Peter Henry Karmel, AC, CBE (9 May 1922 – 30 December 2008) was an Australian economist and professor.
Peter Henry Karmel, AC, CBE (9 May 1922 – 30 December 2008) was an Australian economist and professor.
Educated at Caulfield Grammar School, the University of Melbourne and the University of Cambridge where he received a Ph.D., Karmel had served as the Vice-Chancellor of both Flinders University (1966) and the Australian National University (1982-1987); he was the first person to hold the position at Flinders.[1] The Peter Karmel Building at the ANU School of Music is named in his honour.[2]
He taught as an economics professor at several universities in Australia, and was a member of the board for the Centre for the Mind from 1997 to 1999.[3]
His economic research included a focus on educational issues. In 1962, at the University of Melbourne during the third annual conference of the Australian College of Educators, he delivered the inaugural Buntine Oration, on the topic "Some Economic Aspects of Education". Professor Karmel released a 1973 report commissioned by the Whitlam government named Schools in Australia which influenced the government's funding of state schools.[1]
Karmel died in Canberra on 30 December 2008, aged 86.
He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1967, a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1976, and awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001 "for leadership in Australian higher education and for being a leading academic".[4]
He was married and had six children; his daughter Pip Karmel was nominated for the 1996 Academy Award for Film Editing for her work on the film Shine.[5]
