The former international wicketkeeper-batsman has been on the UOW team since 2008, helping the University develop stronger ties with Indian companies. The 2011 ‘tour’ is Gilchrist’s fourth to India with UOW, and since 2008 he has helped the University build its relationships with Indian corporations and potential students.
On this trip Gilchrist’s ‘team-mates’ will include UOW’s international medical bionics and nanotechnology expert Professor Gordon Wallace and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Judy Raper, who is also the Executive Director of the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM). The Institute is at the University’s Innovation Campus – a research and development precinct where UOW’s key research institutes are located alongside innovative corporations.
They will be talking to Indian corporations and research institutions about opportunities for collaboration in a range of high-tech research areas ranging from medical bionics including nanobionics and artificial muscle development to batteries for electric vehicles and clean energy technologies.
Their itinerary includes Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, where they will be meeting with key Indian business leaders and technology experts. Professor Wallace will also deliver a keynote address at Bangalore Nano (9 December).
UOW already has strong links with India, with the Gilchrist-led visits of recent years reinforcing decades-old ties.
In November 2011 UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Gerard Sutton visited India to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Mr Arun Kumar Jagatramka, Chairman and Managing Director of Indian company Gujarat NRE to investigate developing a campus in the city of Ahmedabad to offer a range of courses. Gujarat NRE has coal mining operations in Wollongong, and the company has a close association with UOW.
UOW has successfully operated the University of Wollongong in Dubai since 1993. It is the most successful western university in the United Arab Emirates, and Indian students are its largest foreign student body.
And in 2010 Indian global IT services company MphasiS, an HP company, established a presence in Australia when it opened an integrated development and delivery centre at the University of Wollongong.
Building upon this recent success, UOW is now forging links with India in the exciting area of Future Materials. Professor Raper said UOW had world-class researchers who already have global collaborations, and they were looking to establish partnerships with Indian companies and institutions
“The Australian Institute for Innovative Materials is home to two of UOW’s flagship research institutes – the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute led by Professor Gordon Wallace and the Institute for Superconductivity and Electronic Materials led by Professor Shi Xue Dou,” Professor Raper said.
“Chemists, engineers, physicists, biologists and materials scientists are under the one roof at the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials working together to develop solutions to some of society’s greatest challenges, and helping transform their laboratory-based successes into commercial realities.”
Adam Gilchrist said he was excited by the scientific successes at the University of Wollongong, and he enjoyed helping UOW build relationships with Indian companies and institutions
“The relationship between the University of Wollongong and India is very much a two-way street,” Gilchrist said. “There are so many opportunities for Indian companies in Australia by linking with UOW, while the University itself is looking to develop a real presence in India.
“The future is limitless.”
