ANU to honour international leader

President Michael McRobbie will recieve an honorary doctorate at the graduation ceremony on Friday. Photo by Aaron Bernstein, courtesy Indiana University.

The outstanding achievements of an ANU alumnus Professor Michael McRobbie AO, who is now leading a top tier teaching and research university in the United States, will be recognised when he is awarded an honorary doctorate at the Graduation Ceremony tomorrow.

A former ANU scholar and academic, Professor McRobbie is President of Indiana University (IU). He will be honoured for his significant contributions in the fields of artificial intelligence and computational science, as well as university leadership and innovation. 

President McRobbie is responsible for IU’s eight campus system which has a total budget of around US $2.7 billion, and over 5000 faculty, 11,000 staff, and 100,000 students. IU is an international leader in professional, medical and technological education with a strong tradition in the liberal arts and sciences.

There is a significant and growing partnership between ANU and IU. Last September, ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Chubb and President McRobbie signed a Memorandum of Friendship that has seen the establishment of the ANU-IU Pan Asia Institute. Joint language courses and other student and staff exchanges are already underway at the institute, which combines the complementary academic strengths of the two universities into a single research and teaching enterprise.