2005 The George Alexander Foundation/ISS Institute Fellow, Sponsored by The George Alexander Foundation
Warwick Johnston, Engineer, was invited to share his experiences as an ISS Institute Fellow at the 16th Annual ISS Institute Fellowship Awards, December 2006 at RACV Club, Melbourne.
A Major Landmark in Your Personal and Professional Life
Permit me, if you will, to speak directly to the Fellows. You’ll be privy to the conversation, of course, and I trust that you too will benefit from hearing these insights. I will generalise for you my own personal experiences as a Fellow, as an example of what is possible, with the hope that I may inspire you to excel and exceed that which I and other Fellows have been able to achieve.
The impact of an ISS Institute Fellowship upon your professional and personal life will be profound.
Becoming a Fellow is an entry into a club of people with some shared understanding. Although you all represent a broad cross-selection of society, covering different fields, backgrounds and specialities, together you are a group of people with one thing in common… a vision. A vision that has assisted you to identify a specific skills gap in Australia, a vision too of how that skills gap may be rectified, a vision of the benefits which this will bring to Australia.
This vision extends to the journey you’re about to embark upon, a journey that you yourself have charted. At the commencement of this journey, you may feel some sense of anticipation, dread. For whatever your background, your present expertise, your specialisation… you are about to become Australia’s leading specialist in a skill not yet found in this country. In this sense you are stepping into uncharted territory, and whatever course you had plotted, you will find that the Fellowship will take you to places and learnings beyond which you have presently imagined. I wish you great courage and also great enjoyment on this journey.
The greatest tool you will find at your disposal is the legitimacy brought to you by the ISS Institute Fellowship. As Australia’s future leading specialist and advocate in a given field, people within Australia will be calling you to ask for advice. Overseas you will find that the research and knowledge that you take with you, the insights into the Australian market and how it relates to world’s best practise – this will be knowledge that international leaders are keen to learn. Because of this, you will find doors opened to you and specialists willing to share their expertise. In this way, the Fellowship is the best possible formula for accelerated learning.
Your journey will all be enhanced by the support and wisdom of those who have made a similar journey before, those Fellows of years past and particularly the excellent staff of the ISS Institute. So go overseas with confidence.
Personally, my journey involved the field of solar powered air conditioning. A field of increasing relevance, as the world awakens to the threat of climate change, a force likely to increase our air conditioning needs. Australia, a land of sun with significant need for air conditioning is very likely to benefit from mastery of this technology, through development and successful application. Yet the technology is a mystery for most Australians, presently being developed in countries that may be cooler, but which have much higher energy prices. By identifying the skills gap, how it may be addressed, and the benefits which would result from this action, an ISS Institute Fellowship was born.
This saw me travel to Germany, Austria, Spain, Israel, and Singapore – along the way meeting with passionate and intelligent people, leaders in the field.
I was able to learn a lot from each encounter, but also pass on a growing wealth of information based upon my research to date and understanding of the Australian market. The Fellowship opened up a door of legitimacy to my visits, and I was welcomed as someone with an interesting perspective – unique even amongst the professionals I visited – that of having a broad technology-independent market awareness.
Along the way, I met amazing people, experts in their field, and made some lifelong friends. In addition to professional benefits, I have benefited personally from the confidence associated with my achievements, for one cannot be thrust into a position of prominence and influence without learning some personal skills, including organization, logistics, communications, and international relations. I’ve been gratefully supported by people who believe in me, notably ‘The George Alexander Foundation’, the ISS Institute, and, of course, my employer – a visionary in himself.
Since my trip, I’ve presented to the Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society, completed a report which has been well received, and been invited to speak at various other conferences. Opportunities have opened up, and I regularly receive calls asking my respected opinion. This Fellowship has truly changed my life, as I hope that it changes yours. All of this is possible for you, for this Fellowship is what you make of it.
Treat this ceremony, therefore, as a rite of passage, for you will find it to be a major landmark in your personal and professional life. The life you have led to this moment is over, your new life is now beginning. Whether your skills be related to the environment, technology, the arts, cuisine, or preserving our heritage, I wish that each one of you becomes influential, effective, and helps to bring skills to Australia for our national benefit, so that together we may create a rich vibrant future.