Sydney Alumni Magazine

Positive thinking is often promoted as the panacea of our times, with ideas of wellbeing and positivity flooding social media and corporate leadership programs. But can positive psychology really solve life's challenges?

Embracing First Nations ideas about Country is key to the future of architecture in Australia, says Dr Michael Mossman, Associate Dean Indigenous in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning.

Jane Sloane (MPACS '02) has spent 20 years working to advance women's and girls' rights around the world. Now, she's supporting the next generation of young men and women to address gender norms to end gender-based violence.

A love for contemporary art led alumna Suhanya Raffel to an internship at Britain's top museum. Now her vision for a global museum in Hong Kong is becoming a reality.

The images of the war in Ukraine have shown cities and people being torn apart by war. But behind the scenes, highly skilled peace negotiators like Paul Dziatkowiec are also fighting hard to bring people together for peace.

Analysing the turbulence in a gently flowing river might spoil the poetry of the moment. But if that gentle flow becomes a destructive torrent, understanding its behaviour becomes crucial. Professor Ben Thornber is working to make that complex task much easier.

At the intersection where politics, individual egos and the public good collide, you'll find the University's Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. In a time when transport is evolving dramatically, it works so public good survives the crash.

Working in the meal kit delivery industry, Joanne Howarth was horrified by the volume of EPS polystyrene packaging it generated. The solution she came up with was both disruptive and effective. It also won her a 2021 University of Sydney Alumni Award.

Raised in the suburbs of Sydney, Liz Mills built a successful career in African men's professional basketball. As a driven and goal orientated coach, her style is underpinned by the African idea of ubuntu: I am because we are.

Add carbon to iron, you get steel. Add hydrogen to steel, you get a potential catastrophe. The condition is hydrogen embrittlement and it has so far resisted all attempts at an answer. Professor Julie Cairney is looking closely at the problem.

Public enemy number one in the modern world is the weighing scale. Every diet has been tried, yet the kilos multiply and diabetes, heart disease are still prevalent. Is there something we're missing?

The fight against climate change has never been more important. Professor Budiman Minasny is exploring how soil can be a sustainable and potentially powerful tool to combat the effects of global warming.

Dramatic changes are affecting the Australian landscape with the search underway to deal with them in new ways. But what about the old ways of this country's Aboriginal peoples? Mitchell Gibbs plans to gather that knowledge.

All cancers begin as a particular cellular mishap involving DNA. Researchers are working on treatments for all of them. But what if there was a way to prevent that original and universal cellular mishap from happening at all?

From A-Z, the Chau Chak Wing Museum is full of fascinating objects and antiquities. Senior Curator of the Macleay Collections, Dr Jude Philp shares some of her favourites.

Dr Robert Blackley has committed his whole life to helping make things better for Aboriginal people. Having recently graduated from Sydney Medical School at the age of 43, he's only just getting started.

Australian native species might seem overrun by feral invaders, but Professor Peter Banks has an ingenious idea that could bring the odds back in their favour.