Achievements
UniSA’s School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences is privileged to count many high achieving educators, researchers, students and graduates among its community.
Through both individual and group endeavour these achievers do us proud in many ways, from contributing to research breakthroughs, to providing quality health care, or supporting students to realise their goals.
For a full list of publications by researchers in the School, visit the Sansom Institute publications page.
For information on some of the University’s recent achievements, see the UniSA achievements booklet.
Some of the School’s recent achievements include:
- High praise from accreditation body
- Janna Morrison wins research accolades
- Libby Roughead named SA Tall Poppy of the Year
- Andrew Gilbert named Pharmacist of the Year
- Hat trick for UniSA's young researchers
High praise from accreditation body
UniSA’s School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences has been commended for its commitment to providing high quality pharmacy training by the national accreditation body.
The School recently retained its long-standing accreditation with the Council of Pharmacy Registering Authorities, drawing praise from the accreditation committee’s site evaluation team.
The team’s report commended the quality of the School’s teaching staff, its investment in new laboratories and infrastructure, and its commitment to developing and promoting innovative pharmacy practice.
Head of School Professor Allan Evans said the accreditation was a welcome vote of confidence from an important authority.
“I would like to thank all of the people who contributed to our success, particularly the staff and students who met with the evaluation team, Associate Professor Ieva Stupans and Libby Hotham, and the professional staff who prepared the documentation and coordinated the process,” he said.
Janna Morrison wins research accolades
UniSA researcher Dr Janna Morrison has won a prestigious South Australian Tall Poppy Science Award for her work examining the link between low birthweight and heart disease in adulthood.
Dr Morrison, a National Heart Foundation Research Fellow based at the Sansom Institute at UniSA’s School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, is one of six young South Australian researchers who were honoured in the 2006-2007 Tall Poppy awards.
“Science is a mix of curiosity-driven excitement and dull repetition to confirm results,” said Dr Morrison. “Acknowledgement of one's efforts through an award such as this is very exciting!”
“I strongly believe that the general public will only understand science if scientists communicate their work with them, and the Tall Poppy awards are one way of bringing science out of the laboratories and into the spotlight.”
Stop Press June 2007: Dr Morrison has been awarded the inaugural Ahrens Group / Heart Foundation Award for outstanding achievements by a young researcher (SA). The award was presented on 2 June at the NHF Paint the Town Red Ball. Dr Morrison will use the award to travel to the Aspen Perinatal Biology Symposium in August to present work carried out in the Sansom Institute.
Libby Roughead named SA Tall Poppy of the Year
The School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences’ Dr Libby Roughead has been applauded for her outstanding work into medication use in the South Australian Tall Poppy Science Awards.
Dr Roughead, who is an Associate Professor at the Sansom Institute, was named South Australia’s Tall Poppy of the Year for 2005-2006.
The award recognises the depth and impact of Dr Roughead’s research, which covers areas including public policy concerning medicines, adverse drug events, patterns of medication use, and methods to improve use of medicines.
Some of Dr Roughead’s recent work has included analysing variation in medication use in the USA as a Harkness Fellow at Harvard Medical School, and leading the evaluation of Australia’s national strategy for quality use of medicines.
Dr Roughead also acts as an advisor to the Federal Government through her participation in national expert advisory committees, and is a member of the Drug Utilisation Sub-Committee of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. She has also acted as an advisor to the World Health Organization on national medicines policy.
Andrew Gilbert named Pharmacist of the Year
The School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences’ Professor Andrew Gilbert is the first South Australian to be named Pharmacist of the Year by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.
Professor Gilbert, who is Director of the Sansom Institute’s Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Research Centre, was awarded the accolade for the year 2005 at the PSA’s Pharmacy Australia Congress in Melbourne.
In describing Professor Gilbert's career achievements, PSA national president Brian Grogan paid tribute to his long history of pharmacy teaching and research and his work in medicines policy development, implementation and evaluation, pharmaco-epidemiology and health practice change.