Progress for All: hard knowledge and the quest for public good

I was honoured to give the 2024 Chaikin Oration at the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) on Thursday, 19 September.The annual oration celebrates the legacy of the late Professor Malcolm Chaikin AO OBE FTSE, a true doyen of impact-focused academia and a giant of UNSW Sydney.

In the spirit of Professor Chaikin’s unyielding commitment to advancing knowledge and to universities collaborating with industry to address critical issues for the benefit of all, I spoke on the topic ‘Progress for All: hard knowledge and the quest for public good’.

I proposed that ‘deep expertise’, developed, shared and applied in genuine partnership, is essential if we are to address today’s critical challenges and stay true to our aspirations: helping all Australians reach their greatest potential.

I suggested that deep expertise, which takes information and converts it into the almost cellular knowledge that leads to true innovation and to real, applied solutions to complex problems, is key to tackling current and future disruptions in economics, technology, the environment, geopolitics and social cohesion.

Deep expertise is the prerequisite for collaboration, for innovation and for solving complex problems in a way that ensures everyone benefits. And that’s the clincher: the public good.

In these times of Googling and Asking Siri, when acquiring information is generally expected to be easy, we need to value the time and effort required to develop deep knowledge and expertise. I strongly believe that only deep expertise enables analytical, critical, creative, higher-order thinking. It brings deep, relevant prior knowledge together with new information to solve complex problems. It enables us to reap the benefits of multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary work.

I was pleased to share a small handful of wonderful examples of UNSW and industry combining our expertise for positive impact. Project Halophyte, an environmental restoration program in Fiji in collaboration with the University of the South Pacific, with support from Swire Shipping. The NSW RNA Production and Research Network and UNSW RNA Institute, which are driving the development of an industry that is going to have a profoundly positive impact on human health in Australia and on a global scale. The UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, recognised globally for its world-leading expertise on displacement in the context of climate change and disasters. These are just a few of the collaborations that are having positive impacts in Australia and around the world.

In closing, I posed the ultimate question, “How do we ensure deep expertise is valued, fostered and applied for the benefit of everyone, for progress that extends well beyond economic gain into wide-ranging gains for humanity, for human security, and for advancing global society?” At universities, we have three levers to pull. Education. Research. Genuine engagement with society and with partners in industry who share our vision.

Over UNSW’s first 75 years, education, research and engagement have been used to extraordinary effect by giants like Professor Malcolm Chaikin.

The challenge as we move towards the disruptions and transitions of our global future is to stand on these giants’ shoulders, to ensure hard knowledge and deep expertise are valued, to take deep expertise into the new frontiers of knowledge, and to nurture the new intellectual giants, whose passion for innovation will keep driving the world towards Progress for All.

Thank you to ATSE for inviting me to give this oration in memory of the brilliantly innovative, collaborative and philanthropic Professor Malcolm Chaikin.

Professor Brungs’ Chaikin Oration is available to read in PDF.