Nominations closed on Tuesday 24 March 2015 for President Academic Council for a term expiring on 31 December 2017.

One nomination was received and in accordance with the University’s Election Regulations, Professor John Pluske is therefore declared elected.

Professor John Pluske arrived as a Senior Lecturer (Physiology) in the School of Veterinary Studies at Murdoch University in June 1999. John has both a BSc (Agriculture) and PhD from The University of Western Australia, and held prior appointments at The University of Alberta, Canada and Massey University, New Zealand, before joining Murdoch University. John has been Associate Executive Dean (Faculty of Health Sciences), Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Development) on two occasions, Director of the Animal Research Institute, and more recently was Associate Dean-Research in the newly formed School of Veterinary and Life Sciences. Between August 2014 and February 2015, Professor Pluske was the Australian-American Fulbright Commission’s Inaugural Distinguished Chair in Agriculture and Life Sciences, where he was based at Kansas State University.

A committed teacher, John has twice been nominated for the Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Awards, and was instrumental in assisting in the establishment, administration (as Academic Chair) and evolution of the Bachelor of Animal Science degree at Murdoch University, which is now firmly established as a success story for the School of Veterinary and Life Sciences and the University. Moreover, Professor Pluske has supervised a number of PhD, Masters and Honours students to completion.

Professor Pluske’s research has focused on nutrition-gut disease interactions in pigs, pig nutrition, growth and development, feed and ingredient evaluation, nutrition-immunology-microbiome interactions, and nutritional alternatives to growth promoting antimicrobials including antimicrobial resistance. Since 1995, he has published in excess of 130 publications in peer-reviewed journals, 13 refereed book chapters, greater than 200 refereed and non-refereed conference proceedings, and has given more than 70 invited scientific presentations nationally and internationally. The total value of competitive research income Professor Pluske has attracted since 1999 exceeds AU $7 million (as PI or co-PI).

Collectively, Professor Pluske’s extensive experiences in administrative roles, teaching and supervision, and conducting research at Murdoch University have led to his interest in contributing to University governance as President of Academic Council.

Trudi McGlade
Returning Officer