Welcome to our Awards & Accolades page in which we highlight recent achievements and recognitions bestowed upon our staff and students.

20 March 2012: APS Most Outstanding Lecturer in Psychology 2011 - winner announced!

Congratulations to Professor Rick Richardson who has been named the Annual APS (Sydney Branch) Outstanding Lecturer in Psychology 2011 for UNSW. Prof. Richardson received the most votes in a very tight election from B.Psych, B.PsychSci and Psychology Honours students who were asked, simply, to name their most outstanding lecturer in Psychology. Prof. Richardson will be formally presented with the 'prestigious' plaque and certificate in the catered APS awards presentation evening in late April 2012 at UNSW. All are welcome to attend.

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15 December 2011: 2011 Faculty of Science Staff Excellence Awards

Congratulations to Dr Jacqueline Rushby and Dr Sue Morris of the School of Psychology who were awarded 2011 UNSW Faculty of Science Staff Excellence Awards in recognition and celebration of Excellence in Research and Excellence in Sessional Teaching respectively.

Please click here to list all award recipients.

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8 December 2011: 2011 Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology Award

Congratulations to Dr Bronwyn Graham who was selected by The Science Academia and Research Advisory Group (SARAG) of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) for the 2011 Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology Award. In addition to a cheque for A$1000, this award comes with the opportunity to present a paper at the upcoming annual meeting of the APS. Bronwyn's thesis was entitled "Fibroblast Growth Factor-2: A novel enhancer of memory", and was supervised by Professor Rick Richardson. Bronwyn is currently working in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

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6 December 2011: The Adam J. Berry Memorial Fund for 2012

Congratulations to Ursula Sansom-Daly who has been awarded the Adam J Berry Memorial Fund for 2012, from the Australian Academy of Science.

This fund has been established in memory of a young Australian scientist and is intended to assist one young Australian scientist to travel or work in the USA at one of the institutes of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) each year. In addition to gaining valuable experience for themselves, they will be expected to make a contribution to the research program of the institute to which they are temporarily attached.

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5 December 2011: Best empirical study

Congratulations to Timothy Schofield who was given the prize for Best Empirical Study at the 4th annual Sydney Postgraduate Psychology Conference held at Sydney University on November 30th, for his talk titled 'self-control reduces (but mindfulness increases) detection of unexpected distracters'.

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12 October 2011: PhD students win awards

Congratulations to Dr Elizabeth Mason our recent graduate and David Pasalich who have won two out of the three excellence awards for new researchers at the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies conference in Gulidford, UK. Dr Elizabeth Mason won the award for best poster, while David received the best open paper award.

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29 September 2011: PhD students recognised with awards

Congratulations to Bridget Callaghan who has been awarded Second Prize ($500) in the 2011 ASTSS (Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies) Research Awards. Bridget was awarded this prize for her recent work on maternal separation and extinction learning in the developing rat [Callaghan & Richardson (2011). Maternal separation results in early emergence of adult-like fear and extinction learning in infant rats. Behavioral Neuroscience, 125, 20-28.

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10 June 2011: Marilynn Brewer honoured

Congratulations to Visiting Professorial Scholar Marilynn Brewer who was recently added to the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (FABBS) Foundation's Honouring-our-scientists program. As noted on their website, this program's aim is "Honoring scientists who have made important and lasting contributions to the sciences of mind, brain, and behavior". For full details, go to http://www.fabbs.org/fabbs-foundation/honoring-our-scientists/in-honor-of-marilynn-brewer/.

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11 May 2011: PhD students recognised with awards

Several current and completed PhD students have recently received various awards for their work. Dr. Lynette Hung was awarded the E.R. Hilgard Award for 2011 from the Society of Psychological Hypnosis (Division 30) of the American Psychological Association for the best PhD thesis. Alexis Whitton won the Society for Australasian Social Psychologists Outstanding Postgraduate Research Award for her work on "Disentangling the effects of anger and disgust on moral judgment", and Alexandra Vlassova won a Best Student Presentation award at the recent Experimental Psychology Conference in Auckland for the presentation "Improving decisions with iconic memory". Congratulations to all!

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5 May 2011: Rising Star

Congratulations to Tom Denson who was recognised as a "Rising Star" by the Association for Psychological Science (APS). Each year the APS highlights the accomplishments of a very small, and select, group of young researchers from all areas of psychology in their series "Rising Stars". As noted in the most recent issue of The Observer, the aim is to profile "a constellation of scholars who, although they may not be advanced in years, have already made great advancements in science".

Please click here to read Tom's citation.

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9 February 2011: Dr Ehsan Arabzadeh wins A.W. Campbell Award

Congratulations to Dr Ehsan Arabzadeh who won the Australian Neuroscience Society A.W. Campbell Award which commemorates the eminent Australian neurologist of that name. It is for the best contribution by a member of the society in their first five postdoctoral years.

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9 February 2011: Honours students recognised with awards

Honours student Miriam Capper (supervised by Dr Tom Denson) won the APA Psychologists for Peace Award for her thesis entitled: Practicing Self-Control Decreases Reactive Aggression in Aggressive Individuals.

Honours student Vincent Chan (supervised by Dr Phoebe Bailey and Asso Prof Julie Henry) won the APS Elsie Harwood Award "for the best empirical research project in the field of ageing, submitted as part of an accredited fourth year program in psychology or an accredited Masters by coursework program in psychology."

Congratulations to both Miriam and Vincent!

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16 December 2010: More awards and accolades

13 December 2010: Elected as Fellows in the Association for Psychological Science

Congratulations to Gavan McNally and Barbara Gillam on their recent election as Fellows in the Association for Psychological Science. As noted on the Association's webpage, "Fellow status is awarded to APS Members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and/or application. Fellow status is typically awarded for one's scientific contributions."

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13 December 2010: Adrian Allen wins oral presentation award

Adrian Allen won the debut Oral Presentation Award at the Australian Society for Psychiatric Research annual meeting this week. In addition, Adrian was also awarded $500.

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6 December 2010: APS Most Outstanding Lecturer in Psychology 2010 - winner announced!

Congratulations to Associate Professor Chris Mitchell who has been named the Second Annual APS (Sydney Branch) Outstanding Lecturer in Psychology - 2010 for UNSW. A/Prof Mitchell received the most votes in a very competitive election from BPsych and Psych Honours students who were asked, simply, to name their most outstanding lecturer in Psychology. A/Prof Mitchell will be formally presented with the 'prestigious' plaque in the APS presentation evening in late March 2011.

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18 October 2010: NSW Young Tall Poppy of the Year

Congratulations to Associate Professor Michelle Moulds who was selected by the Australian Institute of Policy & Science for a Young Tall Poppy Award. Ten awardees from various Universities across NSW were announced at a ceremony on October 14. Michelle was selected out of this elite group as being the NSW Young Tall Poppy of the Year, an honour that came with a medal and a cheque for $4000.

Related links:

Faculty of Science news page

COSMOS magazine – The science of everything

Australian Institute of Policy & Science

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13 October 2010: Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award for 2010

Professor Barbara Gillam has been awarded the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award for 2010 by the Australian Psychological Society. The APS describes the award as recognising distinguished theoretical or empirical contributions to psychology by psychologists at mid or later career stages. "Candidates should be currently engaged (directly or indirectly) in innovative research in any field of psychology, which represents a major influence on the direction of research in the scientist's area".

Professor Gillam has conducted research and developed theory in many areas of visual perception ranging from geometric illusions and change blindness to stereoscopic depth perception. Most recently she has become interested in the representation of occlusion in early Renaissance art and Australian aboriginal art.

The recipient of the award is invited to receive a plaque and present a Keynote Address on her research at the next Annual General Meeting of the Australian Psychological Society (to be held in Canberra in October 2011). The address will also be published in the Australian Journal of Psychology.

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12 October 2010: Excellent PhD in Psychology Award

The Science Academia and Research Advisory Group of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) have selected Dr Phoebe Bailey to receive a 2010 Excellent PhD in Psychology Award. According to the APS, this award "is offered for the purpose of encouraging and rewarding outstanding research in psychology". The award comes with 12 months free membership of the APS, a cheque for $1000, and an invitation to present a paper at the 46th Annual APS Conference, to be held in Canberra, October 4-8, 2011. Phoebe's thesis examined age-related differences in the experience of cognitive and affective empathy, and was supervised by Assoc Prof Julie Henry.

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30 August 2010: Speed Thesis Competition winners

Congratulations to Elizabeth Mason, Jill Newby, Stella Li, and Bridget Callaghan who were each selected for prizes at the Faculty of Science’s Speed Thesis Competition. Elizabeth and Jill were both selected for 1st prizes while Stella and Bridget were both awarded 2nd prizes. Elizabeth and Jill were awarded $5000 each, and now have the opportunity to represent the Faculty in the University’s Speed Thesis Competition. Stella and Bridget were each awarded $3000.

Please click here to read more about our winners and download their posters.

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30 July 2010: Neurological Fellowship

Bronwyn Graham has been awarded a Neurological Fellowship (for US$25,000) by the American Australian Association, which allows her to undertake postdoctoral research for 12 months in the United States. She will be working with Assistant Professor Mohammed Milad in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital to investigate possible neural differences in how women inhibit fear. This work may help us understand why women are much more likely to suffer from anxiety disorders, and lead to more effective treatments for such disorders.

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10 May 2010: Psychology's rising popularity focus of prestigious award

The rising popularity of undergraduate psychology courses is the focus of a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship awarded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council to Associate Professor Jacqueline Cranney, of the School of Psychology.

Professor Cranney will build on the findings that almost one in seven Australian university students is now taking first-year psychology studies and that increasing numbers are taking a psychology major. In the USA, psychology is now the second most popular major, after English.

Please click here to read the full article.

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22 April 2010: Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research

Congratulations to Stella Li for receiving a Grant-in-Aid of Research from Sigma Xi. The award is to support Stella’s research on the neural signature of forgetting, and is for $800 (USD). The Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research program has a highly competitive application process and only approximately 20% of applicants receive any level of funding.

Well done, Stella!

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4 February 2010: 2009 Elsie Harwood Award

Alexa Muratore was the 2009 recipient of the Elsie Harwood Award. The Award is provided by the APS Interest group on Psychology and Ageing.It aims to raise awareness in the field of psychology and ageing and to encourage students to carry out research in this field. The Award is for the best empirical research project in the field of ageing, submitted as part of an accredited fourth year program in psychology or an accredited Masters by coursework program in psychology. Alexa won the award on the basis of her Masters thesis entitled “Predicting retirement preparation through the design of a new measure” supervised by Dr Joanne Earl. As part of her award Alexa has been invited to present at the Psychology and Ageing Interest Group AGM at the ICAP 2010 conference.

Congratulations Alexa!

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8 January 2010: Best Platform Presentation Award

Congratulations to Michelle Kelly who was given an award for the Best Platform Presentation by a PhD student at the 19th annual meeting of the Australiasian Society for Psychophysiology (Newcastle 27th -30th November 2009). The award comes with $200.00 and a certificate from the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI).

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17 December 2009: Faculty of Science Staff Excellence Awards

Congratulations to Tom Denson and Rick Richardson for being selected for Faculty of Science Staff Excellence Awards. Tom was given an award in recognition and celebration of an outstanding contribution to research and Rick was given an award in recognition and celebration of an outstanding contribution to teaching and research. Each award comes with $1500 from the Faculty. Well done!

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16 December 2009: UNSW U Committee Award for Research Excellence in Science

Congratulations to Dr Jee Hyun Kim who has been chosen as the recipient of the 2010 U-Committee award for excellence in science for her thesis, submitted in 2008. The prize carries an award of $10,000, which will be presented at an appropriate graduation ceremony in 2010, where Jee will give the graduating address.

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16 December 2009: David Berle awarded APS Student Grant

Congratulations to David Berle who has been awarded a Student Grant ($500) from the Association for Psychological Science. These highly competitive awards provide partial support for research expenses. Proposals in all areas of psychological science are considered, and proposals are evaluated on the clarity in the presentation of ideas, the ability of the project to explain some psychological phenomenon, and the ability of the project to advance research in a specified area.

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8 December 2009: Outstanding Presentation Awards

Congratulations to Xerox Tang and Joyce Siette, who were each selected for an Outstanding Presentation Award at the Second Annual Sydney Postgraduate Psychology Conference (hosted by the University of Sydney on December 2, 2009).

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28 October 2009: Award for Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology

Congratulations to Dr Alishia Williams who was selected for a 2009 Excellent PhD thesis In Psychology Award by the Science Academia and Research Advisory Group of the Australian Psychological Society. The award comes with a plaque, a check for $1000, and an invitation to give a talk at the 27th International Congress of Applied Psychology, which will be held in Melbourne from July 11-16 (this meeting incorporates the 45th annual meeting of the Australian Psychological Society). Alishia’s thesis was entitled “Experiential Features of Intrusive Memories in Depression and the Role of Cognitive Avoidance in Intrusion Maintenance”, and was supervised by Associate Professor Michelle Moulds.

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15 October 2009: UNSW Outstanding Lecturer in Psychology - winner announced!

Congratulations to Dr Tom Denson for being selected by the BPsych and Honours students to receive the APS (Sydney Branch) UNSW Outstanding Lecturer in Psychology award for 2009. Tom will be presented with a plaque at an upcoming event being organised by the APS Sydney Branch Committee.

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13 October 2009: Jacquelyn Cranney receives Distinguished Psychology Education Award at APS Annual Conference

Congratulations to Associate Professor Jacquelyn Cranney who was given the inaugural Australian Psychological Society "Distinguished Contribution to Psychology Education" Award at the 44th APS Annual Conference in Darwin last week. As part of this award, Jacquelyn delivered an invited address on objectives for undergraduate education, and introduced the concept of "psychological literacy".

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09 October 2009: Nisha receives ABCT Elsie Ramos Memorial Student Research Award for her poster

Congratulations to Nisha Sethi who has been selected as one of three winners of the 2009 ABCT Elsie Ramos Memorial Student Research Award for her poster entitled, "Ostracism hurts, but why for so long? The role of focus of attention and reappraisal in prolonging the negative effects of ostracism." Nisha is presenting the poster at the 43rd Annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies in New York City in November of this year.

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09 October 2009: APS Clinical College Student Prize for UNSW awarded to Jill Newby

Congratulations to Jill Newby who has been awarded the APS Clinical College Student Prize for UNSW 2009. The Prize acknowledges postgraduate clinical psychology students in Master and Doctor of Psychology programs, and combined Masters/PhD programs, who demonstrate high levels of clinical skill, combined with the ability to design and conduct clinically relevant research.

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21 September 2009: 2009 Maconochie Prize awarded to Kristy Martire

Dr Kristy Martire who completed her PhD under the supervision of Dr Richard Kemp has been awarded the APS College of Forensic Psychologists' 2009 Maconochie Prize. The prize was awarded for her 2009 Law and Human Behavior paper which was derived from her PhD thesis: Martire, K & Kemp, R.I. (2009). The impact of eyewitness expert evidence and judicial warnings on jurors' ability to evaluate eyewitness testimony. Law and Human Behavior. 33, 225-236.

The Maconochie Prize is awarded by the APS Forensic College in recognition of outstanding forensic psychology research by students and is awarded for publication in a refereed journal of an article by the student based on his/her Honours, Masters or Doctoral thesis.

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9 August 2009: Jee Kim given the Dissertation Award by the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology

Congratulations to Dr Jee Kim who has been selected for the Dissertation Award by the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP). As a part of this award Jee will give a talk at the annual meeting of the Society (Chicago, October 2009) describing her dissertation research. The award also includes $US1000.

Jee’s thesis has also been recognised by the Australian Psychological Society who selected her dissertation for a 2008 Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology Award. As noted on the APS webpage: “The purpose of this Award is to encourage and reward outstanding research in psychology by candidates who have completed a PhD at an Australian University within the last calendar year.”

That award came with a cheque for A$1000, 12 months free Membership of the APS, and an invitation to present a paper based on her thesis at the 44th Annual meeting of the APS.

Her thesis was entitled “Extinction of Conditioned Fear in the Developing Rat”, and was supervised by Professor Rick Richardson.

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7 August 2009: Kirin Hilliar awarded prize for Best Student Presentation

Kirin Hilliar was awarded a prize for Best Student Presentation at the recent Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (SARMAC) conference held in Kyoto, Japan, for her paper entitled “At the pub, they ALL look the same to me: Elimination of the own-race bias through alcohol intoxication”. Prizes were awarded on the basis of votes from other conference attendees, with Kirin receiving the highest number of votes.

Kirin is a current postgraduate student completing the combined PhD/M.Psychology (Forensic) degree, and is supervised by Dr Richard Kemp. Her research aims to uncover the perceptual and social mechanisms behind the own-race bias in face recognition. The own-race bias refers to the tendency for people to show better recognition memory for faces from their own racial group compared to faces from a different racial group. By understanding the mechanisms behind this bias, Kirin hopes to develop interventions that will reduce its magnitude and its negative effects on interracial interactions.

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1 July 2009: Angela Nickerson awarded Sir Keith Murdoch Fellowship

Angela Nickerson has been awarded a Sir Keith Murdoch Fellowship by the American Australian Association, which allows her to undertake postdoctoral research for 12 months in the United States. She will be working with Associate Professor Devon Hinton at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital to investigate anger responses in Cambodian refugees following mass trauma.

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24 June 2009: Prestigious fellowship awarded to Prof Richard Bryant

A major long-term research program aimed at reducing violence and mental health problems in Aboriginal communities is the focus of a prestigious new award for one of the Faculty's most distinguished researchers, Professor Richard Bryant.

Professor Bryant has been awarded one of only 15 Australian Laureate Fellowships funded by the Federal Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC). Worth an average of $2.7 million each over five years, the Laureate fellows are selected from a highly competitive national field of 148 researchers.

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16 June 2009: William James Prize for Contributions to the Study of Consciousness awarded to Dr Joel Pearson.

The sixth William James Prize for Contributions to the Study of Consciousness was awarded to Dr Joel Pearson in Berlin, Germany, on the occasion of the 13th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness.

The award was granted based on one of Dr Pearson's recent papers (Pearson, J., Clifford, C.W.G., Tong, F. (2008). The functional impact of mental imagery on conscious perception, Current Biology 18, 982-986) which shows that imagining a specific visual stimulus can strongly bias which of two subsequent competing stimuli reach awareness during binocular rivalry. Further, these effects of mental imagery are manifest all the way down to low-level perceptual representations, so suggesting that mere imagination can literally shape perceptual processing. A published commentary about the article noted that “the evidence can be considered the most compelling to date that imagery can be pictorial”.

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26 May 2009: International rising star

Associate Professor Gavan P. McNally, has been recognised as an international rising star by the Association for Psychological Science. The Association for Psychological Science has approximately 20,000 members, and its mission is “to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in research, application, teaching, and the improvement of human welfare”

Please click here to read his APS profile.

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26 May 2009: Award for Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology

The Science Academia and Research Advisory Group of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) has selected Dr Jee Kim for a 2008 Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology Award. As noted on the APS webpage: “The purpose of this Award is to encourage and reward outstanding research in psychology by candidates who have completed a PhD at an Australian University within the last calendar year.”

The award comes with a cheque for A$1000, 12 months free Membership of the APS, and an invitation to present a paper based on her thesis at the 44th Annual meeting of the APS. Her thesis was entitled “Extinction of Conditioned Fear in the Developing Rat”, and was supervised by Professor Rick Richardson.

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26 May 2009: Scientia Professor Richard Bryant honoured for innovative research

Scientia Professor Richard Bryant, a world-leading authority on post-traumatic stress, has received the 2008 Australian Psychological Society Award for Distinguished Contribution to Science. The prestigious award recognises a scientist whose innovative research has been highly influential in their respective field.

This award has only been handed out five times in the past decade, with three of the recipients – Scientia Professors Bryant, George Paxinos (POWMRI) and Joe Forgas – hailing from UNSW’s School of Psychology.

Professor Bryant became interested in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 1989, while working at Westmead Hospital’s Department of Psychology. He joined the School in 1995 as a lecturer, becoming a professor in 2003. He currently leads a major research program into the mental aftermath of trauma, which this month received $7.1 million from the NHMRC. It focuses on building the nation’s capacity to reduce psychological problems following trauma such as Victoria’s devastating bushfires.

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