Professor Erik Reichle from the Faculty of Human Sciences, has recently joined Macquarie as Head of the Department of Psychology. We asked him a few questions to learn more about his life on and off the campus.

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I’ve been at Macquarie for…

Only 3 months

In a nutshell, my job is to…

I’m lucky enough to have inherited a highly productive Department of Psychology.  My ‘day job’ is making sure that it continues running in that vein. But on the side, I continue doing research on computer models of reading, and teaching the occasional lecture.

The question I hear most often in my work is…

“How’s it going so far?”  (Usually, the person asking has a nervous grin.)

The top three things on my to-do list today are…

1. Finish the book that I’ve been writing for the past nine years.
2. Finish the book that I’ve been writing for the past nine years.
3. Finish the book that I’ve been writing for the past nine years.

(All work and no play makes Erik a dull boy.)

If I could do any other job at Macquarie (with instant qualifications/knowledge) it would be…

I wouldn’t mind being the Dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences. It’s an amazing Faculty with really strong psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, and education departments, and for that reason I think it’d be a lot of fun learning more about each of the disciplines and figuring out ways of making them even more integrated.

Name a Macquarie staff member that impressed you last week…

My Department Manager, Avril Moss. She actually amazes me most days with her wealth of institutional knowledge and plain good judgment. My job is only do-able because of her!

I get my campus coffee fix from …

Piccolo Me in the Hearing Hub. I hold a lot of my meetings there, drinking coffee. I should get a discount for all of the business I drum up!

If I could change anything about Macquarie it would be…

The naming conventions of the buildings – X5B, C3A, E8C, etc.  Really?!?

Outside of work, you’ll often find me…

Running (literally!) around the city.  It’s all very new to me and I’ve found that going on long runs around the city really is the best way to get to know the place.

I’m really looking forward to….

My partner and I are going to Tibet next year. We’ll probably take a train from Beijing to Lhasa (which will be an amazing experience in itself), and then spend about two weeks traveling around the country. It should be the trip of a lifetime!

The most amazing place I’ve ever visited is…

It’s really hard to say, but probably the different places I’ve visited in China. To quote Ray Batty from Blade Runner, “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe”.