King - one of a kind
by Michèle Nardelli
It
may be more than just poor typing that makes me regularly write Kind
instead of King every time I refer to retiring Pro Vice Chancellor
Professor Robin King in a media release. A Freudian slip perhaps -
probably according to ITEE Division Manager Carol Dadswell who says
Professor King is one of a kind.
"Robin is everything you could ask for in a PVC and line manager," she says. "He is a strong leader, highly regarded and respected for his keen intellect and strategic insight, and he is a very warm human being who genuinely cares for his staff. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Prof King over the past 10 years."
He retires this month after a career spanning two island nations, and roles as a researcher, a manager and international advocate for science education.
Prof King graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) from
the University of Sheffield in 1967. His focus was electronic and
electrical engineering and a few years later he submitted his PhD
thesis at the University of London, pioneering research into
computational and physical modelling of UHF microwave transmission.
He then worked for the BBC’s Engineering Research Department before
taking an academic position at the University of Technology Papua
New Guinea in 1974 where he taught some of PNG’s first electrical
and communications engineers and did further research in
telecommunications.
Prof King returned to work at Southampton University in 1976 and
research into communication aids for the hearing and
vision-impaired. In 1985 he continued that research In Australia,
working on speech synthesis and human-computer interface
technologies and the development of a "Braille mouse" before moving
from UNSW to Sydney University in 1989. He joined UniSA 10 years ago
as Dean of the Faculty of Information technology but within that
first year a restructure saw Prof King take on the role of Pro Vice
Chancellor, IT, Engineering and the Environment with responsibility
for the newly rebadged Mawson Lakes campus.
Prof Andrew Parfitt, Director of the Institute for
Telecommunications Research says Prof King has a deep appreciation
of the core issues facing the University in relation to science
education.
"He has a real grasp of the dilemma for the sciences, and he has
developed important strategies that will give the University new
options," he said. "He is a highly regarded member of the
engineering community and his stature will be missed at UniSA."