Dr Nicholas White won the Award for Teaching Excellence (Early Career) in the Joint Colleges of Sciences Excellence in Education Award.

Nick has modernised the inorganic chemistry curriculum, preparing entirely new lecture and laboratory courses. He tries to bring relevant innovations to his teaching, a current focus is to bring team-based learning to the first year course.

Dr Mark Ellison won the Award for Teaching Excellence in the Joint Colleges of Sciences Excellence in Education Award.

Mark considers teaching a privilege, it allows him to be involved in the development of confident, critical and knowledgeable people who are potential leaders in their field of science. His modernisation of the chemistry curriculum, and dedication to teaching, have resulted in a sustained improvement of retention of students in chemistry.

Dr Lara Malins was awarded The J G Russell Award in 2018 for her research activity. Dr Malins' research aims to develop a new synthetic approach to valuable amino acid derivatives and their rapid incorporation into peptide analogues, including promising new antibiotic candidates.

This award is valued at $7,000 each and is supported by the generosity of the late Miss J Russell.

Congratulations to Professor Michelle Coote on being awarded the Paul Schleyer Lectureship 2019.

The Schleyer Lecture is held annually at the University of Georgia, and each year a guest lecturer is nominated to present on their research in the field of organic chemistry. The inaugural lecture took place in 2001 in honour of renowned American organic chemist Prof Paul von Rague Schleyer shortly after the publication of his 1000th scientific paper.

Congratulations to Dr. Christoph Nitsche on being awarded the Rising Star Fellowship from Freie Universität Berlin 2018.

The Rising Star Fellowship Program of the Department of Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy seeks to attract outstanding early-career researchers who have completed their doctorates within the last four years - preferably from abroad. The Rising Star fellows will take part in the research activities of their host-research groups, will be absorbed into existing research networks (CRCs, BBIB, research training groups, etc.) and will publish their results together with them.

The Leighton Memorial Medal commemorates the distinguished career of A E Leighton. As a staunch supporter of the RACI, Leighton carried out an enormous amount of work to secure the RACI Royal Charter. The Leighton Memorial Medal is the RACI's most prestigious medal and is awarded in recognition of eminent services to chemistry in Australia in the broadest sense, including research, technology and service to the RACI, public service and national leadership.