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2011 recipients
The recipients of the 2011 Outstanding Alumni of the Year Awards are:
Chris Raine BA/BBus 2009
Outstanding Alumnus Award, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Dave Gilbert BBus(IntBus) 2006
Outstanding Alumnus Award, Faculty of Business
Nubia Ramos BSc(BiomedSc) 2007, BSc(Hons) 2008, PhD 2011
Outstanding Alumnus Award, Faculty of Science, Health and Education
The awards were presented to the recipients at the 2011 Outstanding Alumni Awards Ceremony on Thursday 15 September at the University.
This inspiring and social annual event, which includes an update on the University's growth, is a key engagement activity for alumni, staff, donors and friends of the University. All alumni are invited to attend. Photos from the 2011 Outstanding Alumni Awards Ceremony.
Chris Raine BA/BBus 2009
Chris Raine is the founder and CEO of website and blog Hello Sunday Morning (HSM). In 2009 Chris Raine committed to not drinking for 12 months and documented the journey through a blog and Facebook.
He aimed to get a true understanding of what it would take for a young person to change their drinking behaviour. That social experiment is now known as Hello Sunday Morning.
"Hello Sunday Morning’s purpose is to provide a platform for individuals to create meaningful change in their lives through a period of sobriety. By sharing their story, each person’s stand is a unique and essential contribution to a better drinking culture,” explains Chris.
By July 2011, over 1400 people had participated in the HSM program. HSM's vision is to increase that to 10,000 people across the world by 2013.
HSM has secured various grants including $200,000 from the Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) to support its operations, and $20,000 from the Alcohol Education & Rehabilitation Foundation (AERF) for a web documentary series.
HSM also received the 'Excellence in Services for Young People' award at the 2011 National Drug & Alcohol Awards. In 2010 Chris was listed in national broadcaster Triple J's Top 25 under 25, selected from 900 entries celebrating Australia's most innovative and inspiring young talent. He is also on the Foundation for Young Australian's Youth Advisory Board.
"My objective is to build Hello Sunday Morning into a powerful Australian charity, helping individuals take responsibility for their relationship with alcohol and to do their part to change our cultural dependence on it," says Chris.
Chris has a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Business 2009 from USC.
Dave Gilbert BBus(IntBus) 2006
Beginning his career as a diesel mechanic in Mt Isa over 20 years ago, Dave is now the Executive General Manager Operations, AGC (An AusGroup Company).
Listed on the Singapore stock exchange with offices and fabrication facilities in Perth and Singapore, AGC helps large and small clients to build, maintain and upgrade oil, gas and mineral resource development projects.
Clients include BHP, Rio Tinto and Gindalbie Minerals.
Dave is one of six international managers on the AGC Executive Committee, charged with monitoring Group performance, identifying key issues within the business, and successfully implementing and updating the Group's strategy.
He has 600 staff under his leadership including project managers, engineers and tradespeople, which is expected to peak at 1500 as they take on more projects. Combined revenue from Dave’s group is forecast at $420 million for 2011.
In his previous role with AGC as General Manager, Eastern Australia and South East Asia, he was responsible for turning around the Singapore business, including a full restructure of the senior management team and turning a $2.2M loss into a $1M EBIT.
Prior to joining AGC in 2008, Dave spent 15 years with Indonesia based PT Petrosea, starting as a Field Maintenance Supervisor and progressing to Deputy General Manager, Mining.
Dave has a Bachelor of Business (International Business) 2006 from USC.
Nubia Ramos
BSc(BiomedSc) 2007, BSc(Hons) 2008, PhD 2011
In June 2011, Nubia secured a two year Postdoctoral Fellowship at one of the world's leading medical universities, Karolinska Institute in Stockholm Sweden.
According to the 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the Karolinska Institute is the 42nd ranked university in the world, and the only medical school outside of the United States ranked in the world’s top ten.
The Karolinska Institute has selected the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine since 1901.
Nubia had been invited to spend six months at the Karolinska Institute in 2010, as part of her PhD research into the genetic makeup of E.coli bacteria in the urogenital tract.
“Urinary tract infection is highly prevalent in the world, affecting mostly women with around 175 million cases per year. Due to this high incidence, it is very important we learn more about the disease and potential treatment,” says Nubia.
Based at the Clinical Microbiology department (Karolinska University Hospital) and Department of Microbiology, Tumour and Cell Biology (Karolinska Institute), Nubia’s work will include lab-based research leading to publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and co-supervision of students.
Nubia has co-authored seven peer-reviewed publications and has received various awards including the Australian Postgraduate Award, the Rotary Scholarhship for Postgraduate Studies, and the Becton Dickinson Award in 2008, given annually to one PhD student per state by the Australian Society of Microbiology.
Nubia has a Bachelor of Science (Biomedical Science), Bachelor of Science (Honours) from USC and will receive her PhD at the September 2011 Graduation Ceremony. Her thesis is titled “molecular pathogenesis of septicaemic and uropathogenic Escherichia coli and the host response to infection”.