![]() |
Dr Stephen Bruce Dowton FACMG FRACP | |
---|---|
Born | 1956 |
Nationality | Australian |
Citizenship | Australian, United States |
Education | University of Sydney, Harvard Medical School |
Occupation | Vice-Chancellor |
Years active | 2012 - present |
Organization | Macquarie University |
Title | Professor |
Predecessor | Steven Schwartz |
Website | vc |
Stephen Bruce Dowton (born 1956) is the fifth Vice-Chancellor and President of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He is a paediatrician, researcher, and academic, and has served as a senior medical executive at universities, healthcare institutions, and consulting organisations. [1] [2]
Dowton was born in Ivanhoe in the far Far West region of New South Wales and raised in Dubbo. [3] He moved to Sydney in 1975 to commence tertiary studies and was the first in his family to attend university.
He graduated from the University of Sydney Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (with Honours) in 1980. He also holds a doctorate of medicine (MD) for his work in cell biology from the University of Sydney,[ citation needed ] and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and the Children’s Hospital Medical Centre, Boston. As a laboratory scientist, his work focused on regulation of the expression of genes for an important class of blood proteins.[ citation needed ]
He has published over 80 articles on a wide range of topics in peer-reviewed academic publications, [4] [5] and has held Visiting Professorial and External Examiner appointments at several universities including the University of Edinburgh, Columbia University, the University of Tromsø in Norway, Hong Kong University, as well as institutions in the People’s Republic of China.
Dowton has also held a variety of leadership roles at Harvard Medical International and subsequently Partners Harvard Medical International, most recently as its Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. In these roles, he traveled to developing nations to guide the development of their medical education, strategy, and governance.
In 2001, the NSW Minister for Health, Craig Knowles, invited Dowton to establish a new ministerial council to oversee the reorganisation of graduate medical education across the state health system, the Medical Education and Training Council. Dowton also served as chair of the Committee of Deans of Australia in Medical Schools (CDAMS) from 2002 to 2004. During this time, the organisation consolidated and strengthened the funding base for the Rural Clinical Schools Initiative. As part of a multi-pronged initiative as chair of CDAMS, with other decanal colleagues, he oversaw the establishment and implementation of the Indigenous Health Project through a partnership with the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health in the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing implementation of the Indigenous Health Project. [6] With this platform, a nationwide indigenous Health Curriculum Framework was developed and ratified.
Macquarie University announced the appointment of Dowton as their fifth Vice-Chancellor in July 2012, [7] and he assumed the role in September that year, [8] leaving his post as clinical professor of paediatrics at the Harvard Medical School.
In June 2019, questions were raised about payments Dowton received for hosting university functions at his home. The hosting payments received by Dowton totaled $222,000 over four years (2014 to 2018). The house was bought with a loan drawn from the university, and interest payments in the same period totaled $129,000. [9]
Alongside his role as Vice-Chancellor, Dowton holds the following positions:
He was a member of the Board of the Maggie Beer Foundation from 2014 until 2016. [12]
Macquarie University is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of Sydney.
Dame Marie Roslyn Bashir is the former and second longest-serving Governor of New South Wales. Born in Narrandera, New South Wales, Bashir graduated from the University of Sydney in 1956 and held various medical positions, with a particular emphasis in psychiatry. In 1993 Bashir was appointed the Clinical Director of Mental Health Services for the Central Sydney Area Health Service, a position she held until appointed governor on 1 March 2001. She has also served as the Chancellor of the University of Sydney (2007–2012).
The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1830s, the university was founded in its current form in 1988. As of 2021, UTS enrols 45,221 students through its 9 faculties and schools.
The University of Newcastle (UON), informally known as Newcastle University, is a public university in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1965, it has a primary campus in the Newcastle suburb of Callaghan. The university also operates campuses in Ourimbah, Port Macquarie, Singapore, Newcastle CBD and Sydney CBD.
Charles Sturt University is an Australian multi-campus public university located in New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. Established in 1989, it was named in honour of Captain Charles Napier Sturt, a British explorer who made expeditions into regional New South Wales and South Australia.
The University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) is a national Roman Catholic private university with campuses in Fremantle and Broome in Western Australia and Sydney in New South Wales. The university also has eight clinical schools as part of its school of medicine located across Sydney and Melbourne and also in regional New South Wales and Victoria.
Steven Schwartz is an American and Australian academic and, until late 2012, the Vice Chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He was previously Vice Chancellor of Brunel University in the UK and of Murdoch University in Western Australia. He is a trained psychologist and served both as senior academic and researcher, then as a university corporate manager. His style of management was controversial and attracted considerable opposition. He defended his record by saying that he wished universities to be more market-oriented, research-focused, accountable, transparent and held to higher standards, in the hope of improving university profiles and attracting more students, funding and researchers. Throughout his career he was successful in establishing new schools and facilities at the universities he was involved with.
Northholm Grammar School is an independent Anglican co-educational primary and secondary day school, located in Arcadia, in the Hills District of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
John Rodney Niland is an Australian academic and board director. Niland obtained a Bachelor and Master of Commerce from UNSW and his PhD is from the University of Illinois. He has held academic positions at Cornell University, The Australian National University, and UNSW. He served as a mediator of labour disputes in the US while at Cornell, and in Australia has undertaken extensive academic and policy work in conflict resolution, theory and practice, particularly enterprise bargaining. John Niland is a Professor Emeritus of UNSW and was its fourth Vice Chancellor and President (1992-2002). Before that he was the Dean of the Faculty of Commerce and Economics. While UNSW Vice-Chancellor, he was a founding director of both Universitas 21 and Australia’s Group of Eight Universities. He also served a term as President of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee, and was a member of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council.
Michael Bernard Easson AM, is an Australian businessman and former trade union leader. On 8 June 1998 Easson was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
Dr Sue Page AM is a past President of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia and current Board member of Future Health Leaders, North Coast GP Training, and RACGP Rural As Associate Professor with the University of Sydney she links to the Northern Rivers University Centre for Rural Health, a collaboration between that university and the University of Southern Cross for the delivery of multidisciplinary health professional education in Australia. Until 2010 she was the inaugural Director of the North Coast Medical Education Collaboration, a venture linking the University of Sydney, the University of Western Sydney and the University of Wollongong which established year-long training for medical students in rural areas and later combined with the UCRH.
Brian Kenneth Owler is an Australian neurosurgeon who was elected as president of the Australian Medical Association in May 2014. Prior to taking the presidency of the AMA, Owler was president of the AMA (NSW).
Philippa Eleanor "Pip" Pattison is a quantitative psychologist who retired in December 2021 as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education at the University of Sydney. She is now an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne.
Dr Eugen Molodysky OAM, MMBS is an academic and medical practitioner in preventive medicine and translational research. His research has been published in peer reviewed journals over the last 30 years. He has a life-long professional focus on prevention, preclinical diagnosis and early intervention.
Janice Clare Reid is an Australian academic and medical anthropologist, who has specialised in Aboriginal and refugee health. She was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Sydney from 1998 to 2013.
MaryAnn Bin-Sallik is Djaru Elder and Australian academic, specialising in Indigenous studies and culture. She was the first Indigenous Australian to gain a doctorate from Harvard University.
Lisa Rae Jackson Pulver is an Aboriginal Australian epidemiologist and researcher in the area of Aboriginal health who has been Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Sydney since October 2018.
Vanessa Lee-AhMat is an Australian scholar who was the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PhD graduate from Griffith University School of Medicine. In 2005, Lee-AhMat was recognised by the Parliament of Australia for her dedication and commitment to Thursday Island community, in the Torres Strait.
Eeva Kaarina Leinonen is a Finnish educator and educational administrator. Since 1 October 2021, she has been president of Maynooth University in Ireland, having previously headed Murdoch University in Australia.