ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt to step down

The vice chancellor of Canberra’s Australian National University, Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt, has announced he will step down from the prestigious position at the end of the year.

Schmidt, a graduate of Harvard University, said in a video message that he would return to his role as a professor of astronomy, extending his 28-year-long position on the university’s staff.

“I am so proud to have been trusted to lead ANU,” Schmidt, who led the institution through the turbulent pandemic years, said.

“We have some big plans for the year ahead.

“Great universities are not great by accident. They need the constant energy and effort of a huge number of people.”

In a speech to the university on Thursday, he said, “having arrived as an agent of change” now was the time to leave before “before I become the status quo”.

Canberra-based Labor MP Andrew Leigh said Schmidt would be missed.

“Brian won the Nobel for showing that the universe was expanding at an accelerating rate,” Leigh wrote on Twitter. “In eight years as ANU VC, he showed what an expansive vision of higher education could look like (while voluntarily shrinking his pay packet).”