Scientist wins USC’s alumni of the year award
A University of the Sunshine Coast science graduate, who is about to begin work with one of the world’s leading environmental agencies in the United States, has earned USC’s Outstanding Alumni Award for 2007.
Dr Craig Hansen, 40, of Sippy Downs, has been recognised for his doctoral and postdoctoral research in epidemiology (the study of diseases in populations) which included field work in the South African township of Soweto.
The former guitar teacher plucked up the courage to change careers in 2000. He completed a Bachelor of Science (Public Health) in 2002, before continuing on to do his Honours and PhD at USC.
His PhD research involved investigating how air pollution affects the growth of babies during pregnancy, using a sample of 30,000 pregnancies in Brisbane.
Dr Hansen then gained a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Queensland’s School of Medicine and studied cardiovascular disease among residents of Soweto.
He travelled to Soweto several times in the past two years and worked at the world’s largest training hospital in Johannesburg, the only hospital servicing the Soweto township of more than one million residents.
“This was certainly a great experience and something I will never forget”, he said.
The Outstanding Alumni Award was to be presented to Dr Hansen during a special USC Foundation Building Excellence event tonight.
However, Dr Hansen received the award early as he recently accepted an exciting postdoctoral research position at the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
He will work alongside top scientists in one of the largest research and science parks in North America and will take part in research that could influence government policies on air pollution control around the world.
“Starting mid-December, my role at USEPA will be to evaluate national and international air pollution studies and thus impact international policy in this area,” he said.
“I will also be continuing my own research investigating birth defects among a cohort of 150,000 births from Brisbane.”
Dr Hansen said he was honoured to receive USC’s Outstanding Alumni Award and was grateful to the University for the opportunities it had provided him.
“USC has been a large part of my life,” he said. “It has allowed me to grow both personally and professionally and has certainly helped me get to where I am today.”