Research Awards

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence (Open)

$10,000

The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence recognises an individual researcher who has achieved the highest level of excellence in their research activity for the preceding five years regardless of their career stage. The purpose of this Award is to recognise and encourage outstanding researchers with proven international reputations undertaking research of significant importance in its field, and who have made a significant contribution in advancing knowledge and research outcomes.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Open)

$3,000

The RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Open) recognises an individual researcher who has achieved the highest level of excellence in their research activity for the preceding five years regardless of their career stage. The purpose of this Award is to recognise and encourage outstanding researchers with proven international reputations undertaking research that is of significant importance in its field and who have made a significant contribution in advancing knowledge and research outcomes.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence (Team)

$10,000

The Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence (Team) recognises a team of RMIT researchers who have collectively demonstrated excellence in their research activity. The purpose of this award is to recognise and encourage outstanding teams of researchers undertaking research that is of major importance in its field and who have made a significant contribution in advancing knowledge and research outcomes.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Team)

$3,000

The RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Team) recognises a team of RMIT researchers who have collectively demonstrated excellence in their research activity. The purpose of this Award is to recognise and encourage outstanding teams of researchers undertaking research that is of major importance in its field and who have made a significant contribution in advancing knowledge and research outcomes.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence (Mid-Career Researcher)

$10,000

The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence (Mid-Career Researcher) recognises an individual Mid-Career Researcher (MCR) who has achieved the highest level of excellence in their research activity. The purpose of this Award is to recognise and encourage outstanding researchers with proven international reputations undertaking research that is of significant importance in its field and who have made a significant contribution in advancing knowledge and research outcomes.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Mid-Career Researcher)

$3,000

The RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Mid-Career Researcher) recognises an individual Mid-Career Researcher (MCR) who has achieved the highest level of excellence in their research activity. The purpose of this Award is to recognise and encourage outstanding researchers with proven international reputations undertaking research that is of significant importance in its field and who have made a significant contribution in advancing knowledge and research outcomes.

Eligibility

In addition to the general eligibility, those eligible for nomination are MCR academics who are between 5 to 15 years’ research experience since the award of a PhD or equivalent qualification at the time of the nomination closing date or longer if combined with periods of significant career interruption (see RMIT’s Achievement Relative to Opportunity Policy).

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence (Early Career Researcher)

$10,000

The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence (Early Career Researcher) recognises an individual early career academic (ECR) who has achieved the highest level of excellence in their research activity for the preceding three years. The purpose of this Award is to recognise and encourage outstanding researchers undertaking research that is of significant importance in its field and who have made a significant contribution in advancing knowledge and research outcomes.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Early Career Researcher)

$3,000

The RMIT Award for Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher (ECR) recognises an RMIT early career academic who has achieved the highest level of excellence in their research activity for the preceding three years. The purpose of this Award is to recognise and encourage outstanding researchers undertaking research that is of significant importance in its field and who have made a significant contribution in advancing knowledge and research outcomes.

Eligibility

In addition to the general eligibility, those eligible for nomination are ECR academics who have been awarded a PhD or equivalent qualification for a period of less than or equal to 5 years at the time of their nomination or longer if combined with periods of significant career interruption (see RMIT’s Achievement Relative to Opportunity Policy

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Supervision

$10,000

The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Supervision recognises an individual who demonstrates a track record of successful HDR candidate outcomes and engagement in high quality supervisory practice and research supervision leadership.

The recipient of this Award is nominated by RMIT for the Australian Council of Graduate Research Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Supervision the following year.

Eligibility

In addition to the General Eligibility, this Award is open to all eligible academic staff who meet the following:

• A registered supervisor who is currently engaged in research supervision at RMIT.
• Nominees must have a continuing or contract position at no less than .4 EFT for a minimum of two years at the time of application.
• Possess a cumulative supervisory record of at least 10 HDR successful and timely completions, spanning across any university.

RMIT Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Leadership

$3,000

The RMIT Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Supervision recognises an individual who demonstrates a track record of successful HDR candidate outcomes and engagement in high quality supervisory practice and research supervision leadership.

The recipient of this Award is nominated by RMIT for the Australian Council of Graduate Research Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Leadership the following year.

Eligibility

In addition to the General Eligibility, this Award is open to all eligible academic staff who meet the following:

• A registered supervisor who is currently engaged in research supervision at RMIT.
• Nominees must have a continuing or contract position at no less than .4 EFT for a minimum of two years at the time of application.
• Possess a cumulative supervisory record of at least 5 HDR successful and timely completions, spanning across any university.
• HDR Supervisor nominees must provide at least one statement of support from one of their own HDR graduates and a second statement of support from the relevant HDR Coordinator or Dean, Head of School, EIP Director or equivalent.

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Excellence (Higher Degree by Research)

$3,000

The Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Excellence (Higher Degree by Research) recognises an outstanding Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidate who has achieved the highest levels of excellence in research during the completion of their degree.

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence (Higher Degree by Research)

$1,500

The RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Higher Degree by Research) recognises an outstanding Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidate who has achieved the highest levels of excellence in research during the completion of their degree.

Eligibility

Nominees for the Vice-Chancellor Prize for Research Excellence (HDR) and the RMIT Prize for Research Excellence (HDR) must have completed their RMIT HDR degree between the beginning of the preceding calendar year and the award's nomination deadline (i.e., January 1, 2022 - September 22, 2023).

• Nominees must have completed their degree on time, within four years for a PhD or two years for a Masters (EFTSL).
• Eligibility requires the thesis/project to be classified as C1 – Passed or C2 – Passed subject to minor amendments.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Open)

$10,000

The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Open) recognises an individual researcher whose research, over the past five years, has achieved or shown the potential to achieve considerable research engagement and impact outside the academic community. The definition of impact for this Award includes the demonstrable contribution that research makes to society, the arts and culture, national security, manufacturing, public policy or services, design, health, the environment and biodiversity, the economy, quality of life, or in other spheres beyond contributions to academia.

RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Open)

$3,000

The RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact recognises an individual researcher whose research, over the past five years, has either realised or shown the potential to realise significant research engagement and impact outside the academic community. The definition of impact for this award includes the demonstrable contribution that research makes to society, the arts and culture, national security, manufacturing, public policy or services, design, health, the environment and biodiversity, the economy, quality of life, or in other spheres beyond contributions to academia.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Team)

$10,000

The Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Team) recognises and encourages outstanding research teams whose research has achieved considerable research engagement and impact outside the academic community. The definition of impact for this Award includes the demonstrable contribution that research makes to society, the arts and culture, national security, manufacturing, public policy or services, design, health, the environment and biodiversity, the economy, quality of life, or in other spheres beyond contributions to academia.

RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Team)

$3,000

The RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Team) recognises and encourages outstanding research teams whose research has either realised or shown the potential to realise significant research engagement and impact outside the academic community. definition of impact for this award includes the demonstrable contribution that research makes to the economy, society, culture, national security, public policy or services, health, the environment, or quality of life, beyond contributions to academia.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Mid-Career Researcher)

$10,000

The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Engagement and Impact Mid-Career Researcher (MCR) recognises an individual Mid-Career Researcher whose research has achieved considerable research engagement and impact outside the academic community in the preceding five years. The definition of impact for this Award includes the demonstrable contribution that research makes to society, the arts and culture, national security, manufacturing, public policy or services, design, health, the environment and biodiversity, the economy, quality of life, or in other spheres beyond contributions to academia.

RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Mid-Career Researcher)

$3,000

The RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Mid-Career Researcher) recognises an individual Mid-Career Researcher (MCR) whose research has achieved considerable research engagement and impact outside the academic community in the preceding five years. The definition of impact for this award includes the demonstrable contribution that research makes to society, the arts and culture, national security, manufacturing, public policy or services, design, health, the environment and biodiversity, the economy, quality of life, or in other spheres beyond contributions to academia.

Eligibility

In addition to the general eligibility, those eligible for nomination are MCR academics who are between 5 to 15 years’ research experience since the award of a PhD or equivalent qualification at the time of the nomination closing date or longer if combined with periods of significant career interruption (see RMIT’s Achievement Relative to Opportunity Policy).

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Early Career Researcher)

$10,000

The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Engagement and Impact Early Career Researcher (ECR) recognises an individual ECR researcher whose research has achieved considerable research engagement and impact outside the academic community in the preceding three years. The definition of impact for this award includes the demonstrable contribution that research makes to society, the arts and culture, national security, manufacturing, public policy or services, design, health, the environment and biodiversity, the economy, quality of life, or in other spheres beyond contributions to academia.

RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Early Career Researcher)

$3,000

The RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Early Career Researcher) recognises an individual early career researcher (ECR) whose research has shown potential research engagement and impact outside the academic community in the preceding three years. The definition of impact for this award includes the demonstrable contribution that research makes to society, the arts and culture, national security, manufacturing, public policy or services, design, health, the environment and biodiversity, the economy, quality of life, or in other spheres beyond contributions to academia.

Eligibility

In addition to the general eligibility, those eligible for nomination are ECR researchers who have been awarded a PhD or equivalent qualification for a period of less than or equal to 5 years at the time of their nomination or longer if combined with periods of significant career interruption (see RMIT’s Achievement Relative to Opportunity Policy).

RMIT Award for Research Engagement and Impact – Industry Engagement in Graduate Research

$3,000

The RMIT Award for Industry Engagement in Graduate Research recognises an HDR coordinator, supervisor or team of supervisors who have initiated or supported innovative and transformational engagement between higher degree research candidates and industry partners.

The recipient(s) of this award are nominated by RMIT for the Australian Council of Graduate Research Award for Promoting Industry Engagement in Graduate Research the following year.

Eligibility

In addition to the General Eligibility, this Award is open to all eligible academic staff who meet the following:

• A registered supervisor who is currently engaged in research supervision at RMIT.
• Nominees must have a continuing or contract position at no less than .4 EFT for a minimum of two years at the time of application. In the case of a team nomination, the majority of the members of the team must meet this condition.
• Possess a cumulative supervisory record of at least 5 HDR completions, spanning across any university.

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Engagement and Impact (Higher Degree by Research)

$3,000

The Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Engagement and Impact (Higher Degree by Research) is awarded to a Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidate who can demonstrate the potential for significant research engagement and impact of their research outside the academic community. The definition of impact for this Award includes the demonstrable contribution that research makes to society, the arts and culture, national security, manufacturing, public policy or services, design, health, the environment and biodiversity, the economy, quality of life, or in other spheres beyond contributions to academia.

RMIT Prize for Research Engagement and Impact (Higher Degree by Research)

$1,500

The RMIT Prize for Research Engagement and Impact (Higher Degree by Research) is awarded to a Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidate who can demonstrate the potential for significant research engagement and impact of their research outside the academic community. The definition of impact for this award includes the demonstrable contribution that research makes to society, the arts and culture, national security, manufacturing, public policy or services, design, health, the environment and biodiversity, the economy, quality of life, or in other spheres beyond contributions to academia.

Eligibility

Nominees for the Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Engagement and Impact (HDR) and RMIT Prize for Research Engagement and Impact (HDR) must be current RMIT University HDR candidates who have completed their Confirmation of Candidature and have not yet graduated by the award’s deadline.

Awards for Research Excellence

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence

Professor Magdalena Plebanski

Professor Magdalena Plebanski (PhD, MBA, GradDipPsySt, BScHon) is recipient a prestigious NHMRC Senior Research Fellow LB award, and Head of the Translational Immunology and Nanotechnology Program in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences at RMIT University. She is also the Biomedical and Health Innovation Enabling Capability Platform (BHI-ECP) Director. Since arriving from Oxford University in the UK 20 years ago, she has held continuous externalNHMRC and other competitive funding for her research. During her career she pioneered concepts on how parasites and cancer cells evade the immune system with research published consistently in top tier journals (Science, Nature, Lancet, Nature Medicine, Immunity amongst others), and international recognition such as the Howard Hughes International Scholar Award (USA). She has >180 full-length peer-reviewed papers, plus published abstracts and book chapters with >11,000 citations (Google Scholar) or >220 publications in total. Additionally, her fundamental insights into how nanoparticles interact with the immune system, led her to practically develop and commercialize nanovaccines and lung nanotherapeutics, with around 50 patents in 10 patent families, supporting the formation of multiple successful biotechnology companies nationally and internationally, in which she played diverse roles as inventor, Director, CSO and CEO. She currently leads research engaging industry partners and hospitals in human clinical trials to deliver much needed innovation in diagnostics, vaccines and immune therapies to vulnerable populations: older adults and women with ovarian cancer.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher

Associate Professor Sefa Awaworyi Churchill

Dr Awaworyi Churchill’s inter-disciplinary research focuses on development, health, and energy economics. He has made outstanding contributions to these fields with publications in some of the most prestigious general interest economics and field journals. His contribution as a leader in the field of his research is evidenced by the publication of over 80 books, book chapters and articles in top-ranking journal outlets, and presentations at various international conferences across the US, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. He has also been the recipient of several prestigious academic research awards including an Endeavour Fellowship Award and Research Excellence Awards at the School, College and University levels at RMIT University. Awaworyi Churchill has a strong record for attracting external grants. He serves as managing guest editor for two prestigious field journals (Energy Economics and Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization) and is an editorial board member for the Sage Open Journal and the Journal of Economics, Race and Policy.

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Excellence – Higher Degree by Research

Dr Shruti Nirantar

Shruti’s PhD work was focused on exploring new class of nanoscale electro-ionic devices based on smart and economic materials. Her work successfully produced prototypes for memory devices, and fundamental electronic component - transistor built with just metal and air. This work contributed in the advancement of efficient silicon-free nanoelectronic technology, with significant relevance to the international scientific community and industry.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Supervision Excellence

Professor Dayanthi Nugegoda

Professor Dayanthi Nugegoda is an Ecotoxicologist, with 26 years of research on monitoring, minimising and remediating pollution in Australia. She has published 4 books, 4 book chapters, 160+ scientific papers and served on expert panels for Governments and Industry. She has graduated 28 HDR (23 PhD) candidates at RMIT (25 as Senior Supervisor) and currently supervises 13 (8 as Senior Supervisor). Her HDR have first authorship of many publications leading to recognition of RMIT as the premier University for HDR in ecotoxicology. Since 2017 she graduated 7 PhD candidates as Senior supervisor (2 as associate) and her team published 38 high quality papers. Dayanthi has sustained excellence in research supervision at RMIT, mentored junior supervisors and demonstrated leadership and commitment to diversity and inclusion in research training. Her passion is to guide young scientists in ecotoxicology to be future ambassadors and influence industry, governments and policy; ensuring sustainable development.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact

Dr Charles T. Hunt

Dr Charles Hunt’s internationally recognised research on United Nations (UN) peace operations has contributed to significant changes in policy and praxis at a national and international level. His work on protecting civilians in conflict-affected societies has paved the way for improvements in practice including the production of a practical field handbook guiding Australian uniformed and civilian personnel during conflict and humanitarian crisis response operations. Dr Hunt’s expertise has significantly influenced the policy-making of multiple governments and contributed to major UN reform initiatives. His work provides a rigorous evidence base for end-users seeking to safeguard civilian life amid some of the deadliest conflicts around the world. Through regular invitations to provide expert commentary in the media, and multiple invited panels and events, Charles’ research has led to increased awareness and understanding of the policies and practices that improve the prospects for civilians caught up in conflict.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher

Associate Professor Shelley Marshall

Research-based Collaborative leadership is how Associate Professor Shelley Marshall brings about change. Faced with a seemingly intractable stand-off between business and worker-rights groups in Thailand, Shelley led stakeholders in the Thai Ministry of Labour on a two-year action-research project. It built consensus about the need to enforce laws for Thailand’s most vulnerable workers. Today, labour inspectors around Thailand are assisting homeworkers using the tools Shelley co-designed with those stakeholders. Shelley has also been the driver behind the creation of a world-first network of academics and human rights organisations: the Australian Corporate Accountability Network. It empowers NGOs with much needed evidence and amplifies scholarly research. With over 100 members, ACAN is attaining a policy influence that would not have been possible without this alliance. She has guided RMIT interns to provide advice to ACAN members on human rights and climate change litigation. She now brings this collaborative spirit to RMIT’s new Business and Human Rights Centre.

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research

Dr Syed Minhaj Saleem Kazmi

Dr Syed Minhaj Saleem Kazmi has been a highly motivated and outstanding individual during his PhD research. His research focuses on the development of innovative materials and technologies for the recycling of different construction and industrial wastes into concrete without compromising the performance of concrete. His research work contributed to the development of novel rubberised concrete processing technology, a pioneering technology, for the efficient utilisation of rubber and construction and demolition wastes in concrete without strength deficiency.

Syed was awarded the RMIT School of Engineering HDR Impact Prize 2020, HDR Publication Prize 2019 and CSIRO On Prime performance bonus during his candidature. He has worked as an international exchange research student at Shenzhen University, China and presented his research at multiple international conferences and industry meetings. Syed has published 29 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious research journals/conferences during his candidature, and his work has been cited 425+ times by the academic community.

Awards for Research Excellence

RMIT Research Excellence and Impact awards and prizes

RMIT Research Excellence – Team Award

The Technology, Communication & Policy Lab, DERC

The Technology, Communication and Policy (TCP) Lab in the Digital Ethnography Research Centre (DERC) in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT was formed in 2017 and comprises seven staff members, led by Distinguished Professor Julian Thomas. The Lab’s work addresses urgent problems in technological, cultural and social change. The Lab draws on a range of disciplines and methods, and works extensively with partners across universities, government, and the non-government and industry sectors. 

The Lab has made substantial contributions to: 

• Developing positive solutions to problems in communications and cultural policy and industries; 
• Providing useful evidence and analysis to inform public debate; 
• Conceptual and theoretical innovation in media and communication disciplines; and 
• Training outstanding digital media and communication researchers 

Lab members have secured highly competitive ARC grants totalling almost $39 million, including a Centre of Excellence, three Future Fellowships, one DECRA, one LIEF project, three Linkage Projects, and three Discovery Projects. They have also secured industry funding totalling more than $1.05 million. 

The team members are: 

• Distinguished Professor Julian Thomas​
• Associate Professor Ellie Rennie​
• Associate Professor Rowan Wilken​
• Associate Professor Ramon Lobato​
• Associate Professor Haiqing Yu​
• Dr Jenny Kennedy​
• Dr James Meese​

RMIT Award for Innovative Research Supervision

Dr Konrad Peszynski

Dr Konrad Peszynski is a passionate and innovative supervisor who has supervised 20 HDR Candidates to date and has jointly published 25 papers in high-ranking journals, conferences and book chapters. As School HDR Coordinator between 2014 and 2018, Dr Peszynski was an active member of the University Graduate Research Committee (GRC) that oversaw the development and implementation of a range of important HDR policies.  At the School level, 

Dr Peszynski introduced new procedures such as the ‘expression of interest website’, supervision transparency and supervision/candidate quality control. Since implementing these initiatives, HDR candidate engagement and intellectual climate increased not only within the School but across the College of Business and Law, with some initiatives being adopted in other parts of RMIT University. Dr Peszynski was the recipient of the 2018 School of Business IT and Logistics Award for HDR Supervision and the 2018 College Award for Innovative Research Supervision (by School). 

RMIT Award for Excellence – Graduate Research Leadership

Associate Professor Georgina Haydon

In her role as the Program Manager of the Higher Degrees by Research Program in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, Associate Professor Georgina Heydon has developed protocols and systems that have contributed substantially to excellent research training outcomes, as well as developing the new milestone procedures university-wide. 

Georgina uses her exceptional leadership skills in managing a high number of complex and challenging candidatures whilst maintaining high standards and enhancing student engagement and the intellectual climate in the Higher Degrees by Research programs.

RMIT Award for Excellence – Industry Engagement in Graduate Research

Professor Babak Abbasi

Professor Abbasi is a professor of Business Analytics and Decision Sciences. He started a long-term research collaboration with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS) in 2010. This collaboration has resulted in numerous industry projects, joint publications, industry reports, and PhD supported and funded projects. This relationship has provided opportunities for PhD students to work on practical problems in the blood supply chain area. 

The work of his PhD students in the area of improving blood management has been recognised at national and international levels evidenced by winning the ‘Best PhD Project Award’ at the International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES) and the ‘Best Paper Award’ at International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM/ASOR). He has co-authored several articles in leading journals with his PhD students. 

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – Technology

Associate Professor Donald Wlodkowic

Associate Professor Donald Wlodkowic, a former Australian Research Council Fellow and Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow, is a pioneer of next-generation biomicrofluidic technologies for toxicology research on small aquatic model organisms as well as state-of-the-art innovations in digital video-based technologies for high-throughput analysis of animal behaviour. He is one of Australia’s leading experts in experimental behavioural neurotoxicology with interests spanning effects of industrial pollutants, neurotoxins and neuroactive drugs on central nervous systems. 

A highly innovative emphasis of his research is focused on chemical modulation of innate behavioural and cognitive (learning and memory retrieval) functions as well as emerging strategies to develop and evaluate new neuroactive and neuroprotective drugs using alternative proxy biological models.  

His publications have been cited over 4200 times with an h-index of 36. His close collaboration with industry led to a number of co-developed research projects, significant value creation and translation of research for diverse stakeholders.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – Design

Professor Ellie Rennie

Professor Ellie Rennie is known within and beyond academia for research on complex problems related to technology infrastructures. Engagement with communities and industry is a core part of her research methods and has helped her to achieve significant research impact. Over the past five years her research on digital inclusion has been used by policymakers and telecommunication companies to create better products and outcomes for people living in remote communities. She is now pioneering research into the social outcomes of emerging distributed technologies, investigating how these technologies influence cooperation, inclusion and accountability across different domains. Her research is advancing understanding of the capabilities of civil society organisations to undertake social innovation using media and communication technologies. 

She commenced a prestigious ARC Future Fellowship in 2020. 

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – Enterprise

Associate Professor Jeff Shimeta

Associate Professor Jeff Shimeta leads highly impactful, industry engaged, collaborative research across a wide range of marine environmental problems. He has long-standing research and funding relationships with Australian Defence Science & Technology, state environmental agencies, and water resource industries. His research spans impacts and management of marine invasive species, ecology of marine biofouling and development of technologies for reducing its impact on materials and infrastructure, impacts of chemical pollutants in aquatic habitats, and more. 

The strategic-basic research in his group has led to new solutions in the sectors of environmental management and marine infrastructure and operations. Jeff brings a uniquely multidisciplinary approach to his research and his collaborations, which has facilitated his industry engagement and provides an inspiring model for his research students, who have excelled under his supervision. He has a sustained record of industry funding, high quality research outputs, and recognition as an expert in his field. 

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher (Technology)

Dr Andy Boes

Dr Andy Boes is a photonics engineer who specialises in photonic integrated circuits and their use for analog photonic systems, such as sensors and signal processing.  

Boes’ unique combination of imagination, methodical approach and  unerring drive to succeed resulted in a PhD that was noted as ‘outstanding’ by his international examiners and resulted in more than 10 collaborative publications (including five as the first author) and nomination to a major team member in the ARC Centre CUDOS. He has collaborated successfully with an Australian SME Advanced Navigation, where he is exploring integrated optical circuit chips for optical gyroscopes aimed at inertial navigation systems that have enabled him to secure a major research grant (CRC-P round 9) with Advanced Navigation.  

Andy is currently the team leader of the defence team at the Integrated Photonics and Applications Centre.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher (Design)

Dr Leah Heiss

Dr Leah Heiss is an award‐winning RMIT designer, researcher and academic who works at the nexus of design, health and emerging Technologies. Her research focuses on designing wearable health technologies, services and experiences that aim to improve or save Lives. Her wearable technologies include jewellery to administer insulin, cardiac monitoring jewellery, swallowable devices to detect disease and emergency jewellery for times of medical crisis. 

The Facett hearing aid, that Leah designed for Blamey Saunders hears won many awards including the 2018 Australian Good Design Award of the Year, the CSIRO Design Innovation Award and a Premier’s Design Award. Leah is currently working with RMIT Engineering researchers on the use of stretchable sensors for heart health, pre-diabetes and monitoring COVID-19 symptoms in aged care.  

She is co-director of the RMIT Wearables and Sensing Network that brings together over 75 researchers from 12 RMIT Schools to collaborate and connect.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher (Enterprise)

Dr Kate Nguyen

Dr Kate Nguyen is an exceptional early career researcher whose progress and innovation in construction has attracted $2.4 million in government funding over the past three years. Following the Discovery Early Career Researchers Award from the Australian Research Council and the 2019 Victoria Fellowship in Physical Sciences, she is RMIT's first winner of the prestigious L'OREAL-UNESCO Women in Science Fellowship award in 2020 for her research excellence. 

Dr Nguyen's work has been recognised nationally thanks to her strong commitment to Engineers Australia and Standards Australia. She has developed international cooperation with the world's leading experts and attracted significant mainstream media attention. At the forefront of research into advanced building materials and technologies, one of her publications was ranked among the most cited articles in the leading journal Composites Part B: Engineering, while her work has already attracted more than 1,400 citations.

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – Higher Degree by Research (Technology)

Dr Mohammad Saberian Boroujeni

Dr Mohammad Saberian Boroujeni completed his PhD in the field of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering. Mohammad explored new types of sustainable pavements by using recycled waste materials, including construction and demolition wastes, crushed glass and crumb rubber. His innovative research and the testified low-cost, low-carbon-footprint stabilisation technology has attracted increasing attention from local industry including Hiway Stabilizers Australia Pty. Ltd. and Wacker Chemicals Pty. Ltd. His work also received attention from the media Daily Mail Australia, Roads and Infrastructure Magazine, ScienceDaily, Top Stories Today. 

During his PhD study, Mohammad published 32 journal articles, of which 21 were Q1 articles including 15 first-author papers published in well-known top international journals. He was the recipient of the HDR Publication Prize (2020), the APR Intern Impact Prize (2019) and the Ford Publication Prize (2018). 

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – Higher Degree by Research (Design)

Dr Tullia O'Neil

Dr O’Neill is a sexual violence researcher with a background in criminology and qualitative research. Her thesis explores how victim-survivors speak out about sexual violence in digital contexts. Her research sheds light on what justice means for victim-survivors - demonstrating how online spaces provide new opportunities to be heard, as well as support healing and connection. An analysis of the #MeToo hashtag movement, which coincidentally unfolded mid-way through the research in September 2017 provided valuable insights into victim-survivors’ understanding of ‘speaking out’ prior, during, and after the onset of #MeToo.  

Central to her research is the importance and impact of the voices of victim-survivors and that through sharing their experiences online they significantly contribute to change.   

O’Neill published a sole authored paper in a top quartile journal in 2018 during her candidature as well as co-authored an article for The Conversation and numerous conference papers.

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – Higher Degree by Research (Enterprise)

Dr Nitu Syed

Nitu Syed’s research demonstrate a new paradigm in developing ultra-large and atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) material for next-generation electronic applications. She developed facile, low-temperature liquid metal-based synthesis strategies allowing the isolation of centimetre-scale, super thin nanosheets of non-stratified materials, drastically increasing the number of accessible 2D materials. 

Various novel properties of these ultra-thin materials have been unlocked which have provided solutions to numerous technological challenges. The elegance of the developed synthesis process is that it doesn’t require expensive or specialised equipment to create the super thin wafer-scale nanomaterials for various photocatalytic, piezoelectric and optoelectronic applications. Her research will have tremendous environmental impact by eliminating constraints in fabrication techniques and obstacles to scalability. Specifically, her developed industry-compatible procedure to print large surface area 2D piezoelectric films offers tremendous opportunities for developing piezo-sensors and energy harvesters.  

In addition, in future the piezoelectric materials can be used in different medical and healthcare sensors.

Awards for Research Impact

RMIT Award for Impact and Collaboration - Team Award

The Multifunctional Composites Research Group

The Multifunctional Composites Research Team is a world-renowned group with the mission to partner with industry and government in the application of multifunctional fibre-reinforced polymer composites. The group collaborates with multiple sectors, including aerospace, automotive and defence, to enable wealth generation and enhanced national security. The multidisciplinary team, which includes engineers, materials scientists, and chemists, applies its diverse skills to undertake computational and experimental research to advance the field of composite materials, which in 2020 is valued globally at about AUD$240 billion. 

The research conducted by the Multifunctional Composites Research Team has created demonstrable impact including patentable advanced manufacturing technologies; the creation of fire structural property databanks and related models that have since been adopted by the Royal Australian Navy and the United States Navy; the diversion of end-of-life polymeric materials from the landfill; the development of shape memory foam that mitigates the risk of bed ulcers due to long-term hospitalisation; the creation of lightweight and structurally efficient composite structures for reducing the carbon footprint of transport vehicles, and the protection of Australian and allied citizens by solving defence problems.

The team members are: 

• Distinguished Professor Adrian Mouritz​
• Professor Pier Marzocca​
  
• Professor Stuart Bateman​
  
• Associate Professor Adrian Orifici​
  
• Associate Professor Akbar Khatibi​
  
• Associate Professor Everson Kandare​
  
• Associate Professor Raj Das​
  
• Dr Raj Ladani​
  
• Dr Jessirie Dilag​
  
• Dr Joel Galos​
  
• Dr Katherine Grigoriou​
  

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Technology

Dr Sarvesh Soni

Dr Soni is a trained microbiologist and incorporates the principles and methodologies for creating impact from his research in multi-disciplinary fields such as bioresource management and technology, citizen science, diagnostics and nanotherapeutics. The overarching goal of his research in ‘the sustainable mitigation of public health risks’, is achieved through engagement with individuals, communities, and public and private organisations. He is an experienced academician doing highly multidisciplinary research and is skilled in Research and Development (R&D), disruptive innovation, and technology entrepreneurship. 

The potential and impact of his research includes transformation in the way biosolids are managed in Australia which paves the way for improved and more environmentally sustainable practices globally;  inhaled nano-therapeutics for deadly tuberculosis; point of care microbial detection technology for risk mitigation; policy change in regard to the storage and release of recycled water; and optimization of the use of sunscreens in the marine environment. 

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Design

Professor Ingo Karpen

Professor Ingo Karpen is a leading international expert in strategic design and service design. Researching and practicing these purposeful approaches to innovation, Ingo continuously engages with the community to initiate, lead, and facilitate transformation of ecosystems to better serve people. In recent years Ingo has been leading multiple projects in business and legal sectors to solve complex legacy problems and reimagine user experiences through a design-led approach. Working with various clients, for example, across legal institutions and bringing together a wide range of interdisciplinary stakeholders, Ingo has been responsible for co-designing socio-cultural, architectural, procedural, technological and strategic changes that directly benefit the wider community and importantly some of the most vulnerable members of society.

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Enterprise

Professor Bronwyn Naylor

Professor Naylor has an extended track record in the areas of criminal law and criminology, and within that framework, her work has focused on violations of human rights in detention and incarceration settings and their impact on social justice. Bronwyn has been a Chief Investigator in several major grant-funded projects in these and other fields and has consulted to the Victorian Law Reform Commission on a range of criminal law reforms. In recognition of her work on human rights in places of detention, she has been appointed to a National Advisory Group to the Commonwealth Ombudsman.  

Professor Naylor and her team were recognised with a 2018 Australian Philanthropy Award for its Criminal Record Discrimination Project, which successfully achieved the expungement of childhood criminal records for members of the Stolen Generation in Victoria.

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher (Technology)

Dr Aaron Elbourne

Dr Aaron Elbourne’s research is focused on developing antimicrobial surface and particle technologies for the treatment of antimicrobial resistant bacteria and fungi. Antibiotic-resistant bacterial and fungal infections are a significant health concern as conventional antibiotics are slowly losing their efficacy. Dr Elbourne is working on developing novel materials with antimicrobial properties, such as magnetically activated liquid metal nanoparticles, zinc-based nanostructured surfaces, and 2D materials. Dr Elbourne’s expertise is in investigating soft matter systems using atomic force microscopy. He has been applying this technique to understand the interactions between biological entities and nano-materials, with the aim of developing novel technologies that can kill bacteria or prohibit biofilm formation. He has successfully identified a number of materials which exhibit high levels of antimicrobial activity. 

Dr Elbourne is also applying his expertise to develop next-generation vaccine technologies, antimicrobial technologies, and anti-cancer antibodies, as well as new methods for combating antibiotic resistance. 

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher (Design)

Dr Bruno Schivinski

Dr. Bruno Schivinski’s research has led to major achievements in the development of a cross culturally valid diagnostic tool for Gaming Disorder (GDT) as defined by the World Health Organization. The findings of his research were also used as the scientific foundation for the SMART GAMING Initiative, which was subsequently adopted by ESL Gaming, the largest esports league in the world, as a self-administered test through which gamers can identify whether they are at risk of GDT. The Initiative was widely acknowledged by the media, international press, gaming community, and beyond. The SMART GAMING Initiative has to-date reached and educated more than 250,000 gamers in over 90 countries.

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher (Enterprise)

Dr Abdulgha Mohamed

Dr Abdulghani Mohamed’s research has been substantial and global and resulted from a novel, biomimetic method of minimising the impact of turbulence on aircraft - one of the major causes of aircraft accidents. This has been taken up by RMIT to full patent status and has resulted in significant commercial interest, including two meetings with the Chief Scientist of Lockheed Martin as well as senior staff from Boeing and Airbus. 

Dr Mohamed co-leads the RMIT UAS Research Team which is internationally leading atmospheric turbulence research and received the 2017 RMIT VC Research Excellence Team Award. He was named among Australia’s top defence scientists in 2019 and was awarded a $10K Cash Prize as the 2015 Young Aerospace Innovator for his patented technology. Abdulghani’s research excellence is reflected by his awards and high-quality publications in top aerospace journals in addition to his strong relationships with industry, whereby he received grants (totalling >$1.9M, since 2015). 

RMIT Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research (Technology)

Mr Muhammad Junaid Munir

Muhammad is one of the four inventors of a rubberised concrete processing technology, a pioneering technology, for the efficient utilisation of waste rubber in concrete without causing strength deficiency. This is a significant achievement and has the potential impact to solve the problems affiliated with the inferior performance of rubberised concrete, waste rubber tyres landfilling and other environmental and health concerns. Munir has published 29 research articles including 25 peer-reviewed journal articles and 4 peer-reviewed conference publications during his candidature. 

In 2018, Muhammad received an exchange PhD student scholarship of 100,000 RMB at Shenzhen University. Muhammad has also been awarded the HDR Impact Prize 2020 and HDR Intern Prize 2019 by the School of Engineering, RMIT University. 

RMIT Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research (Design)

Ms Sruthi Kuriakose

Sruthi has a passion for designing new material systems for the next generation of smaller and powerful electronics that could one day replace conventional materials. This could lead to fascinating new technologies such as smartdust and autonomous implantable devices for health/environment monitoring. 

Sruthi`s collaborative works have generated technology to create high-density data storage and translate the functionality of a brain on a chip. Sruthi's work has acquired global recognition which is not only evident from the high-impact, highly cited publications (>150 citations and h index of 6). 

Sruthi has been recognised as one of the Most Innovative Engineers (Electronics and Telecommunications) in Australia 2020 by Engineer’s Australia for her research contributions.

RMIT Prize for Research Impact - Higher Degree by Research (Enterprise)

Ms Shahla Teimouri

Shahla Teimouri is an international PhD candidate in the School of Science in the Food Chemistry & Biophysics Group at RMIT University. Shahla has succeeded in developing a new theoretical framework to predict the dynamics of diffusion in complex systems of swellable food-based biopolymer matrices, which is highly relevant to the field of nutraceutical and functional food design and is a significant development to research in this area. 

Shahla has already published much of her PhD research in top food science journals including Food Hydrocolloids, Food Chemistry and LWT food science and technology (with impact factors of 7.053, 6.306 and 4.006, respectively).

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence

Professor Ross Vlahos

Professor Ross Vlahos is a Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Respiratory Research Group in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences at RMIT University. His internationally competitive and ground-breaking research has identified novel disease mechanisms, paradigms and therapeutic targets for lung diseases including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and respiratory infections. Ross has co-authored more than 100 publications in leading peer reviewed journals, has had continuous National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Australia funding since 2001 and has played a major role in commercially funded work that has confidentiality/patent agreements. He has served on NHMRC Grant Review Panels / Assigners Academy, various international society committees (e.g. American Thoracic Society), numerous Editorial boards, has been invited to present at prestigious Gordon conferences and is currently Deputy co-convenor of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand COPD Special Interest Group, and a Director on the Board of the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists.

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Excellence – Higher Degree by Research

Dr Heba Ahmed

Dr Heba Ahmed’s PhD research investigates the role of Megahertz (MHz) acoustics in synthesis and tuning the properties of smart materials for environmental and energy technologies. Dr Ahmed made a remarkable discovery of the acoustic effect on the known structure of common table salt, the most studied materials in history, and formed two new structures not found in nature. Her research transcends fundamental research, where her low cost acoustic technology for synthesis of 2D Materials and Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) eliminated the necessity for using toxic environmentally harmful solvents, and reduces the greenhouse gases emitted during the conventional production methods. Her research was widely circulated in over 500 national and international media, and was scored by Altmetric among the top 5% most circulated research to have ever been published, drawing an audience of over 100,000. Dr. Ahmed’s research has attracted international industrial collaboration with Made in Space Inc., to provide her acoustic platform to NASA for CO2 scavenging on the International Space Station (ISS).

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Supervision Excellence

Associate Professor Sarah Spencer

Associate Professor Sarah Spencer is a neuroendocrinology researcher with approximately 14 years’ experience. Sarah’s core research focus is on understanding the impact of the early life environment on brain and behaviour. Her recent work also addresses the neurological consequences of poor diet and obesity for the ageing brain. Sarah has 84 career publications, 48 in the past 5 years (since 2014). She has supervised 5 PhD students to completion in the past 3 years and is currently supervising 6 PhD students. Each of the students she has supervised as primary supervisor has graduated with at least 6 publications, with one student publishing an impressive 14 articles, in Q1 journals. Sarah has shown an outstanding commitment to providing a high quality and internationally competitive learning environment for her research students, and provided leadership in mentoring junior supervisors and support for improving the research training outcomes of the university.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact

Professor Dayanthi Nugegoda

Environmental pollution from anthropogenic sources devastates ecosystems and threatens our health and survival. Professor Dayanthi Nugegoda is a pioneering Ecotoxicologist in Australasia whose research investigating effects of pollutants on Australian biota has a significant impact on monitoring, minimising and remediating anthropogenic pollution in our environment. National and international recognition of her research has resulted in her advisory appointments to Federal, State and Industry Science Expert Panels, international Ecotoxicology Research Award Committees, OECD Ecotoxicity test validation panels, and election as the first female President of the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Australasia. She works with NGOs identifying threats to iconic native species; and her industry collaboration secured a $5 million research contract for RMIT to establish the Aquatic Pollution Prevention Partnership with Melbourne Water 2018-2023. Her passion to educate the next generation has seen her graduate 26 HDR candidates and achieve recognition for RMIT as the leader in Australasian Ecotoxicology research.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher

Dr Chris Berg

Dr Chris Berg’s research on the economics and social science of blockchain technology since 2017 has made a major impact on the blockchain industry in Australia and globally, and influenced the research and teaching of this frontier technology at RMIT and elsewhere. In addition, his public policy and media engagement has had a material impact on public policy in Australia. Through his research and leadership at the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, he has contributed to the development of RMIT as a global leader in blockchain research. He has pioneered a large number of industry engagements and research projects, across areas as diverse as economic development, health records and the protection of privacy, blockchain governance, and water management. The high national and international demand for Dr Berg’s expertise on the future of the blockchain economy has brought significant media attention and research income for RMIT.

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research

Ms Lauren Burns

Lauren Burns has been an outstanding and dynamic individual throughout her PhD candidature. Her research comprised of a series of studies that investigated lifestyle and support structures for athletes, with the findings being used to modify the approaches, models and support structures advocated and provided to athletes (senior and junior) by major sporting organisations to support the health and performance of athletes, as well as contributing to further strengthen the theoretical understanding of such models of support and care. The uniqueness and excellence of her work has resulted in the findings being taken up by the highest level organisations in the industry, and resulted in the presentation of her findings to a wide range of audiences, including: national sports governing bodies and institutes; regional and local sports organisations; and international conferences.

RMIT Award for Innovative Research Supervision

Professor Vivian Mitsogianni

Professor Vivian Mitsogianni is Associate Dean, Architecture in the School of Architecture & Urban Design, and a director of the multi-AIA award winning practice M@ STUDIO architects – which focuses on architectural design research. Professor Mitsogianni is an acknowledged leader in facilitating processes for design innovation by combining experimental design practice research and ‘real world’ industry-linked projects.

Internationally recognised, Professor Mitsogianni is often called upon for her expertise in architectural design research and the design-practice PhD model. She was part of the founding supervisory team of RMIT’s internationally renowned practice-based PhD program in Australia and has been invited to publish and lecture on the design-practice PhD model and lead research training methods nationally and internationally including in the UK, Denmark, Belgium and Italy. She has and continues to supervise multi-award winning internationally recognised architects in Australia and Europe and formulate proposals for new hybrid design-practice PhD models.

RMIT Award for Excellence – Graduate Research Leadership

Associate Professor Akbar Afaghi Khatibi

In his role as lead for Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Student Experience and Belonging in the School of Engineering, Associate Professor Akbar Khatibi designed and implemented a new program for enhancing the experience and intellectual climate for the HDR community.

Based on a new “Development Needs Analysis Platform”, HDR candidates can now take ownership of identifying and developing their research skills. The platform provides a critical link between individual developmental needs and planned professional development opportunities across the University. Since implementing this initiative in 2019, the levels of engagement and awareness around skills training needs and opportunities have significantly increased among the HDR community within the School of Science.

RMIT Award for Excellence – Industry Engagement in Graduate Research

Professor Margaret Lech

Through her industry engaged HDR supervision, Professor Margaret Lech has initiated and supported innovative and transformational engagement between higher degree research candidates and industry partners.

She has successfully secured national and international Defence industry funding support with her postgraduate students and consistently links her postgraduate students to industry partners to prepare them for potential future industry and academic careers.

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence - HDF (Technology)

Dr Shwathy Ramesan

Dr Shwathy Ramesan is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Micro/Nanophysics Research Laboratory (MNRL) in the School of Engineering. Ramesan completed her PhD from RMIT University on utilising high frequency sound waves for various drug delivery applications in cells and tissues.

During her PhD, Ramesan discovered a novel delivery technique, the first of its kind to deliver molecules to the cell, opening up new areas of research using acoustic waves. The thesis was praised for the quality of research and the impact the work has created in the field of acoustic manipulation of fluids in biological materials and drug delivery.

Dr Ramesan’s research has considerably advanced the state-of-the-art in scientific knowledge, by developing new ideas and novel research directions. Two of the technologies have already had practical impact, resulting in publications in top multidisciplinary journals and two provisional patents. Her research was also recognised with the award of the Maxwell Eagle Endowment Award for cancer research

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence - HDR (Design)

Dr Kim Munro 

Dr Kim Munro’s practice-led PhD, Listening in: approaching difference, multiplicity and collectivity through a practice of listening in documentary investigated the role that a foregrounding of listening can play in documentary, so as to address contemporary isolation and reconstitute a sense of a collective.

The PhD was recognised by internationally renowned examiners as ‘outstanding work’, and ‘an exemplary PhD project, comprising both the written thesis and the practices as research’. It was noted that it was ‘an original and important contribution to documentary thinking and practice by attentiveness to difference, multiplicity and collectively through a well thought through and artfully crafted attunement to ethical and sensitive ways of listening’ and ‘is a remarkable PhD dissertation that could in fact prove to be groundbreaking’.

Dr Munro has produced both traditional scholarly outputs and creative-practice outputs including two exhibitions, participation in the international multidisciplinary arts residency and the annual Skamdeggi Festival in Northern Iceland.

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence - HDR (Design)

Dr Payam Pirzadeh

Dr Payam Pirzadeh completed his PhD in the field of construction work health and safety in 2018.

His research addressed a critical problem of industry policy and practice through an interdisciplinary, collaborative design decision-making approach for improving safety outcomes.

Pirzadeh’s use of a multi-level network analysis method was highly innovative in the construction discipline, yet was ideally suited to understanding decision-making in complex construction project environments.  Since completing his doctoral research, Pirzadeh’s work has received significant international recognition.

Detailed case studies developed in his thesis have now been developed into teaching resources at the National University of Singapore and he delivered a guest lecture on the subject of health and safety in design, at the University of East Carolina

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – HDR (Enterprise)

Dr Scarlett Howard

Dr Scarlett Howard is an expert in honeybee cognition, learning, behaviour, and perception.

She studies topics related to rule-learning, decision-making, cognition, and neurobiology of miniature insect brains alongside pollination, urban insect density and plant-pollinator relationships. In her PhD research, she examined the ability of miniature bee brains to learn and apply numerical information. She aimed to use this knowledge to advance the development of bio-inspired technology.

Following the publication of her research, multiple laboratories across the world have replicated her work using artificial neural networks and simple learning algorithms. However, the bee brain appears to be the most efficient problem solver of these complex tasks, suggesting there is a lot to learn from honeybee neurobiological processes.

Dr Howard currently employs virtual reality and neurobiological techniques to uncover the mechanisms of simple and complex learning within the bee brain and determine which neurobiological resources are necessary for bee cognition.

RMIT Prize for Research Impact – HDR (Technology)

Ms Inna Krasnokutska

Ms Inna Krasnokutska has made significant contributions to the field of physics and high-tech engineering, finishing her third year of a PhD developing future photonics technology in the Quantum Photonics Laboratory.

The research Krasnokutska is undertaking is highly collaborative, and has involved Heriot-Watt University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Chalmers University, as well as the ARC Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology.

Krasnokutska has published four first-author publication papers in highly selective Q1 journal publishing across all areas of photonics, attracting the attention of research and industry communities, especially with her first paper being cited 50 times in only one year.

In that work, she demonstrated, for the first time, the lowest propagation and coupling loss in LNOI photonics, solving one of the main problems of modern telecommunication industry and future quantum technology.

RMIT Prize for Research Impact – HDR (Design)

Ms Clare McCracken

Clare McCracken’s practice-led doctoral project is based on artworks, fieldwork, and the investigation of family archives to research how mobility systems coproduce space, place and landscape across generations in Australia.

Through three carefully framed projects in different geographical milieu, she enacts a creative dialogue on the social impact of mobility through site-responsive artworks exhibited in public space.

Her research has seen her collaborate with Knox City Council and the Mission to Seafarers to create a critical discourse about the inequities and viability of current transport networks today and into the future. This has led to greater community awareness and, in the case of Knox City Council, further community consultation, the introduction of electric car infrastructure and community education programs.

Prize for Research Impact HDR (Enterprise)

Mr Achim Washington

Achim Washington explored the application of a risk-based approach to the regulation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) – a pertinent issue faced by the industry. The aim of his research was to improve regulatory outcomes under a new paradigm of risk-based regulation, through providing a conceptual framework for the rational, transparent and systematic treatment of uncertainty in risk assessment and regulatory decision-making processes.

Washington’s research provides a conceptual framework for the more comprehensive treatment of uncertainty in regulatory compliance assessment and processes.

His research not only has the potential to help shape the future of the UAS industry but other industries as well, including personal air mobility vehicles and reusable space launch vehicles.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – (Technology)

Associate Professor Charlotte Conn

Associate Professor Charlotte Conn is a Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow recognised worldwide for her contribution to the development of soft nanomaterials for biomedical applications, particularly in drug delivery and protein crystallisation.

Charlotte’s methods and scientific approaches have been adopted by scientists worldwide.

Her most recent contributions include enhancing the performance of anti-microbial peptides, key contenders in the fight against global antibiotic resistance, and in successfully demonstrating effective oral delivery of insulin in animal trials.

Her research determining the fundamental physicochemical interactions between nanoparticles and the cell surface will guide the development of new biomaterials for vaccines and drug delivery, and has the potential to revolutionise personalised medicine.

The impact of this research will lead to advances such as removing the need for refrigerated storage of vaccines, reduced drug side-effects, improved patient compliance and personalised therapies.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – (Technology)

Associate Professor Elisa Hill

Associate Professor Elisa Hill is a Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow who has pioneered a new research field investigating the interactions of the nervous system in the gut with bacteria, and the consequences of this for health and disease.

Her research is internationally recognised due to her discoveries that autism-associated gene mutations in the nervous system influence the gut.

This high impact research has been published in many prestigious Q1 journals, and received multiple highly competitive funding awards, including an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship.

Associate Professor Hill has also demonstrated impact through leading a national campaign leading to a policy change in the NDIS preventing the closure of critical services for severely disabled children.

Her breakthrough findings have opened up new opportunities for treatment design and identifying treatment targets for gut issues in autism.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Design)

Associate Professor Quentin Stevens 

Associate Professor Quentin Stevens’ transdisciplinary design research spans urban design, landscape, public art, planning, geography, and sociology. His key contribution is his close empirical examination of the design, use and perception of public spaces for which he is internationally renowned.

Quentin’s research on contemporary memorials has been supported by an ARC Future Fellowship and grants from Britain, South Korea and Taiwan. This research has been published in Memorials as Spaces of Engagement (2015) and 31 articles.

His other recent books include Public Space Design and Social Cohesion (2018), Creative Milieux: How Urban Design Nurtures Creative Clusters (2015) and The Uses of Art in Public Space (2015). Associate Professor Stevens research into innovative temporary appropriations of underused urban spaces was awarded an 18-month fellowship from Germany’s Humboldt Foundation and an ARC Discovery grant.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Enterprise)

Professor Steven Bozinovski

Professor Steven Bozinovski is Head of the Airways Inflammation Research (AIR) Group at RMIT. He has extensive experience in developing biological therapeutics for the treatment of acute and chronic lung conditions.

With industry and NHMRC support, he continues to lead research into developing new therapies for respiratory disease. He has also driven translational research efforts leading to the discovery of novel disease biomarkers.

To date, Steven has published over 90 papers in leading scientific, respiratory and pharmacology journals and has been the recipient of highly competitive fellowships (CR Roper and an ARC-Future Fellowship) and has had ongoing support from NHMRC over the past 15 years.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Enterprise)

Associate Professor Nicky Eshtiaghi

Associate Professor Nicky Eshtiaghi is one of the leading researchers in Australia in the area of sludge rheology. She investigates the flow behaviour of solid residue (sludge) from wastewater treatment plants to optimise energy efficiency of process in the sludge treatment lines.

Nicky’s unique industry focused approach to waste water sludge rheology is highlighted by her ability to connect local waste water treatment plants and industry experts, and blend this with her focus on the underlying science and theory.

The award of three ARC Linkage Projects emphasises the value of her work by her industry partners, with the grants also resulting in high quality research publications, allowing the outcomes of her work to be shared with industry and others.

Currently she is a Fellow of Engineers Australia (EA) and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (UK), Engineers Australia Chartered Engineer and an Editor in Chemical Engineering Research and Design Journal (Q1, Elsevier).

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher (Technology)

Dr Lei Bao

Dr Lei Bao holds an Australian Research Council, Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) and is a lecturer in Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the School of Engineering.

Her multidisciplinary work is centred on solving energy and environment related challenges by the controllable design of a nanodroplet-platform for nanomaterial synthesis and assembly.

As an Early Career Researcher, Dr Bao has a growing reputation for research excellence. This is evidenced by the number of high-quality and well-cited scholarly publications as well as national and international conference talks, with total Scopus citations exceeding 1700 and a h-index of 17.

Her research has been recognised by several competitive fellowships, awards, and grants, and she has also established strong collaborative links with University of Twente, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications of China, and Wuhan University.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher (Design)

Dr Rohit Ashok Khot

Dr Rohit Ashok Khot is an exceptional early career researcher of international repute in the field of Human- Food Interaction. Working at the intersection of screen technology and eating practices, Dr Khot’s work challenges health stereotypes around mindfulness and wellbeing through the creative convergence of design and technology.

Dr Khot has published over 42 scholarly refereed articles in high-ranking international conferences and journals, and has received wide media recognition and best paper awards for his work.

In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) having previously been awarded RMIT Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, IBM PhD Fellowship and SIGCHI Development Fund Grant. Dr Khot is the author of the first scholarly book on the topic of Human-Food Interaction.

He serves his scholarly community by contributing to program committees for leading international Human Computer Interaction conferences and leads workshops and symposiums specifically around food and play.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher (Enterprise)

Dr Sefa Awaworyi Churchill

Dr Sefa Awaworyi Churchill’s inter-disciplinary research focuses on development economics, addictive behaviour, ethnic diversity, wellbeing, and other issues related to sociology, health and economics. He has made outstanding contributions to these fields with publications in some of the most prestigious general interest economics and field journals.

Awaworyi Churchill has also presented his research at various international conferences across the US, Europe, Asia, Australia and

Africa. He has edited two books, contributed to over a dozen book chapters and has also been the recipient of a number of prestigious academic research awards including an Endeavour Fellowship Award.

Awaworyi Churchill also has a strong record for attracting external grants, is an editorial board member for the rame Journal, and also a regular reviewer for over 25 international journals. 

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Technology)

Associate Professor Nicola Henry

Associate Professor Nicola Henry’s research on technology-facilitated abuse has led to substantial legislative and policy reform in Australia. This includes specific criminal offences introduced in all but one Australian jurisdiction, including at the federal level.

Her research has also shaped, and provided the impetus for, the development of an innovative federal civil penalties scheme for the non-consensual sharing of intimate imagery. In addition to practical law and policy reform, Nicola’s research, through over 120 media interviews and multiple invited

panels and events in the past few years, has led to increased awareness and understanding of the problem of image-based abuse and other forms of sexual violence.

Associate Professor Henry has directly shaped the development of a world-first image-based abuse portal, an online training module on technology-facilitated abuse for frontline workers, and an online university course on disclosures of sexual violence.

Her work provides much-needed support to end-users, particularly victims and stakeholders.

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Design)

Associate Professor Mauro Baracco

Associate Professor Mauro Baracco has achieved national and international recognition for the quality and impact of his research, primarily in the areas of urbanism and architectural design, with his work being described as “quietly radical”.

While serving in senior executive roles within the School of Architecture and Urban Design, he has maintained a strong research program that combines the academic and practice world through his unique design approach. One of the most significant impacts of Baracco’s research is displayed in REPAIR (with Louise Wright and Linda Tegg) which was selected by a national jury to represent Australia at the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture.

This prestigious commission resulted in multiple achievements, including the book published for the exhibition, book chapters, and multiple invitations to contribute to projects, publication series and exhibits.

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Enterprise)

Dr Grace McQuilten

Dr Grace McQuilten has pioneered research on the model of social enterprise in the arts in Australia and has used the vehicle of art and design to advocate for social inclusion, with a particular focus on new migrant and refugee communities.

Grace has a multidisciplinary approach that engages with a range of fields including art, design, architecture, sustainability, sociology, business and international development. Her research in the last five years has resulted in the implementation of new models of social enterprise across Australia, the success of two ARC Discovery projects, an international monograph on arts-based social enterprise and the generation of over $500,000 in research funding.

As the leader of the Contemporary Art and Social Transformation research group in the School of Art at RMIT, Grace has spearheaded the development of new research teams, labs and interdisciplinary projects with a high level of industry and community engagement.

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Enterprise)

Professor Asha Rao

Professor Asha Rao is an algebraist by training and applies algebraic techniques to a wide variety of problems, ranging from designing better codes for communication, to detecting money laundering and describing human interactions in the physical space.

Her research work in policy in the field of cybercrime is recognised internationally for its quality and applied nature and has resulted in her being invited by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime to attend every Intergovernmental meeting on cybercrime since 2013.

Rao is a 2019-2020 Superstar of STEM, and is passionate about mathematics and gender issues that stymie the progress of women and girls in STEM careers.

Asha uses her own research and research outcomes to address the huge challenge of gender inequity in mathematical sciences - and more broadly in STEM - to ensure pathways are created, and the participation of women and other under-represented groups in mathematics is improved.

RMIT Award for Research Impact Early Career Researcher (Designer)

Dr Hugh Davies

Dr Hugh Davies is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Design and Creative Practice Enabling Capability Platform. He has developed an outstanding international reputation in the study and design of games and play.

At RMIT, his research productivity and industry engagement has focused on developing ethnographic play methods for health, community and museum spaces.

Projects include curating the Longitude Exhibition and workshops of Asia-Pacific Games and Play at Library at the Dock with funding from the

City of Melbourne and the Ian Potter Foundation.

Davies also led the production of TIMeR, a wayfaring app enabling users to explore Indigenous understandings of place across the RMIT Campus. He has published widely in top tier-journals, is co-author of the forthcoming book Exploring Minecraft, and was awarded the prestigious M+ and Hong Kong Design Trust Fellowship.

With interdisciplinary curiosity and a passion for practice-led research, Davies continues to apply his scholarship in public, educational and industry settings.

RMIT Award for Research Impact - Early Career Researcher (Enterprise)

Dr Vicki Couzens

Dr Vicki Couzens is a Vice Chancellor’s Indigenous Research Fellow, an artist and a Gunditjmara Keerray Woorroong woman, from the Western Districts of Victoria, who has played an active role in promoting the culture of her People.

Couzens has worked in Aboriginal community affairs for 40 years in cultural heritage practice, language reclamation and revival in her Gunditjmara mother tongue, and through her ongoing role as a Cloak Custodian across 80 Aboriginal language groups in the southeastern states of Australia

Vicki’s contributions in the reclamation, regeneration and revitalisation of cultural knowledge and practices extend across the arts and creative cultural expression spectrum including language research and community development.

Her contributions continue today in advisory roles across diverse community settings, including language immersion programs, youth mentoring camps, community health and wellbeing facilities, prisons and mainstream health and cultural organisations.

RMIT Award for Excellence - Team Award

Centre for Urban Research

The Centre for Urban Research is a highly successful concentration of RMIT’s urban research capability. The Centre is a multi-disciplinary team of 65 researchers dedicated to improving knowledge and policy for sustainable cities and regions. Formed in 2012, CUR’s scale makes it the largest dedicated urban research Centre in Australia.

The Centre is highly reputed for its national research leadership and collegial multidisciplinary research environment. Sought out as a home for high-performing researchers, CUR has attracted 13 RMIT VC Fellows since 2014 and has achieved more than 20 ARC and AHURI national competitive grants, plus major collaborative bids, such as the $8.8m NESP Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub. CUR research income grew 250 per cent during 2015-2018 to $5.4 million, equivalent to 9.2per cent of RMIT’s research income.

RMIT Award for Excellence - Impact and Collaboration Team Award

Sans Forgetica team - Dr Janneke Blijlevens, Mr Stephen Banham, Dr Jo Peryman

Sans Forgetica is a new typeface designed using psychological principles to improve memory. It is believed to be the world’s first typeface created using psychological and design theories to help retention of information.

Sans Forgetica breaks many of the design principles used in typography, the resultant ‘distinctiveness’ causes the reader to dwell longer on each word, giving the brain more time to engage in deeper cognitive processing, enhancing memory. The typeface was tested across hundreds of students with positive results.

Sans Forgetica has achieved an outstanding level of national and international impact. Covered across media worldwide, it attracted over 200 million views and has since won multiple awards.

Sans Forgetica is a model of true interdisciplinary research collaboration – both between

Schools as well as between academia and industry, offering RMIT substantial status in showing applied interdisciplinary research to a local and international higher education sector.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence

Professor Leslie Yeo

Professor Leslie Yeo, a former ARC Australian Research Fellow and Future Fellow, is a pioneer in the field of acoustically-driven microfluidics, having discovered and elucidated many new physical phenomena in the field, including a new class of sound waves—the first such discovery in over 60 years, and having advanced their translation into real practical applications. Among these include a portable, handheld nebulisation platform for inhaled administration of next generation vaccines and therapeutics, for which he received the 2017 Johnson & Johnson World Without Disease Quickfire Challenge award. He was also the recipient of the Young Tall Poppy Science award ‘in recognition of the achievements of outstanding young researchers in the sciences including physical, biomedical, applied sciences, engineering and technology’. Professor Yeo has been at the forefront in establishing the microfluidics community in Australia and New Zealand, and is currently Editor of the American Institute of Physics journal, Biomicrofluidics.  

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher

Dr Luba Sominsky

Dr Luba Sominsky is a Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences. Her research expertise is in the fields of neuroendocrinology and neuroimmunology, with a particular focus on the roles of inflammation, diet and stress in reproductive health. As an Early Career Researcher, Dr Sominsky has an excellent track record in publishing high-quality research papers, attracting research funding and media attention, as well as editorial responsibilities. Her research expertise has been recognised by multiple national and international talks and colloquia, travel awards and publication/presentation prizes. Dr Sominsky is also Chair of the Communications Committee for the international Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society.  

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Excellence – Higher Degree by Research

Dr Bin Dixon-Ward

Dr Bin Dixon-Ward’s PhD research investigated how the city grid could be re-imagined to expand our experience of the urban landscape. Through making jewellery and objects, her research revealed four states of the city grid, with the outcomes drawing connections between the city and digital grids through jewellery and objects. This research brings a distinctive lens to contemporary jewellery through the grid and provides a new way to understand and engage with our urban fabric and the role of digital technologies in jewellery; advancing new and innovative knowledge context of jewellery and craft. The contribution that this research has made goes beyond the discipline, pushing the boundaries of jewellery and aesthetics.    

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Supervision Excellence

Professor Jiyuan Tu

Professor Jiyuan Tu has demonstrated outstanding leadership in HDR supervision and junior researcher mentoring, through passionate and innovative research educational practice, that has generated sustained records of well-rounded HDR graduates across Australia and overseas, and has led to significant research outcomes. Professor Jiyuan Tu has excelled in all aspects of research supervision that have been recognised within RMIT and in national/international platforms. His passion, dedication and extraordinary leadership skills can be seen from the successful practice of his large group meetings where HDR candidates, junior researchers, overseas visiting students and scholars, and talented undergraduate students, all benefit from the dynamic research environment. The large number of high quality co-publications with the group demonstrate Professor Jiyuan Tu’s dedication to research training and the effectiveness of his supervision practice in a global community.  

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Supervision Excellence

Associate Professor Linda Williams

Associate Professor Linda Williams has made an outstanding contribution to RMIT in both research and research training. A cultural historian and theorist who has collaborated with many artists engaged in practice-led research at RMIT: as a doctoral supervisor, exhibition curator and in research collaborations such as an international ARC project. Linda leads the Art & Environment research network, providing HDR students and staff with a network to enable collaboration with more senior artists and scholars in their field. Linda provides opportunities to enhance the experience of being an artist and an academic, including postgraduate students and other RMIT colleagues in major exhibitions, mentoring students to coordinate their own exhibition with an established artist, and developing collaborative HDR workshops investigating cross-school doctoral research methods.  

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact

Professor Sujeeva Setunge

Professor Sujeeva Setunge is the Deputy Dean, Research and Innovation in the School of Engineering.  Sujeeva is a Civil and Structural Engineer with research expertise and skills in predicting degradation, optimised asset management and disaster resilience of infrastructure and other assets. She has worked in partnership over the past 10 years with Australian local government sector delivering outcomes for optimised management of local council infrastructure comprising of buildings, road structures, drainage, parks and seaports. The smart asset management systems she has developed are currently being used by ten local councils including the City of Melbourne. She is also currently leading a team developing vulnerability models for critical road structures under natural hazards of flood, bushfires and earthquakes.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher

Dr Kyle Berean

Dr Kyle Berean is the co-inventor and leader of the human clinical trials and the commercialisation of the human ingestible gas-sensing capsule (Atmo Gas Capsule) from RMIT. He is co-founder and CTO of the start-up company Atmo Biosciences which has been licensed to commercialise the intellectual property from RMIT. He was recently awarded the Johnson & Johnson Innovations Victorian Quickfire Innovation Award, an award that recognises game-changing, early-stage medical device technologies that have the potential to make a major difference to people suffering from the world’s most pressing healthcare challenges, and was also awarded a 2018 NHMRC development grant.   

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research

Ms Leah Heiss

Leah Heiss’ PhD research involves collaboration across design, textiles, engineering, healthcare, and audiology to create the Smart Heart cardiac monitor necklace and Facett, the world’s first self-fit modular hearing aid. Facett won the 2018 Good Design Award, the 2018 CSIRO Design Innovation Award, two 2018 Best in Class Good Design Awards, three 2018 Victorian Government iAwards and a Gold Melbourne Design Award. To distinguish Facett from traditional hearing aids, Leah sought inspiration from the mineralogy collection at Museums Victoria. Facett’s distinctive geometry seeks to shift the stigma of hearing aids and move them from disability to desirability. The design work was exhibited in the Augmented Humans exhibition at the Melbourne Museum in 2018, drawing an audience of 100,000 people.

RMIT Award for Innovative Research Supervision

Associate Professor Oliver Jones

Associate Professor Oliver Jones is an analytical chemist based at the School of Science. His research group conducts cross-disciplinary research in analytical methods and technologies for a range of applications in biological, chemical, environmental and forensic sciences, and he recently helped develop a mobile app to help teach chemistry. Jones’ innovative approach to supervision has facilitated excellent HDR outcomes by developing skills required to succeed in whatever career path is pursued. By providing candidates with opportunities to interact with academics and industry professionals; utilising cross-disciplinary supervision; and promoting dissemination of research outcomes and student exchange, Jones’ supervisory techniques expose HDRs to an innovative learning environment leading to high quality outcomes. Jones is a member of the Australian Academy of Science National Committee for Chemistry; President of the Australian and New Zealand Metabolomics Network; and a board member of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Magnetic Resonance and the Metabolomics Society. Jones is a regular presence in mainstream media and the impact of his work is evidenced by several awards, including the 2015 Sir Paul Callaghan Medal.    

RMIT Research Excellence – Team Award

Environmental Biotechnology Group: Distinguished Professor Andy Ball, Dr Arturo Aburto Medina, Dr Esmaeil Shahsavari, Ms Nagalakshmi Haleyur Seetharam, Ms Eman Koshlaf, Mr Leadin Khudur

The Environmental Biotechnology Group (EBG), located within the School of Science at RMIT University, is a world renowned research group with the mission to develop the emerging field of environmental biotechnology with an emphasis on bioremediation. The team’s research is focused on the sustainable remediation of contaminated environments. The team applies cutting edge tools to resolve environmental issues, with a focus on urban environments and the understanding of the role of microbes in the biogeochemical cycling of elements in the environment and the impact of environmental contamination.    

RMIT Research Excellence – Team Award

Chronic Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases program: Prof Melissa Churchill, Prof Steven Bozinovski, Assoc Prof Janine Danks, Prof Paul Gorry, Assoc Prof Anthony Jaworowski, Dr Jonathan McQualter, Assoc Prof Samantha Richardson, Assoc Prof Stavros Selemidis, Prof Ross Vlahos

The Chronic Infectious and Inflammatory Disease (CIID) program constitute an outstanding multidisciplinary team with unique and synergistic expertise in chronic infectious and inflammatory diseases including HIV and HIV-associated co-morbidities, respiratory viral infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with a strong emphasis on translational research and drug discovery. CIID is committed to the globalisation of the research efforts of RMIT University by building upon its current international collaborations and networks, and the international standing of its members to facilitate the generation and dissemination of knowledge. There is extensive research experience and an established culture of collaborative gain. Together the team forms an extremely strong and productive academic research environment aimed at better health outcomes and a strong environment to foster young academics and graduates with world-class research training. 

RMIT Research Excellence – Team Award

Bio Inspired Digital Sensing-Lab Team: Assoc Prof Adrian Dyer, Dr Jair Garcia, Prof Andrew Greentree, Ms Scarlett Howard, Mr Phred Petersen, Dr Mani Shrestha

The Bio Inspired Digital Sensing-Lab (BIDS-Lab) team is a consortium of researchers investigating the development of innovative digital solutions. Using a comparative approach of insect and human brains provides insights into what type of neural architecture enables complex decision making. Studying the honeybee as a model it has been possible to understand how numerical rules, like the concept of “zero”, can be acquired in brains of different animals, providing insights into how the technological thinking that enabled our modern economy could have developed in human culture, and how innovative new computing solutions can be created. Honeybee colour processing investigated using physics combined with detailed neuroanatomical maps enables the development of novel algorithms for how drones with cameras can operate better in complex natural environments under constantly changing conditions. The team’s approach has broad implications for contemporary problems such as food production with a decline of traditional pollinators and the effect of continuously increasing urban environments.

RMIT Award for Excellence – Graduate Research Leadership

Professor Gary Bryant

Professor Gary Bryant has been involved in the supervision and mentoring of Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidates for over 20 years. His own HDR candidates have benefited from his close mentorship, and many have gone onto outstanding careers. His contributions to the mentoring of the wider body of HDR candidates has taken many forms: he was closely involved in the development of RMIT’s modern HDR management policies; he has been a champion of the HDR milestone process, which facilitates progress and completion, but also develops presentation skills, which are vital for the modern scientist; he developed the Science PhD Research Methods course from scratch, and has been delivering it since 2014, with high candidate satisfaction. Bryant’s many initiatives have led to an improved intellectual climate across the School, and more broadly across the STEM College and the University.    

RMIT Award for Excellence – Industry Engagement in Graduate Research

Professor Kandeepan Sithamparanathan

Professor Kandeepan Sithamparanathan leads the Networks research group within the Communication Technologies Research Center at RMIT, and is the Chair of the IEEE Communication Society VIC Chapter. He has over fifteen years of experience in R&D and has published more than one hundred and twenty five scientific papers including a scholarly book titled ‘Cognitive Radio Techniques: Spectrum Sensing, Interference Mitigation, and Localization’ published by Artech House, New York.

Sithamparanathan’s key research areas are communication engineering and signal processing, and developed several algorithms and techniques for next generation wireless, mobile and UAV communication technologies for dynamic spectrum access and energy efficient communication systems. He works with many industries in delivering communication technology solutions and engages many of his higher degree by research candidates in such industry based research projects for training them in conducting both fundamental theoretical and applied research for meeting industry needs.    

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Design)

Associate Professor Anastasia Powell

Tackling the underlying attitudes, cultures and structural inequalities that lay the groundwork for violence against women is what Associate Professor Anastasia Powell has committed her career to pursuing. Her extensive research has paved the way for law reform, policy work and the prevention of violence against women through promoting gender equality and respect. With a background in criminology and a focus on cybercrime, gender-and image-based abuse, Anastasia explores the ways in which technology has shifted the patterns and experience of sexual violence, in order to seek justice for victim-survivors and contribute to a societal change.   

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Enterprise)

Associate Professor Lauren Rickards

In a world heavily impacted by the devastating outcomes of climate change, Rhodes Scholar, Associate Professor Lauren Rickards explores the social and cultural tipping points that leave her optimistic about the future of our world. Pursuing her deep interest in the big, profound questions that environmental change forces us to confront, Lauren challenges society to work together through communication and proactive change. 

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Technology)

Professor Andrew Greentree

Professor Andrew Greentree is one of Australia’s leading theoretical physicists, with interests spanning quantum optics, quantum information, the properties of diamond and its fluorescent colour centres, and recently the psychophysics of bees. Specific breakthroughs include his prediction of novel states of light, new methods for quantum transport, and a new proposal for a diamond magnetometer.

His publications have been cited over 8000 times with an h-index of 47. Greentree is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts, member of the Australian Institute of Physics, and Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK).   

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – ECR (Design)

Associate Professor Roland Snooks

Associate Professor Roland Snooks is internationally recognised for his research that explores the design implications of emerging technologies to rethink architectural form, structure and organisation. The calibre of his research is demonstrated through international recognition, significant outputs, and funding success. Snooks is recognised internationally as a pioneer of behavioural design methodologies - an approach that draws on the logic of swarm intelligence and multi-agent algorithms. He is also a recognised leader in architectural robotics within Australia and has made pioneering contributions internationally to applying large-scale polymer 3D printing to architecture. Snooks’ research has been exhibited widely and acquired for the permanent collection of some of the world’s leading museums of modern art and design, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Snooks leads a number of significant research projects including the $7.9M IMCRC Design Robotics project and is regularly invited to lecture at the world’s leading schools of architecture.  

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – ECR (Enterprise)

Dr Beni Halvorsen

Dr Beni Halvorsen is a Lecturer and Early Career Development Fellow in the School of Management. Halvorsen’s research falls under two broad categories: Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour. Specifically, Halvorsen’s research focus is on migrant, minority, and under-represented employees’ experiences in the workplace, diversity, diversity management practices and their effect on organisational performance with a particular focus on employee turnover and retention.

As an Early Career Researcher, he has published his research in top-tier academic journals, and presented his research at national and international conferences. The impact of his research has seen him appointed to Diversity Council Australia’s Panel of Experts as a specialist in cultural and ethnic employee outcomes on their project called ‘The State of Inclusion: A National Index of Workplace Inclusion’.    

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – ECR (Technology)

Dr Sumeet Walia

Dr Sumeet Walia’s work is internationally recognised for its innovation in materials engineering to unlock novel properties in ultra-thin materials and deploying them to demonstrate fascinating next-generation applications in electronics and healthcare. From fabricating future semiconducting materials for electronics, to chips that can mimic the human brain for storing and recalling past information, smart sensors for health monitoring and miniaturised energy sources, Walia’s contributions to physical science have amalgamated multidisciplinary innovation onto functional application-oriented, futuristic platforms for implementation across the breadth of technology. 

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – HDR (Design)

Dr Kathy Waghorn

Dr Kathy Waghorn is striving to expand our thinking about the potential of architectural intelligence. More than simply the production of buildings and objects, it is the spatial and social relationships between things, people and places that coincides with broader relational activities. Kathy’s research focuses on engaging performative and material exploration to construct a practice that shares its borders with both art and architectural knowledge.  

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – HDR (Enterprise)

Dr Darcy Allen

Dr Darcy Allen’s thesis, The Private Governance of Entrepreneurship: An Institutional Approach to Entrepreneurial Discovery, developed a novel contract-theoretic approach to the early stages of new technologies. This profound shift from the ordinary choice-theoretic approach to his contract-theoretic approach opens up entirely new analytical vistas, which emerge out of his recognition that property rights are social relationships, not relationships between people and things.

With this insight Allen investigates the innovation commons which provides a landscape upon which entrepreneurs can operate, transforming that landscape in economically valuable ways by constructing relationships among interested participants. Further, through his examination of blockchain technology in various forms, Allen conclusively demonstrates that economists have heretofore under-appreciated the ability of the private ordering of economic interaction to promote innovation throughout the range of economic activity. 

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – HDR (Technology)

Dr Alsharif Abuadbba

Dr Alsharif Abuadbba’s PhD work is centred on solving a major privacy exposure issue of the huge collected data on cloud including sensors, smart meters and biomedicals. Abuadbba developed a novel resilient data protection for high sensor and smart devices streams in the computer cloud environment without hindering direct process of these streams. These outcomes have been published in A* journals such as IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering and IEEE Transactions on Smart Grids. Abuadbba received a nomination for a Student of the Year in the State of Victoria 2014, publication Awards 2015-2016 and the Eureka International Innovation Award 2018.

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Design)

Professor Paul Carter

Professor Paul Carter is an internationally acclaimed academic and artist and has an outstanding track record as an industry collaborator, creative researcher, design mentor and public lecturer. He is Professor of Design/Urbanism at the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University and has excelled in disciplinary and interdisciplinary research across social and cultural geography, performance studies, urban behavior, cross-cultural poetics, acoustic ecology and public space design.

Carter has held ARC Professorial Research Fellowships at University of Melbourne (1994-2003) and won a number of ARC Discovery grants. He was also Professor and Chair of Creative Place Research, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University (2009-2013), where he founded and directed the Centre for Memory, Imagination and Invention. Carter is an interdisciplinary scholar who has produced an exceptional body of work across a range of disciplines in which he explores and uses public space.

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Enterprise)

Professor Anthony Forsyth

Professor Anthony Forsyth chaired the Victorian Government Inquiry into the Labour Hire Industry and Insecure Work in 2015-16, through a research partnership between RMIT and the State Government. The Final Report to the Premier exposed widespread non-compliance with workplace and other laws by labour hire contractors, particularly in the horticulture, meat processing and cleaning industries.

Anthony’s recommendations have been implemented through the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018 (VIC), which introduces a licensing scheme to improve the integrity of the labour hire industry and protect vulnerable workers from exploitation. Labour hire providers must now show they operate a legitimate business, can pay minimum award wages and comply with superannuation, safety and accommodation requirements. The impact of this research is shown through its contribution to state law reform and potential influence in national reform, and Forsyth’s widespread engagement with the media, invited speaking engagements and dissemination of the research in academic journals.

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Technology)

Associate Professor Flora Salim

Associate Professor Flora Salim’s research in understanding the patterns of human movement, habits and activity from data has been utilised for movement prediction, energy and demand forecasting, and intelligent assistants. With work that focuses on behaviour recognition and tracking through spatio-temporal data analytics, Flora is motivated to ensure that her methods are put to good use and are able to make an impact on our world.    

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher (Enterprise)

Dr Miranda Lai

Dr Miranda Lai’s research focuses on resolving practical issues relating to the interpreting profession and interpreter education, in particular in areas of police interpreting, interpreter vicarious trauma and pedagogy of deaf interpreting. She is a recipient of a Research Excellence Award in 2016 from the RMIT School of Global, Urban and Social Studies.

Lai’s research has raised awareness within the legal field of the problem of court interpreters suffering vicarious trauma and she is a pioneer in investigating Deaf Interpreting. With the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the industry is experiencing exponential demands of hearing and Deaf interpreters and as a result, Lai’s exceptional research capability in solving practical social needs is highly renowned.    

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher (Technology)

Dr Adrian Pudsey

Dr Adrian Pudsey’s research broadly covers the area of high-speed flight, propulsion and systems technology. He is currently lead chief investigator and project manager of two Cooperative Research Centre Projects totalling $4.45M; the first focuses on Hydrocarbon Fuel Technology for Hypersonic Airbreathing Vehicles and the second investigates Responsive Access to Space. The success of the latter project will revolutionise atmospheric cruise flight and access to space with a more efficient propulsion system, bringing Australia to the forefront of the new space race.

The impact of Pudsey’s work is becoming global as he was invited as plenary speaker at the International Conference on High-Speed Vehicle Science & Technology in Moscow, Russia in November 2018. His experience in the Australian Defence Force and in the discipline of Aerospace Engineering provides a complementary, real-world approach to the research and creation of innovative technology that could change the future of hypersonics and access to space.

RMIT Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research (Design)

Professor Alisa Andrasek

Professor Alisa Andrasek is recognised for her work on the convergence of design, computer science and exponential technologies. Bringing AI and robotics to the forefront of architectural design and construction, she is Professor of Design Innovation at RMIT University, the founder of award-winning design laboratory Biothing, a partner of Bloom Games and co-founder of AI Build.

Andrasek’s work has been exhibited and is part of permanent collections around the world including the Centre Pompidou Paris, New Museum NY, Storefront NY, FRAC Collection Orleans, TB-A21 Vienna, Beijing and Sydney Biennial, among others. In recognition for Professor Andrasek’s contributions to advancing architectural and design science, she received the prestigious “Europe 40 under 40” Award, the Metropolis Next Generation Award, and the Far Eastern International Digital Design Award. The author of Biothing (2011), Andrasek’s writings have been published worldwide and she has lectured extensively around the globe.   

RMIT Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research (Enterprise)

Ms Jozica Kutin

Jozica Kutin is a PhD candidate in the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing. Her thesis examines economic abuse in young adult intimate relationships. Jozica used mixed methods to determine how economic abuse manifests and how it can be prevented within the young adult cohort. Kutin’s research has been readily sought after and used by the finance, government and community sectors. Her research results have also attracted significant radio, TV, online and print media coverage.

Kutin has presented her research at several national and international conferences. Her first published journal article was one of the journal’s 20 most downloaded articles, and is listed in the national judicial “Domestic Violence Bench Book” as key literature used by practitioners, policy makers and researchers. In 2017 Kutin won the RMIT 3 Minute Thesis competition and is currently developing a post PhD research translation co-design project in collaboration with the Foundation for Young Australians.  

RMIT Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research (Technology)

Mr Mohammad Taha

Mohammad Taha is a PhD candidate in the School of Engineering in the Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group (FMM). His thesis focuses on harnessing electrical and optical properties of materials to engineer new applications. His research involves a self-modifying coating that can be used on surfaces such as glass. The coating allows regulation of temperature and radiation by automatically letting in more heat when it is cold and blocking the sun’s rays when it is hot. The use of the coating in ‘smart windows’ can lead to major environmental benefits and significant financial savings.

Taha’s research allows him to engineer this coating in a novel way that increases its production potential. The coating also has applications in sensors, wearable electronics, memory devices, optical modulators and infrared camouflage for stealth technologies. Taha has current multidisciplinary collaborations in memristors, 2D materials, microfluidics and optoelectronics showing his capability in applying his skills and knowledge in a multitude of ways.  

Malcolm Moore Industry Research Award

Dr Jonathan Kolieb

Dr Jonathan Kolieb’s partnership with Australian Red Cross, produced a project designed to increase awareness of, and respect for, international humanitarian law (‘the laws of war’) – primarily enshrined in the Geneva Conventions (1949) – amongst Australian companies doing business in conflict-affected areas around the world.

Through direct engagement and both scholarly and practical business-oriented outputs, the project aimed to integrate international humanitarian law into governance systems and management practices of Australian businesses. It is envisaged that this will allow these companies to act in a more responsible and humane manner – benefitting both the company itself and the communities in which they operate.    

Malcolm Moore Industry Research Award

Dr Mladenko Kajtaz

Dr Mladenko Kajtaz’s industry-partnership research project with the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and Evok3D, a 3D printing company from Melbourne, involves the development of a design process that allows fabrication of a novel ankle-foot orthosis using additive manufacturing.

The ankle-foot orthosis is used for children with neuromuscular disorders including cerebral palsy, acquired brain injuries and spina bifida. The new design will allow the hospital to produce a more therapeutically effective orthosis that improves the quality of life of their young patients by increasing their functional capabilities and allow them to better interact with their friends, families, and the world around them.   

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence

Distinguished Professor Cuie Wen

STEM College, School of Engineering

Distinguished Professor Cuie Wen is an internationally recognised research leader in the discipline of materials science and engineering. Her research has made significant contributions to new knowledge and innovations in developing new metallic biomaterials, surface modification and tissue-implant interaction, leading to new classes of novel biocompatible titanium alloys, magnesium alloys, metallic scaffolds and their surface modification techniques for orthopaedic and dental applications; and, new knowledge in the fundamental understanding of the evolution of nanostructures, their characterisation and evaluation, and the microstructure–mechanical property relationships. Cuie’s outstanding research track record shows sustained and excellent research performance and she has also been appointed to the ARC College of Experts 2016 and NHMRC Grant Review Panels 2017. She is an editorial board member for the journals of Acta Biomaterialia and Bioactive Materials and also a regular reviewer for over 60 international journals.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher

Dr Rajesh Ramanathan

STEM College, School of Science

Dr Rajesh Ramanathan is a Vice Chancellor Fellow in the School of Science. His cross-disciplinary research spans from physical sciences to biological sciences and engineering, and focuses on development of new nanomaterials for biosensor technologies with commercial potential. As an Early Career Researcher his excellent track record in attracting research funding, research supervision and delivering high-quality research outputs includes highlights on 13 journal covers; regular presence in mainstream media; and editorial engagement with reputed journals. The impact of his research is evident from the Hitachi Social Impact Prize for Connected Health for his work on norovirus biosensor technology, and selection as a finalist (among 1400 nominations across 85 countries) for the 2017 INDEX: Design to Improve Life Award.

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Excellence – Higher Degree by Research

Dr Jessica Pandohee

STEM College, School of Science

Dr Jessica Pandohee completed a PhD in Applied Chemistry studying multidimensional chromatography and investigating novel approaches in extracting chemical information comprehensively from complex samples in food, agriculture, metabolomics and forensic systems. Jessica fostered collaboration between RMIT, Deakin University and industry partners such as Victoria Police and CSIRO. Her work has resulted in five articles in internationally peer-reviewed journals.

In 2016 Jessica was the recipient of the Victorian International Education Awards – International Student of the Year (Research) and the Premier’s Award for outstanding academic achievement, contribution and connection to the Victorian community and capacity to be an inspiring role model.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Supervision Excellence

Associate Professor Craig Batty

College of Design and Social Context, School of Media and Communication

Adopting a passionate and reflexive approach to creative practice research education, Craig has generated high levels of candidate and supervisor satisfaction at RMIT and externally. He has made significant contributions to university-wide research training; has won internal and external awards for supervision; has received invitations to present and facilitate workshops nationally and internationally; has published widely on creative practice research pedagogies; and has received visiting and adjunct appointments focussed on developing supervision practices in creative disciplines. Craig has earned a reputation for excellence in doctoral supervision that has not only generated excellent outcomes for his own candidates, but has also influenced others across Australia and overseas.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact

Distinguished Professor Mike Xie

STEM College, School of Engineering

Distinguished Professor Mike Xie has made outstanding contributions to the original development and subsequent world-wide adoption of a technology known as Evolutionary Structural Optimisation (ESO) and Bi-directional ESO (BESO). This technology has been used to design many iconic buildings and other novel products internationally. In Australia, he has collaborated with major companies such as Arup, Boeing and Thales on designing light-weight and high-performance structures and materials. Professor Xie won the 2017 Clunies Ross Innovation Award from the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and the 2017 AGM Michell Medal from Engineers Australia.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher

Dr Fiona Macdonald

College of Business, School of Management

Dr Macdonald’s research programme addresses questions that are critical to social and economic outcomes arising from Australia’s new National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), including improving health and wellbeing, improving social welfare and social cohesion, enhancing the effectiveness of organisations, ensuring evidence-based policy-making and influencing public policy. Her research is investigating the workforce challenges of NDIS examining how the Scheme is impacting on the nature of jobs and conditions of work of the low-paid disability support workforce; exploring new business models for disability services and potential for innovation that combine good quality support and good quality support work; and identifying ways in which regulation and social policy can shape the services market to ensure good outcomes and sustainable jobs in social care systems.

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research

Mr Robert Chapman

STEM College, School of Engineering

Robert Chapman is a PhD candidate in the School of Engineering in the Quantum Photonics Laboratory and Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology (CQC2T). His thesis focuses on the development and implementation of crucial protocols and algorithms for quantum information science and technology. His research interests extend to the development of novel quantum photonic technologies that will open pathways for future quantum information applications. Robert was awarded the RMIT Prize for Research Impact - HDR (Technology) in 2016. He has presented at multiple conferences in both the US and Europe and has published several high-impact peer-reviewed articles, in prestigious research journals.

RMIT Award for Innovative Research Supervision

Associate Professor Lijing Wang

College of Design and Social Context, School of Fashion and Textiles

Associate Professor Lijing Wang has 30 years of work experience in fibre material research with more than 200 publications. He has been a chief investigator for eight Australian Research Council grants, and 20 more other funded research projects. He leads the Smart Textiles research cluster for the Centre for Materials Innovation and Future Fashion and the School’s Saving Lives research stream. His areas of research interest are protective clothing and comfort, smart textiles, flexible sensors and wearable technology, and fibres and polymers material science, engineering, sustainability, and modelling.

RMIT Research Excellence – Team Award

Civil Infrastructure Management Research Unit: Professor Sujeeva Setunge, Professor Chun Qing Li, Associate Professor Kevin Zhang, Associate Professor Rebecca Gravina, Dr David Law, Dr Dilan Robert

STEM College, School of Engineering

The Civil Infrastructure Management Research Unit brings complementary expertise in contributing to new knowledge and creating impact in enhancing resilience and sustainability of Civil infrastructure.

The team has developed a niche expertise and focus at RMIT University for predicting degradation of Civil infrastructure including buildings, bridges, seaports, drainage, water mains, buried pipes, tunnels and roads and also developing sustainable infrastructure solutions including low embodied energy materials and reducing emissions and energy consumption. The work of the team has established the position of RMIT Civil Engineering as the established research unit for Civil Infrastructure management.

Professor Sujeeva Setunge, Professor Chun Qing Li, Associate Professor Kevin Zhang, Associate Professor Rebecca Gravina, Dr David Law, Dr Dilan Robert

RMIT Unmanned Aircraft Systems Research Team (RUASRT):

Dr Matthew Marino, Professor Simon Watkins, Dr Alex Fisher, Dr Abdulghani Mohamed, Mr Samuel Prudden, Ms Nicola Kloet, Mr Ashim Panta, Dr Sridhar Ravi, Dr Graham Wild, Mr David Tennent

STEM College, School of Engineering

The Unmanned Aircraft Systems Research Team conducts world-leading research into the technical, operational, social and safety challenges of UAS technologies. With a record for delivering real world outcomes for research and industrial partners, the team includes senior academics, research fellows, doctoral and undergraduate students across many disciplines. They recently competed in France at the 2017 International Micro Air Vehicle Competition winning the “Record Breaking Micro Heavy Lift Event” and will be hosting the prestigious conference and competition in November 2018 at RMIT University. This is the first time this high tech competition and conference will be held in the Southern Hemisphere.

RMIT Award for Excellence – Graduate Research Leadership

Associate Professor Pia Ednie-Brown

College of Design and Social Context, School of Architecture and Urban Design

Adjacent to a series of formal university leadership positions related to Graduate Research, Associate Professor Pia Ednie-Brown has been an investigator on three externally funded research projects concerned with various aspects of Creative Practice Research and HDR candidate experience. Through these leadership and research activities she has instigated a range of initiatives providing intellectual and community support for candidates, supervisors and associated research cultures.

RMIT Award for Excellence – Industry Engagement in Graduate Research

Professor Olga Troynikov

College of Design and Social Context, School of Fashion and Textiles

Professor Olga Troynikov’s industry-based research centres on the physical, physiological and psychological interfaces between humans, materials, apparel systems, and external environments. She has made significant contributions to new knowledge and innovation while developing new apparel and materials that support and protect the human body when worn under strenuous, dangerous and dynamic conditions. Her discoveries have had impact in important fields such as firefighting, mining and other heavy industry, medical garments and sport. Her commitment to the development of HDR candidates has generated excellent outcomes for them; she sees them as research collaborators and builds their engagement with industry throughout their candidature.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Design)

Professor Tania Lewis

College of Design and Social Context, School of Media and Communication

From ethical consumption and Indian reality TV to new digital work-life practices, Tania Lewis’s research puts a critical spotlight on global and local lifestyle and consumer trends. Tania has published over 50 journal articles and chapters on this broad topic and is the author of numerous books and edited collections including Smart Living (2008), Ethical Consumption: A Critical Introduction (2011) and most recently Telemodernities: Television and Transforming Lives in Asia (2016). An ex-medical practitioner and a member of RMIT’s Digital Ethnography Research Centre, Tania has conducted a wide range of empirical research from groundbreaking research on young people’s internet use for health information to video ethnographic studies of household recycling, backyard permaculture and everyday digital household media use. Tania is currently writing a book for Bloomsbury Press entitled Digital Food: From Paddock to Platform.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Enterprise)

Professor Milan Brandt

STEM College, School of Engineering

Professor Brandt is the leading Australian researcher in the area of macro machining with lasers and has conducted work over the last 30 years in laser cladding, cutting, drilling, welding and more recently additive manufacturing. This has resulted in technological achievements, patents, research papers and commercial products, which have been recognised internationally and nationally in both scientific and industrial circles.

He also led the team that designed and manufactured the first additively manufactured titanium spinal disc implanted into an Australian patient in 2015. His book published in 2016 by Elsevier titled Laser Additive Manufacturing: Materials, Design, Technologies and Applications has now sold over 700 copies globally. In 2018 he takes on the presidency of the Laser Institute of America for a 12 month term.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Technology)

Professor Vipul Bansal

STEM College, School of Science

Professor Vipul Bansal is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Founding Director of the Sir Ian Potter NanoBioSensing Facility. He leads a highly cross-disciplinary research team that works across the boundaries of chemistry, biology, physics and engineering.

His research focuses on the development of nanotechnologies for societal, biomedical and industrial impact, examples include i) self-cleaning textile nanotechnology facilitating chronic wound healing and cleaning clothes using sunlight; ii) a variety of biosensor and diagnostic technologies to detect different diseases, food and environmental contaminants; and iii) a cancer imaging nanotechnology that has been licensed to a biomedical company and is currently under human clinical trials.

Professor Bansal’s research strategy has a strong emphasis on converting fundamental knowledge into products and services with an underlying end-user focus.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – ECR (Design)

Dr Jordan Lacey

College of Design and Social Context, School of Architecture and Urban Design

Dr Jordan Lacey was awarded one of the prestigious Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowships (2015-18) for his multisensory design research. In this position, he has generated substantial research funding and was project leader and creative director on three interdisciplinary research projects. His creative research practice operates at the interface of urban design, user experience and publicly situated multisensory installations. He has a particular passion for investigating innovative ways that digital technologies can be embedded in urban environments to augment the atmospheric and materials conditions of everyday life.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – ECR (Enterprise)

Dr Charles Hunt

College of Design and Social Context, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies

Dr Hunt is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow and Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Global Research. His expertise is in evaluating the impacts of international conflict management and peacebuilding efforts. As an early career researcher, Dr Hunt has a growing reputation for research excellence. This is evidenced by the number of high-quality scholarly and policy-oriented publications as well as the support received as a chief investigator to advance his work on civilian protection in UN peace operations and security and justice sector reform in the aftermath of violent conflict (over $1.5 million of Australian Competitive Grant funding in the past five years).

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – ECR (Technology)

Dr Torben Daeneke

STEM College, School of Engineering

Dr Torben Daeneke’s multidisciplinary work is centred on solving engineering challenges through material design at the nano-scale. His work on utilising room temperature liquid metals as reaction media has resulted in new synthetic pathways that provide access to a new class of low dimensional materials with promising properties for their application in electronics, catalysis and sensing. His work also resulted in the development of novel catalytic systems that harvest solar energy, including the recently developed solar paint that converts moisture and solar light into hydrogen fuel.

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – HDR (Design)

Dr Stayci Taylor

College of Design and Social Context, School of Media and Communication

Dr Taylor’s PhD explored female perspectives in mainstream, comedy screenplays. The research focused on screenwriting practice and script development. A feature film comedy screenplay was written as part of the creative practice approach to the research. A postmodern feminist theoretical position underpinned the project. The outcomes are new techniques for writing specific perspectives into comedy screenplays, especially gendered and marginalised perspectives, with a view to maintaining those perspectives through script development and production processes.

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – HDR (Enterprise)

Dr Christopher Berg

College of Business, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing

Dr Berg’s thesis investigated the history of prudential regulation and regulatory change in Australian banking between 1893 and 2008. He found that regulatory change is driven by changes in subjective institutional costs. The findings help us understand the trajectories of economic reform and the growth of Australia’s regulatory state. While completing his PhD, he also published three books on political philosophy and political economy, wrote 200 newspaper columns and magazine articles, using findings from his ongoing research to directly participate in the public policy process.

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – HDR (Technology)

Dr Rohit Ashok Khot

College of Design and Social Context, School of Media and Communication

Dr Khot’s PhD research contributes inventive strategies for turning physical activity data into delightful physical representations such as 3D printed plastic artifacts, sports drinks, and 3D printed chocolate treats – which are personalised based on an individual’s efforts. Through these systems, Dr Khot offers a fresh perspective on engaging with one’s physical activity data and contribute new interaction design knowledge towards making physical activity more pleasurable and fulfilling.

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Design)

Dr Jessica Wilkinson

College of Design and Social Context, School of Media and Communication

Dr Jessica Wilkinson is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing in the School of Media and Communication. She is a poet and scholar passionate about the potential for poetry to convey and explore historical subject matter in the genre she refers to as ‘nonfiction poetry.’ Her practice has explored this concept through numerous works of both high quality and deep impact, including books (poetic biographies), articles and chapters, a nonfiction poetry journal (for which she is Editor-in-Chief), and various interdisciplinary collaborations. Her work has also seen engagement activity both nationally and internationally, resulting in many benefits for literary communities and creative industries.

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Enterprise)

Associate Professor Helen Lingard

College of Design and Social Context, School of Property Construction and Project Management

Distinguished Professor Helen Lingard leads a team delivering applied research in construction work health and safety (WHS). Organisation culture evaluation tools developed by Helen’s team have been adopted by the Australian Constructors Association comprising the 19 largest construction companies operating in Australia, and are widely used by government agencies to evaluate WHS policy and benchmark performance. In 2017 Helen led a national review of the operation of the model Work Health and Safety Regulations in the construction industry. Helen is also an invited member of the newly formed NSW Government Centre for Work, Health and Safety Research Foundation.

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Technology)

Associate Professor Madhu Bhaskaran

STEM College, School of Engineering

Associate Professor Madhu Bhaskaran is transforming the way we imagine, use, and interact with electronic devices and sensors. Her breakthroughs on combining functional oxide materials processed at high temperatures with elastic and plastic materials has led to stretchable electronics and sensors. She has been recognised by international and national awards and fellowships including being listed on Innovative Engineers in Australia 2017 by Engineers Australia. She has also won the 2017 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher. Her work has appeared in leading journals, led to patents, and been communicated widely beyond traditional boundaries, raising the profile of engineering and its impact.

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher (Design)

Associate Professor Suzie Attiwill

College of Design and Social Context, School of Architecture and Urban Design

Dr Attiwill’s research establishes an expansive idea of ‘interior’ and re-frames the discipline and practice of interior design as a critical contemporary practice in which questions of urban inhabitation and subjectivity are foregrounded. Her research has local and international impact evidenced through workshops, citations and speaking engagements; for example, ‘Urban + Interiority: Propositions toward a new collective urban inhabitation’, a workshop held in Nicosia, Cyprus addressing the potential future reunification of Cyprus; and executive editorship of a special issue of the IDEA Journal titled ‘urban + interior’.

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher (Enterprise)

Dr Anne Kallies

College of Business, Graduate School of Business and Law

Dr Kallies’ research focus is on energy and environmental law, with a special emphasis on renewable energy and electricity market regulation. It sits at the intersection of law, markets and technology. Anne holds German and Australian law degrees. Her international background and the comparative focus of her research add to the global appeal of her work.

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher (Technology)

Dr Adam Chrimes

STEM College, School of Engineering

Dr Adam Chrimes has been involved with three projects with significant industry impact. These are i) detection and identification of submicronic contaminants on 'clean' and polished surfaces ii) human ingestible gas sensing capsule iii) biofuel production monitoring using microfluidic platforms. He was recently awarded the CSIRO Science Industry Endowment Fund STEM+ researcher in business fellowship so that he may continue his impacting research in collaboration with RMIT University and OptoTech Pty. Ltd. (Melbourne based SME).

RMIT Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research (Design)

Dr Xin Ren

STEM College, School of Engineering

Dr Xin Ren studied three-dimensional metamaterials and structures with negative Poisson's ratio. The research developed a novel methodology for generating metallic auxetics with tunable mechanical properties. He also designed and tested the first auxetic nails in the world.

He has published several articles in prestigious journals during his PhD candidature, including two front cover papers published in Smart Materials and Structures, one of which was selected as one of the “Highlights of the year 2015” by this journal.

RMIT Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research (Enterprise)

Mr Quanda (Samuel) Zhang

College of Business, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing

Quanda (Samuel)’s research area is in development economics with a focus on poverty, inequality and financial inclusion. His research applies rigorous econometric techniques founded on sound economic theory in order to formulate evidence-based economic and social policy recommendations aimed at improving conditions in developing countries.

Samuel has presented at conferences in UK, Australia and China, and has published in many peer reviewed journal articles, including in Journal of Development Studies and The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics.

As an economist, Samuel actively promotes his work and takes part in policy debates in various arenas. So far, his work has been featured by media around the world such as World Economic Forum, Asia Timesand The Conversation.

RMIT Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research (Technology)

Ms Litty Varghese Thekkekara

STEM College, School of Science

Litty Thekkekara is a PhD candidate who holds an RMIT International Research Scholarship in the School of Science. Her work on the development of graphene based energy storages has the potential to be developed as an improved technology for energy storage in the future. Graphene has been immensely popular for its potential applications, but many of these have been thwarted by fundamental material and structural limitations. Litty has overcome this using laser scribing techniques inspired by the patterns of a fern leaf, to create complex structures in graphene.

In 2017, Litty's research on bioinspired graphene solar energy storage was published in Scientific Reports (an online open access journal from the publishers of Nature) with the significance of this work recognised internationally with extensive media coverage and industry attention.

Litty was also awarded the 2017 ‘Warsash Science Communication Prize in Optics’ from the Australian Optical Society. This prize is awarded to an individual who has published the highest quality postgraduate research in optics or its application, in a refereed journal.

Malcolm Moore Industry Research Awards

Dr Megan Nethercote

College of Design and Social Context, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies

Dr Megan Nethercote was awarded a Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2017 and is based in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. Her research investigates the impacts of urban intensification, and of capitalist political economy in particular, on households and cities. Her current work focuses on high-rise apartment development, and also the functions of housing and households under neoliberal shifts.

Dr Nethercote is currently undertaking a pilot study with social enterprise Nightingale Housing, investigating alternative relationships between land and housing, including understandings of their progressive possibilities to reorientate us towards de-commodification, and its impacts on households and communities.

Dr Jianzhen Ou

STEM College, School of Engineering

Dr Jianzhen Ou is a Senior Research Fellow, an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow, and Victoria Fellow in the School of Engineering. His research interests mainly focus on the development of high-performance micro-/nano-technology enabled chemical sensors based on low-dimensional metal oxides and chalcogenides. These sensors particularly target the detection of toxic and pollutant gases and human metabolites for applications of environmental monitoring and remediation, public safety and security as well as human healthcare. Some of his research outcomes have been engaged with national and international industry partners for collaboration and commercialisation.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence

Distinguished Professor Sarah Pink

College of Design and Social Context, School of Media and Communication

Distinguished Professor Sarah Pink is Director of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre. Sarah brings together theoretical scholarship and applied practice to create new interdisciplinary understandings and insights into how people experience and use digital technologies in everyday life and to consider the implications of this for digital futures.

She is a world leader in the development of innovative ethnographic research methodologies. Her research has been funded by national research councils in the UK, Spain, Sweden and Australia and through a number of industry partnerships internationally (including Suncorp, Unilever and Volvo cars).

She currently holds a Swedish Knowledge Foundation funded Visiting Professorship at Halmstad University, Sweden. Sarah’s latest books in the fields of digital technologies and applied research include Digital Materialities (2016), Digital Ethnography (2016) and Theoretical Scholarship and Applied Practice (2017).

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher

Dr Flora Salim

STEM College, School of Science

Dr Flora Salim is a Senior Lecturer at the Computer Science and IT discipline, School of Science, RMIT University. Her expertise is in human mobility and behaviour analytics of spatio-temporal sensor data from mobile, pervasive computing, and smart cities and environments. She was a recipient of the prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) Postdoctoral Fellowship (Industry) in 2012-2015.

As an Early Career Researcher (ECR), she has a solid research track record in attracting and managing research funds and delivering high-quality research outputs. Dr Salim has been awarded nationally competitive grants from the ARC, IBM Smarter Cities Lab, and numerous industry contracts, with the total amount awarded of over than $1 million in the last five years.

Her research in spatio-temporal data analytics, context recognition and behaviour recognition and prediction from sensor data is evaluated across a diverse source of data sources, such as from smartphones, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Beacons, road sensors, and parking sensors, and across multiple projects, including indoor monitoring and analytics in university and retail environments, driving behaviour recognition, road risk analysis, and passenger movement analysis in airports.

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Excellence – Higher Degree by Research

Dr K M Mohibul Kabir

STEM College, School of Science

Supervisor: Dr Samuel Ippolito, Dr Ylias Sabri, Professor Suresh Bhargava

Thesis title: Surface acoustic wave based sensors for selective detection of low concentration elemental mercury vapour

Dr Mohibul Kabir was a doctoral student in the School of Applied Sciences and is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in School of Chemistry of University of New South Wales. The main focus of Dr Kabir’s PhD work was to design and develop surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices for sensitive and selective detection of low concentrations (<3.5 mg/m3) of elemental mercury vapour.

He successfully developed SAW devices with various structural designs and integrated them with noble metals such as gold, silver as well as gold nanomaterials and investigated their performance for mercury sensing applications. The developed sensors showed promising results to be implemented as potential mercury sensors within industrial process. Dr Kabir published 13 journal articles and three conference papers during his PhD candidature.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Supervision Excellence

Professor Felicity Roddick

STEM College, School of Engineering

Professor Roddick has a sustained record of providing an environment and opportunities which enable HDR students to leave RMIT with well-developed skills for undertaking research, enhanced verbal and written communication skills, tangible outcomes in terms of peer-reviewed publications, and high employability.

Her weekly HDR research group meetings provide a forum for the students to learn from visiting and RMIT experts, to participate in personal development activities, and to increase their presentation skills. Weekly supervisory meetings with individual students and their Associate Supervisor contribute to their steady progress and timely completion.

Felicity has also contributed to training in HDR student supervision and policy development at College and University level. In total, she has supervised 45 HDR students (34 as Senior Supervisor) to successful completion.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact

Professor John Handmer

STEM College, School of Science

Professor John Handmer is a geographer, economist and lawyer. He undertakes research with fire and emergency services to reduce risk and to improve the safety and resilience of people and communities. His research was one of 20 cases nationally selected for its impact on policy and practice by the Excellence in Innovation for Australia 2014 report.

He led the development of bushfire community safety research in Australia with the Bushfire CRC, in close collaboration with end-users, shortlisted for the CRC Association’s 2014 Innovation Award. He co-led the post-fire Human Dimensions research after Black Saturday. This work, on behalf of all Australian fire agencies and the Royal Commission, was instrumental in re-shaping Australia’s safety policy and warnings for bushfires.

He works in a variety of national and international committees including the disaster committee for the International Council for Science. He also updates the National Emergency Risk Assessment Guide. Recently, he completed the development of a new dataset for Australian disaster impacts, and is working on identifying factors underpinning losses including fatalities.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher

Dr Karyn Bosomworth

College of Design and Social Context, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies

Dr Karyn Bosomworth worked with five of Victoria’s Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) and several research colleagues to help these CMAs plan for the uncertainties and dynamics associated with a changing climate.

The research helped CMAs apply the concept of ‘Pathways Planning’, which helps explore how robust current and potential management practices are across multiple possible futures, and how well they leave future options open. Such planning provides a long-term perspective, while guiding immediate and medium term action. The concept is changing approaches to climate change planning.

Like several other CMAs, Corangamite CMA used the concept to inform their recent Climate Change plan. Karyn is now working with all of Victoria’s CMAs in further applying and refining the approach to help implementation of their climate change plans.

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research

Mr Kristof Crolla

College of Design and Social Context, School of Architecture and Design

Supervisors: Dr Jane Burry, Dr Charles Anderson

Thesis title: Building Simplexity

Kristof Crolla is a PhD candidate in the School of Architecture and Design. He is a Belgian Hong-Kong based architect who combines his architectural practice Laboratory for Explorative Architecture & Design Ltd. (LEAD) with an Assistant Professorship in Computational Design at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, School of Architecture (CUHK). His work focuses on strategic implementations of computation and local construction idiosyncrasies into the architectural design and construction process.

He is best known for the projects ‘Golden Moon (Mid-Autumn Festival, Hong Kong, 2012)’, which received over 400,000 visitors during its six-day lifespan, and the public event space ‘ZCB Bamboo Pavilion (Hong Kong, 2015)’, a unique bending-active shell structure built from 3 kilometres of hand-tied bamboo poles. Both projects internationally received over two-dozen design awards and accolades, including the G-Mark (Japan) and Architizer A+ (USA) Awards.

RMIT Award for Innovative Research Supervision

Associate Professor Craig Batty

College of Design and Social Context, School of Media and Communication

Associate Professor Craig Batty is HDR Director in the School of Media and Communication. He has published widely in the areas of screenwriting practice and pedagogy, creative practice research and the creative practice research degree. He is an international advocate for the screenwriting practice PhD, and for developing shared understandings that support excellence in the supervision of practice-based PhDs.

In 2016 Craig was the recipient of a national AAUT Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, for his work in developing a peer-to-peer pedagogy that assists creative writers in their transformation to becoming creative writing researchers.

RMIT Research Excellence – Team Award

Associate Professor Sharath Sriram and Associate Professor Madhu Bhaskaran

STEM College, School of Engineering

The Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group is adept at growing ultra-thin materials, controlling their properties, and harnessing these to enable electronics, sensing, and photonic technologies. The Group’s vision is to be internationally recognised for outcomes and impact and to nurture the next generation of research leaders.

The Group has created nanoscale electronic memories, wearable sensor patches, flat optical devices and more. The results have appeared in over 80 journal articles in the last five years with an average impact factor >7.5 with five patents. Fifteen articles have featured on journal covers, with many appearing on television, radio, and print and online media (with well over 2500 mentions). The significance and impact of the Group's outcomes is evident from members receiving 48 fellowships, awards, and prizes in recent years.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Design)

Distinguished Professor Sarah Pink

College of Design and Social Context, School of Media and Communication

Distinguished Professor Sarah Pink is the Director of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre. A key strand of Sarah’s work involves bringing together design, ethnographic and documentary video practice to create innovative methodologies for research, intervention and dissemination of her work.

This has been developed in national research council funded projects, as well as through a series of industry partnerships, including the Energy and Digital Living website (2014) based on an EPSRC funded project in the UK, her design ethnography film Laundry Lives (2016), created through partnership with Unilever, and the Design for Wellbeing Project with Bendigo Hospital and Exemplar Health in Victoria (2016-18).

Sarah’s latest books in the design field include the Un/Certainty ibook, Digital Materialities: anthropology and design (2016), Future Anthropologies (2017) and Making Homes: ethnography and design (2017).

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Enterprise)

Dr Yolande Strengers

College of Design and Social Context, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies

Dr Yolande Strengers is an ARC DECRA Fellow and co-leader of the Beyond Behaviour Change Research Program at the Centre for Urban Research, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. Her research is clustered around a series of applied and theoretical projects exploring the impacts of smart technologies in everyday life, and their energy and sustainability outcomes.

Yolande has led and co-led a series of projects with industry partners including energy utilities and advocacy organisations, the ANZ Bank, environmental authorities and state government departments. She is the author of Smart Energy Technologies in Everyday Life (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and co-editor of Social Practices, Intervention and Sustainability (Routledge, 2015).

RMIT Award for Research Excellence (Technology)

Professor Stefan Kasapis

STEM College, School of Science

Stefan Kasapis is a Professor of Food Sciences. His research interests focus on bridging the gap that has emerged between advances in fundamental knowledge and direct application to product situations with a growing need for scientific input.

Since joining RMIT in 2009, he has published in excess of 80 articles in learned journals, edited two books, acted as principal supervisor of nine doctoral and three Masters by Research graduates, and delivered five Plenary Lectures at main events in his field, including those organised at the Universities of Guelph and Wageningen. He is the Editor of Food Hydrocolloids, which is the highest impact-factor research journal in food sciences.

His lifetime citation number of published work is 4,349 with the h-index being 38. He received four ARC grants mainly in collaboration with industry in developing innovative breakfast foods.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – ECR (Design)

Mr Craig Douglas

College of Design and Social Context, School of Architecture and Design

Craig Douglas is a Senior Lecturer in the Landscape Architecture Program, and Co-Director of the Office of Urban Transformations Research (OUTR) Laboratory, a School of Architecture + Design d_Lab research team in the Centre for Design Practice Research.

His research explores design as an activity of making and as an agent for understanding and responding to the challenges of the built environment in a rapidly changing complex world through live projects in collaboration with community, industry and government stakeholders.

The research focus is for the generation of sustainable urban futures conceived through a practice of design informed through a careful and rigorous exploration of economic, environmental, and social systems that constitute the dynamic medium of the landscape and the landscape of the city.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – ECR (Enterprise)

Dr Larissa Nicholls

College of Design and Social Context, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies

Dr Larissa Nicholls is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Urban Research. She investigates the health, wellbeing and environmental issues emerging from the nexus of energy, housing and urban planning policies. As a member of the Beyond Behaviour Change research program, her research aims to reorient policy and programs to achieve social and environmental change.

Dr Nicholls has been a chief investigator on several industry-funded applied research projects investigating household vulnerability and the role of energy policy in Australia. She is leading a research project to understand and manage the health impacts of heatwaves on vulnerable households. Dr Nicholls received the Peter Harrison Memorial Prize at the 2015 State of Australian Cities Conference for contribution to knowledge and capacity for sustainable urban development in Australia.

RMIT Award for Research Excellence – ECR (Technology)

Dr Jianzhen Ou

STEM College, School of Engineering

Dr Jianzhen Ou is an ARC DECRA Fellow in the Centre for Advanced Electronics and Sensors (CADES), School of Engineering. His research focuses on exploring functional materials and nanotechnology enabled systems.

He also co-leads the commercialisation of an innovative medical device – “Human Gas Sensor Capsule”, supported by an Accelerating Commercialisation grant, DIIS. In the past five years, Jian has published over 70 peer-reviewed publications in prestigious journals and international conference proceedings. His works have received more than 2200 citations so far with an h-index of 25.

His research has also attracted exceptional public media attention from hundreds of international media outlets, including those reported by TIME Magazine, CBS News, NPR and ABC News.

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – HDR (Design)

Dr Cindy Louise Bennett

College of Design and Social Context, School of Media and Communication

Supervisors: Dr Linda Daley, Dr Rebecca Hill

Thesis title: Lotjpa Yorta Yorta! Retrieving, reclaiming, and regenerating language and culture through the arts

Dr Bennett explored the centrality of the performance arts in retrieving, reclaiming and regenerating Cultural Heritage community languages, specifically Yorta Yorta.

Her research found that: Cultural Heritage community languages are alive, developing, and evolving; Cultural Heritage communities and people must be at the forefront of creating their language programs; and the arts are critical to the health and wellbeing of Cultural Heritage community’s languages and culture.

Dr Bennett’s PhD brought her creative professional practice into the academy as a place where urgent questions of cultural survival and maintenance could be investigated.

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – HDR (Enterprise)

Dr Thanh Hoa Le

College of Business, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing

Supervisors: Professor On Kit Tam, Dr Meg Sato

Thesis title: Attracting Foreign Direct Investment: A Critical Analysis of Vietnam's Performance

Dr Thanh Hoa Le completed his doctoral studies in the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing at RMIT University. His research dealt with issues critical for Vietnam’s development and reform in that he investigated the factors which determine success in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to the country, and the efficacy of government policies towards FDI.

Dr Le’s research will enable policy developers in government departments and elsewhere in Vietnam to increase the focus on economic reform and development to improve the competitiveness of the country’s FDI location advantages.

Since completing his PhD, Dr Le has taken a senior position as Dean of Supporting Justice Division, Justice Department of Can Tho City, in southern Vietnam.

RMIT Prize for Research Excellence – HDR (Technology)

Dr Andreas Boes

STEM College, School of Engineering

Supervisors: Professor Arnan Mitchell, Dr Elizabeth Soergel, Mr Giang Thach Nguyen

Thesis title: Laser light induced domain engineering of lithium niobate for photonic and phononic applications

Dr Andreas Boes was a doctoral candidate with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) within the School of Engineering, RMIT University. He has pioneered an extremely novel approach for modifying lithium niobate, a material of great interest for optical and acoustic applications.

The modified structures can control and manipulate light and sound waves within microchips, enabling new devices in the thriving fields of quantum photonics and phononics, ultra-broadband communications and plasmonics.

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Design)

Distinguished Professor Mike Xie

STEM College, School of Engineering

Professor Mike Xie is an RMIT Distinguished Professor, Director of Centre for Innovative Structure and Materials and Fellow of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. The work of his research team focuses on design optimisation and advanced manufacturing of novel structures and materials.

His team has a strong and continuing track record in securing Australian Research Council grants and other competitive grants. Professor Xie and his colleagues Dr Pannirselvam and Dr Xu and PhD student Mr Ren have successfully developed a novel method to test the strength of waffle pods used in the construction industry.

This joint research project with Unipod arose from a commercial testing conducted at RMIT's Rheology and Materials Characterisation laboratory. Their developed method is currently adapted as a testing standard in Unipod. The research has provided a practical solution to a significant industry problem.

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Enterprise)

Associate Professor Babak Abbasi

College of Business, School of Business IT and Logistics

Babak Abbasi is an associate professor of Business Analytics and Operations Management at School of Business IT and Logistics. His research focuses on industry-motivated quantitative modelling and decision making under uncertainty applied to healthcare delivery improvement, supply chain coordination, resources allocation, service operations management and manufacturing.

He holds an h-index of 16 in Scopus. He has recently developed a large scale mathematical/simulation model for the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS). This research used data from 105 hospitals in Australia and provided a simulation tool for the ARCBS that can evaluate the impact of any operational policies such as reducing the shelf life of red blood cells, changing the trans-shipment network and blood substitution policies.

RMIT Award for Research Impact (Technology)

Dr Suelynn Choy

STEM College, School of Science

Dr Suelynn Choy’s research focuses on precise satellite positioning and navigation. She is the lead investigator in a research project with the Australian Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Spatial Information and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, investigating the capability of the Japanese regional satellite navigation system to deliver precise positioning services.

Dr Choy and her research team successfully demonstrated that augmentation data generated by Australian infrastructure and transmitted by the regional satellite navigation system can be used to provide accurate positioning anywhere outdoors in Australia at any time. Her research is laying the foundation of a basic discovery for innovative augmentation solutions and development of technological capacity for Australia to deliver nationwide precise position information.

Dr Choy was recently awarded the 2016 Australian National Measurement Institute Prize.

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher (Design)

Dr Jonathan Duckworth

College of Design and Social Context, School of Media and Communication

Dr Jonathan Duckworth has established a strong reputation for his practice-based design research that forges synergies between digital media art, science, rehabilitation, disability and game technology.

Dr Duckworth has designed two highly successful projects called Elements and Resonance funded by the Australia Research Council and Australia Council for the Arts. Both works provide a medium for rehabilitation of movement and cognition for individuals with an acquired brain injury. Elements was recognised for its design innovation as a recipient of the 2015 Victorian Premier’s Design Award and 2016 Good Design Award.

These projects have yielded significant innovations within rehabilitation, the arts and technology field, and have generated applications with significant impact in other cultural and community sectors relevant to disability, performance, and participation in the arts.

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher (Enterprise)

Dr Rebecca Seah

College of Design and Social Context, School of Education

Dr Rebecca Seah is a lecturer in mathematics education in the School of Education. As part of the research team in Reframing Mathematical Future II, an Australian Mathematics and Science Partnership Program Competitive Grant Project (2015–2018), Rebecca leads the work on reasoning in geometry and measurement.

Rebecca is responsible for developing the draft learning progression for spatial thinking, the trial assessment tasks and the accompanied learning activities/resources currently being used across Australian schools. She acts as a mentor to five research schools in Queensland and is in the process of completing the recording of five videos to provide quality professional learning for teachers and to be housed on AAMT’s online professional learning portal where they will be accessible by 4500 individual and institutional members.

RMIT Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher (Technology)

Dr Sumeet Walia

STEM College, School of Engineering

Dr Sumeet Walia is a researcher in the School of Engineering and specialises in the use of metal oxides for next-generation nanoelectronics. Having completed his PhD in 2013 from RMIT University, he has several high impact publications and his research has appeared on the cover of many prestigious journals.

His work has also been featured in over 800 national and international media outlets with one of the discoveries being featured in the Top 100 innovations list released by Netexplo in partnership with UNESCO. Sumeet's commercially oriented research has also attracted interest from industry. He was awarded the 2014 Vice-Chancellor's Award for Doctoral Excellence.

RMIT Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research (Design)

Miss Siti Hana Nasir

College of Design and Social Context, School of Fashion and Textiles

Supervisors: Associate Professor Olga Troynikov, Dr Nicola Massy-Westropp

Thesis title: Therapeutic gloves for patients with arthritis

Siti Hana Nasir is a doctoral student in the School of Fashion and Textiles. Her doctoral research significantly contributed to establishment of an evidence-based framework for design and engineering of therapeutic gloves for individuals suffering from hand arthritis.

Hana adopted a unique and innovative user-centric study design in her approach to the development of the evidence-based framework. She engaged with a number of industry partners, professional bodies and interdisciplinary researchers during her studies and her research work received attention from health, engineering and design scientific communities, both in Australia and internationally.

Hana was awarded ‘Outstanding Student Paper Award’ at a conference and also is the recipient of the RMIT European Union Centre HDR Travel Grant in 2015.

RMIT Prize forResearch Impact – Higher Degree by Research (Enterprise)

Mr Duy Dang-Pham

College of Business, School of Business IT and Logistics

Supervisors: Dr Siddhi Pittayachawan, Mr Bruno Vincenzo

Thesis title: Investigating the formation of information security climate in a large Vietnamese construction company: a social network analysis approach

Duy Dang-Pham completed his Bachelor of Business (Information Systems) at RMIT Vietnam and also an Honours degree at RMIT University with a Vice-Chancellor’s List Award in 2013. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the School of Business IT and Logistics.

For his thesis, Duy is collaborating with TTT Corporation - one of the largest construction enterprises in Vietnam - to enhance their information security systems. The research utilised network analysis techniques to improve security awareness of hundreds of employees within a short time. Important mechanisms of the security awareness diffusion process were also explored in the research.

Duy has been publishing in high impact journals and engaging with industry partners in Vietnam. His research interests include information systems, security management and supply chain management.

RMIT Prize for Research Impact – Higher Degree by Research (Technology)

Mr Robert Chapman

STEM College, School of Engineering

Supervisors: Dr Alberto Peruzzo, Dr Steven Flammia

Thesis title: Developing Photonic Quantum Information Technologies

Robert Chapman completed his Masters degree at the University of Bristol (UK) and is currently undertaking a PhD with the Quantum Photonic Laboratory at RMIT University.

Robert has demonstrated several key quantum information protocols and developed novel integrated photonic devices which manipulate the state of single photons for quantum information applications.

During the final year of his PhD, Robert will integrate single photon emitters onto these photonic devices. This will present a scalable architecture for generating and manipulating photons on a single integrated device, opening future pathways towards quantum computing and quantum communication.

Robert has presented at conferences in the US and Europe and has published several peer reviewed journal articles, including in Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters and Scientific Reports.

Malcolm Moore Industry Research Awards

Dr Karyn Bosomworth

College of Design and Social Context, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies

Dr Bosomworth will use the grant to work with Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority on a project titled "Enabling sustainable management of our natural resources under a changing climate".

In partnership with the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority (GB-CMA), this project aims to provide practical guidance for natural resource managers in an approach to planning for climate change known as adaptation pathways planning. 

It will also support GB-CMA’s role as coordinator of the Victorian CMA Climate Change Forum in piloting such guidance for all CMAs; produce and begin implementation of GB-CMA’s own climate change plan; provide state-wide guidance for Natural Resource Management adaptation policy and practice; provide a tangible case study for Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) of the state’s Adaptation Plan principles in practice and government action on climate change; and provide the basis for specific DELWP guidance on future planning for the state’s waterways and estuaries.

Dr Sumeet Walia

STEM College, School of Engineering

Dr Walia will use the grant to work with Johnson & Johnson on a project titled "Smart Contact Lenses".

Dr Sumeet Walia, a researcher with the Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group, will commence an industry-partnered research project with Johnson & Johnson Inc, headquartered in USA.

The work will involve the development of flexible, smart contact lenses. In line with the industry engagement strategy of RMIT University, this project will explore potential pathways to advance the research into a marketable product in partnership with a leading company. The project also has the potential to generate commercially important intellectual property.

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award

Professor Sara Charlesworth

College of Business, School of Management

Professor Sara Charlesworth is an ARC Future Fellow in the School of Management’s Centre for Sustainable Organisations and Work. Her research focuses on gender inequality in employment and has involved collaboration with diverse organisations, including GM Holden, Victoria Police and the Australian Human Rights Commission, and with colleagues in Canada and the UK.

Professor Charlesworth’s research has direct policy impact and has been cited in reports of a number of parliamentary inquiries and decisions of the Fair Work Commission.

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Supervision Excellence Award

Professor Vipul Bansal

STEM College, School of Applied Sciences

Professor Vipul Bansal is an ARC Future Fellow and mentors a cross-disciplinary team of 25 researchers as the Director of the Ian Potter NanoBioSensing Facility and the group leader of the NanoBiotechnology Research Laboratory (NBRL). Over the past five years, he has supervised 15 doctoral candidates to successful completions, with a number now placed in reputed organisations such as Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Stanford University and the University of Oxford.

His research focuses on the development of new nanomaterials for applications in diagnostics, drug-delivery, bio-imaging, catalysis and flexible electronics. He serves on the editorial advisory board of six reputed journals including the senior Section Editor of PLOS ONE and Associate Editor of RSC Advances.

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence - Early Career Researcher Award

Dr Bill Davey

College of Business, School of Business IT and Logistics

Dr Bill Davey is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems. He has held several working group positions with the International Federation of Information Systems and is the Associate Editor of the journal, Education and Information Technology.

Dr Davey is the RMIT chief investigator in a joint research project with Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Stuttgart, Germany, investigating design of hospital information systems, and has published several key papers with researchers from Idaho State University on aged care and informatics.

He is currently working on a book on Requirements Elicitation for information systems. Dr Davey supervises two industry-based PhD candidates in Project Management and two PhD candidates investigating the value of IT in addressing specific health issues.

Vice-Chancellor’s Doctoral Research Excellence Prize

Dr Rozina Abdul Rani

STEM College, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Supervisors: Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh; Professor Michael Austin; Dr Madhu Bhaskaran

Thesis title: Anodized Nb2O5: Application for Gas Sensors, Lithium-Ion Batteries and Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Dr. Rozina Abdul Rani was a doctoral student in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Her doctoral thesis contributed to producing in-depth knowledge on the capabilities of oxide of niobium for specific devices including gas sensors, batteries and solar cells.

Her research resulted in fundamental knowledge regarding the synthesis parameters and structural properties of the investigated material, enabling enhancement of these devices' performance. Rozina’s work has been published in several high-impact factor journals and received worldwide attention within scientific communities.

Vice-Chancellor’s Higher Degree by Research Publication Excellence Award

Dr Shi-Yang Tang

STEM College, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Supervisors: Dr Khashayar Khoshmanesh, Dr Ravi Shukla

Dr. Shi-Yang Tang completed his PhD in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2012-2015. During this time, he developed versatile microfluidic systems for the sorting, trapping, chemical stimulation and microscopic analysis of cells, with a potential application in emerging lab-on-a-chip platforms.

He also developed several innovative microfluidic systems utilising gallium-based liquid metal alloys. His works have been published in several high-impact journals, including PNAS, Advanced Functional Materials, Lab-on-a-Chip and Analytical Chemistry.

RMIT University Research Excellence Award

Professor Chun Hui Wang

STEM College, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (Director, Sir Lawrence Wackett Aerospace Research Centre)

Professor Chun Wang is the Director of the Sir Lawrence Wackett Aerospace Research Centre. His research focuses on the creation and application of advanced materials and analytical models for structural integrity management of safety-critical structures in a wide range of industries.

Over the past five years, he has received 11 ARC grants, supervised 15 PhD students and 6 postdoctoral fellows, and completed collaborative projects with Boeing, Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Carbon Revolution, and Defence Materials Technology Centre.

Associcate Professor Sarah Bekessy

College of Design and Social Context, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies (Future Fellow)

Associate Professor Sarah Bekessy is an ARC Future Fellow and leader of the Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. She is interested in the intersection between science and policy in environmental management and is currently involved in a range of research projects, including an ARC Future Fellowship titled ‘Socio-ecological Models for Environmental Decision Making’. She leads two themes under the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions – Threatened Species, and Clean Air and Urban Landscapes.

Her research on ‘Reimagining the Suburb’ (funded by the Myer Foundation) was recently highlighted in newspapers around Australia. Sarah she gave the keynote address at the Cities International Conference in Surabaya, Indonesia, in November 2015.

Professor Jason Potts

College of Business, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing (Professor of Economics)

Professor Jason Potts is a professor of economics in the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, and an ARC Future Fellow. His research focuses on the very early stages of a new technology (such as 3D printing or the blockchain) when agents need to cooperate to discover entrepreneurial opportunities in the shadow of subsequent competition.

His work examines the institutions that emerge to govern that space, and how these relate to innovation policy.

RMIT University Doctoral Research Excellence Prize

Dr Kelly Burns

College of Business, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing

Supervisors: Professor Imad Moosa, Dr George Tawadros

Thesis title: A Reconsideration of The Meese-Rogoff Puzzle

Dr Kelly Burns is an Early Career Research Fellow at Curtin University and a recent doctoral graduate of the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing at RMIT University. Her research focuses on international monetary economics, mineral and energy economics, and forecasting.

Her most notable research achievements include the publication of a book, Demystifying the Meese-Rogoff Puzzle, and over ten A-ranked publications, including a paper in the prestigious Journal of Macroeconomics. Kelly has also secured competitive research funding including grants from the BankWest Curtin Economic Centre.

Dr David Blades

College of Design and Social Context, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies

Supervisors: Dr Joseph Siracusa, Dr Aiden Warren

Thesis title: "This Awesome Field"; A History of United States Nuclear Testing and its Influence on Nuclear Thought, 1945-1963

Since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, there have been over 1,900 nuclear tests. What were their purpose and consequences of nuclear testing on international security?

In his engaging and deeply researched thesis, which has since been published to critical acclaim by Rowman & Littlefield, Dr. David Blades explores how nuclear testing influenced nuclear thinking in the United States, revealing how these tests had an enormous influence, not only on how the weapons and their delivery systems were developed, but also on the strategies for their use.

Dr Ahmad Sabirin bin Zoolfakar

STEM College, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Supervisors: Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, Professor Vipul Bansal

Thesis title: Tuning and Engineering of ZnO and CuXO for Sensor, Solar Cells and Storage Devices

Dr Ahmad Sabirin bin Zoolfakar was a doctoral student in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He investigated properties of model metallic compounds including zinc and copper oxides for the development of sensors, energy harvesting cells and memory devices.

Ahmad was able to produce fundamental knowledge on parameters that can be engineered in order to enhance the properties that can be obtained from the metallic compounds. The outcomes of this study produced new insights into the development of nanotechnology enabled devices.

RMIT University Higher Degree by Research Publication Excellence Prize

Jasvinder Sidhu

College of Business, School of Accounting (Associate Lecturer.)

Supervisors: Professor Garry David Carnegie; Professor Brian West

Jasvinder Sidhu completed his Master of Professional Accounting and Master of Commerce degrees at RMIT in 2006 and also completed an Honours degree at the University of Ballarat. He is a School of Accounting staff member and doctoral candidate.

While undertaking his Honours and PhD research, Jasvinder authored eight journal articles, including in Accounting History, Journal of Intellectual Capital, and Corporate Ownership and Control, and has presented peer-reviewed papers at conferences in Europe, North America, India and New Zealand.

His main research interests are accounting history and intellectual capital. He is also involved in volunteer work and applies accounting techniques in creating efficient service models for community work.

Brendan Keogh

College of Design and Social Context, School of Media and Communication (Adjunct Principal Research Fellow.)

Supervisors: Professor Larissa Hjorth; Mr Christian McCrea

Brendan Keogh is an adjunct research fellow in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT, and a freelance videogame critic. His research focuses on the phenomenological and critical aspects of videogame play and development cultures.

He has written about the craft of videogames for a variety of outlets including Overland, Polygon, Ars Technica, Kotaku, Reverse Shot, New Statesman, Edge, and the ABC's The Drum. He is the author of Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops: The Line.

Andreas Boes

STEM College, School of Electical and Computer Engineering.

Supervisors: Professor Arnan Mitchell; Mr Giang Thach Nguyen

Andreas Boes is a doctoral candidate with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) within the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University. Andreas has discovered a new method to modify the functionality of the material lithium niobate with nanometer precision without damaging the surface.

These new structures can control light and sound waves within microchips with applications ranging from quantum optics to drug delivery. Andreas has presented 9 peer reviewed conference papers and published 8 journal articles, including in Advanced Materials Interfaces, Physical Review Letters and Applied Physics Letters.

RMIT University Research Excellence - Leadership Award

Professor Adrian Mouritz

STEM College, School Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (Head of School.)

Professor Adrian Mouritz is Head of the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and Leader of the Multifunctional Composites Research Team. Professor Mouritz leads a large team of researchers, including five academic staff, six Research Fellows, and over 20 PhD students, performing fundamental and applied research into composites for aerospace, automotive, marine and other applications.

The team led by Professor Mouritz has an extensive national and international collaborative research network, and the research is funded from many government and industry sources including the ARC, Boeing, Airbus, Ford, Defence Science Technology Group, United States Office of Naval Research and several small-to-medium sized Australian companies.

RMIT University Innovation Excellence Award

Professor Leslie Yeo

STEM College, School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering (Future Fellow and Professor of Chemical Engineering)

Professor Leslie Yeo is an ARC Future Fellow, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of the MicroNanomedical Research Centre. Leslie was the recipient of the Young Tall Poppy Science Award and Monash University’s Dean’s and Vice-Chancellor’s early career research awards.

His work on microfluidics has been featured widely in the media and has culminated in a book, over 175 publications and 7 patents. Leslie is the Editor of Biomicrofluidics and editorial board member of Interfacial Phenomena and Heat Transfer and Scientific Reports.

RMIT University Research Excellence - Team Award

Centre for Advanced Materials and Performance Textiles

Associate Professor Rajiv Padhye, Centre Director

College of Design and Social Context, School of Fashion and Textiles

The Centre for Advanced Materials and Performance Textiles (CAMPT) is the leading-edge textile research facility within the School of Fashion and Textiles. A group of widely-experiences researchers explore the synergies between textile design, optimal technological performance, and fashion appeal.

Innovative solutions are sought for practical textile problems encompassing improved personal protection, athletic performance, health, and wellbeing. CAMPT has developed notable products including protective fabrics for defence, fire fighters and sports applications, and car seat covers that ensure optimal airbag deployments.

Malcolm Moore Industry Research Award

Dr Ruwini Edirisinghe

College of Design and Social Context, School of Property, Construction and Project Management

Dr Ruwini Edirisinghe is a Vice-Chancellor's research fellow in the School of Property, Construction and Project Management at RMIT University. She is working in the emerging "ICT and smart technologies in construction" research area. She is leading a number of research and industry projects and international research collaborations.

Dr. Edirisinghe has developed a smart safety vest to monitor the physiological conditions of construction workers in real time to improve work health and safety. Validating the technology's usability in industry is ongoing.

Associate Professor Ingo Karpen

College of Business, Graduate School of Business and Law

Dr Ingo Karpen is an Associate Professor and cross-disciplinary researcher in Strategy, Service and Design at RMIT University’s Graduate School of Business and Law. In his research, Ingo focuses on optimising both organisational design and customer experience design in view of better engaging stakeholders and co-creating better solutions.

For this purpose, Ingo collaborates with international business partners across industries but particularly health care providers to facilitate knowledge generation for the betterment of business and societies.

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award

Professor Suresh Bhargava

STEM College

Professor Suresh Bhargava is the Director of the Centre for Advanced Materials and Industrial Chemistry and an internationally recognised and highly cited RMIT researcher (> 5400 citations, current rate of five/day). A Fellow of five learned academies around the world, including Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the current phase of his research is focused on real world applications and creating RMIT brand research leaders for tomorrow. In the past five years, he has produced 17 PhD scholars and multiple postdoctoral and Future Fellows. As one of the top 1% of science and technology leaders in the Australian resource sector, he has received competitive ARC Linkage grants with large corporate multinationals, including Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Alcoa.

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Supervision Excellence Award

Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh

STEM College, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh is the Director of the Centre for Advanced Electronics and Sensors (CADES) at RMIT. He is the co-author of nearly 300 books and highly cited scientific papers, Kourosh is internationally recognised for his research into nanotechnology enabled sensors, especially bio and gas sensors, and two dimensional semiconductors. His other areas of research interest include microfluidics and electronic materials.

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence - Early Career Researcher Award

Dr Sharath Sriram

STEM College, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr Sharath Sriram is a Senior Research Fellow and ARC Australian Post-Doctoral Fellow in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He jointly leads the Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group, with a focus on micro/nano-devices for sensing, memories, electromagnetics, and flexible electronics. Sharath is also the Deputy Director of RMIT University’s new MicroNano Research Facility (MNRF). Sharath has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications, with work featured on ten occasions on covers of prestigious journals and receiving extensive media coverage.

Vice-Chancellor’s Doctoral Research Excellence Prize

Dr Sumeet Walia

STEM College, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

The miniaturisation of energy generation systems, while simultaneously maintaining their energy and power capacities, is an important technological challenge. Dr Sumeet Walia’s thesis demonstrated a novel solution to this problem using "thermopower waves" to convert chemical energy to electrical power at high transformation rates. By coating thermoelectric thin films with combustible fuels and igniting them, he demonstrated combustion waves that could produce strong electric current with power-to-mass ratios larger than conventional technologies, such as supercapacitors and lithium ion batteries.

Vice-Chancellor’s Higher Degree by Research Publication Excellence Prize

Mr Nicholas Williams

College of Design and Social Context, School of Architecture and Design

Nicholas Williams is undertaking a PhD in the School of Architecture and Design, College of Design and Social Context. He has published nine conference proceedings in the field of computational modelling in architecture during the initial two years of his PhD candidature and is lead author for four publications. Nicholas also has a journal publication accepted in Automation in Construction, one of two top ranked journals in the field. Significantly these publications reflect Nicholas’s prodigious creative project output, for which he has also been invited to exhibit in six venues, domestically and internationally.

RMIT University Research Excellence Award

Professor Supriya Singh

College of Business, Graduate School of Business and Law

Professor Supriya Singh is the Professor, Sociology of Communications in the Graduate School of Business and Law. A member of the Global Cities Research Institute, Supriya also co-convenes Asia@RMIT and is a member of the Global Cities Research Institute. Her research focuses on the sociology of money and banking; migration, remittances and the transnational family; globalisation, financial inclusion, user centred design of information and communication technologies; and methodological issues relating to qualitative research.

Professor Ralph Horne

College of Design and Social Context

Professor Ralph Horne is the Deputy PVC, Research and Innovation for the College of Design and Social Context. With a wide network of industry partnerships, Ralph has been Chief Investigator in over 100 industry-linked research projects across the built environment, urban sustainability and social change since 2005. His research interests include social and policy change for environmentally sustainable design and relations between housing quality and benefits for households. He is also Director, Cities Programme, the urban arm of the UN Global Compact, New York, USA.

Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh

STEM College, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh is the Director of the Centre for Advanced Electronics and Sensors (CADES) at RMIT. He is the co-author of nearly 300 books and highly cited scientific papers, Kourosh is internationally recognised for his research into nanotechnology enabled sensors, especially bio and gas sensors, and two dimensional semiconductors. His other areas of research interest include microfluidics and electronic materials.

RMIT University Doctoral Research Excellence Prize

Dr Celina Ping Yu

College of Business, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing

Supervisors: Professor On Kit Tam, Professor Anthony Naughton

Celina Ping Yu has completed her doctoral candidature in the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, College of Business. Her thesis, entitled "Corporate Governance of Chinese Fund Management Companies" followed a highly original topic of enquiry, exploring governance quality and drivers of performance outcomes in fund management companies. Celina’s thesis provided new critical insights and extended knowledge and understanding of the subject area, drawing upon perceptive, persistent and careful research, including time spent in Fund management companies in both China and Australia.

Dr Marietta Martinovic

College of Design and Social Context, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies

Supervisors: Professor Manfred Steger, Dr Marg Liddell

Dr Martinovic produced original and exemplary research on a very complex issue—Home Detention Based Sanctions (HDBS). She analysed ethical, legal, political, and stakeholder controversies and issues as they developed over the decades and commented on them judiciously. She provided evidence that HDBS is more beneficial to society than prison, which operates under a punishment rather than rehabilitation ideology. The insights, knowledge, and authority acquired through her research and writing has made her a world leader in this field.

Dr Adam Francis Chrimes

STEM College, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Supervisors: Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, Associate Professor Vipul Bansal

Dr. Adam Chrime’s thesis represented a high quality scientific work on the next generation of biosensing systems. It contributed novel ideas to the field of microfluidic biosensors, creating new methods to control nano sized particles for increased sensitivity using conventional optical measurement systems. Adam’s work has been published in several high-impact journal articles, one of them chosen by the editors of the American Chemical Society journals as one of the most promising nano systems for biosensing of the year in 2012.

RMIT University Higher Degree by Research Publication Excellence Prize

Mrs Arabella Volkov

College of Business, School of Accounting

Supervisors: Professor Brendan O’Connell, Dr Mahesh Joshi

Arabella Volkov is mid-way through her doctoral candidature in the School of Accounting, College of Business. During the course of her PhD studies, Arabella, has produced five journal articles and two conference papers as first author. Her PhD investigates the impact of work-based learning (such as the cooperative year offered at RMIT University) on accounting student’s learning outcomes. While undertaking this research, Arabella has also developed a theoretical framework regarding the impact of work-based learning on student learning. Her thesis title is "Assessing the benefits of integrating an extended internship into undergraduate accounting programs"

Mr Roger Kemp

College of Design and Social Context, School of Architecture and Design

Supervisors: Professor Sand Helsel, Associate Professor Andrea Mina

Roger Kemp is mid-way through his doctoral candidature in the School of Architecture and Design, College of Design and Social Context and his thesis title is "Negotiating Space: A Process of Constructing Interiors". Roger has developed innovative design strategies that foreground and position occupants relative to perceived and experienced physical and virtual conditions of a space. This negotiation of space was tested through a series of 15 exemplary projects, incorporating a range of media, including film, installation, exhibition, drawings, models, montage and text. This led to an expanded definition of interior design, which breaks from the restrictive parameter of interior space as a condition of enclosure. In addition to his creative works, he has published two journal articles, one as first author.

Mr Xiaoyi Zeng

STEM College, School of Health Sciences

Supervisors: Professor Jiming Ye, Professor Aimin Xu

Xiaoyi Zeng is nearing the end of his doctoral studies having recently submitted his PhD thesis, "Anti-Diabetic Effects of Oleanolic Acid and Matrine", for examination. Xiaoyi’s body of work includes 14 journal articles and one conference paper, in two cases as first author. He has also presented at national and international conferences and was listed as a finalist in the Australian Postgraduate Student award at the Australian Diabetes Conference.

RMIT University Research Excellence - Leadership Award

Professor Lesley Duxbury

College of Design and Social Context, School of Art

Professor Lesley Duxbury is Deputy Head, Research for the School of Art and the editor of the Studio Research Journal. Lesley’s research leadership was exemplified through her pro-active work in establishing the processes for the collection and reporting of creative works, as well as ensuring that standards of quality were adhered to. She is a prolific researcher, producing creative in addition to producing text based output. Lesley has authored five book chapters (including research on the supervision of HDR candidates in the Creative Discipline) and has also taken the lead in terms of getting her creative work in the RMIT research repository, further showcasing the creative work produced at RMIT. Lesley was the ERA leader for DSC for ERA 2012 as well as being the FoR expert for code 1905 (Visual Arts and Craft). RMIT received a 4 for this FoR code—the highest score in Victoria, outpointing the Victorian College of the Arts.

RMIT University Innovation Excellence Award

Professor Kefei Zhang

STEM College, School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences

Professor Kefei Zhang’s research pioneered the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) Radio Occultation (RO) technique for Australian meteorological applications such as weather forecasting, climate and severe weather monitoring. Partnering with the Bureau of Meteorology, Kefei’s team has successfully used this frontier technology to significantly improve the accuracy of short-to-mid-term weather forecasts by up to 10 hours in the Australian region. As a result, this important new space based technique is now officially used in the operational Australian forecasting system. Over 23 million Australians have benefitted from this innovation and will continue to benefit through timely and more accurate weather prediction.

RMIT University Research Excellence - Team Award

Sports Engineering and Technology (SportzEdge) research project

Professor Franz (Tino) Fuss – Team Leader

Platform Technologies Research Institute

The SportzEdge program focuses on improving sports performance through smart and instrumented sports equipment, non-linear sports dynamics, advanced manufacturing and sustainable engineering of equipment, sports aerodynamics, and design optimisation and customisation of sports equipment, thereby contributing to Paralympic and world championship gold medals. Notable products developed for optimisation of training and improvement of performance comprise smart balls and bats (cricket, AFL), optimised wheelchairs, smart insoles, improved winter sport garments, smart climbing holds, optimised rugby balls and snowboards, and smart gyms.

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award

Professor Dougal McCulloch

STEM College, School of Applied Sciences

Professor Dougal McCulloch completed his PhD in 1994 at RMIT University. Since then, he has published more than 150 refereed research papers and been awarded over $3M in competitive grants in the fields of microscopy & microanalysis and advanced coating materials. He is the Discipline Head of Physics in the School of Applied Sciences and the Director of the RMIT Microscopy & Microanalysis Facility (RMMF).

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Supervision Excellence Award

Dr Margaret Lech

STEM College, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr Margaret Lech has a Masters degree in Physics and Biomedical Engineering and a PhD in Electrical Engineering. Her interdisciplinary research collaboration has led to the development of speech-based diagnosis of clinical depression, as well as an efficient modelling methodology allowing the understanding of emotional interaction patterns in parent-child conversations.

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence - Early Career Researcher Award

Associate Professor Rosalea Monacella

College of Design and Social Context, School of Architecture and Design

Dr Rosalea Monacella is an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Design, and Co-Director of the research laboratory OUTR: Office of Urban Transformations. The focus of her research is the adaptation and transformation of the city at the nexus of the urban and natural environments that explores the infrastructural, economic, environmental and social complex systems that constitute the city.

Vice-Chancellor’s Doctoral Research Excellence Prize

Dr Jing Zhou

College of Business, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing

Thesis Title: Investor protection and agency problems in family firms: Evidence from China

Dr Jing Zhou’s thesis investigates how China’s family companies make choices on corporate governance mechanisms to minimize agency costs with uneven legal investor protection. It produces new perspective and evidence on the governance of the increasingly important family businesses, challenging some conventional findings with implications for succession strategy and executive development.

Vice-Chancellor’s Higher Degree by Research Publication Excellence Prize

Mr Sivacarendran Balendhran

STEM College, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Sivacarendran Balendhran's research involved developing electronic devices based on two dimensional (2D) semiconducting materials such as molybdenum trioxide (MoO3). He developed field effect transistors (FETs) based on 2D MoO3 with enhanced carrier mobilities, with operational characteristics that exceed any other 2D FETs to date. He has also proven the biosensing capabilities of 2D MoO3.

RMIT University Research Excellence Award

Professor Kefei Zhang

STEM College, SPACE Research Centre, School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences

Professor Kefei Zhang has made significant contribution to the fields of satellite positioning and geodesy. Kefei holds a number of international patents and has published widely. He is the recipient of the prestigious Australian Space Research Program platform technology project and an Australian pioneer in satellite technology for weather, climate and environmental studies.

Professor Gavin A. Wood

College of Design and Social Context, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies

Professor Gavin Wood’s main research interests are in urban economics, housing finance and labour economics. He has published widely and is currently on the International Editorial Advisory Boards of the academic journals Urban Studies and Housing Studies. Current research interests include the project “The Edges of Home Ownership” that involves researchers from Cambridge University, Curtin University as well as RMIT University.

Professor Prem Chhetri

College of Business, School of Business IT and Logistics

Professor Prem Chhetri is internationally known for research in developing spatially-integrated business solutions. Prem's recent research focused on urban modelling, tourism analysis, emergency management, and application of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) in transport, infrastructure and logistics planning. Prem has been a Chief Investigator on seven Category one Grants, including three ARC grants in the last five years.

RMIT University Doctoral Research Excellence Prize

Dr Rajesh Ramanathan

STEM College, School of Applied Sciences

Thesis title: Towards understanding the influence of physico-chemical environment on biological synthesis of inorganic materials

Dr Rajesh Ramanathan’s research involved training bacteria as tiny nanofactories for the fabrication of different nanomaterials. In particular, he investigated the fundamental role of the physico-chemical environment in controlling the mineral morphologies at the nanoscale during biological and biomimetic synthesis of nano-biomaterials.

Dr Chui Ha Ng

College of Design and Social Context, School of Property, Construction and Project Management

Thesis title: Exploring Contingent Employment Policy in IT - Impacts upon IT Project Management Capabilities Enhancement in Large Hong Kong Organisations

Dr Chui Ha Ng’s thesis investigated the question of how organisations can accumulate knowledge when most project team members are contingently employed. Chui studied three cases in Hong Kong and suggested reference models of enhancing IT project management capabilities under contingent employment context.

Dr Trinh Phuong Thao

College of Business, School of Business, Information Technology and Logistics

Thesis title: Enterprise Systems and Organisational Agility: Developing and Exploring a Casual Model

Organisational agility refers to the organisation’s ability to compete and thrive in unstable business environment by quickly detecting and seizing opportunities and tackling threats. Dr Trinh Thao’s research set out to investigate the role of enterprise systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management and Supply Chain Management in organisational agility and to explore the underlying mechanisms of how enterprise systems impact on organisational agility.

RMIT University Higher Degree by Research Publication Excellence Prize

Dr Michael Taylor

STEM College, School of Applied Sciences

In the past few years, Dr Michael Taylor has published over 30 journal papers and book chapters, and over 70 international conference presentations, directly impacting scientific practice in national laboratories, universities and hospitals around the world. His findings include methods for halving the risk of secondary cancer in children.

Mr Amit A. Jadhav

College of Design and Social Context, School of Fashion and Textiles

Amit Jadhav is a recipient of an Australian Government Endeavour Doctoral Scholarship. His research is based on electro-spraying technology which involves functionalising textiles by coating polymer solutions. Amit has designed and developed novel equipment which has capability of producing bicomponent polymer coating at Nano/micro level for a Protective, Medical and Technical textiles applications.

Mr Ashkan Khalili

College of Business, School of Management

Ashkan Khalili is a Doctoral candidate in the School of Management. He has published a number of papers on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in high quality journals. Ashkan’s broad research interests include human resource management, organisational behaviour and entrepreneurship.

RMIT University Research Development - Leadership Award

Professor Felicity Roddick

STEM College, School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering

Professor Felicity Roddick’s research over the recent years has focused on the treatment of water, initially drinking water and latterly wastewater with a view to reuse. Felicity’s work has concentrated on the characterisation and removal of organic matter by various physico-chemical and biological means to improve its quality and thus safety and aesthetics for the consumer, reuse applications and the receiving environment.

RMIT University Research Supervision Excellence - Early Career Researcher Award

Associate Professor Pia Ednie-Brown

College of Design and Social Context, School of Architecture and Design

Pia Ednie-Brown is an Associate Professor and HDR Director in the School of Architecture and Design. She is currently engaged in a large cross-institutional research project enquiring into various aspects of creative practice research, in which many of her PhD candidates are involved. Her academic writing has been published internationally.

RMIT University Invention Disclosure Award

Professor Franz Konstantin (Tino) Fuss

STEM College, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

With background in medicine and engineering, Professor Franz Konstantin Fuss is specialised in Sports Technology Innovation, specifically in the development of smart and intelligent products equipped with sensors or sensor-less sensing systems for optimisation of training, improvement of performance and prevention of injuries.

RMIT University Research Excellence - Team Award

The Water: Effective Technologies and Tools (WETT) Centre

Core Member- Professor Felicity Roddick

The Water: Effective Tools and Technology (WETT) Centre draws on researchers in SCECE, SAS and SAMME to combine engineering and scientific principles to provide a multidisciplinary approach to solving water-related problems. WETT researchers engage with the community, government and industry to develop technologies and methodologies for managing the quality and quantity of water.

Ian Permezel Memorial Award

Dr. Margaret Heffernan, O.A.M.

College of Business, School of Management

Dr. Margaret Heffernan, O.A.M. focuses her socio-ecological research on the assimilation of complex public health interventions and equity dynamics for culturally and linguistically diverse population groups. Her work on the implementation of HPV vaccination has resulted in cross-cultural collaborations and resource improvements.

Malcolm Moore Industry Research Award

Dr. Madhu Bhaskaran

STEM College, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Project title: High performance piezoelectric thin films for haptics applications

Dr. Madhu Bhaskaran is an ARC Fellow, who jointly leads a research group in Functional Materials and Microsystems. She has published 90 peer-reviewed publications, including 55 journal articles. This research will establish a collaboration with STMicroelectronics on the use of piezoelectric thin films for haptics applications.

Dr. Judith Burnside-Lawry

College of Design and Social Context, School of Media and Communication

Project Title: Increasing local level engagement to build resilient communities: Stakeholder perspectives of conditions that enable local action to reduce disaster risk

In partnership with United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and Plan International Australia, Judy's project is an exploratory study of factors that enhance local level engagement to build disaster resilience in two Asia Pacific communities - Nuku'alofa, Tonga and San Francisco, Cebu, The Philippines.

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award

Professor Arnan Mitchell

School of Computer and Electrical Engineering

Professor Arnan Mitchell is Chief Investigator and RMIT Node Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence CUDOS. His research is highly multi-disciplinary, spanning integrated optics, photonic signal processing, functional materials, microsystems, nanomaterials and lab-on-a-chip technology. His aim is to create innovative platforms to enable research in fundamental science and biomedicine and then connect these new technologies to real world applications.

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher Award

Dr Adrian Orifici

School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

Dr Adrian Orifici is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, and Program Director for the Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering Programs. His research focuses on aerospace structures using fibre-reinforced composite materials and includes damage modelling, postbuckling aircraft structures, multi-axial material characterisation and composite aircraft repair.

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Supervision Excellence Award

Professor Brian Corbitt

College of Business

Professor Brian Corbitt PhD FACS CP has a long track record in research and research training combining competitive funds from the ARC and NCCARF with industry and government funds. Brian’s research addresses problems in Australia, NZ and S.E.Asia related to National IT Policy, improving service delivery, climate change adaptation and improving manufacturing work processes through designing and building business driven, ICT-based solutions. Brian currently supervises 13 PhD students having supervised 61 PhD students to completion.

Vice-Chancellor’s Doctoral Research Excellence Award

Dr Jerry Yu

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr Jerry Yu’s research involved the design and fabrication of many new highly sensitive hydrogen and hydrocarbon gas sensors using different metal oxide nanostructures. He investigated the physical, electronic and catalytic properties of these structures, and developed new theoretical mechanisms to incorporate the unique effects exhibited by matter on the nanoscale.

Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award for Higher Degree by Research Publication Excellence

Mr Laith Al Mashat

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Mr Laith Al-Mashat's PhD research was focused on developing novel nanostructured conducting polymers and nanocomposites based gas sensors. His work featured collaboration with universities in USA, Korea and France. He published a number of articles in high quality journals and international conferences.

RMIT University Research Excellence Award

Professor Peter Fairbrother

College of Business, School of Management

Professor Peter Fairbrother, known internationally for work on union renewal and public service restructuring. Peter’s recent research investigates regional transitions to low carbon futures and local preparedness for bushfires. Peter has published ten books, numerous articles, presentations and reports.

Professor Helen Lingard

College of Design and Social Context, School of Property, Construction and Project Management

In 2009 Professor Helen Lingard was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship to deliver a programme of research in construction health and safety. Helen has been a Chief Investigator in five ARC Linkage Projects and One Discovery Project. She frequently undertakes contract research for industry and government in Australia, and internationally.

Professor Jiyuan Tu

STEM College, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

Professor Jiyuan Tu has made significant contribution to the field of computational fluid dynamics. He has published four research books by Elsevier and Springer, in particular, one of his books was awarded a prestigious Brennan Medal by IChemE in UK. He has received 14 ARC grant awards over the last ten years.

RMIT University Research Excellence – Team Award

Professor Arnan Mitchell and team

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Arnan Mitchell is Chief Investigator and RMIT Node Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence CUDOS. Until 2012, he led the Microplatform Research Group, a diverse team of over 50 researchers. Through 2012, this research strength has grown with several new, high profile micro-technology research leaders joining RMIT. As a member of this vibrant community, Professor Mitchell aims to ensure that RMIT is recognised as a national and international leader of this discipline.

RMIT University Research Excellence – Leadership Award

Joint recipients from the College of Design and Social Context

Mr Keith Cowlishaw

School of Fashion and Textiles

Dr Rajiv Padhye

School of Fashion and Textiles

Dr Olga Troynikov

School of Fashion and Textiles

The research leadership over the last five years has contributed to substantial growth in the School’s research performance across research income, publications and research activity.

RMIT University Higher Degree by Research Supervision Excellence - Early Career Researcher Award

Dr Peter Radcliffe

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr PJ Radcliffe was initially employed by RMIT because of his industry and teaching skills. When the opportunity to do a PhD finally arose he completed that in 18 months and then started taking research students of his own. He now thoroughly enjoys both teaching and research.

RMIT University Invention Disclosure Award

Joint recipients from the STEM College

Professor Suresh Bhargava

STEM College Office

Dr Sam Ippolito

School of Applied Sciences

Dr Ylias Sabri

School of Applied Sciences

This award recognises early stage innovation with the potential to have a dramatic impact on society. Professor Bhargava, Dr Ippolito and Dr Sabri have developed mercury sensing technologies which will contribute to the health and wellbeing of communities and the environment.

RMIT University Doctoral Research Excellence Award

Dr Bhavani Sridharan

College of Business, School of Business IT and Logistics

Dr Bhavani Sridharan developed a novel e-learning success model for an Australian tertiary education environment. The model has led to the identification of the critical success factors intertwined between pedagogies, technologies, learning resources and management of learning resources in e-learning. Specific policy initiatives are suggested for the effective implementation of the proposed model.

Dr Ehsan Gharaie

College of Design and Social Context, School of Property, Construction and Project Management

Dr Ehsan Gharaie’s research investigates house completion time within the Australian housing industry. His work addresses the issue of lengthening house completion times at various levels, investigating production factors at the national, state and company levels. Ehsan’s research area also includes mobile plant safety, and construction modelling, simulation and optimisation.

Dr Haidong Zheng

STEM College, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr Haidong Zheng made significant contributions to the understanding of the photoanode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). He developed a method for efficiently growing titania nanotubes on transparent conductive substrates and fabricated the first DSSC based on nanostructured tungsten oxide with respectable efficiency.

RMIT University Higher Degree by Research Publication Excellence Award

Ms Asmidah Alwi

College of Business, School of Business IT and Logistics

Ms Asmidah Alwi’s research investigates the interactive effects between the way humans process the information they receive and the museum information representational format on museum learning experiences. The data was collected using quasi-experimental design, and then analyzed using Rasch Model to provide measurable outcomes that could facilitate museum exhibit design.

Mr Saniyat Islam

College of Design and Social Context, School of Fashion and Textiles

Mr Saniyat Islam investigated wound-dressing developed from wool and wool blends using different techniques such as pad-dry-cure, electrospraying and dissolution – regeneration. Bio-active and absorbent wound-dressing materials were engineered utilising biopolymer and nanoparticle additives. Morphological, structural, chemical characteristics of the fabricated dressing materials were determined.

Mr Jos Laurie Campbell

STEM College, School of Applied Sciences

Mr Jos Campbell completed his B.Sc. in bio-nanotechnology before undertaking honours in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. During his PhD, Jos developed nanoparticle based systems for applications in targeted MRI contrast, catalysis and sensing applications in the School of Applied Sciences.

Malcolm Moore Industry Research Award

Dr Suelynn Choy

School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences

Dr Suelynn Choy completed her PhD in 2009. Her current research interests are in multi-Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Precise Point Positioning and using GNSS for atmospheric remote sensing. Suelynn is the co-chair of the International Association of Geodesy Working-Group 4.5.2: PPP and Network RTK under Sub-Commission 4.5: High Precision GNSS Algorithms and Applications.

Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence

Professor Charlie Changli Xue

School of Health Sciences

Professor Xue's research has focussed on taking an evidence-based rigorous approach to systematically evaluate major traditional and complementary medicine interventions for common chronic respiratory diseases and pain conditions. These research activities have been supported by over $8 million research grants from the NHMRC and major international grant schemes. To-date, our findings have showed that acupuncture and herbal medicine are beneficial for hayfever, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease as well as chronic and acute musculo-skeletal pain.

Vice Chancellor’s Award for Emerging Researcher

Dr Rick Franich

School of Applied Sciences

Dr Franich's research in Medical Physics is focused on improving the accuracy of radiation delivery in radiotherapy and medical imaging, while minimising the radiation dose to healthy tissue. This goal is achieved by developing novel systems and techniques for accurately measuring and calculating the radiation exposure distribution in patients’ anatomy. Dr Franich’s research includes the world’s first 3-D deformable radiation detector, and a system for real-time feedback of radiation dose during treatment of prostate cancer.

Dr Madhu Bhaskaran

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr Bhaskaran's research has focussed on functional materials to enhance electronic devices, with a specific focus on piezoelectric materials to harvest electrical energy from mechanical pressure. Dr. Bhaskaran is an ARC Post-Doctoral Fellow and has published over 50 peer-reviewed publications in the last 5 years. Her work on nanoscale energy generation properties of piezoelectric thin films has received widespread, international media attention for which Dr. Bhaskaran was recently awarded the RMIT Media Star Award 2011 for Research.

Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding HDR Thesis

Dr Nicole Pepperell

School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning

Thesis Title: Disassembling Capitalism

Nicole Pepperell’s Disassembling Capital highlights the use of irony and parody in Marx’s Capital, in order to explore better ways of theorising complex and dynamic social environments. A revised version of the thesis has been accepted for publication with Brill’s Historical Materialism series.

Ian Permezel Memorial Award

Dr Sharath Sriram

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr Sriram undertakes research is in novel materials and micro-devices with applications in energy, sensing, and memory technologies. These areas are aligned to RMIT University’s research focus area of Smart Technology Solutions. The Ian Permezel Memorial Award provides him with a valuable professional development opportunity. Through this award, he will participate in the 2nd NanoToday Conference, where he will be presenting two papers highlighting outcomes from his current ARC Australian Post-Doctoral Fellowship.

Malcolm Moore Industry Research Award

Dr Olivia Guntarik

School of Media and Communications

Dr Olivia Guntarik has published in the fields of memory studies, and indigenous and multicultural history and heritage. This project aims to promote greater understanding around how Vietnamese, Sri Lankan and Turkish families rebuild their lives in the post-resettlement years. The research will contribute directly to policy debates about the support services for and development of migrant and refugee communities.

University Research Prize

Dr Minh Phuong Doan

School of Economics, Finance and Marketing

Thesis Title: The roles of systematic skewness and systematic kurtosis in asset pricing

Dr Doan's research focused on investigating factors used to price stocks on the Australian stock market. Specifically, the factors underpinning stock market returns. Her research showed that it is not sufficient just to consider the mean and variance of returns as investors also price skewness and kurtosis (a measure of excessive large and small returns). When these factors were considered the pricing models performed better, especially in bull and bear markets.

Supervisor: Dr Heather Mitchell

Dr Judith Hart

School of Health Sciences

Thesis Title: Feeling Grateful: A Parse Research Method Study

Dr. Judith Hart’s dissertation explored the question: What is the structure of the lived experience of feeling grateful? in relation to health and quality of life. The Parse research method, underpinned by the ontology of humanbecoming guided this study. The participants were 10 individuals in the community. Feeling grateful was experienced as: potent elation amid tribulation arising with the assuredness-unassuredness of benevolent alliances. These findings contribute new nursing knowledge and further expand the humanbecoming school of thought.

Supervisors: Dr Phil Maude, RMIT University; Dr Anthony Welch, CQU; Dr Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Loyola University of Chicago

Dr Nicholas Justin Murray

School of Architecture and Design

Thesis Title: Sound and Space: An Architect's Investigation

Murray researched a positive role for acoustics in architecture, a field in which acoustics are usually applied to suppress unwanted sounds. He developed the concept of an acoustic landscape, profiled in sound contours that would enable groups of learners to work in open plan, sometimes all linked in lecture mode, but also within their own acoustic containers. He prototyped a segment of this landscape and demonstrated it at work. The research has profound implications for the design of learning environments.

Supervisor: Professor Leon van Schaik

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence

Professor Irene Yarovsky

School of Applied Sciences

This award recognises Professor Irene Yarovsky's sustained excellence in research over a period of three years against research benchmarks for quality; including research publications, research student training and research grant success.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Emerging Researcher

Dr Vernon Coffey

School of Medical Sciences

This award for an RMIT researcher, who has completed their PhD within the last 5 years, recognises Dr Vernon Coffey's performance over a period of three years against research benchmarks for performance.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Thesis

Dr Thomas Charles Daniell

School of Architecture and Design

Thesis title: Negotiating Context

Dr Daniell’s research, which documented the impacts on practice of specific cultural and regulatory regimes, emerged from his fascination with the variations between architectural expectations on three continents. This research revealed a gradient of alignments with local conditions and a range of principles shared with his peers around the world. He discovered that this tension between the specific and the architectural ideal energized design at all scales of work, discernible in modest alterations to a traditional house in Kyoto and in a large gallery in Nevada.

Supervisor: Professor Leon van Schaik

Award for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching and Research

Associate Professor Lisa French

School of Media and Communication

This award recognises the outstanding achievement of Associate Professor Lisa French who has enhanced student learning through exemplary teaching practice and advanced the frontiers of knowledge through a significant contribution to research within a discipline area.

Ian Permezel Memorial Award

Dr Flora Salim

School of Architecture and Design

Paper title: Demonstration of an Open Platform for Tangible and Social Interactions with Responsive Models

Dr Flora Salim will be presenting her paper “Demonstration of an Open Platform for Tangible and Social Interactions with Responsive Models’ at the 2010 Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture conference. The paper aims to encourage the wider international community to participate in the existing research network on interactive and responsive architecture fostered by the authors.

Malcolm Moore Industry Research Award

Dr Lara Wallis

School of Property, Construction and Project Management

Project title: An evaluation of how Occupational Health and Safety is embedded in the Education of Australian Building, Design and Construction courses.

Dr Lara Wallis's study aims to ascertain if students participating in vocational education or higher education built environment design study are provided with a broad OHS education, with relevant examples of designing for safe and health construction of buildings/structures. The study will also ascertain if the curriculum allows students to have a functional health and safety knowledge when they are employed by industry.

Emerging Researcher Industry Award

Dr Nicky Eshtiaghi

School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering

Project title: Impact of sludge Rheology on waste water treatment flow processes.

Large volumes of sludge are treated in anaerobic digester at sewage treatment plants in order to reduce the odour potential of the raw sludge. Internationally, existing wastewater treatment plants are under pressure to treat increasing volumes of wastewater with existing treatment plant due to increasing urban populations and financial constraints. By thickening sludge, the chance of pipe blockage and reduction in digester volume increases due to solid deposition. Dr Nicky Eshtiaghi's project will develop an objective design standard for anaerobic digester to enable industry to operate tertiary treatment system at higher concentration. This will lead an immediate reduction in the cost of maintenance and electricity usage.

Dr Thach Nguyen

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Project title: Establish an interaction between RMIT and the silicon photonic industry

A formal research collaboration between RMIT and Lightwire Inc, a world leader in silicon photonics for high-speed interconnects, will be formed by Dr Thach Nguyen to investigate silicon photonic devices that can be incorporated on to a single silicon photonic chip to transmit and receive information at very high speed.

University Research Prize

Dr Catherine Hope

PhD (School of Art)

Thesis title: The Possibility of Infrasonic Music

Dr Hope explored the manipulation of very low frequency sound, known as infrasound, in musical compositions, live performance, installation, improvisation, and recording in new and extant artworks. Her research discovered that music centred around the vibration and resonance created by low frequency sound results in a more embodied listening experience where sound is felt in the body as well as heard with the ears.

Supervisors: Dr Philip Samartzis and Dr KeelyMacarow

Dr Alfred Huah-Syn Wong

PhD (School of Economics, Finance and Marketing)

Thesis title: Empirical Studies of Over-the -counter Currency Option Contracts

Dr Wong explored over-the-counter currency option trading by examining the behaviour of the implied volatility of these contracts. His results reveal option-implied volatility varies over time and does not follow a random walk process. They also indicate a relationship between the volatility smiles and anticipated foreign exchange risk, suggesting their shape affects the predictive ability of implied volatility. These findings provide important insights into the pricing of currency option contracts and the empirical anomalies reported in the currency option market

Supervisors: Assoc Professor AmaliaDiIorio and Professor Richard Heaney

Dr Yohannes Tsegay

PhD (School of Computer Science and Information Technology)

Thesis title: Document Representation for Efficient Search Engines

Dr Tsegay developed and tested several algorithms that are key components of modern text search engines. With web search engines such as Google processing many thousands of queries per second, very fast algorithms for processing the query and returning a set of answers is expected. The thesis describes novel means of compressing and storing billions of documents that allows fast summarisation, and more efficient responses to queries.

Supervisor: Dr Andrew Turpin

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence

Professor Aleksandar Subic

Head of School, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Emerging Researcher

Associate Professor Laurene Vaughan

School of Media and Communication.

Ian Permezel Memorial Award

Dr Yoko Akama

Paper titled: “Warts-and-all: the real practice of service design’ addresses a critical concern of human-centred design which challenges the designer’s role in shaping and informing the ideas and behaviours of people and their environment.

Malcolm Moore Industry Research Award

Dr Lisa French

Project titled: ‘Women in Victorian Film, Television Industries’ and examines women’s participation in the film and television industry in Victoria.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Thesis

Dr Janet Hunt

Thesis Title: Local NGO’s in National Development: The Case of East Timor