In brief
Australia Day honours for UniSA luminaries
Former UniSA Vice Chancellor Emeritus Professor Denise Bradley
AO, and founding Director of UniSA’s Institute for
Telecommunications Research Emeritus Professor Michael Miller were
among the 12 distinguished UniSA friends and alumni to receive
Australia Day honours.
Prof Bradley was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), "for service to higher education through leadership and sector-wide governance, to the promotion of information-based distance learning and to the advancement of Australian education facilities internationally".
She and Patron-in-Chief of UniSA’s Hawke Centre, Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce, Governor of South Australia, were two of only six Australians to receive the highest accolade.
Prof Miller was made an Officer in the General Division (AO), "for service to science, particulalry through leadership roles in the innovation and development of future generation telecommunications technology".
Other recipients were alumni Dean Brown (former SA Premier), John Fotheringham, Ronald Harvey, Sister Helen Little, Elizabeth Raupach (Director of the Helpmann Academy), former lecturer and donor Dr Adam Jamrozik, Honorary Doctor and member of the Ian Wark advisory board Sydney Richards and Professor Gerard Sutton, Vice Chancellor of the University of Wollongong.
On behalf of the University, Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Høj congratulated all the recipients, making special mention of his predecessor Prof Bradley.
"We are all very proud and delighted that Prof Bradley has been acknowledged with the Companion of the Order of Australia award - it is certainly well deserved," Prof Høj said.
"To contribute to the establishment of a successful institution such as UniSA in such a short period of time is one thing, but to have achieved so much at a broader sectoral level through her leading role in so many organisations and groups is nothing short of remarkable.
"Prof Bradley’s achievements as a business woman, a scholar and a leader are an inspiration to many Australians, myself included."
Prof Høj added that "the best way we can pay respect to Prof Bradley’s enormous achievements is to ensure that UniSA will continue the path of improvement along all fronts to ensure it becomes a very significant contributor to Australia having the best higher education system in the world and to it becoming one of the world’s best educated, most innovative, cohesive and sustainable societies".
Dr Hetzel awarded prestigious international
public health prize
At a ceremony last month, the King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej personally awarded Dr Basil Hetzel AC, former UniSA Chancellor, the prestigious 2007 Prince Mahidol Prize for his contribution to international public health.
Dr Hetzel’s work in public health dates back to 1964 in Papua New Guinea when his team at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (University of Adelaide), in collaboration with the PNG Public Health Department showed that cretinism (a severe form of brain damage) could be prevented by the injection of iodized oil before pregnancy.
Now in his 80s Dr Hetzel is still vigilant about public health trends and the impact of iodine deficiency in communities.
"Recent research in Australia has identified significant iodine deficiency in school children and in pregnant women," Dr Hetzel said.
"This indicates the need for greater use of already available iodized salt.
"We have seen enormous progress in the 30 years since we identified the importance of iodine deficiency to brain development – but it is something we need to continue to monitor and continue to provide public health education about.
"I see the Prince Mahidol Prize as a wonderful recognition of the benefits our work has brought to the health of communities throughout the world."
Collett collects ISANA bursary
Diana
Collett, an international student counsellor in UniSA’s Learning
Connection has won the 2007 International Student Advisers’ Network
of Australia (ISANA) Bursary offered by Australian Education
International.
The $1000 prize was awarded to Collett at the 18th ISANA Annual International Education Conference held recently in Adelaide for her paper Coming Together: New Approaches to Intercultural Interaction in Higher Education, which examined the strategies being developed at UniSA that explore the effect of differing worldviews on interaction amCoong international and local students and staff.
The bursary was one of three given to postgraduate students whose papers were seen to be making a significant contribution to the ISANA conference and to knowledge in international education. The submitted papers were judged by a national panel of practitioners and academics.
International role for legal expert
UniSA Professor Rob Fowler has just been named as a member of the governing board of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Academy of Environmental Law.
The Academy is a prestigious global educational organisation designed to build knowledge of environmental law through an international academic network. Under the umbrella of the IUCN the Academy of Environmental Law links into the world’s largest and most important conservation network.
With a strong focus on developing countries and countries in transition, the Academy aims to enhance the teaching capacities in universities worldwide in all areas of environmental legal education with a focus on curriculum develop-ment and teaching the teachers programs.
Prof Fowler says the Academy works globally to encourage innovative collaborative research into how law can play a role in resolving today’s environmental challenges.
And Prof Fowler comes to the position with a wealth of expertise. As a program leader in the Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment & Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE), Prof Fowler is responsible for the development and implementation of research projects related to the legal, policy, social and economic aspects of site contamination. He is also a co-founder of the new Centre for Environmental Management and Compliance (CEMAC) at UniSA which designs and delivers training courses for government officers and the private sector in relation to environmental management and compliance.
New chaplain at City West
Libby
Hentschke has recently joined the team of chaplains across UniSA
campuses.
She is currently studying a Bachelor of Theology at the Australian Lutheran and will be available at the City West campus four mornings a week as follows:
Tuesday – 8.30am to 10.15am in Y4-14
Wednesday – 11.30am to 12.45pm in Y1-42
Thursday – 8.30am to 10.15am in Y1-42
Friday – 11.30am to 12.45pm in Y1-42
"I’ll be saying hello and hope that you will say hello back in whatever way you do that and I hope that you will enjoy our interaction together," Libby says.
Elite directorship for forensic computing expert
Associate Research Professor Jill Slay in UniSA’s Defence and Systems Institute has been appointed a director of US-based ISC², the non-profit global leader in educating and certifying information security professionals through their careers.
Leader of the Systems for Safeguarding Australia Research Centre and the Forensic Computing Lab, Prof Slay’s research expertise is in forensic computing, critical infrastructure protection, IT security, information warfare and cyberterrorism.