May 27th 2008
A regular dinner of NSW members was organized at the Doma Bohemian Beer café, Potts Point to mark the death day of Alexander von Humboldt. Twenty-five members and three Feodor-Lynen Fellows (Barbara Abendroth, Alexander Weiss and Felix Cleeman) attended the dinner. As usual it was a fun evening. Despite having an idiot-proof camera, only a few of the photos I took turned out, so if you attended but photos arent available it just means they were probably too blurred to use – sorry! Im better at organizing these dinners, rather than making a photographic record of them, so if you have any photographic skills please bring your camera along for the next dinner so we can get some decent shots!
September 13th 2008:
The President of the Alexander von Humboldt Stifung in Bonn, Herr Professor Helmut Schwarz and his wife, visited Australia in September 2008 and Kay Double, the NSW Rep, was asked by the Humboldt office in Bonn to arrange an informal dinner so Prof. Schwarz could meet the local NSW members. A dinner for 40 was organised at Deep Blue Bistro, Coogee and was generously sponsored by Bonn. The NSW members responded with enthusiasm to the chance to meet the new AvH President and the dinner places were filled within 24 hours of the invitations being sent. In addition to local NSW members, we were pleased to host the following invited guests: Professor Dr Peter Schwerdtfeger (President, NZ Humboldt Association), Dr Andreas Jaeger (DAAD, Sydney) and Jean-François Desvignes-Hicks (FEAST, Canberra). The dinner was a great success and Professor and Frau Schwarz (despite having only arrived in Australia that morning!) were very interested to meet the local members and to hear of the Australian Humboldt Association and the events we organize. Photos of the evening can be found below.
Oct 27th 2008
As State Rep I was invited to the „Vertrauen_verbindet – Deutschland-Alumni in der Welt von morgen meeting of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Jan 21st-22nd, 2009 in Berlin. Unfortunately due to grant writing and family responsibilities at that time I was not able to accept but the invitation (which was to be fully funded) demonstrates that the Humboldt Foundation in Bonn is aware of the Australian Association and values our views.
In 2009 I will be organizing our regular biannual dinner to correspond approximately with the birth- and death days of Alexander. If you have any questions or suggestions about the NSW branch of the AAvHF or events organized by the local chapter please contact me on the details below.
Assoc. Prof. Roger Read, Tel: (02) 9385 4457 r.read@unsw.edu.au