2025 CASS Awards

Celebrating excellence across teaching and professional contributions, the 2025 CASS staff awards were presented on Thursday 4 December. 

This year, the College continued to demonstrate national leadership in research and teaching performance. Dean, Professor Bronwyn Parry highlighted that CASS achieved an extraordinary sector-leading 60% success rate in the ARC Discovery Projects scheme and 26% in the DECRA scheme, an achievement she described as both a point of pride and a significant advantage for the College.

The Education Awards recognised nine educators across five categories.

“These results give us the ammunition we require to continue to prosecute the argument that we really are where the world-leading excellence of this university sits,” Professor Parry said. “Investing in us means investing in the success of the whole University. Our success in these and other major grant projects will enable us to bring here to CASS a whole new generation of really exciting young scholars who are the future of our disciplines and who will take over the mantles from us, as we inevitably jog off into the sunset.”

Professor Parry extended congratulations to the recipients and applauded the high standard of entries, saying, “It was great to see how deeply people engaged with innovation and how imaginative they have been in authoring creative new solutions for the challenges we face. Needless to say, the successful winners today developed particularly impressive work, but I want to celebrate the submissions of all the applicants – competition was fierce and the quality of the work was really high – a credit to you all.”

The Professional Staff Awards shone a spotlight on the dedicated colleagues who keep the College running smoothly, celebrating seven staff members across four award categories.

Reflecting on the year, CASS General Manager Mr Matt Talbot acknowledged the significant pressures faced by professional staff amidst ongoing change. "We have remained connected to the education, research, community outreach and engagement that we know is core to what we do best. We continue to thrive, influence and innovate."

With many nominations this year, Mr Talbot praised the talent and commitment of professional staff across the College."We had so many worthy nominations, many more staff and teams across the College that I really could just hand them out to everyone. Our professional staff are amazing; they inspire me every day and the awards recognise only a fraction of what we do here but I'd like to congratulate every one of our professional staff."

Professor Parry also presented a special recognition to Mr Talbot, praising the “focus, commitment and sheer will” he has shown in guiding the College through a year of change. Awarding the Baba Yaga Resilience Award, she thanked Matt for “keeping us going, keeping us together, and keeping us standing.”
 

Awardees