OBITUARY
Just after Christmas, Professor Emma Johnston, AO, FAA, FTSE, FRSN, marine biologist and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, succumbed to cancer at the age of 52.
If Emma had been an animal, she would have been dolphin. She was smart, energetic, playful, graceful, and her enduring smile supported all those around her.
Her range of talents and achievements were extraordinary. She spent most of her career at UNSW. I first met her when she was a junior academic. She studied how pollutants affected biodiversity in Sydney Harbour and found that they enabled invasive species to gain a foothold and outcompete natives, thereby weakening whole ecosystems.
She ran a great lab in a superb centre in the School of Biology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and with her colleagues set standards of not just scientific excellence, but also of care and support for students and junior staff.
At one stage she was consulted by documentary makers filming the series Coast Australia and was instantly recognized by them as a potential host. Her knowledge and infectious enthusiasm, like that of Attenborough, allowed her to inspire myriad watchers with the wonders of the sea. She also became the President of Science and Technology Australia and was soon a powerful voice for science, and an inspiration to young scientists across the country, including many young women who could suddenly see what was possible.
She had been promoted to Professor and then applied for the role of Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research, because it was in this role that she could best support up and coming academics and research students. When I stepped down as Dean of Science at UNSW in 2016, everyone wanted Emma to be the next Dean. Everyone except Emma. She was fully occupied with her continuing research, teaching, and mentorship, and with her wonderful husband, she was bringing up her two children – why would she commit to managing the bureaucracy and ceremony required to lead a Faculty?
Eventually she did apply for the role and was the perfect Dean. I remember when Emma was the face of science and when Michelle Simmons, one of our world class quantum computing researchers, was named Australian of the Year. Two brilliant women representing what was possible when one commits to supporting talent and learning, and to building capacity in Australia.
Emma moved to the University of Sydney as Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, but we still saw her smile at every meeting as she strengthened the many collaborations we have with our peer institution. Of all universities in the world, Sydney is UNSW’s major collaborator, and staff move back and forth between the institutions (I did too!), and we work together endlessly, trying to improve the world through learning, via teaching and research, and by example. Emma kept setting the standard as a supportive leader and builder in the sector.
She telephoned me one day wanting to talk about moving to Melbourne as their Vice-Chancellor. I was delighted. She was still young, but she would be perfect for the role. She would inspire and she would build. She would be welcomed back to the place where she had studied, and she would enhance the steadfast commitment that that world class university has to learning.
And so it was.
I had always followed Emma on social media and I continued to see her smiling and supporting developments at Melbourne and the higher education sector in Australia. I last saw her in person at the Australian Financial Review’s Higher Education Summit in Sydney in September. She seemed well and remained optimistic but also fearless, as always, in her resolve to keep building and strengthening our sector, despite the challenges.
The challenges were emerging from unexpected places. We were being told that if you didn’t realise that universities had lost their way then you must be living under a rock. We were seeing a very different style of leadership, one based on restricting rather than growing.
Some frame Emma as a uniquely good university leader, and I would say her range of talents and her excellence were unique, but her values were the values of the sector. She had been inspired by learning throughout her life and she embraced the values of Australian universities. She was a creation of the wonderful education sector that has been built by thousands before us. Yes, there are specific problems, and whenever she encountered one, she was precise in defining it, its scope, and scientifically addressing the problem. She was a leader who fixed and built, not one that sought to cast general shade, doubt, and to spread pollution.
She believed in science and knowledge, and in growth and fulfillment. The same things her colleagues, her students, and virtually everyone I have ever worked with in universities has believed in.
Perhaps I am living under a rock in thinking this but if you believe that I am, then I implore you to come to Sydney Harbour, and having read about the Harbour project that Emma led at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, then gently turn over a rock on the foreshore and remember her. You will see bright red sea anemones, soft sea hares, sea urchins, barnacles, limpets, periwinkles, chitons, and whelks, and you may catch a glimpse of an immaculate damsel fish darting away.
There are more species in Sydney Harbour than in the whole of the Mediterranean. We live in paradise. This is a treasure but its preservation and growth depends on talent, work, and application, and the right attitude. Emma had all of that and she will be remembered for her support and positivity. This will continue to inspire people for decades, when others have long been forgotten.
Professor Merlin Crossley is DVC (Academic Quality) at UNSW.