Bob Howlett: personal history

Where I've been

Born and raised in South Australia, I attended the University of Adelaide, obtaining a BA (Hons) in 1970 and PhD in 1976. My supervisor was Dr R. J. Clarke. In 1971 I was a tutor in the School of Mathematics at the South Australian Institute of Technology, and in 1975-76 I was a tutor in the Department of Pure Mathematics at the University of Adelaide. I held a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship at the University of Sydney in 1977-78, then moved to Perth as a Senior Tutor at the University of Western Australia in 1979, before taking up a Research Fellowship at the Australian National University in Canberra in 1980. In 1982 I obtained a Nuffield Foundation Travelling Fellowship, which enabled me to spend the year at the University of Warwick, England. (I think that these Fellowships no longer exist.) On my return to Australia I extended my leave of absence from ANU for a further six months, during which time I held a temporary lectureship at the University of Sydney. I returned to Canberra for a year before obtaining a permanent position at Sydney, where I have remained since.

I spent six months sabbatical leave at Warwick in 1991, and in 1995 another six months sabbatical was spent half at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and half at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

In my younger days I was a keen player of cricket and Australian Rules football. I took up cycling in 1981, but I only ever won one race. I gave up competitive cycling in 1987, and now I only ride to and from work. But one of these years I'll take up racing again.

I often wonder where my ancestors came from – particularly my father's father's ancestors ...