Pritam Singh is Professor of Chemistry in the Division of Science and Engineering. He has been at Murdoch since 1982 but has also taught overseas in Fiji, India and the West Indies. He is well known at Murdoch for his excellent teaching in Introduction to Chemistry, where he has the unique skills required to motivate a large number of students from a wide range of backgrounds in their required first year chemistry unit. His results in this unit are outstanding. But he is also a very versatile teacher, lecturing in a number of other chemistry units, in his area of specialty, applied electrochemistry.

Pritam is also widely respected as a world leader in applied chemistry research particularly in the field of water resources in developing countries. Somewhere within this very busy workload, he also finds the time to supervise a large number of postgraduate students, assist his colleagues in teaching and research, and contribute to the university administration as Chair of the Chemistry Program. In many ways, Pritam exemplifies the ideal academic scholar, combining research and teaching to the benefit of students, the university and the wider community.

Congratulations Pritam

Tara joined Murdoch University as a fulltime staff member in the School of Media, Communication and Culture in 1997. Her strength as a teacher was recognised immediately when she won a Teaching Excellence Award in her first year at Murdoch. In the next year, Tara was successful in winning one of only five Australian Awards for University Teaching in their inaugural year. She has a strong reputation as an effective teacher in 1st year units due to her ability to enthuse students. Comments such as, "She is the most driven and involved teacher I have ever had and I wish more lecturers were like her" are common from Tara's students. She is a very powerful teacher, encouraging students to think critically and engage in the wider community, and in doing so, developing in our graduates some of the key skills cherished by Murdoch.

Congratulations Tara

Wayne joined the School of Education at Murdoch fulltime in 1997 after working several years on a casual basis. He now teaches in six units at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. In addition, he currently co-supervises 11 Masters and PhD students. The cornerstone of Wayne's approach to both research and teaching is that of critical reflection. He uses this to underpin his research into gender issues in teaching, which in turn is applied in his teaching to education students. The application of current research to classroom teaching is a major strength of Wayne, as is his encouragement to teachers to continue this practice in their professional career.

His students clearly recognise the importance of his approach, as summarised in this comment from a former student, "Throughout all my years of education, Wayne remains one of the most inspirational teachers I have encountered. He helped me to become a critical thinker and an autonomous learner. I found his classes to be stimulating, challenging, supportive and an excellent model for my own teaching practice." What more can we ask of our teaching staff!

Congratulations Wayne