Bulletin

Issue: July 2005

People

‘Shoe’ - in for David Myers Medal winner

MAYA VERES – who completed the honours year of her Bachelor of Arts specialising in Archaeology at La Trobe University – has an unusual speciality: historic shoes.

Her thesis was on shoes worn by boys at the Lysterfield Boys Farm where poor boys from inner Melbourne were given farming skills during the 1930’s depression.

Ms Veres is now doing her PhD at La Trobe, studying colonial footwear found in various archaeological digs, including one in Sydney dating from 1792.

She was also among last year’s most outstanding graduating undergraduate students who were recently awarded the prestigious David Myers Medal.

The medal, commemorating La Trobe’s first Vice-Chancellor, is awarded annually by each Faculty. Ms Veres took out the medal for Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The other winners, all honours students, were:

Faculty of Regional Development: Simon McIlroy, Bachelor of Applied Science at the Bendigo campus, whose research involved naturally occurring fungal enzymes, beta glucanases, used in food, agriculture, mining and medical industries.

Faculty of Health Sciences: Ross Iles, Bachelor of Physiotherapy, and Aileen Ibuki, 22, Bachelor of Prosthetics and Orthotics. Mr Iles surveyed evidence-based practice among 120 hospital physiotherapists for his honours thesis, while Ms Ibuki’s research dealt with the treatment of muscle spasticity in conditions such as cerebral palsy, stroke or head injury.

Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering: Fotis Gimian, Bachelor of Computer Science, was a departmental scholarship holder who won a place on the Dean’s Honours List for each year of his course. After completing his degree, he was awarded prizes by the La Trobe Alumni Association and the Australian Computer Society, and is now in Telstra’s Graduate Program.

Faculty of Law and Management: Bethany Cooper, Bachelor of Business at Albury Wodonga, specialised in marketing and is continuing at La Trobe as a part time lecturer and tutor, while pursuing her PhD research on national resource mapping, in water conservation.

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