USQ lecturer wins Excellence in Spatial Sciences Education award

For the third year in a row, a University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Surveying lecturer has taken out the Excellence in Education and Professional Development Award at the Queensland Spatial Excellence Awards held recently on the Gold Coast.

The 2008 Individual Award for Education and Professional Development was presented to Senior Lecturer in Spatial Sciences, Peter Gibbings, in front of more than 350 members of the industry at Movie World on Friday, 18 July.

The award is presented to a practising academic who has substantially contributed to the study and promotion of spatial science through teaching, research, publication or professional activities.

With 10 years experience in teaching at tertiary level Mr Gibbings has been published in nine journals and has presented papers at many conferences.

Mr Gibbings believes USQ’s teamwork, professional experience and dedication to the field gives them an edge over competing metropolitan universities.

'USQ is a much smaller university but we are well resourced in the spatial sciences field.'

The resource boom and population growth was creating demand for spatial science graduates, he said.

'We believe our graduates really are of a superior standard because they’re being snapped up by the large mining and construction companies even before they graduate.

'We find a lot of our students complete their final year of studies externally while they work in industry all over the world.'

No stranger to accolades, Mr Gibbings is the recipient of several professional awards both individually and jointly including the 2005 Spatial Excellence Award for the best research article; a 2006 and 2007 joint Carrick Australian Award for University Teaching and a 2003 USQ University Medal for excellence in the design and delivery of teaching materials.

Mr Gibbings will now travel to Canberra for the Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards in November.

Media Contact: Ally Martell, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 2092