News archives

2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001

In previous years, the Department of Pharmacology website congratulated:

2008

Judith Black on being reappointed as an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow for a further 5 years
The following who received NHMRC Project Grants to commence in 2009: Rachel Codd (Understanding iron-uptake mechanisms in bacteria to inform strategies to control infection and to treat beta-thalassemia, $264,250), Janette Burgess, Brian Oliver and Markus Weckmann (Anti-inflammatory role of collagen IV in asthma. $304,500), Robert Vandenberg and Renae Ryan (Drug binding sites on glycine transporters, $478,500)
Renae Ryan on being selected as one of the speakers in the University's Early Career Research Showcase
Graham Johnston on being appointed an Associate Editor of Future Medicinal Chemistry and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Current Bioactive Compounds
Janet Burgess and Renae Ryan on being promoted to Research Only Academic Level C
Paul Seale on being an invited speaker at the annual meeting of the Malaysia Thoracic Society
Heidi Fedorow on the birth of her son, Isaac Nathaniel on 23 June
Heidi Fedorow and Slade Matthews on their promotion to Lecturer
Katherine Locock and Farid Sanai on their appointments as Part Time Associate Lecturers while Heidi Fedorow is on maternity leave for one year
Lisa Kouladjian, who was an honours student in Pharmacology in 2006, on her award of the National Student Quality Use of Medicines Award at the National Medicines Symposium on 15 May for her honours project on improving weight based dosing in hospital
Our Research Committee for reconvening after a lapse of 7 years
Suzanne Habjan and Michelle Holland on the award of their PhD degrees
Sarah Lummis (University of Cambridge) on the award of a University of Sydney International Visiting Research Fellowship to visit the Department for collaborative studies with Rujee Duke and Graham Johnston
Chiu Chin Ng on the award of a John A Lamberton Research Scholarship
Suzanne Habjan on the award of her PhD and her job as a Scientific Editor at the Medical Journal of Australia
Tina Hinton on her appointment as an Honorary Lecturer in Pharmacology
Kellie Charles on her appointment to a Lectureship in the Department
Peter Carroll on being made an Honorary Professor in Pharmacology
Rujee Duke together with Colin Duke and Van Tran (Pharmacy) for their successful NHMRC Complementary and Alternative Medicine Grant for $285,000 on "Complementary medicines based on propolis produced by honeybees from Australian flora"
Tina Hinton on the birth of her daughter Indigo Stella on 9 January
Robin Allan, Rachel Codd, Graham Johnston and Michael Kassiou on being part of a successful NMHRC Equipment Grant application for $100,000 towards the purchase of a Varian 400MHz NMR System to be housed in the Faculty of Pharmacy

2007

Graham Johnston on the award of an honorary degree of Doctor of Pharmaceutical Science from the University of Copenhagen, the first such degree awarded from the newly formed Faculty of Pharmacuetical Sciences, previously the Royal Danish School of Pharmacy
Kelly Skillbeck on speaking at the Schizophrenia Research Institute's Cocktails & Consciousness event about 'life at the cutting edge of brain research'.
Linda Truong on receiving a Travel Award from the Melvin Yahr International Parkinson's Disease Foundation for her attendance at the XVII WFN World Congress on Parkinson's Disease and Related Disorders in Amsterdam (9 - 13 December, 2007).
Jonathon Arnold on the award of an NHMRC Project Grant on "The role of cannabis in an Nrg1 animal model of genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia" $437,125 2008-2010, together with Tim Karl, Xu-Feng Hunag and Iain McGregor administered by the Schizophrenia Research Institute.
James Ziogas (Melbourne), Hilary Lloyd (Sydney), Shane Bullock (James Cook), Lesley Bryan-Lluka (Queensland, Ian Musgrave (South Australia), Elizabeth Davis (South Australia) and Andrew Somogyi (Adelaide) on the award of grant of $94,368 (plus GST) from the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (now the Australian Learning and Teaching Council) to establish the Australian Pharmacological and Therapeutic Educational Network (APTEN)
Graham Johnston on being reappointed to the Commonwealth Administrative Appeals Tribunal by the Governor-General for a 5 year term from 1 October 2007.
Jonathon Arnold and Brent McParland on being promoted to Senior Lecturer, and Rachel Codd on being promoted to Lecturer
Kelly Skilbeck on being featured in the appeal for funds by the Schizophrenia Research Institute
Judy Black on being made an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to medicine, particularly as a researcher and teacher in the field of respiratory pharmacology, and through executive and other roles in research-related organisations.
Ken Mewett for his part in the Logie award-winning documentary 'Who killed Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler?'
Brent and Kristen McParland on the birth of their twins
Jono Arnold, Jasmine Henderson and Michael Kassiou, together with Iain McGregor, Glen Hunt, Brett Hambly, John Allen and Isuru Matsumoto on the award of a NHMRC Equipment Grant 2007 ($60,000) for a GC-MS system that will be located in the Department.
Kong Li on the award of his PhD
Rachel Codd on her apppointment as an Associate Lecturer
Renee Granger on the award of her PhD
Ju-young Lee on her appointment as a NHMRC Postdoctoral Fellow working with Rujee Duke and Graham Johnston
Sinthuja Sivagnanasundaram on taking up her position as a NISAD Senior Research Officer
Graham Johnston on being invited to join the honorary editorial board of Perspectives in Medicinal Chemistry.
Renee Granger on her appointment as a Scientific Communications Associate, Intercontinental Information Sciences, Eli Lilly Australia P/L

2006

Colin Case on being awarded the Roland H. Thorp Prize for the most poficient student in our third year Pharmacology courses
Jasmine Henderson and Michael Kassiou on the award of a grant for $50,000 for 2007 from the Rotary Liverpool West and Australian Rotary Health Research Fund
Lisa Kouladjian on being awarded the ASCEPT Prize for Clinical Pharmacology at the Australian Helath and Medical Research Conference in Melbourne based on her honours project supervised by Sarah Hilmer and Briden Murnion at Royal North Shore Hospital
Lena Succar and Christina Halteh on being awarded the Dorothy Thorp Prize for excellence in science communication by a student in our Honours Course
Sonja Schleimer on the award of her PhD
Brian Oliver on the award of an NHMRC Project Grant 'Repetitive viral infection accentuates airway wall remodelling' ($260,250 over3 years); Rob Vandenberg and Renae Ryan on the award of an NHMRC Project Grant 'Moleuclar dynamics of glutamate transport' ($474.625 over 3 years); Brent McParland on the award of a Grant of $29,000 from The Clive and Vera Ramaciotti Foundation Establishment Gift
Donald Davidson on his award of a Centenary Fellowship for Medical Technicians to enable him to visit various pharmacology departments in the UK in November.
Heidi Fedorow on her appointment as an Associate Lecturer
Jane Hanrahan, Mary Collins and Graham Johnston on the award of a R&D Joint Venture between Neuro Therapeutics Ltd and The University of Sydney, to study GABA-C receptor antagonists for the treatment of memory disorders and myopia ($280,250 in 2006/7)
Sebastian Fernandez on his appointment as a Postdoctoral Fellow working on positive modulators of GABA receptors.
Slade Matthews on his appointment as an Associate Lecturer
David Henderson on the award of his PhD based on his thesis entitled 'The development of nicotinic receptor radioligands'
Graham Johnston on being part of a successful ARC LIEF Grant of $1,400,000 in 2006 to purchase a High Resolution Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometer and a Carbon, Hydrogen Nitrogen and Sulfur Analyser for chemical characterization in the School of Chemistry. (T. Maschmeyer, S. Kable, P. Karuso, D. Gore, J.R. Aldrich-Wright, K. Downard, M.M. Harding, M. McLeod, K.A. Jolliffe, G.A.R. Johnston, J.R. Hanrahan & K.J. Fisher)

2005

Graham Johnston on receiving a special award from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute for his service to Pacifichem 95, 2000 and 2005
John Skerritt, former PhD student and Univdersity Medallist in Pharmacology. on his election as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
Rob Vandenberg on being appointed as Chair of the ASCEPT Scientific Advisory Committee
the following staff who received long service awards: 25 years service - Robin Allan, Graham Johnston, Paul Seale and Hue Tran; 20 years service - Rujee Duke; 15 years service - Keith Rippon
Brent & Kristen on the birth of a girl baby
Janette Burgess on receiving a 2005 NSW Young Tall Poppy Award and on the birth of her son Jack
Janette Burgess on being awarded a NHMRC R Douglas Wright Biomedical Career Development Award ($436,250 over 5 years); Graham Johnston, Jane Hanrahan (Pharmacy), Mary Collins (Pharmacy) and Ken Mewett on being awarded a NHMRC Project Grant on Positive modulation of ionotropic GABA receptors ($528,750 over 3 years); Iain McGregor (Psychology) and Jono Arnold on being awarded a NMHRC Project Grant on Cannabis "re-intoxication": effects of THC release from fat ($255,250 over 3 years) and Rob Vandenberg, Mark Connor (RNSH) and Chris Vaughan (RNSH) on Molecular and cellular basis for the analgesic properties of N-arachidonyl amino acids ($498,750 over 5 years).
Renee Granger on her award of an Edith Mary Rose Travelling Fellowship to enable her to visit Prof Paladini's laboratory in Buenos Aires.
Tina Hinton and Brent McParland on their appointments as Level B Lecturers in the Department
Jasmine Henderson on the award of a Grant of $10,000 from Parkinson Research, NSW
Robyn Billing on the award of her PhD
Michelle Holland on the award of a Cancer Institute of NSW Research Scholarship ($25,000 pa, 2005-7)
Gillian Shenfield, on her award of an AM, Member of the Order of Australia, for service to clinical pharmacology and therapeutics and to education in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.
Renee Granger, Michelle James and Katherine Locock on being awarded John A Lamberton Research Scholarships, each worth $5,000, to assist them with their PhD studies on the chemical understanding of brain function.
Tina Hinton for topping the class in her Graduate Diploma in Science (Psychology) course
Jonathon Arnold on the award of a Cancer Institute NSW Research Infrastructure Grant. 2005 ($60,000) for Gel imaging facility together with .J. D. Allen, M. Gorrell, R. Martiniello-Wilks, and S. Clarke
Peter Tobin on his appointment as a medical writer at Janssen-Cilag
Judy Black and her colleagues for their research into asthma being featured on ABC TV's Catalyst
Erica Campbell on her appointment as a Regulatory Affairs Associate with Sanofi-Aventis
Ann Mitrovic on the birth of her daughter
Belinda Hall on her appointment as a Scientific Communications Associate with Eli Lilly Australia
Belinda Hall and Shelley Huang on the award of their PhDs
Janette Burgess on the IBR Young Investigator award
Jasmine Henderson and Michael Kassiou on the award of Rotary Grant of $49,500
Michael Kassiou, on being promoted to Clinical Associate Professor (for a 3-year term in the first instance)
Ann Mitrovic, on the award of a Rolf Edgar Lake Postdoctoral Fellowship for 3 years;
Judith Black, on the award of a Sesqui R & D Scheme Grant of $49,049 for 2005
Jonathon Arnold, on the award of Sesqui R &D Scheme Grant of $15,000

2004

Ewan Mylecharane on completing his very successful term as Head of Department
Ian Spence on being appointed Head of Department for 2005
Judy Black and her colleagues on their successful bid for a CRC for Asthma and Airways
Donald Davidson on being promoted to Senior Technical Officer
Kelly Skilbeck on the award of a NISAD Summer Scholarship
Robyn Billing and Renee Granger on being members of the organising committee for the Institute of Biomedical Research IVth Annual Young Investigators Symposium on 17 December 2004 and to Renee Granger for the award of The John Young Prize for an outstanding oral presentation by a Postgraduate Research Student.
Judy Black (25 years), Carol Amour (25), Peter Johnson (20), Vladimir Balcar (15) and Donald Davidson (15) on being presented with Long Service Awards in the Great Hall on 29 November 2004
Robin Allan on being awarded an ARC Discovery Grant together with Ivan Kennedy and colleagues in Agriculutre worth $100,000 in 2005, $93,000 in 2006 and $95,000 in 2007 to work on endocrine dispupting compounds.
Jasmine Henderson and Andrew Gundlach (Howard Florey Institute, Melbourne) on the award of a Brain Foundation grant of $20,000 for 2005
Graham Johnston on being reappointed for a 2 year term to the Technical Advisory Group of the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging
Rob Vandenberg on his promotion to Associate Professor
Rob Vandenberg on his award of a NMHRC Senior Research Fellowship; Chris Liddle on the award of a NHMRC Project Grant of $111,500 pa 2005-7; Graham Johnston, Andrew Moorhouse (UNSW) and Rjuee Duke on the award of a NHMRC project grant of $170,500 pa 2005-7
Ewan Mylecharane on the announcement of his retirement from 28 February 2005
Louise Roberts on the award of her PhD
Sonja Schleimer on having her studies on GABA transporters in schizophrenia being highlighted in NISAD's Headlines
Jasmine Henderson on being promoted to Senior Lecturer
Graham Johnston on being an invited lecturer at the Six Decades of GABA Conference held in San Diego, October 2004
Ewan Mylecharane on being made an Honorary Membership of the Serotonin Club, an international association for biomedical scientists with around 650 current members, in recognition of both his distinguished contribution to serotonin research and his long and valuable service to the Club, at a meeting of the Serotonin Club in Porto, July 2004
Michael Kassiou on being made a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute
Renae Ryan on the award of her PhD
Members of the Adrien Albert Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry for successfully hosting the 6th Australia/Japan Symposium on Drug Design and Development
Tina Hinton on being appointed as an Associate Lecturer (Continuing, 0.8 FTE) in the Department
Hilary Lloyd and colleagues on the Teaching and Learning Committee on being awarded a grant from the Sesqui Teaching Equipment Fund towards the purchase of a dedicated Varian Educational Package HPLC System.
Karin Aubrey and Kellie Slaviero (Charles), on the award of their PhD degrees
Renae Ryan for winning the prize for the best poster presentation at the 2004 Lorne Protein Conference
Sonja Schleimer on being awarded a Dean's Startup Scholarship for her PhD studies in 2004.
Shelley Huang on being awarded an APSN student travel grant to attend the Asian Pacific Society of Neurochemistry meeting in Hong Kong in February 2004
Jasmine Henderson on the award of a University of Sydney Sesqui R&D Scheme grant of $48,926 for 2004; Peter Johnson on the award of a University of Sydney Sesqui Major Equipment Scheme grant of $44,500 towards an ABI prism 7000 sequence detection system; Chris Liddle on the award of a NHMRC Project Grant of $109,875 for 2004, $109,875 for 2005, and $109,875 for 2006; and Rob Vandenberg on the award of a NHMRC Project Grant of $88,500 for 2004, $88,500 for 2005, and $88,500 for 2006

2003

Kelly Slaviero on the award of the ASCEPT Oral Prize and Belinda Hall on being highly commended for the TOCRIS Neuropharmacology prize at the ASCEPT meeting in Sydney, December 2003
Jonathon Arnold on the award of a University of Sydney Cancer Research Fund grant of $45,000 (2004 and $45,000 in 2005)
Ann Mitrovic (15 years), Ian Spence (20 years) and Ewan Mylecharane (25 years) on their Long Service Awards
Jonathan Arnold on his reappointment as a Lecturer
Ewan Mylecharane on his reappointment as Head of Department to the end of 2004
Mary Collins (Pharmacy), Malcolm McLeod (Chemistry), Graham Johnston (Pharmacology), Joanne Jamie (Chemistry, Macquarie University) and Roger Read (Chemistry, UNSW) on the award of an ARC LIEF grant of $110,000 towards the purchase of a Robocyte medium throughput secondary functional screening facility
Graham Johnston on his appointment to the Commonwealth Administrative Appeals Tribunal by the Governor General for a further 4 year term from 1 October 2003.
Renae Ryan and Rob Vandenberg on the story in the University News of 28 August on their work on glutmate transporters
Tina Hinton on the award of her PhD
Jasmine Henderson on the story in the University News of 8 August on her work on Parkinson's Disease
Janette Burgess on being nominated as one of 16 Fresh Scientists participating in Fresh Science 2003
Mary Collins on the birth of her daughter Isabella on 10 July
Janelle Hoskins on being appointed as Head of the Pharmacology Laboratory of the Sydney Cancer Institute
Rosaria Carlo-Stella on the birth of her son Christian Matthew on 23 May
Janette Burgess on receiving the "Ann Woolcock Young Investigator Award" by the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand
Rob Vandenberg on being appointed Sub-Dean (Research) for the Blackburn Precinct.
Robyn Billing on being appointed as a Level A Lecturer (0.6 FTE) from 19 May
Paul Seale on being elected as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
Graham Johnston on the award of a Centenary Medal for services to Australian society in pharmacology
Judy Black, appointed as Chairperson of the new reformed NHMRC Research Committee
Davina Patiag, on being awarded a PhD (supervisor: JPS); Sonja Schleimer, on the award of a NISAD Postgraduate Scholarship; Nigel Pederson, on the award of a NHMRC Dora Lush Postgraduate Scholarship; Angelo Jayamanne and Renee Granger, Australian Postgraduate Awards; Pengchu Ju, on the award of a Faculty of Medicine Postgraduate Scholarship; Rob Vandenberg, on becoming a member of the Institute of Biomedical Research Council;
Tina Hinton on being appointed as a Level A Lecturer (0.6 FTE) from 24 February
Mary Collins (Pharmacy), Jane Hanrahan (Pharmacy) and Graham Johnston on the award of a grant of $379,350 in 2003 from Pfizer Global Research and Development (Australia) to study 'Constrained analogs of gabapentin and pregabalin'
Judith Black on the award of a Sesqui Major Equipment Grant of $41,250 for a Victor2 Multilabel Reader and to Peter Johnson on the award of a Rebecca Cooper Foundation Equipment Grant of $16,000 to provide a fluorescence plate upgrade of the Victor2 Multilabel Reader
Jasmine Henderson on the award of a Sesqui New Staff Support Grant of $27,080 for 2003
Silvana Hourcade on the presentation of a 20 Years Service Certificate from the University
Mac Christie on taking up a position as NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow in the Pain Management Research Institute at Royal North Shore Hospital

2002

Paul Seale on giving the ASCEPT Lecture at the Australian Health and Medical Research Conference in Melbourne
Graham Johnston on giving the Liversidge Lecture to the Royal Society of New South Wales
Mac Christie on the award of a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellowship and Laurent Rivory on the award of a NHMRC Principal Research Fellowship
Jonathon Arnold on being promoted to Lecturer
Tina Hinton on the birth of her daughter Emily Rose on 27 September
Jasmine Henderson on being selected to speak in the ASCEPT New Investigators Symposium at the Australian Health and Medical Research Congress in Melbourne
Kylie Everett on being awarded her PhD
Janette Burgess on receiving the Johnson & Johnson Research Postdoctoral prize awarded by the Australian Society for Medical Research (NSW Branch)
Laurent Rivory on his promotion to Clincal Senior Lecturer
Graham Johnston on being made a Fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemsitry (IUPAC)
Jasmine Henderson on her appointment as a Lecturer
Tina Hinton on appearing in NISAD'S new video - THE QUEST FOR A CURE
Belinda Hall on receiving an Australian Neuroscience Society Neurochemistry Award towards costs of a visit to the laboratory of Henry Lester at Caltech to learn techniques for the incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins
Belinda Hall and Jane Carland on being awarded student poster prizes at the Australian Neuroscience Society conference in Darling Harbour, February 2002
Jane Hanrahan on being appointed to a Lectureship in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the Faculty of Pharmacy from January 2002
Belinda Hall and Kellie Slaviero on being awarded the inaugural Bishop Scholarships to assist their PhD studies by the Department of Pharmacology

2001

Belinda Hall on being awarded the Tocris Neuropharmacology prize at the ASCEPT meeting in Dunedin, 3-5 December 2001
Ewan Mylecharane on being appointed as Head of Department for 2002
Ian Spence on being promoted to Associate Professor;
Mac Christie ($95,000 and $100,000 in 2002), Mary Collins and Graham Johnston ($160,000), Peter Johnson ($70,000), Chris Liddle ($125,000) and Rob Vandenberg ($95,000) on being awarded new NHMRC Project Grants, and to Jonathon Arnold ($28,200) and Graham Johnston ($40,000) on being awarded University of Sydney Sesqui Grants;
Janelle Hoskins and Laurent Rivory along with Dr Mary Bebawy (Pharmacy), Prof B Roufogalis (Pharmacy) and Prof Stephen Clarke (Medicine) on being awarded $22,000 from the College Collaborative Research Grants Scheme;
Graham Starmer and Beryl Hesketh (Psychology) on being awarded an ARC Grant of $122,000;
Peter Johnson for being selected as one of 16 young scientists to present their 'Fresh Science' at the ScienceNow festivities in Melbourne in August;
Tina Hinton on being awarded the Goddard Prize for best student presentation at the Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research in Queenstown, New Zealand;
Congratulations to Mary Collins, recipient of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute's Biota Award for Medicinal Chemistry ($5,000), for her work on the design and development of new agents acting on GABA receptors carried out in the department's Adrien Albert Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry.