Honours flow for UTS leaders in research and education

UTS Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Parfitt congratulated all members of the UTS community who received awards, an unprecedented list led by UTS Chancellor Catherine Livingstone. 

“The achievements recognised in these honours underline the fundamental purpose of a university to serve the public good, from supporting success and equity in education to advancing research and policy development for the benefit of the wider community,” Professor Parfitt said.

Catherine Livingstone AC

UTS Chancellor Catherine Livingstone has been made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for “eminent service to business, particularly through governance and strategic reform, to tertiary education, to science, technology and innovation capability development, and to the arts.”

This is in addition to the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) honour awarded to her in 2008 for service to the development of Australian science, technology and innovation policies and the business sector.

“Ms Livingstone's impact on the business, STEM and higher education sectors in Australia has been enormously significant,” Professor Parfitt said.

“During her time as UTS Chancellor she has been pivotal in the university achieving its vision of being a leading public university of technology recognised for global impact and research excellence.

“She is a powerful advocate for higher education through her active involvement in industry bodies, think tanks and forums, and has encouraged UTS's emphasis on a practical and interdisciplinary approach to learning through industry experience.

“In this she has drawn on her extensive experience in executive leadership and governance roles that have included chairing the Commonwealth Bank, CSIRO and Telstra and serving as President of the Business Council of Australia.”

Quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald following Friday’s announcement Ms Livingstone said, “I’ve been a proponent and advocate for a broad innovation policy framework in Australia, and that means business, government and academia working together, so recognising the role of universities and the contribution they make is very encouraging.”

Distinguished Professor Louise Ryan AO

Distinguished Professor Louise Ryan has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for “distinguished service to biostatistical research and methodology, to environmental science, and to professional societies.”

“Louise Ryan is one of the world’s pre-eminent biostatistician researchers and one of Australia’s finest scholars,” Professor Parfitt said. 

“She has made seminal contributions to statistical and environmental science, changing how environmental and other scientists use data to understand natural processes. 

“Over a distinguished international career she has been committed to the application of her theoretical work to real-world problems such as the cancer risk from arsenic in drinking water and the impact of air pollution on birth weight. 

“In addition she is an outstanding teacher, mentor and role model for young women and other under-represented groups in statistics and science, promoting statistics in schools and the community and supporting early career researchers.

“Since joining UTS in 2012 she has been at the centre of the creation of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS). The centre spans seven universities in four states and includes about 10 key external partners.”

Emeritus Professor Cynthia Mitchell AO

Emeritus Professor Cynthia Mitchell has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for “distinguished service to the environment through water resource sustainability as an innovator, leader and academic.”

She has been in the vanguard of research and practice for sustainability for 30 years, joining the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures in 2001. She has been internationally recognised for her research in urban water management, regenerative infrastructure, and transdisciplinary approaches to research. 

“Cynthia has pushed sustainable water solutions, with a focus on decentralised systems, to the forefront of water policy, helping to dramatically improve water service provision, and provide more effective sanitation,” Professor Parfitt said. “She has extended this work and thinking from Australia, US and Europe to low-income countries.

“She is also recognised for her work advocating that urban infrastructure needs to be more than sustainable, it needs to be regenerative, or net positive. Cynthia was a pioneer of this approach, advising some of Australia’s largest development companies and government agencies.”

Emeritus Professor Mitchell continues this work as an independent consultant, currently working with water authorities in two states to shift their water management towards more regenerative and less extractive solutions, such as rehydrating the landscape.

“We’re at the point where we must transform our relationship with the natural world,” Emeritus Professor Mitchell said. “When our climate models are no longer predicting what we are experiencing we need systems that are based on doing ‘more good’, rather than just being ‘less bad’.” 

Emeritus Professor Michael Eyles AM

Emeritus Professor Michael Eyles has been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), recognising his “significant service to tertiary education, and to science.”

Emeritus Professor Eyles came to UTS in 2013 after retiring from the CSIRO where he had worked in senior positions, leading large teams and divisions with a focus on strategy, leadership and organisation development. 

“Michael helped shape change for national benefit at the CSIRO, and has continued to do this at UTS, lending his expertise to some very challenging roles,” Professor Parfitt said. 

“In particular he has spent considerable time supporting the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Engineering and IT in senior leadership roles, where his experience has helped transform these faculties to national and international prominence and in some disciplines to pioneering positions.

“In addition to his extraordinary strategic work, Michael is a very well-regarded microbiologist, whose impact on food science, safety and innovation, and government policy, has been significant, improving the quality and safety of Australia’s food through his research and commitment to applied science.”

Emeritus Professor Eyles continues his commitment to UTS and its success as People Strategy Development Lead for the People Unit.

Emeritus Professor Lesley Hitchens AM 

Emeritus Professor Lesley Hitchens has been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to tertiary education, and to the law.

She has served UTS both in the role of Dean of the Faculty of Law, from 2013 to 2021, and in the university leadership team as Acting Provost and Senior Vice-President for more than two years until January 2023.

“Beginning her career in law as a commercial lawyer ‒ first in Sydney and then London ‒ she moved into an academia while still in the UK,” Professor Parfitt said. “After her return to Australia and positions with the University of Melbourne and UNSW Lesley joined UTS in 2008, first as Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Law.

“Lesley is recognised as an innovator in legal education and a leading thinker about the future of the legal services industry. 

“As the dean of a law faculty at a university of technology she was an early voice in considering how legal practice would be shaped by disruptive technologies such as automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence. She saw technology as an opportunity, where others saw a threat.

“Concerned by what she saw as the misguided view that technological disruption meant a bleak future for lawyers, in 2015 she launched a ground-breaking series of public discussions on the future of the profession, drawing on leading practitioners as panellists and attracting large audiences. 

“As a result in 2018 the Financial Times (UK) gave her its Legal Innovator Award, praising the discussion series for highlighting the benefits of new technologies and leading to change in how legal education is delivered.”

Emeritus Professor Roy Green AM

Emeritus Professor Roy Green, former dean of the UTS Business School and currently Special Innovation Adviser to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise), has been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for “significant service to business, and to tertiary education in the fields of science, technology and innovation.”

“Roy Green has contributed to the higher education, business and government sectors in Australia and internationally across a distinguished career as a researcher, adviser and passionate advocate for a ‘smart’, not just lucky, Australia,” Professor Parfitt said.

“He has made an outstanding contribution to Australia as an internationally recognised expert in management, innovation and entrepreneurship, as a thought leader who contributes to informed economic policy and public debate, and as a trailblazer in business education.

“Roy is sought by government and industry for his expertise and advice, undertaking research for international organisations such as the OECD and contributing to multiple government bodies and inquiries, including the Prime Minister’s Manufacturing Taskforce and a Senate review of the innovation system.

“He has also worked to transform business education, so it is relevant as well as rigorous, producing graduates who are innovative, entrepreneurial and adaptable.”

Distinguished Professor Buddhima Indraratna AM

Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering Buddhima Indraratna has been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) recognising his “significant service to civil engineering, particularly through infrastructure development, ground improvement and transportation geotechnics.”

“Distinguished Professor Indraratna came to UTS in August 2020 as Director of the Transport Research Centre in the Faculty of Engineering and IT after a distinguished career working for three decades at the University of Wollongong,” Professor Parfitt said.

“A world authority on the application of fundamental and applied geotechnical research to the development of railway infrastructure, he has developed innovative concepts for increasing track longevity and improving safety and passenger comfort, including the use of recycled rubber in track construction.

“He has the highest citations among the currently active geotechnical engineers in Australia and ranks within the best ten in the world. He is regularly asked to present keynote addresses around the world due to his stellar reputation. 

“Over his career he has successfully supervised close to 100 doctoral students, with more than 35 per cent being women in a profession where women are significantly underrepresented at senior levels. A third of his doctoral graduates have received national and international awards and have gone on to hold senior positions in academia and industry.”

Professor Deborah Parker AM

UTS Professor of Nursing Aged Care (Dementia) Deborah Parker has been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for “significant service to community health, particularly through palliative and aged care research.”

Joining the UTS Faculty of Health in 2016, Deborah Parker began her career as a registered nurse specialising in aged care. Over the subsequent 35 years she has become recognised as a leader in the fields of palliative care for older people, dementia and health services evaluation in aged care.

“The driver of Deborah’s work has been embedding evidence into practice,” Professor Parfitt said. “She works closely with clinicians, reviewing and evaluating research outcomes and incorporating identified missing elements into care.

“Her research has had national and international significance, with collaborations in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada.

“This has included being a co-investigator on the development of one of the most widely used pain scales in Australia and Canada for people with dementia – The Abbey Pain Scale. 

“Professor Parker is held in high regard internationally for her strategic contribution to palliative and dementia care research as well as identifying local issues and workable solutions to improve healthcare for older people.”

Associate Professor Amanda White OAM

Associate Professor Amanda White, known to her nearly 100,000 YouTube subscribers worldwide as Amanda Loves to Audit, has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her service to tertiary education.

With an approach typified by her popular YouTube channel, which provides free, engaging short videos explaining key accounting and audit concepts and practices, Associate Professor White has embraced digital technologies to connect with students and provide open access to the resources they need to succeed in their studies. 

“Amanda is an advocate for the role of accounting as a tool for social mobility, underpinned by her belief that learning about accounting and personal finances can truly change lives,” Professor Parfitt said.

“Her commitment to providing freely available resources for students has seen the creation of open-source textbooks for the UTS Business School's introductory accounting subjects. This has resulted in substantial cost savings for students and been an invaluable initiative in support of widening participation in higher education.”

“I’ve been a part of the UTS family since I started as an undergraduate 1997,” Associate Professor White said. “I was working in industry for a while and thought I’d go back there after completing my honours, but with the advice of some UTS mentors I saw that becoming an academic was going to be the way I could make a difference in the profession, with the relationships forged with students being the lifeblood of my work.”

Other UTS community members recognised in this year’s honours include:

The late Emeritus Professor Robin King AO, recognised for distinguished service to engineering, to tertiary education, and to professional organisations through executive roles. He had been an adjunct professor in the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT and was posthumously awarded an honorary doctorate by the university last year.

Richard Potok AM, for significant service to the Indigenous community, to education, and to the law. Founder and past CEO of Aurora Education Foundation and an adjunct professor in the UTS Faculty of Law, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from UTS in 2019 in recognition of his work in Indigenous education.

Michael Fay OAM, for service to international relations, and to education. Michael Fay was co-founder and managing director of UTS's Insearch Language Centre from 1987 to 2000. He is an Honorary Fellow of the University and a Friend of Distinction.

Emeritus Professor Ross Rudesch Harley AM, for significant service to tertiary education, and to the arts through a range of roles. Emeritus Professor Harley, a former Dean of UNSW Art & Design, is a UTS master of arts by research and doctor of creative arts graduate.