Couple of Doctors sharing their passion with the community

He served as Chief Economist in the Economic Planning Advisory Council of the Australian Government, is a former senior economist with the World Bank and was a Senior Research Fellow at the ANU.

He became a Member of the Order of Australia in 1991, for service to international relations.

Five years ago, he moved to Moruya with his wife - Dr Jane Elek.

Dr Jane Elek loves science.

She is a research entomologist - that is, studies insects - and worked fighting pest infestations among the eucalyptus plantations of Tasmania.

When the couple arrived in the Eurobodalla, they were keen to remain interested in their hobbies and to meet the local community.

They joined U3A, and quickly became involved as tutors leading courses in their respective fields.

Dr Elek began a course on international economics which petered out after a year, morphing into a trade policy discussion group, which in turn transformed into it's current format: a discussion group about anything and everything.

Watching the metamorphises was been beautiful for Dr Elek.

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"I began with U3A in order to teach something, but I realised this way I'm actually learning some things," he said.

Dr Elek - or on occasion other members of the group - send out articles or papers about a topic and the group gathers weekly to discuss the issue.

They have covered unemployment, the Moruya hospital, climate change, economic policy, regenerative agriculture and many other topics - most recently, the conflict in Ukraine.

The group doesn't expect to solve the world's problems, but that isn't the point for Dr Elek.

"It is about keeping ourselves alert, awake, interested," he said.

"Different people's views make you think a bit harder about why you believe something. I've changed my mind on a couple of things."

Dr Jane Elek is also helping change minds within U3A.

When she started attending U3A courses, all the academically-minded courses were literary or historic in nature. There was no space for science; no interest in science, or so she thought.

However, Dr Elek's fascination with and passion for science was infectious.

She began the Kaleidoscope Science Taster course - looking at different science topics every fortnight. Guest speakers have shared on renewable energy, geology, Antarctic research, space exploration, many forms of aquaculture, marine life and plant biology.

The course is oversubscribed and "amazingly popular" according to Dr Elek.

She said members started off picking and choosing which topics they would come too. Now they come without bothering to read what the topic is. They are confident it will be interesting whatever it is.

"People are curious and keen to learn, and that's a great thing," she said.

It's true of the U3A members to which she refers, but it's a challenge to all the rest of us.