La Trobe University > Researchers > La Trobe Graduate Research School > Graduate research degrees > Finishing and thesis submission > Nancy Millis Award

Nancy Millis Award for doctoral theses of exceptional merit

2015 Nancy Millis awardee This award is named after Professor Nancy Millis, who served as Chancellor of La Trobe University for 14 years from 1992 - 2006.

A 'legend' in the world of science, she was one of only five Australian scientists recognised on the 'Australian Legends' series of stamps in 2002. During her distinguished career, Professor Millis gained a string of scientific and civic accolades, including election to the Australian Academy of Science, an MBE and a Companion of the Order of Australia.

Selection process

The Nancy Millis Medal is awarded to the authors of outstanding doctoral theses. Prior to 2025, this only included PhD theses. Examiners are asked if they consider the thesis to be in the top five per cent of theses they have examined that demonstrate the significance or impact of the work in their field of research. Nominated theses are then recommended following the examination process and are considered for award through a selection process that involves the School's Director of Graduate Research endorsement and approval by the Board of Graduate Research.

2025 recipients

The following recipients received their award in 2025.

Awardee	School	Thesis Title
Zacariah Billingham	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Taxonomy and Systematics of Australian Crane Flies (Diptera: Tipuloidea)
Stevie Browne	Education	A Narrative-Poetic Account of Teachers' Lived Experience of Childhood Adversity
Leigh Clarke	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Health Economic Evaluations in Prosthetics and Orthotics
Hilary Davidson	Humanities and Social Sciences	Reconstructing History: Knowledge-making, Materiality, Touch and the Intangible in Dress and Textiles, 1500-1850
Zoe Day	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Exploring Multi-Modal Therapeutic Strategies for Solid Tumours: Integrating Small Molecule-Induced Cell Death and CAR T Cell Based Immunotherapy Approaches
Yibo Fan	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Epigenetic Inheritance Induced by Intermittent Fasting and Its Effects on Metabolic Syndrome
Fiona Faulks	Nursing and Midwifery	Social Vulnerability and Disparities in Perinatal Health for Victorian Women: Determining Gaps in Outcomes, Access, and Equity
Karl Espernberger	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	The Impact of Personal and Social Factors on Physical Activity After Stroke
Myoung Hoon Ha	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Structure-Function Relationships of the Olfactory and Auditory Systems in Southern Bluefin Tuna: Adaptations for a Pelagic Lifestyle
Jarrod Harris	Psychology and Public Health	Rotational Dynamics and Sensorimotor Contributions to Heaviness Perception and the Size-Weight Illusion
Jordan Hinton	Psychology and Public Health	Dimensions of LGBTQ+ Identity Centrality and their Relationships with Discrimination and Health
Brooke Hollingshead	Psychology and Public Health	A Sociology of HIV Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in the Philippines
Amy Hodge	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Investigating Antigen Presentation and the in vivo role of Rho-associated Kinase 1 (ROCK1) in the Apoptotic Cell Disassembly Process
Rhys Makdissi	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Post-fire Succession of Semi-arid Birds: Challenges and Opportunities for Management
Kelly Maybery-Reupert	Applied Systems Biology	Genome Editing of Rhodes Grass (Chloris gayana) for Improved Herbage Quality
Pamela McCalman	Nursing and Midwifery	Digging Down to the Deep Story: Understanding the Views and Experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women who Gave Birth during the Baggarrook Yurrongi Project in Naarm, Victoria
Yvette Mojica Perez	Psychology and Public Health	Understanding the Short- and Long-Term Impacts of COVID-19 on Alcohol Consumption
Yemi Penn	Education	Beyond the Lens: Transforming Trauma Through Decolonial Storytelling: A Documentary
Hannah Riskas	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Optimizing Worker Survival: Colony Investment Strategies and the Worker Economic Spectrum in Ants
Mirza Shoaib	Applied Systems Biology	From Traits to Networks: Decoding Wheat's Drought Adaptation Through Multimodal Imaging, Omics, and AI
Caitlin Stephenson	Education	Mapping the Role of Australian Speech-Language Pathologists for Working in Literacy with School-Aged Students: A Mixed-Methods, Interprofessional Investigation
Stephen Tobin	Applied Systems Biology	Understanding the Ecology and Distribution of Carpophilus Beetles for Improved IPM in Almonds
Tara Williams	La Trobe Rural Health School	Exploring the Role of Volunteering in Reducing Loneliness in Rural Communities: A Mixed Methods Study

2024 recipients

The following recipients received their award in 2024.

Awardee	School	Thesis Title
Gemma Davy	Psychology and Public Health	Participation and Quality of Life in Caregivers of School-Aged Autistic Children
Sarah Gyngell	Humanities and Social Sciences	Settlement Organisation and Refuse Management at Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 2, Jordan: A GIS-Based Investigation of Artefact Patterning at a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Settlement
Renee Kam	Nursing and Midwifery	An Exploration of Breast Hypoplasia and Insufficient Milk Production
Panos Elias Karanikolas	Humanities and Social Sciences	Managing Madness in the ‘Deinstitutionalised’ Community: Carceral Control Under Victoria’s Community Treatment Order Scheme
Kamalpreet Kaur	Applied Systems Biology	New and Emerging Grapevine Viruses in Australia and their Control Measures
David Lowden	La Trobe Business School	Hidden In Plain Sight: A Mixed Methods Examination of Why There Are No Openly Gay Players in the Australian Football League
Jenna Macnab	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Understanding the Substitute Decision-Making Process and Practice of New South Wales Public Guardians in the Context of Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Jesse Martin	Humanities and Social Sciences	New Fossil Hominins from Drimolen, South Africa and Their Implications: A Case Study for the Reassessment of Hominin Taxonomy and Systematics
Akbar Lulu Marzan	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Investigating the Role of Extracellular Vesicles and its Cargo in Cancer-Associated Cachexia
Sharon Miller	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Yalka Loitjba: Yorta Yorta Langwidj Gunyawoka Wamadaman Woka Maya (Cuppa and Conversation: Yorta Yorta Language Repatriation on Country Therapy)
Andrew Molino	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Theoretical Investigations on the Electronic Structure and Molecular Properties of Carbene-Stabilised Boron Heterocycles and Beryllium Complexes
Rahul Sanwlani	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Role of dietary and probiotic extracellular vesicles in cancer progression and therapy
Natalie Sheard	La Trobe Law School	Algorithm-Facilitated Discrimination: AI-Driven Hiring Systems in Australian Workplaces
Jascinta Santavanond	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Investigating the Pharmacological, Cell-Autonomous and Non-Cell-Autonomous Regulation of Apoptotic Body Formation
Boris Julian Sepulveda Molina	Applied Systems Biology	Exploring Genetic Solutions to Minimise Enteric Methane Emissions via Feeding Behaviour Traits and Rumen Microbiome
Atefeh Taghizadeh	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Development of a Knowledge Translation Tool to Guide Implementation of Motor Learning Strategies within Evidence-based, Task-focused Models of Upper Limb Therapy for Children with Cerebral Palsy
Brigitte Tenni	Psychology and Public Health	Trade policy, Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines in Southeast Asia
Mark Tyler	Psychology and Public Health	Investigating the Influence of Severity of Depressive Symptoms on Thermoregulatory and Thermo-Affective Functioning
Melissa Urquhart	La Trobe Rural Health School	What behavioural impact does tactile art therapy have on children aged four to nine who have experienced attachment trauma?
Jessica Velasquez Urribarri	Education	Evolving Images of Resistance: Capturing Continuity and Change in the Linguistic Landscape of Protests in Venezuela
Stanislaw Wawrzyczek	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Birds, Mammals, and Insects as Pollinators of Banksia Species With Divergent Floral Traits: A Comparative Study in a Biodiversity Hotspot
Scott Williams	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Evolutionary Analysis of Crocodilian β-Defensins: Structure and Function of Crocodylus porosus β-Defensin 13

2023 recipients

The following recipients received their award in 2023.

Awardee	School	Thesis Title
Laena D’Alton	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Improving the Suitability of Electrochemiluminescence for Portable Bioanalytical Applications
Shuying-Debbie Boey	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Classification of Types of Visual Loss, Measurement and Evaluation of their Impact on Activities and Participation Among Older Adults
Anthony Condon	Humanities and Social Sciences	Reproducing The Gentleman's Game: Cricket and Social and Cultural Reproduction in the British Empire
Annette Jackson	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Can We Undo Harms From The Past? Developing A Theory of Change To Redress Consequences Of Serious Childhood Neglect
Aishvaryadeep Kaur	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Theoretical Insights into Boron Heterocycles and Donor Ligands
Melanie Muniandy	Psychology and Public Health	Facing Stress: Coping Strategies, Resilience and Mental Health Outcomes in Autistic Adults
Shauni Omond	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Characteristics and Mechanisms of Sleep in the Free-Living Platyhelminth Flatworm
Elizabeth Porter	La Trobe Law School	Untold Stories from the Victoria Police Lab
Bianca-Rosa Rodrigues Jardim	Applied Systems Biology	A Genomics Approach to Investigate Phytoplasma Taxonomy and Their Diversity in Australia
Christopher Simmonds	Humanities and Social Sciences	Government is the Problem? Interrogating the Right Turn in the US 1980 Election
Kerryn Sylvia	Humanities and Social Sciences	Contemporary Rites of Passage: Everyday States of Liminality and Transformation Through Journey and Play
Megan Ciara Topping	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	"Treat You Like a Person, Ask You What You Want": A Grounded Theory Study of the Quality of Paid Disability Support for Adults with Acquired Neurological Disability
Conrad Trollip	Applied Systems Biology	Innovative Fungal Phytopathogen Diagnostics Using High Throughput Sequencing on Forestry Surveillance Traps
Yunyun Zheng	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Disentangling the Impact of Nitrogen Addition on the Priming Effect of Soil Organic Matter

2022 recipients

The following recipients received their award in 2022.

Awardee	School	Thesis Title
Zakia Alam	Cancer Medicine	Role of Fosl1 is Mutant Braf Driven Intestinal Tumorigenesis In VivoS
Estafania Boada Viteri	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Behavioural Partitioning of Mainland and Island Lava Lizard Assemblages in Ecuador
Juliette Borenstein	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Towards a Conceptual and Practice Framework for Statutory Kinship Care
Aseel Bedari	Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences	Minutia Modelling and Secure Fingerprint Authentication with Applications to the IoT
Andrea Bramley	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	The Use of Entrustable Professional Activities Embedded in an e-portfolio to Support the development of Dietetic Student Competencies
Fiona Burgemeister	Nursing and Midwifery	Implementing and Evaluating Place-Based Initiatives for Children
Rachael McMillan	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Gluteal Muscle and Tendon in Health and Pathology
Illia Donhauzer	Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences	On Asymptotic Properties of Non-Linear Functionals of Random Fields
Kelly Van Egmond	Psychology and Public Health	Test-Retest Reliability and Validity of Wearable Transdermal Alcohol Monitors
Matthew Felicetti	Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences	Deep Randomized Learning for Industrial Artificial Intelligence
Wil Gardner	Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences	Unsupervised Machine Learning for the Analysis of 2D and 3D Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Images
Shannyn Genders	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Characterisation of alcohol-seeking behaviours in gelanin receptor 3 knockout mice
Karen Holl	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Navigating the Challenges to Contemporary Social Work Practice: Listening to the Voices of Aboriginal Australians
Mwila Kabwe	La Trobe Rural Health	Bacteriophages: More than alternatives to antibiotics
Andrea Lewis	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Specific Timely Appointments for Triage to Reduce Wait Times in Medical Outpatient Clinics
Yuan Lu	Psychology and Public Health	Detection and Management of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) in Primary Care in Shanghai, China
Dianna Nabbumba	La Trobe Rural Health	Examining Responsibility Allocation within the Social Care System for Older people in Rural Uganda: An Ecological Systems Approach
Dangedara Nanayakkara	Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences	Stochastic Modelling and Statistical Analysis of Spatial and Long-Range Dependent Data
Gemma Nourse	Psychology and Public Health	Co-Constituting Drugs, Health and Masculinity: Performance and Image-Enhancing Drug Discourses in Australia
Douglas Pretsell	Humanities and Social Sciences	The Age of Urning: Queer Identities and Advocacy in Germany, 1864-1897
Bradley Thoseby	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Peak Match Running Intensities in Australian Association Football
Tessa Weadman	Education	The Role of Early Childhood Teachers in the Oral Language and Emergent Literacy Development of Preschool Children
Andrew Whalley	Humanities and Social Sciences	The Contradictions of Care: An Ethnography of Moral and Social Ambiguity in a Harm Reduction Service for People who use Drugs
Lingling Yin	Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment	Cross-Regulation of Hormone Signalling by Transcription Factors in Arabidopsis thaliana

2021 recipients

The following recipients received their award in 2021.

Awardee	School	Thesis Title
Leah Mae Aportadera	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Social Work from the South: A Talaingod Manobos Practice Framework
Lacey Chetcuti	Psychology and Public Health	The Nature and Significance of Temperament Differences for Social-Emotional Functioning in the Context of Autism in Early-Life
Keaton Crosse	Life Sciences	Investigation of the Molecular Mechanisms Underpinning the Broad Antiviral Activity of Viperin
Garry Disher	Humanities and Social Sciences	The Search for a True Home: a Novel and a Critical Review of Recent Australian Rural Noir
Julie Edwards	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Fostering Organisational Identity in a Community Service Organisation: A Jesuit Approach
Brady Green	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Calf Muscle Strain Injuries in Sport
Catherine Kennedy	Humanities and Social Sciences	True Histories and Literary Strategies: Diary Fiction and its Illusions
Timothy Koussas	Engineering and Mathematical Sciences	The Classification of Dualisable Aperiodic Semigroups
Christian Krohn	Life Sciences	Exploring the Potential of Microbial Diversity in Dissipating Legacy Pollutants in Surface Soils
Yuehua Liu	Engineering and Mathematical Sciences	Data Quality and Data Preprocessing on an IoT-based Ecosystem for Smart Maintenance in the Manufacturing Industry
Daniel Missalidis	Life Sciences	"A Cellular Chronic Fatigue" - Dysregulated Mitochondrial Respiratory Function, Metabolic and Signalling Pathways in ME/CFS and the Identification of Blood Cell-Based Biomarkers of Disease
Jessica Peters	Psychology and Public Health	The Role of Visual Attention in Reading: Implications for Developmental Dyslexia
Saba Rabab	Applied Systems Biology	Machine-Vision Based Phenotyping and Competition Effects of Individual Ryegrass Plants
Jaclyn Swan	Life Sciences	Investigating the Sweeter Side of Fasciola spp: Host Parasite Interactions, Glycosylation Machinery, and N-Glycan Analysis
Jordyn Thomas	Life Sciences	Defining the role of IL-18 in the renal inflammation leading to hypertension
Nathan Ward	Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Exercise as an Alternative to Traditional Airway Clearance Techniques in Cystic Fibrosis
Gizem Yildiz	Psychology and Public Health	The Effects of Pictorial Depth Cues on Perceptual Rescaling of Stimuli Inside Ponzo-Like Illusions

2020 recipients

The following recipients received their award in 2020.

Awardee	School	Thesis Title
Jamin Moon	Humanities and Social Sciences	Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Law, The Thirdspace and Decolonisation in Australia, Canada and Aotearoa/New Zealand
Catherine Papadopoullos	Humanities and Social Sciences	Recasting Transgression in Modernity Prohibition, Pleasure and Otherness
Margaret Perrott	Allied Health, Human Services, and Sport	Lumbopelvic Stability in Recreational Athletes
Pramod Subedi	Molecular Sciences	Investigating the Mechanisms to Fold Disulfide Bond Containing Virulence Factors in Salmonella
Karen Lee Twigg	Humanities and Social Sciences	Along Tyrrell Creek: An Environmental History of a Mallee Community
Ashleigh Murszewski	Humanities and Social Sciences	Scales of Geoarchaeological Analysis Applied to the Drimolen Palaeocave System: the Cradle of Humankind (UNESCO World Heritage Area)
Genevieve Blades	Education	Walking Practices with/in Nature(s) as Ecopedagogy in Outdoor Environmental Education: An Autophenomenographic Study
Kaijian Xing	Molecular Sciences	Engineering the Two-Dimensional Hole Gas on Hydrogen-Terminated Diamond by Transition Metal Oxides Towards Diamond Surface Electronics
Angela Burge	Allied Health, Human Services, and Sport	Optimising Home-Based Rehabilitation for COPD
Michael McDermott	Psychology and Public Health	The Affective Politics of Queerbaiting: Fandom, Identity and Representation
Timothy Luke	Applied Systems Biology	High-Value Metabolic Phenotypes for Improved Dairy Cow Health
Jana Batovska	Applied Systems Biology	Enhancing Arbovirus Surveillance with Metatanscriptomics
Brian Devitt	Allied Health, Human Services, and Sport	Aetiology, Diagnosis and Treatments of Anterolateral Rotatory Laxity of the Knee
Denise Jones	Allied Health, Human Services, and Sport	Physical Activity Following Arthroscopy for Hip-Related Pain

2019 recipients

The following recipients received their award in 2019.

Awardee	School	Thesis Title
Golrokh Akhgar	Molecular Sciences	Spin Electronics in Two-Dimensional Surface Conducting Diamonds
Xue Bian	School of Life Sciences	A New Frontier for Behavioural Biology: Quantifying the Key Role of Plant Habitats on the Signalling Strategies of Dragons
Sarah Caruso	Molecular Sciences	Determining the Mechanism of Cell Disassembly during Apoptosis and Its Function in Immune Regulation
Lucy Caroline Davies	Humanities and Social Sciences	Indigenous Mobilities and Colonial Boundaries of Rule: How Papuans' and New Guineans' Travels Shaped Australia's Administration of Papua and New Guinea
Jennifer Gravrok	Psychology and Public Health	How Do Assistance Dogs Help Their Handlers to Live Their Best Possible Lives?
Jessica Horton	Humanities and Social Sciences	Counter-protection: Aboriginal People’s Letter Writing and Networks of Resistance in Victoria 1869 – 1925
Julian Potter	Humanities and Social Sciences	Faustian Modernity: Rethinking Mythos and Logos in German Social Theory after Goethe's Faust
Qiao Xu	Life Sciences	Climate Change Goes Underground: Effects of Elevated CO2 on Rhizosphere Priming of Soil Organic Matter
Son Thai	Engineering and Mathematical Sciences	Size-Dependent Modeling of Small-Scale Structures Based on High-Order Continuum Theories and Isogeometric Analysis
Georgia Kate Atkin-Smith	Molecular Sciences	Elucidating the Molecular Mechanisms and Functional Consequences of Monocyte Apoptotic Cell Disassembly Should be corrected to: Defining the molecular mechanisms of monocyte apoptotic cell disassembly, and its role in cell clearance and influenza infection
Thomas Munyaneza	Humanities and Social Sciences
Nano Nagle	Molecular Sciences	An Investigation of Uniparental Markers as Signatures of the Human Colonisation of Australia and Subsequent Dispersals Within the Continent
Nuala Catherine Dent	La Trobe Business School	A Fractured Landscape: A Systems Psychodynamic Investigation into the Experience of a Partially Distributed Team of Therapists in an Australian Child Protection System
Sebastien Desbois	Molecular Sciences	Molecular Evolution in Quaternary Structure, Function and Allostery of Dihydrodipicolinate Synthase
Richard Brian Turner	Humanities and Social Sciences	Made in Lancashire: A Collective Biography of Assisted Migrants from Lancashire to Victoria 1852 - 1853
Natasha Kate Brockwell	Molecular Sciences	Tumour Inherent Type I IFN Signalling in Immune Reactivity, Metastasis and Therapeutic Response
Heather Julie Wallace	Nursing and Midwifery	Sexual and Reproductive Health Decision Making in Timor-Leste: Hearing the Voices of Timorese Women and Men - An Ethnographic Study
Sagun Parakh	Cancer Medicine	Novel Anti-ErbB Antibodies in the Treatment of Cancer
Daniel Ross Bonanno	Allied Health, Human Services & Sport	Foot Orthoses for the Prevention of Lower Limb Overuse Injuries in Military Personnel

2018 recipients

The following recipients received their award in 2018.

Awardee	School	Thesis Title
Larisa Bardsley	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	Returning Home: A Creative Exploration of Self
Andrea Bruder	School of Allied Health	The Role of Exercise in the Rehabilitation of Patients with Wrist Fracture
Miaomiao Cheng	School of Life Sciences	Understanding Cd Phytoextraction by Australian Native Cd Accumulator
Janni Christensen	School of Molecular Sciences	Structure and Interactions of Enzymes Functioning in the Diaminopimelate Biosynthesis Pathway
Kate Laing	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	Fighting for a new world order: The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in Australia 1915-1975
Daniel Lopez	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	Georg Lukács's Philosophy of Praxis
Kerry Nixon	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	Yeoman Farming in Rural Nineteenth-Century Victoria: A View of and from the Currie Diary
Elizabeth Orr	School of Allied Health	Messages for Good Practice from Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officers and Social Workers in Hospitals in Victoria
Nina Riddell	School of Psychology and Public Health	A Systems Biology Approach to Refractive Errors and Associated Ocular Pathologies
David Snowdon	School of Allied Health	Clinical Supervision of Allied Health Professionals
Rochelle Tixeira	School of Molecular Sciences	Apoptotic Cell Disassembly Regulation and Function in Cell Clearance
Catherine Anne Bent	School of Psychology and Public Health	Factors associated with The Age of Diagnosis of Autism in Australia: Barriers and Enablers to Early Identification
Hannah Leigh Mayr	School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	The Effect of a Mediterranean Diet Versus Low-Fat Diet on Inflammation and Adiposity: an Intermediate Analysis of the AUSMED Heart Trial for Secondary Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease
Stephanie Paone	School of Molecular Sciences	Molecular Mechanisms Underlying the Development of Atherosclerosis
Christopher John Taylor	School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences	Double Heyting Algebras
Jason Andrew Wallis	School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport	Physical Activity and Exercise for People with Severe Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis
Elena Wilson	Rural Health School	People, Power, and Participation: The Disconnect Between Regulation, Reality and Ethics
Christopher Smedley	School of Molecular Sciences	Developing Sulfur-Fluoride Exchange Click Chemistry

2017 recipients

The following recipients will receive their award at a special event, held at the Graduate Research School in December 2017.

Awardee	School	Thesis Title
Slade Allen-Ankins	School of Life Sciences	Physiological Mechanisms Underlying Fish Distributions along Elevational Gradients: Estimating Fundamental Thermal Niches
Nang Seng Aye	School of Life Sciences	Impact of Liming Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics in Acid Soils
Amy Baxter	School of Molecular Sciences	Elucidating the Molecular Mechanism of Tumour Cell-Killing by Defensins of the Solanaceae Plant Family
Scott Doidge	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	The Anxiety of Ascent: Middle Class Narratives in Germany and America
Claudia Araceli Garcia-Solis	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	Archaeology and Tourism: the Performance of Conservation at the World Heritage Site of Chichen Itza
Andrew Gilbert	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	The Crisis Paradigm: The Concept of “Crisis” and its Limits in Lukacs, Koselleck, Arendt and Habermas
Lisa Hanson	School of Allied Health	Field Exercise Tests Used to Measure Physical Fitness and Functional Capacity in Cardiac Rehabilitation
William Keeton	La Trobe Business School	Managing Community Engagement: A Cross-Case Analysis of Water Organizations in Victoria, Australia
Xuan Mai	La Trobe Business School	Understanding Performance Measurement Practice for Academics from a Social Interaction Perspective-a Vietnamese Case Study
George Mbogo	School of Molecular Sciences	ß-Adrenoceptor Mediated Bim Dependent Apoptosis Inhibitors as Novel Therapeutics for Heart Failure
Alice Mora	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	Reconstructing Human Diets at a Fine Scale: Sequential Measurement of Amino Acid D13C Values along Single Hairs of Pre-Columbian Individuals
Amie O'Shea	School of Psychology and Public Health	I’m Just a Rare Girl: Gender and Disability in Life Stories Produced with Young Women with Intellectual Disabilities
Thanh Kha Phan	School of Molecular Sciences	Phosphoinositide-Binding Molecules as Potential Multifunctional Anticancer, Anti-Infective and Immunomodulatory Therapeutics
Jayne Russell	School of Psychology and Public Health	Social Support and the Experience of Living with HIV for Women in Australia
Alex Schenk	School of Molecular Sciences	New Diamond Surface Terminations for Quantum Devices
Deborah Shnookal	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	Miami or the Mountains: Operation Pedro Pan and the Children of the Cuban Revolution, 1959 - 1962
Ju Lin Tan	School of Molecular Sciences	Exploring the Role of ClpS in the N-End Rule Pathway in Mycobacterium Smegmatis
Sarah Warby	School of Allied Health	The Effect of Rehabilitation Programs on Multidirectional Instability of the Genohumeral Joint
Jennifer Wood	School of Life Sciences	Ecology and the art of looking: incorporating ecological-frameworks into the analysis of soil- and rhizosphere-microbial communities

2016 recipients

The following recipients received their award at a special event, held at the Graduate Research School in December 2016.

Awardee	School	Thesis Title
Prue Atkins	School of Allied Health	The influence of organisational context in the practice implementation process: identifying influential aspects of design intent in an innovative therapeutic outreach program for child protection clients.
Emma Bland	School of Molecular Sciences	High frequency remote sensing of Pc5 ultra-low frequency waves using the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network
Wendy Bunston	School of Allied Health	How Refuge provides 'refuge' to Infants : Exploring the ways in which 'refuge' is provided to, and experienced by, infants entering crisis accommodation with their mothers after fleeing family violence
Imogen Clark	School of Allied Health	Music to support physical activity in older adults with health conditions
Shannon Couchman	School of Molecular Sciences	A theoretical investigation of novel main group organometallic compounds
Gary Devilles	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	City Sense An Interdisciplinary Approach to Sensing Manila
Joseph Evans	School of Molecular Sciences	The role of TRAFs and RIP kinases in regulating inflammatory signalling in vivo
Leesa Hooker	School of Nursing and Midwifery	Strengthening maternal and child health nursing practice for women and children experiencing family violence
Joe Rae Latham	School of Psychology and Public Health	Trans Men’s Realities : An Ontological Politics of Sex, Gender and Sexuality
Umar Lubanga	School of Life Sciences	Reproductive biology, signalling and sexual selection in the She-oak psyllid Aacanthocnema dobsoni (Froggatt) (Hemiptera: Triozidae)
Alison Lugg	School of Education	Remaking Futures: A Case Study of Pre-service Outdoor Sustainability Education Teachers
Gustavo Portes	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	Sacrifice in animation : Psychological development and relationship in the work of Pixar and Hayao Miyazaki
Alin Rai	School of Molecular Sciences	Role of extracellular vesicles in colorectal cancer progression
Mark Scillio	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	Making career stories : navigating work life and a sense of security
Holly Sellers	School of Humanities and Social Sciences	A linguistic approach to ethnobotanical plant name classification in southern Lisu
Aryeh Solomon	School of Education	The educational theory of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson