Deborah Terry

I'm the director of the SMI.

In early August, we had the chance to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the SMI, and it was a great night looking back at some of the achievements and impacts of the SMI, um, with speeches from the premier at the time, Peter Beattie, as well as the vice chancellor, Deborah Terry.

Um, and overall it was a fantastic night.

And of course, one of the key people in the formation of the SMI was Don McKee, the founding director.

Um, the one that was selected to go forward was something in the minerals area or mining area.

So that, the task then became to develop a- ... proposition for a minerals-related institute.

Um, the vice chancellor had very, very good connections with the Queensland Premier of the time, Peter Beattie.

And the notion was that this, this institute would bring together the four existing centers and do new things, and the emphasis was on doing new things.