We chat with Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Project Officer Arjanna Chitranjan who’s busy supporting Professor Sakkie Pretorius ahead of his famous annual ‘Weather Report’.

Work stuff
I’ve been at Macquarie for…
It will be a year this November.

In a nutshell, my job is to…
Support Macquarie University’s DVCR, the famous Sakkie Pretorius, and Executive Manager Tori Hocking do the wonderful work they do for our University’s research and innovation profile.

The question I hear most often in my work is…
“Can you fix up [insert specific problem] on my PURE profile please?” Following this, I redirect query.

The top three things on my to-do list today are…
1) Preparing for Sakkie’s Weather Report, which is coming up on 9 October. Exciting times!
2) Create some charts and figures for Sakkie to present at an internal meeting.
3) Self-reflect and finish filling out this questionnaire, which I can assure you takes longer than 60 seconds to complete 😊.

A Macquarie staff member who impressed me last week…
Tori Hocking never fails to impress me with her brains, beauty, hawk-eye for detail and poise in both stilettos and her moon-boot.

I get my campus coffee fix from …
Don’t say the ‘c’ word! I am trying to namaste my way out of my caffeine addiction.

If you were given $50 million to create or build something at Macquarie, what would you do with it?
I’d donate it to Sakkie – he’d know what to do with it (am I sounding like a fan-girl yet?).

Personal life
My ethnic heritage is…
I was born and raised in Sri Lanka. It is a beautiful paradise full of coconuts, surf and lush green hills where the best tea grows.

However, a thirty-year civil war left its dark footprint on my country. In my late teens, I tried to embark on a career in the humanities, by working on a project funded by UNAIDS which took us to parts of the country that were severely impacted by the war. There is still much to be done.

My family was keen to have me further educated so I was sent away to the land down under to pursue tertiary education and my plan to cure cancer, as I lost my father to it.

Fast forward a few years, I was a scientist researching brain tumours. A slight change in direction, and here I am!

My favourite subject at school was…
Always was, and always will be, science. I remember having an “aha” moment at school where it occurred to me that everything was science. I found it fascinating that you could learn language, history, philosophy and mathematics through the amazing umbrella that is science.

Outside work, you’ll often find me…
Outdoors: on my bike riding down a gorge, or on my mat practicing/teaching yoga, or, more recently, surfing.

I’m really looking forward to…
Summer, so I can come out of hibernation (FYI island blood freezes at 25°C) . And going back to Sri Lanka in December.

If I could have dinner with anyone (living or dead) it would be…
Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world’s (and Sri Lanka’s) first female Prime Minister. I received an award from her when she was still alive, which left quite an impression. I would love to ask her more about her social work for the country and her political career –particularly of her more controversial decisions that led to an increased divide between the Sinhalese and Tamils.

In ten years from now, I hope to be…
In a place where I have found a way to further integrate my passion for making tertiary education more accessible to women in the developing world and wellness/movement into my career.