2020

The biggest impact our University has is supporting the dreams and aspirations of our students who then become our alumni and those alumni go out and make the world truly a better place. 

One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is when I get to talk to alumni both here and right around the world in terms of the incredible things they are doing. 

Here on the phone today we have people all the way from media to architecture, from teaching, entertaining children, to scientific research. Many of our graduates are breaking down barriers, particularly in this COVID period, trying to tackle some of the obstructions to our society. 

All of our alumni, and particularly those of you on the call today, all of you, you are beacons. You represent a diverse and global alumni community, but you are beacons for all of our students, and that's why it's so important to hear your stories. 

So without further ado, it is now my great pleasure to welcome you all into the game-changing group of UTS Alumni Award recipients. Congratulations.

So, first of all, a very warm welcome to our Community Award winner, Geoff! Congratulations Geoff.

Phillipa, our Indigenous Australian Award winner! Thank you, Phillipa. 

Madhavi, our International Award winner!

Emma, aka the Yellow Wiggle, our Young Alumni Award winner!

Mayrah, our Arts and Social Sciences Award winner!

George, our Business Award winner!

Angelo, our Design, Architecture and Building winner!

Lulu, our Health Award winner!

Dominic, our Law Award winner!

And last, but by certainly no means least, Darren, our Science Award recipient!

Congratulations, thank you. And thank you for being an inspiration to everybody.

The alumni awards are always a powerful reminder of what a privilege it is to be chancellor of UTS. I'm truly

inspired by the contributions that each

of our 2020 award winners have made

in their professions and to the wider

community and i'm very proud that these

are our graduates

representing the caliber of uts alumni

both here

and overseas each one of our 11 award

winners would be a worthy recipient of

the chancellor's award for excellence

which recognises a graduate with a

sustained record of outstanding

achievement

this year the chancellor's award

recipient is recognised as a scientific

leader

on both the domestic and international

stage his innovative research

has seen him become a leader in the

development and commercialization

of renewable nano materials with a wide

range of applications for the betterment

of society

these are just some of the reasons that

it is now my pleasure to announce that

the recipient of the chancellor's award

for excellence

is professor darren martin

as we were unable to meet in person i

gave professor martin the news via zoom

this was his response in addition to

winning the science award this year

i'm delighted to let you know that you

are have been selected

as the 2020 chancellor's award recipient

so huge congratulations on that

that's unbelievable news and and i'm so

humbled and so

uh incredibly happy

about it really really means a lot well

it's um

you're an outstanding candidate and what

you've done

and the fact that you've done it

sustained over time is

is so impressive now usually at this

point

i'd be inviting you to give an

acceptance

speech if we were in usual circumstances

but

perhaps just to give you the opportunity

now just to say a few words

i have i have prepared something it's

not long and i just firstly

uh coming from someone with such stature

as yourself

um makes it even more meaningful for me

uh particularly your um your commentary

on innovation and such i have been

paying attention

over the years so it does mean a lot to

me coming from

from yourself uh chancellor so um thank

you

it's a tremendous honour um i'd like to

thank you and also the uts

advancement team for for considering me

eligible in the first place for this

tremendous

accolade um in particular i'd like to

congratulate all the other alumni award

winners for 2020

a truly impressive group of individuals

and i must say i'm very

just very honored to be part of this

group

obviously this means a lot to myself

but i wanted to make a point of sharing

this award with the many talented

researchers

and industry partners with whom i've

worked over the last 27 years

since i set foot up for that first day

at uts

um those highly valued relationships

really are the the powerhouse uh behind

this

award so i want to thank each and every

every one of those individuals i've

enjoyed working with over those

almost three decades um so as part of

that i'd actually like to dedicate this

award today

to all of the past and current research

higher degree students i've had the

pleasure of advising almost 40

now during that time this has been

particularly

rewarding thinking back to my time at

uts which was between 1989 and 1996

this period of time in my life was

nothing but positive

i completed a four-year sandwich degree

in materials science incorporating a

12-month

paid industry placement in third year

and this was

this had begun at uts long before this

became

uh something that universities did

that was also the same year we all

turned 21 and it was a small cohort of

maybe 25 people doing material science

every year back then

during that time i made life changing

connections with lifelong friends

including my future brother-in-law jim

and of course

my beautiful wife georgina continues to

be the most important person in my life

and has also been by far my biggest

supporter

so my love and deep gratitude go out to

her today

i then completed a three-year phd also

at uts

and this was part of one of the first

cooperative research centers the crc for

cardiac technology

some connections there with your time at

cochlear absolutely

perhaps around the same time that was i

mean

incredibly productive time and in that

time i was exposed to the most amazing

mentors many of them but i have to give

special mention

to um dr patio raja guna talaki at csi

one of the partners he's retired now but

um tilak

as we all know him is an innovation

powerhouse he's done many great

um commercialized technologies in his

career and i didn't realize it until a

bit later in my career that this

formative environment was associated

with a

a rather unique culture i didn't know it

then but i certainly know it now

this culture of advancing

multi-disciplinary applied research

this culture was based on functional

teamwork um

effective and open communication and it

definite to true

innovation and commercialized materials

and and this has stayed with me my whole

career um

innovation what what is that exactly i

don't think anybody has the same answer

but for me

i suppose at this point in my career it

it involves the following taking risks

and failing

continually refreshing open-mindedness

listening very carefully uh promoting a

culture of people-driven connectedness

which then allows a higher probability

of unpredictable and

and sometimes unexpected serendipitous

outcomes

in developing new materials it also

involves

quite very long time frames 10 to 15

years

often and and with that

gumption and tenacity are required to

hang in there

so just to finish on that point uh that

last point of

gumption and tenacity i really want to

acknowledge my parents ash and janine

who by the strongest examples imaginable

taught me

stickability they call it stickability i

think this

together and coupled with a clear and

non-negotiable ethos of treating people

with respect

my father would say it's a very small

word but it's

the most important word

that stuff was there before i first set

foot on the uts campus in 1989

and i very much look forward to being on

campus again so

thank you so much chancellor livingston

and thank you uts

[Music]