Lindsey Smith

LINDSEY FAIRFIELD SMITH (1958-61) BSc, PhD Astronomer et al

Lindsey Smith studied initially at Sydney University and obtained her Doctorate of Philosophy from the Australian National University. She pursued a distinguished career in astronomy research with positions at Mount Stromlo Observatory, Canberra, the University of California, the University of Colorado, Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, University of Liege and Max Plank Institute for Radio Astronomy in West Germany. Becoming homesick for Australia after 11 years abroad, she became Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of Wollongong.

In 1987 she turned her attention to the training of teachers and university lecturers in more effective teaching methods. She promoted and managed the seminars of an American trainer, Michael Grinder, National Director of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) in Education, and conducted staff development sessions for individual schools herself. Many hundreds of teachers were trained. As a result, "Learning Styles" and other key concepts that were taught in the seminars are now a part of the language (if the not the practice) of NSW and Victorian schools.

She obtained a Graduate Diploma in Counselling from Australian College of Applied Psychology and self published a book - "Volcanoes: Recovery from Rage" (under the name Lindsey Fairfield, Indra Publishers). The book details an effective recovery program for survivors of child trauma, which Lindsey now teaches to small groups, achieving in about 4 months what can take years in conventional therapy. She also accepts clients for individual counselling.

She notes about her time at College: "The things I remember most clearly from the years at College were Doreen Langley's humour and sane leadership; the pranks we pulled (winning the Egg Cup for the first time in many years); chasing 'prowlers'; midnight strolls around campus; and the wonderful tower room in my 4th year. It stretched the envelope of my (previously very restricted) social interaction."