Making a splash: meet the ANU leader creating global change

Professor Rebekah Brown’s first unofficial task as Provost involved chocolate. Lots of chocolate.  

Visiting the ANU campus with her daughter ahead of the Easter long weekend, Brown was whisked into the preparations for a high stakes staff egg hunt. 

Hundreds of chocolate eggs were hidden – wedged at the top of doors, tucked in shelves and placed in plain sight on top of coffeemakers and computer monitors. 

“This week, I got to tell my daughter that one of the Easter eggs had only just been found,” Brown says. “She was pretty thrilled about it.”  

Brown joins ANU as Provost and Senior Vice-President after more than a decade in academic leadership at Monash University in Melbourne. She says while it was difficult to leave her team at Monash, she had achieved everything she set out to do. 

When the role of Provost was advertised, colleagues across the sector encouraged Brown to apply. Her sister – the founder of a robotics company and self-professed fan girl of ANU Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell – was also supportive. 

“I was ready for a new challenge,” Brown says. “The close relationship with government and the close relationship with the community means ANU has opportunities to have a significant impact, and I wanted to be part of that. 

“I also really believe ANU is the most progressive on First Nations and Indigenous issues.  

“I knew it would be a privilege to be the Provost of an organisation like this.”  

Brown’s new role is vital to the ANU and its distinct national purpose. As Provost she oversees the University’s academic mission, including advancing research and teaching. It’s a role she was born to take on.  

Creating change

Brown was the first in her family to attend university. She studied engineering and was one of only three girls in her undergraduate cohort.  

At the time, equal opportunity legislation was being implemented across the education sector, and engineering had been targeted as a discipline that attracted very few women. Lecturers and tutors all received training in preventing discrimination.  

“The training must have happened in my second year. For about six weeks, every professor felt they needed to ask one boy a question in class, followed by one girl. You can imagine what my life was like,” Brown says.  

She finished top of her class.  

“On my graduation day, I got an award and I remember the deputy dean said to me: ‘smart girls do well in engineering, and they do well because they find husbands’,” Brown recalls. 

After winning a scholarship offered by a multinational engineering firm, Brown moved to London. There, she worked on large infrastructure projects including the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, the redesign of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin and a water supply and sanitation system in Zimbabwe.  

“I had this big career, but I was just so frustrated, because we were designing infrastructure that caused so many greenhouse gas emissions,” Brown says. “We were creating pollution and not really thinking about the social dynamics that communities needed.”  

When Brown initially tried to design with these factors in mind, she was told her ideas were too expensive. But then when she provided cost-effective options, these too were rejected. She decided to return to university. 

“I could do complex mathematical equations and understand resource flows, but I wanted to better understand power and decision-making,” Brown says.  

“So, I did a PhD in the social sciences to understand change, decision-making and how to mainstream more sustainable infrastructure. That’s how I wound up in academia, it wasn’t a big plan – it just sort of happened.”  
 

Water sensitive cities

Brown’s research centres on the concept of water sensitive cities, which she describes as a new way of thinking about sustainability in cities and environments.  

With our urban environments experiencing the pressure of population growth and climate change, integrating urban planning and water management can help to improve liveability. 

Brown led the implementation of these principles both locally and in countries including Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. She says it soon became clear that it was the developing world that would benefit most from their sustainability efforts.  

“I wanted to demonstrate to the world that you could take an approach like this and fundamentally improve people’s lives and their health.”

Professor Rebekah Brown

Generous financing from the Wellcome Trust and the Asian Development Bank provided Brown and her team of researchers with the chance to bring their work to urban slums in Indonesia and Fiji, areas where children were suffering serious gastrointestinal health issues due to poor water quality. 

The project involves collecting and treating rainwater to make it drinkable, while directing wastewater into areas that look like small wetlands but are in fact treatment plants. These treatment plants produce water for flushing toilets and growing food.  

“I wanted to demonstrate to the world that you could take an approach like this and fundamentally improve people’s lives and their health,” Brown says. 

She led the program for several years, including during the toughest period of COVID, and now sits on the governance board, having handed the reins to her former deputies. 

“Most of the slums have now been rebuilt. We’ve been monitoring people’s gastrointestinal health and have taken blood and stool samples for children under the age of five, pre-construction, during construction and post construction,” Brown says. 

“It’s probably my biggest career highlight because it’s my research and leadership materially making a difference to people’s lives.”  

A Canberra convert

Despite the chilly Canberra climate, Brown’s first impressions of life in the nation’s capital have been positive. She and her family are starting to settle in. 

“The flora and fauna are what I love the most,” she says. “I’ve got five different species of birds in the trees around my home. We’ve bought e-bikes and been riding around the lake, the complete cliche. 

“Everyone’s made such an effort to make me feel welcome. It’s really been quite extraordinary.” 

Brown is looking forward to what this next chapter will bring. 

“I’m very excited by the talent that’s here at ANU,” she says.  

“As a senior leader in the sector, it’s about enabling the levers and institutional conditions so great people can do great work. That’s what I’m most inspired about.” 

The entire ANU community is eager to see what comes next.