 So I too would like to acknowledge and celebrate the traditional owners on whose lands and airways we meet today. I'm here on campus on the Nunnawell-Nambry people's Traditional lands and it is great to be able to be meeting here tonight on land that goes back literally 20 millennia And pay my respects to elders past and present tonight is a special occasion. It is a year that has probably been The toughest for most of us have ever experienced in our lives. I like to say it is a year That is incredibly memorable, but one I would like to forget It is now and more important than ever that in a year like this that we do stop and celebrate the successes of our community ANU continues to be at the heart of research And we continue to provide the educational excellence that the nation looks forward to One of our core values that we strive for excellence in everything we do and if we're going to strive for excellence, we should celebrate it Every year it's true to say that ANU could be nowhere without its people that we acknowledge tonight But this year that sentiment is truer than ever The dedication and hard work seen within our community this year is unlike anything I have ever seen together I've ever seen before We have been surrounded by staff who are committed to doing the work required to help all of us overcome the challenges We faced in whatever form it was needed We saw new teams form new innovations thought up and different technology used Then you know ever dream possible before and tonight we are going to acknowledge some of those people Ultimately, ANU is a university It is because of its people and these highly dedicated people can be found in all corners of the university working on entirely different missions all to help us achieve our collective goal Which is to serve our nation as the national university and while tonight we celebrate individual achievements It's also important that we acknowledge those who helped get them here What if people achieve great things? They always do so with great people around them. I Would like to acknowledge and thank the colleagues of tonight's recipients I'd also like to thank the sponsors who took the time to nominate their colleagues These individual accolades do not happen without the help and support of the team around each of us And of course our recipients families and friends are part of that team Dedicating such a large part of yourself to your work cannot help it happen That's supportive loved ones. And so I'd also like to thank the entire community Because this year has been incredibly difficult and the patience and resilience everyone has shown as we work together to meet The most significant challenge in our university's history cannot be over described Your response is a testament to what makes a New York community such a wonderful part of our each of our lives So I'm very pleased that we are joined by our Chancellor Julie Bishop this evening who will be presenting the 2020 Chancellor's Award so without further ado I'd like to invite the Chancellor to speak and present our first awards for the evening Julie Thank you for the introduction Brian and I'm joining you this evening from Perth on the traditional lands of the Wadjuk people of The Noongar nation and I pay my respects to their elders past and present So wherever we are across our nation this evening We celebrate the first Australians on whose land we each meet to join this event I'm delighted to be able to join you tonight at the 2020 Vice-Chancellor's annual awards and to present the Chancellor's Awards this evening at the end of my first year as a new Chancellor and while the gala dinner couldn't go ahead given the Pandemic induced circumstances. I'm very pleased that we're still able to come together to recognise and celebrate the exceptional contributions made by our academic and professional staff, which is especially important I think in what's been an incredibly challenging year If a university is deemed to be great It is because of their people their researchers academics lecturers staff students the alumni and tonight we recognize those academic and professional staff whose dedication and hard work for the university have helped us maintain AMU's sterling reputation as Australia's national university As an institution of national significance and one of the world's best And this is due in major part to the contributions that people in areas of research teaching innovation and policy This year in particular we've seen our AMU community respond not only to the challenges faced here on campus But also make a contribution to our nation's response to the pandemic From our medical and health experts to our economic and public policy advisors have been reminded Throughout this period of the high caliber people that we have at our university And so I'm honored tonight to present the 2020 Chancellor's Awards first the Chancellor's Award for distinguished contribution to the university Now this award recognizes contributions to the economic, cultural, scientific and social development of Australia And the international community which demonstrates eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree Tonight I'm very pleased to announce that the 2020 Chancellor's Award for distinguished contribution to the university goes to Professor Michael Cardew Hall Professor Cardew Hall's exemplary career had yes, please all His exemplary career has spanned industry and academia and he's recognized as a leader in university industry collaboration Mick is deeply passionate about building entrepreneurial capability in graduates and in the wider community His understanding of the local national and international innovation Ecosystems enables him to be an innovator of new approaches to create economic and social impact from university research My sincere congratulations. I invite Professor Mick Cardew Hall to say a few words Thank you Chancellor. Look, it is a great great honor I've always felt that the university has actually contributed more to me than I've contributed to it but It's been a career that I've had here, which has been, you know, really enjoyable and if I've made a contribution I You know, I thank the the the recognition of that But it goes really also to the colleagues. I've had my colleagues in engineering when I first got here Who supported what we were doing down there, but more later in the last 10 years my team at the innovation ANU and the team in ANU Enterprise Without them we I couldn't have done what I've done I think as Brian has already said, it's the team around us that allow us to to make the contribution to the institution So thank you very much. It is a real honor to be recognized in this way Thank you Mick and best wishes for your future endeavors. Congratulations once again and cheers to you. Yes I hope that's a a nice champagne. You're coughing there Secondly the Chancellor's award for outstanding service to the campus community This award recognizes voluntary and sustained contributions which enhance the general welfare and life of the campus and benefit the institution as a whole Tonight, I'm very pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2020 Chancellor's award for outstanding service to the campus community is associate professor Anna Cowan professor Professor Cowan is an inspiring leader an advocate for education and for the student experience Both within the college of science and the college of health and medicine and across the university more broadly Anna works tirelessly in her roles was carrying a large workload And she is a valued source of knowledge wisdom and excellent judgment She's passionate about the national role of our university And through her work with the national youth science foundation and science Olympiad Anna has introduced many students to tertiary STEM studies and careers And in turn brought extraordinarily talented students to ANU. I asked professor Cowan to say a few words Thank you Chancellor and thank you vice-chancellor This is a real honor and it's very unexpected I have to say But what I would say is Nothing that I do at the university is done by myself. It's done with teams And teams across different areas of the university both in the college of science and the college of health medicine But right across the university and I'd like to Acknowledge the university community because that's what makes My role and everyone else's role worthwhile. So, thank you Thank you for your valuable contribution to ANU and to the STEM community professor Cowan all the very best to you Now it's my great honor to present the 2020 Peter Bohm award Which represents our top accolade and acknowledges highly exceptional contribution to ANU The Peter Bohm award is named in honor of former ANU Chancellor Professor the Honourable Peter Bohm AC This award is the university's most prestigious recognizing eminent achievement and merit of the highest order In fact, this year we had such outstanding nominations That the judging panel determined that There were two highly deserving recipients So I'm pleased to announce that this year we have two winners for the 2020 Peter Bohm award First is Emeritus Professor Rodney Baxter Over his long and distinguished career Professor Baxter has made groundbreaking contributions to the study of exactly solved models in statistical mechanics Which have involved the invention of ingenious mathematical techniques His brilliant solutions have led to a deeper understanding of the theory of phase transitions and critical phenomena And remarkable relations with quantum field theory His work has also initiated and continues to inspire profound developments across a broad spectrum of mathematics including quantum groups not theory and representation theory of infinite dimensional Algebra, he brings international renown to the Australian national university Professor Baxter, I invite you to say a few words Thank you. Thank you very much Julie. It is indeed a great honour I've been at the A&U a long while. I first came in 1961 I've seen it grow I was a research student The Vice Chancellor Everybody went to use the Vice Chancellor. I don't think that's unfortunately quite so true now but It's been a great place to work. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you Thank you Professor Baxter for your short but Very heartfelt words. We deeply appreciate your contribution to our university Our second distinguished recipient of the 2020 Peter Bohm award is Professor Margaret Jolly This recognises Professor Jolly's outstanding career at A&U Where she's achieved significant national and international recognition in the fields of anthropology, pacific and gender studies She's transformed our understanding of gender relations in our region Combining the perspectives and methods of anthropology and history in a transdisciplinary approach Characteristic of both pacific and gender studies Over her remarkable career Margaret has successfully supervised 55 PhD students, 10 postdoctoral fellows, several supported by ARC grants And mentored many more early career scholars and produced many hundreds of scholarly publications Professor Jolly has played a pivotal role in the foundation of the Cross Campus Gender Institute at A&U Launched in 2011 which has had a tremendous impact on the A&U community and beyond Margaret was appointed a member of the Order of Australia in January this year for services to education on gender and pacific studies Congratulations Professor Jolly. I invite you to say a few words Thank you so much Chancellor and thank you very much Vice-Chancellor Um, I'm going to be a bit longer. I'm sorry. I hope I won't get cut off I just wanted to start by saying I'm first ruled and humbled This is a very welcome culmination for me in what has been the most challenging year for us all I wanted to start with very heartfelt thanks to all those people of the pacific My interlocutors My teachers my students who I've worked with over several decades I would have to say that their indigenous knowledge and their embodied practice has been at the heart of what I've done And even though there may be many writings that bear my name. They are effectively co-creations between their knowledge and mine I've actually been very fortunate in my career to have roamed the academic globe Cambridge Santa Cruz University of Hawaii at Mānoa a post rouge with CNRS in France But for over 25 years now annual has been my intellectual home And I benefited so greatly from the brilliance the generosity and the warmth of my colleagues Most recently from my director Simon Haverly Stunning archaeologist and citizen science on pop citizen scientist on pollen who nominated me Thank you very much and all the fine professional and academic staff and students of our stellar school the school of culture history and language Sharon bill presently interim dean of the college of Asian Pacific an old friend from Sydney days But though interim dean a woman of great insight acumen and grace I want to thank the many colleagues across the several schools of CAP Caz and the college of law I relish the intellectual vibrancy of the a news innovative cross campus institutes the gender institute the pacific institute the climate change institute And I applaud the innovative vision Of those currently in chancery Brian and his team and celebrate how the a new has In this period of cascading crises dealt with these problems with compassion and with wisdom Finally, I want to say that i'm honored by an award bearing the name of our earth's world chancellor peter boom Who we might recall along with the late senator susan ryan initiated the sex discrimination act of 1984 But I must observe that in the last 15 years there has only been one other woman recipient of the peter boom award professor susan von camera A biologist working on photosynthesis So we now have you julie bishop as our honorable chancellor And i'm just trust that there will be many more women nominated and awarded for this great honor in the decades to come So sorry to be a bit long michael. Thank you Thank you professor jolly and for your words And we wish you all the very best in your future endeavors and as the first female chancellor Of a new i'm delighted to present a chancellor's award to the second female recipient Each of our chancellor award recipients tonight will be gifted a beautifully framed prized photograph from our a new archives to honor their contribution to the university And the awards team will be in touch with further details So congratulations again to this remarkable group of recipients Rodney and margaret anna and mick back to you professor martin Thank you, julie. Wow. Well, we started like 2020 off with a bang. This is fantastic and I really Echo julie's congratulations of all of our award winners so far just massively inspirational colleagues This calls of course for an olympic moment And here we have another olympic moment This time i'm going to correctly identify julie. There's julie bishop here in this photograph And I believe if I understand the wikipedia entry correctly. She is here running with olympic superstar usain bolt A very very Well, hang on i'm getting a call Hello, not not usain bolt Some british guy Bojo Okay I'm sorry. Sorry. That's not usain bolt. Evidently. That's some british guy Donald no boros something anyway I can see julie's well ahead of him anyway, so there you go So there's our olympic moment. I hope that wikipedia starts to really get better because i'm getting a lot of calls here tonight Well, we're going to start our next set of awards And we're not coming down a notch at all We're moving now to the vice chancellor announcing the award for reconciliation And as we've we've reflected on already a few times in tonight's event We we have our campus on Aboriginal land As all of australia is and so reconciliation is a massive part of what the anu stands for So i'm going to hand over now to brian who's going to announce the vice chancellor's award for reconciliation Thank you, uh michael and may I say I can see you're pushing the boundaries of academic freedom here tonight And I will do my best to protect you from the chancellor as they have strong views on academic freedom So tonight's award on uh reconciliation is one that is of particular importance to me And it's one of the ones that I guess I see as being potentially having intergenerational impacts on what we do This award recognizes initiatives and professional activities to achieve the vision and targets Set out in the university's reconciliation action plan But in many respects, as I said, it has uh, you know, literally, uh ramifications for Generations ahead this year's reconciliation award has two recipients The first goes to an individual that has made lasting contribution to reconciliation that extends Well beyond the immediate scope of her work Azur Hermes has worked with indigenous donors their communities and represented organizations across australia to enable important genomics research Azur's intelligent culturally attuned leadership enabled medical research that benefits indigenous australians to proceed While also honoring the traditional cultural imperative to lay the samples to a spiritual rest Hard to imagine a more powerful symbol of reconciliation And indeed the work is being used in things far beyond just the genomics where it's started. So congratulations azur I would like now to invite azur to say a few words Hi, thank you. I'm actually going to take a little bit of extra time as well because there's a few people I want to thank so um I have to say that it's an absolute privilege to be able to travel to some of the most remote communities in australia And I get to work with the most incredible communities and families And I get to immerse myself in culture and country on a daily basis And more often than not it always feels like I've already won the major prize because I get to do that But this role isn't one that I can do on my own and while I'm absolutely delighted to win this award It's one that needs to be shared with a group of people So firstly hard it to tell our bioinformatician He spends countless hours pouring over our data building systems writing grants Presenting our work at conferences all without complaint and often sacrificing his own academic priorities to push and zig forward I want to thank jackie stenhouse. Who's the absolute rock of nsig? She's the backbone There's no way that we would be where we are today without her She's been my closest ally my mentor and mostly my friend Simon is still nsig is his baby. He created this organization from nothing and carried it forward Simon Simon hired me as a community engagement officer And for the last five years he has spent time giving me the space to not only develop my community engagement portfolio But to develop as a person also I get to be deputy director of nsig because of the time he's invested in me He's trusted his baby And he's given it to great man the new director and myself to move forward and I hope that we can make him proud I also really need to acknowledge my husband who's sitting off the frame here because While I get to go out in the field and have all these incredible Experiences and have all of the fun. He sits at home often for weeks on and taking care of our home life He does it all without complaint And I don't know a more supportive man of my life and I really appreciate him And lastly, I really want to recognize our Aboriginal communities that work with nsig including my own Yareba I want to thank each and every one of them for inviting me into their communities and into their homes For talking to me and for sharing their culture and knowledge But mostly I want to thank them for trusting me with their precious dna Their story nsig would not be possible without our communities and I promise that I'll always work hard for them Thank you Well, thank you azure Now our second recipient is a team who has achieved a remarkable and remarkable and sector leading initiative That will revolutionize the way the national university admits indigenous australians now And forever into the future The cons comprehensiveness and generosity of the cambry scholarships Are meant to address some of the issues confronting indigenous australians Contemplating joining a and u from anywhere around our nation By providing accommodation support living expenses And funding for return travel home twice a year integrated with the commitment to academic and pastoral support provided primarily through the outstanding Chabal center the design of the package is both innovative and empowering So congratulations to the cambry scholarships team And join me in welcoming team leader auntie and martin to speak again Thank you Brian. Thank you you chancellor. Um This started as a as a tiny little tiny little kernel that grew also suddenly and um, if it were not for the decision of an amazing council We would not be having this discussion tonight So I really want to acknowledge the anew council and your leadership brine in this space And then came how do we build it? so, um In the initial stages that there was a small nucleus and I really want to acknowledge Our teams led by by barbara um in advancement and people like asmy woods san provas felicity uh, caterina jenny nutter Love working with jane andrew colter sarah bays and karson warburn. Um You know you took um the craziness of what we're seeking to do And uh, you've made it work and we have now recently interviewed our second cohort of cambry scholars And it's like I said at that council meeting people like you don't do things for people like us you did it and I think that the ancestors walk with us on this one And you have changed the future for generations of young aboriginal students to come and for for that for from From all of us to all of you To the most fabulous community in the world the anew I I extend my deepest heartfelt thanks. We are nothing without You thank you beautifully Beautiful words auntie ann and and uh, I think I can reciprocate and say we are nothing without you as well and uh, congratulations again to azure and to auntie ann For the enduring contributions you make to bring our nation together and to make our nation whole Well time for some more inspiration Brian you're gonna you're gonna protect me from julie julie. You'd best start protecting me from brine So here we have another olympic moment this I understand and again i'm referring to wikipedia that that bond of all wisdom This is brine schmidt being awarded the olympic gold medal for hammer throw at the 2004 athens olympics So obviously the silver and gold silver and bronze medal went to people who weren't australian And uh, oh i'm getting it Not not athens Not not hammer throw What what prize? No bell prize. Oh, okay I evidently that's not a gold medal in the olympics, but no bell prize is pretty good. So uh, congratulations brine Ah At some point. Oh, here we go around the test pattern. That's that's good. I've been saved by the test pattern Ah, well, I imagine that in a few years time, uh, I might receive the next award for watching these these, uh ceremonies so so utterly but not this year. I gather I'm going to pass now to our chief operating officer paul paul doldig Who's going to present the vice chancellor's awards for innovation and excellence in service over to you paul Thank you, michael and hello everyone. I'm speaking to you here on the lands of the warrenjory people of the kulin nation And I pay my respects to their elders past and present I had the very great pleasure of being on the judging panel for these awards And I have to say the nominations this year were outstanding all of them. It's very very hard to Choose however, we have to Given the exceptional year that we've all experienced and the challenges we've all faced It's not surprising that there are four recipients tonight of the innovation and excellence in service award The first recipient is someone who navigated the challenges created by the kovat 19 Uh pandemic with flexibility and creativity First award goes to mrs vicki stanley Vicki successfully adapted the innovation ct program traditionally an intensive hands-on in-person 10 week long student entrepreneurship program Into an entirely virtual program delivered to over 100 entrepreneurs from anew and the wider camber region Vicki harnessed the opportunity to streamline the program and still keep participants imaginations engaged and challenged Please join me in congratulating vicki And now invite her to say a few words Thank you so much paul. Um, thank you everyone It's it's such an honor to be uh to receive this award particularly on a night where Such incredible inspiring colleagues are also being recognized Um, I want to express my thanks to my my colleagues who nominated me for this award It's it's a great honor to um to have that that work valued and appreciated But this is is award that should be shared with um a massive community of people. Um, there's A lot of different people who make this program possible each year and it's the energy of um All of these this community that helps make the program possible So not only the program partners from the innovation ecosystem All the mentors the student committee who help run the program the program Alumni who give their time to help out the students each year But also of course the the participants themselves each year We have hundreds of students who take out their um their own time from their weekends in the evenings to challenge themselves To um to call themselves an entrepreneur and and really I'll put their passion and energy into this program And we definitely wouldn't have a program without it. So thank you very much and thank you for the award guys Thank you Vicky and congratulations Our second recipient is a team That was established to enable rapid response support during the COVID-19 pandemic The community well-being team Ensured that a responsive skilled and dedicated team of staff and students Was in place to support our community during a rapidly evolving situation Throughout this time the community well-being team members continue to undertake their business as usual with absolute commitment And out of a congratulatory if you're going above and beyond to keep our community safe And supported I also understand that this team and certain members of it still meet today crossing the boundaries of academic areas and uh central administration And it's really formed a wonderful bond between those people as well Please join me in congratulating the community well-being team and I now invite kyle wilson to say a few words on behalf of the team Thank you, paul So as you heard out the community well-being team was a brainchild I think there's actually paul's brainchild It was a gift from paul and the crisis management team He wanted to make sure that all staff students and visitors were equally supported throughout the pandemic We had a brief and it was to find the really well-known doors across the university and bring them together to make Sure all of our community feel really safe So I think we did that We were staffed with folks from across colleges divisions portfolios and student bodies which made it really really special experience for all of us Paul's right. Some of us still connect with each other often We're a really wonderful group of staff and I think we've worked together on our collective cause which was Something I don't know that any of us have actually experienced in the university before So I know we had 60 seconds So I'm going to use half of them to name the list because I think they all deserve a little bit of a shout out So in no particular order, we've got belmerberg Ben Gill Tilly Hickenbotham Joe Dushy Zinn Lee Jerry Patron Scott Walker Tanya Willis WoodSaf Gupta Dee Drummond Nora Souter Matthew McClay Lachlan Day Anna Cowan Sally Rodriguez Justin Donnelly Melinda Brady Melanie Greenhouse Alison Scott Eugene Soar And then there's an extra special thanks for the few that really worked together with me to make sure that we pull this together And it was Nadine White, Jenna Robishaw, Danelle Claudianos and Yana Portrebica Thank you very much Thank you so much Carla and thank you so much to the team. What a great effort Our third recipient is another team who worked tirelessly to put in place operational and policy measures to support the ANU community during a time of heightened stress And like the community wellbeing team did this all while continuing their day job But this was for the other crises. The fire and hail response team Should be congratulated for the dedication, innovation and embodiment of the ANU values The team demonstrated innovation and excellence in service in unprecedented circumstances by providing rapid response support to the entire ANU community I particularly like to thank human resources director Dr Nadine White and facilities and services director Nikki Middleton You've both demonstrated incredible leadership during the toughest year the university has ever faced Please join me in congratulating the fire and hail response team And I now ask Dr Nadine White to say a few words on behalf of the team Thanks Paul. It's My pleasure to speak on behalf of all of the teams who are involved in the rapid response for the fire And hail storms. I have a few of them in the background in my dining room this evening We've come together to celebrate. I'm not going to mention anyone's names individually, but this was a collaborative effort Which went on to last for some weeks including some months after those two events where we pulled together A number of staff who helped us continue business operations But also respond to critical events when we lost power. We lost A number of of windows in buildings. We lost vehicles And this was all coming from people who had suffered losses themselves. So they had lost Homes and cars and had severe damage to buildings outside the campus So this was an amazing effort of a group of people that cuts across almost every area of the university I did consider donning my high vis tonight In honor of the efforts that these teams had put together and come together to deliver This is a continuing effort the insurance claims will go on for for many years I imagine and we will continue to rebuild but this group of people are thoroughly committed to the university and making sure That the university was able to continue business operations So everyone who was involved, you know who you are and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the work that you did on those days and continue to do Thank you so much, Nadine And look, I also just like to give a shout out to everybody who was involved across the across the campus Unfortunately with these awards, we can't single out every single team But every single team made a contribution and I know that you know that that I thought I'd say it anyway And last but certainly not least Our final recipient for the vice chancellor's award for innovation and excellence in service goes to regular all-round nice person Matt Talbot Didn't just win it for being a nice person though Matt has made exceptional contribution to the ANU community in his long career here But in 2020 he's absolutely exceeded the high levels of service action and leadership for which he's known Matt led the almost impossible task, which was the return to campus task force And ensured clear communications between the community the executive and decision makers His tireless and unrelenting commitment and dedication to ANU and his colleagues helped bring the community together In what was a very difficult response to the pandemic and it was a surprisingly complicated task Please join me in congratulating Matt And I now invite him to say a few words Thank you, Paul. Um, yeah, this is um Amazingly great, but also unexpected news. Um, I think the theme for tonight is really around And it goes without saying that being nominated for such prestigious awards Is is a great recognition and acknowledgement that we're doing a lot of things right at the university That broad spiel of of what what we've gone through this year is really around a collective effort from everybody We draw upon the good leadership the great leadership of the university executive As well as the values that a lot of people hold tightly So for me, yeah, it was a it was a great challenge. Lots of learning but collective effort from everybody Like the previous winners there's too many people to thank You know who you are and without you The fundamental success we have in dealing from crisis to crisis is we can't achieve that so It's no surprise to anyone that I find this somewhat excruciating to accept an award on behalf of other people as well That's great. It's not just me, but um, I found it Really energizing in a really kind of weird way to do this in a crazy full throttle cast of thousand approach this year So we're not finished that particular project yet, but um, thank you to all the staff who have been involved Um, we never gave up and we were positioned well for for moving forward. So thank you to everybody else Thanks matt The judging panel also has chosen two finalists For the award for innovation and excellence in service and these are two great examples of of quite specific responses By people to the kovat 19 pandemic The first finalist is the a new college of business and economics 2020 off-campus student experience project team In the midst of the kovat 19 pandemic budgetary constraints and organizational reforms This team's commitment to the university's vision to provide a world-class student experience never faltered The team demonstrated creativity dedication and passion to develop and coordinate several outstanding initiatives That have successfully transformed the remote learning experience of cve students These initiatives were diverse with everything from online study club cooking demonstrations to virtual employability workshops Thank you to the cve 2020 off-campus student experience project team for your commitment to creating a fund Engaging an impactful academic journey for our students no matter the circumstances And our second finalist for the vice-chancellor's award for innovation and excellence in service Is the travel restriction relief bursary team This team's collaboration efficiency and flexibility allowed them to quickly and successfully establish A travel bursary for students impacted by the mainland china travel restrictions This team processed over 3000 applications in just four weeks with over 22 000 rows of claims in over 20 currencies and languages This team put in three and a half months of intensive effort to help our new students continue their studies in 2020 Thank you for your hard work. I know that many students couldn't have got through this year without you And so thank you to both finalists Oh, thank you paul Look, it's it's evident to me that i'm going to have to pick up my game if I ever hope to win an award of this caliber Anyway, I thought as we move to the next set of awards. I'd share with you the outfit I was going to wear tonight instead of my bow tie and suit This is milley the mascot for the sydney 2000 olympics and of course they sell the costume Unfortunately, australia post wasn't able to get it to me on time with a lot of deliveries apparently And so i'm just going to have to show you the picture. It does look a little bit spooky. They're looming behind me. Hmm Well the evening rolls on let's go to the next award category I'm going to pass now to our teaching spiritual leader grady venville and grady is going to give us insight into the vice chancellor's award for early career academics over to you grady Thank you so much michael What a great evening to hear what everybody's doing and to celebrate the great achievements It's great honor to be presenting the award that acknowledges the hard work of one of our many brilliant early career academics This year's winner is one of the very best medical researchers of their generation And a powerful ambassador for research excellence at anu Professor seaming man leads an internationally recognized research program that aims to better understand how immune receptors detect pathogens In order to better harness the power of our own immune defense in the fight against infectious disease and cancer The discoveries made by seaming and his team have been highly impactful with many being amongst the top 1% Of most cited papers in his field and published in the highest quality Scientific journals these breakthroughs have breakthroughs have also generated substantial interest beyond academia With media coverage attracting over 2 million views Absolute congratulations professor man. I would like now like to invite you to briefly speak Thank you very much grady and thank you. Uh, it's an incredible honor to be a recipient of the vc award Um, I sincerely thank the vc and the selection committee for this support, especially for young Uh, career researchers like myself and others who are starting their career here at the anu Um, I want to thank the dean of the college of health and medicine professor russet grun And our director of john curtain school medical research professor graham man Both of them have really provides provided excellent mentorship in helping me Developing my independent research career here at the anu I want to thank my head of department of immunology and infectious disease professor davis shaggy for this nomination for this nomination And his unwavering support as always And of course, I want to thank my lab members. Uh, there are 14 of us Uh, highly energetic researchers who all share the same passion about using the immune system to find cures for Infectious diseases and cancer and they really helped make this the lab a fun place to come to work And of course, I want to thank quickly thank my colleagues at the john curtain Out of all the places that I worked in the park in the past including the uk and us I found john curtain to be one of the finest places to do biomedical research And that's because of the generosity and spirit of the researchers here And so it's an honor to be working alongside you And so I'd like to end by saying again Thank you to the vice chancellor and I look forward to uh contributing to this anu community community that I love For many years to come Thank you very much and congratulations c min and with many of our early career academics doing marvelous things We also have two finalists I would like to uh Congratulate our two finalists dr. Catherine gasha who has combined stellar observational And modeling techniques and an innovative approach to create the next generation of stellar stellar evolutionary models the strong low Stellar tracks. This is uh groundbreaking work Uh, congratulations Catherine. Of course, I may be a little biased because this is the stuff that uh, Is really in what I do, uh and well done and congratulations Uh In addition to that wonderful work, she's an excellent student mentor research supervisor as well as being exceptionally exceptionally strong role model both in terms of research and encouraging our students develop their professional Skills so well done Uh, we have grady back grady. Are you back? Ann evans dog is trying to take over. Um All right finalist for early career academics award is dr. Nicholas white Since starting his independent career at anu dr. White has balanced the man's of education and research and excelled at both Dr. White has established an international reputation for his work in the field of super molecular chemistry And was recently awarded the 2020 royal australian chemical institutes renny memorial medal Awarded to the leading early career chemist in australia It's also made constructive and valued service contributions within the research school of chemistry and the discipline of chemistry Particularly as a peer leader in enhancing the working environment and opportunities of the early career researchers Congratulations on being a finalist dr. White and thank you both for your work in research and teaching congratulations So do we have grady back at all because if we don't I'll I'll take the helm And I'll take over from you brian since I so I think it's nominally my job to do that But of course it's a vice chancellor's award. So wouldn't the vice chancellor step in and rescue the hand to you michael Although I'd hand a grady If grady's here No, all right. Okay. Well, we'll continue So this is the the next award is the vice chancellor's award for excellence in research And this year's recipient has been involved with indigenous languages and education since 1996 Living and working in two remote indigenous communities in the northern territory for six years before obtaining the phd and undertaking linguistic research Dr. Kamala Shanasi Is gone well behind we're well beyond the required activities of a position as a linguist To respond to while pre community aspirations and make a research accessible to the community and especially to well-pre educators Kamal's research on a new australian mixed language light wallpaper Has been reported in many national and international media outlets which helps people to understand how languages emerge Now at a policy level Kamal was a contributor to the national indigenous languages report Which brings a new approach to understanding language ecologies with implications for policy Kamal continuously strives to contribute to reconciliation through her research and applied research activities teaching and service And on a personal note as chair of the ethics committee It's been an absolute delight to work with a researcher like Kamal who places the ethical responsibilities of her research at the absolute highest level And has worked so cooperatively with us. I really appreciate that on a personal level So thank you for your impactful work, and I'd like to invite you to say a few words Thank you so much Michael for your kind words and also to the people who nominated me like everyone else I didn't know about this I'd like to very much thank all of the well pre people who have contributed to the research over many many years Of course, it couldn't have been possible without them and to my colleagues and the supportive research environment at anu for For supporting research in this way over the years And you can maybe see some of my friends and colleagues here with me at the moment We took brian's invitation to be festive quite seriously And uh, we're in our springs now Enjoying this moment. So thank you very much Wonderful Kamal and your background is is is beautiful as well So thank you Kamal and thank you for grady and look we're going to send out a search party We will find grady. Don't worry. We'll have her back as soon as we're able Well time for another olympic moment. Uh, this one I've dished. I've pulled out of the archives Here we have Another picture of our vice Chancellor, sorry julie and here walking with olympian herb elliott. I understand Sorry, I'm getting a phone call again Not her Howard Howard elliott Okay, never heard of him. Oh well Doesn't matter Maybe we'll send these two out looking for grady. We'll see how that goes Uh speaking of uh impact as we weren't uh, the anu is all about impact I understand that the next awards The vice chancellor's award for impact and engagement. We have jano dweyer Our dvc for global engagement To to bring these bring us these next awards over to you jane Leaving everyone. It's a great pleasure to be speaking to you here from a room many will recognize the ross honan room Surrounded by the wonderful team scalper And who are all celebrating everyone's wins tonight And we are here of course on number wall land and I pay my respects to elders past and present It's my great pleasure to be presenting the vice chancellor's award for impact and engagement After we had this year, we have three recipients And our first recipient is a world recognized regional public health expert Who has spent the year assisting with the covet 19 pandemic Dr Meru shield traveled to papa new guinea to work with the world health organization and assist with png's covet 19 response Locally Meru led the coordination of a covet operational research study in Tasmania And in canberra helped to develop and train contact tracers for the ac for act health Meru also advised indigenous training material based on her experience in pacific ireland's countries Millions of people have seen dr. Shields expertise in the media this year featured as a top covet 19 expert Meru has written opinion pieces that are set news agendas and gave practical practical and useful advice to the public Meru congratulations on your amazing achievements, and I'd now like to invite you to say a few words Thank you, Jane and um, I really wasn't expecting this at all But thank you to the team who nominated me And a few other people that I'd like to think is specifically our school director Professor lindal spazium for her support through this year particularly as a mid-career researcher and I really Would like to thank the people who inspire me to do the work that I do specifically people in the field and all the international collaborations and the partnerships Working in another in the regional context. I really would like to thank them. It's been a challenging year in many countries Of course in Australia as well So I really want to thank them for the partnerships and all the inspirations and the opportunity to work with them. So, yeah, thank you Really thanks, Meru wonderful achievement Our second recipient of the impact and engagement award has more than two decades of experience in controlling high-risk epidemics Associate professor Kamalini. Look is Work and that of her team has contributed significantly to Australia's world leading response to covered including providing the evidence needed for rapid early lockdown providing key evidence and designing systems of surveillance and for and control of community transmission strengthening our contact tracing system Serving as an expert witness and witness supporting effective public health measures chairing the Commonwealth's prevention of covert 19 resurgence working group And working closely with state governments including Victoria to control covert on the ground Through addressing control in public housing health care and age care and strengthening public health systems Kamalini's work and that of her team has genuinely saved lives and has contributed substantially to Australia's successful response By engaging with stakeholders and providing what is needed most of the time of crisis She's shown outstanding impact and partnership as well as increasing the profile of ANU This includes redefining what it means to be an academic Demonstrating what academics supported by their institutions can achieve Congratulations to associate professor Kamalina Locoghi and And unfortunately Kamalini is not able to join us this evening So I'd now like to invite her colleague professor professor Emily banks to say a few words on her behalf Thank you very much To the vice chancellor and to ANU for this it's an honor to be accepting this on behalf of Kamalini She would like to thank everyone who made this possible and is immensely grateful Kamalini's ability to contribute Is the result of over 20 years working with teams controlling outbreaks? And it's the kind of thing that doesn't traditionally get academic accolades So it's particularly important the level to which ANU has supported her response over time If she was here, she would express her gratitude to everyone at ANU Who has put faith in her and who's let her redefine as you said what an academic can do and has let me at her supervisor write Responding to at least one field emergency per year on her pdr And who's also signed off on the most extreme travel requests imaginable She would particularly like to thank Andrew Coburn, Brian Schmidt, Margaret Harding and more recently Russell Gruen For recognizing that work like helping to control Ebola in poor countries is not only right It is a smart thing to do She would like to acknowledge that her work is that of a team and and it's very hard to name everybody here But she would really say that it is not just her She would also like to thank all the wonderful public health people that she has worked with recently and over the years She'd like to thank her family and friends and colleagues. She would say she'd like to thank me But for supporting over the years, but I'm happy to accept that But what I would say is I thank her it's been the greatest privilege to work with her over this time And I think finally she would like to thank the communities all over the world that she has Had the privilege of serving it is community to control pandemics It's communities to improve health and they are the true heroes here. So camillini would like to thank them. Thank you Thank you, Emily. And I think much of what you just said we all would echo Our third and final recipient for the 2020 impact and engagement award is the ANU medical school infectious diseases experts associate professor Sanjaya Senayaka and professor Peter Collion This team has been trusted advisors in the media and to the general public during the COVID-19 pandemic And I would add for many many years on any public health issues The prolific appearances on our television screens through radio networks and via online news outlets and social media feeds Has meant they have been a constant and reassuring presence during the crisis The level-headed approach to sharing the facts which are always based on evidence and their friendly And genuine enthusiasm to provide information has made them the go-to resources for journalists both nationally and internationally They have been exemplary models of the expertise that ANU employs and is able to bring to a global crisis Congratulations to you both and I'd like to invite you now to say a few words Thank you, Jane I and Peter Are definitely honored to receive such an award It is was unexpected and most humbling particularly when we see the calibre of those who have received other awards tonight Look 11 months ago. We had a complex global society like an intricately woven tapestry Now and along has come this microscopic virus and has started to unravel it thread by thread But i'm glad to say that in australia. We are starting to put that tapestry together Even if other parts of the world are not What became very apparent within the first few weeks of COVID appearing was amongst the tsunami of cases was mirrored a tsunami of need for information from the media And people were scared and people wanted to know what they were dealing with And of course even for us information was evolving at the time On top of that with the advent of social media We've also had to deal with a lot of disinformation that gets widely dispersed So that has been a real challenge and of course there have been times Which is quite different to when we normally engage with the media about infectious diseases When we've had very politically charged situations where we've had to comment on But it has been a complete privilege And I know I speak on peter's behalf to say that we've been able to do this to inform the australian people And we have been able to do it with some confidence Knowing that we've got the backing of the medical school The vice chancellor the media unit at the anu at the anu itself. So thank you so much Wonderful. Thank you Sanjay. Well deserved and peter and we'll keep looking forward to hearing you bring in calming and reassuring advice to us as this crisis continues to roll out The selection committee received some incredibly strong nominations in this field And so have also awarded three finalists in the vice chancellor's award for impact and engagement Our first finalist is dr. Ben Bramble the author of pandemic ethics Eight big questions of covet 19 the first ever monograph published on the ethics of covet 19 As an open access book on one of the biggest crises in humanity the crisis humanity has faced in our lifetimes It represents an enormous contribution to public philosophy It's been discussed in the washington post on bloomberg the sydney morning herald and other major venues And there's been a highly successful outreach program at the university of pennsylvania Bramble's book has made anu a leading home for international work on ethics in the pandemic Congratulations on your contribution through the book Our second finalist is the anu maker space team In the early days of the university shutdown Availability of ppe which i don't need to spend to spell out for everybody because i think we all now know what ppe is Was a critical factor that blocks basic operations Both within anu and in the wider community The anu maker space team coordinated a community-wide project that harnessed a willing volunteer pool To meet this gap until large-scale supplies could be established The project exemplified the can-do spirit of the maker space It integrated the efforts of a hundred staff from across the university as well as 90 community volunteers It had a direct impact on all those who could operate with the help of ppe and was widely covered in the media Congratulations to the maker space team. Thank you for your flexibility that has led to such great impact And our last finalist for the impact and engagement award is the mount stromlow observatory outreach team Mount stromlow observatory hosts an extensive outreach program engaging with children and adults in all backgrounds Normal years see thousands of school children see thousands of school troops and visit the campus from across australia As well as thousands of members of public for regular astronomy nights Where they look through the telescopes and attend astronomy talks as well as attend other events Despite the disruptions of 2020 the rsAA outreach team effectively engaged thousands of children and adults from all across australia and the world in 2020 Through online talks for homeschoolers and scout groups Virtual stargazing and talks for families and adults the outreach team reached over 78,000 people from every state and territory in australia as well as from as far away as the usa india, portugal, belgium, japan and more and i have to say i really enjoyed one evening Of the stargazing with my six-year-old goddaughter who was completely taken with your efforts So congratulations to this adaptable team for continuing important work in a difficult year Thank you, jane And boy, we've got such an inspirational set of people winning awards tonight. It really is quite unbelievable We're going to move on now to Award for health and safety. You know, this award has taken on even more significance this year when it's all about health and safety Jane mentioned ppe Well, we've we've also got this new concept of social distancing this This is an example of social distancing here an olympic moment that i think you'll all remember Now i gather you're saying bold actually contracted covet 19, but it wasn't from his other competitors He was far too far away from them. So as you can see social distancing is an effective strategy so i'm going to hand over now To paul doldig again and paul is going to take us to the andrew hopkins award for excellence in health and safety over to you paul Thank you, michael This year's recipient of the 2020 andrew hopkins award for excellence in health and safety Is one of the teams that guided our university through the covet 19 pandemic The covet 19 expert health task force mobilized expertise from across the campus To ensure that anew campus environment was as safe as possible during the covet 19 pandemic They met on over 20 occasions and they actually continued to meet They took 21 reviews and evidence summaries contributed to nine protocols guidelines And produced a number of fact sheets Their expert contribution to the university's coveted response was instrumental to anew's successful response And personally it was a great reassurance to me knowing we had this extraordinary resource to draw on These are mammoth tasks and you have and continue to work through them with efficiency and precision I ask you to walk to Join me congratulating the team and also I now invite professor darin gray to speak Thanks paul. I humbly accept this award on behalf of the coveted task force. It was Certainly a team effort. We had over 50 people involved in the task force. We met Constantly and we worked tirelessly to help with the anew but people in the task force also worked with government did research and were very very active in the coveted response both within the university within camber and also within In the nation and the region. I'd like to thank ron and russell for their vision of pulling us all together in the beginning and It was a pleasure to to chair this group and we still meet and There's so many people to mention. So I won't mention everyone but a special shout out to camillini who Do I like to congratulate her again on her award this evening? And again, I humbly accept this award on behalf of the team. Thank you Thanks everybody for your patience 2020 is a year for patience, isn't it As we all try to adjust to the new normal. Unfortunately after six months the new normal isn't new yet What should we do? Well, we can reflect of course on yet another olympic moment Here we have a very famous olympic moment, which is As you would know, steven bradbury who as I understand from wikipedia led from start to finish In his olympic speed skating race and excuse me Not from start to finish Everyone fell over Okay So as I was saying it's steven bradbury who led from finish to finish To win his olympic gold medal yet another brilliant australian olympic moment Right on to the next set of awards Now we have the claire burton award for excellence in equity and diversity I'm going to hand back to jane o'Dwyer again to take us through this award. Over to you jane cool So The next award is named in memory and celebration of dr claire burton Dr burton made a broad ranging and unique contribution to the advancement of women in australia including those in the tertiary sector This year's first recipient has embodied a consummate connection between her research and the relationship between work and family and her long-standing work at the anu in promoting inclusivity equity and diversity Professor lindall strasden's research has shown how the unequal demands on women in time dedicated to care Has generated health and gender inequalities Her work has revealed how paid work hours and conditions have impacts on the health of both adults and children's over generations She has demonstrated how the introduction of paid universal parental leave policy enhanced both health and equity And has argued for the importance of father's care She has energetically promoted inclusivity equity and diversity across the axes of gender sexuality race ethnicity and ability Most recently as the director of the research school of population health She has shown shown herself to be both an inspirational and compassionate leader Promoting inclusivity for both academic and professional staff and students through translating an ethos of equity into everyday practice She's been influential in sensitizing anu to the unequal impacts of the covet 19 pandemic on patterns of working care Especially during periods of homeschooling and campus lockdown As she said she sought to make her work not just useful but transformational and transformational. It's been Congratulations lindall strasden's and i'd like to now invite you to say a few words Wow look I I just want to say how humbled and surprised i am to Receive this award and i'm incredibly grateful and honored and actually i've been sitting here just kind of glowing because Basically, i'm glowing to hear about The incredible acknowledgement of the work of so many people particularly people from the research school of population health the outstanding contributions and i've seen them make those contributions and i'm just so incredibly proud so um I just want to share with you something that really changed how i thought and what i've done And that's the words of an anti-slavery abolitionist frederick douglas and he said No one's equal until everyone's equal And that's a really profound statement when you stop and think about it And I want to thank as well as uh, well first of all want to celebrate um the gender institute and margaret and fiona for all that they've done for uh for women and actually for men In this university for everyone Um, and I particularly want to thank some of the great strong women who have really helped me Step into what frederick douglas meant when he said that I'd like to thank dorothy brune gabriel bammer jul guthrey And terry dunbar. There are many others, but these four women have really helped me step in to what those words mean And i'm incredibly grateful To their help in guiding me I don't really want to speak much longer except to say um, i'm um Really delighted to be part of this university which is doing you know taking equality in all its forms so seriously Congratulations to the anew. I really uh honor and admire the efforts that are happening on so many fronts and these awards Uh are speaking to that as well Thank thank you lindel and thank you for that really inspirational uh acknowledgement there And our second recipient of the claire burton award for 2020 is the two-way project team The two-way project is a groundbreaking initiative designed to build bridges between anew and indigenous women in the act and surrounds It reduces barriers to inclusion and promotes equal opportunity for indigenous women by transforming the way the university operates Reaching out to otherwise hard to reach disadvantaged women through arts and cultural programs on and off campus By developing this novel and grounded approach to equity and diversity The team has engaged and celebrated the women's diverse skills in two-way learning that recognizes their vast cultural community knowledge on par with academic expertise The two-way project promotes an inclusive environment that values and utilizes the contributions of people from different backgrounds experiences and perspectives Congratulations to the two-way team and i'd like to invite team lead dr. Curelly jordan to speak Thank you so much and what an incredible honor to be Noted here alongside lindel and her incredible work for such a long time at anew Um, and thank you for this recognition for the project the two-way project to the bus chancellor the selection committee And to professor jenice ferris head of the school of art and design who nominated us. Thank you so much It's wonderful that others see the project as important as we do And what we sought to do with the two-way project is really reach out from anew to the local Aboriginal community and to meet People who might otherwise be hard to reach where they're at And that's meant from the outset working with a cross section of the community To find out the kinds of programs that people want and then making those programs possible both here at anew and in outreach through our partners at wananga and nimity jar Aboriginal health service and also at alexander mcconnicky centre And we couldn't have done any of that without seed funding from the cast small grant in 2018 Which led to a larger grant from the commonwealth office of the arts to make this possible A fundamental principle of our project has been to work as a collective And it's not just about individuals with expertise, but about all of us coming together and learning from each other So that means we have a really big team here at anew and that hinges on a very successful collaboration between myself and colleagues at the centre of Aboriginal economic policy research And associate professor alson older and her colleagues at the school of art and design Two centres here at the anew that recognise the central importance of art and culture in progressive social change I want to acknowledge the really critical contributions of our anew team including Allyson as well as a nick thomas and a caper Adele cameron Siner carol and lucy urvine at the school of art and design Denise angelo at s triple l Deirdre howard wagon at a caper and shawn perera at graduate study select And I also want to acknowledge the indispensable contributions of our community partners Around cambra including fabulous textile artist ronnie jordan Who is a calcadoon and pita pita woman who's been delivering our outreach program to Aboriginal women at amc As well as green guy artist and man to jane reynolds and Bradree story teller brandy who've both brought so much to our outreach programs at wanonga And also to samantha keaton who's the linchpin of making our programs with wanonga work Lastly I also want to acknowledge all the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who've worked with us In our workshops and who brought such joy To the workshops and made them so much fun for us all And this program this program really is for them But it's also with them and I wanted to show some of the work They've been doing behind me here is an artwork from one of our participants kasi nicolitas a direct woman and This is a beautiful print that she did with us in a screen printing project at the school of art And along with kasi's work all of the work the women are making will be shown at the school of art and design In august next year. So all of us in the project team would love you all to come along. Thank you Thank you clearly and the team for such an inspirational project and everyone needs to mark august in their diary for next year With some fantastic nominations for this award. We've also got a finalist to announce The department of pacific affairs has worked over the past 15 years to build a research agenda teaching program and phd program that is based on the principles of inclusion and diversity Associate professor nicole hayley's leadership since 2008 has set the vision Secured the funding and created the environment and workplace culture in which this approach thrives Inclusive and positive workplace cultures are key to maintain environments where people want to work Thus supporting staff Job satisfaction productivity retention and diversity and associate professor hayley's work has been instrumental to making this a reality Congratulations nicole and thank you to your dedication to including inclusion and diversity Thanks so much jane and look I've been at a new for 26 years and I must say the place is So diverse and so inclusive these days Compared to 26 years ago. So, you know, it is a real testament So a bit like the academy awards The the the biggest award is is the last award. So we're headed for the last big award of the evening And I'm as someone who loves teaching I assume this because it's last it must be the most important and this is the vice chancellor's award for educational excellence One more picture to share with you Which is Another olympic moment. I think this is brian winning. Was it the gold medal for the pole vault at the 2012 london olympics brian? I think Maybe not Hmm. Well, anyway, I'm going to pass over to brian who can clarify that because I'll have to get on that wikipedia page and edit it up later And brian's going to announce the vice chancellor's award for educational excellence Thank you martin and yes Eddie redmayne back there and eddie redmayne had to sit with jenny and me Because he was the b-lister at the breakthrough prize in 2014 About six weeks before he became famous for all the things that year Sometimes at your table We've reached tonight's final award the vice chancellor's award for educational excellence and since the university leads With its educational excellence alongside its excellence in research Uh, this is a fitting award to finish up on This year's recipient is a clinician who is passionately committed to evidence-based student focused teaching design And inclusive teaching principles in the last five years Associate professor Dipty telalakar has led an award-winning redesign of one of the seven building blocks of student education Within the a new school of medicine Dipty has also transformed a struggling bedside teaching program at camber hospital into one that now receives top rankings From the students and her teaching sessions are being applied across her school As a mentor dipty aims to develop well-rounded future doctors And she mentors students and peers with a focus on equity and access for all what fantastic work and congratulations dipty I'd now like to invite you to say a few words Thank you so much bram. Um, I am honored and humbled to receive such a prestigious award And so grateful to those who have nominated and supported me, uh, professor christine philips Professor jujuka keshe keshe My mentor professor julia potter, uh, all incredible women who lift you up Um, my mentor professor paul gayton b I'm very grateful to you for setting me on this path I love teaching and it is such a core component of my values and my job satisfaction now Um, it is a real privilege to be an educator at the anu. Um, this is an organization that really celebrates its teachers and supervisors Um and promotes inclusivity and innovation I am specially thankful, um for accepting to the university for accepting me a migrant woman Uh into this community with such warmth and graciousness. I am very grateful Um, I uh have various roles as a clinician as an educator and as a researcher And i'm very very thankful for the opportunity to shape in even a small way The careers and the minds of our future medical force My experiences across two continents have, um, convinced me that our students are equal partners in this journey All the innovations and changes that I have been able to bring about have been based on their feedback I thank them from the bottom of my heart We really get along well and we enjoy the experiences in teaching and learning that we share Um, we are facing a uncertain future. Um, I face it bravely Knowing we have excellent, um teaching themes. Uh, we have the innovative ideas and we have the engaged student body And we can really, uh enhance ANU's reputation as a world leader in education. Thank you very much for the award Thank you so much, Dipti And it's us who are grateful to you, uh, and uh You reflected on us accepting you but uh, you're one of us and so we we very much value All of all of what you bring to the university and yes, I agree. This is the first time in 26 years I've had to teach online and My goodness hasn't the world changed Well, we've reached almost the end of the evening, but the evening would not be over until We recognize those who've been with us the very longest Here we have a picture of Fajua Singh the world's oldest marathon runner at age 100 completing a marathon last year Was my 25th year at the ANU and I Received my 25 year award from the then Chancellor Gareth Evans and I'm now jealous of those going this year I should have waited a year so that I could receive the award from Julie Uh, so I'm going to pass now to our Chancellor Julie who's giving this award even though it's the Vice Chancellor's award For a special reason. So let me pass to you Julie for our long service leaders Thank you, Professor Martin and It's been a great effort on your part this evening. Although I would encourage you not to give up your day job just yet now this year we have a large number of staff members who have delivered 25 years of service to the university which In itself speaks volumes about a university This is also a significant personal milestone and one of which So many of you should all be very proud your loyalty and dedication to ANU is admirable And has in no small way contributed to what has been achieved over that period Now the complete list has been posted in the chat and I do encourage you to read that list And to congratulate all your colleagues on this special milestone event And while yes, we usually get the Vice Chancellor to sign the Vice Chancellor Long Service Awards I have signed one this year as we couldn't let the Vice Chancellor sign his own certificate Now Brian, I know you wouldn't ask to be singled out But I do want to acknowledge and congratulate you on your extraordinary years of service to ANU And what a year to mark your 25 year milestone Despite the challenges of 2020 Devastating bushfires and hailstorms and a pandemic You continue to lead ANU Our whole community with integrity and authenticity and care and optimism such admirable qualities And I was delighted that you agreed earlier this year To continue as Vice Chancellor for another five year term So thank you Brian for all that you do for ANU Now as the evening comes to a close I invite you all to join me in celebrating the achievements of the 2020 recipients Now if you have a drink in hand Please raise your glass as we toast our 2020 recipients Congratulations to you all on your fantastic achievements You all make ANU proud Cheers I'll now hand back to our resident MC Professor Martin Thank you Julie. Thank you I'm I'm I like Brian. I'm an optimist as well So I'm going to interpret your comments as meaning I have a day job tomorrow Which is very good news indeed. I must say because I wasn't entirely sure I would So Well, we've reached the end of our evening Look, I want to say thank you to everybody Who's here tonight For being part of us and for being part of a campus That has really come together at a time when the world has tried to tear us apart Now COVID-19 of course has raised enormous challenges for us My god, the Olympics didn't happen this year except in our little evening event It's a crazy time. Wars don't stop Olympics, right? And yet we've managed to survive this year. You all deserve a massive Congratulations just for that But not only have you survived this year, but you've brought with it some integrity and some real Passion and determination for what it is we do We teach we research Our students rely on us and we have come through Despite all the travails of this year Now in a nod to the Olympics references I've been making all night and by now you're all heartily sick of them I will remind you that at the closing ceremony every Olympics It is now that I would declare this the best awards ceremony ever So I'm going to give myself a drink for that Well done everybody And I call upon the colleges of the world to unite again in one year's time Until next year when we unite in Let me announce Acton To have another awards event where maybe it won't be me Good night everybody and thank you for coming to this lovely event and thank you to all of our our guests Thanks, Michael. Well done