2025 Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Awards - Celebrating Excellence in Education, Equity Diversity Inclusion, Professional Staff and Research

31 October 2025

The Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences held its 2025 Awards ceremony on 29 October. The ceremony recognised exceptional staff achievements in research, professional practice, education excellence and equity diversity inclusion initiatives.

Dean Professor Arthur Christopoulos FAA FAHMS hosted the presentations, honouring awardees for their commitment and innovative contributions.

Award recipients are listed below.

Education Excellence Awards

Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (Sessional Academic)

Winner: Dr Sadia Alvi
Sadia has made significant contributions to Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences education at Monash University across undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Drawing on her pharmacy and Drug Discovery Biology background, she facilitates engaging workshops, labs, and OSPE examinations. Her inclusive approach builds student confidence and career readiness, earning recognition from colleagues that has led to teaching opportunities at other Melbourne and Ballarat universities. She is praised by her students for her ability to simplify complex topics and encourage critical thinking through step-by-step problem-solving.

Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (Sessional Academic)

Winner: Pranav Runwal
Pranav has been recognised for transforming education through innovative AI integration at Monash University. He has developed CustomGPT tools and feedback assistants that improve learning outcomes and streamline assessments across multiple units. His work has been described as "captivating," "eye-opening," and "truly enlightening" by educators and academic leaders, and he has been invited to present nationally and internationally. Pranav’s initiatives have been adopted across faculties at Monash and other universities.

Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (Early Career)

Winner: Dr Yassmin Samak
Yassmin has been recognised for innovatively responding to rapid student enrolment growth in the Master of Pharmaceutical Science program. Her introduction of Labster virtual simulations with authentic bench-based experiments have transformed laboratory learning, enabling students to rehearse protocols in advance and arrive to class confident and prepared. This transforms lab sessions from procedural step-following into spaces for applied learning, critical thinking, and peer collaboration while reducing stress and supporting self-paced progression. Students have reported increased confidence, deeper understanding, and improved technical execution.

Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (General)

Winners: A/Prof Karen Gregory, Dr Stefan Huth, and Ms Cheng Sun
Experimental Investigations – creating, devising and defending research ideas in a generative AI world
This award recognises the MPS5203 teaching team's innovative curriculum, which harnesses generative AI to explore the real-world professional values and practices of pharmaceutical scientists. Students employ a "learning through doing" model; creating, refining, and publicly defending original research proposals. Their approach emphasizes feedback, research integrity, and authentic assessment with a strong emphasis on peer review and dialogue with educators. The team has shared their evidence-based approaches with colleagues and is conducting ongoing research exploring the impact of generative AI on student learning.

Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (General)

Winners: Dr Daniel Priebbenow, A/Prof Karen Gregory, Dr Manuela Jorg, A/Prof Lauren May, Dr Thao Vu, and Ms Annie Ugbobuaku-Roys
Enhancing Feedback Literacy through Authentic Assessment Design
This award recognises the team behind the authentic, real-time assessment model that has fundamentally improved feedback literacy in the Master of Pharmaceutical Sciences program. Feedback literacy is the process of understanding and actively engaging in the research review process. In this multi-component written assessment model, students give, receive, and evaluate feedback with immediate improvements in learning outcomes. Students reported greater confidence in their feedback literacy skills and ability to transfer these skills beyond the classroom.

Community Education Programs Award

Winner: Ben Emery
Intern-Led Health Promotion Campaigns
Ben has been recognised for his success with the health promotion initiative in his role as Intern Programs Manager. This program empowers Monash University pharmacy interns to design and deliver community-focused campaigns in collaboration with Cancer Council Victoria, Monash University and metropolitan hospital preceptors. Since 2023, it has expanded from hospital settings to university campuses and public spaces, supporting interns to lead activations on smoking cessation, mental wellbeing, sun safety, and bowel cancer screening. Over three years, interns have facilitated eight health activations reaching hundreds of community members with meaningful social engagements.

Innovation in Learning and Teaching Award

Winners: Mr Ethan Kreutzer, Dr Angelina Lim, Dr Amna Mazeh, Dr Joel Moore, Ms Emily Stokes, A/Prof Caroline Welles Sasser, and Dr Li Ling Yeap
This award recognises team contributions towards the implementation of ATLAS; an expert-developed, AI-supported simulation platform used to prepare students for Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) in the undergraduate pharmacy program. Through adaptive conversations with virtual patients and clinicians, students can practice clinical communication in realistic scenarios and receive individualized feedback. This nationally and internationally award-winning, scalable innovation continues to transform pharmacy education.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award

Winner: MOSAIC
Current and former executive leads and champions: Amandeep Kaur, Nilushi Karunaratne, Sandra Vargas Torres, Elva Zhao, Betty Exintaris, Amy NY Chen, Marian Costelloe, Fiona Marshall, Jayde de Bondt, Carmen Acosta, Aeson Chang, Kylie Hatch, Sheng Yu Ang, Alfred Wong, Chengxue Qin, Enyuan Cao, Gopisankar Geethadevi, Rachel Ung, Narges Mahdavian.

MOSAIC (Multicultural Outreach and Support for Advancement, Inclusion and Community) is a Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences support network at Monash University that platforms people of colour and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) individuals. Since its launch in March 2024, it has grown to over 40 active members. MOSAIC strives towards removing systemic barriers to career progression, building supportive professional networks, and nurturing belonging within the faculty.

Professional Staff Awards - Sponsored by UniSuper

Winner: Joseph Pelle
Joseph is an Instrument Technician Specialist in the HMSTrust Laboratory and Senior Research Officer in the Drug Delivery, Disposition & Dynamics theme. In this dual role, he provides in-house training, troubleshooting, method development, and servicing of all Shimadzu scientific instruments. As a MMIC team member, he leads user training across multiple instruments and runs annual workshops for undergraduate and honours students. Known for his problem-solving abilities and approachable nature, Joseph is a key contributor to research and education within the faculty.

Winner: Tommy Tong
Tommy is a dedicated Faculty Resource Management team member. In his role as Chemical Controller for Schedule 8/9/4D poisons, he consistently ensures safety regulation compliance and proper management of regulated materials. His ability to streamline procurement processes across faculty themes greatly improve purchasing efficiency and stakeholder coordination. Tommy organizes monthly vendor trade-display morning teas, facilitating networking between researchers, vendors, and suppliers. Beyond his professional role, he leads the State Emergency Service Section for the Footscray Unit, and volunteers as an event organizer for local community volleyball groups.

Research Staff Awards

Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Supervision

Winner: A/Prof Cornelia Landersdorfer
Cornelia consistently leads her PhD students to highly successful research outputs. Since 2020, her students achieved 33 publications and numerous major awards including Vice Chancellor's Commendation for PhD Thesis Excellence, ASCEPT Garth McQueen and Neville Percy Prizes, PAGANZ Nick Holford Prize (x3), Cyril Tonkin PhD Scholarship, IATDMCT Best Young Scientist Poster, and AFR Top100 Future Leader. Her students now hold positions at world-leading pharmaceutical companies in roles such as Director of Clinical Pharmacology, Principal Scientist PKPD Modelling, and Senior PK Research Scientist. Her receipt of the 2023 Monash University Graduate Supervisor of the Year Award further demonstrates her substantial contributions.

Award for Research Engagement and Impact

Winner: A/Prof Pete Lambert
Pete is the founder of the Monash Quality of Medicines Initiative (QoMI) which seeks to address the issue of poor-quality medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) through root cause investigations, training and advocacy. Since its launch in 2023, QoMI has conducted quality surveys and investigations across 14 LMICs in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This work has resulted in the removal of substandard products from national markets in a number of these countries, provided evidence to inform three new WHO guidelines and led to national policy change. In addition, QoMI has provided technical training to over 300 government officials, clinicians, and supply chain managers in sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific Islands to build local stakeholder capacity and strengthen supply chain resilience.

Early Career Research Award

Winner: Dr Aeson Chang
Aeson's research on neural signalling in metastatic triple negative breast cancer has led to 15 peer-reviewed publications (5 as first author, 2 as senior author) in high-impact journals including Science Translational Medicine, Journal of National Cancer Institute, and Nature Cancer Reviews. He has presented at prestigious global and national meetings including Keystone Symposia and Australasian Neuroscience Society Meeting. In the last three years, Aeson secured approximately $3 million in research funding, including competitive national grants (2x NHMRC Ideas) and an international award (Gilead Sciences Research Scholars Program Grant). His research approach emphasizes integrity, mentorship, collaboration, and an inclusive lab environment.

Faculty Future Research Leader Award

Winner: Dr Jie Tang
Jie is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow and Lecturer. Her research in the D4 theme develops nanoparticle-based platforms for mucosal vaccine delivery with emphasis on cancer immunotherapy. In 2025, she was named one of Nature Index's "Four Rising Stars at the Forefront of Cancer Research". Jie has published 50 research papers (20 as first/co-first author; 10 as co-corresponding) in journals including Nature Reviews Materials, Angewandte Chemie, JACS, Nano Today, Biomaterials, and Nano Letters, with >4,853 citations and an h-index of 38. She has secured >$4M in external funding as CI, including NHMRC EL1 fellowship, two ARC DPs, MRFF EMCR grant, Tour de Cure Mid-Career grant and Cumming Global Centre Foundation Grants. Her nanovaccine platforms have been licensed to industry partners including AstraZeneca, attracting over £1.2M and €2M to advance DNA and mRNA vaccine technology toward clinical trials for cancer immunotherapy.

Faculty Researcher of the Year Award

Winner: Prof Natalie Trevaskis
Natalie’s novel drug delivery technologies target the lymphatics to treat acute, inflammatory and metabolic diseases. Her pioneering research has seen ~100 peer-reviewed papers in top-tier journals including Nature, Nature Metabolism, Science Advances, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, and Journal of Controlled Release. Natalie is a Clarivate Hi-Ci researcher in pharmacology (2022-24). Her lipid prodrug platform, co-developed over 15 years, was licensed to Puretech Health and spun out into Seaport Therapeutics, which raised $325M in 2024. Two prodrugs are currently in clinical development, with Lyt-300 showing success in Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials. Natalie has secured over $50M in competitive funding from ARPA-H, NHMRC, NHMRC Synergy, MRFF, and ARC. She successfully leads a dynamic team of 6 postdoctoral fellows, 12 PhD students, and 2 honours students, and co-leads the Centre for Optimisation of mRNA Therapeutics.