Outstanding research

Six PhD candidates have been awarded the distinguished Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in the PhD Thesis, two in each faculty grouping of the 541 doctoral students who successfully completed in 2010.

The awards are clustered into three faculty groupings – Humanities, Creative Arts and Social Sciences; Science and Engineering; and Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

The Melbourne School of Graduate Research (MSGR) annually seeks nominations from the Deans of faculties. The award comprises an engraved medal for desk display.

Diana Reed from MSGR said it was important to recognise the University’s high-achieving graduate researchers and that the award would help winners further their careers.

“The Chancellor’s Prize is the only University-wide award for outstanding PhD theses and is very competitive,” she says.

“When considering nominations for the prize, the Deans of faculties consider the examiners’ reports, international recognition of the research work, impact of the research and publications or other output from the research.”

This year’s winners are:

Jothi Saunthararajah (Melbourne Law School), for Legislating illiberalism: law, discourse and legitimacy in Singapore

Jennifer Green (Languages and Linguistics), for Between the earth and the air: multimodality in Arandic sand stories

Hugh Miller (Mathematics and Statistics), Statistical methods for the analysis of high-dimensional data

Jing Tan (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering), Core cross-linked star polymers and their multi-star analogues: advancements in their versatility and commercial viability

Mark Walterfang (Psychiatry), The specificity of morphological changes of the corpus callosum in schizophrenia and related major mental disorders

Michelle Tate (Microbiology and Immunology), The role of innate immune defences in determining the virulence of influenza A virus for mice.

Jennifer Green said her thesis – a study of sand stories – incorporates several of her interests, including language and art. Sand stories are a sophisticated narrative form that is a valued part of Central Australian Indigenous storytelling tradition.

“The stories are an art form of considerable aesthetic appeal, a form of entertainment, a vehicle for teaching, and a symbolic cultural form that has continuities with other expressions of culture – such as ceremonies, oral performances and nowadays marketable visual art,” Dr Green says. “It is groundbreaking research, as little work had previously been done on these issues in Aboriginal languages.”

She said receiving the Chancellor’s Prize was a great honour.

“It is especially important to me that it has been awarded for research that is cross-disciplinary and grounded in primary linguistic fieldwork and research,” she says. “It gives me further encouragement to continue related research.”

Hugh Miller’s thesis focused on statistical methods for high-dimensional datasets.

“‘High-dimensional’ refers to problems where there are many variables, and it’s difficult to detect the genuinely important ones from the noise,” Dr Miller says. “For example, many biological studies now produce activity readings for thousands of different genes, only a few of which may be relevant to a particular disease or condition. The research developed methods for sifting through the many variables and judging how reliable the results are.”

He says it was a great honour to receive the Chancellor’s Prize and it highlighted the increasingly important role that statistical analysis plays in a world teeming with data.

“My day job sees me doing analytics consulting work, helping companies leverage the massive databases they are collecting nowadays; this includes work in insurance, telecommunications, banking and government departments.

“Outside of work, I am still enjoying research, including work on linking disease incidence to genetic data and continuing to push the boundaries on existing techniques.

“I’ve been privileged to do research at this University and I particularly value the relationships I’ve formed with some of the country’s, and the world’s, best minds.”

Jing Fung Tan’s project focused on developing star-shaped polymers which have many applications, including in paint coatings and as drug delivery modules, and developing techniques to make these polymers commercially viable.

He says the prizes are important because they recognise the quality of research produced by the recipients, and serve as a testament to the ability of Melbourne University in nurturing and developing students to realise their full potential.

“Additionally, in a competitive job environment, these prizes go a long way in distinguishing the recipients from their peers,” he says.

Michelle Tate’s project aimed to understand the complex interplay between the body’s immune response and the influenza virus, to better understand why the virus has different effects on different people.

“I characterised the body’s first-line defences against influenza virus infection. These findings have provided greater clarity about what immune defences are involved in the early recognition and destruction of influenza and other viruses.

“I am working as a post-doctoral fellow to examine the role of the immune system in recognising viruses at the Monash Institute for Medical Research,” Dr Tate says.

“The prize will strengthen and highlight my potential for future research applications.”