To be eligible for the Alumni Award for Professional Achievement, nominees must:
Step out of the comfortable environments inhabited by others who share your expertise and background into spaces that jolt you into seeing different perspectives.
Professor Tanya Monro AC obtained her PhD in Physics from the University of Sydney in 1998. Her PhD thesis earned her the Bragg Gold Medal from the Australian Institute of Physics, which recognises the most outstanding physics PhD from a student at an Australian university.
Her research in the field of photonics focuses on sensing, lasers, and new classes of optical fibres. In 2000, she received a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton. She is also an inaugural Bragg Fellow of the Royal Institution of Australia.
Tanya has held leadership roles at the University of South Australia, where she was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation, and at the University of Adelaide, where she was the inaugural Director of the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale Bio Photonics. She has been a strong advocate for effective science communication, the translation of research into impact, and for supporting networks that allow early career researchers mobility and opportunity.
In June 2022, Tanya was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for eminent service to scientific and technological development, to research and innovation, to tertiary education—particularly in the field of photonics—and to professional organisations. For contributions to optics engineering and advancing Australian national security, Tanya is an International Member of the United States National Academy of Engineering.
Tanya is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, the Optical Society of America, and an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics. Since 2019, Tanya has served as Australia’s Chief Defence Scientist, head of Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG), and Capability Manager for Innovation, Science and Technology within the Australian Department of Defence.
Throughout her career, Tanya’s tenacity and dedication have led her to break down barriers for women in science, foster interdisciplinary research, and work towards a more inclusive and innovative research environment.
At the University of Sydney I found myself to be part of an extraordinary cohort of students who were engaged with academics doing work at the bleeding edge, informed by the cut and thrust of international science and industry need. This helped inculcate in me not just the academic fundamentals, but also, perhaps even more critically, a way of thinking and engaging with knowledge and problems that has stood the test of time and changing context.
Step out of the comfortable environments inhabited by others who share your expertise and background into spaces that jolt you into seeing different perspectives. Because it is in doing so that you can truly make the biggest difference – by together creating bridges to connect these worlds and teams that know how to traverse them for the benefit of all.
Louise Herron AM has been CEO of the Sydney Opera House since 2012, after careers as a lawyer and corporate adviser. Louise has delivered a far-reaching decade of renewal to open the Opera House up to more of the community, with a broader, more diverse range of programming and other experiences to welcome more visitors in person and online. Louise is also the Chair of the NSW Government’s Creative Communities Council.
Louise graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from Sydney University, followed by a Master of Laws from the University of London. Her sons Dougal and Fin Robinson are Old Sydneians.
Elizabeth Elliott is much more than a paediatrician; she is a remarkable research leader, public health advocate, and a beacon for global change. Her research on Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is recognised as world-leading and she has also built a reputation as a leader in fields of rare childhood disorders and child health in developing communities. She is a powerful human rights advocate, and her dedication to the wellbeing children in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and refugee children living in detention has drawn the attention of government agencies and the public.
She is currently a Consultant Paediatrician at Sydney Children's Hospital Network Westmead, Director of the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit and a Medical Research Futures Fund Fellow and consultant to WHO and UNICEF Australia, leaving an indelible mark on the world's most vulnerable populations and reshaping global healthcare. Elizabeth's vision for improving children’s lives continues to drive her to seek a brighter, healthier future for all.
Dr David Skellern is an Australian electronic engineer and computer scientist with a doctorate on radioastronomy instrumentation. Along with colleagues he is credited for the first chip-set implementation of the IEEE 802.11a wireless networking standard. This innovation revolutionised world communications, allowing high-speed wireless communications. Throughout his career, David has been motivated by the desire to see science and engineering used for the good of humanity. He has always been generous with his knowledge and is a master of collaboration, bringing together the industry, education and research sectors.
In 1997 David co-founded Radiata, a company engaged in the commercial development of WLAN communications. The company demonstrated the world’s first chip-set implementation of High-Speed WLAN, based on the research Skellern conducted with Neil Weste in the 1990s at Macquarie University. Radiata was sold to Cisco Systems in 2001 for $565 million.
David has devoted the majority of his professional life to education and research in public institutions. After time as a researcher and lecturer at the University of Sydney, he was appointed Professor at Macquarie University, where he founded the Department of Electronics, and it was there where he collaborated with CSIRO to develop high-speed WiFi. After seeing through the commercialisation of WiFi, he was appointed as a director of the National Institute of Communication Technology, Australia, which became known as NICTA. David then spent some years as CEO of NICTA before going on to become the chairman of the Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre, now called the RoZetta Institute. He continues in the position today.
Dr Skellern was appointed to the Order of Australia in 2012 and awarded the 2017 IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award (with John O’Sullivan) "for pioneering contributions to high-speed wireless LAN technology”.
David has given years of service on the selection committees of the ARC and CRC grants. He has worked on international standards boards and professional bodies such as the IEEE. He has served on academic advisory committees at several universities and has been on countless not-for-profit boards and is currently Chairman of CSIRO’s Australia Telescope Steering Committee.
After her medical training at the University of Sydney, Professor Wendy Erber used her Rhodes Scholarship (the first female Rhodes Scholar from NSW) as the beginning of her lifelong study of haematological malignancies. She returned to Sydney to train as a diagnostic laboratory haematologist and has since combined her research and diagnostic skills to assist patient management, advance medical science, teach and train science and medical students, trainee haematologists and the research scientists of the future.
As an authority on blood diseases, Professor Erber is driven to improve the lives and outcomes of patients with haematological malignancies, a group of diseases which currently takes 4,000 Australian lives annually.
After her initial adaptation of the technique of immunohistochemistry for the more precise diagnosis of blood cancers, she has led a team to develop the ground-breaking technique of immuno-flowFISH, an advance allowing the simultaneous identification of specific malignant cells and their genetic abnormalities.
Her work has been recognised by admission to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, receipt of the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology (2018) and winning the Cancer Council WA Researcher of the Year (2015) Prize. Professor Erber has published over 180 journal articles, 4 books and 16 book chapters.
Professor Erber has fond memories of her time at the University of Sydney and believes it gave her the foundations on which she built her career. Combining sport (receiving a Blue in hockey) gave balance to her University life. She is now a world-renowned expert in her field of haematology.
As the co-founder and CEO of Malaysiakini.com, Premesh Chandran led a media revolution in Malaysia while advocating tirelessly for freedom of the press and human rights. In 2015, Premesh exposed the Malaysian government’s unlawful detention of six political activists and since then Malaysiakini has grown to be the most popular independent news site in Malaysia, bringing news to over 8 million people. Premesh also established the Kini Academy as part of the Malaysiakini Group to create and deliver education about media and innovation.
Explore the annual Alumni Awards, featuring six Graduate Medals and six Alumni Awards.