Third Annual Lecture of the UWA Historical Society in association with Convocation (The UWA Graduates Association)
The Annual Lecture is the highlight of the year for the Society and for Convocation and we were delighted to welcome Emeritus Professor Donald Watts to the podium to reflect upon his early years on Campus and his subsequent experiences and achievements.
This event has now passed. The printed booklet for Emeritus Professor Don Watts’ erudite and entertaining presentation is now available from the University Archivist, Maria Carvahlo. To obtain copies of this lecture please telephone (+61 8) 6488 7234 or email [email protected]
Don Watts entered The University of Western Australia in 1951. He held a Hackett Scholarship, a Cumming Smith and Mount Lyall Farmers Fertilizers Scholarship and a Gleddon Studentship before moving to University College London on a CSIRO Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 1959.
Don returned to UWA as a Senior Lecturer in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry in 1962, rising to a Readership in 1968 and a Personal Chair in 1978.
In 1980, Don was appointed as Director of the Western Australian Institute of Technology, which Institute became Curtin University of Technology from 1 January 1987 with Don as inaugural Vice Chancellor. He then accepted the position of president and Vice Chancellor of Bond University, Australia’s first private university, in 1987.
Following a period of time working for the Northern Territory Government, Don retired in 1995 and returned to Perth where he has assisted the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle.