Professor Joan Leach

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) holds responsibility for the establishment and satisfaction of academic standards at ANU, including the delivery of an exceptional educational and student experience.

The portfolio's key roles are to:

• Highlight and expand the University's national and global leadership in the provision of research-led education.
• Enhance quality and standards in education, including innovation in program development and delivery and educational administration.
• Nurture and recognise student and staff achievements in education.
• Strengthen regional, national and global connections in curriculum, industry partnerships and educational research.
• Support College-led processes of curriculum renewal.

Current priorities include:

• Implementation of approaches and metrics on the recruitment, retention, mentoring, management and development of academic and professional staff to lead the sector.
• Provision of mentorship, training and/or professional development to ensure our teaching staff have the opportunity to excel
• Generation and regeneration of the University's teaching and learning spaces and practices
• Introducing Australia's first university-wide integrated approach to admissions, accommodation and scholarships which recognises academic and co-curriculum achievements and matches financial support with need and which sets the highest national standards
• Philanthropic activities to transform the opportunities of ANU students and educators.

Professor Joan Leach currently holds this role.

Professor Leach is a leading global expert in science communication specialising in public engagement with controversial and frontier science and the ethics of science communication. While remaining transfixed by the positive impacts of science, she advocates for critical public engagement with science and helps to create forums where this engagement can meaningfully happen. Her most recent projects include the MRFF funded EOAR Project (Engaging Openness in Australian Research) which focusses on openness in Stem Cell research and the Kavli Foundation funded “Bringing Ethics and Engagement into Astronomy.”

Joan has held teaching and research roles at the University of Pittsburgh (USA), Imperial College London, and the University of Queensland before coming to the ANU in 2016. Her research is centred on how knowledge travels across science and society (social epistemology), science communication, and public engagement with science. She is active on a number of Editorial Boards for many international journals and was Executive Editor of Social Epistemology. Her recent books include An Ethics of Science Communication (with Fabien Medvecky) and the co-edited volume Science Communication: A Global Perspective which collects the national stories of science communication from over 40 countries and territories. She has supervised over 30 PhD students, hundreds of coursework and research students, and continues to regularly innovate in classroom and online teaching.

Joan is past Chair of the National Committee for History and Philosophy of Science at the Australian Academy of Science, past President of The Australian Science Communicators, and works with a variety of awards programs including Tall Poppies, the Eureka Prizes, and ABC Top 5.

From 2020-2024, Joan was Chair of the Academic Board at the ANU and is passionate about good governance in higher education, the special place of academic freedom in the University, and realising innovative education.