2003 winners

Gabriel Pool

Faculty of Built Environment & Engineering Award Winner

Sunshine Coast architect Gabriel Poole has enriched the lives of many ordinary people with his good, affordable housing designs. One of a notable group of contemporary Queensland architects, Gabriel is recognised nationally and internationally for designs which are outstanding for their sensitivity to climate and place. Described as innovative, experimental and on the frontier at all times, his dwellings are acknowledged for their significant contribution to environmentally responsible design.

They are featured in architectural magazines throughout the world and referred to in architectural education courses here and overseas. Gabriel has won thirteen local, state and national architectural awards including the prestigious Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) Gold Medal for lifetime services to Australian architecture. In 2001 the University of the Sunshine Coast conferred on him a Doctor of the University, for significant and sustained contribution to his profession and the community. Gabriel continues to enhance students' understanding of the real issues that must be addressed in design, in particular the idea that living with nature is integral to the health of the human psyche. Gabriel graduated from the Central Technical College with a Diploma of Architecture in 1966.

Peter Howes

Faculty of Business Award Winner

An early 1970s Bachelor of Business (Management) graduate, Peter Howes has distinguished himself in Australia and overseas as an innovator in the area of strategic human resource planning and management. His company, HRM Consulting Pty Ltd, has become a global exporter of significant Australian-developed intellectual property, and has assisted many organisations worldwide to harness their human capital to support strategic goals.

One of Peter's most important and far-reaching accomplishments has been to develop the InfoHRM program. This is an internet-based full service human resource planning tool which automatically captures workforce data from a company's HR and other systems, aggregates the data for measurement, reporting and benchmarking, and then hosts the member company's data on its own secure InfoHRM website. Following the launch of this system in North America and Europe, it is now utilised by 150 major companies worldwide including such high profile organisations as Cisco Systems, BP, Harvard University, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Starbucks, BT Group, Vodafone, the BBC, Roche, Telstra, Qantas and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

James Rudder

Creative Industries Faculty Award Winner

Following graduation in 1981 with a Bachelor of Business (Communication), Jim Rudder worked extensively as a television journalist and producer in Australian commercial and public broadcasting. He spent the next fourteen years honing his production and management skills in the highly competitive UK news and sports broadcasting environment as a key executive of British Sky Broadcasting.

Jim was instrumental in achieving a strong leadership position for the organisation against competitors such as the BBC and ITV, making Sky News the leading 24-hour news channel in Europe. In 2000 Jim was appointed director of interactive programming, responsible for leading the roll-out of a full suite of interactive and communications services across the Sky platform. BSkyB has since become the most successful pay TV network in the world with over 6.3 million subscribers and contributing ??30 million to the company's revenue last year. Earlier this year, Jim was seconded to Italy to assist in finalising the Sky Italia merger before returning to Australia in June to take up his appointment as director of news and current affairs at Nine Network Australia.

Megan McNicholl

Faculty of Education and Excellence in Contribution to the Community Award Winner

Having been raised in the country, Megan McNicholl has long held the view that access to effective educational services and programs is pivotal to sustaining vibrant rural communities. A 1970 graduate of Brisbane Kindergarten Teachers' College, Megan directed the Injilinji Preschool Centre in Mt Isa before being appointed Regional Preschool Adviser for North West and Far North Queensland. In this role, she flew herself over a vast territory from Camooweal to Thursday Island, providing much needed support to the teachers of those communities.

Settling with her family on a property east of Roma, Megan became active in the Isolated Children's and Parents' Association (ICPA), rising to Federal President in 1999. Her outstanding leadership on issues faced by rural and remote families has given her a prominent national profile and turned the ICPA into one of Australia's most effective educational advocacy groups. In 2002, Megan was appointed to the Regional Women's Advisory Council, a body that advises the Federal Government on issues facing rural and remote communities. In April this year, she was awarded a Centenary Medal for service to rural education.

Robert Hess

Chancellor's Outstanding Alumnus

Faculty of Health Winner

Professor Robert Hess is one of the world's leading vision research scientists, acclaimed for his originality and influence on the understanding of visual processing. His research into amblyopia in particular, has gone a long way to unravelling the neural mysteries behind this perplexing condition.

Graduating from QIT in 1970 with a Diploma of Applied Science (Optometry), Robert went on to complete a Master of Science in Neuropsychology at Aston University in the UK, before returning to Australia to complete his PhD at the University of Melbourne. He was awarded a Rotary International Fellowship followed by a Meres Senior Fellowship, to pursue research at the University of Cambridge, where he was later appointed Wellcome senior lecturer within the department of physiology. Since 1990, Robert has been director of research in the department of ophthalmology at McGill University, Montreal, where he also holds appointments in the departments of psychology, and neurology and neurosurgery. Here, Robert has been very innovative and forward thinking in establishing and leading multi-disciplinary research programs, which are now accepted as critical for positive research outcomes.

Robert has built an impressive academic career over many years, regularly publishing the results of his work in vision science journals and in presentations to the scientific community, and passing on his knowledge to the next generation of ophthalmic scientists through academic texts. He has served on the Wellcome Trust Steering Committee for Research in Ophthalmology in the UK, the Canadian Medical Research Council Clinical Investigation Committee, and on the editorial boards of several leading vision science journals including Vision Research and Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics. Throughout the 1990s, Robert also edited the journal Clinical Vision Sciences which he founded. Robert's contributions to vision science have been recognised by many groups. In the UK, he was invited to deliver the Champness Lecture and was awarded the Edridge-Green Medal by the Royal College of Surgeons for ophthalmology research. In Canada, he delivered the Clair Bobier Lecture at the University of Waterloo. And in 1995, Robert was invited to deliver the Centenary Vision Lecture at the centenary celebrations of Aston University in the UK. In 1998, Aston University acknowledged his outstanding contribution to vision science by conferring on him the degree of Doctor of Science.

Michael Clarke

Faculty of Information Technology Award Winner

Over his 20 year career, Michael Clarke has been at the forefront of software design, development and implementation for the insurance industry. Following graduation in 1983 with a Bachelor of Applied Science (Computing), Michael worked for PAXUS, developing a reputation as a designer of world-class insurance software in use at hundreds of locations around the world by some of the world's largest insurance companies.

By 1992, he was product manager for PAXUS, which had become the largest insurance software supplier in Asia at that time, due largely to Michael's efforts. In 1997, Michael joined SOLCORP, which provides software solutions and consulting services globally for the life insurance, bancassurance and wealth management industries. He is currently senior vice-president and general manager of SOLCORP Asia Pacific, which includes the territories of Australia, Greater China and Japan. This arm of the company has achieved spectacular growth and is now generating close to half of SOLCORP's global revenue and profit. Michael's technical expertise and entrepreneurship have enhanced the growth of Australia's information technology industry locally and internationally.

Michael Baumann FM

Faculty of Law Award Winner

Michael Baumann is Queensland's first Federal Magistrate, appointed to the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia in 2000, the same year he graduated from QUT with a Master of Laws. A specialist in family law, mediation and arbitration, Michael has been president of the Legal Aid Commission in Queensland and Chair of the Board of Legal Aid Queensland.

He has played an active part in the leadership of his profession, serving as a director of the Queensland Law Foundation, a member of the Grants Fund and chairing a number of the Queensland Law Society's committees, one of which began the remodelling of Professional Indemnity Insurance in Queensland. In 1991 he was named the Law Council of Australia Young Lawyer of the Year. Two years later, he was elected the youngest ever President of the Queensland Law Society. Michael has also supported his local Gold Coast community over many years, providing leadership to cricketing and tennis bodies, and promoting his profession to schools and in the media as part of the talk-back radio program The Law and You.

Stewart Bell

Faculty of Science Award Winner

Stewart Bell graduated with a Certificate in Chemistry followed by a Bachelor of Applied Science (Applied Chemistry) in the late seventies. He joined the Safety in Mines Testing and Research Station (SIMTARS) at its inception in 1986 and has been its director since 1998. In 2002 Stewart was awarded the Natural Resources and Mines Award for Excellence, as the team leader for the design and development of the Safegas, Camgas and Segas mine gas monitoring and interpretation systems that are now an industry standard in Australia and have recently been exported to the USA and India.

Stewart was also involved in a project to test modified jet engines as inert gas generators for remote fire control in coal mines, without risk to fire fighters. This equipment is now in use at coal mines and has recently been used to extinguish a mine fire in the USA. Stewart's work on developing equipment, techniques and procedures to prevent and manage potentially disastrous mine fires, has had an enormous impact on the welfare of mining communities and the mining industry in Australia and overseas.

Kevin Cocks

Humanities and Human Services Award Winner

Kevin Cocks has combined a long-term interest in social justice with an understanding that comes of personal experience, to become an exceptional advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. Kevin gained an Associate Diploma of Social Science (Residential Care) from BCAE, and later, postgraduate qualifications in Social Planning and Social Welfare Administration.

Since 1998, Kevin has been director of Queensland Advocacy Incorporated, which has been highly influential in bringing about positive change to the structures, policies and legislation governing access to services and public utilities by disabled people. Kevin campaigned for services tailored to individual need, challenged entrenched practices in the health system, and increased awareness in the legal system, of issues facing the intellectually and physically disabled. His exposure of the abuse and neglect of vulnerable people in hostels and boarding houses led to the passage through State Parliament of the Residential Services (Accommodation) Act 2002. Kevin's outstanding contribution to the reform and development of professional disability services in Queensland and nationally was recently recognised with the award of a Centenary Medal for service to the Australian community.

Jenny Fraser

Excellence in Globalising Indigenous Arts and Culture Award

Jenny, a member of the Bundjalung Nation, has made an outstanding contribution to the indigenous community in the area of arts and culture. Gaining a Bachelor of Education (Secondary) Art / Film and Media, and a Graduate Diploma in Arts / Film and Television Production in the 1990s, she has since become part of an exciting new wave of New Media artists, working at the nexus of art, filmmaking and technology.

Jenny has exhibited at Mexico's Museum of Contemporary Art, in Message Stick at the Sydney Opera House, and is represented in the permanent collections of the RMIT Gallery and the Australian Centre for Photography. She was a curator for ConVerge - Where Art And Science Meet, which was part of the 2002 Adelaide Biennial, and produces the indigenous online gallery cyberTribe, and the website Blackout, both of which have raised the profile of indigenous artists internationally. She has been invited to attend an International Indigenous Residency in New Media at the Banff Centre of the Arts in Canada this year. Jenny is a recipient of the Robyn O'Chin Memorial Art Award for Best Amateur Artist, and a Women in Information Technology award. She is currently completing a Master of Communications by Research.

Sharon Gillett

QUT Alumni Young Achiever Award Winner

Sharon graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor of Business (Accountancy) / Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and in 2001, was admitted as a solicitor in Queensland. Sharon has combined entrepreneurial acumen with knowledge accountancy, law and information technology, to become a highly successful young businesswoman.

She co-founded e-JAZ Pty Ltd, a small business which has already made a significant contribution to Queensland's rapidly growing IT and e-commerce industry, by providing other small businesses with innovative software solutions to improve efficiency, on-line sales, and reduce barriers to international trade. Last year, Sharon and e-JAZ won six business awards, including the Top Entrepreneur Award from iLab BGSB QUT Entrepreneur, the Business Innovation Women in IT Unisys Award, the Australian Micro Business Award for Queensland and the Northern Territory, and the Quest Business Achievers e-commerce Award. Sharon is president of the Electronic Business Group (eBIG), a board member of the non-profit community service organisation Civic Solutions, and a member of many other organisations including Southside Chamber of Commerce. She also writes for Queensland Business Review. Her e-commerce knowledge and skills have been invaluable in helping other business people to understand the local and global opportunities that exist for small and micro businesses.