Prof Adam Graycar

In his 22 years in government and before that in academia, Adam has continually blended knowledge development, knowledge transmission and public policy.

Before coming to ANU in 2010 his most recent academic position was Dean, School of Criminal Justice, at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. In the 1980s he was the Foundation Director of the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), and before that taught social policy for 7 years at Flinders University. He started his academic career as a Lecturer in Political Science at UNSW.

His most recent government position was Head, Cabinet Office, Government of South Australia from 2003 to 2007. Cabinet Office is the strategic centre of policy analysis and co-ordination for the government. It is also the agency with responsibility for managing Federal/State relations and national security issues (from a state government perspective), and as such Adam was deeply involved in the COAG process. Prior to that he was for 9 years Director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, a Commonwealth Government agency whose task is to provide quality information and conduct policy oriented research, so as to inform government decisions on crime and justice, locally, nationally and internationally. Before that he worked in policy positions in ageing, employment and skill development, and higher education.

Professor Graycar has had long experience in policy making, research, and research management at the most senior levels in Australia. He has also represented Australia in various international fora (OECD, UN etc). He has held visiting professor posts at University of California Berkeley, University of London, Yale University, University of Hong Kong and National University of Singapore. He has two doctorates from UNSW, is the author of some 200 scholarly publications, and is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.