Nobel Laureate to launch UQ Development Council

Winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Medicine Professor Peter Doherty will launch a new initiative in Brisbane next week designed to direct the University of Queensland's development strategies.

Professor Doherty, a University of Queensland graduate, will launch the University's Development Council at a Brisbane Customs House function on Monday, June 1 at 11am.

The Council is an honorary body, including influential community members, chaired by University Chancellor Sir Llew Edwards.

Development Council member and University Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay said the Council would take an active role in building links with alumni, industry, business and the community.

The Council will help the University identify those priorities which will enhance the activities of our state and nation, identifying vital links between the University's Strategic Plan and key members or groups of the community who can, through their support, turn these plans and priorities into realities. World-class universities depend for their success upon the closest possible links between themselves and the wider community of which they are a part.

The honorary role played by such persons as members of the Development Council are crucial if a university and the community are to achieve their full potential.

Professor Hay said two University annual appeal committees and a bequest advisory committee would report to the Development Council. The Council would receive strong support from the University Development Office, located at 400 Queen Street.

He said graduates, corporations, trusts and foundations had been generous towards University development programs. The Major Gifts Program, which was initiated in 1997, resulted for the year in pledges and gifts of $4.786 million from 30 donors for 13 priority projects for the University.

Gifts included $1 million from two corporate donors towards the Moreton Bay Research Station and Study Centre, and funding for professional appointments in banking and finance, psychiatry, general practice dentistry, and animal welfare.

Media: For further information, contact Professor Hay, telephone 3365 1300.