The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is an annual meeting of some of the most influential people in the world. From CEOs and heads of state to social entrepreneurs and academics from leading universities, the meeting brings together diverse individuals and organisations to discuss global challenges and make concerted efforts at ‘improving the state of the world’.

When Barnaby Joyce resigned as deputy Prime Minister in February 2018, people listening to his speech reported their bemusement at a term he used, as Australian National Dictionary editor Dr Amanda Laugesen, BA (Hons) ’97, PhD ’01 explains.

Dr Brian Wimborne recounts the ups and downs of a musical genius.

A haunting display of abstracts relates the loss of many friends, as Simon Jenkins reports.

Two researchers are investigating if a new invention can help diabetes patients, as Colleen Bell reports.

The Chifley Library’s collection will grow in new directions to replace the books lost in the deluge in late February, as Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington writes.

A research project in Australia and Sweden is trying to understand how bogong moths perform incredible feats of navigation. Kate Prestt reports.

Old-fashioned forms of mapmaking have been important to how nations interact, as Professor Rory Medcalf writes.

Dr Fiona Beck, PhD ’11, one of Australia’s most promising early career researchers, hopes to influence the next generation of optoelectronic technologies. Rebecca McKenzie-McHarg reports.

Andrew Harper AO, BA ’87, ANU International Alumnus of the Year 2018, is Head of Programs for the UN Refugee Agency in Geneva, overseeing the agency’s refugee camps. He has dedicated his career to helping refugees and those suffering in the face of natural disasters, including leading the international response to the Syrian refugee crisis in Jordan. Andrew’s sister, Virginia Harper, shares her perspective on the impact the boy from a sheep farm in Wagga has had on the world.

Policies on the Murray-Darling Basin have cost Australian taxpayers billions. Quentin Grafton and John Williams ask, where did the money go and what did taxpayers get in return?

Jessa Rogers, PhD ’18, has a passion for education and its role in the empowerment of Aboriginal women. In the keynote speech to this year’s Commencement, she told students and staff about the challenges in her life and how they made her strong. Here is an edited extract of her speech.

The University joined Canberra’s Enlighten Festival for the first time this year, with the campus lighting up for five nights of vibrant projections, food stalls and entertainment.

Jacqueline Bian, MBus ’11 and Mark Ma, MFinMgt ’11 first met as international students from China studying at the ANU College of Business and Economics (CBE). Today, they are not only happily married but are business partners in their translation company WordsTalk.

There is a clear need to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who experience a disproportionate and inequitable burden of ill health, stemming from Australia’s history of colonisation.

I can pinpoint the moment my view of engineering changed. It was December 2005 and I had decided to attend a conference on engineering in developing communities.

The world is experiencing a paradigm shift toward population ageing that will touch each of us in fundamental ways – socially, economically and politically.

Comic book expert Dr Chris Bishop is exploring the changing perceptions of violence against women, as Evana Ho reports.

This year has been frenetic for Deputy Head of the ANU School of Sociology Dr Gavin J D Smith. Here he reflects on a typical day in the life of a snake-catching sociologist.

These days the former ANU students have a small farm in Gippsland that’s ‘mostly wombats’.

A research team is helping rewrite Australian literary history, as Evana Ho reports.

This book is about the phenomenon of violence, as Emily Hazlewood reports.