Continuing a tradition set up by the Australian Synchrotron Research Program (ASRP), the Australian Synchrotron regularly seeks submissions for the Australian Synchrotron Thesis Medal.  This medal is awarded annually to the PhD student at an Australian or New Zealand University who is judged to have completed the most outstanding thesis of the past two years - and whose work was undertaken at and acknowledges the Australian Synchrotron, or the Australian National Beamline Facility (ANBF), or whose work acknowledges and was undertaken under the auspices of the International Synchrotron Access Program (ISAP) or the ASRP.

The 2011 Australian Synchrotron Thesis Medal was awarded jointly to Dr Kaye Morgan and Dr Corey Putkunz, who completed their PhD studies at Monash University and La Trobe University respectively.

The Medals were presented at the Australian Synchrotron User Meeting on 8-9 December 2011.

About the PhD research undertaken by Kaye Morgan and Corey Putkunz

Previous Thesis Medal winners

The 2010 Australian Synchrotron Thesis Medal was awarded to Martin Duriska from Monash University for his PhD thesis entitled ‘Introducing Multiple Functions into Discrete Supramolecules and Coordination Polymers’. The standard of entries was so high in 2010 that two commendations were awarded; these went to: to Lorien Parker (Crystallographic Studies of the Recognition of Anti-cancer Compounds by Glutathione Transferase Pi) and Grant Webster (Applications of Resonance Raman and Fourier Transform Infrared Microspectroscopy in Malaria Research).

The 2008 Australian Synchrotron Thesis Medal in biology and life sciences was awarded to Dr Fleur Tynan.