With the Academic Staff Awards fast approaching, over the next few weeks, we will introduce you to a selection of finalists from each Faculty for both the Learning and Teaching and Research categories. These awards recognise the academic endeavours of our Macquarie community.

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Dr Wayne Warburton

Finalist: Award for Teaching Excellence

Wayne’s teaching philosophy is informed by student feedback and his own undergraduate experiences while embracing learning through reciprocal engagement, reflection, practical experience, critical and independent thinking – engaging students with Macquarie research and assisting students to find their own passion and direction.

Students report that Wayne’s enthusiasm, passion, clarity of communication and ability to engage students and impart knowledge have helped them find their own passion for psychology, learn in both a practical and theoretical sense and make a positive social impact as psychology professionals.

Both Macquarie and external academics report that Wayne’s leadership in Capstone and placement unit design has been generously given and has contributed substantially to establishing their work-integrated-learning units and programs.

“I am honoured to be in the running for a teaching excellence award because it recognises such an important function of the university – inspiring students to learn and to take their skills and knowledge into the local and global community,” Wayne said.

Dr Allison Simons

Finalist: Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Programs that Enhance Learning

The purpose of the PACE International program is to provide transformative student learning while also enabling students to make a valuable and sustainable social contribution to society.

Key to achieving success is the development of work-integrated learning activities that meet the needs of international partner organisations, individual students and academic programs. This nomination focuses on the PACE International team’s support of student learning prior, during and after their international activity in ways that strengthen student employability and professional/personal capabilities, while also enabling them to become active and thoughtful global citizens.

The PACE International team does this by:

• developing relevant and engaging activities with partner organisations and academic staff
• providing a safe environment for learning in complex international contexts
• supporting students through a comprehensive pre-departure and re-entry curriculum

It is a program unmatched in any other Australian university in terms of its commitment to sound community development principles, the diversity of opportunities available to students and the comprehensive preparation and support offered to students throughout.

“The team at PACE International is honoured to be a finalist for the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Programs that Enhance Learning,” Allison said.

“PACE International offers unique opportunities for students to apply their academic knowledge and skills to real world projects, taking them beyond the classroom and allowing them to actively contribute to more just, inclusive and sustainable societies across the world. These transformational experiences propel students into a community of world citizens deeply engaged with the big issues shaping the future of society.”

Mark Wiggins

Finalist: Excellence in Research: Five Future-Shaping Priorities

Skilled diagnosis is critically important in a range of environments including medicine, electricity, software engineering, and sport. It enables the timely recognition of changes in a system state which provides the basis for effective interventions. However, despite the importance of diagnosis, few practitioners have an accurate understanding of their diagnostic performance. For some practitioners, this results in the perpetuation of poor diagnostic skills leading to inefficiencies and errors. In environments such as electricity control and health, the consequences of these diagnostic errors can be severe.

Using carefully designed experiments, the team, led by Mark, discovered that it is possible to identify the level of diagnostic performance of practitioners based on their utilisation of cues. They have since constructed and tested an online software platform (EXPERTise 2.0) that can be adapted to almost any environment and which assesses performance against a normed dataset. The software then generates a detailed report that assists both organisations and individuals to identify areas of strength and development.

Since 2013, the team’s research into cue utilisation has included 12 Higher Degree Research students (including five completions), six Honours students and 11 Master of Organisational Psychology (Thesis) students. They have received in excess of $1.6 million in external research funding (including $350,000 in cash support from industry partners), and have published 29 refereed journal articles/book chapters across a range of domains from electricity transmission and distribution, to health and sporting associations.

“Our team is grateful for the recognition of our research and the long-term partnership that we have established with the electricity industry in Australia,” Mark said.

Carly Johnco

Finalist: Early Career Researcher – HASS (Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences)

Carly is an Early Career Researcher, three years post-PhD, and a registered Clinical Psychologist. With an outstanding track record, she has 35 peer-reviewed publications (49 per cent first author), eight book chapters (88 per cent first author) and over $1 million in research funding, including a Macquarie University Research Fellowship (an MQRF).

Carly’s research is focused on understanding the developmental mechanisms underpinning anxiety disorders in two underserved populations, youth and older adults. These interests include how fear learning, cognition, attention and memory impact the development, maintenance and treatment of anxiety problems.

Her research has aimed to identify whether mechanisms that trigger anxiety differ in childhood and older age from those in working-aged adults, and whether these developmental differences may impact on the efficacy of existing treatments. Anxiety disorders are characterised by excessive fear responses to particular situations or objects.

With up to 50 per cent of anxious individuals still symptomatic after first-line treatment, there is a clear need to understand why fear persists in certain individuals, and to develop more effective and permanent methods to reduce fear and anxiety. There are a range of cognitive, physical and developmental changes that occur during childhood and older age, and these changes may enhance or complicate treatment of anxiety.

By understanding how the mechanisms underlying anxiety differ in these age groups, Carly’s ultimate goal is to be able to use this knowledge to enhance early intervention and existing treatments for anxiety.

“With so many exceptional researchers at Macquarie, it is an absolute honour to be nominated as a finalist for this award,” Carly said.

“I love the research I do and am excited to see whether we can better understand some of the mechanisms behind why certain children and older adults struggle with anxiety disorders, and whether we can use this knowledge to improve the effectiveness of our treatments.”