alumn i accolades
Honorary degrees for marine geoscientist and engineer T
wo University of Tasmania graduates recently received honorary Doctor of Science degrees in recognition of their esteemed careers and outstanding public service. UTAS’s first female engineer graduate, Koesmarihati Sugondo, and internationally renowned marine geoscientist Philip Symonds have both made enormous contributions in their specialist fields – and to society. Ms Koesmarihati was a Colombo Plan scholar and one of the University of Tasmania’s first two female engineering graduates in 1966. Now retired, she spent her professional life working in the telecommunications industry and rose through the ranks to become a Director of PT Telkom, one of the
biggest state-owned telecommunication companies and the largest cellular mobile phone provider in Indonesia. Philip Symonds gained a Bachelor of Science degree with first class honours in Geophysics from the University of Tasmania in 1971. Dr Symonds’ research into the morphology of the sea floor, sediment thickness and tectonic history has had a major impact on the Australian economy through, for example, offshore oil exploration, delineation of shipping routes and the nomination of marine protected areas. Dr Symonds currently works at Geoscience Australia in Canberra, heading Australia’s Law of the Sea team. He is one of 22 scientists on the international Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
Law of the sea expert: Philip Symonds also received an honorary doctorate for his work.
Honorary degree: Koesmarihati Sugondo after she received her award from the UTAS Vice-Chancellor, Professor Daryl Le Grew (right), and the Head of the School of Engineering, Professor Chris Letchford.
The science of success
enjoying a national and international reputation for her ability to perform highquality research in separation science.
fter Emily Hilder finished her postdoctoral work at Berkeley University in the United States, she could have gone anywhere to work – such was her academic prowess and Berkeley’s standing in chemistry.
Awarded the 2010 Foundation Graduate Award by UTAS, Dr Hilder told the 500-strong crowd at the Wrest Point Casino dinner that she had been tugged back into the fold of the family who had supported her though her studies – her family and her closest friends.
But she decided to come back to Tasmania. She has since established herself as one of Australia’s most talented and productive young researchers in analytical chemistry,
She said it was also a decision driven by the quality of the research environment in the Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science, based at UTAS.
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The Foundation Graduate Award recognises a high-achieving graduate who is judged to have the potential to shape the world through their vision, leadership and professionalism. Dr Hilder graduated from UTAS with a Bachelor of Science in 1996. She was then awarded first class honours in chemistry and a PhD in analytical chemistry in 2000, both from UTAS. Today she is senior lecturer in chemistry and an assistant dean of graduate research.