The Australian National University (ANU) conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters, one of its highest honours, on Peter Drysdale at a graduation ceremony on Friday, 16 July 2010. Peter is a former AUSPECC chair and is head of the PAFTAD Secretariat.
Peter is well known in the region among policy makers and those with an interest in economic cooperation in Asia and the Pacific. This latest honour is well deserved, and especially fitting since two of his closest friends and colleagues, Ross Garnaut and the late Hadi Soesastro, received the same honour last year.
ANU 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’. Professor Chubb noted his role as ‘the leading intellectual architect of APEC’, and his ‘consistently and unflinchingly robust economic policy analysis, delivered in a manner which commands the respect of all sides of politics
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.
Despite the influence Peter has in scholarship and international economic diplomacy, he puts immense energy into graduate supervision and nurturing young minds, and to providing the research community and policy makers with enduring public goods.
(adapted from http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2010/07/23/tribute-to-peter-drysdale/)