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Professor Garry Barrett elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia
Professor Garry Barrett, Head of the School of Economics, has been elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.
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He joins 37 other new Fellows elected to the Academy – a group of over 700 of Australia’s leading researchers and professionals across the social science disciplines.
Fellows are elected by their peers, on the basis of a sustained and internationally distinguished contribution to their field.
In the case of Professor Barrett, this contribution relates to his decades of work on the economics of inequality.
“My research program has focused on measuring inequality, poverty and welfare, and assessing policies which aim to alleviate poverty and promote economic wellbeing,” he said.
“This research has involved both the development of new econometric methods and their application in evaluating of the impacts of policies and institutions.”
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Professor Annamarie Jagose, said: “Along with my colleagues in the Faculty, I congratulate Professor Barrett on his well-deserved election to the Academy.
“His long-term research on economic inequality and income support—published in some of the most esteemed economic journals—has real-world implications, demonstrating the importance of the social sciences.
“We are proud to support Garry’s academic pursuits, which began at this University, where he completed his Bachelor of Economics (Hons).”
Professor Barrett said: “It is a terrific honour to be elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. The Academy promotes excellence in scholarship and provides evidence-based advice on social policy. I very much look forward to contributing to the Academy’s activities in support of social science research in Australia.” Founded in 1971, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia provides advice to governments on issues of national importance; promotes understanding and awareness of the social sciences; and coordinates international cooperation and collaboration in the social sciences.
Dr Emilia Tjernstrom was named Australia’s leading researcher for Development Economics in ‘The Australian 2020 Research Report’. The report nominates leaders based on the researcher’s publications in top 20 journals within their field in the past five years that have the most citations by other researchers.
The Research Report is a collaborative effort between The Australian and League of Scholars to recognise both leading researchers and the contributions of the research community towards solving Australian and global issues.
Economics graduate, Victoria Edghill takes out Sydney Genesis start-up competition for 2020
Founder & CEO of Relievables, Victoria Edghill, accepted the prize on behalf of the team, competing against six other startup founders for the award.
With businesses facing more pressure to operate responsibly, Victoria saw a gap in the market to develop a platform that aggregates all impactrelated activities for businesses, empowering them to improve their social and environmental impact.
The Relievables platform offers businesses the opportunity to seamlessly manage their responsible business practices (from metrics, standards, projects and reporting) in a user-friendly and integrated way.
Victoria Edghill was the 1016th participant in the Sydney Genesis program.
“The idea for Relievables came from working with organisations across a vast array of social and environmental issues and seeing the lack of standardised, integrated and userfriendly solutions. I started working on my own ethical fashion label using the principles and features our Relievables platform now offers and realised the value this would provide to all businesses,” said Victoria. Graduating with a Bachelor of Economics and Social Science from the University of Sydney, Victoria has 15 years experience in the social impact and sustainability sectors. She then went on to forge a career delivering technology solutions for multinationals including eBay, DHL, BP and Fedex, putting her in good stead for developing the Relievables technology solution.
“Businesses play a pivotal role in solving many of the problems we face globally. Responsible practices, transparency, tangible action and accountability are essential to achieving this. We built the Relievables platform to accelerate this transition and support businesses through this process,” Victoria said.
Read the full story: https://www. sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/ news/2020/11/11/responsiblebusiness-platform-wins-sydneygenesis-startup-compet.html