One of the most significant poets currently writing in the English language, Dr Peter Porter, will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree, and be guest speaker at one of two University of Queensland graduation ceremonies tonight.
Dr Porter will speak at the 8.15pm ceremony at Mayne Hall, St Lucia, which follows a 6pm ceremony at which the chief executive of Johnson and Johnson Research Pt Ltd Professor Denis Wade AM will be guest speaker.
Brisbane-born Dr Porter is the author of nearly 20 volumes of poetry and he is highly respected as a freelance writer, reviewer, broadcaster, editor and theatre and music critic.
After leaving school aged 18, he worked as a newspaper reporter and in a Brisbane warehouse before sailing for England in 1951. He has been a regular visitor to Australia since.
His collections include Once Bitten, Twice Bitten, Poems Ancient and Modern, A Porter Folio, The Last of England, Preaching to the Converted, Living in a Calm Country, the Cost of Seriousness, English Subtitles and Fast Forward.
His work has been widely recognised with awards such as the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize (1983), the Whitbread Poetry Prize (1987), the Gold Medal of the Australian Literature Society (1990) and the Ugo Foscolo Medal from Pavia University (1997).
He holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Melbourne, Sydney and Loughborough; and he is a member of the Council of Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature (London) and a Visiting Professor of Poetry at Nottingham Trent University.
o Dr Wade has been managing director of Johnson and Johnson Research since 1988 and Chairman since 1989. He is a former president of the Australasian Society of Clinical and Expert Pharmacologists, Emeritus Consultant in clinical pharmacology and toxicology to St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, and was Trustee of the Arthritis Research Institute 1997-98. A Director of Johnson and Johnson Pty Ltd since 1989, he was chairman of Gene Shears Pty Ltd from 1993 to 1998.
Valedictorian at the 6pm ceremony is Rebecca Hyde, who will be awarded a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science, and at the 8.15pm ceremony, Kay Smith, who will be awarded a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English.
The Thursday, May 24, 6pm ceremony is for graduands of the Biological and Chemical Sciences, Engineering, Physical Sciences and Architecture, Health and Natural Resources, Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences Faculties. They include:
o Alumnus of the Year and PhD student Karen Dancer, who achieved a Grade Point Average of 6.99 for her Science degree awarded with first class honours in Mathematics. Her honours thesis supervised by Dr Elizabeth Billington was in the field of combinatorics, specialising in design theory. Her current studies centre on algebraic structures in mathematical physics, and may have potential application in condensed matter physics.
Ms Dancer has earned eight Dean's commendations during her tertiary academic career, also winning the Priest Memorial Prize and the James Cecil Stevenson Memorial Prize, both in 1998; the Dulcie Evelyn Williams Memorial Prize in 1999; and the Harriett Marks Bursary and the Ethel Raybould Prize for mathematics, both in 2000.
o Dr Greig de Zubicaray of the Centre for Magnetic Resonance at UQ will be awarded the first PhD from The University of Queensland using functional magnetic resonance imaging, and is believed to be the first belonging to the associated field of cognitive neuroscience. Dr de Zubicaray's thesis documents several studies (now published in international journals) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect brain activation associated with the ability to suppress habitual responses to stimuli/situations. FMRI is a non-invasive neuroimaging method that detects changes in cerebral blood oxygenation associated with the performance of cognitive tasks.
The Thursday, May 24, 8.15pm ceremony is for graduands of the Arts and Social and Behavioural Sciences Faculties. They include:
o Joanne Peulen, who is among the University's 74 medallists this year, has had a more difficult time in finding what to wear to receive her award tonight. Ms Peulen, who achieved a Grade Point Average of 6.545, had special academic robes made so she could attend each of her graduation ceremonies, because she is a little shorter than the average University student (she is less than a metre tall).
A risk analyst at Stanwell Corporation, she works in the field of financial market analysis, monitoring market risks undertaken by the corporation's trading division. She graduated in December 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with First Class Honours, specialising in financial mathematics/statistics. She also completed a single major in Mandarin Chinese as part of her undergraduate degree, and has visited China twice.
"If I were asked to describe myself in say 25 words or less, my answer would not involve the fact that I have a physical disability," she said.
"I do not feel that my physical difference made it any more difficult for me to attain the results I have achieved, than any other able-bodied person. I simply did it with the assistance of a wheelchair." Media contacts:
Media: Further information Peter Brady Graduations officer telephone 07 3365 9180 or Jan King at UQ Communications 07 3365 1120.
