2025 Winners

On Wednesday 3 December 2025, the 2025 University of Melbourne Excellence Award winners were celebrated at a special ceremony held in the Old Quadrangle on the University’s Parkville Campus.

29 individual and team recipients from across the University were recognised for their remarkable achievements  in the key areas of Global, Place and Community, Research, Professional, and Teaching excellence.

We warmly congratulate all 2025 University of Melbourne Excellence Awards winners for their outstanding contribution and leadership.

Research Excellence Awards

Award for Excellence in Enabling Research

  • Tong Clinical Trials Group - Professor Steven Tong, Grace McPhee, Lauren Barina, Susan Goulding, Jieli Li, Mia Di Virgilio, Chiara Piazzese, Ethan Foo and Vi Nguyen.

Award for Excellence in Graduate Researcher Supervision

  • Professor Michael McCullough, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

Award for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Research

  • Parkinson's B-eye-omarker Team - A/Prof Christine Nguyen, Professor David Finkelstein, Professor Kevin Barnham, Professor Andrew Evans, A/Prof Tissa Wijeratne, Dr Greg Wadley, Dr Kris Ehringer, Dr Sam John, Dr Bao Nguyen, Professor Bang Bui, A/Prof Andrew Anderson, Dr Amanda Douglass, Dr Vickie Wong, Anh Hoang, Amelia Sedjahtera, Dr Pei Ying Lee, Dr Da Zhao, Dr Sydney Juan, A/Prof Jane Alty, A/Prof Pete Williams and Professor Bruce Berkowitz. Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of our PhD and Masters students, without whom this work would not have been possible: PhD – Yaash Richards, Patrycja Solak, Jingjing Lin and Alena Hodzic. Masters – Rui Zhang, Grace Lim, Georgia McGuffie and Nicole Fernandez.

Award for Excellence in Mid-Career Research Achievements

  • Dr Tim T. Werner, Faculty of Science.

Award for Excellence in Mid-Career Research Achievements

  • A/Prof Stephanie Filbay, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

Award for Excellence in Research Programs with External Organisations

  • Equine Limb Injury Prevention Program - Professor Chris Whitton, A/Prof Peta Hitchens, Professor Marcus Pandy, Professor Peter Lee, Professor Eleanor Mackie, A/Prof Charles Pagel, Dr Babatunde Ayodele, Dr Adelene Wong, Dr Ashleigh Morrice-West, Dr Fatemeh Malekipour, Dr Jau-Yi Wang, Dr Paulo Bogossian, Dr Michael Pan, Dr Elyse Passmore, Dr Hans Gray, Dr Yi Chung Lin, Dr Megan Thomas, Dr Liz Walmsley and Dr Shanyuanye Guan.

Professional Excellence Awards

Award for Professional Excellence and Innovation

  • Campus Canteen Development Team - Tim Brabazon, Shari Blanck, Nat Batger, Nataly Castellanos, Georgie Meagher, Holly Zhang and Emily Dixon.

Award for Professional Excellence and Innovation

Award for Professional Excellence and Innovation

  • Graduate Research Industry Team - Mitch Smyth and Matt Atkins.

Award for Professional Excellence and Innovation

Award for Professional Excellence and Innovation

  • Dr Samantha Cassar, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

Gerry Barretto Award for Outstanding Student Services

  • Narrm Scholars Enrichment Program - Tim Brabazon (Student Success), Reshmee Gunesh (Student Enrichment and Employability), Matt Elsum, Matthew Franklin, Inoka Amarasekara, Martina Casolini, Shari Blanck (Student Connection and Belonging), Caty Li, Stefania Garth (Students@Work), Marnie Long, Jane Black, Phuong Ong, Smita Maruti, Imogen Garner (Careers and Employability), Trent Hennessey, Ariana Henderson, Lucy Napthali, Carla Stewart, Kate Hall (Academic Skills), Helen Bebbington, Abigail Hoy (Student Equity and Disability Services), Linda Rust, Barbora Polak (Global Learning), Basit Daif, Spencer Curwood, Haley Warburton, Kate Buha, Hermina Weldyesus, Sydney Auld, Thomas Pham, Sophie Mota, Ayesha Ahmad (Narrm Scholar Student Ambassadors) Hajrah Sajid and Mako Cant (Narrm Scholar Social Media).

Gerry Barretto Award for Outstanding Student Services

  • Ms Linh Do, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.

Bronwyn Jane Adams Memorial Award

  • Gift Operations Advancement Team - Devon Vong and Jaclyn Birtchnell.

Bronwyn Jane Adams Memorial Award

  • Ms Natalie Gilbey, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

Teaching Excellence Awards

Barbara Falk Award for Teaching Excellence

  • Mr Jefferson Kinsman, Faculty of Education.

David White Award for Teaching Excellence

  • A/Prof Snezana Kusljic, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

David White Award for Teaching Excellence

  • Dr Sonya Moore, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

Edward Brown Award for Teaching Excellence

  • Ms Emma Power, Faculty of Business and Economics.

Award for Excellence and Innovation in Indigenous Higher Education

  • Wurru Wurru Health Unit - Dr Ngaree Blow, Madelyne Hudson-Buhagiar, Avanah Brettschneider, Dr Nicolle Maganga, Carly Anderson and William Smith. Acknowledgements to former Wurru Wurru Health Unit members without whom this work could not have been completed: Natalie Ironfield, Alyce Wilson, Kerrie Armstrong, Dr Brooke Conley, Mr Tyson Holloway-Clarke, Levi Murray, Georgia Radford, Jye Murray, LJ Singh, Teaka Williams, Nadia Lusis and Manisha Fernando.

Norman Curry Award for Innovation and Excellence in Educational Programs

  • Advancing Optometry Through Smart Education: A Curriculum Powered by Innovation - A/Prof Kwang Meng Cham, Mr Keenan Hellyer, Mr Chris Watt, Dr Andrew Huhtanen, A/Prof Anthea Cochrane, Mr Jonathan Ng, Dr Selwyn Prea, Dr Amanda Douglass and Dr Jia Jia Lek.

Award for Excellence in Internationalisation of the Curriculum

Global, Place and Community Excellence Awards

Award for Excellence in Indigenous Collaborations

  • Child and Family Welfare Research Group - Professor Sarah Wise, Mr Graham Brewster, Mrs Ann MacRae and Dr Ellen Pittman.

Award for Excellence in Global Collaborations

  • Asia-Pacific Centre for Animal Health Team - Professor Glenn Browning, Professor James Gilkerson, Dr Mauricio Coppo, A/Prof Dieter Bulach, Dr Anna Sri, A/Prof Anke Wiethoelter, Professor Mark Stevenson, Kim Jeffers, Kamal Acharya, Joanne Allen, Professor Peter Mansell, Dr Kirsten Bailey, A/Prof Laura Hardefeldt, Dr Ri Scarborough, Amy Hii, Rhys Bushell, Dr Marc Marenda, Lily Collins and Dr Caitlin Pfeiffer.

Award for Excellence in Place-based Initiatives

  • Return to Country Program - Tyrina Garstone, Professor Joseph West, Prudence Midgley, Joanne Niu, Claire Whiteley, Emma Sun, Ian Yorski, Paris Jarvis-Barker, Deadly Coders, Professor Chris Lawrence, Elisha-Jacobs Smith and Jordan Carter.

Award for Excellence in Community-based Initiatives

  • Climate Kids - Dr Lily O’Neill, Dr Linden Ashcroft, Greta Robenstone, Beth Barber, Philippa Garrard and Karen Kissane.

Award for Excellence in Building and Strengthening Student Diversity

  • sheCommerce Team - Cody Moore, Stuart Rogers, Louis Cuthbert, Professor Mei Dong, Dr Michelle Escobar Carias, A/Prof Andrea Lu, Dr Zhen Shi, A/Prof Michal Carrington and Emma Power.

Award for Excellence in Building Student Connection and Belonging

Patricia Grimshaw Award for Mentor Excellence

  • A/Prof Karen Lamb, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.