Mass spec for the ARC

The University of Wollongong's Professor Margaret Sheil has been appointed chief executive officer of the Australian Research Council for the next five years.

Sheil is currently deputy vice-chancellor (research) at Wollongong, a director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Smart Internet Technology, and a fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.

She is also a member of the Government's Research Quality Framework reference committee, and the immediate past chair of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee deputy/pro vice-chancellors' (research) group.

She graduated with an honours degree in science in 1984 and a PhD in chemistry in 1988 from the University of NSW.

Her research interests encompass the study of biomolecular interactions and applications of mass spectrometry to biological problems and she has 85 publications in international journals.

She is a former President of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Mass Spectrometry and Australian representative to the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation. She is currently an editor of Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry.

Sheil takes over from Professor Peter Hoj, who became vice-chancellor of the University of South Australia in June.