Our advisor, Peter Drysdale, was recently conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters at Australia National University.
The award recognises Peter’s dedication and contribution to the academic community. But what sets Peter apart, as Vice Chancellor Ian Chubb said at the graduation ceremony, is the influence he commands, with his name instantly recognised ‘in the corridors of power and the hallways of knowledge’ around the region. ‘In a way matched by few other academics in the world’, he said, ‘[Peter] has combined scholarship, policy development, regional institution-building and the mentoring of an extraordinarily large number of students from Australia and across the region’. The ANU’s new Chancellor, former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, described Peter as ‘a living national treasure’ and expressed his good fortune at having been able to turn to him for advice when he was in government.