Awarded in 2023

David Gardiner Teacher of the Year

Associate Professor Joanne Voisey

Joanne has shown long-lasting commitment to incorporating Indigenous perspectives in teaching, at the high school student engagement, undergraduate and postgraduate master course levels. Joanne has provided a stimulating teaching environment by using varied digital technologies that enables students to realise their full potential.

Leadership excellence

Associate Professor Jonathan Bunker

As a result of his unwavering commitment and leadership, a broad suite of postgraduate offerings across sustainable infrastructure, renewable energy and advanced manufacturing will create a lasting impact within QUT and in the engineering industry upon debut in 2024.

Dr Senka Henderson

Senka is being recognised for her achievements in the development and implementation of the innovative QUT Turn to Teaching program.  She consistently displays visionary leadership by excelling in daily problem-solving and continuously enhancing program effectiveness and sustainability.

The Course Team: QUT Law

Professor Anna Huggins, Mr Andrew Kemp, Dr Peta Stephenson and Dr Alexandra Philp.

The Course Team engaged and inspired staff to embed the curriculum review themes of sustainability, Indigenous Australian perspectives, and digital practices and technology across the core law curriculum.

Associate Professor Jonathan Bunker

Teaching excellence

Dr Stuart Bell 

Stuart’s teaching practice focuses on clear delivery of concepts, then reinforcing that content through demonstrations, examples and experiments which relate engineering content to real systems.

Dr Lauren Woodlands 

Lauren has a deep commitment to improving student learning by developing the university’s learning and teaching staff capacity to provide high quality teaching and increase student engagement.

Radiation Therapy Team

Mrs Julie Burbery, Mr Crispen Chamunyonga, Dr Cathy Hargrave, Mr Neil O'Brien, Ms Trudy Otter, and Dr Natalie Pollard

The team have implemented an extensive range of real-world learning opportunities within a virtual environment that reflects current clinical practice. They connect knowledge and discovery by fostering clinical research for students undertaking honours.

Early career teaching excellence

Mr Samuel Roach 

Sam led an interdisciplinary cross-institutional consortium, developed a suite of online placements for students who cannot travel due to work or family commitments, and facilitated domestic placements for hundreds of students.

Dr Mark Limb 

Mark has excelled in the learning, teaching and coordination of a large number of urban planning units, at all year levels.

The Nursing COMPASS team: Associate Professor Karen Theobald, Associate Professor Joanne Ramsbotham, Dr Helen Donovan, and Mr Rob Johnson (clockwise from top left)

Student learning excellence

Dr Brooke Andrew

Brooke has effectively managed two of the largest and most challenging 1st-year units in the School of Psychology & Counselling since 2019.

Dr Sarah Dart

Sarah is being recognised for her innovative teaching approaches that support learners to achieve excellent outcomes.

The Nursing COMPASS team

Dr Helen Donovan, Associate Professor Joanne Ramsbotham, Associate Professor Karen Theobald and Mr Rob Johnson

This team have undertaken a course-wide analysis which highlighted that students from non-English-speaking backgrounds experienced writing assessment challenges and staff-led literacy support engagement was low. As a result, student learning in first-year professional writing assessment has trended positively from 65% pass prior to COMPASS to 87%.

Sessional staff excellence

Mrs Kirsty Paynter

Kirsty has received outstanding student feedback in teaching surveys as well as unprompted, glowing anecdotal feedback throughout the semester from her students and colleagues.

Mr Seyed Meghdad Ghaseminia

Seyed's intellectual acumen is matched by his diligent work ethic, enabling him to effectively convey complex concepts and promote a positive learning environment among students.

Unit MGB233 – Entrepreneurship team

Ms Sadia Ehtisham, Mrs Ale Rojo de Wiecek and Mr Marvin Fox.

This team has designed and facilitated a workshop where students could not only excel, but also have the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial solutions for the real world.

Kirsty Paynter

Service excellence

Ms Christina Hickman

Christina was instrumental in launching our expanded social sporting program on campus, successfully engaging over 7,500 students this year.

Ms Kylie Robison

Kylie is always looking at how processes and practices can be streamlined to reduce wait times for both staff and students.

Venues and Events Team

Ms Alexandra Grosvenor, Ms Alexia Zaza, Mr Alex Leahy, Mr Anthony Whittaker, Ms Ciarn Armour, Ms Elizabeth Kidd, Mr James Millis, Ms Jessica Barron, Ms Mandy Hodgkinson and Ms Shae Storkey

This team consistently deliver in the space of service excellence, managing and supporting hundreds of successful events in 2023, with positive impacts across the university.

QUT Cyber Response 

In the face of a crisis, QUT staff exhibited an extensive and collaborative effort across the university to ensure individuals were supported and systems were restored.

Research excellence

Professor Gene Tyson

Gene has revolutionised how the structure and function of microbial communities is studied and has made significant contributions to QUT’s microbiome research profile through his leadership of the Centre for Microbiome Research.

Professor Zhigang Chen

Zhigang has made significant contributions toward reaching zero-emission power generation and refrigeration, as a world-leading pioneer in thermoelectric materials and devices.

Inclusion and diversity excellence

Dr Leah South 

Leah is a transformative force in promoting inclusion and diversity at QUT. She initiated a mandatory "Respect and Safety at QUT" training for students to mitigate sexism and racism in group settings which has been adopted faculty wide.

Dr Judy Beausang 

Judy has made a significant contribution to ensuring the business program at the QUT College is safe and inclusive for all students.

KickSTART Team 

Miss April Shao, Mrs Karlee Davies, Miss Rachele Tran, Ms Sanne Van Os and Mr Stephen Chinnery.

KickSTART focuses on being accessible for a range of cohorts including first-generation university students, remote area newcomers, individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds, non-traditional students, and those from diverse cultural backgrounds or STEM fields.

Innovation and creative practice excellence

Associate Professor Zhanying Zhang

Zhanying has led the development of innovative technologies with real-world impact through industry collaboration and partnerships.

Mr Aarron Bowden

Aarron successfully transitioned the management of our on-campus fitness and aquatic centres from YMCA to QUT.

Mrs Ingrid Larkin

Ingrid has led a series of engaging and impactful events that have been thoughtfully designed to align with QUT’s priorities and values.

Z10-Z13 Redevelopment team

Innovation Central Brisbane Student Prototypes Program

Mr Andy Clarke, Ms Crystal Cooke, Mrs Eleni Gill, Mrs Gemma Alker, Mrs Laura Hurtado Lopez, Mr Peter Townson, Mrs Stephanie Martin and Mr Vibhor Pandey

This signature student prototype program involves a 4-stage competitive ‘pitch to prototype’ program running each semester awarding up to five student teams $15,000 to build a working prototype, culminating in an industry showcase event for Minister and partners.

Z10-Z13 Redevelopment team

Mr Asa Broomhall, Dr Daniel McKewen, Mr Ian Copson, Dr Levi Swann, Mr Nic Hjertquist, Associate Professor Rafael Gomez, Mr Ross Buchanan, Dr Shayne Beaver Mr Scott Klupfel, Ms Samantha Wigman, Mr Nigel Oram, Mr Ian Ashworth, Dr David Pyle and Mr Steve Nowers.  

The team successfully redesigned existing studio and workshop spaces, and creatively and technologically innovated to create cutting-edge facilities that rival the best in Australia and internationally.

Commercialisation excellence

Banana Biotechnology Team

Miss Alexandra Tabrett, Mrs Amba Phillips, Dr Anthony James, Dr Benjamin Dugdale, Miss Haylie Andrews, Dr Jacinta Watkins, Dr Jean-Yves Paul, Mrs Jen Kleidon, Ms Joanne Simpkins, Ms Li Cao, Miss Lily Drummond, Ms Maiko Kato, Mr Mark Smith, Dr Pradeep Deo, Professor Rob Harding and Dr Taj Arndell

The team has developed Cavendish bananas that are genetically modified to be resistant to a devastating soil-borne disease. The research has reached a significant milestone where the resistant line, named QCAV-4, has been submitted to Australia’s internationally renowned regulatory agencies for assessment towards granting of a licence for commercial release.

Partnership and engagement excellence

Associate Professor Paul Wu

Paul built a collaboration with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) from a single VRES student project in 2016 into a $577,000 AIS-QAS-QUT strategic alliance, a substantial AIS grant, and a multimillion-dollar NGGP consortium.

Associate Professor Paige Little  

Paige is being recognised for forging the QUT and Sealy Australia partnership over many years culminating in the launch of the QUT-Sealy Centre for Biomechanics and Sleep Research in 2023.

‘From the Ground Up: A QUT partnership to grow leadership in the early childhood workforce’ 

Mrs Cathy Nielson, Dr Julia Mascadri, Dr Marie White and Associate Professor Megan Gibson

This ground-breaking partnership engaged the Early Learning and Care Council of Australia, a peak body representing over a quarter of all early childhood centres nationally, to address the workforce crisis and build the next generation of leaders for the profession.

Mentorship and sponsorship

Professor Louisa Coglan

Louisa is a champion for economic literacy. She is the President of the Women in Economics Network (Queensland),  mentoring a community of exceptional women economists driven to making real changes.

Adjunct Professor Paul Trotter

Paul has shared his significant influence and leadership in the architecture profession, leading key stakeholder organisations and shaping the direction of the profession, nationally.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander excellence

Mr Rickie Dodd

Rickie has forged valuable relationship with community stakeholders and orchestrated sports-technology-focused workshops and activities, reaching over 2,000 students and community members through the Widening Participation program.

Mr Brent McKnoulty

Brent has demonstrated exemplary leadership and deeply thoughtful execution of QUT’s pilot program of Get Uni Ready  with an inaugural cohort of 159 students.

QALT AFHEA Indigenous Perspectives Lead Reviewers

Ms Celise Gibson and Mr Tain Lloyd

Celise and Tain have supported hundreds of non-Indigenous QUT staff to think deeply to make Indigenous knowledge and perspectives more visible within the curriculum. They have strengthened the Indigenous Perspectives module and plans for reaccreditation with Advance HE.

Brent McKnoulty

Mr Paul Van Opdenbosch

David Gardiner Teacher of the Year

Mr Paul Van Opdenbosch

Paul has pioneered emerging technology in film and animation production practices, bringing together students from multiple disciplines to enable a collaborative approach to filmmaking which mirrors industry approaches. Paul’s teaching produces exceptional quality student outcomes.

Leadership excellence

Dr Yasmin Antwertinger

Yasmin has displayed exceptional leadership in pharmacy curriculum development. Yasmin uses her experience to design and deliver learning experiences in higher education that are linked to industry and community.

Mr Andrew Drylie

Andrew has demonstrated significant leadership in the Security and Emergency Management space. He has a focus on the health and wellbeing of the entire QUT community – and has implemented a balanced risk approach which underpins QUT’s security and emergency management services.

QUT Centre for Robotics Executive Team

Distinguished Professor Peter Corke, Professor Michael Milford, Ms Ilana Bolingford, Professor Jason Ford, Ms Vicki Johnson and Professor Niko Sünderhauf

This team have developed a reputation as the Top Australian Research Centre in Robotics, with an overarching emphasis on an inclusive culture to prepare students for careers as academics or in industry.

QUT Centre for Robotics executive team
Professor Moe Thandar Wynn

Research excellence

Professor Alice Payne

Alice has pioneered research that reimagines approaches to textile waste. Her work brings together hundreds of stakeholders from across industry, community, non-profits and government to establish a national scheme that will transform how Australians make, use and dispose of clothing.

Professor Moe Thandar Wynn

Moe is a pioneer in delivering impactful outcomes using research-informed process-oriented data mining techniques for Australian industry stakeholders and her contributions to the field have broad impact both internally and externally.

QUT Fire and Wind Lab

Professor Mahen Mahendran and Dr Anthony Ariyanayagam

As a team, Mahen and Anthony collaborate with building industry partners and government agencies such as Queensland Fire and Emergency Services to enhance resilience against bushfire and cyclone disasters.

Teaching excellence

Dr Sam Cunningham

Sam is a role model in teaching excellence. He works collaboratively within the Education Portfolio to ensure that academics with the Faculty of Engineering and across the university can innovate their teaching practice to benefit student outcomes.

Dr Wayne Kelly

Wayne is being recognised in Teaching Excellence for designing, developing, and delivering a new unit, Computing and Data for Engineers, to address the critical need for all engineers to be able to use, develop and adapt software to make sense of engineering data.

Dr Sam Cunningham
Dr Kirsty Volz

Early career teaching excellence

Dr Michael Cowley

Michael is being recognised for his exceptional leadership in the delivery of astrophysics at QUT. He brings a fresh but rigorous approach to teaching and has demonstrated a commitment to attracting underrepresented student cohorts to physics.

Dr Kirsty Volz

Kirsty is being recognised for her demonstrated commitment to building confidence in architecture students through innovative teaching.  Kirsty brings her professional experience from industry to support her students alongside integrating key priorities such as sustainability.

Service excellence

Ms Michelle Kani

Michelle is responsible for delivering a graduation ceremony experience for students and staff that is second to none. Her vast event experience and drive has resulted in the improvement of graduation ceremonies into a modern and truly memorable event.

Ms Megan Pozzi

Megan has a sustained record of service excellence in the transformation of QUT’s support for learning strategy.  She has expanded the reach of learning supports to engage over 10,000 students yearly and achieved an unprecedented parity of access of support for equity cohorts.

The 2022 Flood Crisis Timetable Rescheduling Team

Dianne Nilsson; Giselle Canlas, Juliet Chen, Jane Gumbrell, Cherie Gonchee, Anna Hendriks, Stephanie Holden, Samantha Kenny, Fiona Lauder, Munju Lee, Simon Mollison, Tanya Nicholls, Kira Stawinski, Carolina Weaver and Daniel Yun

Through a significant collaborative effort, QUT’s Central Timetabling Team and the Faculty and College timetablers rescheduled 7,725 timetabled activities in three days, enabling continuation of the student learning journey during the 2022 Eastern Australia Floods.

Library 24x7 Access Project

Ms Jennifer Thomas and Mr Andrew Drylie

Andrew and Jennifer lead the innovative and successful project to trial opening QUT libraries on a 24/7 basis. Since the trial began in March, over 70,000 people have entered the two libraries after hours.

Ms Michelle Kani and Ms Megan Pozzi
Mr Jason Hay

Sessional staff excellence

Ms Kylie Birkinshaw

Kylie is being recognised for her exceptional support of diverse learners, and her capacity to enhance the student experience. Kylie’s inclusive teaching, high expectations and use of growth mindset practices inspires her students to put in the effort to attain their goals.

Mr Jason Hay

Jason is being recognised for his exceptional student engagement, particularly during periods of shutdown. Jason is exceedingly generous with his time and goes out of his way to be the support that students need.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander excellence

Mrs Lisa Henderson

Lisa has demonstrated commitment to the success, resilience, and empowerment of QUT’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students through her stewardship of the Oodgeroo Unit’s Accommodation Program.

Mr Joe Sambono

Joe is leading efforts to embed Indigenous knowledge and perspectives across the Faculty of Science teaching curricula. He has empowered academics to integrate Indigenous knowledge in a respectful way that demonstrates the breadth and depth of First Nations science and perspectives.

Mrs Lisa Henderson
Sensational Summer Program team

Innovation and creative practice excellence

Associate Professor  Devakar Epari

Devakar has successfully translated biomedical research to the bedside with the invention and development of the Biphasic Plate, which has obtained market approval for use in the European Union and was implanted in March 2022 with excellent results for the patient.

Mrs Emily Rosemond

Emily has displayed outstanding leadership of QUT Sport, creating a sector-leading sporting program that harnesses sports technology to advance learning, research and student engagement.

Classroom to Boardroom

Associate Professor Paula Dootson and Mrs Gemma Alker

Classroom to Boardroom integrates research, teaching and industry partnership to provide first-year Business students with the opportunity to work on digital transformation problems with real world partners and experts from QUT research centres.

Sensational Summer Program

Lio Lay, Youngnam Baek, Stephanie Elliot, Stacey Lowe, Thomas McCall, Andy Ng, Megan Pozzi, Pauline Soh and Caroline Wong

This unique offering was hugely successful with thousands of students participating in events aimed at building community and supporting students across various dimensions of their wellbeing, including social, psychological, financial, spiritual, academic and physical.

Inclusion and diversity excellence

Dr Sabrina Fawzia

Sabrina has shown exceptional commitment to empowering and supporting Indigenous Australian staff and students, women and culturally and linguistically diverse students in the Faculty of Engineering.

Ms Samantha Westhoff

Samantha has made a significant contribution to ensuring QUT’s social sport program is safe and inclusive for all students. Samantha has initiated and driven the development of a social sport model where everyone feels safe to participate.

National Indigenous Business Summer School Collaboration

Associate Professor Leesa Watego, Ella Anderson, Christine Conn, Wendy Cusack, Bianca Hill-Jarro, Tracey Jefferies and Jesse O'Brien

This team led the inaugural National Indigenous Business Summer School program with five other Queensland universities – creating a five-day immersive visit to QUT for 15 Indigenous high school students from around Queensland.

TEDxQUT

Amy Burkett, Joshua Rosentreter, Claudia Steiner and Montana White

This team have successfully implemented a Community Engagement Proposal with the objective to create an inclusive and accessible community platform for sharing ideas, challenging perspectives and developing connectedness.

Dr Sabrina Fawzia
QUT Studiosity Project team

Student learning excellence

Dr Sophie McIntyre

Sophie encourages students to unleash their creativity, experiment with innovative technologies, and supports them to deliver outcomes within real world constraints.

Mrs Loretta Smith

Loretta has enabled international students from diverse cultural backgrounds to enjoy learning in an English-speaking environment and achieve outcomes that allow them to pursue their goals of university education in their chosen fields.

Anytime, anywhere learning support - QUT Studiosity Project Team

Megan Pozzi, Dr Anja Ali-Haapala, Toya Bratovich, Craig Comerford, Peter Dubowski, Stacey Lowe and Elizabeth Naish

This team have established a project that provides QUT coursework students with 24/7 online writing support. The team partnered with Studiosity and integrated the system into all BlackBoard sites, including quality assurance, data analysis, communications and reporting.

AssignmentWatch Academic Integrity Team

Dr Edmund Pickering, Dr Sam Cunningham, Dr Sarah Dart, Rick Somers and Sheona Thomson

This team have developed the innovative, world-first software tool, AssignmentWatch, which detects academic misconduct through contract cheating sites and aims to prevent it before it occurs. They have a long-held commitment to assuring academic integrity.

Partnership and engagement excellence

Mr Ray Johnson

Ray has developed a portfolio of defence-related industry engagement and funding opportunities. He has enabled significant investment and engagement from industry partners into priority areas and has exemplified ethical leadership in progressing challenging commercialisation scenarios.

Professor Tony Kenna

Tony has developed a partnership with US-based biotech firm for preclinical testing of novel small molecule inhibitors to treat systemic sclerosis.  This industry collaboration furthers the commitment to addressing unmet medical needs for patients with this autoimmune disease.

Palliative Care Curriculum for Undergraduates Team

Kylie Ash, Sharon Wetzig and Karen Wynne

Kylie, Sharon and Karen have developed the ‘Caring for Australian Indigenous Peoples affected by life limiting illness Toolkit’. The toolkit supports development of knowledge and skills to provide quality care for Australian Indigenous Peoples with life limiting illness, their families and their communities.

Wakka Wakka in Song: QUT and Murgon State High School Music Project

Associate Professor Michael Whelan [posthumously awarded] Associate Professor Deb Duthie, Dana Gehrman and Daniel Widdicombe

The team partnered with the Cherbourg community, Murgon State High School students and cultural advisors to write and record two new songs in both the traditional Wakka Wakka language and English.

Vice-Chancellor's Special Award for Outstanding Commercialisation

Associate Professor Anthony Shield

Tony and PhD student David Opar developed the NordBoard Technology which is a fast, easy, accurate and reliable system for monitoring hamstring strength and imbalance. The technology has been patented and licenced to a spinout company looking to revolutionise the human and sport measurement industry.

Mr Ray Johnson

Associate Professor David Holmes

David Gardiner Teacher of the Year

Associate Professor David Holmes

For making meaningful impact on student learning outcomes through redeveloping mechanical engineering design units, integrating authentic teaching content and assessment, and measurably improving student performance and satisfaction through his dedication to quality teaching.

Leadership excellence

Associate Professor Sara Couperthwaite

For her exceptional leadership across initiatives in teaching and learning, research and engagement.

Dr Marion Bateson

For developing and implementing interdisciplinary vertical integrated double degrees, developing the Advanced Science degree and re-designing the Bachelor of Science degree.

Associate Professor Sara Couperthwaite
QUT Planetary Surface Exploration Group

Research excellence

Professor Lindy Willmott and Professor Ben White

For significantly advancing end-of-life law, policy and practice in Australia through rigorous, evidence-based research.

QUT Planetary Surface Exploration Group

Dr David Flannery, Professor Balz Kamber, Dr Michael Jones, Dr Luke Nothdurft, Mr Peter Nemere, Mr Brendan Orenstein, Associate Professor Thierry Peynot, Professor Felipe Gonzalez, Dr Selen Turkay and Mr Julian Andres Galvez Serna

For their creative, aspirational, and innovative research, that brings distinct disciplines together to contribute to space exploration.

Teaching excellence

Information Systems Learning & Teaching Team

Dr Jason Watson, Dr Erwin Fielt, Mrs Sharon Altena, Dr Araz Mohammad Jabbari, Dr Rehan Syed, Mr Sri Nair, Dr Sander Leemans, Dr Rebekah Eden and Dr Kenan Degirmenci.

For their school-wide initiative to support sustainable best practices in teaching and learning, which quantified student expectations and needs during and after the pandemic.

Dr Brendan Moy

For his commitment to tackling student disengagement; employing innovative, research-informed, practical teaching experiences that bridge the gap between University and the real world.

Mr Darren Pearce

For his work to deliver engaging and innovative teaching to first year physics students.

Dr Brendan Moy
Pharmacy student participating in Work Integrated Learning

Service excellence

Work Integrated Learning COVID-19 Response Team

Dr Ricky Tunny, Mrs Amy Hartmann, Ms Kiri Patterson, Mrs Mandy Madden, Mr Jonathan Mison, Miss Hannah Ling, Ms Sandra Gardner, Miss Caroline Clark, Mrs Hiromi Sowah, Mr Mark Wiltshire, Ms Imogen White, Mrs Stephanie Holden, Mrs Holly Sketchley, Dr Sandra Johnston, Associate Professor Christina Parker, Associate Professor Mary Hannan-Jones, Mrs Julie Burbery, Dr Natalie Pollard, Dr Scott Devenish, Dr Kerri-Ann Woodbury and Mrs Vicki Braithwaite

For their clear dedication to continuing Work Integrated Learning activities for more than 4000 Faculty of Health students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Academic Promotions

Ms Nico Williams and Mr Stephan Clemens

For enhancing the user experience for academic and support staff undertaking promotion activities.

Mrs Leigh Burgess

For conceptualising and delivering QUT’s first Sustainability Week.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander excellence

Dr Craig Cowled

For consistently demonstrating commitment to excellence, success, and empowerment of QUT’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff.

Ms Renita Anderson

For leading and delivering exceptional Marketing & Communications outcomes for the University, the Indigenous Strategy portfolio, Carumba, Oodgeroo and the Elder-in-Residence.

Dr Craig Cowled
Dr Aaron McFadyen

Innovation and creative practice excellence

Indigenous Australian Author Series

Associate Professor Debbie Duthie and Mr Kevin Yow Yeh

For conceptualising and delivering the Indigenous Australian Author Series, a collaboration between the Faculty of Health and QUT Library that celebrates excellence in Indigenous Australian storytelling.

Dr Aaron McFadyen

For his real-world application of research in the digital disruption of airspace approvals.

Inclusion and diversity excellence

Mrs Bridget Hughes

For significant contributions to QUT’s Indigenous Perspectives in the Learning and Teaching program.

Faculty of Health Cultural Safety and Indigenous Issues School Champions

Ms Marian Boman, Professor Mark Brough, Dr Leonie Cox, Mr Ali Drummond, Associate Professor Debbie Duthie, Mr Alex Dwyer, Ms Catherine Haden, Professor Melissa Haswell, Dr Shelley Hopkins, Associate Professor Philippe Lacherez, Associate Professor Trish Obst, Adjunct Professor Fiona Naumann, Associate Professor Tony Parker, Dr Jo Stephens and Associate Professor Helen Vidgen.

For increasing knowledge and application of culturally safe practices within the Faculty of Health.

Mr Lukas Starling

For creating a training module that allows for scalable, accessible training to increase staff awareness and knowledge of issues impacting LGBTIQA+ communities.

Mrs Bridget Hughes
Dr Tatheer Zahra

Student learning excellence

Place, People, Planet and Purpose: Design for transformative learning through transdisciplinary collaborations

Mrs Melanie Finger, Mr Dean Brough, Ms Sheona Thomson, Dr Deanna Meth, Mr James Macaulay, Dr Liz Brogden, Mr Andrew Scott, Dr Greg Mews, Dr Claire Brophy, Mr Scott Parlett, Mrs Melissa Guyatt, Ms Kathleen Horton, Ms Madeline Taylor and Ms Amanda Bellaby.

For the development of four innovative, large-scale, authentic transdisciplinary Impact Lab units, allowing students to learn through experiential, inquiry-led design challenges.

Dr Tatheer Zahra

For demonstrated commitment to the success of student learning by using innovative teaching approaches and blended learning materials.

Partnership and engagement excellence

The Healthcare Excellence Accelerator (HEAL) Initiative

Professor Evonne Miller, Professor Susan Carson, Associate Professor Marianella Chamorro-Koc, Associate Professor Janice Rieger, Associate Professor Jen Seevinck, Associate Professor Rafael Gomez, Associate Professor Sean Maher, Associate Professor Lindy Osborne Burton, Dr Manuela Taboada, Dr Anastasia Tyurina, Dr Natalie Wright, Dr Judy Matthews, Dr Abbe Winter, Ms Gillian Ridsdale, Miss Erina Wannenburg, Mr James Dwyer, Mr Sam Regi and Mr Guy Lobwein.

For their design-led methods that tackle real-world healthcare challenges.

eMental Health in Practice (eMHPRAC) team

Heidi Sturk, Emeritus Professor David Kavanagh, Dr Jennifer Connolly, Dr Ruth Crowther, Dr Tania McMahon, Dr Shelley Appleton and Miss Lauren Murase.

For their partnership across industry and academia that provides training and support in digital mental health.

The QUT and Brisbane Indigenous Media Association Partnership team

Mr Ryan Menner, Miss Jennifer Barnaby, Ms Laura Christie, Ms Tracey Jefferies, Professor Robyn Mayes, Dr Juliana McLaughlin, Dr Tony Peloso and Dr Penny Williams.

For building a strong partnership with the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association, embedding new research and learnings across both organisations

eMental Health in Practice (eMHPRAC) team

David Gardiner Teacher of the Year

Dr Kath O’Brien

For her unwavering commitment to inspiring students.

Dr O’Brien is an active member of the Course Governance Team and has implemented changes to curriculum which have transformed undergraduate learning.

She has been praised by colleagues and students for incorporating innovative technology to enhance engagement with online learning and has been recognised for her commitment to supporting students’ personal growth.

Dr Kath O'Brien
Chris Emzin

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander excellence

Chris Emzin

For leading the first incorporation of Indigenous Australian perspectives as a course learning outcome in a QUT degree and developing a new Indigenous justice placement unit.

Leadership excellence

Professor Lidia Morawska

For leading a group of 239 scientists from around the globe to sign an open letter to the World Health Organisation which ultimately forced the institution to admit there was no evidence to support their view that COVID-19 could not be spread in the air.

Quality Teaching Performance Assessment team

Dr Rebecca Spooner-Lane, Dr Nerida Spina

For successfully achieving ratification of the Quality Teaching Performance Assessment through the Queensland Teacher Registration Authority which included developing a suite of resources, training for staff and students and an online marking portal. Due to their efforts and innovation final year students across four universities, including QUT, can graduate this year.

Professor Lidia Morawska / QTPA team
Dr Christine Devine

Student learning and research excellence

Dr Christine Devine

For her extraordinary contribution to student learning and research as a STEM Educator including the development of the Kitchen Lab – an experiential learning program to assist students in developing technical and transferrable skills.

Teaching and research excellence

Dr Erin O’Brien

For her leading research on anti-slavery policy which directly engaged policymaking and was cited in federal parliamentary inquiries.

Associate Professor Marianella Chamorro-Koc

For creating an industry-led research-teaching nexus, championing design for sustainable local manufacturing and propelling her Industrial Design students’ industry engagement and entrepreneurship.

Dr Erin O’Brien / Associate Professor Marianella Chamorro-Koc

Service excellence

Peter Coughran

For pioneering QUT’s first LGBTQIA+ support group for international students and providing workshops and a safe space for isolated students to share stories and form friendships.

Semester 1 Online Assessment Delivery Team

Megan Duffy, Bergita Shannon, Phill Gillespie, Tim Morris, George Fullerton, Toya Bratovich, Joe Lyons, Marselan Wignall, Ralph Bebendorf, Craig Comerford, Gregory E. Steele, Bert Wei, Peter Dubowski, Ed Baak

For supporting extensive online assessment in Semester 1. The team provided 16 hours of support for six days to facilitate 300 online assessments taken by thousands of students.

Learning designers team, Education portfolio

Mr Robert White, Ms Angela Carden, Mr Paul Fenn, Ms Katherine Harkin, Mrs Michelle Fox, Ms Rebecca McLeish, Ms Amanda Bellaby, Mr James Macaulay, Ms Vikki Ravaga, Mrs Peta Statham, Mr Timothy Baillie, Mr Andrew Kemp, Ms Tanya Wolfe, Ms Hyacinth Steele, Mr Roger Cook, Dr Pranit Anand, Dr Briony Wainman, Dr Henk Huijser, Mrs Sharon Altena, Mr Steven Kickbusch, Mrs Joanne Hobson

The learning designers were integral in enabling the university to transform from an on-campus mode to online and remotely accessed mode to deliver high quality learning within extremely short timeframes.

Peter Coughran
Jo Allder, Paul Loveridge and Sidara Engelhardt

Innovation and creative practice excellence

Compass Project Team

Dearne Tronc, Paul Loveridge, Jo Allder, Sidara Engelhardt, Chris Baldwin

For delivering CourseLoop which provides new capabilities to map, connect and visualise real-world curricula. With more than 1600 users, both academic and professional staff have praised the digital solution which encourages a high-quality student experience.

Inclusion and diversity excellence

Dr Rachael Murray

For advocating to ensure equal opportunity for equivalently qualified people, resulting in a conference gender equity policy and for establishing the SMARTwomen network to support teaching and research academics.

Pathways to Politics team, QUT Business/QUTeX

Glenda Markwell, Jamie Forster, Karen Foelz, Karina Gurowski, Kimberley Bowden, Patricia Munguia Llort, Professor Vicky Browning

For working to increase female participation in all levels of government by delivering the QUT Pathway to Politics Program for Women with an excellent satisfaction rating.

Dr Rachael Murray
Adam Davies / Dr Rafael Gomez

Partnership and engagement excellence

Adam Davies

For leading the development of the QUT Campus to Country project to ensure the university’s campuses reflect and recognise Indigenous Australian cultures.

Dr Rafael Gomez

For driving the BMW-Group / QUT partnership and advancing collaborative research innovations, student internship experiences and graduate career opportunities.

Leadership excellence

Professor Christopher Barner-Kowollik

For building exceptional research capacity through establishment of the QUT Soft Matter Materials Laboratory and providing a rich and intellectually stimulating environment for the development of junior researchers.

Ms Megan Campbell

For facilitating ongoing interdisciplinary research collaborations and health industry partnerships and fostering a safe and healthy environment for the Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation.

Dr Paula Dootson

For an initiative that aligns QUT academics who are researching the topic of trust, ensuring that synergies are identified and that the research is conducted in a coordinated and collaborative fashion.

Mr Ali Drummond

For driving measures to strategically advance Indigenous Australian health issues and strengthen QUT’s Indigenous Health capabilities within operational and educational settings.

Professor Louise Hafner

For her contemporary approach to higher degree research student supervision and collaborative leadership approach that empowers others to achieve QUT’s research goals.

Professor Christopher Barner-Kowollik

Excellence in the contribution to student learning and research

Dr Michael Mu

For outstanding supervision and support of higher degree research students, including generous sharing of expertise, feedback and knowledge.

Design for social impact in first-year experience

Mr James Macaulay, Dr Deanna Meth, Mr Dean Brough and Mrs Melanie Finger

For the development of Impact Lab 2, that has made a meaningful contribution to more than 600 first-year work integrated learning experiences across seven study areas through six direct community partnerships.

Teaching and research excellence

Professor Margot Brereton

For designing new technologies that benefit diverse groups, including children with intellectual disabilities, older adults and Indigenous communities.

Dr Judith Howard

For designing and enacting a strategic program for undergraduate, postgraduate and professional education to prepare “trauma-informed” educators of the future.

Professor Ben Mathews

For instrumental research that has influenced major reforms to legislation, governing policy and practice in the reporting of child abuse in Australia and overseas.

Service excellence

Mr Tim Buckley

For providing personalised support and improving the QUT International College student experience.

Mrs Kathryn Cameron

For developing a program of interventions that promote physical and mental wellbeing for staff in the Library Resource Services team.

Miss Bree Smith

For her innovative, collaborative and solutions-focussed approach to the Faculty of Education’s financial planning.

QUT Sport

Ms Paula Stuart, Miss Nicole Clayton, Mr Michael Jordan, Miss Adele Rose, Mr Jacob Argent, Mr Nicholas Lynch, Mr Dylan Poulus, Miss Casey Sims and Mr Tom Fisher

For boosting the profile of sport at QUT through cross-portfolio collaboration, engaging more students to take part in sporting opportunities on campus and in the community.

Innovation and creative practice excellence

Dr Aso Hajirasouli

For the design and delivery of the International Design Workshops, which have provided free support to international students in the School of Design.

Research Management Systems Upgrade / Business Process Management

Mrs Janne Barnes, Mr Jeremy Gibson, Dr Kanika Goel and Dr Wasana Bandara

For their impactful and innovative partnership that has supported high quality research by implementing systems for researchers and research administrators.

Room 17 Goes Large

Miss Sarah Stanke, Mr Moss McGregor, Dr Freya Wright-Brough, Miss Emma-Lee Steindl, Associate Professor Donna Hancox; Mr Yanto Browning and Associate Professor Michael Whelan

For the development and implementation of a post-school transition model for increasing inclusion and participation of students from diverse backgrounds in university.

Students at work at QUT School of Design.
Giving Day is an annual QUT fundraising event.

Excellence in partnerships and engagement

Associate Professor Anup Basu

For high-impact research on the superannuation savings of Australian workers that has informed the Australian Government’s Superannuation System Review.

Dr Cassandra Cross

For forging transdisciplinary research partnerships and enhancing engagement within and beyond the QUT community.

The Cherbourg and QUT Basic First Aid Paramedic Program

Associate Professor Debbie Duthie, Professor Mark Brough and Dr Jo Stephens

For development of the Paramedic Science Basic First Aid Awareness program, which educates culturally safe students and staff who are integral to improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians and communities.

QUT Giving Day Team

Ms Phoebe Escott-Kenny, Ms Claudia Steiner, Mrs Kimberley Hellberg and Mr Ben Nicoll

For building a culture of philanthropy through innovative communications and a novel giving platform on QUT’s Giving Day 2019.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander excellence

Mrs Bianca Hill-Jarro

For service excellence in support of Indigenous Australian law and justice students from recruitment to post-graduation.

Miss Melanie Saward

For embedding Indigenous Australian perspectives into the curriculum of first year units in the Creative Writing discipline.

Miss Fiona Smallwood

For a significant and ongoing contribution to the recruitment and retention of Indigenous Australian students in QUT’s Oodgeroo Unit.

James Duffy

David Gardiner Teacher of the Year

Mr James Duffy

For his longstanding commitment to students in the first year of the QUT Bachelor of Laws degree and leadership in curriculum innovation with a focus on law student mental health.

Student as partner

Mr Lewis Holmes

For increasing student participation with health, safety and environment initiatives.

Contact

For information on the awards, please contact the Chancellery.