Outstanding lecturer receives Asia Pacific honour

USQ now boasts one of the Asia Pacific's finest spatial science lecturers after Mr Peter Gibbings was awarded the region's Spatial Sciences Institute award for Education and Professional Development.

Mr Gibbings was awarded the honour, which recognises excellence and contribution by individuals in the spatial information profession, after receiving an automatic nomination as the State winner at the Institute's Queensland Spatial Excellence Awards earlier this year.

The Spatial Sciences Institute is a national body catering for professional people who make up the spatial information industry and gives a voice to the members of the spatial science community in both the national and international arena.

'These awards are peer nominated and because I won the State award I was eligible for the Asia Pacific one,' Mr Gibbings said.

'I didn't really think that I was going to win the award, which was held as part of the Spatial Sciences Institute's Asia Pacific Spatial Innovation Conference (APSIC) in Canberra last month, but obviously I was very pleased to win as the honour is very significant.'

Competing against academics from many of the regions top universities, Mr Gibbings said that the award was also a good reflection on USQ and its Engineering and Surveying Faculty.

'For an academic from a small regional university to win the award is a great achievement as I was up against academics from the larger Sandstone Universities,' he said.

'These universities have a lot more money to work with, which allows them to do more within their faculties, so to win the award was a pleasant surprise.'

Mr Gibbings is also the first academic from USQ to win the award.

'This is the highest award you can get in Spatial Sciences and is testament to not only the work I am doing but also the research that our students are doing here across all Spatial Science Disciplines.'

Although this is the first time that Mr Gibbings has won this award he has received many other accolades throughout his academic career.

These include the USQ medal for excellence in the design and delivery of teaching materials in 2003 and in 2007 a Carrick Australian Award for University Teaching for programs that enhance learning.

Media Contact: Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 2559