The 2015 Pro Vice Chancellor’s Griffith Sciences Excellence Awards were presented this week and celebrated a year of outstanding achievement.
Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Debra Henly said performances across areas such as student learning, research, sustainability, support services and health and safety had contributed significantly to the rise of Griffith University through the world university rankings, and to the University’s reputation as a provider of distinctive and quality higher education.
“Griffith Sciences’ fields of education discipline areas are now ranked in the top 10 nationally for ‘overall satisfaction’ and ranked in the top 15 nationally for ‘good teaching’ in the Course Evaluation Questionnaire,” said Professor Henly.
“Additionally, there has been a significant increase in the Learning & Teaching measures from the University Experience Survey in all of our fields of education discipline areas.”
Early Career Researcher Award
Winner: Dr Xiaobo Qu (Engineering, Urban Research Program)
Highly Commended: Dr Dung Phung (Centre for Environment and Population Health)
Mid-Career Researcher Award
Associate Professor Shanqing Zhang (Centre for Environment and Energy, Environmental Futures Research Institute)
Research Leadership Award
Professor Ron Quinn (Eskitis Institute for Drug Discovery)
Research Supervision Award
Professor Catherine Pickering (Environmental Futures Research Institute)
Excellence of a Research Group Award
Griffith Transport Research, Urban Research Program, featuring Associate Professor Matthew Burke, Dr Tooran Alizadeh, Professor Lex Brown, Dr Jenny Cui, Associate Professor Gui Lohmann, Dr Xiaobo Qu, Professor Tim Ryley, Professor Peter Tatham; Dr Kieran Tranter, Dr Barbara Yen, Dr Yong Wu
Professor Tony Hall, Mr Bruce James, Dr Wisinee Wisetjindawat and Dr Wen-Chun Tseng are acknowledged as Adjunct members or Visiting Fellows who have contributed to the success of the team
Griffith Sciences staff who contributed to publications in journals of Nature and Science (HERDC Eligible)
Dr Sankar Subramanian and Professor David Lambert for “Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree life of modern birds” – Science
Dr Michael Westaway and Professor David Lambert for “Genomic structure in Europeans dating back at least 36,200 years” — Science
Professor Vicky Avery for “A novel multiple-stage antimalarial agent that inhibits protein synthesis” — Nature
Dr Adam Brumm for “Pleistocene cave art from Sulawesi, Indonesia” – Nature
Griffith Sciences Learning and Teaching Citations
Winners: Dr Yong Zhu (Engineering); Dr Alison White (Natural Sciences); Dr Amir Etemad-Shahidi and Dr Xiaobo Qu (Engineering); Dr Christopher Love (Natural Sciences)
Highly Commended: Dr Leigh-Ellen Potter (Information and Communication Technology); Dr Saeed Shaeri (Engineering)
Griffith Awards for Excellence in Teaching (Griffith Sciences)
Winner: Ms Sarah-Jane Gregory (Natural Sciences)
Highly Commended (Early Career): Dr Christopher Love (Natural Sciences)
Griffith Award for Excellence in Teaching
Early career
Dr Ivan Gratchev (Engineering)
Sessional Academic
Ms Claire Hoffman (Environment)
Innovation in Learning Design
Dr Leigh Ellen Potter (ICT)
Leadership of Learning and Teaching
Highly Commended: Associate Professor Vallipuram Muthukkumarasamy (ICT)
Griffith Sciences Grants for Learning and Teaching
Associate Professor Eddo Coiacetto (Environment); Dr Aysin Dedekorkut (Environment); Dr Ruwan Fernando (Environment); Dr Ruben Gonzalez (ICT); Associate Professor Peter Johnston (Natural Sciences); Dr Anisur Rahman (Engineering); Dr Larry Wen (ICT)
Professional Staff Excellence Award
Ms Peta Leahy (Griffith Centre for Coastal Management)
Professional Staff Team Excellence Award
Griffith School of Environment Technical Team (Gold Coast): Ryan Stewart, Jeremy Carrington, Simon Kerville, Alan Richards and Dr David Camp
Health & Safety Initiative
Associate Professor Kathryn Tonissen, Associate Professor Chris Brown, Alan White and Chris Merrit (Natural Sciences)
Health & Safety Leadership
Joint winners: Dr Carie-Anne Logue (Glycomics) and Ms Carolyn Polson (Australian Rivers Institute)
Sustainability Team Excellence Award
Dr Jo-Anne Ferreira and Ms Vicki Keliher (Environment)