Vice-Chancellor Professor S Bruce Dowton praised the tremendous accomplishments of the nominees and also thanked professional staff for their support of the University’s education and research missions.

“It is a great pleasure to recognise the outstanding achievements of the finalists, who have given their time, industry and intellect to solve the big global problems through research excellence and change the livelihoods of students through learning and teaching,” said the Vice-Chancellor.

Congratulations to all the winners.

Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Awards

Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Student-Nominated Award

Recognises staff for their teaching and support of learning that influences, motivates and inspires students to learn.

Dr Irina Dedova, Department of Chiropractic, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

Associate Professor Richard Garner, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Dr Ali Lalbakhsh, Macquarie University College

Dr LayPeng Tan, Department of Marketing, Macquarie Business School

Dr Hector Viveros Tapia, Department of Management, Macquarie Business School

Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Sessional Staff Award

Recognises sessional staff for their approaches to teaching and support of learning that influences, motivates and inspires students to learn.

Mr Camille Rahme, Department of Chiropractic, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Services

Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Early Career Award

Recognises staff for their quality teaching and support of learning, and the impact they have on influencing, motivating and inspiring students to learn.

Dr Madeline Taylor, Macquarie Law School, Faculty of Arts

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Learning and Teaching Innovation

Recognises the development and implementation of innovations that improve learning, teaching or assessment to enable, motivate, support and inspire students to learn.

The team of: Associate Professor Louise Koelmeyer, Dr Belinda Thompson, Robin Blumfield, Professor Catherine Dean, Robbie Blackwell, Dr Kylie Gwynne, Fiona Tisdall Blake, Dr Morwenna Kirwan, Matthew Robson and Chloe Szilas, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence

Recognises staff for their excellence in teaching and support of learning and the impact they have on influencing, motivating and inspiring students to learn.

Dr Natasha Todorov, School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

Vice-Chancellor’s Educational Leader Award

Recognises educational leadership that has influenced and enhanced learning and teaching and/or student experience.

Associate Professor Josephine Paparo, School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences.

Research Excellence Awards

Excellence in Higher Degree Research Awards

Presented for outstanding research undertaken by a current or former higher degree research candidate (in both HASS and STEMM-based disciplines).

HASS

Michelle Bishop, School of Education, Faculty of Arts

Thom Dixon, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts

STEMM

Jaime A. Alvarado-Montes, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering.

Dr Ali Lalbakhsh, School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Excellence in Higher Degree Research Supervision – Supervisor of the Year

Recognises our outstanding Higher Degree Research (HDR) supervisors who enable our HDR candidates to achieve their highest potential.

Professor Niloufer Selvadurai, Macquarie Law School, Faculty of Arts

Early Career Researcher of the Year

Acknowledging outstanding performance in research by an early career researcher (in both HASS and STEMM-based disciplines).

HASS

Dr Emlyn Dodd, Department of History and Archaeology, Faculty of Arts

STEMM

Associate Professor Noushin Nasiri, School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Excellence in Research – Five Future-shaping Research Priorities

Winners demonstrate the real-world impact of Macquarie University research in delivering benefits to Australian and international communities.

Healthy People

The team of: Professor Catherine McMahon, Professor Leanne Holt, Associate Professor Boe Rambaldini, Dr Kylie Gwynne, Luke Halvorsen, Kai Nash, Noeleen Lumby, Cara Cross, Dr Yvonne Dimitropoulos, Dr Andrea Salins, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences and Faculty of Arts

Resilient Societies

Associate Professor Mark Alfano, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts

Prosperous Economies

The team of: Dr Miles Yang and Dr Candy Lu, Department of Management, Macquarie Business School

Secure Planet

Professor Tina Soliman-Hunter, Macquarie Law School, Faculty of Arts

Innovative Technologies

Professor Tao Gu, School of Computing, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Excellence in Research Integrity

The inaugural Excellence in Research Integrity award recognises outstanding contribution, leadership or innovation in research integrity by an individual or team.

Associate Professor Mianna Lotz, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts

Excellence in Research Innovation, Partnership and Entrepreneurship Award

Recognises and rewards excellence in research innovation, partnership, commercialisation, translation, and entrepreneurship at Macquarie University.

The team of: Distinguished Professor Phil Taylor, Dr Bishwo Mainali, Dr Vivian Mendez, Dr Maciej Maselko, Dr Soo Jean Park, Dr Mary Whitehouse, Dr Piotr Trebicki, Applied BioSciences Insect Biosecurity Team, Faculty of Science and Engineering

The Jim Piper Award for Excellence in Research Leadership

Recognises outstanding and inspiring researchers who are on a path to becoming both a leading researcher and a research leader at Macquarie University.

Professor Helen Rizos, Macquarie School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

Watch the full Academic Staff Awards ceremony below:

Register to attend the ceremony next week on Wednesday 15 November.

Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Student-Nominated Award

This award recognises staff for their teaching and support of learning that influences, motivates and inspires students to learn.

Ms Georgia Cam, Macquarie Law School, Faculty of Arts

Georgia Cam’s career as an educator began when the challenges of teaching were exacerbated by the idiosyncratic struggles of remote learning. At a time when students lacked motivation for a multitude of reasons, Ms Cam’s teaching philosophy emerged.

By deviating from the signature technocratic pedagogy of law, Ms Cam uses interactive case studies that adopt a social, political and cultural lens to “bring the content to life”.

Students feel so motivated by her teaching philosophy that they regularly ask what other units she teaches so they can continue to model the behaviour of future advocates. Some students even claim she is “the only reason” they passed the unit.

“Georgia has created such a positive environment for the students,” says one of her students. “She is supportive and extremely engaging and makes all complex ideas seem so simple. Every student I have talked to from her different classes adores her; she creates a fun and engaging atmosphere for all.”

Meanwhile, from one of Ms Cam’s students: “This is my fifth year of university and I can honestly say that Georgia has been the best tutor I have had by far. Her efforts to break down each week’s content in a simplified way, in spite of it being conceptually challenging, has been truly amazing.”

Dr Irina Dedova, Department of Chiropractic, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

This is the third time in as many years Dr Irina Dedova has been nominated for this award. She holds a powerful position in redesigning the anatomy curriculum, which is considered by many students to be a challenging part of their degree.

“There are obligations attached with educational design to influence the overall future and wellbeing of students,” she says. “I am not a source of knowledge but a guide who genuinely cares about students’ progress and feelings.”

Dr Dedova is dedicated to evidence-based practice – helping students navigate major concepts efficiently through carefully planned chunks of learning experiences.

“I care about my students and this is why I ensure that they have the most logical, well-constructed, inclusive design and delivery and efficient resources,” she says. “For me, being empathic means remembering what it was like when I was a student and how I would like to be treated. Students know that any time they are welcome to reach out to me, it is okay to make mistakes and I will not judge but will help find solutions.”

High distinctions have tripled since her redesign.

“The layout for learning is amazing,” says one student. “If I’m confused about something, there’s always another resource to help me.”

Associate Professor Richard Garner, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Some students see mathematics units as a ‘necessary evil’ – something they must complete to graduate, but do not expect to enjoy.

Associate Professor Richard Garner seeks to shatter this preconception – and share the “excitement of solving problems through mathematics”.

His approach typically starts with problems that are relevant and valuable, for example, planar graphs might be introduced via the problem of printing an electrical circuit onto a circuit board without crossing traces.

“This gives an authentic experience of how the way mathematics is done. Students learn not only the how of mathematics but also the why of mathematics, and are hopefully inspired to apply the mathematical approach to other problems they encounter,” says Associate Professor Garner.

“Mathematics is about tools and techniques but also about a way of seeing the world: like the puzzle page of the newspaper, it is about the creative joy of form and structure. The key point is that this is immense fun!”

And despite some trepidation, students agree: “Richard was able to make me think about how the world of math interacts with the real world and problem-solving as a tool.”

Another said, “His explanations are short yet extremely clear, which makes learning difficult and complex concepts a lot easier.”

Ms Emily Gray, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Many students view statistics as the most challenging part of their degree. Sessional academic tutor Emily Gray embraces this perception and sets out to empower students and help them “find their love – or, at least, appreciative tolerance – of statistics”.

By making her classes a safe space to question, discuss and “share an excitement for learning”, she’s able to achieve this and more.

One student called Ms Gray an “amazing tutor who has been very insightful and gives a great experience in class”, adding that she “loves what she does, which makes the class that much more enjoyable”.

Ms Gray believes success in learning is individualised and future-focused. She encourages students to apply their learning beyond the unit, developing a skills toolbox they can use to thrive in their professional pursuits.

“I tailor explanations to the specific characteristics of each class or individual student … and provide detailed and personalised feedback to assist students’ communication and critical thinking in their degree and career.”

Many students praise Ms Gray’s ability to make complex content understandable.

Says one student: “[She is] really good at teaching, explaining in an easy way to understand, giving exceptional feedback that has helped me in all of my units so far”.

Dr Michelle Hamadache, Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts

Student ‘success’ can be measured in achievements – publication, fellowship, live performance, career – and in a student’s sense of meaningful learning.

Dr Michelle Hamadache fosters both types of success.

Since she became Director of Creative Writing in 2021, enrolment, retention and engagement in undergraduate and postgraduate programs have risen significantly. But Dr Hamadache looks beyond these milestones and at how her teaching enables and inspires student success.

“I want students to feel they are part of a vibrant and inclusive community, where assessments are stepping stones to bigger and better things,” she says.

“I have fostered opportunities and experiences that build confidence and connection and give students the skills to bridge the gap between their studies and professional life.”

This year, two of Dr Hamadache’s students were awarded prestigious WestWords fellowships. Her first-year students have performed poetry alongside international prize-winning poets. And others have had articles and books published.

Her role as teacher also enables her to show what creative writing can do for the development of self and community.

“This is harder to quantify, but no less important,” she says.

Her students appreciate her philosophy: “The way she set up the unit made me love it thoroughly and rediscover my love for creative writing.”

Dr Marina Junqueira Santiago, Macquarie Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

“Enthusiasm is contagious,” says Dr Marina Junqueira Santiago. And it plays a pivotal role in fostering a positive, engaging learning environment.

Pharmacology may pose a challenge for student engagement, but it’s one Dr Junqueira Santiago takes in her stride.

“I want students to wake up in the morning and feel excited about coming to class,” she says. So, she enters the room with enthusiasm and passion.

“I take students as partners,” says Dr Junqueira Santiago who, with her students, co‑designed the debate rubric in the Contextualising Professionalism in Health Care Systems unit.

“It made the learning process enjoyable and encouraged students to take an active role in their education. By showing my enthusiasm for the subject and incorporating real-world examples, I spark curiosity and interest among my students,” she adds.

Dr Junqueira Santiago has been credited with making “any unit fun”, which is why she’s repeatedly asked to redevelop units in which student engagement is a problem.

“Her enthusiasm for the unit drove our enthusiasm for the unit,” says one student.

Another says: “I was sceptical coming into the unit, but Marina’s dedication, approachability and genuine desire to motivate us saw me develop a genuine interest and motivation to do well.”

Dr Jillian Kramer, Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts 

Dr Jillian Kramer thought her teaching could ramp up to meet student needs when COVID-19 hit. But when one of her ‘confident’ students joined Zoom in tears, she adjusted her strategy.

“Prolonged periods of uncertainty impacted student wellbeing and exposed flaws in my teaching,” says Dr Kramer, who expanded her philosophy.

Now she regularly checks in with students by email and starts tutorials by asking how they feel about the unit on a scale of zero to five to identify those at risk.

Submission rates have skyrocketed, with 88.41 per cent of Visual Media and Communications students who had not submitted their final assessment going on to complete it after receiving a support email. Failure rates have also decreased.

To further minimise stress for her students, Dr Kramer encourages them to co‑design lessons.

“In week eight, I survey students so they can identify what they would like to practice or explore in more detail before submitting their assessments,” she explains.

Her students notice the difference her strategy makes, with one stating: “I felt seen by the convenor, who often checked in with us through email, which is very important to me but lacking in other units. This has a huge impact on my motivation to engage with unit content.”

Dr Ali Lalbakhsh, Macquarie University College, Macquarie University College

Dr Ali Lalbakhsh is so successful at transforming the mindset of his students that many go from pathway units at Macquarie University College to second-year engineering with a head start on their university peers.

“Some of our newcomers have a mindset of not being good enough for engineering,” says Dr Lalbakhsh. “This attitude downgrades their ambition only to pass the unit – an invisible engagement barrier.”

So, he works on their mindset – starting with getting to know their life stories.

“I ask them to email me a self-introduction to spark conversations,” he says.

This builds trust and helps Dr Lalbakhsh understand their vulnerabilities.

“Pathway students are often the most disadvantaged cohort due to the lack of empathetic teaching, while they need it most. Don’t forget they are pathway students for a reason, which I aspire to unfold to help them grow.”

The results are telling, with double the attendance rate and a huge increase in submissions. This year, every one of Dr Lalbakhsh’s students agreed that he is approachable, helpful and creates a good learning environment.

“He made the whole class feel that we were going to be not just engineers but people who would change the world for the better,” one student wrote.

Dr Rico Piehler, Department of Marketing, Macquarie Business School

“Best educational experience.” “Best teacher.” “Best unit.” “Macquarie is lucky to have him!” – Macquarie student feedback

Dr Rico Piehler’s reputation precedes him. So much so that many of his students seek out his classes before they’re scheduled to take them.

“I thought I’d better do this unit while you’re taking it,” said one student.

Dr Piehler addresses two challenges through his teaching style and philosophy: encouraging student engagement and enhancing their employability.

Dr Piehler is committed to fostering student engagement through his enthusiasm, which is ingrained in his teaching style. He inspires students through his passion and instills respect and fairness to create a supportive environment that nurtures learning. Students’ joy of learning shows how Dr Piehler creates a positive social-emotional learning environment.

His background in an industry-founded academic department and his consulting experience shaped his teaching philosophy. Dr Piehler assists students in developing transferrable, work-related professional knowledge and skills through cases from his industry connections and collaboration projects, active learning workshops with practical activities and assessments that require his students to step into the role of practitioners.

Dr Piehler has been nominated for this award by his students in each of his three years at Macquarie University.

Dr LayPeng Tan, Department of Marketing, Macquarie Business School

Like consumers, students can be motivated if the value proposition is relevant and it is clearly communicated and delivered. Dr LayPeng Tan follows this key marketing principle in her learning and teaching.

“My goal is to inspire in students a ‘want to learn’,” she says.

Her innovative curriculum design, supportive learning environment and empathy mean her students are not just motivated but excel at unit level and beyond.

“My competency-focused approach is relevant to students’ academic and professional goals. Upon completion, students can add these practical competencies to their CV for enhanced employability,” she says.

Dr Tan’s approach is paying off. During a full external review of the Bachelor of Commerce in 2022, Dr Tan’s unit was one of two to be singled out as an exemplar of best teaching practice.

Course Director Dr Prashan Karunaratne says, “[Dr Tan’s] work literally shines through hundreds of pages of documentation, dozens of hours of interviews and multifaceted feedback from industry, alumni, staff, students and beyond.”

Dr Tan’s students are also highly satisfied and forthcoming with praise: “[An] amazing unit convener who has designed a well-structured and informative unit that really helps us understand the real-world work setting.”

Dr Hector Viveros Tapia, Department of Management, Macquarie Business School

In caring for and guiding students, Dr Hector Viveros Tapia enthusiastically adopts their challenges as his own.

Many students in his core human resources management units have difficulty with their communication and research skills. But his positive, inclusive learning environment, in which he shows genuine curiosity for their experiences – and shares his own – breaks down the student-teacher barrier, allowing him to foster those critical skills.

“This is especially important for international students, who often struggle with adapting to a new educational system, language barriers and social integration,” says Dr Viveros Tapia, whose latest challenge to engage students is the scavenger hunt, ‘Where’s Hector?’

“I aim to be an approachable and trustworthy mentor. I cultivate a non-judgemental space where students can openly discuss their challenges, assured of receiving empathetic guidance and support.”

It is a philosophy his students appreciate: “I thought the lectures were very helpful and engaging, but my favourite element of the unit was the class tasks – a credit to Hector for making sure each student felt welcomed and all students were engaging in the work.”

Dr Viveros Tapia has also seen a significant decrease in failure rates, down from 17 per cent in Session 1, 2021 to eight per cent in 2023.

Register to attend the ceremony on Wednesday 15 November.

The Jim Piper Award for Excellence in Research Leadership

This award seeks to recognise, encourage and reward those researchers who are on a path to becoming research leaders at Macquarie University.

Associate Professor Morten Thaysen-Andersen, School of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Associate Professor Morten Thaysen-Andersen and his team are uncovering exciting opportunities to diagnose and treat infections, autoimmune diseases and cancer in novel ways.

As one of the first scientists to bring the emerging field of glycoproteomics into immunology, Associate Professor Thaysen-Andersen has built a highly regarded international profile in biomolecular sciences since arriving at Macquarie as a postdoc in 2010.

Now the ARC-funded Future Fellow is dedicated to answering fundamental and translational questions about the roles complex carbohydrates (glycans) play in our immune system.

“It’s an emerging field of high importance to society,” explains Associate Professor Thaysen-Andersen, who heads Macquarie’s Analytical Glycoimmunology Group and is setting up a satellite clinical glycoproteomics lab at Nagoya University in Japan.

As well as being prolifically published in top-tier journals, Associate Professor Thaysen-Andersen’s work has secured $11.5 million in funding since 2014 and resulted in 18 awards for scientific achievements.

In a recent world first, he led a team of 55 scientists across 35 institutions in 11 countries in a data standardisation study in glycoproteomics – the outcome of which was published in a top-tier journal and received critical acclaim.

“I am proud to have led this global initiative, which resulted in tangible advances with far-reaching impacts within my field,” he says.

Associate Professor Amy Cain, School of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering

What do antibiotic development and plastic waste removal have in common with bacterial genomics? Why the independent, world-leading research program established by Associate Professor Amy Cain, of course.

Since Associate Professor Cain joined Macquarie in 2018, she has attracted more than $15 million in funding and collaborated widely to use microbial genomics to solve large global problems.

Her diverse research seeks to understand and harness the power of bacterial genes for world-changing outcomes, including developing new drugs and constructing synthetic microbes to recycle stubborn plastics.

In just nine years of active full-time research, her work has produced a preliminary patent, been published in 68 peer-reviewed journals and attracted widespread media coverage. A multiple award winner, Associate Professor Cain is highly respected in the microbiology community and in demand as a speaker and international visiting fellow.

Despite her fast trajectory, she’s firmly grounded at Macquarie, taking pride in attracting and mentoring fellow researchers, including early career researchers (ECRs).

“One of my passions is mentoring and motivating ECRs to ensure retention of talented scientists,” she says.

Associate Professor Cain is also the founder and Director of Macquarie’s Galleria Research Facility, Australia’s first high-throughput (and ethical) in vivo model to assess the pathogenicity of microbes, and toxicity and efficacy of new drugs. 

Professor Helen Rizos, Macquarie School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

As head of the Precision Cancer Therapy research team and Principal Investigator of the Macquarie University Cancer Biobank, Professor Helen Rizos is at the forefront of global cancer research.

In the last five years alone, she has been supported by grants in excess of $30 million, allowing her to lead many research projects.

Her work has revealed the timing and evolution of treatment resistance, critical features of disease progression and disease models that can be applied in clinical practice to predict and monitor treatment response. It has helped promote the application of research into cancer clinical trials and has significant implications for improving patient outcomes.

Professor Rizos established the cancer biobank and, this year, the Macquarie University Cancer Research Network, to advance and foster collaborations in cancer research. She is just as passionate about developing the next generation of researchers.

“Throughout my career I have been an advocate for junior researchers, supporting their career development through mentoring programs and career development initiatives,” says Professor Rizos, who has graduated 20 candidates to date. “I always include early career researchers as part of the supervisory team, and thereafter they take the lead as primary supervisor with my support as co-supervisor.”

Distinguished Professor Deborah Schofield, GenIMPACT: Centre for Economic Impacts of Genomic Medicine, Macquarie Business School

The world firsts, newly coined terms and high-profile publications and engagements that underscore Distinguished Professor Deborah Schofield’s work continue to significantly impact families and governments alike.

As the founding Director of GenIMPACT: the Centre for Economic Impacts of Genomic Medicine – the second such centre worldwide – Distinguished Professor Schofield leads a pioneering research program on the social and economic impact of genetic disorders.

The centre works with clinical and scientific colleagues and partners in industry, government and not-for-profit bodies, to improve human health and ultimately impact the economy and society.

“We aim to improve patient access to effective and cost-effective genomic health services and technologies, improving the health, social and economic prospects of families – sometimes for generations,” says Distinguished Professor Schofield.

Continuously funded for 15 years by Category 1 grants totalling more than $190 million, Distinguished Professor Schofield says the centre has strengthened the applied research culture within the school.

She also mentors “outstanding young women”, including a former PhD student who is now a full professor with her own thriving research program, an epidemiologist who is now a professor, two clinical geneticists and an economics student from Harvard.

Vice-Chancellor’s Educational Leader Award

This award recognises educational leadership that has influenced and enhanced learning and teaching and/or student experience.

Dr Onur Ateş, Macquarie University College

“Innovation never stops at Macquarie University College,” says Dr Onur Ateş, the College’s Associate Director.

In the past three years alone, Dr Ateş has overseen the design, development and implementation of 19 new courses, a suite of undergraduate certificates and four new masters qualifying programs (MQPs) for 2024.

“The MQPs will provide a bridge for students who currently do not have a pathway into postgraduate study, growing the load for faculties and supporting students’ aspirations,” says Dr Ateş.

But Dr Ateş’ pioneering leadership doesn’t stop at course development.

As well as overseeing 40 units, he has delivered roadshows to raise awareness about the College within the University, led innovative professional development for College staff, and initiated and led enhancements to the College’s Foundation Program, which became the first university-based program to receive national endorsement from quality assurance organisation, NEAS.

“The new design made it relevant to 21^st century needs to better prepare students for university studies,” he says.

Dr Ateş’ expertise also set him in good stead when, in 2020, the College moved from face-to-face to remote delivery within three days.

“I was pleased that the remote-learning innovation that I initiated resulted in the best student feedback on the shift to online delivery across all teaching elements of the University.”

The team of: Associate Professor Agnes Bosanquet, Dr Mathew Hillier, Dr Olga Kozar, Dr Karina Luzia, Kylie Coaldrake, and Alison Hayward, Learning and Teaching Staff Development, Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education)

In just three years, staff have engaged with professional learning more than 9000 times to further develop their teaching capabilities with the Learning and Teaching Staff Development team.

It’s a small team – established in 2020 – but the offerings are extensive, including workshops, self-paced modules, quick guides, a MOOC, a webinar series, professional development programs and scholarly projects.

“We align teachers with Macquarie’s goals for student-centred transformative learning and curriculum, authentic assessment and work-integrated learning and accessible and inclusive education,” explains Associate Professor Agnes Bosanquet, Director, Learning and Teaching Staff Development.

The team created the Professional Learning and Capability Enhancement (PLaCE) interactive personas and self-assessment tool to enable educators to receive targeted recommendations to enhance teaching quality and student success.

“We connect people through communities of practice and collaborative workshops to enable collegial learning. We are inspired by Macquarie teachers to take creative and innovative approaches to professional learning,” says Associate Professor Bosanquet.

The team’s leadership has an impact at individual, course, faculty, University and sector levels. It contributes to academic governance and works with tutors, lecturers, unit convenors, course directors and leaders of learning and teaching to develop pedagogical skills and provide curriculum, assessment and technology advice.

Dr Josephine Paparo, School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

Dr Josephine Paparo’s groundbreaking leadership has reshaped psychology training practice across Australia. But she hasn’t stopped there and continues to pioneer through her exceptional leadership.

In the face of COVID-19 disruptions, universities across Australia encountered formidable obstacles in meeting the practicum requirements mandated by the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC).

With unwavering commitment to find a solution, Dr Paparo founded the Australian Postgraduate Psychology Education Simulation Working Group and led 19 senior academics from 15 tertiary institutions to develop guidelines for simulation-based education.

As a result, a unified and comprehensive compilation of best-practice guidelines for simulated learning activities in psychology was adopted by institutions nationally.

“I am immensely proud of this pivotal work. Its impact reverberates nationwide, with psychology trainers across Australia embedding the guidelines in curricula, and APAC acknowledging their significance,” she says. “My efforts have validated the use of simulated learning activities as powerful tools in developing clinical competencies for future psychologists.”

Dr Paparo, who thrives in leading large teams, has subsequently led the rapid redesign of other psychology courses. This includes the Master of Professional Psychology, which was already outperforming all other courses in the faculty according to recent Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching data.

The team of: Professor Ronika Power, Department of History and Archaeology; Michael Rampe, Education Services; and Dr Neil Durrant, Faculty of Arts Executive Director

Thanks to an innovative partnership, the Faculty of Arts has become a pioneer in digital fluency with a modern, future-focused and sector-leading mode of assessment delivery.

Starting with an undergraduate unit, Archaeology of Death and Burial, Professor Ronika Power forged a partnership with global technology giant Adobe to develop digital storytelling assessment strategies.

“It was the perfect platform from which to educate students to tell stories, and to embrace the novel approaches that digital media offers to every aspect of humanistic enquiry,” says Professor Power.

After a successful trial executed by Professor Power and Mr Rampe, the unit’s curriculum was strategically revised and learning outcomes refocused on fresher, more authentic tasks.

“This clear and staged approach to pedagogical implementation now serves as a benchmark for desired digital assessment review at faculty scale,” says Professor Power. Parallel to this work, the faculty undertook externally funded research on scale, and Dr Durrant brokered a partnership with Adobe.

Adobe Creative Cloud software is now implemented across 110 Faculty of Arts units, and digital assessment modalities are more common in units traditionally associated with text-based assessment only.

“We have enabled cohorts of students not previously exposed to digital media tools to produce works of a publishable standard,” says Professor Power.

Dr Malcolm Ryan, School of Computing, Faculty of Science and Engineering

When he joined the Bachelor of Game Design and Development in 2014 as convenor of the capstone project, Dr Malcolm Ryan immediately became concerned that students were underequipped to enter industry. They lacked essential skills in design, development and production.

“My mission since then has been to introduce industry best practices into the degree and allow Macquarie students to excel in the competitive game development job market,” he says.

From 2018, Dr Ryan was able to redesign the course, revamping existing games units and introducing new ones. He mentored new staff to bring fresh ideas into the degree and established a state-of-the-art teaching laboratory, now a hub for games students.

The first cohort from the new course, launched in 2020, has just graduated with positive feedback.

“Game design and development are new fields of study, and the past decade has seen a consolidation of professional methodology from the scrapbook of industry wisdom available previously,” says Dr Ryan. “My focus has been on bringing these methods into the classroom, embedding career skills throughout the degree.”

The degree has been selected by the faculty to be the first to undertake the new career development planning process with the Employability and Graduate Success team.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence

This award recognises staff for their excellence in teaching and support of learning and the impact they have on influencing, motivating and inspiring students to learn.

Dr Viken Kortian, School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Dr Viken Kortian doesn’t speak from textbooks. He decided to become a full-time lecturer after 37 years in industry to share his experience and vast professional network.

But it doesn’t end there; his novel approach to teaching along with his industry‑standard assignments ensure students remember their “exceptional engineering entrepreneurship experience” years after graduation.

To achieve this, Dr Kortian draws on his connections to provide realistic and up-to-the-minute case studies and guest lectures with the likes of leading intellectual property lawyers.

It all culminates with a Shark Tank–style final assessment in which students present their proposed ideas and business plans to potential investors.

“I invite angel investors and private equity representatives to be the judges,” he says. “The ‘sharks’ provide open and honest feedback to the students, both on their presentations and their reports. Students complete the course with valuable knowledge, experience and insights into how to start a business as well as what is required to be entrepreneurial within a large multinational corporation.”

Dr Kortian says his students have worked with the ‘sharks’ well after the course has finished to pursue business ideas stemming from their time at Macquarie.

The team of: Dr Hamed Jafarzadeh and Dr Prashan S M Karunaratne, Department of Actuarial Studies and Business Analytics, Macquarie Business School

In redesigning the unit Getting Started with Analytics (GSWA), Dr Prashan Karunaratne was able to tailor it for online delivery – to industry professionals rather than undergraduates.

The result? His new model is the most popular unit of Optus’ microcredential program, OptusU.

Dr Karunaratne drew on his experience in developing several microcredentials on Coursera, which have reached tens of thousands of industry professionals, to change the way this unit was delivered.

He adopted a ‘guide-by-the-side’ philosophy to make the weekly two-hour sessions live and interactive, with the lecturer working through a range of hands-on exercises in Excel and guiding students as they systematically follow along.

The new approach has been so successful that Optus requested increased offerings of the course, resulting in the appointment of Senior Lecturer Dr Hamed Jafarzadeh as co-presenter.

Dr Jafarzadeh further infused the unit with his experience from teaching industry professionals.

Optus program specialist Sajeda Khan praised the team for its engaging content and lively dispositions. “People love the course and both of you,” she said.

“We are thrilled to hear that GSWA is the most popular OptusU unit because of the topical content, industry relevance and engaging lecturers,” say Dr Jafarzadeh and Dr Karunaratne.

Associate Professor John De Nobile, Macquarie School of Education, Faculty of Arts

Before he joined Macquarie 18 years ago, Associate Professor John De Nobile was a school teacher for almost 20 years. Putting students first has always been central to his teaching philosophy.

“Students are not just numbers, but part of a community,” he explains. “It means ensuring every tutorial and lecture inspires and engages them.”

And these days, as well as personally getting to know his students so his pedagogy can better connect to their needs, he constantly seeks their input into the curriculum – and assessments.

He says despite leading scholars encouraging the use of student insights on assessment, it was surprising there wasn’t empirical research on student input into assessment design.

“In the context of university, my use of student input into design of assessments is an innovation,” he says.

And it’s a success. The changes he implemented after a formal survey in 2021 led to fewer problems for students in 2022 and an improvement in results from a mean of 62.9 per cent to 66.5 per cent.

Associate Professor De Nobile also offers an array of support, including targeted one-on-one coaching sessions for students at risk of failing their professional experience component. Most have gone on to succeed.

Dr Natasha Todorov, School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences 

The changes Dr Natasha Todorov made to first-year psychology may have been “distinctly low-tech”, but they have been remarkably successful.

As convenor of one of the faculty’s biggest units, Dr Todorov is responsible for the learning outcomes of about 2500 students.

Yet in implementing her structure-and-scaffold approach to help the neurodiverse community, she has enhanced the performance of the entire cohort.

“With enrolment growth, discussion board comments indicated some students were confused about how to navigate information and understand unit requirements,” says Dr Todorov. “I wondered whether an increase in neurodiverse students had accompanied enrolment increases.”

So she minimised learning barriers by changing the way information was presented and encouraged students to learn and practice academic skills. For example, after explicitly teaching time management skills, only six per cent of essays were late in 2022.

Dr Todorov’s strategies, recognised as an exemplar of best practice by the School of Psychological Sciences, have also been published here.

“The changes combine my interests in enhancing student learning with pastoral care and represent an important part of my teaching philosophy: to create a respectful, warm and inclusive learning environment and prioritise student needs and their role as active learners,” says Dr Todorov.

Register to attend the awards ceremony on 15 November.

Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Early Career Award

This award recognises staff for their quality teaching and support of learning, and the impact they have on influencing, motivating and inspiring students to learn.

Dr Joseph Chen, Department of Marketing, Macquarie Business School 

Blind taste testing and viral TikTok videos may seem a long way from in-depth psychological theory, but for Dr Joseph Chen, social psychology experiments, real-world cases and creative marketing have been a huge success in stimulating student curiosity and comprehension of difficult ideas.

After taking over postgraduate core unit Advanced Consumer Behaviour in 2020, Dr Chen reconceptualised his teaching philosophy and completely redeveloped the unit.

“Studying consumer behaviour requires students to gain an in-depth understanding of psychological theories and apply them in marketing,” he explains. “However, psychological theories are abstract, distant and complex for marketing students.”

Dr Chen’s teaching now centres on making them understandable, stimulating and relatable for marketing students.

He achieves this through activity- and case-based learning. The blind drink taste test, for example, made consumer sensory theory more tangible and relatable. Students now adopt social influence theory to create viral videos on TikTok and use theory of planned behaviour to design DrinkWise campaigns.

Dr Chen also invites industry speakers, including graduates, managers from global companies and influencer marketers, to share their successful marketing experiences.

His students appreciate the new format, with 100 per cent agreeing that he creates a good learning environment (2023 Learner Evaluation of Teaching).

Dr Narelle Hess, School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

Translating theory into practice may be a key challenge for psychology students, but Dr Narelle Hess is passionate about, and skilled at, enabling her students to achieve this.

“Although students completing psychology degrees are academically motivated, often they have limited understanding of career pathways,” says Dr Hess, whose teaching philosophy centres on empowering students to be self-reflective and lifelong learners.

“I encourage active participation by creating a safe learning environment through the use of humour while also challenging students to think critically and take ownership of their development.”

Dr Hess’ inspiring and motivational presentation style not only keeps students engaged, but it also resulted in an invitation to present a TED-style talk for the Macquarie University Psychology Society.

Society President, Patricia Motahari, says Dr Hess’ presentation was extremely engaging: “I had students coming up to me that night and even the day after to congratulate me on a successful event.”

Dr Hess also redesigned an internal placement to include stronger peer-to-peer active learning, including supporting students to design the orientation for the placement and facilitating group supervision meetings where students could reflect on cases and experiences.

Dr June Ho, School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering

A personalised education with a focus on employability has positioned Dr June Ho as a “favourite teacher” among many of her students.

In her two years as a lecturer for the Master of Engineering Management, she has observed a strong need for employability skills, particularly among her majority international students.

Dr Ho incorporates global benchmarking and standards in her curriculum design and explicitly outlines industry demands and professional relevance by showing how her content aligns with job descriptions and requirements.

Recognising the significant impact of the teacher-student relationship on students’ performance, she also takes the time to get to know each student.

“Understanding the students’ circumstances allows me to offer additional support and assistance to ensure equal opportunities for success,” says Dr Ho. “I have guided and assisted numerous students to secure employment opportunities in their new career journeys in Australia.”

As convenor of three units in the master degree, she consistently achieves positive results.

Positive comments by students on Dr Ho’s impact include: “I wanted to express my gratitude for your exceptional teaching during my first semester at Macquarie University. Your dedication and commitment to educating us were greatly appreciated and you have become our favourite teacher.”

Dr Madeline Taylor, Macquarie Law School, Faculty of Arts

To foster high achievement and address the overwhelm commercial law students often report feeling, Dr Madeline Taylor adopts an ‘integrated thinking cycle’, combining values and power, practice and understanding – activated by expert guests. Students value the “practical and worldly edge” these lecturers impart.

Dr Taylor’s educational initiatives connecting commercial law with societal challenges result in her students being inspired and engaged. One student said: “I have never sat in a tutorial and truly been 100 per cent engaged the whole time. But thanks to Madeline’s clear knowledge and the way she explained it, I was able to comprehend content that was extremely difficult at first glance.”

In tripartite redesigning Foundations of Commercial Law, Dr Taylor became one of the first Australian academics to nurture and enrich students’ appreciation of Indigenous businesses’ methods and the support that commercial law can give.

Dr Taylor embedded professional learning practice to further enhance learning and maximise success.

“I feel honoured to provide a motivating and inspiring student-centred approach, guiding students to develop holistic skills necessary to thrive in their careers through career development learning opportunities.”

Dr Taylor further develops students’ employability by giving them the opportunity to publish their case note assessments in the peer-reviewed journal Inhouse Counsel.

Excellence in Higher Degree Research Awards

These awards will be presented for outstanding research undertaken by a current or former higher degree research candidate (in both HASS and STEMM disciplines).  

HASS

Ms Michelle Bishop, School of Education, Faculty of Arts

In trail-blazing new and innovative research and a new approach to the literature review stage of a PhD, Gamilaroi scholar Michelle Bishop contemplates the educational future of Aboriginal people outside ‘colonial-controlled’ schooling.

By drawing on the education practices of Ancestors, she reveals a “desire and excitement for education sovereignty”.

Participants contributed a collective vision for what this could look like, and it’s very different from Australia’s current mainstream education, featuring learning based on relationships, students having agency in what and how they learn, prioritising Country as teacher, and no failure.

“These findings are in stark contrast to the way the majority of schools in so-called Australia operate,” says Ms Bishop.

Instead of challenging, refusing and resisting current education systems, the research offers participants the time and space to imagine Indigenous education futures into deep time and to create a vision.

“Considering Indigenous futurities in a settler-colonial state is not commonplace and is both radical and original,” says Ms Bishop.

With four peer-reviewed journal articles, a book chapter, seven conference papers and an award, Ms Bishop is fast becoming a leader in Indigenous education in Australia and internationally.

Mr Jonathan David, School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

Jonathan David’s breakthrough research into hoarding disorder led him to question the way psychologists understand and treat the condition.

He has made exciting discoveries that are already changing the research and treatment landscape for a disorder that affects two and a half per cent of the general population and seven per cent of older individuals.

Mr David’s critical review of cognitive behavioural therapy revealed that it does not help 70 per cent of people with the disorder.

“The lack of treatment efficacy prompted my investigation into several potential psychological mechanisms that could become new targets for treatment,” he says.

Recent data suggests hoarding disorder is more debilitating than many other health conditions and results in poorer quality of life than major depressive disorder, post‑traumatic stress disorder and heart disease.

“It is associated with great economic and social burdens and sometimes life-threatening consequences,” says Mr David.

In investigating why people acquire and save excessive amounts of possessions, he developed new questionnaires, which are now being used by researchers globally.

He is also questioning whether hoarding should be reclassified as a behavioural addiction, as it continues to be associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

His findings are expected to be highly influential in guiding future research into the disorder.

Mr Thom Dixon, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts

Pioneering at the intersection of synthetic biology and international relations, Thom Dixon’s research is contributing to arms control and risk management in the global bioeconomy.

Among its many firsts, his work has fed into debate on establishing a permanent science and technology review mechanism for the UN’s Biological Weapons Convention. It has identified novel biological weaponry capabilities and proposed solutions to manage these emerging risks.

“Synthetic biology underpins the global bioeconomy. However, very little is known about how this critical technology intersects with state and non-state actor behaviour,” says Mr Dixon, who wants to understand if synthetic biology advances are likely to influence the global distribution of power and the likelihood of war between great powers.

“There is currently no international treaty, convention or forum at the state-parties level for considering the benefits and risks of synthetic biology. This research has proposed a Track 1.5 mechanism for achieving these goals.”

As the first to analyse cyberbiosecurity in international relations and propose the concept of ‘bioinformational engineering’, Mr Dixon’s research has been published across the international relations and synthetic biology disciplines.

It’s impressive output for a part-time PhD student; Mr Dixon works full time as Macquarie’s Manager, National Security and Defence.

Dr Tamika Worrell, School of Education and Department of Indigenous Studies, Faculty of Arts

“At the heart of all that I do – the relationships I build, the work I publish, the presentations I do – it is all about the care I have for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, community and Country,” says Dr Tamika Worrell.

Dr Worrell’s research addresses an urgent gap in understanding Indigenous perspectives across key learning areas of the curriculum, particularly in English. Her unique representational framework offers the prospect of significant change to English teaching on a national level.

Her PhD examiner commented: “This important research will be of most interest to teacher educators and English teachers who are leading professional development opportunities.”

Dr Worrell’s timely findings have achieved five publications to date as well as invitations to present. Yet the impact of her work reaches beyond direct research outcomes.

“Throughout my five years of HDR study at Macquarie University, I have benefited from the generosity of Indigenous peers and scholars who have offered space and support to encourage and grow me as a researcher,” she says. “Ensuring I reciprocate this for the next generation, I have worked to do the same in all settings. This is relationality in practice and it is my responsibility and obligation to continue this work.” 

STEMM 

Mr Jaime A. Alvarado-Montes, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Will it be possible for humanity to migrate to, and inhabit, environments different from Earth?

Astronomers are trying to answer this deep question.

Jaime A. Alvarado-Montes’ research has echoed globally and significantly impacted the exoplanets field through his scientific publications.

In studying the evolution of planetary systems, he has shed light on the fate of our own solar system based on the evolution of its four biggest planets.

His research has far-reaching implications for how we understand the evolution of giant planets in other solar systems and for the existence and durability of life.

All Mr Alvarado-Montes’ work, including his discovery that moons can become planets (‘ploonets’), has been published in top-tier astronomy journals (12 papers, one as a single author).

His work is so significant it will impact the education of astronomers for generations to come and has been collected in the Exoplanets books used by universities worldwide.

“My research stands on the shoulders of giants,” he says. “Since research and education are the cornerstones of science, the biggest impact of my research – of which I’m very proud – is the large number of follow-up university-level works based on my research that are being taken up by undergraduate students just starting their research journey.”

Mr Harry Carey, Macquarie Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

In just one year, Harry Carey developed a tool that matches human experts for accuracy and is several thousand times faster.

His tool, called DeepSlice, developed during his master degree, stands to improve the quality of atlas-based analysis across neuroscience.

“The mammalian brain is immensely complex, consisting of many separate regions which all have their own unique structures and functions,” he says. “Even the tiny brain of the mouse is composed of thousands of cell types arranged in more than 600 separate regions.”

Accurate brain navigation is a critical element, and bottleneck, of neuroscience research, and is currently done by ‘error-prone’ humans.

DeepSlice automates the hardest step of analysis, recognising features in every part of the mouse brain, at the touch of a button.

While DeepSlice is still in the final stages of review for publication, his invention has already been used by researchers globally more than 7000 times.

It also attracted interest from the world-leading innovator in neuroscience technology, the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

“We’re now collaborating to reanalyse their data library using DeepSlice as it’s the most reliable registration method currently available,” says Mr Carey.

Mr Alexander Hahn, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Alexander Hahn’s groundbreaking discoveries in exceedingly large quantum systems hold profound implications for quantum control and quantum chemistry, and could have far‑reaching benefits in drug discovery, catalyst design and fertiliser optimisation.

His novel insights into the Trotter product formula are so significant that his research has been supported by the Oberwolfach Research Institute for Mathematics – one of the world’s foremost research institutions – in addition to his primary ARC funding and a scholarship from the Sydney Quantum Academy.

Adding to the two peer-reviewed papers published prior to his PhD, Hahn has since published three papers, with two more in the pipeline.

“Collaborations are instrumental in bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise, enabling me to approach problems from multiple angles and uncover novel insights,” says Hahn, who credits his high level of originality and interdisciplinary impact to his philosophy of collaboration.

His proactive approach paid off when he contacted world-leading quantum computing and quantum sensing start-up Q-CTRL, which offered him the first internship in its research team.

“This aligned my research with real-world applications, but also provided valuable insights into industry needs.”

Dr Ali Lalbakhsh, School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Dr Ali Lalbakhsh’s research philosophy – delivering for people’s immediate and future needs – has helped him maintain his high-calibre research since beginning his master degree.

Through his electromagnetic engineering and applied artificial intelligence research, Dr Lalbakhsh has invented low-cost antenna technology, advanced satellite internet affordability, pioneered an AI platform for mitigating COVID-19, and integrated it all into his exemplary teaching.

While this means smart emergency services, precision farming and remote mining machinery can become fully operational globally, the ultimate outcome, he says, is a reduction of the digital divide.

“This will safeguard Australian lives and resources in natural disasters, contribute to the autonomous vehicles market and retain Australia’s world-leading standing in food and mining in the smart era ahead,” he says.

He has also leveraged his research into his teaching and instils in his students the belief that they too can contribute to real-life engineering marvels.

Dr Lalbakhsh uses his open-ended research-based projects to encourage students to continue applying their knowledge after the unit ends.

“Yes, it sounds ambitious,” he says. Yet students continue working on their two- or three-year-old projects with him, some achieving Q1 publications or research projects supported by industry partners.

Early Career Researcher of the Year

These awards acknowledge outstanding performance in research by an early career researcher (in both HASS- and STEMM-based disciplines).

HASS

Dr Anam Bilgrami, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie Business School

Dr Anam Bilgrami’s research has made a big impact in a short time. Just two years post-PhD, she continues her upward trajectory in health economics, contributing to the evidence base for Australian policymaking through analysis of under‑evaluated health and healthcare initiatives.

Using innovative econometric modelling to tease out causal impacts, she is able to address the challenging policy evaluation environment.

“In Australia, most policymaking occurs at the Australian Government level, with policies often affecting the whole nation,” says Dr Bilgrami. “This makes it difficult to construct ‘control groups’ unaffected by a policy.”

As the first to explore the impacts of programs and policies that cost Australian taxpayers billions annually, including paid parental leave, private health insurance interventions, WHS regulations and aged care, Dr Bilgrami’s research is already making an impact.

As well as five published manuscripts – two in top international health economics and policy journals – and five more under revision or review, her research and commentary has featured on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald, in the Australian Health Economics Society policy newsletter and The Conversation.

“These represent high research productivity relative to opportunities in the economics discipline, where publishing is notoriously competitive with a low rate of article acceptance,” says Dr Bilgrami.

Dr Emlyn Dodd, Department of History and Archaeology, Faculty of Arts

From fostering capacity-building in sustainable agricultural practice, to digitally preserving cultural heritage under threat from rising sea levels and increasing tourism, the impact of Dr Emlyn Dodd’s research is far-reaching.

Dr Dodd is a global leader in ancient wine research and Roman archaeology. He has made significant scholarly advances in and beyond his field, especially through fieldwork in Greece, Italy and Türkiye, discovering new archaeological evidence, evolving and updating theories and prioritising the dissemination of his research to specialists and the public at large.

In employing innovative and creative methods, including drone photogrammetry, laser scanning and geophysical surveys, Dr Dodd aims to “step beyond material culture and investigate deeper issues of rural and urban landscape change, climate and social and economic theory”.

“I have focused especially on wine and olive oil production in the ancient Mediterranean as two key commodities engrained within Graeco-Roman culture and economy, while simultaneously central to today’s modern Mediterranean and Australian agriculture and economies,” explains Dr Dodd.

He currently leads and co-directs two major international multidisciplinary research and fieldwork projects. He has published widely in academic journals and books, featured in The Guardian, The Conversation, on ABC and BBC radio, filmed with National Geographic, and delivered keynote lectures across seven countries.

Dr Madeline Taylor, Macquarie Law School, Faculty of Arts

It’s one of the greatest and most complex legal and policy challenges: how to urgently reach net zero energy emissions while ensuring sustained benefits at the wider community level.

Dr Madeline Taylor is leading the way through award-winning research that examines how the law can create a more just energy transition – pioneering the discipline of socio-legal and functional comparative analyses and leading collaborative grant-funded research projects aimed at delivering equality-promoting legal frameworks.

“My goal is for regulatory reform to strike a balance between landholder rights and the need to rapidly decarbonise in the face of intensifying climate change and land-use conflicts,” says Dr Taylor.

She has already had an impact on policy and regulatory development and is one of Macquarie’s leading authors, with more than 123,000 article views and an impressive media profile.

Whereas existing legal research largely focuses on market-based energy regulation and urban energy communities, Dr Taylor’s unique socio-legal lens highlights the need for justice in net zero energy developments largely hosted by regional and rural communities.

“My novel research in energy justice focuses on probing how new and emerging net zero technologies can provide transparent legal processes, distributed economic and non-economic benefits and recognition of landholder rights and community perspectives,” says Dr Taylor.

STEMM

Dr Jean-Simon Pacaud Lemay, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Just two years out of his PhD, Dr Jean-Simon (JS) Pacaud Lemay is recognised as a strong category theorist and the leading expert on differential categories.

The theory of differential categories, a relatively new research area, uses category theory to study differential calculus. It has become one of the primary tools to express the foundations of differentiation in mathematics and computer science.

Dr Pecaud Lemay has made significant contributions by pushing the boundaries with new theories and reformulating and ‘cleaning up’ old theories.

“The theory of differential categories is a vibrant and active field of research and has recently grown in popularity in a variety of research areas,” says Dr Pecaud Lemay.

This is thanks, in part, to Dr Pecaud Lemay and his collaborators’ enthusiasm.

“As artificial intelligence and machine learning begin tackling real-life situations, the complexity of the problems encountered increases exponentially,” explains Dr Pecaud Lemay. “This requires fundamentally new mathematical approaches to address them and streamline the development of efficient solving systems and tools. Differential categories is an ideal tool to achieve this.”

Prolifically published before he finished his PhD, Dr Pecaud Lemay now has 35 peer-reviewed articles. Associate Professor Richard Garner says his papers have a “clear creative spark and a novel twist which elevate them above the mundane”.

Associate Professor Noushin Nasiri, School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering

A tiny, powerful device invented by Associate Professor Noushin Nasiri has the potential to revolutionise how we protect ourselves from harmful UV radiation.

With Australia’s melanoma rate 12 times the global average, Associate Professor Nasiri’s innovations in nanotechnology are having a significant impact on UV detection.

Associate Professor Nasiri’s pioneering research methods change the landscape of nanosensing technology across several platforms.

Her creation of the world’s first personalised UV sensor can not only measure the UV index in real time but it also calibrates to the user’s skin type.

Her SunWatch has attracted many accolades, including the 2023 NSW Cancer Institute Fellowship and the prestigious 2021 Royal Society of NSW Warren Prize and interest from medical manufacturers and venture capitalists.

Associate Professor Nasiri is a regular TEDx speaker and has more than 50 peer-reviewed publications.

“This innovation has the potential to save lives and dramatically reduce treatment costs for melanoma and other skin cancers,” she says. “It can easily be used on a personalised level to alert millions of people in Australia and beyond to the dangers of overexposure to UV, allowing them to modulate their exposure to the sun.”

Associate Professor Nasiri’s 3D layout is highly original and sets the watch apart from other wearable UV‑sensing devices.

Register to attend the awards ceremony on 15 November.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Learning and Teaching Innovation

This award recognises the development and implementation of innovations that improve learning, teaching or assessment to enable, motivate, support and inspire students to learn.

The team of: Associate Professor Louise Koelmeyer, Dr Belinda Thompson, Robin Blumfield, Professor Catherine Dean, Robbie Blackwell, Dr Kylie Gwynne, Fiona Tisdall Blake, Dr Morwenna Kirwan, Matthew Robson and Chloe Szilas, Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

When the Australian Lymphoedema Education, Research and Treatment (ALERT) team needed to redesign its nine-day face-to-face intensive program, they also replaced the outsourced, outdated, compulsory pre‑learning with their own cutting-edge version.

The results have been “remarkable”, says director Associate Professor Louise Koelmeyer, with the face-to-face component now requiring just four days to complete.

Students are also better able to retain knowledge because the new suite of online modules, comprising diverse media, content chunking, engaging animations and knowledge checks,  not only demands a smaller cognitive load but also better supports student learning.

“Today we offer a blended program that combines online delivery with four days of in-person clinical skills training and assessment, complemented by 35 clinical skills videos featuring real patients,” says Associate Professor Koelmeyer.

In a recent survey, 100 per cent of respondents agreed that the new combination enhanced their clinical experience and was one of the best learning experiences of their career.

“The ALERT program has already been recognised for its innovation and design,” says Associate Professor Koelmeyer. “We take immense pride in our accomplishments and the positive impact we have made in the field of lymphoedema education. Ultimately, our vision is to improve the lives of individuals at risk of or who are living with lymphoedema.”

The team of: Dr David Payne, Dr Sara Deilami, and Dr Binesh Puthen Veettil, School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering

The automated early-warning system developed by Dr David Payne, Dr Sara Deilami and Dr Binesh Puthen Veettil to predict which students are most at risk of failing a unit has the potential to benefit not just the entire University, but the education sector as a whole.

From its first deployment in a single unit in 2021, to three units in 2022, the team has this year successfully expanded its rollout to include core units across mathematics, physics and engineering.

“Traditionally, identifying at-risk students has been very challenging, especially for larger units,” says Dr Deilami. “But our innovative approach offers an efficient, simple and even accurate process to identify these students. This benefits both staff and students as it minimises workload and training, allowing the staff to focus on providing student support.”

Convenor of the largest unit offered at the School of Engineering, Associate Professor Noushin Nasiri agrees: “Since this innovation, we’ve been able to efficiently tackle this problem, and have increased the success rate of our students in our classes.”

The team of: Professor David Orsmond and Dr Marjan Nazifi, Department of Economics, Macquarie Business School

A simple reminder is sometimes all it takes.

With a 25 per cent failure rate for its 3000 annual students, the first Principles of Economics unit was in need of some fresh thinking.

“The unit is mandatory for all students in the Business School,” explains Dr Marjan Nazifi, who identified enhancing engagement, particularly for students who had to repeat the unit due to past failure grades, as the key to improving the figures. “They are easily identifiable in the data,” she says.

Along with Professor David Orsmond, Dr Nazifi focused on three aspects of engagement: tutorials, assessments and extra meetings and workshops for at-risk students.

Professor Orsmond says the results were remarkable. “The success rate for repeat students increased from around a third to a two-thirds pass rate within a single session.”

The project was extended, with convenors of all other units also emailing repeat students to remind them of upcoming assessments and where they could get assistance.

“This simple action led to a 20-percentage-point increase in their success rate,” says Professor Orsmond.

Dr Nazifi adds: “The evidence is clear that this innovation to improve engagement is effective in enhancing student learning. We believe these strategies can be easily replicated and scaled across other units and courses.”

The team of: Dr Mareike Riedel and Dr Amanda Head, Macquarie Law School, Faculty of Arts 

Alongside negative preconceptions of statutory interpretation – a crucial skill in the legal profession – law students’ heightened sense of justice and motivation to affect social change often leads them to fast, intuitive resolution, making it challenging to keep students engaged with the meticulous process of legal interpretation.

“We had to find an innovative way to deliver content by slowing down students, engaging their sense of justice in a productive way, and by showing them that statutory interpretation matters in the real world,” says Dr Mareike Riedel.

Dr Riedel and Dr Amanda Head set up a fictitious law firm, Macquarie Legal, where students worked as junior solicitors on case files involving current social justice issues.

The staggered approach to skills development and deliberate late release of assessment instructions were crucial to reinforcing the slow-thinking, methodical approach to statutory interpretation and to inhibiting students’ natural instinct to jump to conclusions.

Data evidenced a transformation in student thinking and learning and high overall engagement, and the team observed a transfer of skills into another law unit.

“Students were not specially directed to apply their new interpretation skills, so this cross-pollination demonstrates an enhancement of learning, engagement and student outcomes more broadly,” says Dr Head.

Excellence in Research Innovation, Partnership and Entrepreneurship Award

The Research Innovation, Partnership and Entrepreneurship award recognises and rewards excellence in research innovation, partnership, commercialisation, translation and entrepreneurship at Macquarie University.

Professor Michael Aitken, Department of Applied Finance, Macquarie Business School

Professor Michael Aitken has spent four decades at the intersection of academia and industry, founding and leading technology businesses and mentoring postgraduate students who work in those businesses.

He co-founded the Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre, now the Rozetta Institute, and built a $30-million endowment for the creation of national research centres to address market failure in key sectors. He has led research missions to bring increased transparency, fairness and efficiency to the securities, health and energy marketplaces.

Macquarie has been an integral partner in his groundbreaking research and every cooperative research centre (CRC) application. Collectively worth $480 million, it is one of the Australian Government’s largest long-term contributions to research innovation.

Through Professor Aitken’s work, Macquarie is at the cutting edge of this program, leading the recently funded Digital Finance CRC and the prospective Retirement Income and Property Tech CRCs.

“Central to each CRC application is the partnership between Macquarie’s academic supervisors and postgraduate students,” says Professor Aitken.

Students gain first-class PhDs, industry experience that guarantees them a job and, in many cases, valuable equity in the venture they help create.

The team of: Distinguished Professor Phil Taylor, Dr Bishwo Mainali, Dr Vivian Mendez, Dr Maciej Maselko, Dr Soo Jean Park, Dr Mary Whitehouse, Dr Piotr Trebicki, Applied BioSciences Insect Biosecurity Team, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Australia’s national goal of a $100 billion per annum agricultural sector by 2030 is threatened by invasive insects that damage production and impede trade.

Defending this goal, Macquarie’s Applied BioSciences has a unique operating model and deep partnerships that produce large, diverse and innovative research programs developing sustainable insect biosecurity solutions, and promoting disruptive technologies that enable significant changes in the way crop protection is managed.

“Our partnerships are of enduring value to Macquarie and each has its own genesis,” says Distinguished Professor Phil Taylor. “All, however, carry a common theme of deep trust and influence through generosity. Our primary approach has been to seek not just commonalities between organisations, but also complementary differences in expertise, facilities and, importantly, operating models.”

Nothing builds partnership like shared people.

“Embedding research fellows and PhD students with CSIRO, NSW Department of Primary Industries and SARDI [South Australian Research and Development Institute] has been particularly effective,” says Professor Taylor.

The team has maintained some of Macquarie’s most substantial externally funded research programs, currently managing more than $35 million in projects that are developing novel strategies for managing insect threats to agriculture, human health and natural environments. Applied BioSciences is also training the next generation of insect biosecurity researchers and managers for Australia.

Excellence in Research – Five Future-shaping Research Priorities

These awards celebrate the five future-shaping research priorities that are identified areas of cross-disciplinary research strengths. Awards within the five future-shaping research priorities demonstrate the real-world impact of University research that has the potential to deliver significant benefits to Australian and international communities.

The five categories are: Healthy People, Resilient Societies, Prosperous Economies, Secure Planet and Innovative Technologies 

Associate Professor Mark Alfano, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts

“It is hard to overemphasise just how important it will be in the coming years to foster wise trust in the Australian and global populations,” says Associate Professor Mark Alfano.

Pandemics, artificial intelligence, climate change: Associate Professor Alfano says the complex issues we face cannot be addressed through purely technological or technocratic approaches.

Most work in philosophy has little to no impact on other fields, according to Associate Professor Alfano. Yet intellectual humility is a critical quality for citizens of a resilient society because it helps us place our trust wisely.

In a collaborative survey of 45,000 people in 69 countries, Associate Professor Alfano’s empirical measure of intellectual humility was the strongest predictor of rejecting COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

“It demonstrated that people who were inclined to jump to conclusions – including about who to trust – and then resist contrary evidence were especially liable to medical misinformation,” he says.

Associate Professor Alfano’s scale is being used by teams in the Americas, Europe and Australasia, and could also influence communications regulatory policy.

In conducting his $1.6–million research project, Associate Professor Alfano founded the philosophical sub-field social virtue epistemology, and pioneered interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers in psychology and computational social science. His findings have been published in more than 25 prestigious publications and attracted significant media attention.

Professor Tao Gu, School of Computing, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Be they smart cities, digital health, multimedia or manufacturing, many sectors stand to benefit from the innovative solutions being developed by Professor Tao Gu and his team.

They are pushing the boundaries of the Internet of Things (IoT) – exploring new ways to connect and sense the physical world, while integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into new computing systems and applications.

Their groundbreaking contributions in wireless sensing, low-power networks and edge AI – published in 48 research papers – have the potential to revolutionise the IoT, enabling more reliable data collection from the physical world for improved decision making, efficiency and automation.

In a healthcare breakthrough, Professor Gu’s contact-free millimetre-wave-based blood pressure measurement system offers a convenient and non-intrusive method for monitoring blood pressure.

“The potential benefits include better management of cardiovascular conditions, reduced healthcare costs and improved accessibility to healthcare for individuals worldwide,” says Professor Gu.

His team’s novel millimetre-wave radar-based facial expression recognition has significant implications for multimedia IoT applications. It has the potential to enhance user experiences across entertainment, advertising and human-computer interaction.

Professor Gu’s originality, rigour and achievements position his research as a significant contributor to the advancement of IoT and its applications for the real world.

The team of: Professor Catherine McMahon, Department of Linguistics; Professor Leanne Holt, Department of Indigenous Studies; Associate Professor Boe Rambaldini, Dr Kylie Gwynne and Cara Cross, Department of Health Sciences; Noeleen Lumby, Department of Linguistics/Indigenous Studies; Dr Yvonne Dimitropoulos, Luke Halvorsen, Kai Nash and Dr Andrea Salins, Department of Linguistics

Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences and Faculty of Arts

Three times more prevalent in Aboriginal children than in other children, middle-ear disease disrupts literacy and language development, lowering academic outcomes and increasing rates of incarceration.

Professor Catherine McMahon and her team are reducing this disparity.

Through the Aboriginal Children’s Hearing Health Program (ACHHP), led by Macquarie University Hearing’s HEAR Centre and in partnership with Djurali Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research and Education, they have received $3.85 million to address the issue.

“We genuinely place Aboriginal communities at the heart of the solution by using a co-design approach that delivers sustainable benefits for the community and develops an important evidence base for scale,” says Professor McMahon.

Two years ago, Australia had just two Aboriginal audiometrists. The completion rate for any student commencing the qualification was just 16 per cent. ACHHP’s new culturally safe training program has since graduated 12 Aboriginal audiometrists and is anticipating an 87.5 per cent completion rate. To address industry barriers, which previously led to low numbers graduating, the clinical training model was based on the pedagogical design used to train Macquarie’s Master of Clinical Audiology students.

The team has appointed four Aboriginal research fellows and provided access to resources for development of new models of care.

Professor Tina Soliman-Hunter, Macquarie Law School, Faculty of Arts

Climate change, energy insecurity, ocean pollutants and increasing volumes of difficult-to-recycle products all contribute to an insecure planet.

Using her unique multidisciplinary knowledge of law, earth sciences, technology and geopolitics, Professor Tina Soliman-Hunter has set out to address many of these issues and help build a secure planet for future generations.

“There is no more secure a planet than one where past mistakes are acknowledged, and future threats identified and addressed,” says Professor Soliman-Hunter, who focuses on developing research where scientific evidence underpins law-making.

“As a law academic, I recognise the need for legal reform to address the issues that threaten the security of the planet. However, there is an urgent need for evidence-based regulation of activities that threaten the planet, rather than those activities being based on politics, commercial imperatives, fear or favour.”

Working with scientists from the United Kingdom, Russia and Europe, Professor Soliman-Hunter has led multidisciplinary teams of researchers to address the science that contributes to law-making.

In coming to Macquarie in 2020, she expanded her research to incorporate issues that threaten the security of Australia as well as the planet at large. Professor Soliman-Hunter is also Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Innovation and Transformation.

The team of: Dr Miles Yang and Dr Candy Lu, Department of Management, Macquarie Business School

Tens of thousands of employees across northern China are experiencing greater resilience, wellbeing and performance thanks to research conducted by Dr Miles Yang and Dr Candy Lu. The success of their project signals huge potential to shape future business practices for sustainable economic growth – in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

By integrating sustainable human resource management practices and artificial intelligence-driven decision making grounded in common-good values, the team aims to revolutionise how business and society interact.

“By embedding common-good values, our study can shape future business practices, contribute to sustainable development and economic growth and drive a paradigm shift in organisational operations,” says Dr Yang.

Since partnering with local government agencies in northern China, the team has promoted its sustainable practices to 200 firms across multiple industries.

“This has benefited a diverse range of employees and managers and underscores the value of such practices in improving workplace productivity, even in environments traditionally resistant to progressive management practices,” says Dr Lu.

“We continue our endeavours with the anticipation that the successful wider implementation of our practices will contribute to global sustainability goals, making a positive and lasting impact on organisations and societies around the world.”

Dr Yipeng Zhou, School of Computing, Faculty of Science and Engineering

In an era of privacy- and data-breach uncertainty, Dr Yipeng Zhou is revolutionising federated learning to ease privacy leak concerns.

Artificial intelligence’s proliferation has been empowered by machine learning. However, this relies on users’ private data. More data means more intelligence, says Dr Zhou. But it also means more risk. So much so that the Australian Government heftily increased the penalty for serious or repeated breaches following the Medibank and Optus breaches.

Federated learning – where data owners collaboratively train a shared machine learning model by exposing only their model parameters, not sensitive raw data – can prevent data breaches and bolster data privacy.

Until now, communication inefficiency, system fragility and unreliability had diminished the uptake of federated learning. But Dr Zhou’s novel communication strategies and protocols overcome these deficiencies and promise to be the building blocks for the next generation of distributed machine learning systems.

“My research promotes the application of federated learning, which can broadly benefit intelligent services such as recommendation, computer vision and medical-image analysis by breaking isolated data islands while averting data breaches,” says Dr Zhou, whose research is published in 110 peer-reviewed papers.

“This will strengthen Australia’s unique competitive edge and leading role in the development of IT core technology.”

We extend a warm invitation to all staff to register and come together to celebrate our exceptional colleagues.

Over the upcoming five weeks, we will spotlight the achievements and influence of the finalists. We begin with ‘the enrichers’ – educators and researchers that go above and beyond to either inspire and support Macquarie students or change research for the better.

Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Sessional Staff Award

This award recognises sessional staff for their approaches to teaching and support of learning that influences, motivates and inspires students to learn.

Ms Abbie Hartman, Department of History and Archaeology, Faculty of Arts

“Teaching is one of the most enjoyable parts of academia,” says Abbie Hartman.

For Ms Hartman, teaching involves gamifying sources, engaging through multimedia – and fostering equitability and accessibility.

Ms Hartman’s inclusive classroom ensures students feel like active participants in their education, leaving engaged and believing they have gained knowledge in a supportive, accessible environment.

Although traditional lectures and secondary source analysis form most of her Twentieth-Century Europe unit, Ms Hartman has increased participation and understanding by supplementing her classes with object-based learning.

“I believe that education at the university level should be equitable and accessible for a diverse range of students, particularly those with a preference or requirement for non-traditional modes of learning,” says Ms Hartman. “To foster this, I offer a variety of ways for students to engage with the theoretical aspects of my units, including podcasts, popular culture representations and presenting information orally and visually.”

Not only are learning outcomes improving, students recognise her commitment to inclusivity: “Abbie was supportive of students with learning disabilities like myself. She put extra effort into supporting us and ensuring we had all the tools we needed to get the most out of her content.”

Mr Camille Rahme, Department of Chiropractic, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Services

No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care – Theodore Roosevelt

It’s a sentiment at the heart of Camille Rahme’s teaching and one that mirrors his vision for his students and his own clinical practice.

“True person-centred clinical care requires topic expertise, empathy and understanding of one another,” he explains.

To achieve this understanding, Mr Rahme embraces the challenges facing his students at each stage of their learning journey.

For example, first-year students may feel anxious or uncomfortable when faced with physical examinations by or of their peers. And students at the pre-professional stage can be overwhelmed when preparing to transition to practice.

“I wholeheartedly embrace these challenges to assist students, and in doing so have gained a better understanding of their attitudes and self-perception – essential for developing professionalism and improving clinical interaction,” he says. “A true sense of belonging and connectedness are essential ingredients for my students to effectively engage and bring their best selves to class.”

Mr Rahme’s welcoming and kind disposition, along with his team-building exercises, creates a nurturing, supportive and inclusive environment that promotes a positive attitude towards participation. And by empowering his students to understand complex interventions, he promotes autonomy, problem-solving and collaboration.

Dr Brett White, Department of Management, Macquarie Business School

Having introduced almost 8000 students to Macquarie through Principles of Management since 2020, Dr Brett White’s goal is to help students enter academia and give them the tools they need to succeed.

He achieves this by developing engaging and unique activities, for example, adapting three core university skills: research (‘good-awesome-rubbish’ activity), working in groups (‘ghosts are real’ social loafing activity) and presenting (‘spot the difference’, an artificial intelligence activity).

The impact is palpable: one student claimed his essay guide was so good, she would use it for every future unit: “Thank you for writing the best essay guide ever.”

“I believe in helping students master the fundamentals to excel in advanced learning,” says Dr White. “Learning is a collaborative process and students can enhance their understanding by sharing ideas, questions and thoughts within a group setting.”

Dr White’s introduction of two-hour tutorials and a mentoring program for new sessional staff have also positively impacted learning and teaching. The two-hour tutorial format allows for more flexibility in teaching strategies, greater coverage of material and the chance to develop deeper, more nuanced activities.

The mentoring program, which offers personalised support for new tutors, is now being developed for all sessional staff in Macquarie Business School.

Excellence in Higher Degree Research Supervision – Supervisor of the Year Award

This award recognises our outstanding Higher Degree Research (HDR) supervisors who enable our HDR candidates to achieve their highest potential.

Associate Professor Alice Chik, School of Education, Faculty of Arts

For Associate Professor Alice Chik, research supervision is as much about human connection as it is about the intellectual.

With initiatives such as encouraging students to chat about their research and opening her home for celebrations, it’s clear that facilitating interaction is one of Associate Professor Chik’s strengths – and the high-calibre output from her candidates attests to just how important it is.

“Higher degree research supervision is as much about respect, trust, care and fun,” she explains. “Talking about a student’s research as they would at a party is helpful to verbalise thoughts and crystallise complex research and theoretical ideas. As students progress in their projects, they frequently exhibit stronger confidence in articulating their research expertise – this is especially empowering for international students who speak English as a second language.”

Since joining Macquarie in 2014, Associate Professor Chik has supervised six Master of Research and six doctoral projects to completion. She aspires to “seamlessly sail across research areas, theoretical frameworks and methodologies by learning with and from my students”.

Dr Yijun Yin, who progressed from master to PhD with Associate Professor Chik, sums up the supervisor’s approach: “The entire process is quite hard mentally and emotionally; I appreciate Alice for making my journey very special.”

Professor Niloufer Selvadurai, Macquarie Law School, Faculty of Arts 

From the moment students start their research journey with Professor Niloufer Selvadurai, they are industrious and meticulous, adhering to firm schedules and redrafting their chapters until they display a sophistication that aligns with the quality of their research.

Most importantly, though, their projects – like Professor Selvadurai’s pioneering research – have purpose. Professor Selvadurai’s philosophy is that each candidate’s research project should address a critical societal need and work towards solving a real-world problem.

“This is what motivates candidates to learn, innovate and flourish,” she explains.

For most of her 24 higher degree research candidates, English is a second language. Yet every person has completed their research on time (or with a formal extension), with a high volume of peer-reviewed journal articles and prizes. And they are in demand – globally.

But this journey isn’t only about their research. Professor Selvadurai is keenly aware of the sacrifices made and challenges faced by PhD candidates and is on hand to offer support – including when one of her international students awaited the delivery of her baby.

“I consider it not merely a duty but an honour to be trusted to share these moments and seek to provide any little comfort I can,” she says.

Excellence in Research Integrity

The inaugural Excellence in Research Integrity award recognises outstanding contribution, leadership or innovation in research integrity by an individual or team.

Associate Professor Reema Harrison, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

In discovering novel evidence about safety in cancer services for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, Associate Professor Reema Harrison also employed an innovative collaborative approach that is spearheading a culture of co-design across the wider health services research sector.

“Co-design methods are increasingly applied in academic research, but fraught with challenges in managing power relationships, participation and creating equitable and transparent processes,” she says.

Associate Professor Harrison’s groundbreaking multi-method approach to her four-year CanEngage project positioned healthcare consumers as collaborators in every part of the research process. She says this was critical to achieving the aims of the project and allowed her to produce practical tools and approaches to support consumer collaboration and design into the future.

“With accelerated requirements for collaborative research and awareness of the consequences of poor co-design and co-research practices, the outputs from CanEngage provide critical guidance and exemplars for researchers and clinicians internationally to inform their practice,” says Associate Professor Harrison.

As well as a community of CALD co-designers, CanEngage resulted in 16 peer‑reviewed publications; 23 presentations; media coverage; more than $6 million in associated, leveraged grant funding; and the successful supervision of a PhD project.

Associate Professor Mianna Lotz, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts

Associate Professor Mianna Lotz has demonstrated exemplary research integrity leadership in her role of Chair of the Faculty of Arts Human Research Ethics Sub‑Committee.

Her work has been guided by a dual commitment to facilitating research while promoting the highest standards of research ethics and integrity; and to building researcher capabilities in managing ethical demands in ways that facilitate trust, mutual benefit and respectful relationships.

“I’ve sought to achieve this via consciously embodying, instilling and supporting an in-practice commitment to research facilitation and researcher empowerment, shaping and implementing the faculty ethics review process to actively support researchers to achieve their aims in ways that are compliant with relevant laws, regulations, guidelines and policies.”

During the past five years, Associate Professor Lotz estimates she has mentored at least 250 reviewers, researchers and supervisors in managing the ethical aspects of research. As well as a deep understanding of ethical and legal standards and the diverse subjects and methodologies of humanities and social sciences research, the role requires strong skills in diplomacy, conflict resolution and conducting difficult conversations. In this work Associate Professor Lotz says she seeks “to ensure a supportive environment that accounts for the vulnerability of students and early career researchers in particular.”

Keep an eye on This Week over the coming weeks as we get to know each of the finalists.

LEARNING AND TEACHING AWARD FINALISTS

Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Student–Nominated Award

This award recognises staff for their teaching and support of learning that influences, motivates and inspires students to learn.

• Ms Georgia Cam, Faculty of Arts
• Dr Irina Dedova, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences
• Associate Professor Richard Garner, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Ms Emily Gray, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Dr Michelle Hamadache, Faculty of Arts
• Dr Marina Junqueira Santiago, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences
• Dr Jillian Kramer, Faculty of Arts
• Dr Ali Lalbakhsh, Macquarie University College
• Dr Rico Piehler, Macquarie Business School
• Dr Lay Peng Tan, Macquarie Business School
• Dr Hector Viveros Tapia, Macquarie Business School

Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Sessional Staff Award

This award recognises sessional staff for their approaches to teaching and support of learning that influences, motivates and inspires students to learn.

• Ms Abbie Hartman, Faculty of Arts
• Mr Camille Rahme, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences
• Dr Brett White, Macquarie Business School

Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Early Career Award

This award recognises staff for their quality teaching and support of learning and the impact they have on influencing, motivating and inspiring students to learn.

• Dr Joseph Chen, Macquarie Business School
• Dr Narelle Hess, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences
• Dr June Ho, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Dr Madeline Taylor, Faculty of Arts

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence

This award recognises staff for their excellence in teaching and support of learning and the impact they have on influencing, motivating and inspiring students to learn.

• Dr Viken Kortian, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• The team of: Dr Hamed Jafarzadeh and Dr Prashan S. M. Karunaratne, Macquarie Business School
• Associate Professor John De Nobile, Faculty of Arts
• Dr Natasha Todorov, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Learning and Teaching Innovation

This award recognises the development and implementation of innovations that improve learning, teaching or assessment to enable, motivate, support and inspire students to learn.

• The team of: Associate Prof Louise Koelmeyer, Dr Belinda Thompson, Robin Blumfield, Professor Catherine Dean, Robbie Blackwell, Dr Kylie Gwynne, Fiona Tisdall-Blake, Dr Morwenna Kirwan, Matthew Robson, and Chloe Szilas, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences
• The team of: Dr David Payne, Dr Sara Deilami, and Dr Binesh Puthen Veettil, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• The team of: Dr Marjan Nazifi and Professor David Orsmond, Macquarie Business School
• The team of: Dr Mareike Riedel and Dr Amanda Head, Faculty of Arts

Vice-Chancellor’s Educational Leader Award

This award recognises educational leadership that has influenced and enhanced learning and teaching and/or student experience.

• Dr Onur Ates, Macquarie University College
• The team of: Associate Professor Agnes Bosanquet, Dr Mathew Hillier, Dr Olga Kozar, Dr Karina Luzia, Kylie Coaldrake, and Alison Hayward, Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education)
• Dr Josephine Paparo, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences
• The team of: Professor Ronika Power, Mr Michael Rampe, and Dr Neil Durrant, Faculty of Arts
• Dr Malcolm Ryan, Faculty of Science and Engineering

RESEARCH EXCELLENCE AWARD FINALISTS  

Excellence in Higher Degree Research Awards

These awards will be presented for outstanding research undertaken by a current or former higher degree research candidate (in both HASS and STEMM disciplines). 

HASS

• Ms Michelle Bishop, Faculty of Arts
• Mr Jonathan David, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences
• Mr Thom Dixon, Faculty of Arts
• Dr Tamika Worrell, Faculty of Arts

STEMM

• Mr Jaime A. Alvarado-Montes, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Mr Harry Carey, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences
• Mr Alexander Hahn, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Dr Ali Lalbakhsh, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Excellence in Higher Degree Research Supervision – Supervisor of the Year

This award recognises our outstanding Higher Degree Research (HDR) supervisors who enable our HDR candidates to achieve their highest potential.

• Associate Professor Alice Chik, Faculty of Arts
• Professor Niloufer Selvadurai, Faculty of Arts

Early Career Researcher of the Year

These awards acknowledge outstanding performance in research by an early career researcher (in both HASS and STEMM based disciplines).

HASS

• Dr Anam Bilgrami, Macquarie Business School
• Dr Emlyn Dodd, Faculty of Arts
• Dr Madeline Taylor, Faculty of Arts

STEMM

• Dr Jean-Simon Pacaud Lemay, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Associate Professor Noushin Nasiri, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Excellence in Research – Five Future-shaping Research Priorities

These awards celebrate the five future-shaping research priorities that are identified areas of cross-disciplinary research strengths.  Awards within the five future-shaping research priorities demonstrate the real-world impact of University research that has the potential to deliver significant benefits to Australian and international communities.

The five categories are: Healthy People, Resilient Societies, Prosperous Economies, Secure Planet and Innovative Technologies 

• Associate Professor Mark Alfano, Faculty of Arts
• Professor Tao Gu, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• The team of: Professor Catherine McMahon, Professor Leanne Holt, Associate Professor Boe Rambaldini, Dr Kylie Gwynne, Luke Halvorsen, Kai Nash, Noeleen Lumby, Cara Cross, Dr Yvonne Dimitropoulos, Dr Andrea Salins, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences and Faculty of Arts
• Professor Tina Soliman-Hunter, Faculty of Arts
• The team of: Dr Miles Yang, Dr Candy Lu, Macquarie Business School
• Dr Yipeng Zhou, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Excellence in Research Integrity

The inaugural Excellence in Research Integrity award recognises outstanding contribution, leadership or innovation in research integrity by an individual or team.

• Associate Professor Reema Harrison, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences
• Associate Professor Mianna Lotz, Faculty of Arts

Excellence in Research Innovation, Partnership and Entrepreneurship Award

The Research Innovation, Partnership and Entrepreneurship award recognises and rewards excellence in research innovation, partnership, commercialisation, translation and entrepreneurship at Macquarie University.

• Professor Michael Aitken, Macquarie Business School
• The team of: Distinguished Professor Phil Taylor, Dr Bishwo Mainali, Dr Vivian Mendez, Dr Maciej Maselko, Dr Soo Jean Park, Dr Mary Whitehouse, Dr Piotr Trebicki, Faculty of Science and Engineering

The Jim Piper Award for Excellence in Research Leadership

This award seeks to recognise, encourage and reward those researchers who are on a path to becoming research leaders at Macquarie University.

• Associate Professor Morten Andersen, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Associate Professor Amy Cain, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Professor Helen Rizos, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences
• Distinguished Professor Deborah Schofield, Macquarie Business School