Graduation ceremonies to draw 10,000 to Wollongong

Dec 07, 2005

Ceremonies to be held from Monday 12 December to Friday 16 December

The University of Wollongong will play host to more than 10,000 graduands and their families and friends when the University next week conducts 11 summer graduation ceremonies - including a night-time ceremony on Wednesday. Of this total, about 3,000 will be graduands attending the ceremonies to receive their testamurs.

Sample of photo/filming opportunities

* The most prestigious prize at the University of Wollongong, the Chancellor Robert Hope Memorial Prize, will be presented to Danielle Murphy Durland at the afternoon ceremony on December 16. It is an award of the Council of UOW made on the recommendation of a committee chaired by the University Chancellor, Mr Michael Codd, AC. The prize is named in honour of UOW's first Chancellor and one of Australia's most prominent legal practitioners, Justice Robert Hope, AC, CMG. The award is based on a graduating student's academic excellence as well as his or her contributions to the University and wider community

* Tilaka Wickramasinghe is in her late 70s and will be graduating with a PhD in History and Politics at the morning ceremony on 12 December. She was originally denied permission to immigrate from Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) because she was not willing to give up her willingness to wear her traditional clothing - hers is a very personal story about what it means and feels to be a migrant

* Toni Howard has been battling cancer and had to have a double mastectomy on 11 November - only the day after her final day at UOW. She has done a Bachelor of Teaching and will graduate at the afternoon ceremony on Monday 12 December. It is a story not only of a woman who has had to battle a terrible plight but how she has had amazing support from family, friends and staff at UOW

* Mel Cairns' mother died just after she completed her HSC and her father had drowned earlier in a surfing accident so she had to care for her two younger brothers. Despite these obstacles she will now officially graduate as a high school physical education teacher. She is graduating at the evening ceremony on December 14

* UOW will see its first graduates in the Master of Forensic Accounting (December 13, afternoon ceremony) - it is the first such degree in Australia and until this year, was the only one in the world

* A mother of six children, Lynda Gillen, will graduate with a PhD in biomedical science. She has done groundbreaking research addressing dietary modelling to substantiate the benefit of functional foods. She is graduating at the morning ceremony on December 13o A mother of four, Kerryn Hopkins, will be the first honours graduate from UOW's Batemans Bay Education Centre. Kerryn will graduate at the morning ceremony on December 16

* Penny Josephson will be the first student to receive a Bachelor of Arts with honours through UOW's Moss Vale Education Centre. She will receive her degree at the morning ceremony on December 16. Before undertaking the degree, Penny worked as a performer and on the production side of theatre throughout Europe

* A mother and daughter will be graduating -- Deanne Condon-Paoloni will receive a PhD at the morning ceremony on 13 December and her daughter, Elena Paoloni, will graduate with a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the afternoon ceremony on 15 Decembero Two sisters, Renae and Olivia Van Woerden, will graduate with Arts degrees at the morning ceremony on December 16

* Roza Dimenska was a migrant to Australia who spoke no English when she first arrived in 1992. Her father was a driving force in her decision to come to UOW around 2000. He died just after she made her decision to enrol. Roza will now graduate with an honours degree in science at the afternoon ceremony on December 16

* Andrew Spriggs is UOW's first BCompBioinformatics honours graduate. Bioinformatics is the merging of two disciplines - the knowledge and drive of a biologist alongside the skills of a computer scientist. With full genomes now sequenced and data overflowing biologists' plate, they can no longer survive without the help of computers to further their explorations. Andrew is graduating at the morning ceremony on 14 December

* The first group of Population Health (Bacheor of Arts/Bachelor of Science) students will be graduating at the morning ceremony on 13 December. Some of the graduands are from rural Australia where there is a critical health shortage

* A former headmaster of a Sydney college and an award-winning published poet/writer, Nicholas Kyriacos, will receive his PhD at the morning ceremony on December 16. He is to have a book published in 2006 related to his creative arts thesis work which has been described by his publisher as the next great Australian novel

* The eight Indigenous students graduating will hold a special 'graduation party' at the Woolyungah Indigenous Centre on campus at Building 30. The party will be held at 4.30pm on December 16. One Indigenous graduand of note is Lisa-Marie Syron who is UOW's first Indigenous postgraduate in Performance. For her Masters research she created and directed Ephemera - the Reconciliation Monologues. Lisa-Marie won the Philip Parsons Prize in 2005 which is awarded annually by the Australasian Drama Studies Association for the best postgraduate research that results in a theatrical production. Lisa-Marie will graduate at the afternoon ceremony on December 16

Guest speakers

* 12 December (morning ceremony), Dame Bridget Ogilvie, United Kingdom Trustee of the Science Museum and the UK National Endowment of Science, Technology and Arts

* 12 December (afternoon ceremony), Ms Lynelle Briggs, Australian Public Service Commissioner

* 13 December (morning ceremony), Ms Jane Halton, Secretary of the Department of Health and Ageingo 13 December (afternoon ceremony), Mr Anthony Pollock, Chief Executive and Managing Director of IDP

* 14 December (morning ceremony), Ms Rosemary Sinclair, Member of the ITC Board

* 14 December (afternoon ceremony), Professor Don Lewis, Faculty of Commerce

* 14 December (evening ceremony), Ms Yayaa Tsamenyi, Robert Hope Medallist in 2004 and law graduate

* 15 December (morning ceremony), Dr George Collins, Chief of Research with ANSTO

* 15 December (afternoon ceremony), Mr Warren Pearson, National Director of the National Day Council

* 16 December (morning ceremony), Professor Phillip Broadbridge, Director of the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute

* 16 December (afternoon ceremony), Dr Roslyn Muston, environmental scientist

Honorary awards

Honorary awards to be presented:

* A scientist of international standing, Dame Bridget Ogilvie, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science degree at the morning ceremony on December 12

* One of Australia's premier chemists, Professor Len Lindoy, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science degree at the afternoon ceremony on December 16

* Fellowships will be bestowed upon Mr Bill Crozier (morning ceremony December 12); Dr Roslyn Muston (afternoon ceremony, December 16); and Professor Terry Burke (afternoon ceremony December 12)

* Emeritus Professorships will be bestowed upon Michael Gaffikin (afternoon ceremony December 13); Don Lewis (afternoon ceremony December 14); and Philip Broadbridge (morning ceremony December 16)

Venue: University Hall, UniCentre

Media please note: If you wish to interview/photograph/film graduands the best time would be in the 30-minute lead up to when graduands are seated. For morning ceremonies media should attend between 9am to 9.30am; for afternoon ceremonies media should attend between 1.45pm to 2.15pm; and for the evening ceremony media should attend between 6.15pm and 6.45pm.

Further information: Contact the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gerard Sutton on 4221 3909.

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128