John Byron is Principal Policy Adviser at the Queensland University of Technology. He has 25 years’ experience in higher education and research policy, including as executive director of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and as a federal ministerial policy adviser in the previous Labor government. Most recently he contributed substantially to a major independent review of the Australian Research Council. He has degrees in English Literature from the Universities of Adelaide (BA Hons 1M) and Sydney (PhD). His début novel, The Tribute, was published by Affirm Press in 2021.