Congratulations to all staff members who are nominated for a UQ Award for Excellence.

The Awards celebrate our achievements over the past year, which is even more important to acknowledge in such unprecedented times. Each year the Awards Selection Committee are amazed by the outstanding contributions, innovative work and exemplary leadership demonstrated at UQ.

This year has seen a record number of nominations submitted, with 222 nominations outlined below, including 110 for the 'Response to COVID-19' category. Congratulations to all of the nominees and thank you to the nominators for taking the time to complete a submission.

Innovation

Winners

Dr Aneesha Bakharia, Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITaLI)

From 2012, Dr Aneesha Bakharia has led the ITaLI Learning Technology team to produce bespoke tools and platforms for UQ's catalogue of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), MicroMasters and more recently, UQ2U courses. Her leadership has ensured that UQ remains at the forefront of learning technology innovation, with over 20 technologies being used by the three million learners who have experienced a UQ MOOC or MicroMaster course. Furthermore, Dr Bakharia has been the key technology leader to experiment and introduce the distinctive UQ 'Course Analytics' dashboard that assists teachers to draw upon actionable data trends to modify and reflect on their blended learning approaches. As an internationally recognised thought leader in the practice of learning analytics, Aneesha has managed to connect with academics and professionals across the institution to produce the platforms, training and communities that enable new forms of digital pedagogy and practice.

Molecular Clamp Vaccines

This team developed and patented innovative technology, Molecular Clamp, as a viral vaccine platform. A $14.7 million (US$10 million) grant was secured in 2019 from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to utilize this platform technology in establishing a rapid response vaccine pipeline. Following the emergence of COVID-19, CEPI tasked the team with developing a vaccine candidate and so the race began to prepare antigens for a vaccine to take through human clinical trials and deploy. Working around the clock, the team has achieved in only a month the first milestone of a lead vaccine candidate, which has now entered pre-clinical studies.

  • Dr Alberto Amarilla Ortiz
  • Dr Selorm Avumegah
  • Dr Craig Belcher
  • Ms Summa Bibby
  • Dr Keith Chappell
  • Ms Stacey Cheung
  • Dr Julie Dutton
  • Dr Jessica Harrison
  • Ms Christina Henderson
  • Mr Ariel Isaacs
  • Dr Noushin Jaberolansar
  • Ms Lisa Kennedy
  • Ms Julia Lackenby
  • Mr Chris McMillan
  • Dr Naphak Modhiran
  • Professor Trent Munro
  • Mr Connor Scott
  • Dr Tamsin Terry
  • Dr Daniel Watterson
  • Dr Danushka Wijesundara
  • Professor Paul Young
  • Dr Andrew Young

Commended

Ms Amanda Cooke, Faculty of Science

Amanda Cooke has demonstrated outstanding initiative and innovation in designing and implementing a new Science Industry Placement course, SCIE3050. It is the first of its kind in the Faculty of Science, providing students with employability development in an authentic work environment. Amanda has also worked effectively across the Faculty to standardise placement practice to increase compliance and reduce risks. She has been proactive and effective in supporting other staff to adopt the new system and processes, and in developing new placement provider relationships. Amanda secured a national work integrated learning award from one of the Faculty's key industry partners, and has herself been recognised with a UQ Faculty of Science Rising Star Award.

Ms Karen Knox, UQ Biological Resources

During 2019, Karen has been a key contributor, working passionately within UQ Biological Resources (UQBR) to develop animal research training and providing a high level of advice. This is of great importance for future research and compliance awareness at UQ. Karen demonstrates UQ values of supporting our people and promoting mutual respect and diversity. This has connected UQBR sites and facilities promoting 'One UQ'. A key strength of Karen's is acknowledging regulatory expectations and understanding staff and students' perspectives which will benefit UQ research into the future.

Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) Student Futures Team

Adopting an agile and dynamic approach to enhancing the student experience, the HASS Student Futures team has successfully piloted and scaled a series of new opportunities for thousands of students within the Faculty over the past three years. With a focus on building students' connections to enhance their employability, the team's innovative approach is grounded in collaboration and recognises that employability, community engagement and retention are interconnected. The HASS Student Futures team has pioneered an integrated approach to student-staff partnerships, where initiatives are both co-developed and co-implemented with students. Alumni and industry have also been heavily involved in this program, contributing to mentoring, presentations, events, and work integrated learning. The Student Futures team has fostered close collaboration within and outside UQ, breaking down barriers between curricular and extracurricular domains to build an even more fantastic student experience for UQ students.

  • Mr Jimi Bursaw
  • Ms Jackie Fuller
  • Mr Ben Graham
  • Mr Lachlan Kaye
  • Ms Yvonne Oberhollenzer
  • Ms Sophie Plunkett
  • Mr Geoff Walton
  • Ms Camille Westerman

Nominated

Dr Aneesha Bakharia, Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITaLI)

From 2012, Dr Aneesha Bakharia has led the ITaLI Learning Technology team to produce bespoke tools and platforms for UQ's catalogue of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), MicroMasters and more recently, UQ2U courses. Her leadership has ensured that UQ remains at the forefront of learning technology innovation, with over 20 technologies being used by the three million learners who have experienced a UQ MOOC or MicroMaster course. Furthermore, Dr Bakharia has been the key technology leader to experiment and introduce the distinctive UQ 'Course Analytics' dashboard that assists teachers to draw upon actionable data trends to modify and reflect on their blended learning approaches. As an internationally recognised thought leader in the practice of learning analytics, Aneesha has managed to connect with academics and professionals across the institution to produce the platforms, training and communities that enable new forms of digital pedagogy and practice.

Ms Amanda Cooke, Faculty of Science

Amanda Cooke has demonstrated outstanding initiative and innovation in designing and implementing a new Science Industry Placement course, SCIE3050. It is the first of its kind in the Faculty of Science, providing students with employability development in an authentic work environment. Amanda has also worked effectively across the Faculty to standardise placement practice to increase compliance and reduce risks. She has been proactive and effective in supporting other staff to adopt the new system and processes, and in developing new placement provider relationships. Amanda secured a national work integrated learning award from one of the Faculty's key industry partners, and has herself been recognised with a UQ Faculty of Science Rising Star Award.

Dr Annette Dexter, TetraQ Research Infrastructure Centre

Dr Annette Dexter commenced as the Head of Commercial Operations at TetraQ in mid-2019. In this role, Annette is responsible for development and management of external research contracts which utilise TetraQ bioanalytical and toxicology services. The client base for these fee-for-service studies includes Australian translational researchers in the University and biotechnology sectors, and international biotechnology companies. In her role at TetraQ, Annette has implemented a range of significant improvements and changes to TetraQ's costing and contracting procedures for bioanalytical services. These changes have provided improvements to ensure effective cost recovery for projects and improved efficiency of the quote development process. These process improvements are considered as significant steps to ensure the longer-term financial viability of the facility.

Associate Professor Dilum Fernando, School of Civil Engineering

Hybrid fibre-reinforced polymer-timber structural systems invented by Associate Professor Dilum Fernando is a ground-breaking technology in building construction due to its ability to (a) provide an environmentally friendly solution for house/building construction, (b) significantly reduce the construction times, and (c) create high valued products from low-quality timber, thus providing a solution to one of the key issues faced by the Australian timber industry. Using the hybrid panels technology, a single-story house can be assembled in a matter of hours, which was demonstrated through the Tiny House Dilum and his students built at the UQ St Lucia campus. 3E Panels technology, which is one of the products developed based on novel hybrid technology, has already been commercialized in Australia and has attracted much interest internationally from construction companies in China, Canada, Singapore, and Sri Lanka.

Mr Mateusz Kardas, Marketing and Communication

Within a short time of joining UQ, Mateusz has been able to bring optimisations to UQ's digital advertising saving thousands of dollars while delivering improved performance outcomes over previous years. In sharing his expertise, he is leading UQ to better digital marketing efforts across many areas of the University which will continue to deliver improved outcomes in the years to come.

Ms Karen Knox, UQ Biological Resources

During 2019, Karen has been a key contributor, working passionately within UQ Biological Resources (UQBR) to develop animal research training and providing a high level of advice. This is of great importance for future research and compliance awareness at UQ. Karen demonstrates UQ values of supporting our people and promoting mutual respect and diversity. This has connected UQBR sites and facilities promoting 'One UQ'. A key strength of Karen's is acknowledging regulatory expectations and understanding staff and students' perspectives which will benefit UQ research into the future.

Dr Jeffrey Mak, Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB)

Mucosal-associated Invariant T (MAIT) cells are now established to be a major population of important antibacterial immune cells in humans. However, the chemical compounds (also known as antigens) that activate these cells, which are needed to permit their in-depth study, were not known until 10 years later. As published in Nature (2012), a combined Melbourne-Monash-IMB team found that MAIT cell antigens came from bacterial vitamin B2 biosynthesis. Professor David Fairlie and Dr Ligong Liu formed the UQ IMB team that made the critical chemical contributions to this discovery. In 2014, this team, now joined by Dr Jeffrey Mak, discovered and synthesised the exact chemical structures of these compounds, which was also published in Nature.

Mr Timothy Thomas, School of Law

Timothy Thomas has made extraordinary contributions through the Personal Engagement Project (PEP) in Private Law (LAWS7025) and Business Law (LAWS1100). Under the PEP, Timothy has redesigned assessment to place greater emphasis on higher-order thinking skills, restructured the tutorial program to enhance student engagement and commenced development of online problem-solving modules. These initiatives have had a profound impact on the student experience, which is reflected in Timothy's Student Evaluation of Course and Teacher (SECaT) results and SETutor results; student attendance and performance indicators; and lower failure rates. The PEP, which is aimed to create a more diverse and inclusive learning environment, has particularly benefited international students from non-English speaking backgrounds and students studying law for the first time.

Professor Chien Ming Wang, School of Civil Engineering

Transport and Main Roads Chair, Professor Wang, enjoys a pre-eminent global reputation as a leader in structural engineering. Professor Wang was the recipient of the 2019 Nishino Medal, 2019 JN Reddy Medal, Keith Eaton Award 2014 and Lewis Kent Award 2009, for original and sustained contributions to advancement of structural mechanics and leadership in structural engineering. He has published 440 journal papers and 10 books in structural stability, vibration, nanostructures, computational mechanics and large floating structures. His publications have garnered 17,000 citations and his H-index is 64 according to Google Scholar. His notable research achievements are the adoption of buckling formulae for monosymmetric I-beams in design codes; automation of Ritz method for general plate shapes; and application of Eringen's nonlocal theory to allow for small length scale effect in nanostructures. Professor Wang's research and development extends to Very Large Floating Structures and leadership in constructing the world's largest floating performance stage and floating wetlands in Singapore.

Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) Student Futures Team

Adopting an agile and dynamic approach to enhancing the student experience, the HASS Student Futures team has successfully piloted and scaled a series of new opportunities for thousands of students within the Faculty over the past three years. With a focus on building students' connections to enhance their employability, the team's innovative approach is grounded in collaboration and recognises that employability, community engagement and retention are interconnected. The HASS Student Futures team has pioneered an integrated approach to student-staff partnerships, where initiatives are both co-developed and co-implemented with students. Alumni and industry have also been heavily involved in this program, contributing to mentoring, presentations, events, and work integrated learning. The Student Futures team has fostered close collaboration within and outside UQ, breaking down barriers between curricular and extracurricular domains to build an even more fantastic student experience for UQ students.

  • Mr Jimi Bursaw
  • Ms Jackie Fuller
  • Mr Ben Graham
  • Mr Lachlan Kaye
  • Ms Yvonne Oberhollenzer
  • Ms Sophie Plunkett
  • Mr Geoff Walton
  • Ms Camille Westerman

Molecular Clamp Vaccines

This team developed and patented innovative technology, Molecular Clamp, as a viral vaccine platform. A $14.7 million (US$10 million) grant was secured in 2019 from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to utilize this platform technology in establishing a rapid response vaccine pipeline. Following the emergence of COVID-19, CEPI tasked the team with developing a vaccine candidate and so the race began to prepare antigens for a vaccine to take through human clinical trials and deploy. Working around the clock, the team has achieved in only a month the first milestone of a lead vaccine candidate, which has now entered pre-clinical studies.

  • Dr Alberto Amarilla Ortiz
  • Dr Selorm Avumegah
  • Dr Craig Belcher
  • Ms Summa Bibby
  • Dr Keith Chappell
  • Ms Stacey Cheung
  • Dr Julie Dutton
  • Dr Jessica Harrison
  • Ms Christina Henderson
  • Mr Ariel Isaacs
  • Dr Noushin Jaberolansar
  • Ms Lisa Kennedy
  • Ms Julia Lackenby
  • Mr Chris McMillan
  • Dr Naphak Modhiran
  • Professor Trent Munro
  • Mr Connor Scott
  • Dr Tamsin Terry
  • Dr Daniel Watterson
  • Dr Danushka Wijesundara
  • Professor Paul Young
  • Dr Andrew Young

Octapeptin Team

This multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional team is developing a novel class of antibiotics to address the global health threat of antimicrobial resistance. Their work has achieved international recognition through funding from the Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X). Notably, this is the first award for antibiotic development to a non-commercial entity. The team clearly embraces the UQ strategic objectives of bringing together the best expertise from different disciplines and organisational units to creatively solve complex problems, implementing a unique and original approach that could lead to the first new class of antibiotics in over 40 years.

  • Dr Mark Blaskovich
  • Professor Matthew Cooper
  • Dr Alysha Elliott Aparicio
  • Dr Karl Hansford
  • Professor David Paterson
  • Professor Jason Roberts
  • Dr Johannes Zuegg

Public Health Learning Design Team

Karen Shelley and Rebecca Johnson joined the School of Public Health (SPH) in 2019 and quickly became active contributors to the School's teaching program with measurable impact on student and staff experiences. Their proactive approach to enhancing evidence-based teaching practices included collaboration with staff across 75% of SPH courses, and provision of training on constructive alignment in curriculum planning and the role of feedback in supporting student learning. Karen and Rebecca initiated student-staff partnerships to better engage external postgraduate students and co-developed funding applications for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) activities. Their innovative approach resulted in a significant uplift in academic engagement in SoTL within the School.

  • Ms Rebecca Johnson
  • Ms Karen Shelley

Recruitment Services Team

In 2019, a centralised recruitment model was established to achieve a more human-centred, standardised, streamlined and effective delivery. The impact of this model has seen profound results including a significant reduction in external recruitment agency spend, reduction of average time to hire and increasing client and candidate feedback satisfaction rates. An online On-Boarding platform was introduced which streamlined and brought consistency to new hire inductions. The Recruitment team are developing a competitive advantage for UQ in securing the best talent efficiently and effectively. This advances UQ's rankings, attracting higher-calibre individuals and industry collaborations, funding, students, and enhances learning experiences.

  • Ms Hridya Anand
  • Mr Nathan Anderson
  • Ms Teagan Brown
  • Mr Adam Campbell
  • Ms Amy Chambers
  • Mr Kieran Coen
  • Mr Jon Conley
  • Ms Robyn de Vlugt
  • Ms Natasha Guttenbeil
  • Ms Khela Hutchinson
  • Mr Alex Jackson
  • Ms Caylee-Jade Eve
  • Ms Megan Kedda
  • Ms Clare Lavidis
  • Ms Carley Meehan
  • Mr Brett Pelttari
  • Mr Shane Pitman
  • Ms Visha Pragji
  • Ms Kimberly Pullen
  • Mr Tyler Sanders
  • Ms Caitlin Savage
  • Ms Felisa Sawilla
  • Ms Molly Scott
  • Ms Lauren Singleton
  • Ms Paige Willemse

School of Dentistry Preclinic Team

The School of Dentistry Preclinic team is only three years old. Yet during this short time, the innovations that have been designed and implemented by this small team have had a significant impact on School operations, budget and the student and staff experience. With a unique combination of strengths, abilities and experience, this team has a 'can-do' lifelong learning attitude, which ensures that preclinical teaching in the School of Dentistry is now seamlessly coordinated, and academic staff and students are well supported. In particular, this team has implemented innovations which ensure that the School of Dentistry remains current and competitive as new digital dental technologies become integrated into the preclinical experience.

  • Ms Leah Beaupeurt
  • Mr Eddie Gullotta
  • Ms Bobbie Jennings

UQ Unwrapped

UQ Unwrapped is an initiative that is bringing together the entire UQ community to act on the issue of single-use plastic consumption. UQ Unwrapped has created an action-based membership model and student-staff focused engagement. Operating for just 12 months, UQ Unwrapped has 18 members, seven plastic-free champions and has hosted 24 certified UQ Unwrapped Sustainable Events. Our members, champions and events have saved approximately 1.7 million plastic items from going to landfill. UQ is the first university to become a Plastic-Free Place as part of The Boomerang Alliance's Plastic Free Communities Program. Since the beginning of the program, 6 tonnes of organic waste has been collected from UQ Unwrapped members and champions. Collecting compostable food service ware and food waste in an organics stream ensures valuable organic matter can be recaptured and returned to the food chain through farmland application. Removing organics from landfill also reduces methane sourced GHG.

  • Ms Emily Conn
  • Mr Chris Donnelly
  • Ms Christine McCallum
  • Ms Sophie Rutter
  • Mr Matt Savage
  • Mr Franchoan Smit

Service

Winners

Ms Lisa Kennedy, Faculty of Science

Establishing functional agreements with our external research partners is critical to the success of UQ's knowledge discovery enterprise. However, research partnership management is recognised as a particularly demanding role: timelines are short, agreements are often complex, and workloads high. As lead Research Partnerships Manager (RPM) for the Faculty of Science, Lisa Kennedy has built a professional team of RPMs, grown a culture of collaboration between academics and her team, and actively mentored new and experienced RPMs across the University. She is always willing to go 'above and beyond' to facilitate research. In early 2020, for example, Lisa has been instrumental in enabling UQ to respond rapidly to the COVID-19 outbreak by negotiating and preparing key contracts and organising for them to be signed across multiple time-zones. Through Lisa's dedication, UQ scientists can Create change through impactful research.

Life Course Centre Professional Team

The Life Course Centre Professional team provides exceptional service and support to ensure the success of this Centre of Excellence scheme, which is a major research initiative. The team works closely with Chief investigators across four universities, as well as research fellows, students, external partners and international partner investigators to establish a culture of innovation, inclusiveness and engagement. Their exceptional service has established a strong culture of professionalism across all parts of the Centre, while raising the profile and reputation of UQ social science, and importantly, underpinned the development of a successful new Australian Research Council proposal for new funding from 2021.

  • Ms Dee Dearing
  • Ms Heidi Hoffmann
  • Mr Matthew MacDermott
  • Ms Carla McCarthy
  • Dr Lucy Mills
  • Dr Lisa Pope

Commended

Dr Gurion Ang, Faculty of Science

Gurion holds a joint appointment across the Faculty of Science Engagement Unit, delivering outreach and student recruitment activities across domestic and international markets, and teaching within the School of Biological Sciences. Gurion consistently provides excellent service to a huge range of UQ clients both internally and externally, while maintaining his characteristic dedication, pursuit of excellence, drive, and flair. He has been fundamental to the inception, development and outstanding success of Science engagement initiatives, including instrumental support for the introduction of the new Queensland Senior Science syllabi for over 1300 secondary teachers and students from over 82 Queensland schools. The reach and impact of these initiatives, and his other contributions to UQ's reputation and community, are truly exceptional.

Ms Paige Campbell, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work

Compliance is essential to our nursing and midwifery students. If a student lapses their blue card or CPR, they are unable to progress on placement. With placements starting in the students' first semester and continuing each semester of their program, a lapsed compliance item will cause them a 12 month extension of their program. It is an administrative issue with big implications for students. Paige works tirelessly to ensure that all students are compliant. Not only does she follow up with students and process compliance submissions, she is continually thinking about the larger process and ways we can improve it, including both system improvements as well as student interactions.

Mr Tom Court, Graduate School

Nomination 1:

Tom Court is a highly effective HDR Liaison Officer (HLO) team leader who consistently delivers outstanding service to all stakeholders that engage with him. In the short time that Tom has been part of the team, he has delivered numerous pieces of training, mentored a number of staff members and increased organisational efficiencies across the Graduate School. In addition to this, Tom regularly represents the Graduate School in additional committees and works tirelessly to continuously improve the services delivered by the Graduate School. Tom has also successfully taken on additional duties with outstanding results and positive feedback from all. Tom fosters a culture of commitment, communication, collaboration and respect benefiting all those that come in contact with him (and the teams he leads). By working collaboratively with stakeholders, he ensures that all stakeholders are supported and working towards a common goal, creating knowledge leadership for a better world.

Nomination 2:

Tom has shown exceptional leadership and interpersonal skills to manage consistent service improvement post HDR restructure in 2018. His efforts include providing innovation to key business processes across UQ's 29+ enrolling units that work in partnership with the Graduate School. Tom has been instrumental in simplifying procedures and delivering consistent, quality service to HDR advisors and students. Tom is an open, supportive, and strategic leader who effectively manages the complex research business needs of the EAIT, SMI, and AIBN portfolio by balancing both research and individual circumstances to drive HDR goals in admissions, candidature, and thesis completions. His awareness of stakeholder needs and business priorities has seen transformational change in how he and his team work towards common goals and deadlines. Overall, this creates a better HDR experience and quality HDR research outputs that keep UQ as one of Australia's top research universities for engineering.

Ms Kate Gadenne, School of Public Health

Kate Gadenne is the Research Development Manager for the School of Public Health, a new role in the School. Kate has exceeded all expectations for this role, going above and beyond supporting other groups within the Faculty as well as transforming the research profile within the School. In the last year, she led the development of the School's research strategy, implementation of a new academic mentoring plan, and developed the School's consultancy plan in collaboration with the new UQ Consulting and Research Expertise (CORE) group. Most importantly, Kate has provided invaluable assistance and support to individuals and research groups in relation to grant applications.

Casual Academic Hire and Payments (CAHP) Support Team

Danijela and Jill provide unbelievably fantastic customer service and assistance to users of the Casual Academic Hire and Payments (CAHP) system. They are always willing to assist users, particularly first time users, of the system to ensure that the casual academic staff of the University are paid on time. The quality of their service is continually exceptional; their advice is always accurate and helpful, and is delivered with aplomb and good humour. Both are happy to stay on the line while an issue is being discussed while ensuring the information entered is correct. It cannot be stressed enough how important they are to schools during the appointment process, which precedes each semester, and they are referred to as "those angels in CAHP".

  • Ms Jill Halil
  • Ms Danijela Kalanj

Queensland Animal Science Precinct

Nomination 1:

Queensland Animal Science Precinct (QASP), Centre for Advanced Animal Science (CAAS), was established in 2008 with their operations, including processes and staff development, increasing exponentially in the last 12 years. The service provided by QASP has helped UQ researchers to undertake trials in a world class facility which has led to patents, new products and treatments for animal disease and nutrition management. Cattle require daily monitoring and quick responses to ensure animal welfare conditions are adhered to. QASP staff are entrusted to undertake this monitoring and without this support, animal trials would be under questionable conditions. Particularly of note, is the vast improvements under the appointed manager of QASP, Milou Dekkers. Her organisation skills have built a strong and service committed team. They are the quiet voice and it is time they are recognised for the service they provide.

Nomination 2:

QASP is a unique animal research facility located on the Gatton campus. The QASP team provide exceptional service to a broad range of researchers. The flexible design of the facilities allows for the conduct of a wide variety of animal trials. The staff have exceptional animal handling and husbandry skills, exhibit high levels of creativity, innovation, problem solving and a service culture focussed on collaborating with researchers to achieve their desired outcomes. The team operate the facility 24/7, 365 days of the year and are contactable day and night by researchers if issues arise. QASP operates in an environment in which compliance with a myriad of legislation: safety, animal welfare and ethics, quarantine, biosafety and biosecurity, is critical to the operation and outcomes. QASP has an exemplary record in this area. The QASP team go beyond expectations in service provision, having successfully collaborated with 100 researchers since 2008 when the facility opened.

  • Ms Samantha Armour
  • Ms Chelsea Baker
  • Ms Sheree Boisen
  • Mr Scott Cullen
  • Ms Milou Dekkers
  • Ms Stacey Groves
  • Mr Mitchell Harris
  • Dr Danielle Schultz

UQ Innovate - Makerspace - Project team

The UQ Innovate - Makerspace - Project team is nominated for outstanding service in the planning, execution and operation of the newly delivered UQ Innovate Makerspace, and the Faculty Workshop Group (FWG) Technical Services operations in 2019. The newly delivered facilities provide game changing capabilities and a significant realignment of customer focused service delivery for the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology and UQ as a whole. The commitment by the entire FWG team ensured UQ Innovate was delivered under budget and was fully operational less than one year from inception, ready for Semester two teaching in 2019. During construction, all FWG services continued uninterrupted. For the FWG team, 'today's excellence in service becomes tomorrow's new standard'.

  • Mr Peter Bleakley
  • Mr Sam Butler
  • Mr Samuel Grieve
  • Mr Jason Herriot
  • Mr Robert Holler
  • Mr Mark James
  • Mr Peter Khan
  • Mr Blair Knight
  • Mr Andrew Lagrosa
  • Mr Chris Lloyd
  • Mr Mark Lynne
  • Mr Gary Manning
  • Mr Malcolm Marker
  • Mr Ian Moore
  • Mr John Stafford
  • Mr Rob Stephan
  • Mr Grant Tayles

Nominated

Mr Tariq Ahmed, Information Technology Services

Tariq Ahmed has been at UQ for over six years working in the Information Technology Services (ITS) division. During that time, Tariq has worked on many and varied projects along with supporting business as usual activities, such as QTAC Offer Round processing and delivering SI-net classroom training. Tariq's in-depth knowledge of SI-net, other student related systems and the student life cycle is outstanding. He is a generous mentor, sharing his time and knowledge with team members throughout ITS and customers across UQ. He often goes above and beyond when investigating issues and looking for a resolution. Tariq's natural curiosity sees him always looking for new and improved ways to work and helps him to deep dive into existing processes so that he can understand what is happening and propose improvements as part of the ITS commitment to continuous improvement.

Dr Gurion Ang, Faculty of Science

Gurion holds a joint appointment across the Faculty of Science Engagement Unit, delivering outreach and student recruitment activities across domestic and international markets, and teaching within the School of Biological Sciences. Gurion consistently provides excellent service to a huge range of UQ clients both internally and externally, while maintaining his characteristic dedication, pursuit of excellence, drive, and flair. He has been fundamental to the inception, development and outstanding success of Science engagement initiatives, including instrumental support for the introduction of the new Queensland Senior Science syllabi for over 1300 secondary teachers and students from over 82 Queensland schools. The reach and impact of these initiatives, and his other contributions to UQ's reputation and community, are truly exceptional.

Ms Paige Campbell, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work

Compliance is essential to our nursing and midwifery students. If a student lapses their blue card or CPR, they are unable to progress on placement. With placements starting in the students' first semester and continuing each semester of their program, a lapsed compliance item will cause them a 12 month extension of their program. It is an administrative issue with big implications for students. Paige works tirelessly to ensure that all students are compliant. Not only does she follow up with students and process compliance submissions, she is continually thinking about the larger process and ways we can improve it, including both system improvements as well as student interactions.

Mr Tom Court, Graduate School

Nomination 1:

Tom Court is a highly effective HDR Liaison Officer (HLO) team leader who consistently delivers outstanding service to all stakeholders that engage with him. In the short time that Tom has been part of the team, he has delivered numerous pieces of training, mentored a number of staff members and increased organisational efficiencies across the Graduate School. In addition to this, Tom regularly represents the Graduate School in additional committees and works tirelessly to continuously improve the services delivered by the Graduate School. Tom has also successfully taken on additional duties with outstanding results and positive feedback from all. Tom fosters a culture of commitment, communication, collaboration and respect benefiting all those that come in contact with him (and the teams he leads). By working collaboratively with stakeholders, he ensures that all stakeholders are supported and working towards a common goal, creating knowledge leadership for a better world.

Nomination 2:

Tom has shown exceptional leadership and interpersonal skills to manage consistent service improvement post HDR restructure in 2018. His efforts include providing innovation to key business processes across UQ's 29+ enrolling units that work in partnership with the Graduate School. Tom has been instrumental in simplifying procedures and delivering consistent, quality service to HDR advisors and students. Tom is an open, supportive, and strategic leader who effectively manages the complex research business needs of the EAIT, SMI, and AIBN portfolio by balancing both research and individual circumstances to drive HDR goals in admissions, candidature, and thesis completions. His awareness of stakeholder needs and business priorities has seen transformational change in how he and his team work towards common goals and deadlines. Overall, this creates a better HDR experience and quality HDR research outputs that keep UQ as one of Australia's top research universities for engineering.

Dr Melissa Curley, School of Political Science and International Studies

Dr Melissa Curley has shown outstanding leadership and service as Director of the UQ Rotary Peace Centre (RPC), a role she occupied from 2015-2019 within the School of Political Science and International Studies. RPC is funded by Rotary International, which financially enables 10 students per year to enrol in a Master of Peace and Conflict Studies at UQ. Dr Curley's work has been exemplary. Her leadership has enhanced the School's relationship with a vital external stakeholder, her innovations have significantly enhanced the students' experience, and her leadership in program direction has been recognised globally within Rotary International.

Ms Michelle Dobson, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering

Michelle Dobson has been nominated for her very high level of professionalism and for being an outstanding role model for all within the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE) and the wider UQ. As the Executive Assistant of the Head of School, Michelle has been critical to the operations, leading and supporting the administrative functions of the School while playing a key role ensuring the successful execution of school administrative processes. This is even more commendable given the context of the relatively large school size, both in staff and student numbers, and with the transitions across a few leaders filling the Head of School role. Michelle always delivers top quality work and coordination independently, and is always happy to lend a listening ear and advice to both academic and professional staff. She also has an exemplary work ethic, always being the first to arrive, and many times working after the normal working hours. She is definitely deserving of the UQ Award for Excellence in Service.

Dr Sheranne Fairley, School of Business

In 2019, the nominator came to Sheranne Fairley with the idea of delivering a UQ Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Symposium that was co-created by UQ students studying events in the School of Business. The Symposium was designed to elevate the profile of WIL at UQ. Sheranne's support of the event and guidance of the student event co-coordinators resulted in an event that was collaborative and served the UQ WIL and wider south east corner WIL Community. Sheranne has given of her own time in service to the UQ community. Her collaborative approach has enabled experiences that support students to be game changing graduates and aid the development of UQ staff to expand the knowledge and understanding of WIL.

Ms Kate Gadenne, School of Public Health

Kate Gadenne is the Research Development Manager for the School of Public Health, a new role in the School. Kate has exceeded all expectations for this role, going above and beyond supporting other groups within the Faculty as well as transforming the research profile within the School. In the last year, she led the development of the School's research strategy, implementation of a new academic mentoring plan, and developed the School's consultancy plan in collaboration with the new UQ Consulting and Research Expertise (CORE) group. Most importantly, Kate has provided invaluable assistance and support to individuals and research groups in relation to grant applications.

Ms Sharon James, Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC)

Sharon James has become an invaluable team member of the Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC) team. As the AWMC Communications and Engagement Officer, Sharon has introduced a new and contemporary approach to the Communications and Engagement Program. This Program has increased AWMC's exposure to the Australian water industry resulting in an increased level of engagement with their research teams, education programs, and outreach events. Sharon consistently goes above and beyond for the AWMC and UQ team, and never misses an opportunity to highlight the exceptional work done at UQ.

Dr Sam Kault, School of Mathematics and Physics

Dr Sam Kault is an exceptional contributor to the mission and values of UQ. In his role as Tutor Coordinator for the School of Mathematics and Physics, Dr Kault consistently shows his commitment to excellence in the mathematics teaching and learning program by fostering an exceptional mathematics tutoring community, and supporting the wellbeing and quality of the casual tutor workforce by serving as mentor and ally to over 150 tutors. Dr Kault delivers a miracle every semester, transforming hundreds of students into an organised and high-quality teaching workforce. Dr Kault exceeds what is expected of this role every semester, but he deserves to be recognized this year, in particular, due to his support for the School's Chinese students. Dr Kault went above and beyond at the start of Semester one to reorganise tutors for online support to Chinese students, taking on additional duties during a busy time of year to ensure their semester started smoothly.

Ms Lisa Kennedy, Faculty of Science

Establishing functional agreements with our external research partners is critical to the success of UQ's knowledge discovery enterprise. However, research partnership management is recognised as a particularly demanding role: timelines are short, agreements are often complex, and workloads high. As lead Research Partnerships Manager (RPM) for the Faculty of Science, Lisa Kennedy has built a professional team of RPMs, grown a culture of collaboration between academics and her team, and actively mentored new and experienced RPMs across the University. She is always willing to go 'above and beyond' to facilitate research. In early 2020, for example, Lisa has been instrumental in enabling UQ to respond rapidly to the COVID-19 outbreak by negotiating and preparing key contracts and organising for them to be signed across multiple time-zones. Through Lisa's dedication, UQ scientists can Create change through impactful research.

Ms Corinne Larkin, Finance and Business Services

Good customer service means meeting your client's expectations. Excellent customer service means exceeding them. Corinne Larkin, Financial Services Coordinator, consistently provides outstanding and exceptional quality of service to her clients. Corinne's most significant contribution is to the definition of the role itself - she has rapidly set the benchmark for the delivery of centralised services across UQ, both now and in the future.

Mr Michael Mallon, Research Computing Centre

Michael is a technical bedrock in the complex and diverse world of UQ's research computing capabilities. He works tirelessly because he believes in research and the knowledge leadership it will one day create for UQ and the world. He understands the value of exemplar service and consistency, underpinning the strategic discovery journey and endeavours that we embark on at UQ. Specifically, Michael's dedication to the multi-year Research Storage Access and Enhancement project for UQ has been a critical success factor. The time spent, the diligence paid, and the efficacy of which Michael operates has exceeded expectations. He has thrived amongst the grandest of challenges.

Mr Shi Pui Ng, Property and Facilities

Shi has been a Customer Service Officer in Property and Facilities for a number of years. He is a hard-working and an honest employee who takes his work seriously, always strives and delivers excellent service, and deserves recognition. Shi's perseverance is amazing and his conduct has been very good. Moreover, he is a source of inspiration for other employees who want to get the best out of their job duties. On many occasions, he has worked over-time and completed work in the stipulated time period. Not once has Shi refused a task. He honestly goes above and beyond to help students on whatever their needs are. Truly recommendable.

Ms Bansi Patel, TetraQ Research Infrastructure Centre

Bansi Patel is one of two members of the TetraQ Quality Assurance (QA) team which is responsible for assuring the quality of the contract bioanalytical and toxicology studies completed at TetraQ.  Bansi has been a key contributor to the high quality and volume of work conducted by the QA team in the last 12 months. For example in 2019, the QA team audited 53 new contract studies, supported 14 external audits of the TetraQ facilities and has undertaken 15 internal audits. The exceptional recent achievement of Bansi is that over the last three months she has undertaken all QA duties single-handedly due to the departure of the QA Manager. In this period, Bansi has successfully kept the TetraQ operations on track.

Ms Viktoria Peter, School of Veterinary Science

Viki deserves the UQ Award for Excellence in Service as she demonstrates many of the core values outlined in the UQ vision. She has recently become the lead nurse at the Equine section of the Veterinary Medical Centre and has helped design and implement the 24 hour nurse roster and change protocols to implement significant improvement in efficiency, safety and cost effectiveness. Viki always stays late and arrives early to work. She somehow juggles the responsibility of lead nurse while providing a surgery nurse service as well. She always makes the effort to say good morning and make sure colleagues are getting lunch even on the busiest days - even when she hasn't eaten yet herself.

Projects that Viki has been involved include:

  • 24 hour nurse rostering
  • Hiring of new staff
  • Using woodshavings concurrently with cardboard to try to minimise costs
  • Replacing older equipment for more efficient models
  • Continuing to be the bridge between the nurses and higher management.

Dr Sylvie Pichelin, Queensland Brain Institute (QBI)

Dr Sylvie Pichelin is the Manager of Queensland Brain Institute's (QBI) Grants, Ethics and Publications team. She demonstrates an outstanding level of knowledge and professionalism, providing exceptional service to QBI and the wider UQ community. She is constantly sought after for advice and committee work related to research management and integrity. Her innovative extra initiatives include running workshops on grants and ethics, and introducing QBI's annual "thank-you day" where UQ's animal house staff are recognised. Dr Pichelin provides individual assistance to new group leaders and early career researchers. She also provides reporting data for both UQ and external bodies on QBI's research outputs. During a period of considerable growth in staff numbers, she has streamlined processes for efficiency while maintaining accuracy and the highest quality outputs. Dr Pichelin's contributions to QBI's research success was highlighted for particular praise by an independent committee during QBI's seven year review in 2019.

Ms Anne Pike, School of Pharmacy

Anne Pike has revolutionised the Executive Assistant role, volunteering to coordinate a range of valuable activities and events, and becoming a by-word for professionalism. Anne demonstrates a willingness to go the extra mile to achieve optimal outcomes. At her own request and in addition to her normal duties, Anne has assisted with establishing urgently needed industry placements for the new and rapidly growing Master of Pharmaceutical Industry Practice program. She has also voluntarily taken on the role of Public Officer for the Council of Pharmacy Schools: Australia and New Zealand in support of the Head of School who is currently President. She has been an outstanding support to the Head of School, providing consistent and conscientious assistance across all areas of school leadership. Anne is considered an exemplar of internal and external service, over and above the normal expectations of the role, and an asset who enhances the reputation and operation of the School of Pharmacy and UQ.

Ms Mihaela Risco, People Services, Human Resources

Mihaela is knowledgeable, helpful and always goes the extra mile to support her clients. She has great attention to detail which prevents payroll mistakes. She is an asset to UQ.

Associate Professor Ian Tibbetts, School of Biological Sciences

Associate Professor Ian Tibbetts consistently and enthusiastically contributes not only exceptional service to the University and wider community, but also a positive culture of collaboration, inclusion and advocacy amongst staff, students and stakeholders. As Director of International Programs (BIOL) and the Centre for Marine Science (2013-2018), Ian has tirelessly given his time and passion for education, research and the environment. He has implemented new educational and engagement programs to benefit students, the community and UQ. Examples include transformative study tours in collaboration with international partners, and student development opportunities made possible by the UQ Centre for Marine Science - Goodman Foundation initiatives.

Ms Alison van Niekerk, Queensland Brain Institute (QBI)

Alison van Niekerk has been the Manager of the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) Executive Office since 2006. Alison is the first and last point of contact for all activity of the Director and Executive's Office, providing the 'glue' that holds these together. Alison's adept interpersonal manner and great operational and strategic communication acumen have had an impact on the development and success of QBI. Alison has an abiding and faultless attention to detail, and critical historical knowledgebase of the QBI, with which she has supported two Institute Directors and led teams through pivotal events (large and small), utilising her detailed understanding of the University's organisational structure and values. Over many years of service to UQ and QBI, Alison has championed the success of her fellow staff, carefully nurturing QBI interactions with external stakeholders. The scope of her role is such that Alison contributes in ways that are often unseen, but always impactful.

Australian Equine Genetics Research Centre Team

The quality of the Australian Equine Genetics Research Centre team's work is beyond compare. Their professionalism, both in relation to the accuracy of their work, and their communications, cannot be faulted. Their willingness to assist in all manner of queries, whether it directly relates to their work, or if colleagues in other teams are seeking guidance on a separate issue with regards to genetics, is greatly appreciated and valued. In fact, they openly encourage other teams to ask them questions to further their colleagues' own knowledge.

  • Ms Leanne Clarke
  • Ms Helen Hargreaves
  • Ms Kirstin McKenzie
  • Ms Deanne Russell
  • Mr Chris Smith
  • Mr Kheng Wai Sitoh

Casual Academic Hire and Payments (CAHP) Support Team

Danijela and Jill provide unbelievably fantastic customer service and assistance to users of the Casual Academic Hire and Payments (CAHP) system. They are always willing to assist users, particularly first time users, of the system to ensure that the casual academic staff of the University are paid on time. The quality of their service is continually exceptional; their advice is always accurate and helpful, and is delivered with aplomb and good humour. Both are happy to stay on the line while an issue is being discussed while ensuring the information entered is correct. It cannot be stressed enough how important they are to schools during the appointment process, which precedes each semester, and they are referred to as "those angels in CAHP".

  • Ms Jill Halil
  • Ms Danijela Kalanj

Centre for Health Services Research (CHSR) R-Team

The R-Team have provided outstanding support to the Centre for Health Services Research (CHSR). In addition to supporting researchers in securing contract research and building collaborations (both internally and externally), the team have initiated several new systems and programs within the Centre. These include developing a real time data management system to capture research information and analytics, implementing a Summer/Winter Scholar Program, and developing a CHSR Research Support Handbook. The R-Team have been a huge asset to CHSR and have contributed to the growing success of the Centre. Their tireless combined efforts are in keeping with UQ's values that assert the importance of supporting our people and the pursuit of excellence.

  • Dr Madonna Devaney
  • Ms Alice Greenwood
  • Dr Murray Hargrave

Recruitment Services Team

The UQ Recruitment Services team has successfully centralised a key role for the University and implemented a significant and outstanding initiative that contributed to creating an exceptional staff experience at UQ. After overcoming initial teething issues, the team is now very responsive and have been able to provide timely follow up and coordination for the complex but important area of staff recruitment. The team also interfaces well with the schools, departments, groups, faculties and institutes, while ensuring there is a strong impression of UQ for all prospective job applicants. For example, from the perspective of the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Felisa provides outstanding and exceptional quality of service to University clients and she is very prompt – this says a lot about her professionalism and also the team culture supporting her.

  • Ms Hridya Anand
  • Ms Teagan Brown
  • Mr Adam Campbell
  • Mr Kieran Coen
  • Mr Jon Conley
  • Ms Robyn De Vlugt
  • Ms Caylee-Jade Eve
  • Ms Khela Hutchinson
  • Ms Clare Lavidis
  • Ms Rhiannon Morris
  • Ms Rebecca Pacheco
  • Mr Brett Pelttari
  • Ms Kimberly Pullen
  • Mr Tyler Sanders
  • Ms Caitlin Savage
  • Ms Felisa Sawilla
  • Ms Molly Scott
  • Ms Lauren Singleton
  • Ms Paige Willemse

Life Course Centre Professional Team

The Life Course Centre Professional team provides exceptional service and support to ensure the success of this Centre of Excellence scheme, which is a major research initiative. The team works closely with Chief investigators across four universities, as well as research fellows, students, external partners and international partner investigators to establish a culture of innovation, inclusiveness and engagement. Their exceptional service has established a strong culture of professionalism across all parts of the Centre, while raising the profile and reputation of UQ social science, and importantly, underpinned the development of a successful new Australian Research Council proposal for new funding from 2021.

  • Ms Dee Dearing
  • Ms Heidi Hoffmann
  • Mr Matthew MacDermott
  • Ms Carla McCarthy
  • Dr Lucy Mills
  • Dr Lisa Pope

Mater Student Research Committee (MSRC)

Nomination 1:

The Mater Student Research Committee (MSRC) members provide in-kind support to increase the research potential of UQ through effective management of a high-quality student research program. In recent years, the MSRC has attracted over 300 outstanding undergraduate and postgraduate students to undertake research training activities in biomedical and clinical settings within the Mater Research Institute-UQ. In collaboration with UQ, the Committee monitors standards for research training, professional development programs and student welfare management, and recommends corrective measures via the Faculty of Medicine and the UQ Graduate School. The team's continual development and implementation of new initiatives have been recognised and adopted by Faculty of Medicine's Schools and Institutes, contributing to UQ's world-leading university status for discovery and translational research.

Nomination 2:

UQ students benefit from many initiatives developed and implemented by the MSRC. The MSRC hold an annual student information event; administer a UQ-Mater Medical Student volunteer application and review process; provide representation at UQ MD student expos; and carefully review all student research applications ensuring that only well-designed projects and appropriate advisory teams are invited to proceed. The in-kind support provided by the MSRC team members has increased the research potential of UQ through effective management of a high-quality student research program. The MSRC provides an outstanding level of student welfare management via its face-to-face administration, academic and HR support at the Mater Research Institute-UQ sites located at the Translational Research Institute and the Mater Hospital Campus. These initiatives contribute to UQ's high ranking status for generating exceptional biomedical and clinician researchers.

Nomination 3:

The MSRC plays a pivotal role in increasing the research potential of Higher Degree Research students through in-kind support, monitoring of research training standards, professional development programs, student welfare, and continuous development and implementation of new initiatives. These initiatives have been recognised and adopted by the Faculty of Medicine's Schools and Institutes contributing to UQ's international status as a world-leading university for discovery and translational research. In recent years, the MSRC has attracted more than 300 exceptional undergraduate and postgraduate students to undertake research training activities at the Mater Research Institute-UQ demonstrating the effectiveness of the initiatives and support mechanisms employed.

  • Dr Kylie Alexander
  • Ms Lena Batoon
  • Associate Professor Samudragupta Bora
  • Associate Professor Paul Dawson
  • Ms Sarah Doyle
  • Professor Brian Gabrielli
  • Ms Patricia Gerdes
  • Dr Dhanisha Jhaveri
  • Ms Harriet Lawford
  • Dr Annette Shewan
  • Dr Mitchell Sullivan
  • Dr Ran Wang

Planning and Business Intelligence

UQ's Planning and Business Intelligence (PBI) team provide a truly excellent service to the University. Their outstanding work is evident in four areas: executive support through data analytics for the Vice-Chancellor’s Committee and the University Senior Management Group; load planning for Faculties; supporting the development of strategic and operational planning; and providing sector-leading performance data for academic staff. It is noteworthy that the team achieves excellence while also aligning with UQ values of accountability, independence, mutual respect, and supporting our people. It can credibly be argued that PBI have moved the 'dial' in terms of ensuring that all key strategic decisions are data-informed.

  • Ms Adelaide Chang-Wever
  • Ms Elice Garcia
  • Ms Jennifer Gill
  • Mr Hayden Gill
  • Mr Kenneth Gilliland
  • Mr David Holmes
  • Dr Clare Hourigan
  • Mr Benjamin Howland
  • Mr Jason Huynh
  • Mr Abilash Kidangan
  • Mr Daniel Kidd
  • Ms Kathleen McDonnell
  • Ms Natalia Moskwa
  • Mr John O'Brien
  • Ms Sasha Vaynberg
  • Ms Jessica Wang
  • Ms Belinda Woodhead
  • Ms Lequin Wu
  • Ms Jane Yang
  • Mr Yohannes Zaoputra

Queensland Animal Science Precinct

Nomination 1:

Queensland Animal Science Precinct (QASP), Centre for Advanced Animal Science (CAAS), was established in 2008 with their operations, including processes and staff development, increasing exponentially in the last 12 years. The service provided by QASP has helped UQ researchers to undertake trials in a world class facility which has led to patents, new products and treatments for animal disease and nutrition management. Cattle require daily monitoring and quick responses to ensure animal welfare conditions are adhered to. QASP staff are entrusted to undertake this monitoring and without this support, animal trials would be under questionable conditions. Particularly of note, is the vast improvements under the appointed manager of QASP, Milou Dekkers. Her organisation skills have built a strong and service committed team. They are the quiet voice and it is time they are recognised for the service they provide.

Nomination 2:

QASP is a unique animal research facility located on the Gatton campus. The QASP team provide exceptional service to a broad range of researchers. The flexible design of the facilities allows for the conduct of a wide variety of animal trials. The staff have exceptional animal handling and husbandry skills, exhibit high levels of creativity, innovation, problem solving and a service culture focussed on collaborating with researchers to achieve their desired outcomes. The team operate the facility 24/7, 365 days of the year and are contactable day and night by researchers if issues arise. QASP operates in an environment in which compliance with a myriad of legislation: safety, animal welfare and ethics, quarantine, biosafety and biosecurity, is critical to the operation and outcomes. QASP has an exemplary record in this area. The QASP team go beyond expectations in service provision, having successfully collaborated with 100 researchers since 2008 when the facility opened.

  • Ms Samantha Armour
  • Ms Chelsea Baker
  • Ms Sheree Boisen
  • Mr Scott Cullen
  • Ms Milou Dekkers
  • Ms Stacey Groves
  • Mr Mitchell Harris
  • Dr Danielle Schultz

Research Contract and Grants Financial Management Training Team

Research funding is a critical component of UQ's annual funding and in 2018-19 we received a total research project value of around $396 million. In alignment with the implementation of new streamlined processes for the financial management of research contracts and grants, a small team of training professionals was assigned the task of building a set of engaging, role-specific training materials to provide clear guidelines to a broad range of UQ-wide stakeholders. The successful completion of this far-reaching initiative ensured that, for the first time, all staff were provided with a set of comprehensive tools to enable them to perform this important stewardship task.

  • Mr Brandon Halaufia
  • Ms Nina Knezevic
  • Ms Nicole McArthur

Science Contracts

The Science Contracts team executed 607 contracts in 2019 and worked tirelessly with researchers to ensure that their research agreements were tailored to meet the requirements of bespoke industry sponsored research projects. During the year, they also improved a range of systems and processes through engagement with Schools throughout the Faculty. The team developed reporting tools that did not previously exist and implemented procedures to save all contracts coming through the team into TRIM. The Science Contracts team worked closely with their colleagues throughout UQ, including the Legal team, Finance and the Office of Sponsored Research to achieve their goals and ensure compliance with UQ policies and procedures. The loss of a dear colleague towards the end of the year only brought them closer together and provided an opportunity for the UQ community to demonstrate the UQ value of supporting our people.

  • Mr Constantin de Boisseson
  • Dr Natasha Danoucaras
  • Ms Nora Foley
  • Ms Lisa Kennedy
  • Ms Yvette Zuidema

Single Touch Payroll

This team of dedicated professionals comprising of the Human Resources (HR) Employee Services Unit, Information Technology Services, and HR Information Services team members, worked collaboratively to successfully and seamlessly deliver the UQ wide implementation of Single Touch Payroll. Single Touch Payroll was a mandatory requirement from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to introduce real time reporting of payroll information via MyGov. This was the biggest change that the ATO had rolled out to the nation, since the introduction of superannuation.

  • Ms Dian Ovens
  • Mr Shane Pitman
  • Mr Silviu Risco
  • Ms Melissa Rockingham
  • Dr Dinesha Weragama

UQ Innovate - Makerspace - Project team

The UQ Innovate - Makerspace - Project team is nominated for outstanding service in the planning, execution and operation of the newly delivered UQ Innovate Makerspace, and the Faculty Workshop Group (FWG) Technical Services operations in 2019. The newly delivered facilities provide game changing capabilities and a significant realignment of customer focused service delivery for the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology and UQ as a whole. The commitment by the entire FWG team ensured UQ Innovate was delivered under budget and was fully operational less than one year from inception, ready for Semester two teaching in 2019. During construction, all FWG services continued uninterrupted. For the FWG team, 'today's excellence in service becomes tomorrow's new standard'.

  • Mr Peter Bleakley
  • Mr Sam Butler
  • Mr Samuel Grieve
  • Mr Jason Herriot
  • Mr Robert Holler
  • Mr Mark James
  • Mr Peter Khan
  • Mr Blair Knight
  • Mr Andrew Lagrosa
  • Mr Chris Lloyd
  • Mr Mark Lynne
  • Mr Gary Manning
  • Mr Malcolm Marker
  • Mr Ian Moore
  • Mr John Stafford
  • Mr Rob Stephan
  • Mr Grant Tayles

Visits and Events Team - Global Engagement and Entrepreneurship

Global Engagement and Entrepreneurship's Visits and Events team provides outstanding service to the UQ Senior Management Group, academics and professional staff throughout the University, to nurture and develop collaborative international and external relationships. The team manages more than 140 international visits to UQ each year, coordinates the annual program of outgoing senior executive missions, and delivers a range of key global engagement events, onshore and offshore. Tireless in their support of meaningful collaboration with international partners and the entrepreneurial ecosystem, the team ensures all visits and events are diverse and inclusive, and enhance UQ's reputation as a leading global University.

  • Ms Simone Barnhill
  • Ms Victoria Bick
  • Ms Jessica Court
  • Ms Rachael Kelly

Community, diversity and inclusion

Winners

Associate Professor Rhonda Faragher, School of Education

Associate Professor Rhonda Faragher is an internationally renowned teacher and researcher in the area of diversity and inclusion. Her research has shown a connection between Down Syndrome and Developmental Dyscalculia and suggests ways to overcome that difficulty in understanding quantity by using mathematical tools. Rhonda's work is widely cited, leading her to be an international mentor and keynote speaker in the area of inclusivity, while still working with others across UQ, teachers, and parent groups to assist with teaching students with disabilities. She contributed to the Queensland Human Rights Act 2019 and was an expert advisor to the Disability Royal Commission.

Student-Staff Partnerships Team

The Student-Staff Partnerships Program empowers students and staff to collaborate as equal partners and mutual learners. It facilitates opportunities to connect the diverse voices, skills and talents within the UQ community, and aims to enhance the university experience of both students and staff. Since the launch of the program in May 2018, 1527 students and staff have been supported to engage in representation, voice and partnership projects, making it one of the largest formalised Students as Partners programs in the world. This program has led a powerful cultural transformation, whereby students actively contribute to enhancing the student experience.

  • Ms Naima Crisp
  • Dr James Forde
  • Dr Julia Groening
  • Ms Madelaine-Marie Judd
  • Miss Jessica Morgan
  • Ms Julie Peries

Commended

Ms Sophia Rutter, Sustainability Office

UQ Unwrapped is an award winning program, which exists thanks to the determination and dedication of UQ alumnus and UQ employee, Sophia Rutter (who likes to be known as Sophie), eagerly supported by her supervisor, Christine McCallum. Sophie has adapted her enthusiasm for reducing waste and improving the opportunities from waste, from her high school years, to an industry placement with leading consulting firm Cardno in her Bachelor's degree, and now to leading a key UQ sustainability initiative. Sophie's enthusiasm for UQ Unwrapped and, sustainability more broadly, is infectious. She has attracted a community of like-minded changemakers with some 861 members in the UQ Unwrapped Facebook page, not to mention a range of other social media engagements. This community continues to enlist students and staff alike to reduce waste to landfill through campus wide collaboration. Sophie embodies dedication to sustainability, community, and UQ.

Eumeralla Team

Eumeralla, a war requiem for peace (hereafter Eumeralla), is a Requiem Mass for full symphony orchestra, massed choir, and three soloists, composed by prominent opera singer Deborah Cheetham, AO. Through a collaborative effort between the School of Music and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, Eumeralla was performed at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) as part of the Vice-Chancellor's Concert Series in 2019. The collaborative process epitomises UQ's ongoing efforts to promote reconciliation, mutual respect, and diversity through innovative, engaging, and creative means. The concert featured Indigenous and non-Indigenous performers side by side, singing in Gunditjmara dialects. The event was part of a broader program of Indigenous engagement during the week of its performance, including a public seminar by Deborah Cheetham (2019's Kinnane Scholar) and a series of on-campus events and activities. Eumeralla's lasting legacy is seen through its contribution to the ongoing growth of Indigenous artistic culture on campus and in the UQ community.

  • Mr Adam Al-Chalabi
  • Mr Shaun Brown
  • Mr Graeme Morton
  • Professor Liam Viney
  • Mr Paul Young

Institute of Continued TESOL Education (ICTE) Chorus Team

The Institute of Continued TESOL Education (ICTE) Chorus provides an exceptional learning environment for international student inclusion and social support at UQ. The ICTE Chorus team facilitates choral singing rehearsals and regular performance events, which significantly enhance English-language competence, social confidence and connection to campus and the Brisbane community. Since 2008, more than 3000 students have experienced an increased sense of safety, respect, belonging and commitment to university life through choir involvement. The team has been recognised by Local and State Government, Trade & Investment Queensland, and English Australia as an industry leader providing diverse and inclusive opportunities for international students to engage with the community.

  • Ms Vicki Bos
  • Ms Fiona Wiebusch

Nominated

Ms Jane Atkins, Alumni Relations and Engagement

Jane is a positive, professional, and hard-working Advancement professional, who has provided exceptional support to Alumni Friends, particularly during 2016-20. Jane's role includes acting as an important conduit between this volunteer-run association and UQ's Advancement team - providing valuable advice and administrative support. In 2019-20, Jane's work has certainly been 'above and beyond' anything the Alumni Friends might reasonably expect. During a process of transformation, Jane is leading a closer relationship for the Association’s members with UQ, with the donation of funds (including UQ 'match') in excess of $1.2 million. The Association thought it would be difficult to improve on her 2016 - 18 support, when she assisted with the professional organisation of a special Gala Lunch (featuring David Malouf AO 'in conversation' with Madonna King). Jane continues to impress them even more. Her good humour, determined hard work, professional interaction, and attention to detail are superb. Alumni Friends advised that they could not have done it without her.

Associate Professor Rhonda Faragher, School of Education

Associate Professor Rhonda Faragher is an internationally renowned teacher and researcher in the area of diversity and inclusion. Her research has shown a connection between Down Syndrome and Developmental Dyscalculia and suggests ways to overcome that difficulty in understanding quantity by using mathematical tools. Rhonda's work is widely cited, leading her to be an international mentor and keynote speaker in the area of inclusivity, while still working with others across UQ, teachers, and parent groups to assist with teaching students with disabilities. She contributed to the Queensland Human Rights Act 2019 and was an expert advisor to the Disability Royal Commission.

Dr Deanne Gannaway, Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITaLI)

Dr Deanne Gannaway champions the recognition of the expertise of all teachers at the University, including those who may not necessarily define themselves as teachers. She supports her colleagues by providing opportunities to encourage them to reflect on their individual teaching practice, thus building a teaching community within UQ. Her vision has developed the HEA@UQ Program from a professional recognition scheme into one that allows teachers to connect, to reflect and to learn. HEA@UQ acts as a springboard for conversations about supporting and enhancing learning, connecting teachers to build teaching excellence across UQ.

Dr Aideen McInerney-Leo, UQ Diamantina Institute

Dr Aideen McInerney-Leo has a genuine passion for advocating for women in STEM. She actively seeks opportunities to make a positive impact on the UQ community, including completing the UQ Ally program, the Sexual Misconduct First Responder course, and as a valued member of the UQ Diamantina Institute Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Aideen generously dedicates time to mentoring and encouraging fellow staff and students to meet their potential, particularly focusing on young women. Through her own success, she is also a role model for balancing family with a research career in STEM.

Ms Sophia Rutter, Sustainability Office

UQ Unwrapped is an award winning program, which exists thanks to the determination and dedication of UQ alumnus and UQ employee, Sophia Rutter (who likes to be known as Sophie), eagerly supported by her supervisor, Christine McCallum. Sophie has adapted her enthusiasm for reducing waste and improving the opportunities from waste, from her high school years, to an industry placement with leading consulting firm Cardno in her Bachelor's degree, and now to leading a key UQ sustainability initiative. Sophie's enthusiasm for UQ Unwrapped and, sustainability more broadly, is infectious. She has attracted a community of like-minded changemakers with some 861 members in the UQ Unwrapped Facebook page, not to mention a range of other social media engagements. This community continues to enlist students and staff alike to reduce waste to landfill through campus wide collaboration. Sophie embodies dedication to sustainability, community, and UQ.

Professor Ala Tabor, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI)

Professor Ala Tabor has been exceptionally proactive in creating a more inclusive and positive culture at UQ's Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI). She was instrumental in setting up the first QAAFI Diversity and Inclusion committee and has significantly contributed to the UQ SAGE Pilot of Athena SWAN assessment. She has also initiated the formation of a QAAFI student association (QSA, est. 2019) and regularly organises Friday afternoon social gatherings for all staff and students. On top of that, she has encouraged and actively supported many female and male QAAFI and Faculty of Science academics during their applications for promotion, both through direct mentorship and as a volunteer on mock promotion interview panels.

Ms Jessica von Pein, Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB)

Jessica von Pein consistently goes above and beyond in everything she does, but particularly as the former president of the Students of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience Association (SIMBA). During her tenure, she single-handedly facilitated events that provided opportunities for students such as the annual Student Symposium, career panel, three-minute-thesis presentations, and writing workshops. She also facilitated events that fostered camaraderie such as morning teas, international breakfasts, Friday evening socials, inter-institute trivia nights, and monthly yoga. Despite a number of hurdles, Jessica executed these events to the highest calibre, and was welcoming and inclusive of all who wanted to participate.

Eumeralla Team

Eumeralla, a war requiem for peace (hereafter Eumeralla), is a Requiem Mass for full symphony orchestra, massed choir, and three soloists, composed by prominent opera singer Deborah Cheetham, AO. Through a collaborative effort between the School of Music and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, Eumeralla was performed at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) as part of the Vice-Chancellor's Concert Series in 2019. The collaborative process epitomises UQ's ongoing efforts to promote reconciliation, mutual respect, and diversity through innovative, engaging, and creative means. The concert featured Indigenous and non-Indigenous performers side by side, singing in Gunditjmara dialects. The event was part of a broader program of Indigenous engagement during the week of its performance, including a public seminar by Deborah Cheetham (2019's Kinnane Scholar) and a series of on-campus events and activities. Eumeralla's lasting legacy is seen through its contribution to the ongoing growth of Indigenous artistic culture on campus and in the UQ community.

  • Mr Adam Al-Chalabi
  • Mr Shaun Brown
  • Mr Graeme Morton
  • Professor Liam Viney
  • Mr Paul Young

Institute of Continued TESOL Education (ICTE) Chorus Team

The Institute of Continued TESOL Education (ICTE) Chorus provides an exceptional learning environment for international student inclusion and social support at UQ. The ICTE Chorus team facilitates choral singing rehearsals and regular performance events, which significantly enhance English-language competence, social confidence and connection to campus and the Brisbane community. Since 2008, more than 3000 students have experienced an increased sense of safety, respect, belonging and commitment to university life through choir involvement. The team has been recognised by Local and State Government, Trade & Investment Queensland, and English Australia as an industry leader providing diverse and inclusive opportunities for international students to engage with the community.

  • Ms Vicki Bos
  • Ms Fiona Wiebusch

Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) Diversity and Inclusion Committee

The Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) Diversity and Inclusion Committee has developed programs that influence policy, awareness, recruitment, career opportunities, pastoral care and the development of champions for diversity and inclusion within the Institute. The work of the Committee has created a family friendly environment, encouraged gender balance, significantly increased the UQ Ally network within the Institute, and aided in the development of philanthropic initiatives to attract diversity. The Committee established a scholarship to attract women into research and developed a Statement of Acceptable Workplace Behaviour, which has been widely distributed. These outcomes, along with planned events and recognition of IMB’s diversity, has provided an increased awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion.

  • Ms Bronwyn Adams
  • Dr Fernanda Caldas Cardoso
  • Dr Ronan Kapetanovic
  • Ms Serena Leeke
  • Ms Emma Livingstone
  • Professor Kate Schroder
  • Professor Matt Sweet
  • Associate Professor Irina Vetter

Papua New Guinea (PNG) Precinct Leadership Program Team

The Precinct Leadership Program (PLP) team designed and delivered a flagship four year program for the Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This is a joint initiative of the Australian and PNG Governments funded by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs. The team of professional and academic staff from across UQ, successfully administered and delivered the $7.2 million project, providing specialist leadership training in flexible mode for PNG Government leaders. The team provided the opportunity for PNG participants to have a UQ learning experience through flexible and remote delivery of high quality and tailored leadership development programs.

  • Ms Melissa Acosta
  • Dr Prudence Brown
  • Dr Jodie Curth-Bibb
  • Dr Michelle Dunn
  • Ms Niura Martinez Casas
  • Dr Kamil Shah
  • Mr Adam Wood
  • Dr Sarah Woodland

Student-Staff Partnerships Team

The Student-Staff Partnerships Program empowers students and staff to collaborate as equal partners and mutual learners. It facilitates opportunities to connect the diverse voices, skills and talents within the UQ community, and aims to enhance the university experience of both students and staff. Since the launch of the program in May 2018, 1527 students and staff have been supported to engage in representation, voice and partnership projects, making it one of the largest formalised Students as Partners programs in the world. This program has led a powerful cultural transformation, whereby students actively contribute to enhancing the student experience.

  • Ms Naima Crisp
  • Dr James Forde
  • Dr Julia Groening
  • Ms Madelaine-Marie Judd
  • Miss Jessica Morgan
  • Ms Julie Peries

University of Queensland Press

The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has been publishing Indigenous voices for decades, and in 2019 Goorie author Melissa Lucashenko's novel Too Much Lip won Australia's most prestigious literary award, the Miles Franklin, among many others. This success demonstrates UQP's unwavering commitment to excellence in publishing and in championing First Nation voices. The book has been an Australian bestseller since publication in 2018. The dedicated marketing campaign and sale of audio, film and territory rights, including a major US deal, have further widened the reach of Lucashenko's groundbreaking novel, enhancing UQ's reputation regarding equity, diversity and inclusion.

  • Ms Louise Cornegé
  • Ms Madonna Duffy
  • Ms Kate Garaty
  • Ms Kate McCormack
  • Ms Vanessa Pellatt
  • Ms Jean Smith
  • Ms Sally Wilson

Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Team

UQ's Workplace Diversity and Inclusion (WD&I) team have worked tirelessly in 2019 to situate UQ as a safe, welcoming environment for all. Key achievements include delivery of UQ's innovative Vice-Chancellor's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Graduate Program, the Professional Entry Pathway Program, and delivering UQ's successful submission for SAGE Athena SWAN accreditation. WD&I developed and delivered a new travel support program for staff with disability, and implemented a suite of diversity-focused training products designed to enhance staff capabilities (e.g. Managing a Diverse Team; Cultural Inclusion; Unconscious Bias Train-the-Trainer etc.). The team delivered five University-wide D&I strategies, drafted and progressed a new suite of D&I policy and procedures, and created a new method of gender pay analysis and reporting which has already had an impact. It has been an incredibly successful year of work, by a dedicated, passionate and innovative team who have a deep commitment to diversity and inclusion.

  • Ms Jordan Akhurst
  • Ms Monika Andersen
  • Ms Taylor Bamin
  • Ms Nicole Barton
  • Ms Tarriaki Duncan
  • Ms Tanya Lutvey
  • Ms Deborah Palmer
  • Dr Angela Sturrock

Mental and physical health, safety and wellness

Winners

Guinness World Record Mindfulness (Student Life) Team

The Student Life team were responsible for coordinating the UQ Guinness World Record title for the Largest Mindfulness Lesson (single venue). This event officially brought 1,417 staff, students, alumni and community members together to not only break a world record, but promote inclusiveness and a sense of connection and belonging as a part of the University's Mental Health Strategy. The team worked together to coordinate a wide range of internal and external stakeholders (including corporate sponsors and volunteers) to ensure that the event was a major success.

  • Professor Stuart Carney        
  • Ms Cherrine Chan
  • Ms Kelly Edwards
  • Ms Sarah Jeffrey
  • Mr Anthony Lennon
  • Ms Andrea Strachan
  • Ms Sanda Vesara    

Commended

UQ Immunisation Compliance Project

The centralised Immunisation Records Team (IRT) was launched on 1 January 2020, thanks to the multidisciplinary efforts of the project team, Information Technology Services, Human Resources, plus the UQ safety network and faculty student administration teams. It is estimated that at least 4000 UQ students and staff have an increased exposure to a wide range of vaccine preventable diseases on an annual basis. This includes those who participate in healthcare, animal, agricultural, laboratory, mortuary, wastewater, and other activities. It was recognised in 2017 that a centralised, sustainable approach was crucial to ensuring complex issues associated with immunisation compliance were addressed by qualified staff and that immunisation compliance records be easily retrievable. Failure to meet these requirements exposes our people, the broader community, and the University to unacceptably high risk of infectious disease. It could also jeopardise UQ's relationship with placement partners and other stakeholders.

  • Dr Tony Arklay
  • Ms Fiona Coulthard
  • Mr Alexander Gray
  • Ms Neithu Koruth
  • Mr Juan Londono
  • Ms Denise Morgan
  • Ms Rebecca Smith
  • Ms Carolyn Spiertz
  • Ms Alison Thomson
  • Ms Jane van Kester

Nominated

Business School Wellness Committee Team

The UQ Business School Wellness Committee formation was a proactive initiative to enhance the wellbeing of staff and students within the Business School. The Wellness Committee seeks to foster a healthy, safe and well student and staff community. The group seeks to raise awareness and promote initiatives that support the mental health and well-being of staff and students. The Wellness Committee has developed initiatives aimed at enabling staff and students to respond quickly, appropriately and with confidence when a staff member or student requires well-being support. Examples include the development of informational and referral resources; designing mental health first aid kits; and initiating skills building training for staff and students in the area of mental health and wellbeing. The Committee continues to work on initiatives to support and engage all members of the UQ Business School and promote healthy work-life balance.

  • Ms Jacqui Dean
  • Ms Katie Farley
  • Ms Alex Hall
  • Ms Helen Lambe
  • Mr Chris Pye
  • Ms Melissa Youlden

Computer Workstation Assessment App Development Team

Staff requesting workstation assessments have to wait for availability of the local Work Health and Safety Coordinator or the UQ Ergonomist. Delays in assessment can negatively impact on the comfort of workers and contribute to musculoskeletal disorders. The team worked with students from Information Technology and Physiotherapy to create a new website that not only provides a self-assessment to optimise work station set up, but also provides extra services with a symptom checker, stretches and ways to add movement into the day. By providing immediate access to easy to understand information, staff can be proactive and make adjustments to their workstation before they experience symptoms reducing the incidence of discomfort and injury.

  • Ms Jolene Cooper
  • Ms Leanne Ritchie
  • Mr Matt Tinski
  • Ms Anne Tobin

Guinness World Record Mindfulness (Student Life) Team

The Student Life team were responsible for coordinating the UQ Guinness World Record title for the Largest Mindfulness Lesson (single venue). This event officially brought 1,417 staff, students, alumni and community members together to not only break a world record, but promote inclusiveness and a sense of connection and belonging as a part of the University's Mental Health Strategy. The team worked together to coordinate a wide range of internal and external stakeholders (including corporate sponsors and volunteers) to ensure that the event was a major success.

  • Professor Stuart Carney        
  • Ms Cherrine Chan
  • Ms Kelly Edwards
  • Ms Sarah Jeffrey
  • Mr Anthony Lennon
  • Ms Andrea Strachan
  • Ms Sanda Vesara               

Health, Safety and Wellness (HSW) Biosafety Team

Biosafety at the University is a very broad and complex field, encompassing every different potential biological hazard that can be imagined. The regulatory framework for biosafety and biosecurity in Australia is also extremely complicated, with many different pieces of legislation needing to be considered. In the past year, this regulation has become even more complicated, with many changes that directly affect UQ. The Health, Safety and Wellness Biosafety team have consistently provided a very high level of support, information and advice to the UQ community over many years, including interpreting and communicating such changes in a manner understandable by the researchers and teaching staff. Over the last year, they have also implemented several new electronic record keeping systems that have streamlined and enhanced biosafety compliance at UQ. This has created a very large workload for the team, yet their level of service to UQ has continued to be first rate.

  • Mr Kerrin Henderson
  • Dr Amanda Jones
  • Ms Sophie O'Neill

Health, Safety and Wellness (HSW) Induction Checklist Digitisation Team

This team was established to streamline the paper-based safety induction forms into a single online process providing a simplified workflow and enabling visibility of the required information to relevant stakeholders, the new starter, supervisor and Workplace Health and Safety Coordinator. The visibility of the checklist also enhanced the induction process for staff accessing multiple facilities reducing duplication. Digitising the forms created a robust workflow and record management process which is critical for audit and the UQ Workers Compensation self-insurance. This project complemented both the Immunisation Compliance project, allowing an extra trigger for the vaccination workflow, and the HR Onboarding project allowing the Health, Safety and Wellness induction process to be embedded as part of the suite of commencement requirements.

  • Ms Libby Humphries
  • Ms Narelle McCallum
  • Ms Leanne Ritchie
  • Ms Maria Somodevilla Torres
  • Ms Jane van Kester

Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) Anaesthetic Cone Development Team

The Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) Anaesthetic Cone Development team created a novel solution to reduce researchers' exposure to harmful waste anaesthetic gas. The commercial products available proved unsuitable for neurosurgery on rodents, leaving researchers attempting to make their own without adequate safety precautions. The team, consisting of safety professionals, neuroscientists and workshop technicians, designed 3D printable nose cones incorporating gas scavenging, compatible with the equipment required for millimetre precise surgery on very small animals, that can be scaled for different sized subjects. Through outstanding collaboration, ingenuity and commitment over 18 months, the team was able to demonstrate a reduction in researcher exposure to harmful gas.

  • Dr Daniel Blackmore
  • Mr Ross Dixon
  • Mr Nick Nacsa
  • Ms Emma Scott
  • Mr John Steptoe
  • Dr Francois Windels

UQ Immunisation Compliance Project

The centralised Immunisation Records Team (IRT) was launched on 1 January 2020, thanks to the multidisciplinary efforts of the project team, Information Technology Services, Human Resources, plus the UQ safety network and faculty student administration teams. It is estimated that at least 4000 UQ students and staff have an increased exposure to a wide range of vaccine preventable diseases on an annual basis. This includes those who participate in healthcare, animal, agricultural, laboratory, mortuary, wastewater, and other activities. It was recognised in 2017 that a centralised, sustainable approach was crucial to ensuring complex issues associated with immunisation compliance were addressed by qualified staff and that immunisation compliance records be easily retrievable. Failure to meet these requirements exposes our people, the broader community, and the University to unacceptably high risk of infectious disease. It could also jeopardise UQ's relationship with placement partners and other stakeholders.

  • Dr Tony Arklay
  • Ms Fiona Coulthard
  • Mr Alexander Gray
  • Ms Neithu Koruth
  • Mr Juan Londono
  • Ms Denise Morgan
  • Ms Rebecca Smith
  • Ms Carolyn Spiertz
  • Ms Alison Thomson
  • Ms Jane van Kester

UQ VETS Equine Specialist Hospital

Equine Hendra Virus (HeV) has resulted in four human fatalities in Queensland to date. HeV is a constant threat to people working closely with sick horses which is exactly what UQ VETS Equine Specialist Hospital does 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Extensive internal and external consultation has culminated in a Hendra Virus Risk Management plan being implemented late 2019 (UQ PPL 2.40.06) that is key in supporting the health and safety of the myriad of staff members, undergraduate and postgraduate students involved in work integrated learning in the veterinary treatment of horses.

  • Associate Professor Ben Ahern
  • Dr Francois-Rene Bertin
  • Dr Natalie Fraser
  • Dr Myat Kyaw-Tanner
  • Dr Carlos Medina-Torres
  • Dr Albert Sole Guitart
  • Dr Allison Stewart
  • Dr Alex Young
  • Dr Steven Zedler

Leadership

Winners

Ms Jennifer Karlson, Advancement

Jennifer Karlson joined the University at a pivotal time - the public announcement of Not If, When - The Campaign to Create Change. Our first comprehensive philanthropic campaign was launched to inspire UQ's 300,000+ alumni community to create change by accelerating opportunity through philanthropy. Ms Karlson's support and influence on staff within Advancement, as well as her colleagues across the University, has resulted in a flourishing culture of philanthropy and partnership felt throughout UQ, and into our community of alumni and donors. The University is on track to surpass the $500 million philanthropic target by the close of 2020.

Warwick Solar Farm Project Team

UQ is one of the largest energy users among Australasian universities. A successful energy management program has reduced electricity usage by almost 15% since its peak in 2014 and UQ has been an early leader in clean energy deployment. To build on these successes, the idea was born to commit to being 100% renewable by 2020. Rather than signing a contract, however, the goal was to build, own, and operate the $125 million Warwick Solar Farm - a first in the world for a University and a demonstration of UQ's commitment to walk the talk on climate action. The project has taken over three years from the original idea, with construction completed at the end of 2019 and the first energy due to be generated in early 2020. Once fully operational, the plant will reduce emissions by the equivalent of taking almost 60,000 cars off the road, and is forecast to deliver over $50 million in net energy cost savings over its life.

  • Mr Greg Conrick
  • Ms Danielle Esterhuysen
  • Mr Stephen Fleming
  • Ms Sarah Haskmann
  • Mr Andrew Wilson

Commended

Professor Kevin Thomas, Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS)

Professor Kevin Thomas began as Director of the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) in 2017. He inherited a Centre that was lacking strong direction and cohesion, was isolated from the rest of the University, was financially challenged, and had a strained relationship with its core funder, Queensland Health. Through Professor Thomas' outstanding leadership all of these issues have been quickly and successfully addressed and the Centre has become spectacularly successful. Since Professor Thomas began, QAEHS has:

  • secured over $22 million in external funding
  • relocated to Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (PACE) and incorporated theme leaders from across five faculties
  • established excellent relationships with Queensland Health and a governance structure with strong external representation
  • become a world-leader in environmental health science, with productive staff in a harmonious work place

Professor Thomas represents the best of UQ values.

Ms Stacey Vogel, School of Psychology

Stacey Vogel embodies every one of the UQ values and for this she is well known across the institution for her leadership. Stacey manages one of the largest schools in the University and consistently demonstrates her leadership capabilities through her extensive engagement with Faculty and University-wide initiatives. We are indebted to Stacey for her dedication to identifying a need and stepping up to find the solution. Furthermore, Stacey defines 'One UQ' by demonstrating a tireless commitment to sharing feedback, knowledge and resources. In sum, Stacey is a "go-to" leader at UQ and deserves recognition as such.

2020 ARC Centres of Excellence Bid Development Team

The 2020 Australian Research Council (ARC) Centres of Excellence Bid Development team successfully led multi-institutional collaborations over a two year bidding cycle to secure three of nine ARC Centres of Excellence. UQ was the only University to receive more than one Centre let alone achieving three from three shortlisted bids from an initial field of 93 expressions of interest nationwide. Dr Richard Kim from the Office of Sponsored Research co-ordinated the development of UQ's bids, and Directors (Professor Janeen Baxter, Professor Christine Beveridge, Professor David Craik), and their key operational staff, demonstrated exemplary leadership over the two year bid development cycle to achieve this unprecedented outcome. The team demonstrated sustained leadership as evidenced by the ability to think and work strategically, communicate and collaborate with influence, whilst valuing people and building strong cultures. The outcome and impact of these Centres will nurture our next generation of research leaders and reinforce UQ's reputation as a knowledge leader.

  • Professor Janeen Baxter
  • Professor Christine Beveridge
  • Professor Mark Cooper
  • Professor David Craik
  • Ms Robyn Craik
  • Ms Emma Earl
  • Dr Annie Kan
  • Dr Richard Kim
  • Ms Melissa McKain
  • Dr Lucy Mills

EAIT International Engagement Team

The Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT) International Engagement team, led by Angela Li, consistently demonstrates exceptional leadership. Over the last three years, the team has transformed dramatically, being rebuilt from the ground up. The team provides leadership excellence to the EAIT Faculty and Schools, as well as current and prospective students, by maintaining operational support with integrity and professionalism. New initiatives created by Angela and her team resulted in a 25.5% increase in EAIT international student commencements in just one year, and the growth in demand has continued apace. With this tremendous increase comes a significantly higher workload for the team and associated areas, but also an extraordinary benefit to the Faculty and UQ. Angela's team established new pathways to attract high quality international students to UQ, and enabled UQ students to complete part of their degree abroad. The team provided guidance and support to professional and academic staff to implement strategies.

  • Ms Melinda Knox
  • Ms Angela Li
  • Ms Kate Murphy
  • Ms Penny Qi
  • Ms Gladys Yong

Nominated

Ms Leanne Brennan, Graduate School

Over the past 24 months, the Graduate School has undergone a complete transformation. As Team Leader for the Health Cluster, Leanne trained a new team of eight Liaison Officers looking after approximately 1500 HDR students. Open-minded, curious and detail-oriented, Leanne has an open-door policy, always giving her colleagues and students time and energy to solve problems. The result is a robust and resilient team that thrives in a culture of open learning, collaboration, and sets a high standard of service delivery.

Dr Drew Brockman, TetraQ Research Infrastructure Centre

Dr Drew Brockman is recognised for his leadership of the TetraQ Toxicology Services team. Dr Brockman is leading a small team of scientists responsible for the conduct of fee-for-service contract toxicology studies to support translational drug development studies. The clients for these studies include Australian university researchers and biotechnology companies working on translational biomedical research projects. Dr Brockman has consistently provided outstanding leadership to his team as they have taken on and successfully completed various challenging projects in 2019 and 2020.

Dr Michael Bromley, School of Mathematics and Physics

Dr Michael Bromley instigated the School of Mathematics and Physics' (SMP) ‘Core Computational Facility’. When he arrived on his Future Fellowship in 2011, Dr Bromley initiated the development of a common grid computational resource available to all staff and students in SMP. This facility began by merging several bespoke systems that had existed across different groups. Having conceived this system over the last decade, Dr Bromley has overseen development of a supercomputer with 2000 CPUs and 80 GPUs. This computational resource is frequently cited in Australian Research Council grant proposals from SMP. It is used for teaching in courses with more than 150 students annually, for research across SMP, and in allied disciplines including Agriculture and Food Sciences. It has constant usage from SMP's Honours and PhD students who require on-demand computation. This has been an enormously useful school resource.

Associate Professor Peter Cabot, School of Pharmacy

Associate Professor Peter Cabot is a long-term outstanding teaching, research and service leader in both the School of Pharmacy and the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Science (from a period as Acting Associate Dean (Academic) in 2019). Associate Professor Cabot was instrumental in leading the development of the Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (PACE) building which is one of the landmark UQ buildings, which is recognised throughout Australia. He has been a leader of the recent program developments, such as the establishment of the Master of Pharmaceutical Industry Practice and the reconfiguring of the Master of Clinical Pharmacy. These activities have transformed and increased the sustainability of the UQ School of Pharmacy.

Dr Clint Chapman, Faculty of Science

Dr Clint Chapman is an innovative and reliable leader with a strong strategic vision for change improvement. He demonstrates the ability to empower his staff to excel in their roles to achieve greater impact for UQ. As the Senior Manager in the Faculty of Science Research Facilities and Infrastructure Planning team, Dr Chapman's expert guidance and ongoing leadership have led to increased operational efficiencies across the Faculty's research facilities and a high success rate in capital works applications, with more than $40 million being awarded for Science projects since 2016. His work has championed and delivered infrastructure and facilities' platforms for the UQ Science community which has created and improved learning, discovery and working experiences. Dr Chapman has been relentless in supporting the University's values and fostering an inclusive team culture that encourages cross-collaboration, personal development, and innovation.

Mr Nathan Clayton, Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC)

When Nathan took on the role as Acting Manager of the Analytical Services Lab in early 2019, he wasted no time and set course to turn an established lab, known for water sample analysis, into a hub for the exchange of ideas and a safer lab space that supports innovation. He goes above and beyond to support his staff and lab users with training, advice and individualised challenges to strive for excellence, while teaching and role modelling Work Health and Safety in routine and specialty laboratory protocols. Nathan turned the lab into an enjoyable workplace governed by team culture, integrity and safety.

Mr Stephen Coombs, School of Chemical Engineering

Steve Coombs is the School Manager of Chemical Engineering, but has shown leadership qualities in the following roles in the past six years: user representative of the new Andrew N. Liveris Building; Manager of the decant of part of the Chemical Engineering School from Frank White to Long Pocket and Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC). Steve was also heavily involved with the Cultural Change Management Program, which the School of Chemical Engineering is undertaking prior to establishment in the new building by 2021. Alongside these activities, Steve has shown leadership in being involved in many sprints of new processes across UQ and strategic centre proposals in the School. Steve has a very approachable leadership style. He is hard working, and very detailed in his analysis and reporting. Steve is also across the School’s financial, student, laboratory safety and strategic matters.

Professor David Craik, Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB)

Professor David Craik is a world-leading researcher who has built a thriving research group, developed and won funding for a new facility and a $35 million nationwide ARC Centre of Excellence (where he currently holds the position of Director). In 2019, Professor Craik was recognised as the Australian leader in two scientific fields: Natural Medicines and Medicinal Plants, and Medicinal Chemistry. He received an Impact Award for Leadership from the Institute of Molecular Bioscience (IMB). Professor Craik has published over 600 scientific papers and received numerous UQ, national and international awards during his career.

Dr Gilda Carvalho, Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC)

Dr Gilda Carvalho's leadership has resulted in an outstanding education program within the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology's Master of Engineering. She has developed an industry relevant degree and secured scholarships and placements for students, all within a 12 month period. Dr Carvalho's enthusiasm for her work has inspired both students and staff. She has worked tirelessly to create a robust Master's program that will ensure students have high employability, and that the industry are happy with the graduates UQ produces. Her pedagogical work has drawn active interest from industry partners, resulting in degree specific scholarships and advisory panels.

Dr Laura Fenlon, Queensland Brain Institute (QBI)

Dr Laura Fenlon is an ideal academic: an inspiring teacher, a compassionate mentor, and a young scientific star. Dr Fenlon makes exceptional contributions to the UQ culture through her leadership. She mentors all students who seek her advice and encourages excellence. Dr Fenlon passionately teaches neuroscience topics to high school students up to final year PhDs. Despite spending a lot of energy creating an inspiring work environment, she is also an accomplished scientist earning competitive funding from National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Australian Research Council (ARC), and publishing in several high-impact journals. Dr Fenlon's leadership has far-reaching effects, encouraging culture change in science from the bottom-up.

Mr Andrew Forbes, Information Technology Services

In 2019, the Information Technology Services team took on a range of projects to improve service. Andrew put his hand up for a number of these projects and his colleagues are so grateful that he did. With Andrew at the helm, there has been significant improvements in cross-department collaboration and communication. Andrew motivates those in his teams to embrace innovative problem solving and service. He is a kind, patient and stoic leader, who makes the time for his teams. Andrew has great leadership qualities and he inspires his teams to accomplish amazing things, which they never thought they could perform.

Professor Bronwyn Fredericks, Indigenous Engagement

As Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement), Professor Fredericks/Aunty Bronwyn has reinvigorated the way that the UQ community engages with Indigenous peoples and knowledges. Her strategic leadership is 'making real' the Reconciliation Action Plan across our campuses. The success of Indigenous students is the foundation from which she builds her vision and derives her tireless energy. Connecting to local and global community, industry and education partners, Professor Fredericks cultivates engagement and opportunities that will place UQ as a leader in Indigenous engagement. Her dedication, professionalism and leadership energy is unsurpassed in our eyes. She is a fearless changemaker.

Ms Janet Frizzarin, Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITaLI)

Janet joined UQ in late 2018 to lead UQ2U, the centrepiece initiative of the UQ Student Strategy, which has been working with UQ's teaching community to transform the experience and learning outcomes for students in some of UQ's largest courses. The challenge confronting Janet is formidable, bold and unprecedented. UQ has never previously sought to transform the learning experience on this scale, nor has it tried to implement change of this nature within strict time and cost constraints. UQ's strategy and global reputation in teaching and learning is at stake. With a program already taking its first tentative steps, a new team with many new to UQ, and no established delivery approach, Janet jumped straight into the challenge. She has shown extraordinary leadership to unite and lead her team that to date have partnered with 180 academic staff and 170 students to redesign and deliver 46 courses. These courses collectively represent more than 32,000 or 12.5% of all course enrolments.

Professor Brenda Gannon, School of Economics

Professor Brenda Gannon contributes significant Transdisciplinary Research Impact Leadership (TRIL). She is an applied economist focusing on ageing, health and longevity and developed a new concept to advocate her work, GeroEconomics. Her TRIL across several disciplines has already resulted in three National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project grants, a NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence, one Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage, raising $8 million+ in business development for UQ over the previous three years, and raising $2million+ per year. Professor Gannon's research partnerships include several government entities, notably the Queensland Children's Hospital, with deliverables impacting populations worldwide. She generates a new cohort of leaders, in collaboration with global organisations.

Professor Juergen Goetz, Queensland Brain Institute (QBI)

Professor Juergen Goetz is the founding Director of the Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research (CJCADR) at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI). His outstanding vision based on the notion that fundamental science is essential to understand and find cures to ageing diseases, such Alzheimer's disease, has attracted high-profile researchers to CJCADR, which now comprises of 11 research groups. Under his exceptional leadership, CJCADR is thriving and exceeding any expectation. Specifically, in the last five years, the CJCADR has generated 202 publications, many of which in top-tier journals, and attracted over $40 million in funding. By promoting scientific meetings and retreats, Professor Goetz has created a unique and incredibly productive scientific environment. His fair, balanced and non-imposing leadership, focused on scientific quality and success of team members, has allowed international recognition for the CJCADR.

Associate Professor Genevieve Healy, School of Public Health

Associate Professor Genevieve Healy is a world recognised expert in sedentary behaviour at work and leads the BeUpstanding program. She leads the implementation of this program across Australia in close collaboration with industry partners. Many academics at UQ have benefited from her drive to change behaviour at work and reduce sitting time for health. Associate Professor Healy is a conscientious and supportive mentor to junior staff, giving them opportunities to co-supervise students and take leadership roles on papers and projects even to the detriment of her own track record. Particularly impressive is her willingness to put the careers and aspirations of others above her own - a truly supportive and inspirational leader.

Dr Juan Hidalgo Medina, School of Civil Engineering

Dr Juan Hidalgo has demonstrated his leadership skills in bringing a diverse team together, managing a large amount of required resources and delivering one of the largest fire testing programmes in the southern hemisphere. He is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Civil Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology. His main areas of expertise are fire dynamics and timber structures. In this capacity, he is the lead CI for the ARC Future Timber Hub project "Exploring the self-extinguishment mechanism of engineered timber in full-scale compartment fires". This research aims to investigate the engineering conditions required to design safe mass timber structures based on the principle of flame self-extinction. This project requires the coordination of a multitude of different teams both within UQ but also external stakeholders from industry and the fire and emergency services. Juan has provided tremendous leadership, motivation and organisation to make this project a success.

Ms Jennifer Karlson, Advancement

Jennifer Karlson joined the University at a pivotal time - the public announcement of Not If, When - The Campaign to Create Change. Our first comprehensive philanthropic campaign was launched to inspire UQ's 300,000+ alumni community to create change by accelerating opportunity through philanthropy. Ms Karlson's support and influence on staff within Advancement, as well as her colleagues across the University, has resulted in a flourishing culture of philanthropy and partnership felt throughout UQ, and into our community of alumni and donors. The University is on track to surpass the $500 million philanthropic target by the close of 2020.

Professor Sailesh Kumar, Faculty of Medicine

Professor Sailesh Kumar holds the position as Head of the Mayne Academy of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine. He has assembled a team of committed teachers and together, guided by regular student feedback, they have shaped the teaching strategy for the discipline. His implementations have resulted in significantly improved student results. He is passionate about medical education and emphasizes to students that to be a good doctor requires career-long commitment to both learning and teaching, and the skills they acquire during their medical training must contribute to teaching future generations of doctors. Professor Kumar's clinical teaching and mentoring achievements have been recognised through multiple nominations and awards including the UQ Teaching and Learning winner for the Tutor, Clinical, Research or Professional Practice Supervisor Awards, Faculty of Medicine (2019) and a Distinction in teaching award, UQ (2016).

Mr Dominic McGrath, Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITaLI)

As Learning Design Team Leader, Dominic McGrath has conceptualised and implemented an impressive portfolio of UQ-wide teaching and learning initiatives, driving the enhancement of teaching quality at UQ. He spearheads a dynamic community of expert learning designers. He is also sought out by academics and faculty executives, from all disciplines, for his expertise in designing learning environments that maximise student-and-teacher-potential. Dom's contribution goes beyond leadership of the UQ Learning Design Community. He sets the agenda for the University to capitalise on its learning designer resources to achieve UQ's Student Strategy and international ranking goals.

Dr Brigid McKenna, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences

Dr Brigid McKenna is the Senior Scientific and Technical Officer in the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences (SAFS). She has displayed outstanding leadership within SAFS, inspiring others to achieve excellence. She motivates and encourages other staff across the broad portfolio of her work, including in the training of both undergraduate and research students. Furthermore, Dr McKenna takes additional responsibilities to improve student learning within SAFS, including conducting studies to understand how different students engage with learning materials and how this is related to their performance. Her leadership encourages others to meet their goals while also contributing to the University's values.

Professor Karen Moritz, Faculty of Medicine

Professor Karen Moritz has been a productive and innovative member of the Faculty of Medicine since 2006. She has been integral at Faculty and School levels across a number of facets, including early career mentoring schemes, supervisor for teaching internships, course coordinator, and establishment of the Integrated Physiology Facility for staff and students within the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS). Professor Moritz balances her two roles as Director of the Child Health Research Centre (CHRC), where she oversees seven world-class research themes; and Head of the Developmental Programming in Disease Lab, where she supervises and mentors honours, PhD and postdoctoral students as well as teaching and research academics at SBMS. She inspires those around her with her infectious smile, positive and up-beat demeanour, and ability to guide others with effective problem-solving strategies. Her tireless efforts have culminated in a legacy of productive and successful researchers. Professor Moritz's has over 200 research publications and an international reputation in fetal physiology, being a known leader in the field of fetal alcohol syndrome disorders.

Associate Professor Chiara Palmieri, School of Veterinary Science

During her previous role as the School of Veterinary Science (SVS) Postgraduate Coordinator, and current role as Director of Research, Associate Professor Chiara Palmieri has displayed an outstanding commitment to increasing the School's research standards and reputation. She has been instrumental in advancing the School's research capacity, and her inclusiveness and positive approach have had a reinvigorating influence on SVS research culture. Her leadership and influence is targeted towards actively re-engaging staff with a view to building research capacity not only within the School, but within the Gatton campus and extending to the Moreton Bay Research Station. A direct result of this is the upward trajectory of SVS research, which will have a lasting positive impact on the School's research culture.

Ms Liisa Partanen, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN)

Liisa Partanen encourages and inspires her team and co-workers to strive for excellence, bringing a level of professionalism to her work that ensures Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) can run smoothly and continue to deliver excellent outcomes. In her role as the Executive Assistant at AIBN, she is instrumental in leading and implementing several initiatives at the Institute. She is willing to go the extra mile ensuring that deadlines are met to complete those initiatives. She is always looking for ways to improve her work and team. Liisa takes it upon herself to lead by example with personal credibility and integrity.

Mr Chris Pye, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

In the past 12 months, Chris has been employed as the Health, Safety and Wellness (HSW) Manager for two faculties: Business, Economics and Law, and Humanities and Social Sciences. He has taken on the role with enthusiasm with a focus on helping those in the Faculties be aware of their HSW responsibilities, being open and consultative, and actively progressing a positive workplace culture. Nothing seems to daunt Chris as he moves from Music to Law, field trips to office movements. He is never too busy to take an active part in the HSW Network across the University and always has something meaningful to contribute. He leads from the front, thinking ahead to what will make things better and collaborates widely. Chris has been nominated for the work he does and the manner in which he does it.

Professor Alan Rowan, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN)

Professor Alan Rowan has exemplified outstanding values-based leadership since joining UQ as the Director of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN). He is a valued leader that operates strategically, communicates and collaborates with influence, and purposefully leads change to deliver results. He has worked tirelessly to cultivate a culture of excellence in learning, inquiry and innovation, encouraging and modelling creative and collaborative thinking that crosses disciplinary and organisational boundaries. Professor Rowan has championed for an inclusive workplace that genuinely values and supports equity and diversity, and upholds high standards of ethical behaviour and integrity.

Associate Professor Kym Runge, Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC)

Associate Professor Kym Runge has grown the Separation group at Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) over the last three years into a highly motivated, multi-skilled and diverse team that exemplifies the group's long term vision of creating a research hub that can comprehensively solve problems for the minerals industry. In this role, Associate Professor Runge has fostered strategic collaboration with industry, resulting in the establishment of two collaborative centres, while also actively engaging with the Centre of Excellence as a researcher and stream theme leader to support innovative thinking. She encourages her people to create an inclusive environment for idea sharing while maintaining a high standard of delivery.

Dr Bruce Smith, School of Veterinary Science

Dr Bruce Smith returned to the School of Veterinary Science in 2019 as Clinical Director of the UQ VETS Small Animal Hospital. In a short time, Dr Smith's commitment and passion to the hospital and team has seen the staff culture thrive and develop into a constructive workplace culture. At the core of this transformation is Dr Smith's respect and value of each and every team member. He actively supports and empowers individuals, advocates for the UQ VETS team and has aligned individuals and departments in a way that is moving the organisation forward and embracing the challenges facing us.

Professor Kevin Thomas, Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS)

Professor Kevin Thomas began as Director of the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) in 2017. He inherited a Centre that was lacking strong direction and cohesion, was isolated from the rest of the University, was financially challenged, and had a strained relationship with its core funder, Queensland Health. Through Professor Thomas' outstanding leadership all of these issues have been quickly and successfully addressed and the Centre has become spectacularly successful. Since Professor Thomas began, QAEHS has:

  • secured over $22 million in external funding
  • relocated to Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (PACE) and incorporated theme leaders from across five faculties
  • established excellent relationships with Queensland Health and a governance structure with strong external representation
  • become a world-leader in environmental health science, with productive staff in a harmonious work place

Professor Thomas represents the best of UQ values.

Professor Karen Thorpe, Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR)

Professor Karen Thorpe's exceptional leadership is evident within and beyond UQ. Starting in 2017 with a team of just five researchers, she has built an exceptional multidisciplinary team of 32. Professor Thorpe has successfully navigated her team's growth alongside a culture of respect, care and support with a dedication to building the next generation of exceptional developmental scientists. Her collective commitment to career development provides an important foundation for positive, strategic and thoughtful research success and impact. Across three years her team has delivered an income of over $6 million dollars, 60 publications, and impact in public policy alongside success in two Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence.

Dr Susannah Tye, Queensland Brain Institute (QBI)

Leading a relatively new lab group at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), Dr Susannah Tye demonstrates effective leadership both in managing her lab group as well as advocating her lab members for opportunities to branch out into diverse fields that crosses over with the field of interest at Dr Tye's lab. At group or individual lab meetings, Dr Tye is always seen with her warm smile asking how her lab members are doing no matter how tired or overworked her many roles have imposed on her. Her caring nature is one of the many attributes that draws her lab members' loyalty to the lab. Dr Tye is an effective lab leader in designating different roles and providing different expectations according to each of her lab member's traits. While customising projects for each lab member, she never fails to branch out to diverse fields such as medicine, engineering, or technology, while encouraging lab members to think outside of the box in aiming for research diversity and excellence.

Ms Jane van Kester, Information Technology Services

Jane is an exemplary leader at UQ, and is fully deserving of recognition from her peers for the outstanding work she does across the University. Responsible for running a large IT program that interfaces with nearly every part of the University, Jane demonstrates (on a daily basis) a range of leadership qualities, including the following:

  • She is cool under pressure, and always provides comfort and clarity to her team when the going gets tough
  • She is very approachable, personable and demonstrates a high degree of care for her team and peers
  • She goes the extra mile, always offering to help out on seemingly little things in order to make others feel supported
  • She both trusts and empowers her team to work independently, whilst at the same time making them feel incredibly supported and valued when they need it most
  • She always brings a smile and makes work fun! Her team love’s working for and with her, and hold her in high regard

Ms Stacey Vogel, School of Psychology

Stacey Vogel embodies every one of the UQ values and for this she is well known across the institution for her leadership. Stacey manages one of the largest schools in the University and consistently demonstrates her leadership capabilities through her extensive engagement with Faculty and University-wide initiatives. We are indebted to Stacey for her dedication to identifying a need and stepping up to find the solution. Furthermore, Stacey defines 'One UQ' by demonstrating a tireless commitment to sharing feedback, knowledge and resources. In sum, Stacey is a "go-to" leader at UQ and deserves recognition as such.

2020 ARC Centres of Excellence Bid Development Team

The 2020 Australian Research Council (ARC) Centres of Excellence Bid Development team successfully led multi-institutional collaborations over a two year bidding cycle to secure three of nine ARC Centres of Excellence. UQ was the only University to receive more than one Centre let alone achieving three from three shortlisted bids from an initial field of 93 expressions of interest nationwide. Dr Richard Kim from the Office of Sponsored Research co-ordinated the development of UQ's bids, and Directors (Professor Janeen Baxter, Professor Christine Beveridge, Professor David Craik), and their key operational staff, demonstrated exemplary leadership over the two year bid development cycle to achieve this unprecedented outcome. The team demonstrated sustained leadership as evidenced by the ability to think and work strategically, communicate and collaborate with influence, whilst valuing people and building strong cultures. The outcome and impact of these Centres will nurture our next generation of research leaders and reinforce UQ's reputation as a knowledge leader.

  • Professor Janeen Baxter
  • Professor Christine Beveridge
  • Professor Mark Cooper
  • Professor David Craik
  • Ms Robyn Craik
  • Ms Emma Earl
  • Dr Annie Kan
  • Dr Richard Kim
  • Ms Melissa McKain
  • Dr Lucy Mills

EAIT International Engagement Team

The Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT) International Engagement team, led by Angela Li, consistently demonstrates exceptional leadership. Over the last three years, the team has transformed dramatically, being rebuilt from the ground up. The team provides leadership excellence to the EAIT Faculty and Schools, as well as current and prospective students, by maintaining operational support with integrity and professionalism. New initiatives created by Angela and her team resulted in a 25.5% increase in EAIT international student commencements in just one year, and the growth in demand has continued apace. With this tremendous increase comes a significantly higher workload for the team and associated areas, but also an extraordinary benefit to the Faculty and UQ. Angela's team established new pathways to attract high quality international students to UQ, and enabled UQ students to complete part of their degree abroad. The team provided guidance and support to professional and academic staff to implement strategies.

  • Ms Melinda Knox
  • Ms Angela Li
  • Ms Kate Murphy
  • Ms Penny Qi
  • Ms Gladys Yong

Warwick Solar Farm Project Team

UQ is one of the largest energy users among Australasian universities. A successful energy management program has reduced electricity usage by almost 15% since its peak in 2014 and UQ has been an early leader in clean energy deployment. To build on these successes, the idea was born to commit to being 100% renewable by 2020. Rather than signing a contract, however, the goal was to build, own, and operate the $125 million Warwick Solar Farm - a first in the world for a University and a demonstration of UQ's commitment to walk the talk on climate action. The project has taken over three years from the original idea, with construction completed at the end of 2019 and the first energy due to be generated in early 2020. Once fully operational, the plant will reduce emissions by the equivalent of taking almost 60,000 cars off the road, and is forecast to deliver over $50 million in net energy cost savings over its life.

  • Mr Greg Conrick
  • Ms Danielle Esterhuysen
  • Mr Stephen Fleming
  • Ms Sarah Haskmann
  • Mr Andrew Wilson

Response to COVID-19

Winners

Ms Andrea Strachan, Student Affairs Division

Nomination 1:

The spread of COVID-19 has impacted thousands of UQ students. The full extent of impact is still unknown but is undoubtedly globally significant. Andrea Strachan directly assisted senior executive decision-making and action in UQ's sustained crisis response, and coordinated all communications and support for impacted students. Andrea established a Student Contact Centre overnight that, in successive days, evenings, and weekends between January and March 2020, provided responses to over 25,405 individual coronavirus enquiries (email, online, and telephone), ensured self-isolating accommodation, established hardship provisions (financial and physical), and support for the mental and emotional wellbeing of those impacted.

Nomination 2:

During the coronavirus pandemic, Andrea has worked intentionally and tirelessly including late nights and weekends to devise and implement innovative and practical ways to support both domestic and international students, ensuring they achieve the best possible UQ Student Experience despite extraordinary times. Her creative strategies to support international students enabled them to survive when they were cut off from financial support from home and work. Andrea's dedicated support of the Senior Management Team has been invaluable, as has her liaison with government, educational, private sector and community groups. She serves on the Vice-Chancellor’s and other UQ Crisis Management Groups and the QIET COVID-19 Response group. The best possible UQ student experience is Andrea's driving passion.

Nomination 3:

Andrea led (and leads) her teams to proactively encourage all students to engage with their curriculum and student experience, whether they are onshore or not. Student Services work during COVID-19 supports the teaching, learning and ultimately student success of all those who persevere with their studies. Andrea fosters a culture of collaboration with all members of the University, ensuring her teams are equipped with the knowledge and resources to individually achieve their goals and the goals of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)’s portfolio as a whole - all the while, 'keeping students at the heart of all we do'.

Professor James Ward, POCHE Centre for Indigenous Health & School of Public Health

Professor James Ward is a leader in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research and epidemiologist in infectious diseases. Recognising the risk of COVID-19 early for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities, he enacted and mobilised all he could to ensure a rapid and potent preparedness phase was enacted to protect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities nationally. He recognised what could happen if we weren't prepared, he wanted to avoid what subsequently is happening in Indigenous communities internationally such as those living in Navajo Nation (USA) or Brazil's Amazon Basin tribal groups. Having family members living in remote areas, who are vulnerable to the most severe outcomes of COVID-19, has driven James's desire to do all he could within his remit.

COVID-19 Data Analytics Team

The COVID-19 Data Analytics team embodied creativity and independence to anticipate and deliver on the information needs of the Senior Executive leading UQ's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The team worked innovatively across a range of systems and data sources to produce nuanced, relevant and timely information about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on UQ's international student enrolments. They exemplified the collaborative spirit of One UQ, and their work provided an evidence base to support effective student services, academic and pedagogical preparation, and executive decision-making in response to one of the most significant challenges experienced by the university sector.

  • Mr Sagar Bhindi
  • Mr Hayden Gill
  • Mr Manish Gupta
  • Mr Shashank Gururaj
  • Dr Clare Hourigan
  • Mr Lachlan Kuhn
  • Mr Berg Lloyd-Haig
  • Mr Juan Londono
  • Ms Sylvania Wong
  • Ms Belinda Woodhead

Commended

Associate Professor Stephen Anderson, School of Biomedical Sciences

Associate Professor Stephen Anderson has shown exceptional leadership in all aspects of the undergraduate teaching and learning program in the School of Biomedical Sciences by leading the teams of teaching staff in the School at all levels, including casual tutors through to Professors, through the progressive stages of the impact that COVID-19 had on our students and their learning activities and assessment. By acting in a manner that has been pre-emptive, innovative, and decisive but collegial, the outcomes for students in all Semester 1 courses were equitable and fair. Additional innovative changes have been possible in Semester 2 courses with a greater lead time, resulting in changes that will continue to enhance the engagement of and outcomes for our students in future years.

Mr Lachlan Fowler, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences

Lachlan's extra work and commitment producing high quality videos has contributed significantly to our students' learning experience and consequently prevented a significant loss of integrity due to the cancellation of on-campus practical sessions in Semester 1. One of the biggest challenges during our students' learning from home experience was a concern that their inability to participate in practicals and gain hands-on experience would significantly impact their education. With this in mind, Lochie collaborated with the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences (SAFS) colleagues and applied his video production skills (filming and editing) to produce high quality videos for our courses. He was highly sought after for his "outside normal work duties" to ensure the school was able to deliver virtual content to our students.

Dr Myat Kyaw-Tanner, Faculty of Science

The School of Veterinary Science delivers the Bachelor of Veterinary Science (Honours) and Bachelor of Veterinary Technology programs, both of which require the graduates to achieve Day 1 competency in skills and knowledge, which requires extensive hands on practical skills training and in-clinics work integrated learning. The success of these programs relies on the ability of the school to deliver these skills based, hands on, face-to-face learning activities which was significantly impacted due to COVID-19. Myat responded proactively, working with academics and other members of the school to provide a Risk management framework enabling the school to recommence these face-to-face activities in a controlled manner.

Dr Donna Parker, UQ Veterinary Medical Centre, School of Veterinary Science

Dr Parker has displayed significant contributions to UQ during the coronavirus pandemic through her flexibility and leadership in providing online teaching while maintaining a clinical service for pets. She led the restructure of the UQ Small Animal Hospital rotations to meet their clinical and teaching obligations while reducing the number of staff on campus. She established and led mental health initiatives for both students and staff during difficult times. In a difficult time for final year veterinary students, her actions have resulted in high levels of student satisfaction and awareness of mental health issues. At all times, her actions reflected UQ values in her pursuit of excellence, creative and independent thinking, support for our people and mutual respect for all.

Advancement team

As the coronavirus pandemic set in across the world, the UQ COVID-19 Vaccine development team realised that financial constraints were limiting their ability to breakdown technical and timeline barriers to the development of the vaccine. Professor Paul Young and his team identified the need to raise funds of over $20 million beyond the funding that had been provided by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Jennifer Karlson and her team did not waste a moment launching a worldwide campaign to raise the funds. They worked tirelessly and quickly raising millions of dollars from the BHP Foundation, the Paul Ramsay Foundation, A2 Milk, Newcrest, Aurizon and RACQ, to name a few. They also collaborated with and celebrated small gifts from school children, Mums and Dads which all made a difference when combined with government funding.

  • Ms Jennifer Karlson
  • Mr Evan Morgan
  • Ms Tara Turner

Enterprise Support Systems

The impact of COVID-19 resulted in changes to the University’s academic calendar, modes of course delivery and deadlines for student administrative processes to facilitate and support students' studies. These decisions had significant system impacts. The Enterprise Support Systems (EntSS) team delivered system changes to action these decisions within very short timeframes and in addition to completing the usual essential business operational support. This required cross unit cooperation and responsiveness.

  • Mr Digvijay Bhadu
  • Ms Julie Birch
  • Ms Anusha Dias
  • Ms Saba Ghouri
  • Mr Albert Lau
  • Mr Ravi Murukuti
  • Mr Alex Rohan
  • Mr Owen Van Itallie
  • Ms Toni Verschuer
  • Ms Suzanna Wong

HASS Faculty Learning Designer COVID Response Team

Chris Frost and Sophie Plunkett together formed a COVID-19 response teaching and learning hub that helped sustain the human and social dimension of Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) studies online. They developed and modified resources for HASS-specific teaching and learning needs across more than 40 diverse disciplines and worked collaboratively with academic and professional staff in steering broad-based course re-design, re-training and trouble-shooting such as modifying studio, laboratory and field work practicals. Innovations and development were simultaneously curated into the HASS Online 2020 blackboard site showcasing teaching and learning innovations, guides, good practice examples, and relevant links to UQ's broader resources.

  • Mr Christopher Frost
  • Ms Sophie Plunkett

SARS-CoV-2 Early Warning Surveillance Team

Together with Dr Warish Ahmed and colleagues from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), this team of UQ researchers developed an early warning surveillance system to track COVID-19 prevalence in the Australian community through tracing the presence of the coronavirus gene, SARS-CoV-2, in raw sewage. The team published the first Australian proof of concept study, successfully demonstrating the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the greater Brisbane community. Subsequent work adapted the approach to assess SARS-CoV-2 in cruise ship and plane wastewater. This new interdisciplinary team came together during the early first wave of the coronavirus pandemic to support national surveillance efforts. The team's outcomes are now contributing to regional programs to monitor, in conjunction with other testing strategies, the second wave of COVID-19 across the nation.

  • Dr Nicola Angel
  • Dr Phil Choi
  • Ms Jannette Edson
  • Professor Phil Hugenholtz
  • Professor Jochen Mueller
  • Ms Rose Nguyen
  • Dr Jake O'Brien
  • Professor Kevin Thomas
  • Dr Ben Tscharke
  • Mr Rory Verhagen

UQ Ventilator Design Hackathon

In April 2020, the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering ran a hackathon event that (virtually) brought together 200 engineering students to design component parts for an open-source, low-cost, simple ventilator that could serve COVID-19 patients if clinical ventilators were not available. The hackathon was a collaboration among UQ academics, technical workshop staff, students and mentors from the health sector. The Hackathon attracted media attention and a visit from the Queensland Minister for Health, Hon Dr Steven Miles, who commended the innovative ideas and solutions created by students. The students expressed appreciation for the opportunity to apply their engineering skills to a complex and authentic problem.

  • Associate Professor Saiied (Amin) Aminossadati
  • Professor Andrej Atrens
  • Dr Michael Bermingham
  • Mr David Cusack
  • Dr Andrew Dan
  • Mr Sam Grieve
  • Professor Hal Gurgenci
  • Dr Michael Heitzmann
  • Dr Hossain MD Shahriar
  • Dr Chris James
  • Mr Vince Kelly
  • Professor Peter Knights
  • Ms Kim Lamb
  • Mr Keith Lane
  • Mr Malcolm Marker
  • Professor Ross McAree
  • Professor Paul Meehan
  • Associate Professor Pauline Pounds
  • Dr Tyson Phillips
  • Mr Hugh Russell
  • Mr Nicolas Soro
  • Dr Tristan Vanyai
  • Professor Stephen Wilson

Nominated

Dr Chris Allan, Faculty of Medicine: Academy of Surgery

Dr Chris Allan has shown exceptional service in coordinating the delivery of the online Zoom tutorials as the course coordinator for Year three Surgery. He has worked extremely diligently to deliver this time sensitive program to schedule. He has embraced the challenges of the course as a result of the current health climate and delivered an excellent outcome with impressive student satisfaction levels. Dr Allan fosters a culture of collaboration and communication through engaging positively and collegially across key stakeholders to ensure critical buy-in to a range of initiatives designed to address issues with delivering an online teaching program during the COVID-19 restrictions. In doing so, he has delivered exemplary service to UQ and the student cohort.

Associate Professor Stephen Anderson, School of Biomedical Sciences

Associate Professor Stephen Anderson has shown exceptional leadership in all aspects of the undergraduate teaching and learning program in the School of Biomedical Sciences by leading the teams of teaching staff in the School at all levels, including casual tutors through to Professors, through the progressive stages of the impact that COVID-19 had on our students and their learning activities and assessment. By acting in a manner that has been pre-emptive, innovative, and decisive but collegial, the outcomes for students in all Semester 1 courses were equitable and fair. Additional innovative changes have been possible in Semester 2 courses with a greater lead time, resulting in changes that will continue to enhance the engagement of and outcomes for our students in future years.

Dr Guangdong Bai, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering

Dr Guangdong Bai is a lead investigator in research of combating coronavirus-themed cyber risks, in response to a growing number of malicious campaigns exploiting the coronavirus pandemic. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, he and his collaborators have employed cybersecurity expertise into systematic studies of the newly emerging COVID-19 themed online scams. His research revealed 195 confirmed scams that have led to US$330,000 in losses from 6,329 victims. His findings have understood and characterised this new cyber threat, and raised public awareness among Internet users in Australia and around the world. His research also has delivered well-labelled datasets to boost future research, and shed light on a new research area of combating cyber crimes related to public events.

Ms Kitty Cambie, UQ Library

As a relatively new employee of the University of Queensland, Kitty has become an indispensable member of the Library Workstation Support Team. Her commitment and attitude for getting in and getting the work down has been very much appreciated not only from within the Library Technology Service (LTS), but across the entire library. In particular, Kitty's excellent dedication and organisational skills meant that the Workstation Support team could effectively equip the UQ Centre with 175 computers for remote examinations in an extremely tight timeframe and with challenging personal safety concerns. Kitty was on-site in the height of the lockdown to reclaim deployed PCs for redeployment and went above and beyond in her preparation of said PCs.

Mr Jim Carmichael, Health, Safety and Wellness

As the Director of the Health, Safety and Wellness Division, Jim has been a critical member of the COVID response team. Beginning on the Australia day long weekend, Jim has demonstrated extemporary leadership within the Health, Safety and Wellness Division. Never stepping back from a challenge, putting his hand up and doing what needed to be done. Jim has leaned in and led his team.

Ms Cheryl Collins, School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences

Cheryl Collins is nominated for her outstanding response to assist students learning during the COVID-19 lockdown. She rapidly moved the current face-to-face clinic to a telehealth model enabling students to continue with learning communication and counselling skills despite being removed from their hospital placements. Cheryl's innovation provided both a service to students to relieve their anxiety about their studies being disrupted and also to the UQ community who were able to access dietetic services despite most health services being reduced. Cheryl's actions were above and beyond what would be expected of her as she continued to develop protocols and procedures for simulated practice, client-centred care and record keeping which enabled the clinic to rapidly transition to telehealth.

Dr Rosy Dobrijevic, UQ Health Care

Dr Rosy Dobrijevic played a vital role with the UQ's Incident Management team, providing crucial advice translating Queensland Health public health advice to inform UQ's COVID action plan. Rosy placed herself in the front-line of UQ's response, setting up a temporary COVID screening clinic at St Lucia, then personally donning Personal Protective Equipment to screen staff and students with COVID-19 symptoms, at a time of heightened anxiety at the start of the coronavirus pandemic when worldwide death rates were spiraling. Rosy also played a key role in establishing a COVID Respiratory Clinic at the Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (PACE), designing best-practice policies and procedures to ensure the safety of staff and patients, whilst delivering a vital service to the community. Rosy continues to provide expert medical advice to inform the Return to Campus Roadmap.

Mr Lachlan Fowler, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences

Lachlan's extra work and commitment producing high quality videos has contributed significantly to our students' learning experience and consequently prevented a significant loss of integrity due to the cancellation of on-campus practical sessions in Semester 1. One of the biggest challenges during our students' learning from home experience was a concern that their inability to participate in practicals and gain hands-on experience would significantly impact their education. With this in mind, Lochie collaborated with the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences (SAFS) colleagues and applied his video production skills (filming and editing) to produce high quality videos for our courses. He was highly sought after for his "outside normal work duties" to ensure the school was able to deliver virtual content to our students.

Associate Professor Paul Griffin, Mater Clinical Unit, School of Clinical Medicine

Associate Professor Paul Griffin has played a key role in COVID-19 vaccine research by leading both the Southern Hemisphere's first COVID-19 vaccine trial along with UQ's own candidate vaccine trials. He has taken a leading role in the national and international media in an effort to inform, educate and reassure the community during the coronavirus pandemic. Associate Professor Griffin has also contributed to the economic recovery of Queensland through his contribution to, and evaluation of COVIDSafe plans for many large businesses and industries and, as such, he has displayed exemplary leadership and modelled excellence during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Aparna Hebbani, School of Communication and Arts

Professor Hebbani has been nominated for her Excellence in Service, Innovation and Leadership. As unexpected challenges surfaced amidst the COVID-19 crisis, Professor Hebbani took no time in technologically advancing herself in order to acknowledge and come up with tailored solutions for the challenges that the student community of COMU7002 faced during these unusual times. Not only was she available online but she walked an extra mile to help students out in every way possible to ensure that they made the most of this coursework. The students all learnt something at the end of the day. Her optimism and her response to crisis truly reflects UQ's motto of 'Create change'.

Associate Professor Karyn Johnson, School of Biological Sciences

As Teaching and Learning Chair for the School of Biological Sciences, Karyn Johnson exhibited exceptional leadership during the coronavirus pandemic and was central to a smooth transition to online teaching. Though all members of our School stepped up during this difficult period, Karyn's leadership was evident throughout - she never let her team down and she was central to maintaining a calm and collected response across our programs. Karyn was responsive and quick to clarify new rules, policies and realities, she was kind and attentive to struggling teaching staff and provided rational considered advice on how to approach the many complex situations that arose out of the COVID-19 situation. She was a calm, collected, competent presence in a time of stress and uncertainty and truly shown as a leader.

Dr Myat Kyaw-Tanner, Faculty of Science

The School of Veterinary Science delivers the Bachelor of Veterinary Science (Honours) and Bachelor of Veterinary Technology programs, both of which require the graduates to achieve Day 1 competency in skills and knowledge, which requires extensive hands on practical skills training and in-clinics work integrated learning. The success of these programs relies on the ability of the school to deliver these skills based, hands on, face-to-face learning activities which was significantly impacted due to COVID-19. Myat responded proactively, working with academics and other members of the school to provide a Risk management framework enabling the school to recommence these face-to-face activities in a controlled manner.

Mr David Ley, Robotics Design Laboratory, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering

David Ley (also known as Kalt) pioneered a new style of filter mask that can be manufactured in a highly-automated way, using common tools available in makerspaces around the world. From concept development, to materials selection, to manufacturing processes, to experimentation, to trial testing and even giving samples to the Queensland Minister, David has been intimately involved in this project. His work led to a new style of low-cost mask, the "Koala Nose", that can be made for 30 cents per unit, with volumes exceeding 15,000 per week, just using Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology’s existing tools. He is not just making filter masks for COVID-19 responders, but changing the way we make filter masks.

Ms Lorna Macdonald, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering

Lorna ran DECO3850/DECO7385 Physical Computing & Interaction Design Studio, a course usually involving in-person teamwork to create physical technologies, and adapted it to run well in COVID-19 conditions. She created options for students to work in teams, or individually with support from other students working in a "theme team". The course resulted in the creation of multiple physical prototypes, which were shown off by the students at an online virtual demonstration evening which exceeded expectations for such a chaotic semester.

Associate Professor Liz Mackinlay, School of Education

Nomination 1:

Associate Professor Liz Mackinlay's Departing Radically from Academic Writing sessions hurtled UQ into international headlines during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak. An influx of HDR students into the group prompted Liz to conduct further online sessions for HDR students who were increasingly finding themselves disconnected and disenfranchised from their work spaces and peers. The new format dubbed the "Zoom, shut up and write" sessions were later investigated by Kimkong Heng and Daeul Jeong, who found a profound increase in student social and emotional well being, connectedness and productivity. Their article was published in the University World News; consequently circulated across the globe and gave rise to a renewed sense of purpose, place and belonging in uncertain times.

Nomination 2:

Associate Professor Liz Mackinlay has been nominated for her extraordinary efforts in creating an initiative for PhD candidates in response to COVID-19. For many months now, Liz has engaged students from across the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and beyond in writing our theses. On four mornings a week, from 8am to 10.30am, Liz holds a "DRAW Zoom Shut up and write" session. During these times, Liz encourages us to engage in discussion around theoretical concepts and methodological practices to communicate our study in a way that departs radically from academic writing. She models different ways to present findings in a way that is interesting to write and read. The demand for her outstanding initiative has been so great that it resulted in an online Departing Radically from Academic Writing (DRAW) conference. A truly exceptional achievement!

Nomination 3:

Associate Professor Liz Mackinlay responded to the coronavirus pandemic by serving her community with empathy and compassion and with unwavering commitment to HDR students and her colleagues. As the pandemic took hold, Liz conceptualised, organised and began a writing group and conference for Higher Degree Research students from across the Humanities faculty and beyond. 'DRAW, Zoom - shut up and write' allowed us to engage in guided and consistent writing in a safe, supportive and productive 'virtual' space. This space became a community that is now growing beyond borders. Through these initiatives, Liz inspires us to be vulnerable and brave, creating room for us to 'connect' whilst supporting each other to continue our research and our writing, despite the debilitating impact of the pandemic.

Associate Professor Barbara Maenhaut, School of Mathematics and Physics

Associate Professor Maenhaut has made a sustained, high-level contribution to the School, Faculty and University-level response to the COVID-19 crisis across a wide range of areas of the Teaching and Learning Portfolio as School Teaching and Learning Chair. Whilst acknowledging the significant efforts of many staff in the Teaching and Learning response to COVID-19, Associate Professor Maenhaut’s contribution stands out for its thoroughness, for the decisiveness and timeliness of her responses in a range of situations, for her demonstrated capacity to see problems and issues from others' perspectives, and for her leadership beyond her School across a range of Teaching and Learning Activities.

Dr Donna Parker, UQ Veterinary Medical Centre, School of Veterinary Science

Dr Parker has displayed significant contributions to UQ during the coronavirus pandemic through her flexibility and leadership in providing online teaching while maintaining a clinical service for pets. She led the restructure of the UQ Small Animal Hospital rotations to meet their clinical and teaching obligations while reducing the number of staff on campus. She established and led mental health initiatives for both students and staff during difficult times. In a difficult time for final year veterinary students, her actions have resulted in high levels of student satisfaction and awareness of mental health issues. At all times, her actions reflected UQ values in her pursuit of excellence, creative and independent thinking, support for our people and mutual respect for all.

Mr Athol Reid, Academic Services Division

COVID-19 required a rapid review of student administration priorities and delivery of initiatives to improve business processes and make significant changes within a short time frame, whilst also focusing on quality assurance. Athol's knowledge, experience and competencies in understanding rules and policies, and the interrelated nature of service provision and contact-points at the University, enabled him to work with stakeholders across the University to translate rules and policies into efficient, workable processes, creating benefit and business value. His dedication, innovation and creativity have raised the efficiency and productivity of the function enabling teams to maximise the time and energy they can devote to adding value to the students' experiences.

Dr Dion Scott, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

COVID-19 restrictions required innovative, comprehensive and enabling responses to ensure the School's essential activities were able to continue. Particularly effected were the operations of our internal clinics and planned face-to-face research activities. Dion synthesised unambiguous advice from a range of sources and developed detailed processes to ensure core activities could continue responsibly. Dion's work role became full-time Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) focussed for Semester 1 as well as taking on all operational site and facilities responsibilities due to other School staff working from home. Dion combined his leadership in the WHS area with his excellent understanding of the School's core activities, and very positive outcomes were achieved for coursework and HDR students, and for staff undertaking research.

Dr Marnee Shay, School of Education & Centre for Policy Futures

Within the current global situation, connection for Indigenous HDR students is more important than ever. While interpersonal connectivity is tested during self-isolation, the closure of university campuses has fostered innovation in the way Indigenous networks are formed and maintained. This innovation can be seen in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (UQ) Reading and Yarning Group, created and led by Dr Marnee Shay. The group comprises of First Nations peoples from Australia and a Maori participant located in Aotearoa (New Zealand), all at various stages of their candidature. The group fosters deep reflective conversations about our standpoints, our place and Indigenous peoples place within the Western academy, how to stay well and motivated, as well as sharing of literature.

Dr Tina Skinner, School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences

Dr Tina Skinner's course, which focuses on educating young exercise physiologists on the management of complex cardiometabolic conditions and various cancers, relies on the face-to-face interaction of students with patients as integral components of the teaching program. Dr Skinner transitioned this program to a safe, effective and educational online telehealth alternative; a seemingly insurmountable task during the coronavirus pandemic. What Dr Skinner was able to achieve in such a short space of time is truly a remarkable achievement, demonstrating industry leading innovation to not only provide her students with an exceptional learning environment but also to improve the health of the patients involved in the clinic during a time in which access to these vital services was severely limited

Ms Andrea Strachan, Student Affairs Division

Nomination 1:

The spread of COVID-19 has impacted thousands of UQ students. The full extent of impact is still unknown but is undoubtedly globally significant. Andrea Strachan directly assisted senior executive decision-making and action in UQ's sustained crisis response, and coordinated all communications and support for impacted students. Andrea established a Student Contact Centre overnight that, in successive days, evenings, and weekends between January and March 2020, provided responses to over 25,405 individual coronavirus enquiries (email, online, and telephone), ensured self-isolating accommodation, established hardship provisions (financial and physical), and support for the mental and emotional wellbeing of those impacted.

Nomination 2:

During the coronavirus pandemic, Andrea has worked intentionally and tirelessly including late nights and weekends to devise and implement innovative and practical ways to support both domestic and international students, ensuring they achieve the best possible UQ Student Experience despite extraordinary times. Her creative strategies to support international students enabled them to survive when they were cut off from financial support from home and work. Andrea's dedicated support of the Senior Management Team has been invaluable, as has her liaison with government, educational, private sector and community groups. She serves on the Vice-Chancellor’s and other UQ Crisis Management Groups and the QIET COVID-19 Response group. The best possible UQ student experience is Andrea's driving passion.

Nomination 3:

Andrea led (and leads) her teams to proactively encourage all students to engage with their curriculum and student experience, whether they are onshore or not. Student Services work during COVID-19 supports the teaching, learning and ultimately student success of all those who persevere with their studies. Andrea fosters a culture of collaboration with all members of the University, ensuring her teams are equipped with the knowledge and resources to individually achieve their goals and the goals of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)’s portfolio as a whole - all the while, 'keeping students at the heart of all we do'.

Mr Timothy Thomas, TC Beirne School of Law

During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Timothy Thomas worked tirelessly to deliver an exceptional learning experience to approximately 700 students in LAWS1100 Business Law. He successfully pioneered the use of online mid-semester examinations for the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law (BEL), leading to the development of a best practice manual by the BEL Education Team. Timothy seamlessly integrated Zoom and Blackboard discussion forums into the course and restructured lectures and tutorials to enhance student engagement. These efforts resulted in an overwhelmingly positive student response and better academic performance, exemplifying how future BEL courses might be coordinated in response to the ongoing pandemic.

Ms Jennie Trinder, Health, Safety and Wellness Division

Nomination 1:

Jennie Trinder's contribution to the UQ COVID-19 response is significant. Jennie has worked tirelessly with countless other organisational units on countless different COVID-19 issues. When the Director of the Health, Safety and Wellness (HSW) Division called together a handful of HSW staff on Tuesday 28 January; he asked Jennie to lead the group - the COVID-19 response group. Communicating brilliantly with a highly diverse group of stakeholders, Jennie's efforts should be celebrated and acknowledged.

Nomination 2:

The nominator for Jennie believes there are many individuals and teams across the University that have worked extremely hard throughout this challenging time and many people who deserve an award, but Jennie has particularly stood out. Not only has Jennie remained a strong, honest and compassionate leader but she has also taken the time to truly understand the breadth and importance of issues faced by staff right across UQ and has shown a huge dedication and commitment to addressing concerns and helping to reduce anxiety experienced by staff throughout this difficult period.

Dr John Tuffley, School of Clinical Medicine

Dr John Tuffley has shown exceptional service in delivering an online tutorial series to students who experienced challenges with their Orthopaedics clinical placements. He has worked extremely diligently to deliver this time sensitive program to schedule and has embraced the challenges of the course as a result of the current health climate and delivered an excellent outcome with impressive student satisfaction levels. Dr Tuffley has delivered exemplary service to UQ and the student cohort. Through fostering a culture of collaboration and communication by engaging positively and collegially across key stakeholders, he ensured critical buy-in to a range of initiatives designed to address issues with delivering an online teaching program during the COVID-19 restrictions.

Ms Stacey Vogel, School of Psychology

Stacey has shown outstanding and exemplary leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. Her open, clear and caring commitment to the whole team has kept the team afloat through this unprecedented time. The daily zoom check-ins that she instigated were the key to keeping the entire Professional Staff Team in touch, connected and sane. All the team supports this nomination as without this exceptional leadership we would not have come through this in the shape we have, a team that has felt supported and nurtured to achieve the outcomes that we have managed to achieve.

Professor James Ward, POCHE Centre for Indigenous Health & School of Public Health

Professor James Ward is a leader in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research and epidemiologist in infectious diseases. Recognising the risk of COVID-19 early for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities, he enacted and mobilised all he could to ensure a rapid and potent preparedness phase was enacted to protect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities nationally. He recognised what could happen if we weren't prepared, he wanted to avoid what subsequently is happening in Indigenous communities internationally such as those living in Navajo Nation (USA) or Brazil's Amazon Basin tribal groups. Having family members living in remote areas, who are vulnerable to the most severe outcomes of COVID-19, has driven James's desire to do all he could within his remit.

Ms Jade Williamson, Alumni and Community

Jade Williamson is nominated in recognition of her exceptional achievements securing and delivering aid to UQ's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students. Jade led the initiative to advance the COVID-19 UQ Indigenous Student Emergency Support Fund, which has secured $39,820 and supported 38 students in Semester 1 alone. Through 2020, Jade has additionally helped to increase overall advancement funding for Indigenous Australian peoples’ initiatives across UQ, with 2020 funds to date already surpassing the total received in 2016, 2017, and 2018 combined. Her efforts directly supported some of UQ's already vulnerable students who were further adversely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.

Dr Sonia Yuen, School of Clinical Medicine

Dr Sonia Yuen has shown exceptional service in delivering an online workshop to students who had their clinical placements cancelled. She has worked extremely diligently to deliver this time sensitive program to schedule and has embraced the challenges of the course as a result of the current health climate and delivered an excellent outcome with impressive student satisfaction levels. As the Year 4 Ophthalmology Academic Lead for Surgical Specialties, Dr Yuen fosters a culture of collaboration and communication through engaging positively to ensure critical buy-in to a range of initiatives designed to address issues with delivering an online teaching program during the COVID-19 restrictions. In doing so she has delivered exemplary service to UQ and the student cohort.

ACE Sequencing

The ACE Sequencing team supports microbial genomics at UQ, providing expert services in next generation sequencing technologies. In response to the 2020 SARS-Cov-2 global pandemic, the team pivoted within days to support development of wastewater surveillance studies being undertaken by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS). What began as a twitter conversation led to novel research that not only demonstrated the innovative capabilities of the team, but led to world-impactful research, including providing data for government level responses to monitoring for early outbreaks of SARS-Cov-2 and informing the WHO strategy on SARS-Cov-2 surveillance.

  • Ms Leanne Dierens
  • Ms Janette Edson
  • Dr Julian Zaugg

Advancement team

As the coronavirus pandemic set in across the world, the UQ COVID-19 Vaccine development team realised that financial constraints were limiting their ability to breakdown technical and timeline barriers to the development of the vaccine. Professor Paul Young and his team identified the need to raise funds of over $20 million beyond the funding that had been provided by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Jennifer Karlson and her team did not waste a moment launching a worldwide campaign to raise the funds. They worked tirelessly and quickly raising millions of dollars from the BHP Foundation, the Paul Ramsay Foundation, A2 Milk, Newcrest, Aurizon and RACQ, to name a few. They also collaborated with and celebrated small gifts from school children, Mums and Dads which all made a difference when combined with government funding.

  • Ms Jennifer Karlson
  • Mr Evan Morgan
  • Ms Tara Turner

AIBN Operations Team

The Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) Operations Team provided exemplary and highly responsive operational support during this time of uncertainty through the creation of initiatives that were adopted university-wide as well as regularly going above-and-beyond their regular duties. This lean team pulled together to support all the researchers in the building, including the vaccine work being undertaken by Professor Paul Young (School of Chemistry & Molecular Biosciences), Professor Trent Munro (AIBN) and Associate Professor Keith Chappell (School of Chemistry & Molecular Biosciences). This included support for media visits, COVID-related safety posters, positive mental health engagement initiatives and a general willingness to do whatever it took to support vital research.

  • Ms Bronwyn Adams
  • Ms Kahlia Bartley
  • Ms Margaret Bernard
  • Mr Colm Cahill
  • Mr Gary Carloss
  • Ms Celine Chaleat
  • Mr Thaisenn Chung
  • Mr Luke Eppell
  • Ms Emily Fraser
  • Dr Colette Godfrey
  • Ms Kristy Hume
  • Ms Erica Lin
  • Ms Sylvia Lindenstraus
  • Mr Luke Matthew
  • Dr Fiona McMillan
  • Ms Kseniia Novakovich
  • Dr Julie Osborne
  • Ms Anne-Marie Paroz
  • Ms Liisa Partanen
  • Ms Heather Pegg
  • Ms Siobhan Remy
  • Mr Bradley Ryan
  • Ms Penny Storey
  • Mr Paul Watson
  • Mr Jason White
  • Dr Lorine Wilkinson
  • Mr Jaleel Yusia

AWMC Operations Team

The operations team at the Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC) have continued to provide outstanding leadership and support to the whole team throughout the coronavirus pandemic. They had a clear view of what success looked like and they worked as one team to achieve it. They were agile and responsive to all challenges and always had the team members' interests and needs at the centre of their responses. Without this team, the AWMC would not have continued to achieve research excellence and partnership engagement to the same level.

  • Mr Chris Carney
  • Ms Vivienne Clayton
  • Mr Charles Eddy
  • Dr Sandra Hall
  • Ms Sharon James
  • Ms Nelly Juillet

Clinic Managers - School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

Work integrated learning is an accreditation requirement for students enrolled in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS), and COVID-19 restrictions placed this requirement at significant risk due to external placement cancellations. Within a two week period, the Clinic Management team converted all internally-offered clinics for students of SHRS to teledelivered clinics where the evidence base supported delivery via telerehabilitation and expanded services to balance the cancellations. This rapid transition required development of training materials & resources, large scale training of staff & students, and consultation with professional, legal & insurance advisers. The team supported 195 students (including those overseas) to continue clinical placement, and resulted in over a 240% increase in teledelivered services.

  • Ms Kelly Beak
  • Ms Lauren Jeffrey
  • Ms Maree Maloney
  • Ms Stephanie Morris
  • Ms Andrea Whitehead

COVID-19 Data Analytics Team

The COVID-19 Data Analytics team embodied creativity and independence to anticipate and deliver on the information needs of the Senior Executive leading UQ's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The team worked innovatively across a range of systems and data sources to produce nuanced, relevant and timely information about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on UQ's international student enrolments. They exemplified the collaborative spirit of One UQ, and their work provided an evidence base to support effective student services, academic and pedagogical preparation, and executive decision-making in response to one of the most significant challenges experienced by the university sector.

  • Mr Sagar Bhindi
  • Mr Hayden Gill
  • Mr Manish Gupta
  • Mr Shashank Gururaj
  • Dr Clare Hourigan
  • Mr Lachlan Kuhn
  • Mr Berg Lloyd-Haig
  • Mr Juan Londono
  • Ms Sylvania Wong
  • Ms Belinda Woodhead

COVID-19 Vaccine Support Team

The COVID-19 Vaccine Support team provided support and counsel in relation to the research, development and manufacture of the UQ developed COVID-19 vaccine. Noting that the manufacture of the vaccine was in an “extreme emergency”, given the global pandemic, there were various exceptional legal issues which the team successfully navigated to finalise the manufacturing agreement. The team were responsible for working with all parties to settle multiple agreements necessary for the extremely complex commercial arrangement. The team were responsible for ensuring the best interests of UQ, weighed against the global interests of the race for a cure against the global pandemic. They were nimble, responsive, completely available, providing counsel during the whole process.

  • Ms Jocelyn Aboud
  • Ms Daphne Drewes
  • Ms Lisa Kennedy
  • Ms Lucy Kenny
  • Mr Joe McLean
  • Ms Manjula Soysa
  • Ms Cristy Sun

COVID-19 Vaccine team

The COVID-19 vaccine team has carried out ground-breaking research work, the importance of which is difficult to overstate. Their work on fundamental vaccinology and vaccine development, will contribute to preservation of life, our recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and rebuilding of national economies. The team consists of individuals from several departments and institutes across the university. All of the team members have displayed extraordinary dedication; for weeks on end working extended hours. They have given of themselves well beyond what is normally expected. The work has been carried out under high pressure and demanding conditions, with the team physically divided and rotated to minimise contact, necessitating a higher work load for the individuals concerned.

  • Dr Alberto Amarilla Ortiz
  • Dr Selorm Avumegah
  • Dr Craig Belcher
  • Ms Summa Bibby
  • Associate Professor Keith Chappell
  • Ms Stacey Cheung
  • Ms Mallory Daleris
  • Dr Julie Dutton
  • Dr David Edwards
  • Dr Marianne Gillard
  • Mr Justin Goh 
  • Ms Ari Golbaz Hagh
  • Dr Jessica Harrison
  • Ms Christina Henderson
  • Ms Kym Hoger
  • Mr Ben Hughes
  • Ms Karen Hughes
  • Mr Ariel Isaacs
  • Dr Noushin Jaberolansar
  • Dr Martina Jones
  • Ms Lisa Kennedy
  • Ms Julia Lackenby
  • Mr Christopher McMillan
  • Dr Naphak Modhiran
  • Professor Trent Munro
  • Ms Eve Radunz
  • Mr Connor Scott
  • Dr Tamsin Terry
  • Dr Daniel Watterson
  • Dr Danushka Wijesundara
  • Professor Paul Young
  • Dr Andrew Young

DECO1100/DECO7110 Design Thinking Semester 1 2020 Teaching Team

The Design Thinking teaching team in Semester 1 2020 had an uphill battle even before COVID-19 was taken into consideration. The course coordinator, Dr Marie Boden, lecturer, Dr Jessica Korte, and most of the tutoring team were new to the course. Traditionally the course requires in-person individual and teamwork activities, including observations in public spaces, interviews with people from a target audience, and live testing of prototypes with people from a target audience. In Semester 1 2020, many of these activities had to be altered or removed due to the requirements of social distancing and online teaching. Despite this, the teaching team managed to run a successful course with a high pass rate and teamwork-like experiences.

  • Mr Kevin Anderson
  • Mr Alexander Balson
  • Dr Marie Boden
  • Mr Robert Hardgrove
  • Mr Trevor Hunter
  • Ms Priyanka Suresh Iyer
  • Mr Franklin Khristi
  • Mr Enrique Klein Garcia-Godos
  • Dr Jessica Korte
  • Ms Chuike Lee
  • Mr Samuel Morecroft
  • Ms Jasmine Noon
  • Ms Laura Pham
  • Mr Sicheng Yang

Domestic Admissions

Admissions is deeply invested in the student experience and have worked above and beyond to ensure positive outcomes and relationships with students, staff and the broader higher education sector during these unprecedented times. The undergraduate team developed and implemented processes and strategies to admit students in Semester 2, 2020 (18% increase in offers), and created opportunities for COVID-19 impacted students to defer new offers. The postgraduate team saw applications surge (by 38%), and assessed the Higher Education Relief Package (HERP) program applications which increased by 94% from Semester 2, 2019. Both teams worked tirelessly throughout this period and provided exceptional levels of customer service.

  • Ms Chenaya Bancroft-Davis
  • Ms Fiona Brandis-Dalton
  • Mr Greg Ferris
  • Mr Justin George
  • Mr Matt Hawkins
  • Ms Petrina Huang
  • Mr Clive McKeown
  • Ms Libby Schmidt
  • Ms Desi Vedia

DVCA Portfolio

A university thrives because of the ingenuity and efforts of its people. Faced with the disruption of COVID-19, many businesses have had to close their operations. Through a combined and concerted effort of portfolio staff and partners, the core business of teaching, assessment and student support was transitioned online within days. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) portfolio has been instrumental, providing exemplary service to meet unprecedented challenges and developing key solutions. The team displayed initiative, leadership and forged partnerships across the University to support the transition for our students. The change has been significant and their response has ensured UQ is well placed for a rapidly changing future where different business models will be required.

  • The whole DVCA Portfolio led by Professor Joanne Wright

EAIT - Faculty Workshop Group, COVID-19 Response

This nomination has been put forward in recognition of the exemplary performance of the Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT) Faculty Workshop Group (FWG) in support of UQ’s COVID-19 response. This involved supply of critical Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and clinical device design and fabrication. The nomination also supports the agile response for the delivery of teaching and research support functions to provide an uninterrupted continuity of on-campus workshop and technical services. The team’s actions demonstrate a commendable degree of service excellence to UQ, during a time of great social concern and uncertainty. The FWG has rallied under the response motto, 'ex primis per ultima' (First in, Last out).

  • Mr Sam Grieve
  • Mr Jason Herriot
  • Mr Robert Holler
  • Mr Vincent Kelly
  • Mr Malcolm Marker
  • Mr John Stafford
  • Mr Robert Stephan
  • Mr Grant Tayles

EAIT Marketing and Communications Team

The coronavirus pandemic presented multiple challenges for the Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT) Marketing and Communications team. Despite the unprecedented situation, the team has demonstrated their strong commitment to continue to drive student recruitment, meet stakeholder needs, and support central and Faculty marketing initiatives. In collaboration with key internal and external stakeholders, the team has shown great leadership in coordinating the EAIT component of the inaugural virtual UQ Open Day event and the creation of over 80 digital resources for the Faculty to support student recruitment. The team's dedication and commitment to go above and beyond to deliver a high standard of service during the coronavirus pandemic are highly appreciated and recognised by the Faculty.

  • Ms Negin Beaton
  • Ms Helen Burdon
  • Ms Claire Cresswell
  • Ms Kartikee Gupta
  • Mr Trent Leggatt
  • Ms Sophia McMeekin
  • Ms Gail Smith
  • Ms Genevieve Worrell

Engagement and Development Team

The Higher degree by research (HDR) Engagement & Development Team play a key role in developing and delivering targeted, HDR specific development activities for all HDR candidates across UQ. During the coronavirus pandemic, the ability for HDR candidates to connect with peers and engage in activities was impacted. The team quickly pivoted to deliver HDR workshops and seminars online, offer remote placements, deliver online career advising and peer connections, and reposition the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) as a virtual competition, not just for UQ but globally, including the Asia-Pacific final, hosted by UQ. The team have supported communications to HDR candidates and advisers sensitively and professionally to ensure UQ's HDR community have been kept well-informed and connected during this challenging time.

  • Ms Anneliese Berglind
  • Ms Margaret Giebels
  • Ms Amanda Lee
  • Dr Myra Lee
  • Dr Rachael Pitt
  • Mr Andrew Schnell
  • Ms Samantha Smith
  • Ms Kate Swanson
  • Ms Nilla Wen

Enterprise Support Systems

The impact of COVID-19 resulted in changes to the University’s academic calendar, modes of course delivery and deadlines for student administrative processes to facilitate and support students' studies. These decisions had significant system impacts. The Enterprise Support Systems (EntSS) team delivered system changes to action these decisions within very short timeframes and in addition to completing the usual essential business operational support. This required cross unit cooperation and responsiveness.

  • Mr Digvijay Bhadu
  • Ms Julie Birch
  • Ms Anusha Dias
  • Ms Saba Ghouri
  • Mr Albert Lau
  • Mr Ravi Murukuti
  • Mr Alex Rohan
  • Mr Owen Van Itallie
  • Ms Toni Verschuer
  • Ms Suzanna Wong

Faculty of Medicine Occupational Health & Safety Team

Over the last six months, the Faculty of Medicine’s Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) team has consistently demonstrated outstanding rapid, yet proportionate, responses to COVID-19 health and safety issues, combining excellent technical knowledge and creative problem-solving in ways that successfully promote UQ's values. Collectively, they provided critical support to executive, academic and professional staff alike, optimistically navigating the challenges during transitioning to working from home and in returning to campus, whilst also supporting those face-to-face teaching and research activities that continued on campus during the period of lockdown.

  • Ms Jenyl Brady
  • Mr Deon Knight
  • Dr Paul Lovelock
  • Mr Lawrie Myers
  • Ms Robyn Oram
  • Ms Michelle Wright

Global Strategy and Partnerships Team

The Global Strategy and Partnerships team of the Global Engagement & Entrepreneurship (GE&E) office has demonstrated exceptional service through providing support, advice and guidance to the UQ community throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The team coordinated a number of projects to promote UQ values, through a consistent and transparent approach, across all faculties. Additionally, their effort to drive UQ's Global Strategy forward, during such an unprecedented challenge, has been well recognised and appreciated by all stakeholders internally and externally.

  • Ms Ratu Sovi Arinta
  • Ms Victoria Bick
  • Ms Chi Thai Thi Cam
  • Ms Dinah Joesoef
  • Ms Georgia Mitchell
  • Ms Carolina Rasse
  • Ms Siyu Wang
  • Ms Sally Wilson

HaBS Faculty Teaching and Learning Office

The Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences (HaBS) Teaching and Learning (T&L) Office has provided exceptional service to ensure consistent teaching excellence in the rapid pivot, and sustained adjustment, to online teaching. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the Office led the Faculty teaching and learning response, empowering communities of academics to adapt, upskill, and improve their teaching practice. At both the strategic and operational level, the HaBS T&L Office have gone above and beyond to ensure that academics feel supported in their adjusted teaching practice, that UQ's academic rigour is maintained, and that the Faculty embraces creativity and innovation in its evolving approach to the new teaching and learning environment.

  • Mr Sam Harris
  • Ms Kim Henville
  • Ms Alecia James
  • Ms Katie Martell

HASS Faculty Learning Designer COVID Response Team

Chris Frost and Sophie Plunkett together formed a COVID-19 response teaching and learning hub that helped sustain the human and social dimension of Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) studies online. They developed and modified resources for HASS-specific teaching and learning needs across more than 40 diverse disciplines and worked collaboratively with academic and professional staff in steering broad-based course re-design, re-training and trouble-shooting such as modifying studio, laboratory and field work practicals. Innovations and development were simultaneously curated into the HASS Online 2020 blackboard site showcasing teaching and learning innovations, guides, good practice examples, and relevant links to UQ's broader resources.

  • Mr Christopher Frost
  • Ms Sophie Plunkett

Health, Safety and Wellness Pandemic Response Team

The Health, Safety and Wellness (HSW) Pandemic Response team was established at the end of January 2020 in response to growing health concerns of the spreading coronavirus infections. The team has been significantly involved in working with other parts of UQ and with the HSW network on providing information, advice, assistance and action in planning and managing the UQ health response to the coronavirus pandemic. The team's efforts have been primarily concentrated on working with other key parts of UQ to communicate methods for the primary health risk of virus transmission by promoting personal hygiene and other health messages; modifying physical and work environments to promote physical distancing; and modifying work processes to promote physical distancing. They have been an integral and essential part of the UQ effort.

  • Ms Jolene Cooper
  • Ms Viv Durant
  • Mr Brian Logan
  • Ms Narelle McCallum
  • Ms Carolyn Spiertz
  • Ms Alison Thomson
  • Ms Jennie Trinder

IMB Professional Executive Team

Dr Bruce Wyse and his team of professional staff were responsible for the Institute for Molecular Bioscience’s (IMB) organisational response to the COVID-19 crisis. Their work supported the physical and psychological health and welfare of the IMB's staff and students despite the flux of an unprecedented public health challenge. Consequently, this allowed the IMB to sustain the research activity that is the raison d'être of the Institute. They achieved this by:

  1. rapidly developing and implementing new policies and practices that translated public health requirements for the specific needs of the research institute
  2. instituting frequent and regular communication with staff that provided clarity of purpose
  3. exceptional commitment to solve extraordinary problems which effected individual members of the IMB community.
  • Ms Sue Allen
  • Mr Chris Barnett
  • Ms Donna Easton
  • Ms Kamyra Laurenson
  • Mr Tony Shepherd
  • Dr Bruce Wyse

International Admissions

The abrupt disruption of schools and institutions on a global scale during the COVID-19 crisis, presented International Admissions with an unprecedented challenge of continuing to admit students without standard documentation being available. With many countries in lockdown, we were not able to receive academic and English language documentation from institutions and English language testing centres. Adjustments were quickly made that maintained our high quality entry and compliance standards. The team incorporated significant adjustments in policy and procedures and at the same time were managing the highest volume of applications ever received. The exceptional end result was exceeding Semester 2 enrolment targets.

  • Ms Ana Amaral
  • Ms Elizabeth Altoft
  • Ms Irina Bapst
  • Mr Nicholas Bestevaar
  • Ms Rebekah Bevan
  • Ms Jessica Butler
  • Mr Michael Chiam
  • Mr Devis Chiu
  • Ms Sally Clarke
  • Mr Alastair Clout
  • Ms Emily Cramp
  • Ms Emily Duckett
  • Ms Shradha Dwivedi
  • Ms Ashleigh Fabila
  • Ms Lynn Freeman
  • Ms Liz Garrick
  • Mr Daniel Atto Godoy
  • Ms Felicity Gomez
  • Mr Chase Hardy
  • Mr Benjamin Healey
  • Ms Gracie Jin
  • Ms Irene Jo
  • Ms Belinda Kennedy
  • Ms Rachel Keogh
  • Ms Ping Khoo
  • Ms Ellie Kim
  • Ms Michelle Lawrence
  • Ms Shalina Narraidoo
  • Mr Simone Pengilly
  • Ms Anna Piatti
  • Ms Alexis Piper
  • Ms Kylie Quillinan
  • Ms Caroline Rhys-Jones
  • Ms Melissa Santiago
  • Ms Prem Lachuman Singh
  • Ms Jasmina Tihic
  • Ms Stacey Trimble
  • Mr Jack Vedia Tomato
  • Ms Lluani Williams
  • Ms Diane Yang
  • Ms Mia Zhang

ITS Service Automation team

The Information Technology Services (ITS) Service Automation team rapidly provided innovative technology solutions to enable the UQ community to securely and effectively work, teach and learn from anywhere. This highly resourceful and passionate team implemented multiple significant service enhancements, including: Rapidly scaling-up existing web-conferencing technology to support more than four times the usual number of connections, enabling staff and students to communicate, whilst maintaining cyber security standards; Implementing new call centre software so that staff could continue to provide essential services to the UQ community from home; Developing and implementing cost-effective solutions to provide students with access to course-specific lab-based software from home.

  • Mr Luke Angel
  • Mr Luke Lickfold
  • Mr Steve Luyten
  • Mr William Price
  • Mr Rees Sachse
  • Mr Matt Savage
  • Mr Justin Wilson
  • Mr Nathan Woodrow

Library Exam Support

Library Exam Support provided an outstanding and exceptional service in supporting students during the exams period. The team was critical to the successful implementation of online exams in Semester 1 2020. The service comprised of selected staff and volunteers from three Library teams, and remotely assisted students located on campus, at home and overseas. The service was generally operational from 7am-10pm, Monday-Sunday from 25 May and continued until the last exam on 22 August. They responded to over 1600 chat enquires, more than 600 phone calls, and in excess of 1800 emails during the period to date. 611 subjects had exams and 71,060 exams were sat. The team’s brief was to give technical assistance to students so that they could successfully sit their online exams - non-invigilated and invigilated.

  • Ms Eillyn Paz Alzualde
  • Ms Felicity Baker-Schaefer
  • Mr Kaushik Dasgupta
  • Mr Kofi Afari Dekyi
  • Mr Joseph Doyle
  • Mr Luke Gaiter
  • Mr Ryan Grosser
  • Mr Stéphane Guillou
  • Ms Christine Hale
  • Ms Suzanne Macrow
  • Mr David Miles
  • Mr Naminda Peiris
  • Ms Anita Petterson
  • Ms Sabrina Sikder
  • Ms Christina Steinke

Library Workstation Support

The Library Workstation support team were responsible for the logistics and infrastructure that made the Exam booths in UQ Centre possible, which supported students in successfully sitting their end of semester invigilated exams. They worked together, as a highly cohesive team, troubleshooting problems that occurred and managing the increased workload to ensure the students could use the booths as required for their examinations, while maintaining the highest level of safety during highly unusual circumstances. They were tasked with finding 175 computers and setting them up in the Centre, as well as designing the space to maintain social distancing. They were also involved in organising the booking form and managing bookings for students of these booths.

  • Mr Larry Auld
  • Mr Shamik Bhadra
  • Mr Rob Bowen
  • Ms Kitty Cambie
  • Mr David de Groot
  • Ms Mandy Fisher

Marketing Content Team

The Marketing Content team demonstrated exceptional leadership and service to stakeholders during COVID-19. They operated as a first-response information channel for students, sharing timely updates on social media, managing huge volumes of enquiries, and moderating our social communities - almost 24/7 for many weeks. Kathryn How demonstrated initiative and leadership by forming a virtual working group of community managers from across the organisation, and coordinated an aligned COVID-19 social communications strategy for all of UQ. The team also increased UQ's national social engagement ranking from #9 to #3 in one month, demonstrating their success in meeting our community's needs at this time.

  • Ms Lauren Geldard
  • Ms Kathryn How
  • Ms Amy Wallace

OME Teaching and Assessment Support ProctorU Team

This small team pioneered externally proctored examinations at UQ necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic. They were responsible for: running all end-of-semester MD program examinations (scheduled before the main University exams), developing comprehensive preparatory information for students, coordinating paper preparation, supporting students during exams, results processing and collating feedback to guide troubleshooting processes. Throughout this, they liaised closely with a wide range of stakeholders including senior colleagues within the Office of Medical Education (OME), the Faculty of Medicine, Central Examinations, ProctorU and Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITaLI). Timely reports informed requests for vendor improvements, and support for staff and students prior to the main university examinations. An extraordinary achievement.

  • Ms Janine Kerber
  • Ms Liss Cadenas Padron
  • Mr Juan Vargas Restrepo
  • Dr Pavla Simerska-Taylor
  • Ms Kate Sweeney
  • Ms Ashleigh Williamson

Parenting in a Pandemic Project Team

Recognising the stress parents and children were grappling with as the coronavirus pandemic began to unfold, the Parenting in a Pandemic team marshalled their expertise and connections to produce a multi-pronged COVID-19 Parenting Support Response. In collaboration with government, industry and community organisations, the UQ team developed and disseminated downloadable parenting resources, a 20-episode podcast series, 12-episode television series and evaluation study. This agile, responsive and efficient team rapidly produced high quality resources that were timely and relevant. The initiative embodied exemplary leadership, respected the diversity of the Australian population, and protected the mental health of UQ staff and the wider community through COVID-19.

  • Associate Professor Vanessa Cobham
  • Ms Belinda McDougall
  • Associate Professor Alina Morawska
  • Ms Kirsten O'Leary
  • Ms Georgina Ramin
  • Professor Matthew Sanders
  • Mr Daniel Seed
  • Mr Matthew Taylor
  • Associate Professor Karen Turner

PC3 Laboratory Facility

The new PC3 Laboratory Facility is a fast tracked project, initiated in March 2020, to design and construct a new PC3 laboratory facility prior to the existing UQ PC3 laboratories losing certification in November 2021. It will provide UQ with four new PC3 laboratories certified to comply with ISO 17025 & ISO 15189 standards, advancing research opportunities by enabling UQ with the capacity to perform viral (e.g. coronavirus) research and assays for various government organisations. The design program was half the duration required for a complex laboratory project, and the project started as staff began working from home and home schooling. Professor Paul Young simultaneously managed the stakeholder process as he led the process at UQ to successfully generate a COVID-19 vaccine for trial.

  • Ms Jasmyn Cridland
  • Dr Amanda Jones
  • Ms Melita Nadin
  • Professor Paul Young

PCCU Phase 2 Teaching Team

The Primary Care Clinical Unit (PCCU) delivers two courses (General Practice and Medicine in Society) to the phase 2 medical student cohort. Despite disruption to clinical placements and face-to-face learning activities during COVID-19, valued and meaningful learning experiences prevailed. Adjustments were implemented swiftly amidst rapidly evolving changes to clinical and teaching spaces, and innovative opportunities were developed to connect teachers, students and patients. A strong focus on supporting student emotional health and wellbeing ensured that positive student experiences prevailed, and students navigated this challenging time without their training or graduation compromised. Highly innovative approaches to support student learning and teaching were instrumental to this success.

  • Dr Dilum Ekanayake
  • Dr Alison Green
  • Dr Margaret Henderson
  • Dr Warren Jennings
  • Dr Michaela Kelly
  • Dr David King
  • Dr Rory Melville
  • Dr Ben Mitchell
  • Dr Joanne O'Reilly
  • Dr Neha Pandeya
  • Associate Professor Nancy Sturman
  • Dr Hayley Thomas
  • Dr Isaac Tranter

Pre-Clinic Olympics Team

The School of Dentistry implemented an initiative 'Pre-clinic Olympics' to enhance student experience and engagement in response to the restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic. At the peak of the pandemic, the dental sector in Australia was restricted and clinical placements for dentistry students ceased completely. The School implemented weekly online activities utilising hands-on skills central to the practice of dentistry. In these formative activities, students competed to be: the fastest in a rice dexterity obstacle course; the funniest at writing jokes backwards using a dental mirror; and demonstrating their strength in exercise tutorials. Students also mastered drawing, carving and sewing dental anatomy.

  • Ms Sarah Dahl
  • Ms Bobbie Jennings
  • Ms Nicole Stormon

QBI COVID Local Response Team

Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) established a COVID Local Response Team to support the research and operational activities of the Institute during the coronavirus pandemic. Team leaders, Ross Dixon and David Wheeldon, advised QBI Executive on a daily basis of immediate issues and proposed responses, as well as liaising with UQ Safety and Property and Facilities teams to ensure implementation of recommended University guidelines. Their clear direction, significant efforts and calm approach resulted in notable changes to best practice, such as researchers converted to using reusable respirators. Throughout the major lockdown period, QBI benefited from sound underpinning of research activities, well-managed supply, improved protection for researchers and successful cost management on vital health and safety consumables.

  • Ms Tania Brooks
  • Mr Ross Dixon
  • Mr Brandon Horne
  • Mr Ivan Leane
  • Mr Nick Nacsa
  • Mr Michael Perren
  • Ms Clare Seaman
  • Ms Caroline Thompson
  • Mr David Wheeldon

RDL-ARG Team - Project Face Mask

This nomination supports the recognition of the 'Robotics Design Lab - Aerial Robotics Group' (RDL-ARG) team, for work relating to the development of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) in response to COVID-19, achieving a novel prototype design for a face mask. The 'Koala nose' design is intended as an open source innovation for the protection of humanity, during a time of critical national and global PPE shortages.

  • Mr David Ley
  • Associate Professor Pauline Pounds

Recruitment Services Team, People Services Unit

Nominated a total of 10 times in the ‘Response to COVID-19’ category.

In March this year, UQ started to experience the very real consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. UQ Marketplace has been developed by the Recruitment Services Team within the People Services Unit, Human Resources, to assist in matching employees with available capacity to demand during COVID-19. During this period, it is clear that some areas of the University will increase in activity, as others will decrease. This initiative is designed to benefit both employees and the University by utilising our existing talent and ensuring critical work can continue during this period of unprecedented uncertainty. This has been an exceptional initiative creating and launching UQ Marketplace in response to COVID-19 in such a short amount of time.

  • Mr Nathan Anderson
  • Ms Teagan Brown
  • Mr Adam Campbell
  • Mr Kieran Coen
  • Mr Jon Conley
  • Ms Robyn de Vlugt
  • Ms Caylee-Jade Eve
  • Ms Khela Hutchinson
  • Ms Clare Lavidis
  • Ms Megan MacKenzie
  • Ms Aleisha O'Neill
  • Mr Brett Pelttari
  • Ms Kimberly Pullen
  • Mr Tyler Sanders
  • Ms Caitlin Savage
  • Ms Molly Scott
  • Ms Lauren Singleton
  • Mr Nick Stenson
  • Ms Paige Willemse

SAFS Academic Admin Team

The School of Agriculture and Food Sciences (SAFS) Academic Admin Team, led by Simone Fox, significantly contributed to the School’s successful transition and course delivery to online mode, through their hard work, attention to detail, pursuit of excellence and support of staff. The team was crucial in supporting academics through implementing course changes and meeting important deadlines, while providing prompt responses to urgent matters. They successfully fielded increased student enquiries, resulting from the significant changes to courses, and were positive and professional when assisting students and academics, always maintaining high standards of excellence. They were instrumental in navigating SAFS through this period, ensuring from an administrative perspective, that teaching and student experiences were not compromised.

  • Ms Lynda Barakin
  • Ms Keryn Eaton
  • Ms Simone Fox
  • Mr Daniel Hodkinson
  • Ms Kaelene Matts
  • Ms Marie-Louise Moore

SARS-CoV-2 Early Warning Surveillance Team

Together with Dr Warish Ahmed and colleagues from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), this team of UQ researchers developed an early warning surveillance system to track COVID-19 prevalence in the Australian community through tracing the presence of the coronavirus gene, SARS-CoV-2, in raw sewage. The team published the first Australian proof of concept study, successfully demonstrating the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the greater Brisbane community. Subsequent work adapted the approach to assess SARS-CoV-2 in cruise ship and plane wastewater. This new interdisciplinary team came together during the early first wave of the coronavirus pandemic to support national surveillance efforts. The team's outcomes are now contributing to regional programs to monitor, in conjunction with other testing strategies, the second wave of COVID-19 across the nation.

  • Dr Nicola Angel
  • Dr Phil Choi
  • Ms Jannette Edson
  • Professor Phil Hugenholtz
  • Professor Jochen Mueller
  • Ms Rose Nguyen
  • Dr Jake O'Brien
  • Professor Kevin Thomas
  • Dr Ben Tscharke
  • Mr Rory Verhagen

SBMS Core Research Facilities

Comprising four distinct laboratories, the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS) Core Research Facilities provide training and delivery of services to researchers and students in SBMS and more broadly at UQ. On average, over 100 research students are inducted and trained each year and about 50 active client groups serviced in SBMS and elsewhere. Undergraduate teaching is also supported. In 2020, the Core Research Facilities remained fully operational during the stage 3 shutdown, enabling students and essential researchers to continue with only minor disruption.  While many core facilities at UQ closed, the SBMS Core Research Facilities recorded 157 persons trained, 2559 equipment bookings, and $100K in revenue between 31 March and 13 July 2020.

  • Ms Brooke Cotter
  • Mr James Fraser
  • Dr Maria Kasherman
  • Ms Heather Middleton
  • Ms Erica Mu
  • Dr Jennifer Outhwaite
  • Dr Jake Russell
  • Dr Shaun Walters
  • Dr Darryl Whitehead

SBMS Medical Clinical Science Team

The COVID-19 shutdown created significant challenges in teaching nearly 1000 1st and 2nd year medical students, with a significant international cohort, in the 2020 MD Program. Courses are highly integrated and heavily reliant on face-to-face teaching in lectures, tutorials and practicals. Maintaining integration, while staff and students were decentralised, was achieved by moving the School’s diverse learning activities online. This team consisted of discipline leads and other academics, support and teaching design staff. The team developed and supported each other, the medical students, UQ itself, and the community through maintaining quality education of UQ’s future medical graduates. Not only were standards maintained, but such adaptations will enrich the School’s future curricula and teaching practice.

  • Dr Claire Aland
  • Mr Andrew Daddow
  • Mr Wes Fisk
  • Mr Scott Kershaw
  • Dr Mary-Louise Manchadi
  • Professor Mark Midwinter
  • Ms Robyn Oram
  • Dr Melissa Reichelt
  • Dr Sherry Wu
  • Dr Charlotte Young

School of Chemical Engineering Leadership team

The School of Chemical Engineering leadership team has been nominated due to their response to the COVID-19 crisis. The nominator noted that they could not imagine the pressure the new Head of School, Professor Justin Cooper-White, was under during this time - along with pressures of a new building and new Engineering curriculum being developed (and being a new Head of School weeks into the position). However, the response of Professor Cooper-White and his leadership team made the nominator proud to be a chemical engineer and UQ staff member. Effective teams were formed for teaching and research changes, a COVID response team was formed, and academics got together to put complex teaching and laboratories online. It was impressive.

  • Mr Stephen Coombs
  • Professor Justin Cooper-White
  • Ms Beverly Coulter
  • Associate Professor Kate O'Brien
  • Associate Professor Tom Rufford

SCMB Teaching and Learning Team

Professor Joanne Blanchfield and the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB) teaching administration provided outstanding leadership during the COVID crisis, giving clear and succinct direction to staff through regular, calm, informative, practical and consistent advice to both staff and students. They directed and helped implement rapid changes to the Electronic Course Profiles (ECPs) of all the SCMB first semester courses, seamlessly ensuring a completely consistent message throughout the school. They then proactively undertook training for online creation of examinations. Many of the successful strategies developed within the School were communicated to and adopted by other Science schools. Overall, this resulted in the enthusiastic cooperation of staff and an amazingly smooth and relatively stress-free transition of course delivery within SCMB for both staff and students.

  • Professor Joanne Blanchfield
  • Ms Tammie Fair
  • Ms Lucy Holyoak
  • Ms Prycilla Rehm

School of Education Placements Team

All of the School of Education’s students are required to complete practicum hours each year to meet graduation and accreditation standards, and earn a teacher registration upon successful completion of their programs. The coronavirus pandemic introduced many unknowns and additional hurdles into the placement landscape. Moving to online platforms, schools were reluctant (and often outright refusing) to host the School of Education’s students. Some schools that had previously accepted our students were cancelling the placements. The team navigated these stormy waters, calming schools, convincing principals hosting students would actually be a help and not a hindrance to their teachers, and meeting the needs of all the School of Education’s students.

  • Ms Tracey Connaughton
  • Ms Sally-Anne Crawford
  • Ms Jennifer Smith

Speech Pathology Clinical Education Leadership Team

Speech pathology students require clinical learning experiences to prepare them to be work ready, employable graduates. The delivery of a comprehensive clinical program in the face of the coronavirus pandemic presented a complex challenge for the Speech Pathology Clinical Education Leadership team, requiring flexibility, responsiveness and a dual focus upon cohort-level and individualised needs. The team secured student placements, developed sustainable alternative models of clinical education, and fostered placement relationships. Under normal circumstances, the team secures placements up to 12 months in advance: in response to COVID-19, this occurred in three months while maintaining strategic relationships and adhering to professional competency standards.

  • Mr Kelly Beak
  • Ms Daniella Cain
  • Ms Lucy Hunter
  • Ms Andrea Whitehead

Student Call Centre

The spread of COVID-19 in 2020 has impacted thousands of UQ students. The full extent of impact is still unknown but is undoubtedly globally significant. The Student Affairs Division, and particularly Student Services, played a critical role in coordinating enquiry management for, and response to, impacted students as well as the overall student cohort. Specifically, a Student Contact Centre was established overnight to manage incoming student enquiries, developing mechanisms to enable impacted students to make informed decisions regarding their commencement/return to UQ, and supporting the mental and emotional wellbeing of those impacted.

  • Ms Sophie Blatcher
  • Mr Sai Bojanapati
  • Ms Jessica Darveniza
  • Mr Matt Kanowski
  • Mr Jack Kelso-Ribbe
  • Ms Meghan Maguire
  • Ms Rheaa Manoharan
  • Ms Gillian Mills
  • Mr Michael Moran
  • Mr Michael Partington
  • Ms Theresa Pryor
  • Mr Braelan Renton
  • Ms Chloe Sawyer
  • Ms Bih Huey Soon
  • Ms Megan Stegeman
  • Ms Elodie Tischer

Student Counselling: Self-Compassion

Zarinah and Keren have championed the importance of self-compassion as integral to effectively navigating the stressors of university life for the past five years through a variety of interventions. Given the impact that COVID-19 continues to have on students’ existing support systems and strategies, they identified a need to increase accessibility to self-compassion knowledge for UQ students. The outcome was the development of Self-Compassion Chats, a student focused peer support group, facilitated via Zoom. These groups enabled students to connect and share the common human struggles caused and exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, and ways of dealing with the stress and isolation.

  • Ms Zarinah Hienekamp
  • Ms Keren Jones

Student Fees

The Student Fees team responded to the decision to introduce the COVID-19 Offshore Online Study Tuition Fee Rebate and to remove the previously applied indexation for international students' tuition fees in 2021 with openness, agility, collegiality, empathy, efficiency and good humour at a very difficult time, given the team was experiencing an inordinately high, unprecedented workload due to the impacts of COVID-19. Given the importance of these initiatives for international students, who have been most severely impacted, the team worked hard to develop processes, adapt the approach based on stakeholder feedback, and complete this additional manual work in a timely and efficient manner to the satisfaction of all stakeholders, while maintaining business continuity.

  • Ms Neha Aggarwal
  • Mr Chris Anstee
  • Mr David Ayre
  • Ms Narelle Larney
  • Ms Jane Lavers
  • Mr Peter Lowther
  • Ms Bih Huey Soon
  • Mr Caleb Wong

Student Recruitment Australia (SRA) & Future Student Contact Centre (FSCC)

Student Recruitment Australia (SRA) & Future Student Contact Centre (FSCC) made an outstanding contribution toward meeting the University's recruitment targets and exceeded all expectations during these challenging times. Unable to travel and engage Australian-based students face-to-face due to COVID-19 restrictions, SRA and FSCC sought to provide future students with an all-in-one communications platform to facilitate meaningful connections with UQ staff and current students. The implementation of The Access Platform (TAP) helped promote and nurture those relationships while proactively conveying the message that UQ is ready to talk, no matter the circumstances students are in. The future student experience improved exponentially as a result and brought UQ staff and students closer together.

  • Ms Linda Edwards
  • Ms Wanwan Guo
  • Ms Angela Huang
  • Mr Shane Jackson
  • Mr Sebastion Marx
  • Ms Emma O'Mahony
  • Ms Jessica O'Reilly
  • Ms Rebecca Parry
  • Ms Monique Pountney
  • Ms Bronte Thompson
  • Mr Tony Tong
  • Mr Jayden Weidemann

Student Services, Service Support Officer team

The Student Services – Service Support Officer (SSO) team are at the forefront of multiple UQ initiatives and programs to support COVID-19 impacted students, including but not limited to: transformative counselling, learning support, welfare and other services online, accommodation support and relocation, Financial Hardship Assistance and the Quarantine Package. This team embodies the UQ values of pursuit of excellence and supporting our people. Their work has contributed to the retention of enrolments and an increase in Semester 2 enrolments due to the support offered to our international cohort. The SSO team has demonstrated resilience, flexibility and professionalism, exceeding role expectations. Their work, with a focus on COVID-19 support, is more critical to our students now than ever before.

  • Mr David Andersen
  • Ms Nicole Bowden
  • Ms Kal Dawson
  • Ms Margaret Dunn
  • Ms Elizabeth Gorga
  • Ms Rebecca Lindley
  • Ms Mallory Mao
  • Mrs Ruth Morahan
  • Ms Julie Peries
  • Ms Aneela Swanson
  • Ms Clare Tarlington

SVS student administration team

The School of Veterinary Science (SVS) student administration team has excelled in managing to get two highly practical programs (Bachelor of Veterinary Science (Honours) and Bachelor of Veterinary Technology) online and then provide invaluable support for online assessment, while maintaining the high standards required for internationally-accredited programs. An exceptional outcome was to then manage the final years of both programs to commence their entirely practical (Work-integrated Learning) years involving internal and external placement providers, while negotiating all the guidelines of health and safety in the COVID-19 environment. Student stress has been minimised since they can finish the compulsory placements safely and graduate with high quality learning outcomes.

  • Ms Christine Cowell
  • Ms Rebecca Hulett
  • Ms Sally Humphreys
  • Ms Jodie Kowaltzke
  • Ms Karen Mundt
  • Ms Rachel O'Donnell
  • Ms Courtney Smart

TetraQ Immunoassay Team

The TetraQ Immunoassay team is providing bioanalytical testing services critical to support UQ's development of a fast response vaccine for COVID-19. Analytical methods to detect vaccine antibody responses have been established and validated to support both pre-clinical safety studies and first-in-human clinical trials. Testing of pre-trial screening samples from over 160 clinical trial participants was fast tracked to determine eligibility and analysis is ongoing to monitor antibody responses after administration of the vaccine. The team has shown exceptional commitment and flexibility to undertake and complete these studies through the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown period.

  • Mr Matthew Barter
  • Ms Rachel Franzmann
  • Dr Mai Tran
  • Ms Helen Won
  • Dr Chin Lin Wong

TetraQ Toxicology Services Team

The TetraQ Toxicology Services team has supported UQ's development of a fast response vaccine for COVID-19. The team has completed two quality assured safety studies in rats to confirm the safety profile of this vaccine and support its progression into a first in-human clinical trial. The first of these two studies was conducted under challenging conditions during the COVID-19 lockdown period in April-May 2020 and the second study from June-August 2020. These two studies required extensive team work and attention to detail to ensure the studies were completed according to international regulatory standards and maintain the highest standards of animal welfare. The successful completion of these studies was critical to the progression of the vaccine candidate into clinical development.

  • Dr Drew Brockman
  • Ms Ashleigh Carnegie-Clark
  • Dr Cora Lau
  • Mr Md. Shafiullah Shajib
  • Ms Christa Singh
  • Ms Kelly Sweeney
  • Ms Kristen Swindlehurst

The Animal Welfare Collaborative (TAWC)

The Animal Welfare Collaborative (TAWC) is a UQ initiative that facilitates positive change in the welfare of animals. During the coronavirus pandemic, TAWC was instrumental in assembling a national vehicle for sectors to exchange critical information on animal welfare and coordinate responses, called the COVID-19 Animal Welfare Response Reference Group (COVAWRRG). The COVAWRRG has convened 16 times, and over 34 stakeholder organisations participate, including State and Federal governments, multiple animal industries (e.g. livestock, zoos, wildlife, racing, pets), and animal protection organisations. TAWC's rapid assembly and ongoing facilitation of the COVAWRRG constitutes a significant and outstanding achievement in safeguarding animal welfare.

  • Dr Jill Fernandes
  • Professor Alan Tilbrook
  • Ms Bronwyn Venus

The Virtual K'Gari Field Trip

Facing the prospect of a field course being cancelled due to the uncertainty and lack of clear direction on how to proceed, the teaching team in Field Ecology (BIOL2015) opted to develop a virtual field trip experience and delay the decision on the date of the actual trip, after consultation with students. In the end, restrictions eased and the trip went ahead but 14 students had either returned home or could not travel due to health concerns. The team ran both trips, developing a virtual field experience for students not able to attend as well as the actual trip. The team went above and beyond any requirements and put student learning and experience first in the face of a very COVID-19 disrupted semester.

  • Mr Prajwal Bhattaram
  • Ms Lois Eden
  • Dr Wilma Hart
  • Mr Jack Hill
  • Professor Catherine Lovelock
  • Ms Sheree Osborne
  • Mr Anthony O'Toole
  • Professor Susanne Schmidt
  • Professor Myron (Meron) Zalucki

Timetable Services Semester 2 Timetable Production

The coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on delivery of teaching and timetabling of class activities. Social distancing restrictions resulted in a loss of 70% of on-campus physical teaching space, and courses being offered in multiple instruction modes for on-campus student attendance and online delivery of class activities. The central timetabling team achieved the impossible in producing a Semester 2 academic timetable in a timeframe that was extremely ambitious to the point of being an impossibility. But against all odds, and due specifically to the extraordinary effort and commitment by the team, a Semester 2 class timetable was released to students by the specified date.

  • Ms Evelyn George
  • Ms Marcia Hodder
  • Ms Rachel Lloyd
  • Ms Jodi van der Gevel
  • Ms Solene Vernier

'TLC4' - Biomedical Science Teaching & Learning Leaders

As leaders of Teaching and Learning (T&L) in Biomedical Science, the TLC4 responded rapidly to the restrictions imposed by COVID-19. They created disciplinary clusters of academics to share expertise and learning materials. This supported the School of Biomedical Science’s academics to create effective online learning environments, ensuring the School’s students still had high quality learning experiences. The TLC4 engaged with the School’s academics, drawing on their experiences and expertise to create resources to feed-forward to those facing similar challenges in Semester 2. By fostering an open, honest dialogue about the challenges involved, they created a positive, collaborative environment in which staff felt supported and valued, and students could thrive.

  • Associate Professor Stephen Anderson
  • Dr Kay Colthorpe
  • Associate Professor Kylie Tucker
  • Dr Charlotte Young

Together Apart: The Psychology of COVID-19

COVID-19 is the largest health emergency of our generation. And yet, unless or until a vaccine is developed, our ability to control infection depends on social and behavioural changes and hence upon human psychology. The nominated team includes researchers and professional staff in the Social Identity and Groups Network (SIGN) research group. The team has engaged in a broad range of impactful activities (i.e., publications, international research, consultation, intervention, teaching and media engagement) which show how psychological theory can help us better understand, and respond to COVID-19. In particular, this research shows how social identity processes are central to processes of social influence and behaviour change that are key to effective management of the coronavirus pandemic.

  • Ms Belen Alvarez Werth
  • Dr Sarah Bentley
  • Dr Charlie Crimston
  • Dr Tegan Cruwys
  • Professor Alexander Haslam
  • Professor Catherine Haslam
  • Professor Matthew Hornsey
  • Professor Jolanda Jetten
  • Ms Christine McCoy
  • Dr Frank Mols
  • Dr Hema Preya Selvanathan
  • Dr Niklas Steffens
  • Ms Porntida Tanjitpiyanond
  • Dr Zhechen Wang
  • Mr Susilo Wibisono

UQ Art Museum

The Art Museum is a flagship UQ arts and learning space. Due to increasing concerns about COVID-19, the museum closed to the broader public in March, remaining open for research and curriculum purposes only. The team’s response to the closure was rapid, and outstanding. The team recognised the importance of continued, high quality service delivery to the many UQ courses with whom they collaborate and who rely on them. It was imperative to keep producing exceptional creative and learning programs - foregrounded by the importance of keeping culture, community and discussion alive during this time for the well-being of UQ communities. The team acquired new skills to create innovative online programming. This resulted in deep audience engagement and large audiences. It far surpassed expectations of team performance.

  • Mr Nick Ashby
  • Ms Isabella Baker
  • Ms Anna Briers
  • Ms Amelia Brown
  • Ms Riva Charles
  • Ms Emma Gardner
  • Ms Nicola Garrett
  • Dr Campbell Gray
  • Ms Danielle Harvey
  • Ms Angela Koulouris
  • Ms Zali Matthews
  • Ms Melanie Moore
  • Ms Beth Porter
  • Ms Peta Rake
  • Ms Effie Skoufa-Klesnik
  • Ms Sonia Uranishi
  • Mr Brent Wilson

UQ Blackboard Working Group

UQ's Blackboard working group worked long hours to rapidly scale-up existing technology to enable all students to learn from home. The Blackboard platform experienced significant additional load due to UQ's shift to online learning, with usage rates in excess of four times that of Semester 1, 2019. The group, with collaboration from teams across UQ, responded quickly and implemented a series of technology enhancements to Blackboard. The new solutions enabled students to successfully engage with their lecturers and continue to learn from home, and also established a platform for the University to offer online exams in a manner consistent with UQ's reputation for academic integrity.

  • Mr Greg Eaton
  • Mr Steve Englart
  • Mr Beau Henderson
  • Mr Michael Hoare
  • Mr Aaron Howell
  • Mr Beau Mason
  • Mr Steven McIntyre
  • Mr Stephen Spence
  • Mr Brian Sullivan

UQ COVID-19 Newsroom

In a ten day span at the beginning of Semester 1, 2020, all of the big mainstream newsrooms across Brisbane, Queensland, and Australia closed their doors to journalism interns. With 16 of the 23 students enrolled in JOUR3801 "Journalism Internships" set to graduate at the end of Semester 1, 2020, having students defer their studies to later in the year was not a realistic option. In response, JOUR3801 course coordinator, Dr Richard Murray, teamed up with the School of Communication and Arts JACDigital Coordinator, Donald Johannessen, to create The UQ COVID-19 Newsroom under the banner "The untold stories of COVID-19".

  • Mr Donald Johannessen
  • Dr Richard Murray

UQ Drama: Pandemic Performance

Liveness is often considered the pre-condition for theatre, in that performers and spectators must be co-present for the duration of the performance. In the coronavirus pandemic in which face-to-face contact has been curtailed, theatre has had to adapt to survive. UQ Drama adopted an innovative, program-wide approach to deliver live performance assessments and create an exceptional student experience. Enhanced critical skills in creativity, problem-solving and independent thinking will allow UQ Drama graduates to thrive in the post-pandemic theatre industry. Students developed a heightened awareness of how creative collaboration can create cultural responses to crisis. UQ Drama maximised the potential of physically distanced learning to strengthen their focus on work-integrated learning and employability in a changing world.

  • Dr Stephen Carleton
  • Dr Bernadette Cochrane
  • Mr Stuart Cochrane
  • Dr Chris Hay
  • Mr Paul Smith

UQ Open Day 2020 CX Working Group

The Open Day CX Working Group demonstrated exceptional collaboration, innovation and consumer insight in responding to the challenge of COVID-19 restrictions to deliver 2020 UQ Open Day Online. They worked across disciplines to design, procure and implement a new digital platform in under two and half months, while also engaging more than 1000 staff and student ambassadors with grassroots engagement and training. The pivot to deliver UQ's biggest recruitment event online has resulted in a 38% increase in new leads year on year (YoY), a significant boost for UQ recruitment efforts in a challenging COVID-impacted economy.

  • Ms Laura Atkinson
  • Ms Leigh Brewster
  • Ms Amber Dean
  • Ms Jess Glass
  • Ms Jody Hart
  • Ms Kathryn How
  • Ms Jen Lui
  • Ms Bianca McCracken
  • Ms Emily MacDonald
  • Ms Claire Wilson
  • Ms Ashleigh Young

UQ Ventilator Design Hackathon

In April 2020, the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering ran a hackathon event that (virtually) brought together 200 engineering students to design component parts for an open-source, low-cost, simple ventilator that could serve COVID-19 patients if clinical ventilators were not available. The hackathon was a collaboration among UQ academics, technical workshop staff, students and mentors from the health sector. The Hackathon attracted media attention and a visit from the Queensland Minister for Health, Hon Dr Steven Miles, who commended the innovative ideas and solutions created by students. The students expressed appreciation for the opportunity to apply their engineering skills to a complex and authentic problem.

  • Associate Professor Saiied (Amin) Aminossadati
  • Professor Andrej Atrens
  • Dr Michael Bermingham
  • Mr David Cusack
  • Dr Andrew Dan
  • Mr Sam Grieve
  • Professor Hal Gurgenci
  • Dr Michael Heitzmann
  • Dr Hossain MD Shahriar
  • Dr Chris James
  • Mr Vince Kelly
  • Professor Peter Knights
  • Ms Kim Lamb
  • Mr Keith Lane
  • Mr Malcolm Marker
  • Professor Ross McAree
  • Professor Paul Meehan
  • Associate Professor Pauline Pounds
  • Dr Tyson Phillips
  • Mr Hugh Russell
  • Mr Nicolas Soro
  • Dr Tristan Vanyai
  • Professor Stephen Wilson

UQ VETS Veterinary Teaching Hospitals

COVID-19 has created testing times. In the UQ Veterinary Teaching Hospitals (VTHs), the team has collectively met this unprecedented challenge with innovative and creative change. The VTHs provide essential services to the wider community and have continued to provide veterinary care to the broader community under intense pressure. A large portion of the final year veterinary and veterinary technology training occurs as work integrated learning within the VTHs. In an extraordinary effort this teaching was shifted in the course of a fortnight to online interactive often live piggybacking of students via zoom into the clinical setting of the VTHs. This was maintained for 12 weeks and now with students back in the VTHs the positive effect of the online experience is obvious in the students.

  • Associate Professor Benjamin Ahern
  • Dr Malcolm Heath
  • Dr Bruce Smith
  • Dr Ben Wood

UQBS Student Administration Team

The UQ Business School (UQBS) Student Administration Team have continued to provide an exceptional high level of customer service whilst being efficient and adaptable throughout the challenges faced during COVID-19. The team collaboratively shared the increased volume in workload to ensure deadlines and key deliverables were met. For example, as compared to Semester 1 of last year, the team has managed 14,230 CRM enquiries (+16% total, including +40% timetabling and +107% course sign-on queries), 379 visa extensions (+254%), 284 misconducts (+137%), and assessment extensions (+307%). The team also ensured that key priorities for Academic Program Reviews (APRs), Program Architecture 2 (PA2) and school workload allocations were met. Their teamwork, collaboration, and commitment to supporting the School, staff, students and the wider UQ community has been outstanding.

  • Mr Cameron Bell
  • Ms Chandrika Das
  • Ms Michelle Goward
  • Ms Alex Hall
  • Ms Jacqui McGoon
  • Ms Karen Morgan
  • Mr Iain Munro
  • Mr Buddy Nuku
  • Ms Elaine Peng
  • Ms Fiona Porter
  • Ms Ella Rodda
  • Ms Bronwyn Webb
  • Ms Allanah Yu

UQ-Ochsner Medical program

Since 2009, UQ and Ochsner Health have recruited medical students from across the United States to study half of their degree in Brisbane and half in New Orleans. From January 2020, the traditional model of working with a third-party 'agent' changed. Plans for extensive travel and recruitment of a New Orleans based team were thwarted by COVID-19. With no applications in the pipeline and relatively low brand awareness, a new way of recruiting students was required. An eclectic team of staff came together to implement a unique international recruitment model that has resulted in a record number of applications.

  • Ms Keira Anderson
  • Professor Stuart Carney
  • Ms Lisa Casey
  • Ms Monique Chang
  • Ms Shalon Hilton-Sinclair
  • Ms Marni Jacoby
  • Mr Justin Laing
  • Mr Brian Mallon
  • Ms Cecile McGuire
  • Mr Scott Peters
  • Ms Stacey Porter
  • Ms Belinda Ryan
  • Ms Nicole Shepherd
  • Mr Carl Tholen
  • Dr Tamika Webb-Detiege

Variation of Hours Development team

COVID-19 presented a significant risk to UQ Biological Resources (UQBR) operational continuity. The following teams worked together to ensure a 7-day variation of hours could be implemented quickly and effectively:

HR Advisory: Bringing everyone together to achieve an effective outcome. This was accelerated with the team's understanding of UQBR's unique operational requirements.

HR Workplace Relations: Supporting effective dialogue with the Union and advice against the EBA.

HR Employee Services: updating the variation approvals into the UQ system.

HR Payroll: processed all entries associated with the multiple variations.

ITS HR System Analysts: arranging effective solutions to quickly and effectively update key information that was not consistent with the platforms data entry process.

  • Mr Richard Bannister
  • Ms Marey Christou
  • Ms Fiona Davis
  • Ms Renee Garner
  • Ms Maggie Hibbs
  • Ms Jade Pomroy
  • Ms Prue Roberts
  • Ms Melissa Rockingham
  • Ms Claudia Simpson
  • Mr William Suhaidir

Ventures - Entrepreneurship at UQ

In March 2020, the Ventures team rapidly pivoted to delivering all the entrepreneurship programs online without any interruptions or any student presence on campus during an unprecedented period of change. The team brought a clear vision and proactive leadership style to continue the entrepreneurship activities across UQ with minimal disruption. Their resilience in navigating change; aptitude for re-skilling, designing and applying innovative ways to deliver the core Ventures programs; and their imperturbable commitment to a high-quality service focus have provided a unique and inspiring example to program delivery at UQ.

  • Ms Kylie Cooper
  • Ms Emily de la Peña
  • Mr Nimrod Klayman
  • Ms Cayetana Martinez Ramos
  • Mr Tomas Piccinini

Workplace Relations, Policy and Mental Health

Since the declaration of the coronavirus pandemic, the HR staff of the Workplace Relations, Policy and Mental Health team has proactively developed a wide gamut of resources and processes to support University staff and families. The team has shown exemplary leadership and initiative in advice, guidance and positioning of UQ in its responses to COVID-19 as it continues to effect working lives, wellbeing and mental health. Through the team’s efforts, UQ has supported staff and their families and ensured timely, consistent and equitable practices and interventions. UQ has led the sector in terms of responses to day-to-day issues.

  • Ms Patricia Baird
  • Mr Richard Bannister
  • Ms Cynthia Copley
  • Ms Susie Entwistle
  • Ms Sarah Helfer
  • Mr Anthony Lennon
  • Ms Nicole Perry
  • Dr Kate Smith
  • Ms Sharon Todhunter