This e-mail is making the rounds down under:
"Please join me in congratulating David Chalmers, who has been awarded a Federation Fellowship with us here in the Philosophy Program at RSSS, ANU [Australian National University]. Paul Griffiths and Philip Pettit were also awarded Federation Fellowships in the current round, Paul at UQ [University of Queensland] and Philip at [University of ] Sydney. Please join me in congratulating to them too. This is a wonderful day for philosophy in Australia."
Chalmers is the distinguished philosopher of mind at the University of Arizona, who not long ago declined the Wilde Chair in Mental Philosophy at Oxford; Griffiths is Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, who, as recently reported, had accepted an offer from the University of Exeter (how that will be affected is still unclear); and Pettit is Cromwell Professor of Politics and Philosophy at Princeton University and, previously, Professor of Social & Political Theory at the ANU.
More facts about the new Fellows are on-line here. 3 of the 25 winners are philosophers--a fitting percentage given Australia's leadership role in the field over the past 50 years.
The Federation Fellowships in Australia, like the Canada Research Chairs, are efforts by the respective countries to recruit home leading researchers of international distinction. The Federation Fellowships have a five-year duration, and pay about US$165,000 per year (Australian $235,000)--an exceptional salary, even by US standards.
I am told that there is a norm that those who apply will accept the Fellowship if offered. But when it becomes clear what this year's winners are doing, I'll post the information here and on the Update Service of the PGR. Clearly these moves could be significant for Arizona, Princeton, and Exeter--as well as the institutions in Australia.
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