Taking chances pays off

Peter Høj (f. 1957) is MSc in Biochemistry/chemistry and was awarded his PhD (Lic.agro.) at Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology in Biochemistry/chemistry in 1987.

 

Current occupation: Vice Chancellor & President of The University of South Australia

 

Previous occupations: Chief Executive Officer, The Australian Research Council and Managing Director, The Australian Wine Research Institute.

 

Why did you choose biochemistry?

My father said to me: “Son, get an education – that can never be taken away from you!” I wavered between choosing a career as a scientist, an engineer and a medical doctor, but when I stumbled across Albert Lehninger’s book Biochemistry, a new world opened; the prospect of understanding much of life using the language of chemistry!

 

I was lucky enough to do the laboratory work for my thesis at the Carlsberg Laboratory, where I met my Australian wife Robyn. Here I realised that it is possible to pursue great science and at the same time have in mind what the potential practical utility of such science could be.

 

After the completion of my MSc studies, I began my PhD under Professor Birger Lindberg Møller who was just starting a new laboratory at the then Royal Danish Veterinary and Agricultural University, now LIFE. What a contrast to Carlsberg! At Carlsberg, we had everything in abundance, and here, we started with absolutely nothing in a Department that best could be described as having seen much better days.

 

Family and career working together

Nevertheless, there was a pioneering spirit and we had very odd working hours that took into account the closing hours of crèches. The inspirational thing was that Birger always insisted that family came first and that a happy family is one where the aspirations of your partner are as important as your own. Our wives pursued equally demanding careers but we virtually never missed a meal as a family and always made sure that one day on the weekend was workfree.

 

I see many young scientists afraid to embrace a dual-career structure and afraid to start a family during the formative stages of their career, when in reality, this is where the greatest degree of flexibility in respect to caring exists and when you are strongest. I also see a reluctance of some people to take risks. In my case, it could be perceived as a risk to leave a fantastic environment to do a PhD in a group that was only about to start. It probably was, but it did give me the opportunity to see a fantastic supervisor create something from scratch and at the same time care for his students to such an extent that I secured my PhD in two years and published what I consider to be two of my best six papers ever.

 

Moving to Australia

I continued taking risks. My wife and I went to Australia; I with some funding to back me up and was lucky enough to get a job at the Department of Biochemistry at LaTrobe University. At the end of 1988 I was offered a tenured Lectureship and my own laboratory.

 

I still felt that my impact in research was hampered by an inability to develop the group to a decent international size. I decided to apply for the position of Foundation Professor of Viticulture at The University of Adelaide and got it. Robyn had gotten a position as Senior lecturer there. This was a scary move. First of all, for both of us it was a move to an empty laboratory, and our knowledge of viticulture was quite limited.

 

It quickly turned out that our fears were unfounded, the wine industry was enormously supportive as were our fantastic colleagues. We soon found the labs humming, our lectures well received and our work supported by an industry that made us feel appreciated because we listened to their practical issues and tried to apply good science to their solutions. Our first paper to be published was chosen as the cover story in Plant Physiology. What many had told us was a bad career move suddenly looked like good stuff.

 

Back to the university

Maybe it was the knowledge that whatever “silly” move I had made, it seemed to always deliver over and above what I could reasonably expect, that made me switch jobs again. Anyway, I ended up running the private Australian Wine Research Institute for seven years. In 2004, personal circumstances (I lost my wife to cancer), the new opportunities and a realization that organisations benefit from regular change in leadership led me to accept an appointment as the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Research Council. And last year, I was appointed Vice Chancellor & President of The University of South Australia.

 

It is my hope, that this account will give young students the courage to take risks and be adventurous. It has certainly worked for me so far!