My Name is David Brown.
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Since completing year 12, I worked as a technician with Telstra for 28 years in country Tasmania. After redundancy, I lived away from my family in Launceston for 5 years and graduated in Hobart with a Bachelor of Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in 2012 at the age of 51.
Still living in Launceston on weekends, I now commute to work in Sydney with the Australian Astronomical Observatory.
After six months I was internationally published after presenting a paper in Montreal Quebuc Canada at a conference by the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.(SPIE). I am part of a team designing and building a futuristic fibre positioning instrument for the UKST optical telescope at Coonabarabran NSW. It is a prototype instrument for the 1 billion dollar Giant Magellan Telescope being constructed in Chile.
Thanks to UTAS, my life has changed dramatically. I am seeing the word, and working with amazing people. I am respected for my contribution and I love my life and work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Magellan_Telescope
http://www.gmto.org/
Name: Dr Jinjin Lu
Course studied at the University of Tasmania: PhD (Faculty of Education)
Year of graduation: 2014
Current type and place of work: Research Fellow (RIPPLE, Charles Sturt University)
How did the University of Tasmania help you get to where you are now?
I am working in RIPPLE at Charles Sturt University. I appreciated my colleagues and staff at UTAS who encouraged and assisted me. There are four reasons that I think UTAS helped me to get where I am now.
First of all, special thanks should be given to Tasmania Graduate Research Scholarships that gave me (an international student) a substantial financial support so that I was able to focus on my research study. Also, my supervisory team was very supportive in my academic study and living in Tasmania. Particularly, Dr. Thao Le, my principle supervisor, contributed his spare time to share his research experience with me and assisted me in walking out of the research curves.Furthermore, a series of seminars and workshops helped me to improve research skills and expand my research networks. For example, statistical skills workshops, PES workshop and regular research seminars in the Faculty of Education. Lastly, UTAS provides me a free and dynamic learning environment. Online courses and video conferences made me easier to access learning and teaching materials. Academic and professional staff was very friendly, open and supportive. This played an important role in assisting me in progressing my PhD well.
To sum up, undertaking PhD study at UTAS not only expands my research experience but also makes best friends in my life.
Name: Anthony Norton
Course studied at the University of Tasmania: Post Graduate Diploma in Science (Aquaculture)
Year of graduation: 1992
Current type and place of work: Experimental Test Pilot and Flight Instructor, Australian Defence Force
How did the University of Tasmania help you get to where you are now?
The University of Tasmania placed great emphasis on self directed research and statistical viability, whilst the previous University I attended did not. It truly taught me the art of Science. A while after I joined the ADF as aircrew, I was selected for Test Pilot training in the USA and I found that the old skills and knowledge that I learned studying fish farming held me in good stead. The core skills learned during my Grad Dip from UTAS allowed me to hold my own, and mostly outcompete my fellow test pilot and astronaut course mates who held Masters degrees (and even PhD’s) – even as a fish farmer from Tassie.
Name: Richard Wielebinski
Course studied at the University of Tasmania: I studied Engineering 1954-1957, B. Eng. (first class honours), 1960 M.Eng.Sc.
Current type and place of work: I am Director Emeritus of the Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany The University of Tasmania gave me the basis for my career:
- 1958-1960 Engineer with the PMG's Departmentin Tasmania.
- 1960-1963 Ph.D. in Radio Astronomy in Cambridge.
- 1963-1969 Lecturer, Senior Lecturer Sydney Univeristy.
- 1970-2004 Director, Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy.
I am now chairman of a Working Group of the International Astronomical Union for history of radio astronomy.
Names: Rhea Longley and Timothy Cole
Courses studied at the University of Tasmania: Bachelor of Medical Research and Bachelor of Marine Science
Year of Graduation: 2008 and 2007
Current type and place of work
Rhea is a postdoctoral researcher with a joint appoint at Mahidol University (Bangkok, Thailand) and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (Melbourne, Australia). Tim has just finished the past year working as a research administrator in the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University and will begin as Head of Biology at an international school in Bangkok in May. Both Rhea and Tim are located in Bangkok, Thailand.
How did the University of Tasmania help you get to where you are now?
We met each other in first year Chemistry at the University of Tasmania and started dating in our third year – we are now recently married and living in Thailand. If Tim had not moved from Victoria to Tasmania to study at UTAS, it is highly likely we wouldn’t have even met!
I fell in love with medical research at UTAS and was inspired to purse my PhD, doing so at the University of Oxford. After finishing marine science at UTAS, Tim knew his passion lie in teaching and communicating science so he went on to study a Diploma of Education at Griffith University, QLD. After three years in the UK, we were looking for a sunnier place to live so packed up and moved to Thailand. Tim’s solid background in science from UTAS enabled him to get a job at Mahidol University, primarily as a scientific editor and writer. Rhea is continuing research into malaria, of which her first experience was as an undergraduate student at UTAS. Neither of us would be where we are now, professionally or romantically, without UTAS.
Name: Jenifer (Gourlay) Austin
Course Studied at the University of Tasmania:
- - Bachelor of Commerce, graduated 1984
- - Bachelor of Education, graduated 2003
- - Parliamentary Legal Practice and Procedure Certificate, graduatied 2013
Type of work: Finance & Management
Place of work: UN Agency - United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Gaza City, The Gaza Strip
Role: Head Field Finance Office, Gaza Field Office (GFO), UNRWA. Budget of GFO is >$USD 500m (UNRWA Agency-wide Budget >$USD1.1bn – operates across 5 Fields: Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, West Bank, Syria)
How UTAS has helped me?
A UTAS degree can take you places you never thought you would go! Study at UTAS helped me to develop the skills and confidence to work outside Australia in places such as Asia (Singapore / Malaysia); Central Asia (Kazakhstan) and the Middle East (UAE, Jordan, Gaza), working in the humanitarian and international development fields and culminating in my current management and finance role with a UN Agency. Being a Launceston-raised girl, a proud graduate of UTAS and a former UTAS Launceston academic staff member, my connections to UTAS are still strong via my many Alumni friends and contacts, including of course my husband Richard (LLB, 1983) and to the Launceston campus in particular, due to tertiary studies undertaken in the North by my sons Angus (Education) and Dermott (IT). Thank you UTAS for 125 years and for the support you continue to give regional Tasmanians to enable them to follow their dreams.
Name: Mark Heyward
Course studied at the University of Tasmania: BA, Dip Ed. M.Ed.Stud, PhD
Year of graduation:
- - 2005 Doctor of Philosophy (University of Tasmania, Australia)
- - 1993 Master of Educational Studies (University of Tasmania, Australia)
- - 1979 Diploma of Education (University of Tasmania, Australia)
- - 1978 Bachelor of Arts (University of Tasmania, Australia)
Current type and place of work: International education consultant, Indonesia
How did the University of Tasmania help you get to where you are now?
My UTas studies at all levels led directly to my career as a teacher, a school principal, a researcher and an education consultant.
I have now been in Indonesia for over twenty years, in which time I have worked in a range of international schools, established an international school with friends in Lombok, and established a career working with the Indonesian government to develop the national education system. I am also a published author. My connection with Tasmania and UTas has continued throughout this period through ongoing study, support for a post-graduate student and occasional participation in consultancy work.
My work takes me all over the diverse islands of Indonesia and beyond.
Name: Alison Birchall
Course studied at the University of Tasmania: Bachelor of Social Work (Hons).
Year of graduation: 1999
Current type and place of work: Violence Against Women & Girls Counselling Service Technical Advisor (Pacific Technical Assistance Mechanism/DFAT), Republic of the Marshall Islands.
How did the University of Tasmania help you get to where you are now?
The BSW laid the foundations of my passion for feminism, the women's rights, & gender equality, which has led to a lifetime commitment to the elimination of violence against women & girls through both direct clinical work & community/international development.