The ACIS Best Thesis prize is awarded annually to the candidate who is judged to have completed the most outstanding PhD thesis in a branch of Colloid and Interface Science undertaken at an Australian or New Zealand University. The degree must have been approved, but not necessarily conferred, in the previous 12 months. The award comprises, a $500 cash prize, an ACIS staff membership for 12 months, and a certificate.
Nomination Process:
- Any current financial member of ACIS may nominate a candidate.
- The nominee must be a current ACIS member at the time of application.
- Self-nominations are not accepted.
- The nominator is typically from the nominee’s supervisory team.
The nomination submission should include:
- A copy of the PhD thesis, or a link to a copy if the file size is >25 MB;
- A letter from the nominator describing the significance of the work and justifying the nomination (2 pages maximum). This should include a summary of the key scholarly outputs during candidature (journal publications, conference presentations and proceedings, patents, non-conventional outputs);
- A copy of examiners’ reports, if available; and
- Email and telephone contacts of the nominator.
The rubrics that will be used to assess applications can be found here.
Please note that theses subject to any embargo will only be accepted for nomination and consideration for the award once the embargo period has elapsed.
Please email applications in a single PDF document to Dr Saffron Bryant, Chair of the Awards Committee of ACIS (saffron.bryant@rmit.edu.au), by the 10th December 2025. Receipt will be acknowledged by return email. If in the opinion of the Board of ACIS there is no sufficiently compelling application, the Board may refrain from making an award in any given year. Requests for further information should also be addressed directly to Dr Saffron Bryant. The recipient of the Best Thesis Prize will be notified by email and announced in the ACIS newsletter/ACIS website.
The decision of the judges will be subject to the approval of the ACIS Board. The Board decision is final, and no discussions or correspondence will be entered into.
Previous Winners
| Year |
Winner |
Institution |
| 2024 | Dr Hayden Robertson | University of Newcastle |
| 2023 | Dr Jun Ki Hong | University of Sydney |
| 2022 |
Dr Samuel Cheeseman Dr Cristopher Vega Sanchez (Jointly Awarded) |
RMIT University of Sydney |
| 2021 |
Dr Edwin Johnson Dr Debora Monego (Jointly Awarded) |
University of Newcastle University of Sydney |
| 2020 | Dr Durga Dharmandana | RMIT |
| 2019 |
Dr Yuan Xu |
University of Queensland |
| 2018 |
Dr Virgina Mazzini Dr Tom McCoy (Jointly Awarded) |
Australian National University Monash University |