Briefing: Emeritus Professor Sam Aroni
Professor Aroni has visited RMIT University as the Director of the RMIT - UCLA Exchange Program virtually every year since the signing of the first agreement in 1990. The purpose of the agreement includes, but is not limited to, collaborative research projects, organising of joint academic and scientific activities, exchange of research and teaching personnel, exchange of students and exchange of publications. The last agreement was signed in 2003 and is now due for review. The visits are financed by RMIT Office of the PVC I and D to the sum of US$5,000. Professor Aroni provides a report following each visit. The last available report 2005-2006 is attached. Following is an overview of professor Aroni’s work with RMIT and other institutions internationally.
Emeritus Professor Samuel Aroni, Peripatetic Ambassador for UCLA International Linkage
Programs
Professor Emeritus Samuel Aroni, Director of Special Academic Projects, has worked for two decades as a roving ambassador for the UCLA International linkages Program to establish joint research programs with UCLA faculty in Israel, Australia, and France.
Professor Aroni is an authority on structural engineering, concrete materials, statistical methods, building systems, housing, and earthquakes. He is an emeritus professor from UCLA's Graduate School of
Architecture and Urban Planning.
Professor Aroni’s role is to establish and maintain an extensive network of exchange relationships between UCLA and universities around the world. He visits each of his chosen exchange partners, usually once a year. His role includes the facilitation of collaborative research projects with UCLA faculty, including international conferences as well as arranging for faculty to come for stays at UCLA, and for students to travel both ways for special training.
Professor Aroni was awarded the Medal of the City of Paris in June 1999 for his work with INRUDA
(International Network on the Role of Universities in Developing Areas).
Prof. Aroni reports has facilitated joint research projects at the five universities where he serves as UCLA
Coordinator for the ongoing exchange agreement. These universities are as follows:
RMIT University: Water and the Environment and Eastern and Western Medicine
Professor Felicity Roddick, School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, has some current contact and collaboration with UCLA. This springs from over 10 visits to RMIT by Sam Aroni and the running of 2 workshops/conferences at RMIT by the water-related staff in the, including the RMIT-
UCLA joint workshop on “Water and the Environment: Policies and Practices in the Water Industry” held in Melbourne during March 19-20, 2002.
Dr Nira Jayasuriya and Professor Roddick have also visited UCLA.
One of Professor Roddick’s postgraduates went to UCLA in 2007 on a month-long visit to complete research. Dr Eric Hoek of the Civil and Environmental Engineering School went to UCLA on an RMIT
Foundation Visiting Research Fellowship in 2005. Eric's work re the development of new reverse osmosis membranes is very well known and was mentioned many times at the AWA Membrane and Desalination
Specialty Conference III attended by Professor Roddick in February 2009.
RMIT University
Document: 726992374
Author: Georgina Douglas
Save Date: 17/04/2020
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There has also been collaboration between Professor Charlie Xue, Department of Traditional Chinese
Medicine, RMIT and Professor Ka Kit Hui Department of Medicine UCLA, to establish collaborative work and Eastern and Western medicine. An MOU was signed by RMIT in 2004/5 but was not co-signed by UCLA.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev:
Crop Plants for Arid Environments
Ecole Speciale Des Travaux Publics (ESTP), Paris: Engineering Students at UCLA
ESTP students have completed their graduate studies at the UCLA Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, including three Ph.D. degrees. Up to 2002 there were 33 students who had completed this program. ESTP is also a partner of RMIT. As RMIT does not offer a similar post graduate program by course work it has been unable to host a similar group of students.
University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia: Research on the Aging Brain
A large international conference on "The Aging Brain" was jointly organized by Professor Perminder
Sachdev, UNSW Professor of Psychiatry, and Professor Gary Small, Psychiatry & Biobehavioral
Sciences, and Director, UCLA Center on Aging, and held at UNSW in November 2000. A joint UNSW-
UCLA Biomedical Engineering Symposium was held at UNSW, July 8-9, 2002, with the participation of
UCLA Professors Warren Grundfest, Jack Judy, and Carlo Montemagno.
Victoria University (VUT), in Melbourne, Australia: Heritage Language Study
RMIT University
Document: 726992374
Author: Georgina Douglas
Save Date: 17/04/2020
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