Professional Staff Awards

This award recognises the outstanding service in the provision of a high quality working environment for staff, and/or high quality learning environment for students through positive and engaging experiences.

2025 Joseph Pelle and Tommy Tong

Joseph Pelle

Joseph Pelle is a Senior Research Officer within the Drug Delivery, Disposition & Dynamics theme, as well as an Instrument Technician Specialist in the HMSTrust Laboratory. In this dual role, he plays a critical part in supporting the lab's research and operations. He is responsible for providing in-house training, troubleshooting, method development, and servicing of all Shimadzu scientific instruments, ensuring the laboratory runs efficiently and equipment is maintained to the highest standards. As a member of the MMIC team, Joseph also leads user training across a range of instruments and oversees the ongoing functionality of all lab equipment. Known for his patience, problem-solving abilities, and approachable nature, he is highly valued by both staff and students.

Each year, he runs workshops for undergraduate and honours students, fostering a supportive and engaging learning environment. Joseph’s dedication and expertise help students build confidence in using complex instruments and interpreting data, making him a key contributor to both research and education within the Faculty.

Tommy Tong

Tommy Tong is a dedicated member of the Faculty Resource Management team, where he plays a key role in standardising and streamlining the procurement process across various themes within the faculty. His focus is on improving purchasing efficiency and ensuring seamless coordination with different stakeholders. In addition to his main responsibilities, serves as a Chemical Controller for Schedule 8/9/4D poisons, ensuring compliance with safety regulations and proper management of regulated materials. Tommy also organises the monthly vendor trade-display morning tea, an event that facilitates networking and strengthens professional relationships among the researchers and with vendors and suppliers. Outside of his professional commitments, Tommy is passionate about community service. He serves as the State Emergency Service Section Leader for the Footscray Unit, where he leads recruitment efforts and fosters member engagement and operations.

Additionally, Tommy volunteers as an event organiser for local social community volleyball groups, coordinating events that bring people together in an active and fun environment.

2024 Anne Meyer and Sandra Vargas Torres

Anne Meyer

Anne excels in enhancing research operations at Monash University, demonstrating exceptional leadership in fostering cross-campus and multi-institution collaborations, such as the partnership with QEDDI during the FBDD-DU conference. Her proactive support for student and research activities, including organising international placements and initiating training collaborations with the Faculty of Engineering and La Trobe University, has significantly improved the quality of the student experience and led to new research projects.

Her commitment to professional excellence is evident in her streamlining of the Monash Fragment Platform’s invoicing and project workflows, which has enhanced operational efficiency for all stakeholders. Anne fosters a collaborative workplace environment that encourages innovation and continuous improvement while providing exceptional support to research staff and students. Her organisation of interdisciplinary training workshops connects researchers with potential employers, enriching their skills and broadening their professional networks, while her mentoring of staff further enhances the academic and professional experiences within our community.

Sandra Vargas Torres

Sandra has developed comprehensive strategies to enhance grant applications and support researchers' professional development in areas like Resources, Training, Peer Review, and Collaboration. Approved by the MIPS Executive Committee in April 2024, these strategies are currently being implemented, showcasing her commitment to integrating research and education. In response to feedback from HDR students, she also designed and delivered a successful workshop, "Crafting Impact Statements," which improved quality and reduced costs by eliminating the need for an external presenter. This initiative has since been adopted as an annual event, attracting interest from other Faculties.

In her pivotal role during Monash Research Week 2023, Sandra organised five sessions at the Parkville Campus, drawing over 250 attendees and enhancing research engagement. She currently serves as secretary for the MIPS Symposium Organising Committee and is dedicated to fostering an inclusive workplace culture through her involvement in the Early and Mid-Career Researchers Committee and the MOSAIC Committee. These efforts complement her responsibilities as a Research and Project Manager, where she manages grant applications, coordinates researcher development programs, and mentors emerging researchers to support their professional growth.

2023 Jenny Lim

Jenny excels in supporting the postgraduate pharmacy education team, demonstrating exceptional leadership during periods of uncertainty. Jenny’s advice in relation to coursework and student matters is an invaluable contribution to the postgraduate team (and now general teaching within the Faculty). Jenny always demonstrates a hard-working nature to support student and academic activities ranging from coursework review to assisting to organise teaching seminars.

Her adept management of conflicting priorities enhances team performance, and she has successfully implemented new working methods to support both undergraduate and postgraduate teams in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences. A valuable collaborator, she is highly regarded in her role.

2022 Casey Egan 

Casey is an outstanding member of DDB- she always quietly goes above and beyond to provide support for all of us in DDB, often under her initiative.

She has been particularly selfless in her helping new groups to the DDB, and has been particularly important to the working environment during the challenging times of COVID19 and as we entered the post-Covid era. She has paid particular attention to the psychological well being of international students and staff who face great challenges in these times.

2022 Zoe Ord 

Zoe's excellent contributions and support in teaching associate (TA) recruitment and training across all year levels have led to seamless educational operations in various VIM teaching units and skills coaching across all year levels. Zoe has taken the leadership role in development and implementation of Staff Allocation Management (SAM) system and Teaching Calendar (TCal).

Zoe has demonstrated a commitment to creating a friendly, supportive and inclusive learning & assessment environment in Pharmacy OSCEs over the years.

2021 Alastair Thomas

Alastair commenced this role just as COVID-19 impacted on faculty events, but he has been able to adapt to the current environment, he has remained positive and he has great enthusiasm for his work with providing students with an inclusive, safe faculty experience.

In particular, Al worked closely with academic leadership to design and implement the PIES program, which promotes inclusion and belonging for international students. The program was so successful that it has recently received funding to be rolled out across another eight faculties.

Al has a great connection with students and staff with his friendly and inclusive personality.

2020 Winfield Jugo

Winfield Jugo is the Technical Supervisor in the Faculty Technical Resources team. He is responsible for the ordering of all chemicals, glassware and equipment for all D4 groups and undergraduate teaching. Additionally, Win manages the waste removal for all research themes- a job made more difficult due to COVID restrictions. Win's supervision of the COVID restrictions has enabled research to continue in a seamless fashion. He passionately supports Monash inclusive workplace culture by treating all new comers in a very positive manner. His office door is open to any staff or student who is seeking assistance with any research, technical or teaching matters.

2020 Jason Dang

Jason Dang is the Spectroscopy Facility Manager. He goes above and beyond in terms of the service he provides to Spectroscopy Facility users, and is very accommodating to even non-standard requests. Thanks to Jason’s leadership, the Spec Facility operates with an inclusive culture and is one of our most important learning environments. He trains research students and staff in many techniques and often runs advanced experiments. Jason is a master negotiator who has brokered some incredibly good deals for Monash at the time of equipment purchase.

2019 Nicki Penny

As the inaugural recipient of the Professional Staff Award, Nicki Penny was acknowledged for her dedication to providing high quality services to academic and professional staff at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Over many years Nicki has consistently applied her unwavering commitment as a professional team member, often going out of her way to ensure the ‘seamless’ operations that support our research, research training and teaching activities. Nicki thinks outside the box, and has made marked improvements in our operational workflows; has collaborated across the Department, Faculty and University to ensure best practice in her immediate workplace; and has introduced mechanisms for weekly events to support an enhanced culture for our students.