The 2022 Vice-Chancellor’s and Chancellor’s Annual Awards were held last night highlighting the outstanding contribution and commitment of professional and academic staff at ANU.
After last year’s virtual ceremony, it was a special evening for ANU staff to come together and celebrate the achievements and breadth of talent of their colleagues and peers.
Staff enjoyed the special evening with food trucks and live music on the ANU College of Law lawns.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt congratulated this year’s candidates and recipients.
“I congratulate all the candidates and recipients for 2022. You are a testament to hard work, talent and collegiality. We take pride in coming together and celebrating the exceptional achievements and contribution of our staff. A university is only as great as its staff and students. It is all down to you that we can count ourselves as one of the world’s great universities.”
Vice-Chancellors Award for Excellence in Advancing Research
The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Advancing Research was awarded to Professor Colin Jackson from the Research School of Chemistry, ANU College of Science.
In 2015 Professor Jackson was named the inaugural ACT Scientist of the Year and has published close to 100 research papers that have been cited over 1000 times per year since 2016. In this short time, Professor Jackson’s research has also led him to found Samsara Eco, an enviro-tech company committed to creating infinite recycling to end plastic pollution. In November 2022 Samsara Eco secured $54 million in series A funding.
Vice-Chancellor’s Special Award for Excellence
The Vice-Chancellor’s Special Award for Excellence was awarded to the team who delivered the Special Address by His Excellency President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine. The award was accepted by the team leads, Ms Anne McNaughton, Director of the ANU Centre for European Studies and Ms Caterina Giugovaz, Associate Director from the ANU Communications and Engagement division.
The address was livestreamed from Llewellyn Hall, with over 88,000 views on YouTube and generated almost 700 media reports in Australia alone, reaching at least seven million people. More than 20 Australian universities partnered with ANU to livestream the special address from their campuses.
Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Emerging Early Career Academics
The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Emerging Early Career Academics was awarded to Dr Ashley Schram from the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.
Dr Schram is a leader in her fields that span public health, regulation and global governance, and has more than 40 publications and 2,595 citations since receiving a PhD in 2016 from the University of Ottawa.
After joining ANU on a three-year ARC-funded project, Dr Schram became a prestigious Braithwaite Fellow at RegNet in 2020. Since then, Dr Schram has actively taken up the leadership roles of RegNet’s Higher Degree by Research Director as well as Deputy Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Governance.
Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Educational Excellence
The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Educational Excellence was awarded to Professor Adrienne Nicotra and Dr Megan Head from the Division of Ecology and Evolution, ANU College of Science.
Professor Nicotra and Dr Head have aptly demonstrated educational excellence by developing an experiential model to teach Field Studies in Functional Ecology by employing a cognitive apprenticeship pedagogy.
They developed this course in consultation with 60 staff members at various career stages and through ethics-approved student surveys. This course is now in its eighth iteration and their approach offers an outstanding model for authentic learning.
Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Influential Impact and Engagement
The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Influential Impact and Engagement was awarded to Professor Meredith Nash, Professor Andrew Macintosh and Associate Professor Faith Gordon. All three winners have contributed to the public discourse through their research and expertise at a national and international level.
Professor Meredith Nash, Associate Dean of the College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics, is a leader and trusted voice in accessibly communicating the meaning and relevance of gendered inequalities in the STEM and medicine fields.
Professor Andrew Macintosh from the ANU College of Law is a leading environmental law expert and former chair of the Australia’s Emission Reduction Fund.
Associate Professor Faith Gordon from the ANU College of Law is an internationally renowned socio-legal researcher. She has worked extensively on protecting the image rights of minors in the media.
Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Service, Innovation and Transformation
The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Service, Innovation and Transformation was awarded to Tobias James and Karen Morgan.
Tobias James from the ANU College of Health and Medicine, has worked continually to improve service provisions for staff through innovative application of technology. For instance, Tobias proactively upskilled himself and made use of cost-effective visual communication tools to provide an impactful visual translation of complex publications such as the e-cigarettes harm report.
Karen Morgan from the International Strategy & Future Students Division has played an instrumental role in the University’s re-registration process for international students.
The Andrew Hopkins Award for Excellency in Health and Safety
The Andrew Hopkins Award for Excellence in Health and Safety was awarded to Anya Wotton from ANU Communications and Engagement.
Anya Wotton was the brain behind the highly effective COVID-19 campaign – a series of visual masterpieces that helped the ANU community keep the mask mandate in check. This included the much loved ‘rat in the mask’ poster which promoted the availability of free RATs and masks on ANU campus.
The Clare Burton Award for Excellence in Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
The Clare Burton Award for Excellence in Equity, Diversity & Inclusion was awarded to Associate Professor Michelle Banfield from the National Centre of Epidemiology and Population Health, ANU College of Health & Medicine.
Associate Professor Banfield has dedicated her career to creating genuine and supportive opportunities for people with diverse lived experiences of mental health challenges to become effective collaborators, co-researchers and leaders in mental health research.
She is now the Co-Director for a $10-million initiative, ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation, which involves 15 universities and more than 10 sector partners.
2022 Chancellor’s Awards
Peter Baume Award
The first Australian woman to be elected judge to the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, was recognised for her world-renowned legal and academic work by winning the most prestigious award at ANU.
Distinguished Professor Hilary Charlesworth from the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) received the 2022 Peter Baume Award. Named after former ANU Chancellor, Professor the Hon Peter Baume AC, it is the highest accolade bestowed on ANU staff.
“I’m very proud of the fact that ANU is the first and only national university in this country,” ANU Chancellor the Hon Julie Bishop said.
“We were given a mission to bring credit to Australia, to advance the cause of learning and research, and to ensure this University took its rightful place among the great universities of the world. We’ve been able to fulfil that mission through our people and tonight we recognise some of the extraordinary people who made remarkable contributions to enable us to continue to fulfil that mission.”
The Chancellor presented two other awards to staff who have made significant contributions to ANU.
Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Contribution to the University
Professor Peter Kanowski from the ANU Fenner School for Environment and Society and Distinguished Professor Matthew Colless from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA) received the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Contribution to the University.
Professor Peter Kanowski is a global leader in research in the field of international forest governance. He is the Master of University House, Deputy Dean for HDR Supervision and a Professor and Chair of Forestry at the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society. Professor Kanowski has been an outstanding member of the University since 1995 and has made significant contributions through his membership in The Forests Dialogue, Council of Australian Governments National Bushfire Inquiry (2003-2004) and the board of the National Arboretum Canberra, amongst others.
Distinguished Professor Mathew Colless, Director of the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, is one of Australia’s most pre-eminent astronomers. He has amassed over 50,000 citations with three publications in the 1000 most-cited astronomy papers, and 35 of his papers are in the top 1% most-cited astronomy papers. Distinguished Professor Colless has also led the establishment of a consortium of 13 universities to operate the 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope, Australia’s largest optical telescope which is at the forefront of astronomy internationally.
Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Service to the Campus Community
The Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Service to the Campus Community was awarded to Mr Lucas Owen from the ANU UniSafe Security Team.
Since 2016, Mr Owen has been committed to the security, safety, and wellbeing of the Australian National University. He has been involved in every major incident on campus, incidents that could impact the wellbeing of our staff, students and visitors. Mr Owen’s commitment to the University and its community is unparalleled and he demonstrated our core values daily in his work.
25-Year Service Awards
Finally, 18 staff members were also presented with the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for 25-years of service to the University:
- Associate Professor Benjamin Penny
- Associate Professor Tomoko Akami
- Associate Professor Anthony Regan
- Distinguished Professor Ian McAllister
- Edward Russell
- Professor Katherine Reynolds
- Francisco Sanchez
- Anita Fitch
- Professor Paul Francis
- Professor Kevin Saliba
- Helen Osmond
- Christopher MacGregor
- Professor Robert Heinsohn
- Bradley Dwight
- Andrew Smith
- Michael Butler
- Dr Ajay Limaye
- Belinda Carriage
Congratulations to all our 2022 recipients.
