Amazing alumni, prestigious Premier’s Prizes and how well do you know your UNSW history? – 30 October 2024

30 Oct 2024
Atilla Brungs London

Dear colleagues

UNSW is the incredible, world-class University it is today because of the tremendous people who currently make up our community as well as the contributions of the UNSW community over the past seven decades. You will see in this edition a burst of accolades and awards across the University in recent weeks which highlight this. The Alumni Awards and 75th anniversary celebration event was also a wonderful reminder. Our alumni are outstanding ambassadors of the UNSW mission to advance progress for all. The awards celebrate some of their inspiring achievements and highlight the impact they are having in different parts of the world.

Alumni Award winners Adjunct Professor Kieran Hynes, Alexis George, Seb Chan, Dr Jessie Christiansen and Yao May Wong at the Alumni Awards ceremony with UNSW Chancellor David Gonski AC and UNSW Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Attila Brungs. (Award winners Dr Kirstin Ferguson AM and Chanel Contos not pictured.)


The 2024 Alumni Awards recognised remarkable contributions across art and culture, professional excellence, research, education and social impact. It was a pleasure to meet the winners and hear more about their work. They make me incredibly proud to be a UNSW alumnus and feel privileged to work in our University. The event was also a fitting celebration of UNSW’s rich history and 75 years of creating positive change. A big thank you to the organisers – more than 400 people attended – for creating such a memorable and worthy celebration.

Professor Verity Firth and I are pictured at the top with Chanel Contos, the Young Alumni Award winner, who has led the national movement for consent education in Australian schools. Chanel was unable to attend the Alumni Awards in Sydney, but I was fortunate to be able to present Chanel with her award at a recent UNSW alumni event in London. Visit the UNSW Newsroom to read more about the alumni award winners and watch some really engaging videos in which they share their stories and insights.

UNSW colleagues win four Premier’ Prizes for Science and Engineering

Continuing the trend of recent accomplishments, four colleagues have won prestigious NSW Premier’s Prizes for Science and Engineering, with Scientia Professor Helen Christensen from the Black Dog Institute named NSW Scientist of the Year.

Our colleagues were awarded four of the 10 Premier’s Prizes in recognition of their significant impact across science, health and engineering.

Professor Susan Coppersmith from UNSW Science won the prize for Excellence in Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry or Physics.

Dr Ira Deveson from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research received the Early Career Researcher of the Year Award.

Professor Stuart Tangye, also from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, won the award for Excellence in Medical Biological Sciences.

These prizes are a testament to the dedication and ingenuity of our colleagues, making significant contributions from mental health and quantum computing to genomics and immunology. We are very proud of them and their work, which has driven positive change for the people of NSW and beyond.

UNSW Business School's #1 AFR BOSS three-peat

I am pleased to share the news that UNSW’s Business School has been ranked #1 for the third consecutive year in the annual AFR BOSS rankings published yesterday. The rankings assess 36 Australian Business Schools across four categories: career outcomes, research, teaching and reputation.  

It is increasingly difficult for Business Schools to stand out on the local and international stage, and I am proud for our Business School to again have been recognised as the leading Business School in Australia. We have a well-earned reputation for having outstanding graduate outcomes, setting students up for lifetime careers that shape policy, changing industry practices and creating new ventures and employment – in other words, ‘careers that matter’.

This outstanding result highlights the excellence of our students, the dedication of our staff, the influence of our engaged worldwide network of alumni, and the deep partnerships we foster with industry for research and graduate employment. I reiterate Dean of UNSW Business School Professor Frederik Anseel’s comment that rankings are not merely a competitive assessment of universities, they reflect the unremitting focus on excellence of our remarkable UNSW community. Congratulations to all in the UNSW Business School!

UNSW #1 for startups and spinouts

In further great news, UNSW has again ranked number one in the country for the largest number of new startup and spinout companies founded through technology developed at the university. The UNSW-derived projects include new treatments for tissue surgery, clean fuel, next-gen solar modelling and virtual reality driving simulators. This is the third consecutive year UNSW has topped the annual Survey of Commercialisation Outcomes from Public Research Report. UNSW was also recently named Entrepreneurial University of the Year in the Asia Pacific region at the prestigious 2024 Triple E Awards ceremony held in Kuala Lumpur. These accolades reinforce our position as Australasia’s leading institution in research commercialisation and entrepreneurship.

In related news, Flame Security International (FSI) has won the Knowledge Commercialisation Australia (KCA) Best Industry-Research Collaboration Award. This is the second year in a row that one of UNSW’s 16 co-located companies has won this award. FSI was recognised for its innovative fire-retardant paint, FIRECOAT (already available at Bunnings and soon to be available in the US). This award is testament to the successful six-year collaboration with UNSW researchers led by Professor Guan Yeoh.

Congratulations to all who have contributed to these achievements.

Celebrating the power of collaboration

Another event I had the pleasure of attending recently was held at the UNSW Galleries at our Paddington Campus to thank UNSW’s community of external partners, collaborators, advocates and donors for their valuable partnership and support during 2024.

It was also an opportunity to showcase UNSW’s innovation and research, including a thought-provoking exhibition and video giving a snapshot of the many initiatives being undertaken by the UNSW community that typify the power of collaboration. The whole evening was a reaffirmation of the enormous effect we can have when we work together with a genuine spirit of partnership.

Final opportunities to provide feedback on draft UNSW Strategy

Thank you to the team that brought us last week’s ‘UNSW Strategy Expo – Connecting you with Progress for All’.

This was an opportunity for students and staff to engage with the strategy’s draft themes, objectives and flagship initiatives. The Michael Crouch Innovation Centre was lined with posters that explained the nine Societal Impact Focus Areas and Impact Pathways that will focus UNSW’s work over the next 10 years as we strive for our ultimate objective of Progress for All.

The daily talks and panels were important features of the Expo. They demonstrated areas in which our students, colleagues and collaborators are already making an extraordinary difference for people here in Australia and around the world.

Over the four days of the Expo, students and staff provided more than 4300 responses to a survey asking for feedback on the draft strategy materials. This feedback will be considered carefully as we make final refinements and complete the strategy in readiness for 2025.

If you haven’t had the chance, there’s still time to provide feedback on the draft strategic themes, objectives and initiatives. Find out more in this week’s Inside UNSW.

VIPs’ innovative inventions in our Assistive Tech Hub

At the recent 360 Impact event celebrating our donors and the life-changing impacts their generosity has enabled, I was privileged to meet UNSW Engineering student Keira Moran.

Keira and her teammates in UNSW’s Assistive Tech Hub have created a low-cost, language-agnostic communications device to make it easier for people with communication difficulties in low-resource communities to express themselves. The electronic device is similar in layout to a book (see photos). It has space for 90 icons that represent common items and phrases the user might want to express. The icons and their meanings can be swapped out depending on the needs of the device’s user. The preferred phrases are recorded by a family member, carer or support worker and then the user simply presses the button alongside the icon and the recorded phrase is said aloud.

Professor Attila Brungs with UNSW Engineering student Keira Moran at the 360 Impact event.


It is incredible how many of our students are focusing on concrete and positive ways to react to global challenges and are changing society for the better, even before they graduate. Keira envisages that people with cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, stroke or autism spectrum disorder would be among those who would benefit from using this team’s invention. I was impressed by the ingenuity of Keira and her teammates and their clear desire to ‘walk the talk’ of improving lives in communities around the world.

The team co-developed the device with students and colleagues at the Solomon Islands National University, who also advised on usability and contextual appropriateness for potential users in the Solomons. Clinicians in Tonga, Fiji and Samoa have expressed interest in the device too.

Keira and six student peers comprise two teams undertaking an elective or thesis with the Assistive Tech Hub’s Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program, supervised by Academic Team Lead Associate Professor Lauren Kark

Visit by Indian Education Minister

As a world-leading university, UNSW often has delegations visit to explore our cutting-edge research and innovative programs, gain insights into our educational policies and practices and identify areas for collaboration. On Friday, UNSW had the honour of hosting the Indian Minister for Education, The Honourable Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, and other representatives from the Government of India, the Australian Government and the Group of Eight (Go8). The visit also included a moderated discussion with Indian PhD candidates studying at Go8 universities who shared their experiences of pursuing their research in Australia. Read more on the UNSW Newsroom.

Leading the way in Cyber Security

Data integrity and security are core to our University’s effective operation, and I’m pleased to share that UNSW is now ISO27001 certified. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 27001 is a globally recognised standard focusing on managing the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and systems. This certification was achieved thanks to the collaborative efforts of teams across the University. It will allow us to demonstrate to our University partners that UNSW has a mature information security governance and risk management practice. Congratulations to all involved. We, however, can never become complacent in the area and constant improvement and attention are key!

I would also like to congratulate UNSW’s Director of Cyber Security and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Derek Winter, who won the Education Security Leader of the Year Award at the inaugural iTnews Benchmark Awards: Security recognising CISO leadership and driving effective cyber security teams and programs from a cross-section of Australian businesses.

Academic Success Monitor wins – again!

Student success, particularly identifying how and when students most need support, is an inextricable part of academic endeavour at UNSW. The Academic Success Monitor (ASM) has won a 2024 Gartner Eye on Innovation Award for Education, recognising innovative use of technology to drive best-in-class initiatives. The ASM identifies students at risk of falling off track in their course earlier in the teaching period through machine learning analysis, providing personalised AI-driven insights and support suggestions.

This is the third big accolade for the ASM. It was shortlisted for the AI in Education Award in the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2024, and it is a Digital Education Impact Case Study for the UNESCO Institute for Information in Education. What a fantastic example of UNSW’s commitment to use the latest technology to enhance the deep educational expertise of colleagues to foster a supportive learning environment that addresses individual students’ needs. Read more in this edition of Inside UNSW.

Vale Emeritus Professor John Arnold

I was saddened to hear of the passing of former Deputy Rector of UNSW Canberra Emeritus Professor John Arnold last Friday. John made an outstanding contribution to UNSW over more than four decades, through his innovative research, impactful teaching and exemplary leadership.

John joined UNSW in 1978 as a Teaching Fellow at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, where his career flourished. He received his PhD in 1984, became Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1997, Head of the School of Electrical Engineering in 1998, and Head of the new School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering following a restructure at UNSW Canberra in 2003, a position he held until his appointment as Deputy Rector in 2006.

John leaves a lasting legacy at UNSW Canberra and will be deeply missed. I extend my condolences to John’s family, loved ones and all who were fortunate to know him.

There’s even more Inside UNSW…

This year has been filled with memorable 75th birthday celebrations and lots of opportunities to look back over the years and reflect on our University’s incredible achievements. How much do you know about UNSW’s history? Try the new interactive quiz to see how much you know, it’s a fascinating journey through decades.

Best regards
Attila

Professor Attila Brungs
Vice-Chancellor and President

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