Running with Tony Buti: Curtin University Vice-Chancellor Harlene Hayne on her journey from Princeton to Perth

Professor Harlene Hayne is Vice-Chancellor of Curtin University, having previously been the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. We caught up at Curtin University.

Tony Buti: Harlene, do you regularly engage in running?

Harlene Hayne: No, I am into Yoga. Hot yoga. The traditional hot yoga is 90 minutes in a room heated to about 38 to 40 degrees. There are 26 postures, always the same. It’s like a good Catholic mass — no matter where you go in the world, it’s exactly the same.

TB: Can you tell us a bit about your background?

HH: I was born in Oklahoma, but I grew up in Colorado. The Rocky Mountain Front Range runs through my home State. I grew up in the foothills of those beautiful mountains. Then I moved about 90 miles south to Colorado Springs, where I went to university. After that, I went to Rutgers University in New Jersey to do my master’s and Ph.D. After completing my Ph.D., I went to Princeton for four years as a postdoctoral fellow.

TB: What’s your discipline?

TB: What was it like being at Princeton, an Ivy League University?

HH: It was a bit like a Camelot period in my academic life. When I arrived, my supervisor handed me a key to the library and a key to the laboratory and said, “Go away and come back when you’ve discovered something really important.” I had all the resources Princeton had to offer, a fantastic group of people to work with in the lab, and complete freedom to focus solely on research, 24 hours a day. It was a wonderful time in my career.

TB: Can you elaborate on your research into foetal alcohol syndrome?

HH: We were looking at issues around the timing of alcohol exposure during pregnancy. At the time, in the late 80s and early 90s, people believed that early exposure in foetal development was the most damaging. However, our research showed that late exposure — particularly to the developing frontal cortex — was more detrimental. We studied this using animal models.

Our work was instrumental in challenging the myth that if damage had been done early in pregnancy, continuing to drink wouldn’t make a difference. If you can get people to stop drinking during any stage of pregnancy, the outcomes are much better.

I love the ambition of Perth and Western Australia, but it doesn’t have the downsides of the relentless ambition of the US, which can be too aggressive.

TB: Why did you move to New Zealand?

I love the ambition of Perth and Western Australia, but it doesn’t have the downsides of the relentless ambition of the US, which can be too aggressive.”

HH: It was a bit of a whim. My husband and I were both postdocs at Princeton, and we were expecting our first child. We started looking for a place where we could continue our careers and raise a child in the US. It was difficult to see how we could do both.

At the time, jobs opened up in New Zealand, and we were offered positions. The lifestyle there seemed better, including childcare on campus.

TB: After living in New Zealand for 30 years, why did you leave and come to Curtin University?

HH: In the middle of the COVID pandemic, a recruiter reached out to me about the position at Curtin. At first, I wasn’t interested, but after several long Zoom conversations with Curtin’s Chancellor, Dr. Andy Crane, I realised Curtin’s values aligned with my own. I realised I might have one more big job left in me.

TB: You arrived in Perth in the middle of the pandemic Was that in 2021?

HH: Yes, it was April 2021. I spent 10 glorious days in quarantine, then arrived on my very first day at Curtin. I often describe that first day as if someone handed me a beautifully wrapped present. Every day since, I’ve come to work and unwrapped another layer, discovering something amazing inside. In a way, being stuck in Western Australia during that first year allowed me the time to discover the university, meet my colleagues, connect with students, and even engage with the wider community. In some ways, I miss that period now.

TB: What are your views on living in West Australia?

HH: I think WA is a fantastic place to live. It has the best of all worlds, as far as I’m concerned. You know, we often say it’s the most remote city on the planet, but it isn’t.

It actually shares the same time zone with 60 per cent of the world’s population. It’s only remote from the east coast of Australia. And I love that we’re part of the Indian Ocean region of the world. I love the ambition of Perth and Western Australia, but it doesn’t have the downsides of the relentless ambition of the US, which can be too aggressive.

It’s easy to be an American in Australia. I often describe in my acknowledgement of country that, you know, I’m 16,000 kilometres away from where I grew up, but that the blue sky and the red dirt here looks exactly the same as it does in Colorado, and it makes me feel very much at home here.