Excellence in teaching and research recognised

MEDIA RELEASE

12 December 2007

Excellence in teaching and research recognised

Victoria University’s 2007 Teaching and Research Excellence Awards have been announced, with law of the sea and Latin American economic inequality researchers among the top.

Early Career Research Award winner, Joanna Mossop, specialises in law of the sea research and international environmental law. She’s currently writing about combating illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing on the high seas amongst other projects.

Warwick Murray’s research in economic geography and rural development has won him a Research Excellence Award. He is researching the impacts of natural resource dependence on economic inequality in Latin America at the moment.

“The Teaching and Research Excellence Awards are a vital way to recognise and celebrate academic staff who have achieved at the highest level,” says research committee chair and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Neil Quigley.

“Joanna and Warwick are just two of many talented research and teaching staff we have awarded this year.”

“Teaching and research are most important to Victoria’s reputation as an excellent tertiary education provider.”

Recipients are carefully decided by research and teaching committees, which consist of past winners of the awards. Applications are evaluated against the relevant award criteria. There are three award categories: Teaching Excellence, Research Excellence and Early Career Research.

“The government continues to direct funding to universities based on their research in the Performance-Based Research Fund exercise. It also emphasizes the value of teachers through the National Tertiary Teaching Awards. Seven of Victoria’s past Teaching Excellence Award winners have gone on to win a National Tertiary Teaching Award,” says Neil Quigley.

All awards will be formally presented by Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh at the University Awards ceremony in early 2008.

Below are the names of recipients with their research or teaching area in brackets.

Teaching Excellence Awards:

John Downie (Theatre Studies)
Dr John McDowall (Psychology)
Eusebio Scomavacca (Commerce and Administration)
Dr Kathryn Sutherland (University Teaching Development Centre)

Research Excellence Awards:

Dr Rowena Cullen (effectiveness of information systems)
Dr Warwick Murray (global development, inequality and poverty)
Assoc Prof Jonathan Gardner (marine biology)
Dr Kevin Burns (biology from animal behaviour to plant morphology)
Prof Tony Ward (offender rehabilitation)
Prof James Noble (computer science and software engineering)

Early Career Reseacher Awards:
Dr Ron Fischer (cultural differences in psychological functioning)
Dr Chern Li Liew (user-information interaction)
Joanna Mossop (law of the sea and international environmental law)

ENDS

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