Have you said thank you to someone today? Perhaps they held the lift door for you, or made your cappuccino. Saying thank you is a common gesture of courtesy, often for a mundane act.
But have you said thank you to someone whose work may yet save your life, or the life of a person in your family? Have you thanked the people who developed your medication or contributed in some other way to your quality of health? Well, now you can. Today is the inaugural Thank You Day, an initiative of Research Australia, which seeks to make health and medical research a higher national priority.
Research Australia is an alliance of national organisations, including Australia's major research universities, hospitals, the Sydney Stock Exchange (which provides office and computing support), Macquarie Bank and the Murdoch Foundation. The chair of Research Australia is Professor John Niland AC, former Vice-Chancellor of UNSW and now Chairman of the UNSW Foundation.
"Thank You Day takes the act of saying thank you to a much higher level of appreciation," Professor Niland said. "It is a gesture of gratitude to researchers who are working away in their labs, removed from most of us, striving to improve our health and our lives. Usually we don't know their names or have the opportunity to thank them."
Research Australia's website has a link which provides a pathway for people to send a message to any branch of medical science which they would like to thank. Research Australia is also holding a ceremony this evening to honour those people and organisations which support researchers and their work.
Privacy Policy