News Archive

It is said that high achievement takes place in the framework of high expectation.  If we measure the success of our University by the success of our graduates and staff then we can all be proud following the accolades of the past few weeks.

Five graduates and staff were honoured at the recent 2010 Western Australian Citizen of the Year Awards.  Paediatrician Dr Trevor Parry, a Clinical Professor with our School of Paediatrics and Child Health, received the Children and Young People Lifetime Achievement Award. And consultant plastic surgeon Robert Pearce, a Clinical Associate Professor with our Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, received the Professions Award. They were joined by graduates Estelle Blackburn (Arts, Culture and Entertainment category), Andrew Forrest (Governor's Award for Regional Development) and Malcolm McCusker QC (Community Service category).

As you'll have seen earlier in this edition of UWA News , another four of our graduates are part of a team of six young Australians now based at Oxford University who are planning to swim 34km across the English Channel next month to raise funds for charity. Laith Tapper, Scott Draper, Travers McLeod and Hsien Chan aim to swim non-stop and unaided from Dover to Calais, negotiating one of the world's most challenging swims.

And as they have been preparing for that challenge, another graduate - Patrick Hollingworth - last month become only the third West Australian to make it to the top of Mount Everest. The Science Honours graduate reached the 8,848m peak after a four-day ascent.

Meanwhile three graduates - Helen Merrick, Jonathan Strahan and Shaun Tan - have been nominated for science fiction's prestigious Hugo award. The winner will be announced at the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne in September.

Also on a literary note, I would like to note the passing of  Arts graduate, poet and novelist Randolph Stow who died at his home in England at the end of May.

In an obituary published in The Australian, Winthrop Professor Dennis Haskell of our School of English, Communications and Cultural Studies and Chair of the Australia Council Literature Board wrote: "Stow was able to evoke the sense of place in succinct prose or verse, but place always had deeper psychological and philosophical implications...".  Professor Haskell also noted that his influence on writers such as Dorothy Hewett and Tim Winton was readily discernible.

All these matters remind us of the enormous contribution of our graduates and staff to almost every field of human endeavour. While only a small percentage make the headlines, we are constantly reminded of the tens of thousands of graduates who work tirelessly in business, industry, government and the community.

Their achievements are always cause for celebration. They have gone beyond excellence simply for the sake of excellence. Their work reflects the larger purpose of the university - community service.

- Vice-Chancellor Alan Robson

• UWA News 14 June 2010