July 19, 2017

University of Wollongong marks July graduation celebrations

Students raise their hats to an innovative education

Students from the Faculty of Business and the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences will be acknowledged for their academic achievements at the University of Wollongong’s (UOW) July graduation celebrations over the next two days.

More than 700 students will be awarded their degrees across three ceremonies on Thursday 20 July and Friday 21 July, including 50 research students who will be presented with their PhDs.

UOW Distinguished Professor Hua Liu from the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM) research facility will be awarded a Doctor of Science – one of UOW’s prestigious and rarely appointed honours. In 2013, Professor Liu received the University of Wollongong Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence Senior Researcher. Her research has been focused on clean energy materials, the materials science and engineering, and electrochemistry and applications.

This accolade is extra special for Professor Liu as one of her most recent PhD students, Miss Ranjusha Rajagopalan, will be graduating in the same ceremony on July 20.

Reinforcing UOW’s reputation for innovative research, among the PhD cohort is Mr Boyuan Li who is being recognised for his research focusing on the control of an innovative four-wheel-steering and four-wheel-driving electric vehicle.

Ms Margret Schuller, 71, will be the eldest student to accept her PhD, which focused on ‘Knowledge transfer from globally dispersed subsidiaries to the parent company: A study of stickiness in a multinational organisation’. Margret previously obtained her MBA at UOW in 2002.

UOW staff member and cadet, Chelsea Murray, will be one of the graduate speakers as she receives her Bachelor of Mathematics and Finance Honours as a Dean’s Scholar. Chelsea will be joined at her graduation ceremony by her mother, UOW Council Member and CEO of the Illawarra Retirement Trust, Nieves Murray, who will be part of the academic procession.

University Medallist, James Charles Terrey, will be graduating with Honours Class 1 from the Faculty of Business with a Bachelor of Economics and Finance with Distinction and Bachelor of Commerce Honours.

Graduates will hear from three notable speakers in the fields of business and information science during the three days of graduation ceremonies: Ron Sandland AM, Chair of the Australian National Data Service; David Thodey AO, Chair of CSIRO; and Dr David Gruen, Deputy Secretary, Economic and G20 Sherpa, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

The ceremonies will be presided over by Deputy Chancellor Mr Noel Cornish AM and attended by Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings CBE.

Since its foundation UOW has awarded more than 139,000 degrees and diplomas.