Awards and Achievements - June 2021

The University of Western Australia has a continual roll call of awards, scholarships and prizes presented to staff and students.

To recognise these achievements, an article is published on the UWA news page on the website and in UWA Forward on the first week of every month. If you know of great awards or achievements across the University please email [email protected]

Name: Professor Michael Tobar, School of Physics
Achievement: Professor Tobar was awarded the Distinguished Lecturer Award for Frequency Control for 2021/2022. The Distinguished Lecturer is selected not only because of personal stature and contribution to a field, but also because of broad knowledge of the field. Each Lecturer presents between 20 and 40 lectures all over the world at institutions and places of interest to them and their research. Professor Tobar’s term is from July 2021 to December 2022. 

Name: Ma Christel Joyce Manuel, School of Allied Health
Achievement:Ma was chosen as the winner of the Pharmacy Student of the Year (PSOTY) Wildcard title, after excelling in a counselling scenario that involved a patient with heartburn symptoms. Ma was awarded free attendance to PSA 2021 and a chance to compete for the national PSOTY title at the event.

Name: Professor Wendy Erber, Medical School
Achievement:Professor Erber has been awarded the 2021 Alumni Award for Professional Achievement at the University of Sydney for her significant professional achievements. Professor Erber was the first female Rhodes Scholar from NSW and went on to establish one of the world’s first comprehensive leukemia diagnostic laboratories.

Name: Bilya Marlee and EZONE, UWA Campus
Achievement:Bilya Marlee by Kerry Hill Architect won the Julius Elischer Award for Interior Architecture at the Australian Institute of Architects 2021 WA Architecture Awards. EZONE, the UWA Student Hub designed by Hassell Studio, won the Hillson Beasley Award for Educational Architecture and the Sustainable Architecture Award.

Name: School of Design, Shifting Sands project
Achievement: The UWA Shifting Sands project has received the WA Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) 2021 Landscape Architecture Award in the category ‘Small Projects’. Shifting Sands is a ‘Living Lab’ research project run by the UWA School of Design to develop and test a sustainable landscape infrastructure system that fuses recycled materials and local landscape typologies into a biodiverse ‘pipescape.’ The 42 square metre project manages to showcase a vast array of native WA plants, as well as represent three different landscapes – the coastal dunes, sandy limestone and the Darling Scarp ecosystem.

Name: David Gulland, School of Design 
Achievement:Architecture alumnus David Gulland and Managing Principal at Hassell led the EZONE UWA Student Hub project that won two Australian Institute of Architects 2021 WA Architecture Awards. 

Name: Professor Tom Briffa, School of Population Health
Achievement:Professor Briffa was awarded a 2020 Heart Foundation Strategic Grant to accelerate heart and stroke research. He will lead a project to assess cardiac rehabilitation programs, comparing the outcomes of personalised programs versus standard, group-based programs. 

Name: Dr Guy Curtis, School of Psychology
Achievement:Dr Curtis is the inaugural winner of the Tracey Bretag Prize for Academic Integrity. The award is for outstanding commitment to advancing the understanding and implementation of academic integrity measures.

Name: Emeritus Professor Graeme Martin, School of Agriculture and Environment.
Achievement: Professor Martin has been awarded the 2021 Marshall Medal by the President of the UK-based Society for Reproduction and Fertility during an online ceremony. The Marshall Medal was established in 1963 as the highest honour that the Society awards in the field of reproduction and fertility.

Name: Dr Lakshini Herat, Dr David McCutcheon, Dr Dona Jayakody and Dr Marcio Kiuchi, Medical School
Achievement: Drs Herat, McCutcheon, Jayakody and Kiuchi have been awarded Royal Perth Hospital Foundation Career Advancement Fellowships. The Fellowships will allow them to undertake research that will enhance their competitiveness in both state and national fellowship schemes.

Name: Hannah Thomas and Lauren Chasland, Department of Sport and Exercise Science
Achievement: PhD student Hannah from the Cardiovascular Group, was awarded best conference poster prize for a study of heritability and body composition changes. PhD student Lauren was awarded runner-up for the Young Investigator Award (Exercise Science and Health) for her study on testosterone and exercise.

Name: ICRAR’s UWA Node
Achievement:ICRAR’s UWA node has been awarded a Gold Pleiades award (for the second time), the only organisation to be awarded at this level. The Pleiades awards recognise commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion within astronomy in Australia and New Zealand, and the gold award recognises a sustained and continuously improving suite of measures across a variety of areas for more than six years. 

Congratulations UWA staff and students.