Australian National University facts for kids

School of Music, ANU

The Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia, is the only university set up by the Federal Government of Australia. The law to start the university was passed in 1946. It was set up to be a research university for subjects of national importance. These included physics, medicine, social sciences and Pacific studies. The university started undergraduate courses in 1960.

Nobel prizes

ANU has had five Nobel Prize winners:

Sir Howard Florey (1946) who was Chancellor of the University 1965—1968
Professor John Eccles (1963) - first Professor of Physiology at the John Curtin School of Medical Research
Professor John C. Harsanyi (1994) - economics teacher at ANU from 1958—1961
Professor Rolf Zinkernagel and Professor Peter Doherty (1996) - researchers at the John Curtin School of Medical Research.
Brian Schmidt (2011) - astrophysicist