Graduation - past ceremonies

Thursday, 24 April 2008 at 5pm

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing and Behavioural Sciences (Post graduated) Faculty of Science and Technology

Stage Party

The Chancellor Mr David Morgan presided assisted by the Vice-Chancellor Professor Sally Walker.

The MC was the Vice-President and Council Secretary, Ms Lin Martin.

The Mace-bearer was Mr Dale Warren.

The Faculty Representative was Mr Darren Taylor.

Presenters were:
Dean, Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing and Behavioural Sciences, Professor John Catford;
Interim Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology, Professor Chris Gray;
Deputy Chair of Academic Board, Professor Michael Kidd.

The Student Response was delivered by Dr Elicia Lanham.

Doctoral Degree Recipients

Dr Bi Xia Ke - Thesis Title: "Menkes Disease."

Summary
Menkes disease is a fatal genetic copper deficiency. The Menkes protein (ATP7A) was found to remove copper from tissues in mice that expressed the human ATP7A. Promising results were obtained with the use of a new copper complex for treatment of Menkes disease using a mouse model.

Dr Elicia Lanham - Thesis Title: "Supporting Blended Learning in an E-Learning Environment."

Summary
The main goal of this research is to develop a Blended Learning Model which will incorporate traditional learning methodologies into e-learning. The model is aimed at assisting students to learn in an environment that contains elements of their preferred learning style whilst still being emerged in the local learning environment.

Dr Francois Monty - Thesis Title: "The Role of Copper Transport Proteins in the Small Intestine."

Summary
Physiological copper homeostasis involves striking a balance between absorption and secretion. ATP7A was identified at the trans-Golgi network but relocalized to vesicles under copper exposure in the intestine. This suggests that ATP7A maybe a rate limiting step in intestinal uptake of copper.

Dr Lei Pah - Thesis Title: "A Performance Testing Framework for Digital Forensic Tools."

Summary
This thesis surveys the latest development of digital forensic tools designed for anti-cybercrime purposes. This thesis discusses the necessity of testing the digital forensics tools, and presents a novel testing framework. This new testing framework takes the viewpoint of software vendors other than traditional software engineering approaches.

Dr Peter Sykora - Thesis Title: "Arsenic Induced Regulation of Base Excision Repair in Human Cells."

Summary
Short term exposure to low levels of arsenic in human cells increased the cells capacity to repair its DNA. In turn, cells became resistant to the toxic effects of UV radiation. However prolonged increases in principle repair proteins may actually lead to cancerous effects by destabilizing DNA repair.

Alfred Deakin Medal Recipient

Mr Jeroen Urlus -Bachelor of Environmental Science (Wildlife and Conservation Biology) with Distinction.

These Medals are awarded annually to candidates with a record of outstanding scholarship as well as service to the community and the University.
The awards are named in honour of Alfred Deakin after whom this University is named and were an initiative introduced by the University to commemorate the life of Alfred Deakin.

Occasional Address

The Occasional Address (iLecture recording - requires broadband) was delivered by Professor Margaret Sheil, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Research Council.

Professor Margaret Sheil took up the position of Australian Research Council (ARC) Chief Executive Officer on 17 August 2007. Before joining ARC, Professor Sheil held the post of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Wollongong (UOW) for five years, where she was responsible for the whole spectrum of research and development, including commercialisation.

While at UOW, Professor Sheil attracted more than $5 million in external research funding, a large portion of which was awarded to the University from ARC-administered schemes under the Australian Government's National Competitive Grants Program. She has had a long association with ARC as a member of the Expert Advisory Committee for Physics, Chemistry and Geosciences and the ARC Quality and Scrutiny Committee.

Professor Sheil's research interests encompass the study of biomolecular interactions and applications of mass spectrometry to biological problems. She is a former President of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Mass Spectrometry and Australian representative to the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation.

Professor Sheil is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a member of the Research Quality Framework Reference Committee.

Professor Sheil held the position of Dean of Science at UOW from 2001-2002, and was previously a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at UOW. She was also a Research Fellow in the Research School of Chemistry at The Australian National University and Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Utah, USA.

Professor Sheil is a former director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Smart Internet Technology Pty Ltd and several technology start-up companies, and was Chair of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee Deputy/Pro Vice-Chancellors' (Research) Group in 2006.

Professor Sheil holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and a PhD in chemistry from The University of New South Wales. She has 85 publications in international journals and is an Editor of Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry.