In rural India, people who were previously left to die in hot huts are receiving palliative care for the first time.
Robots originally designed as vacuum cleaners are now cleaning up roadside bombs and going inside nuclear powerplants, offering new protection for soldiers and scientists.
These are amongst the previously untold stories of researchers, students and alumni from Flinders University featured in ‘The Investigator Transformed’, launched last week to mark the University’s 50th Anniversary.
‘The Investigator Transformed’ showcases an extraordinary group of graduates, staff and students, providing a snapshot not only of the university’s past, but also its future potential.
Flinders University Vice-Chancellor Professor Colin Stirling says the book included just a small sample of the thousands of remarkable people in the Flinders community, but it managed to capture the University’s singular spirit.
“’The Investigator Transformed’ project provides a glimpse of the people who have formed the foundations of this university, as well as a clear portent of its potential for the future,” Professor Stirling says.
“The attributes that set Flinders apart from other universities shine through, with common threads of humility, a maverick spirit and a determination to make a difference.
“This book captures some consistent characteristics in our university, despite great variation in generations, disciplines and locations” Professor Stirling says.
In India, Dr Ann Thyle set up a new network of mobile palliative care teams after completing a palliative care postgraduate course with Flinders.
The network provides free care and information to people in rural villages who are at the last stages of their lives.
Previously, millions of people have died in obscurity in rural India, as families were unaware of what had caused their illness or how to cope.
Meanwhile, in war zones such as Iraq, robots based on technology developed by Flinders graduate Dr Rodney Brooks have been used to seek out and disable roadside bombs.
The stories of Drs Thyle and Brooks are just two of the stories captured in The Investigator Transformed.
“No book can ever attempt to capture every facet of a university, but this volume does reflect the journey of our institution as it carries some of the core values of its namesake, navigator Matthew Flinders into the 21st century,” Professor Stirling says.
“Matthew Flinders was the first to circumnavigate Australia in his ship HMS Investigator and was renowned for his practicality, willingness to do things differently to achieve his goals, and his outstanding achievements.
“We hope he would be proud of the way that this university is carrying those values into the future, making a difference to the world through our research and education.”
See photos from the launch of The Investigator Transformed here.