This month we are highlighting the recipients of the 2024 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Doctoral Thesis Excellence and the HDR Impact Prize.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Doctoral Thesis Excellence recognises 12 Doctoral theses a year that have been of particularly high standard. This year they cover a wide range of research areas such as the veracity of traditional media vs social media reports, the effect of political despair on personal well-being, ageism in contemporary Australian literature as well as agitation in the adult intensive care unit, self-management for older people with urinary incontinence and the behavioural ecology of delphinids.
The HDR Impact Prize recognises two Doctoral theses to recognise the quality and impact of research. Congratulations to all recipients!
The Office of Graduate Research hosted a ceremony to celebrate their success on 2 June 2025.
Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Doctoral Thesis Excellence
Daniel Bonnar
College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
“Exploring Sleep Habits in the Wide World of Esports”
Jin Chen
College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
“Imagining ageing futures: LGBTQ+ multicultural people in Australia”
Peter Mader
College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
“Principal associations: the struggle for political agency in neoliberalising policy regimes”
Lucy Matson
College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
“Stuck on disgust: Investigating disgust’s memorability”
Erin Simister
College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
“Beyond the blur: The empirical basis of Instagram’s sensitive-content screens”
Lisette Yip
College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
“Feeling Good, Looking Good or Doing Good? Exploring how the Quality of Motivation predicts the Quantity, Longevity and Persistence of Collective Action”
Adrian Mollenmans
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
“‘A most sacred part of our land’ An exploration of ethnohistory, archaeology, palaeogeography and Narungga knowledges in relation to Point Pearce Peninsula/ Burgiyana and adjacent islands on Yorke Peninsula/Guuranda, South Australia”
Minglei Wang
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
“Chinese Cultural Diplomacy in the 21st Century: The China Cultural Centre Project”
Manam De Silva
College of Medicine and Public Health
“Glioblastoma plasticity and therapeutic sensitivity in the human brain microenvironment”
Lauren Newman
College of Medicine and Public Health
“EVolving the Liquid Biopsy: Extracellular Vesicles for Assessing Liver Function and Disease”
Mitali Mukherjee
College of Nursing and Health Sciences
“Relationship between anti-inflammatory diet and inflammation related side effects in oncology patients receiving systemic therapy”
Jasmine Pople
College of Science and Engineering
“Synthesis and applications of poly(trisulfides)”
HDR Impact Prize
Lauren Newman
College of Medicine and Public Health
“EVolving the Liquid Biopsy: Extracellular Vesicles for Assessing Liver Function and Disease”
Rupert Mathwin
College of Science and Engineering
“Modelling a threatened species (Litoria raniformis) to guide conservation.”