Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor Annual Awards recognise achievement and commitment of College staff

The Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor Annual Awards were held in late November highlighting the outstanding contribution and commitment to developing and maintaining a vibrant campus environment, with several staff from the College of Arts and Social Science (CASS) being recognised.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt highlighted the value of the University community coming together to celebrate the remarkable achievements of professional and academic staff, particularly after the challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic.

"Each year I am proud to be part of such a great community - a place where we support each other's ideas, foster innovative new approaches and come together to solve challenges facing our nation and beyond," Professor Schmidt said.

The pandemic and the circumstances of women in Parliament and public life have been two of the most important issues the nation has faced over the past 18 months, and the vital contribution of CASS researchers to those issues received recognition.

The COVID-19 Impact Monitoring Program, led by Professors Matthew Gray and Nicholas Biddle from the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods received a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Impact and Engagement. This longitudinal survey program captures a rich snapshot of public sentiment during a unique time in history, and provides vital insights for policy makers charting a nation’s course through and beyond the pandemic.

Recent revelations about the treatment of women in Parliament, and several prominent examples of women in public life being subject to unfair treatment emphasise the progress still to be made towards gender equality. Dr Blair Williams has become a prominent voice for what needs to change, and for her significant research and commentary received a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Impact and Engagement. Dr Williams, a Research Fellow with the Global Institute for Woman’s Leadership at ANU and lecturer in politics, completed her PhD at ANU in 2020 looking at the treatment of women Prime Ministers in media. She is a regular contributor to national and international media, a columnist for The Canberra Times, and sits on the Executive Board of the International Political Science Association (IPSA). Dr Maria Maley from the School of Politics and International Relations was named a finalised for the award.

The Andrew Hopkins Award for Excellence in Health and Safety was awarded to the technical team of the ANU School of Art and Design led by Jeremy Lepisto, for the sustained and consistent way it manages and oversees health and safety across. The School of Art and Design has had to maintain access to specialist facilities crucial to staff and student work, through a challenging period of the pandemic and severe storms. The work of the team led by Jeremy has been invaluable to ensure that these spaces are a safe and healthy one in which our world class staff and students can carry on their creative pursuits and research.

The Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research was shared among three recipients including Associate Professor Katie Steele from the School of Philosophy. Dr Steele presently holds a 4-year ANU Futures Scheme grant and is a co-investigator on the 'Ethics and Risk' ARC Discovery Project as well as a co-investigator on the 'Climate Change and Future Generations' grant based at the Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm.

The success at these awards comes in the same week we congratulate Dr Laura Rademaker ANU historian and Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Deep History for being awarded the 2021 Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research by the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

The College congratulates all those recognised at this year’s awards for their dedication and outstanding work.