Congratulations to winners of recent Research Awards
Congratulations to the winners of the Australasian Research Management Society (ARMS) 2013 Awards for Excellence in Research Management/Administrative Practice.
These awards recognise the outstanding contributions by an individual or team that have enhanced the profession of research management and administration.
Two University of Newcastle nominations for the 2013 ARMS Awards for Excellence were successful in the following categories: ‘working smarter’ and ‘providing quality service’.
Congratulations to Dr Hamish Waterer and Partha Saha who won the ‘working smarter’ category. Hamish and Partha were nominated for their development and implementation of an optimisation algorithm to ensure the University of Newcastle used data to full advantage in the 2012 ERA process. This work by Hamish, a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and Partha, a Database and Project Officer in Research Services, is an outstanding example of what can be achieved when academic and professional staff work collaboratively. Hamish developed an optimisation algorithm that allowed the University to take its publications, allocate them to fields or research within the criteria defined by the Australian Research Council and our own researchers, to ensure we aimed for the optimal outcome in the 2012 ERA process. Partha took the results from the algorithm and implemented them using a commercial visual data analysis tool, to ensure the data was visually easy to understand – the algorithm by itself would be too cumbersome to understand without the visualisation, and yet the visualisation would not have been possible without the algorithm.
Patha Saha and Dr Hamish Waterer
Congratulations to Dr Dieter Naf, Dr Ronny Eidels, Rebecca Bosevski, Carol Allport, Nick Bosevski and Lisa Kirkland, winners of the ‘providing quality service’ category. This team of professional staff from the Research Division’s Animal Service Unit was nominated for their outstanding dedication in the challenging task of relocating animal research support infrastructure from various locations to the new HMRI building. The team worked hand-in-hand with researchers, the University’s Facilities Management people, the HMRI Technical Advisor, construction personnel and other stakeholders to identify equipment requirements, successfully develop and formulate entirely new operating procedures, and establish a plan for phased deployment into the new facility. The team achieved this goal, ahead of schedule, with no research delayed or destroyed. They also managed to maintain services in existing facilities to minimise the disruption to animal-based research.
Congratulations to the winner and finalists in the 2013 Scopus Young Researcher of the Year Awards.
These awards are part of an Elsevier global initiative to recognise the increasing contribution of the Australian research community to world science, and the outstanding young scientists and researchers in Australasia who have made significant contributions in their areas of research.
Congratulations to Associate Professor Jodie Simpson (below) from the School of Medicine and Public Health – winner of the 2013 Scopus Young Researcher of the Year Award for the Medicine and Medical Sciences category.
Congratulations to Associate Professor David Lubans (below) from the School of Education – first runner-up for the Humanities and Social Sciences category.
And congratulations to Associate Professor Scott Brown (below) from the School of Psychology – second runner up for the Humanities and Social Sciences category.
