August 15, 2017

UOW staff achievements celebrated at 2017 Vice-Chancellor Awards

Academics and professional services staff recognised for contributions to education and the community.

More than 70 academic and professional services staff have been recognised for their outstanding contribution to UOW during the 2017 Vice-Chancellor's Awards.

The function held at University Hall last week (August 10) attended by 350 award recipients, their guests and staff, highlighted the exceptional achievements of UOW staff and their commitment to research, teaching and learning, diversity, outstanding service and community engagement.

UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings, CBE, officially welcomed the gathering before the award presentations, recognising those who had gone above and beyond to enhance UOW’s excellence across eight categories.

This year’s Outstanding Contribution to Teaching and Learning (OCTAL) overall award for providing an exceptional learning and student experience was presented to the First Year Chemistry team; Associate Professor Glennys O'Brien from the Faculty of Science, Medicine & Health and Dr Simon Bedford from Teaching and Curriculum Development.

Several awards were presented across Excellence in Research including Researcher of the Year received by Professor Gordon Waitt from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Professor Xiaolin Wang from the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials.

The Outstanding Service for Professional Services Staff Award was presented to Carmen Tang from the Faculty of Engineering & Information Sciences, Rochelle Boys from Graduate Career Development & Employability and Steffan Bale from Information Management & Technology Services. The Team Award for Outstanding Service for Professional Services Staff went to Samantha Avitaia and Brittany Brown from UOW Bega Campus.

This year, two teams were acknowledged for Excellence in Community Engagement; The Global Climate Change Week Team; Dr Keith Horton from the Faculty of Law, Humanities & the Arts, Dr George Takacs from the Faculty of Engineering & Information Sciences, A/Professor Helen McGregor from the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health and Professor Helen Hasan from the Faculty of Business and the CHI Sexual Health Project Team; Associate Professor Kate Senior and Laura Grozdanovski from the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Petria McGoldrick from Student Support was honoured with the Rosemary Cooper Award, Rachel Hicks from South Western Sydney Campus was presented with the Marie Lewis Award, while Ellen Manning from the Faculty of Science Medicine and Health took out the Workplace Health and Safety Award.

Twenty staff members were also recognised for their 25 years of service to the University.

A full list of 2017 award recipients is available here.