerns exaggerated?

In addressing these critical questions, Dr Lassina Zerbo reflects upon his own experiences as head of an international organisation tasked with advancing nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and examine the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty as a model to promote and preserve multilateralism in global affairs to address 21st century challenges.

Speaker Description:

Lassina Zerbo has served as Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) since August 2013. In this role, he has cemented the CTBTO’s position as the world’s centre of excellence for nuclear test-ban verification and has led efforts towards the entry into force and universalisation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Key achievements under his leadership include the swift diplomatic response by the Organization to the 2016 and 2017 nuclear tests conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), through the provision of data and analysis of the events to CTBTO Member States in near-real time; the successful Integrated Field Exercise 2014 in Jordan, a simulated on-site inspection; the establishment of the Group of Eminent Persons (GEM) and the CTBTO Youth Group to reinvigorate efforts towards entry into force and engage the next generation; the establishment of a permanent Equipment, Storage and Maintenance Facility (ESMF) to further develop the monitoring and verification system of the Treaty; as well as significant structural and administrative forms to make the Organization fit for purpose and integrated into the United Nations system.

Prior to his appointment, Dr Zerbo held the post of Director of the CTBTO International Data Centre, where he spearheaded the responses to the 2006, 2009 and 2013 DPRK nuclear tests, as well as to the 2011 triple disaster in Japan. He established and led the CTBT Science and Technology Conferences series and managed the successful deployment of the CTBT virtual Data Exploitation Centre (vDEC), which provides an innovative framework for interacting with the wider scientific community.

Dr Zerbo holds a PhD in Geophysics from Université de Paris XI and previously worked in leadership positions at BHP-Billiton and Anglo American plc, overseeing activities in Africa, Asia and Australia.

Our staff are a constant source of inspiration and pride for ANU and the wider community. Hear what motivates and inspires the remarkable achievements of our professional and academic staff in this video.

The CASS Inaugural Professorial Series celebrates and welcomes Professorial appointments to the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences. In this lecture, we welcome Professor Carolyn Strange, from the ANU School of History. This lecture is presented in conjunction with the ANU Gender Institute Inspiring Women of ANU series.

In this talk, Professor Strange discusses several high-profile sex murder cases in Canada, from the late-nineteenth century to the 1970s, when the death penalty remained on the books. Before the White Ribbon and ‘I Swear’ campaigns, status-bearing men condemned men to death for homicide, but they were especially inclined to do so in cases involving sexual violence. The cast of the executed – the poor and the inadequately defended, the mentally disabled and disturbed, and the ethnic and racial minorities subjected to the prejudices of Euro-Canadian society – emerged in response to moral outrage, the impulse that propelled and continues to inspire calls to reinstate the death penalty.

Professor Strange specialises in the transdisciplinary history of gender and sexuality in modernity. She joined the ANU in 2010, from a background in teaching criminal law, criminology, and cross cultural studies. In 2016 she was nominated as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.”

Join us as former World Bank Vice President Jim Adams will present his reflections on the performance of the Australian aid program.

Jim is stepping down as Chair of DFAT’s Independent Evaluation Committee, having held the position for the past seven years. He will discuss how to build a robust performance culture based on accountability, transparency, learning and appropriate risk management.