Welcome to Professor Catherine Waldby

Friday 11 September 2015

The College of Arts and Social Sciences welcomes prominent academic and social researcher Professor Catherine Waldby as Director of the Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS).

Professor Waldby, previously an ARC Future Fellow and Professor at the University of Sydney’s Department of Sociology and Social Policy, is the first woman to become Director of the school.

In announcing Professor Waldby's appointment in December 2014, ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young AO noted her reputation as a world-class researcher with a strong record in fostering collaborative research across a range of disciplines.

“I congratulate Professor Waldby for her appointment with the Research School of Social Sciences and look forward to her leadership of Australia’s premier institution for research and teaching in social sciences,” Professor Young said.

“I welcome Professor Waldby to the ANU community and look forward to working with her.”

During her career Professor Waldby, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, has focused on bringing a social sciences perspective to biomedical issues relevant to public policy.

She has written five highly-cited monographs and more than 50 journal articles and chapters related to social aspects of medicine and ethics, and is co-editor of the interdisciplinary journal BioSocieties.

“I am honoured to be the new Director of RSSS,” Professor Waldby said. “I am very conscious of the historic significance of the position in the national and international social science landscape and of the tremendous concentration of excellence in the Research School.

“I hope to build on that excellence in a number of ways. I think the RSSS disciplines have an enormous amount to contribute to our understanding of issues such as climate change, obesity and biosecurity, and other topics that we often consider the purview of the sciences alone.”

She said the solutions would require stronger cooperation and dialogue across different areas of expertise, particularly with science, technology, engineering and maths disciplines.