School members receive Science Staff Excellence Awards

We are very proud to report that six School members have received awards honours in the annual Science Staff Excellence Awards, announced today by Dean of Science Professor Emma Johnston. 

Our School members performed exceedingly well in 2021, receiving almost half of all individual honours conferred across the Faculty. Additionally, one staff member has been recognised via a group award. 

Awardees for Excellence include Thomas Britz, Clara Grazian and Tom Stindl. Highly Commendable Recognition awards were received by Laure Helme-Guizon and Daniel Mansfield. Anita Liebenau was awarded for her contributions as part of a working group. 

A huge congratulations to our staff for this wonderful recognition of excellence! See below for all details of their awards. 

Dr Thomas Britz
Award for Excellence in Wellbeing

This award celebrates staff who have have championed activities to enhance staff or student wellbeing.

For the past decade, Dr Thomas Britz has gone above and beyond in his dedication and care for students' wellbeing and education, remaining in touch with his students well beyond graduation, providing help with applications and reference letters. During the pandemic, where many students felt lost and isolated, he supported his students with individual care and by creating happy and engaged student communities. By providing online practice tests together with online piazza forums and Facebook groups, Dr Britz was able to gamify his courses, reducing stress, increasing engagement, and producing a 97% pass rate.

His award comes hot on the heels of his 2021 UNSW Learning and Teaching Award for Student Wellbeing, presented to him at the UNSW Education Festival just a fortnight ago.

Dr Clara Grazian
Award for Early Career Research Excellence

This award celebrates early career staff who have made an outstanding contribution to the production and/or dissemination of research.

Dr Clara Grazian is an outstanding young researcher in statistical methods, with applications to biology, medicine, climatology, and other areas. Her research has been published in high-ranking scientific journals and has impact on public health policies. 

Dr Grazian is also the current Vice President/future President of the NSW Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia. She recently won a highly competitive annual SSA Fellowship Funding Award.

Dr Tom Stindl
Award for Early Career Teaching Excellence

This award recognises people who have made an outstanding contribution to student learning and/or the student experience in the Faculty of Science.

As an early career educator, Dr Tom Stindl has demonstrated excellence in the creation of new courses, the modernisation of existing courses, and in the delivery of course material. He has demonstrated innovation in his course materials, blending content such as video tutorials, written notes, online Q&A sessions, and group discussion forums.

Student feedback shows that Dr Stindl's course delivery is well received, with very high satisfaction scores and appreciation for the care he takes in teaching.

Dr Stindl commenced a lectureship with the School of Mathematics and Statistics in 2019, shortly after completing his PhD with us. He was recognised for exceptional postgraduate research, winning a 2020 Dean’s Award for Outstanding PhD Theses.

Dr Laure Helme-Guizon
Highly Commendable Recognition in the category of Education Excellence

The Education Excellence honours recognise staff who have shown sustained excellence in teaching, enhancing student learning and/or the student experience.

As Deputy Director of First Year Studies in the School of Math and Stats, Dr Laure Helme-Guizon has made enormous contributions to education through her teaching, her mentorship, and her contribution to online maths assessments. She is an excellent leader and mentor for tutors, other academics, and teaching fellows and she is involved in many programs supporting students and high school teachers.

This is not the first time Dr Helme-Guizon has been recognised in this category - she was part of a group in the School of Mathematics and Statistics who won the Education Excellence award in 2020. 

Dr Daniel Mansfield
Highly Commendable Recognition in the category of Communication Impact

The Communication Impact honours recognise staff who have demonstrated significant reach in promoting scientific findings or science more broadly.

Dr Daniel Mansfield has enriched public understanding about the diversity of ancient mathematics. The mathematical achievements of early non-western civilizations in India, Egypt, and Mesopotamia are often seen as a prefix to the more sophisticated mathematical achievements of the Greeks. Dr Mansfield's research has revealed that Mesopotamian mathematics was much more advanced than previously thought. His discoveries have attracted significant media attention, featuring in main popular news outlets such as The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine (twice), The Guardian and The Economist.

Two of his research papers have Altmetric scores of 665 and 905, indicating that this research is in the top 1% of academic papers for quality and quantity of public impact.

Dr Anita Liebenau, with the Science Sustainability Working Group 
Dean of Science Stand Out Award

This award celebrates those who have made significant contributions in alignment with all UNSW Science Faculty values.

The Sustainability Working Group have done an incredible job this year promoting the sustainability vision of the Faculty of Science. Their projects span campus & climate, research, and education and the work of this group has paved the way for several new sustainability initiatives and has even inspired staff in other faculties to start up their own sustainability working groups. 

Dr Anita Liebenau has been our School's representative on the Science Sustainability Working Group, and has led the School's Sustainability Committee, for almost two years. 

Pictured, L-R, from top row:
Thomas Britz; Clara Grazian, Tom Stindl;
Laure Helme-Guizon; Daniel Mansfield; Anita Liebenau.