IN a shock announcement, Prof Brian Schmidt, ANU Vice-Chancellor of eight years, has announced his departure from the role at the end of this year.

Schmidt, 55, said he was looking forward to welcoming a new vice-chancellor to campus when he returns to his “second home”, Mount Stromlo “to continue my research and teaching as an ANU professor of astronomy”.

He was previously a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the University’s Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. In 2011 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, making him the only Montana-born Nobel laureate.

“I love ANU, I am proud of the work I have done and I am excited to spend 2023 working with our community to achieve our shared goals,” he said.

“I remain as committed to my role and leading Australia’s national university as the day I first started, and we have much to do in the year ahead.”