chemistry

Margaret Sheil

Margaret Sheil is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Margaret Sheil rather than just read about it. In short: Margaret Mary Sheil is an Australian academic and the Vice Chancellor of Queensland University of Technology. Early years Margaret Sheil was born in Goulburn, New South Wales in August 1961.

Key takeaways

Margaret Sheil belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Margaret Sheil to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Margaret Sheil from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Margaret Mary Sheil is an Australian academic and the Vice Chancellor of Queensland University of Technology.

Early years Margaret Sheil was born in Goulburn, New South Wales in August 1961. As a teenager, she regularly visited the Department of Chemistry at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) where her mother, a nurse, was seconded to work on a scientific study to monitor lead levels in the blood of children exposed to petroleum. Obtaining a Bachelor of Science and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from UNSW, Sheil accepted her first post-doctoral position at the University of Utah, followed by another at the Australian National University.

University Returning to Australia in 1990, Sheil accepted a lectureship in chemistry at the University of Wollongong. She was promoted to Professor of Chemistry in 2000, the first female chemistry professor in Australia, before becoming dean of science in 2001. The University of Wollongong Council appointed her to the role of Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) in 2002, and then Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC Research) in 2005. As DVC Research, Sheil led a major change at the University of Wollongong with the aim of boosting research outcomes and developing a high performance research culture. She has been acknowledged for boosting the national/international research reputation of the university, and supporting female academics, during her time at the University Of Wollongong. Sheil's career was the chief executive officer of the Australian Research Council (2007–2012). In that role she led the development of the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) evaluation of Australian University Research, whilst also leading the development of a range of new funding schemes. Also in this role, Sheil sought to increase research funding for women researchers, and has been acknowledged for her efforts, for keeping women in research and attracting Indigenous Australians to academia. Sheil was Provost of the University of Melbourne, from 2012 to 2017. She was appointed to the role of Vice-Chancellor of Queensland University of Technology in February 2018. Sheil is a member of the Advisory Council of the CSIRO Science Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF), the Clunies Ross Awards Committee of ATSE and the Australia Indonesia Centre. In 2016, Sheil joined the Board on the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and the ATSE Board. She is a former member of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC), a member of the University Advisory Board for Coursera, the National Research Infrastructure Council, the Cooperative Research Centre Programme and served as an Education Specialist on the Board of the Australian National Selection Commission for UNESCO. Throughout her career, Sheil has sought to find ways to progress the participation, success and recognition of girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Sheil gave the 2014 Diana Temple Memorial Lecture at the University of Sydney charting her own experiences and life history against the backdrop of the changing constraints and opportunities that applied to women during those decades. In June 2025, she succeeded Ian Chubb as the Secretary for Science Policy at the Australian Academy of Science.

Recognition and awards Sheil received the Morrison Lecture for her contributions to mass spectrometry in Australia, and was a finalist in the AFR 100 women of Influence for 2012. The Royal Australian Chemical Institute's Margaret Sheil Leadership award was established in recognition of her work. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI), the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), and was made an inaugural fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Mass Spectrometry (ANZSMS) in February 2014. In 2017, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia, for services to science and education. She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in May 2021.

Controversy Shiel has faced criticism for her leadership as vice-chancellor at Queensland University of Technology, which educates more than 52,000 students each year and employs 12,000 staff. She was the highest paid Queensland university VC in 2020 with a package worth at least $1.2m. In response to claims that a lavish personal bathroom had been constructed at the university, during cuts for staff and programs, Sheil stated, "one private bathroom plus an end-of-trip facility had been added during renovations to the heritage-listed Chancellery building, as were some marble finishes in public spaces as recommended by heritage architects". Sheil gained attention for her support of Queensland University of Technology's decision to remove all references to the word "merit" from its hiring policy, claiming that such terminology never achieves its stated goals and preferring instead to move towards a more "inclusive suitability assessment".

Selected publications

References

External links Media related to Margaret Sheil at Wikimedia Commons

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Margaret Sheil

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Margaret Sheil claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Margaret Sheil before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Margaret Sheil ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Margaret Sheil

In research: Margaret Sheil appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Margaret Sheil in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Margaret Sheil is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1961 births, 20th-century Australian chemists, 21st-century Australian chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Margaret Sheil outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Margaret Sheil in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Margaret Sheil means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Margaret Sheil out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Margaret Sheil in simple terms?

Margaret Mary Sheil is an Australian academic and the Vice Chancellor of Queensland University of Technology. Early years Margaret Sheil was born in Goulburn, New South Wales in August 1961.

Why does Margaret Sheil matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Margaret Sheil?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Margaret Sheil.