In this edition

Welcome to the October edition of Monash Magazine for 2009.

This is the first edition of the Monash Magazine since I became Vice-Chancellor and President in July this year and it is a great honour and a privilege to lead this fine institution.

As I said at the time, Monash has gone from strength to strength in the past 50 years to become one of the world's great universities. My priority is to build on the work of my predecessors and make the University an international beacon of teaching and research excellence, a university that is engaged with the community and industry, and delivering the solutions we need in areas such as health and well being, sustainability and social inclusion.

As you are all no doubt aware, Monash University is a thriving, successful community of scholars driven by a passion for innovation, productivity, and culture and heritage. You will find just a taste of this in this edition of Monash Magazine.

One researcher is developing a research tool that could provide a window to the human mind, hopefully providing a clear, faster diagnosis for those with a mental illness. Another has spent the past 40 years travelling across the islands of Indonesia capturing that country's rich culture and tradition for future generations. We also meet one of the many national teaching award winners at Monash University.

In this edition we also celebrate just some of the international success stories of Monash. At the end of 2009 a new generation of young doctors will be the first group to graduate from the medical school at the University's Malaysia campus. They are truly an international group, having studied in both Australia and Malaysia, and will flow into communities across South East Asia.

Thousands of Monash graduates are already making a difference on the world stage, be it bringing us the latest news developments via the mass media or building successful innovative businesses in the booming technology market. Sustainability is a key focus of activities at Monash University.

As a cross disciplinary team looks at the engineering, scientific and economic challenges of harvesting storm water in our major cities, we also hear from Australia's best climate change experts, many of them from Monash, about the scientific facts of climate change.

I hope you enjoy this latest offering of some of the bold teaching and research expertise underway at Monash University.