International Alumni Award

As a former Australian Senator and current CEO of the Australia India Institute, Lisa Singh has championed human rights, climate action and international relations. Her advocacy for the abolition of the death penalty, gender equality, and stronger Australia-India relations has resonated globally, influencing international policy and public awareness. She has strengthened ties between Australia and India, developing educational, cultural and economic partnerships that serve as a model for global collaboration.

As the first woman of South Asian heritage to be elected to the Australian Parliament, Singh has served as a role model for women and minority groups. She holds a Master of International Relations and has served as Deputy Chair on the Australian Government’s Australia-India Council and sat on the University of New South Wales’ Human Rights Institute Advisory Board. Ms Singh sits on the advisory board of Asialink, is a Cricket Australia Multicultural Ambassador, and a board director of Beyond Blue. She also served as a Tasmanian parliamentarian and government minister.

Helen Amanda Fricker is Professor of Geophysics at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. She is a global leader in the study of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, having revolutionised our understanding of how the ice sheet works and how it interacts with the surrounding oceans.

Professor Fricker’s work was cited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to establish the physical basis for climate change. She has briefed the Californian Governor on sea-level rise and recently accompanied Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, to Antarctica to highlight the changes underway and discuss the importance of climate research. She was awarded the Martha T. Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica, made a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and has a named Antarctica feature (Fricker Ice Piedmont).

She is the Science Team Lead for NASA’s $1 billion ICESat-2 satellite mission. This mission is tasked with mapping the world’s ice sheets as they change over time and will deliver unparalleled insights into their response to climate change.

^{Image copyright: Erik Jepsen}

US-based Professor Craske is one of the most celebrated psychologists in the field of anxiety and depression research. Indeed, she is one of the most decorated and influential psychologists of our time and in 2022 was recognised with the award of Officer of the Order of Australia.

After graduating from the University of Tasmania in 1981 majoring in Psychology and English Literature, she moved to the University of British Columbia, where she completed her PhD and has since built a career as one of the world’s pre-eminent authorities in her field. Professor Craske has published over 570 peer reviewed journal articles, authored books, including several self-help and therapist guides. Professor Craske’s publication record is such that she is listed on the Web of Science’s list of Most Highly Cited Researchers.

Mr Greg Vines graduated from University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Laws with Honours in 2000.

Mr Vines has over a decade’s experience at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and has extensive industrial relations experience, which unusually spans both sides of the employer-union divide. Throughout his career he has held statutory roles in Tasmania, senior roles in the Victorian public service, as well as having experience as a trade union leader and as a diplomat.

Mr Vines is currently a Deputy Director-General at the ILO in Switzerland, where he provides leadership and represents the ILO across the UN and multilateral system. Monash University awarded him a Fellowship in recognition of his international contributions in 2017.

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Ms Diana Butler OAM completed a Bachelor of Nursing in 2001 and a Graduate Certificate Nursing in 2004 at University of Tasmania. She has provided nearly 40 years of service working in the Tasmanian Health Service.

While working as an Emergency Nurse in the Launceston General Hospital in 2006, she met a doctor from Tanzania and heard about the extreme poverty in that country. Diana’s altruistic nature, passion for social justice and innate belief in respecting and empowering others led her to co-found Care for Africa Foundation.

Diana is the Chief Executive Officer for the not-for-profit charity which advocates, in collaboration with the community, to address issues of poverty due to the lack water, education, medical, and enterprise services in Tanzania. Care for Africa now supports about 32,000 people in Tanzania’s Tarime district through mobile health clinics, the establishment of water bores and water harvesting systems, sanitation and hygiene programs, education (sponsorship of vulnerable children, teacher education and adult education programs, and educational supplies), the build of a school, and a social enterprise with the focus of the empowerment of women.

Diana continues to work as the after-hours nurse manager at the Launceston General Hospital, whilst running the not-for-profit charity during the day.

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Professor Dale Fisher is one of the world’s leading experts on the COVID-19 outbreak, advising the World Health Organisation as a professor and senior consultant in infectious diseases at Singapore’s National University Hospital. When Dale was a 16-year-old he won a prestigious scholarship to study in Singapore for two years and, 44 years later, he is playing a key role in saving the lives of thousands of people in Singapore and internationally in a pandemic which has swept the globe.

Dale graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Medical Science in 1982 and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1985. Among many awards, in 2018 he received Singapore’s Minister of Health Award.

He is currently Chair of the National Infection Prevention and Control (NIPC) Committee in Singapore and group chief of the National University Health Systems Cluster. He sits as Chair of the Steering Committee of WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) which helps to coordinate over 250 institutions working in international outbreaks. He contributes to countless other international efforts in Infection Prevention and Control and outbreak response research and training. He has over 200 publications in peer reviewed medical literature and has given over 100 invited and plenary presentations at academic conferences.

Dale has shown leadership, courage, and skill throughout many global health emergencies including the Bali Bombings, the SARS outbreak in 2003, and several Ebola outbreaks in Africa. He has dedicated his career to caring for others and to mentoring the next generation of healthcare workers.

Mr Aram Mirkazemi has been a driving force at Altium, an American, Australian-domiciled owned public software company, which had its genesis in Tasmania, since the mid-1980s. Aram commenced his career with Altium while still at university. He was appointed as Director of Research and Development from 1991-1999 and has continued a long and influential history with the company. He was appointed Head of Engineering in 2010, and later Chief Technology Officer. Aram was appointed Chief Executive Officer in January 2014 and is an Executive Director of the Board.

Aram leads the development of Altium’s strategic direction and is responsible for leading the company’s global business strategy.  Altium is a $4.4 billion business, which creates software to help people design circuit boards for electronic devices and operates a search engine for electronic parts called Octopart.

Aram arrived in Tasmania as an 18-year-old refugee following the Islamic Revolution of 1979.  He started a Bachelor of Engineering at the University of Tasmania within weeks of his arrival in Australia, despite his lack of English, and he graduated in 1990. Aram remains most passionate about enterprises that combine technology and people to drive business innovation and deliver value. At the heart of his visionary approach to transform the electronics industry, Aram has led Altium’s strong financial performance and its ability to form strategic partnerships.