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2020 Award highlights
With the cancellation of this year's APSAD conference due to COVID-19 the annual APSAD Awards ceremony was held online.
APSAD President Professor Michael Farrell presented the 2020 APSAD Awards for Excellence in Science, Research and Practice at the special online ceremony. The six recipients of the APSAD Awards are recognised as having made an outstanding contribution to reducing the harms associated with alcohol and other drug use in Australasia.
2020 APSAD AWARD RECIPIENTS
 Senior Scientist Award Robert Ali
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 L to R: Mid Career Award
Suzanne Nielsen &
Mentor Award Paul Dietze
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 First Peoples Award
Robert Assan
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 Clinician Award Anthony Gill
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 Early Career AwardCheneal Puljević
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Senior Scientist Award A/Prof Robert Ali
Associate Professor Robert Ali ( MBBS FAFPHM, FAChAM DPH) is a public health physician and specialist in addiction medicine. Until October 2016 he was the clinical director of Drug & Alcohol Services South Australia; a role he held for 30 years. Currently he is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide. Robert is a member of the Australian National Advisory Council on Alcohol and Drugs, member of the Cochrane Alcohol and Drug Group editorial board and the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Dependence and Alcohol Problems.
The Senior Scientist Award is for a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of substance use.
Mid Career Award A/Prof Suzanne Nielsen
Associate Professor Suzanne Nielsen (BPharmSc[Hons] PhD MPS) is the Deputy Director of the Monash Addiction Research Centre in Melbourne, and is a current NHMRC Career Development Fellow. Suzi has been a registered pharmacist for over 20 years with clinical experience in the treatment of substance use disorders includes in specialist drug treatment and community-based alcohol and drug treatment settings in Australia and the United Kingdom. She has published over 135 scientific publications and given over 170 national and international conference presentations on her research, which has led to a greater understanding of how to identify and respond to prescription and over-the-counter drug-related problems. Her recent work has a focus on reducing opioid-related harm and overdose prevention. Suzi has worked with Australian state and federal governments to reduce opioid-related and other drug harm.
The Mid Career Award is for significant contribution in the alcohol and other drug field.
Early Career Award Dr Cheneal Puljević
Dr Cheneal Puljević is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Services Research and the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland. At the Centre for Health Services Research she is the Program Manager for the Global Substance Use and Mental Health unit, where she conducts and manages a number of research projects related to substance use, including the Queensland evaluation of the Tackling Alcohol-Fuelled Violence Policy (QUANTEM), and several projects using data from the Global Drug Survey. At the School of Public Health, she is the co-coordinator of the CARP smoking cessation trial, and contributes to projects promoting smoking cessation among priority populations. Her primary research interest is smoking cessation among disadvantaged populations, with her PhD (completed in 2018) and current UQ Early Career Researcher Grant focusing on this topic. (https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/22250)
The Early Career Award is for excellence in research relative to career opportunities.
Mentor Award Prof Paul Dietze
Professor Paul Dietze is one of Australia’s leading alcohol and other drug epidemiologists with a significant national, and emerging international profile. He is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and a past ARC Future Fellow and VicHealth Public Health Research Fellow. With more than 20 years’ experience and an outstanding track record, his work has established internationally innovative surveillance systems and applied research designs that break new ground in the public health research into alcohol and other drug use and related harms in Australia. He has produced more than 290 journal articles along with many other reports of significant impact that have changed practice in the area of alcohol and other drugs in this country. During the course of his research career he has received more than $20 million of research funding. (https://www.burnet.edu.au/people/174_paul_dietze)
The Mentor Award recognises an individual who has made an important contribution to mentoring and supporting the career development of clinicians, researchers or students.
First Peoples Award Robert Assan
I am both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. I was born in the Northern Territory, but my cultural background is from Thursday Island.
Training has been a big part of my work. And it gives me great satisfaction – working with health workers and seeing them come along in their ability to help individuals and families around alcohol and drugs. I have been able to offer training and support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers around Australia, and to many other staff. The training helps them work with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people with alcohol or drug problems. I have also worked with individuals and communities, in the Northern Territory and in Queensland, to help them rethink their alcohol or drug use.
My current work involves both training and support of health workers, and one-to-one work with adolescents. This work is at the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre in Townsville. I like that sense of planting the seed that leads to change later on. You don’t always see the results straight away, but the seed is there. The young people are able to use that information that you’ve given them. I equip people with knowledge and skills and insight that can help them in life.
Recognises an individual that has made an important contribution to the advancement of the health of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori peoples.
Clinician Award Dr Anthony Gill
Dr Anthony (Tony) Gill is an Addiction Medicine Specialist who has worked in the Drug and Alcohol field for around 30 years. He has worked as a clinician and clinical leader primarily. He has held various Drug and Alcohol Clinical Director positions in NSW Local Health Districts and in the past in the NSW Ministry of Health. He is presently a Senior Staff Specialist in the Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, and Chief Addiction Medicine Specialist in the NSW Ministry of Health. His interests in drug and alcohol include teaching and clinical service development and redesign, and he has worked extensively with general practitioners to enhance their activities in drug and alcohol.
Recognises excellence and leadership in clinical practice in the field of substance use in any discipline.
2018 APSAD Award Highlights
2018 APSAD Award Winners announced
The APSAD Conference Dinner and Awards was held at Maritime Room Auckland. The recipients of the APSAD Awards are recognised as having made an outstanding contribution to reducing the harms associated with alcohol and other drug use in Australasia. It is a special experience to formally acknowledge the dedication of our peers and celebrate the quality of their work.
"She is a champion for health equity and an advocate for gender equity and this is reflected not only in her research outputs but in her approach to building the capacity of new researchers. Her supportive approach is highly effective; her students and mentees achieve remarkable success in their careers and progress to make substantial contributions to tobacco research and the community in general. She is an inspiring role model (her young female ECR twitter followers refer to her as their "research idol") not only for productivity and achieving career goals, but also for showing them how to ensure their research makes a meaningful difference to people's lives. Evidence of the effectiveness of her mentoring is in the metrics: she has supervised 19 students, 15 of those PhD students, all on PhD scholarships, and 7 winning awards for PhD excellence from their institutions (University of Newcastle, Monash) or national awards (eg, Council of Australian Public Health Institutions, Cancer Institute NSW)."
2019 APSAD Award Highlights
The APSAD Conference and Awards Dinner was held at the Brooke Street Pier situated on Sullivans Cove in the waterfront area of Hobart.
APSAD President Professor Michael Farrell presented the 2019 APSAD Awards for Excellence in Science, Research and Practice. The recipients of the APSAD Awards are recognised as having made an outstanding contribution to reducing the harms associated with alcohol and other drug use in Australasia. It is a special experience to formally acknowledge the dedication of our peers and celebrate the quality of their work.
Kate Conigrave; Adrian Dunlop (back); Mark Montebello
Dr Catherine Quinn graduated with a Combined PhD and Clinical Masters in Psychology from Macquarie University in 2015. She currently holds an industry-funded Lives Lived Well Research Fellowship at the School of Psychology, University of Queensland and is a registered clinical psychologist. Dr Quinn is currently working closely with Lives Lived Well, a large alcohol and other drug treatment service, examining the efficacy of novel evidence-based interventions across community and residential treatment settings and the factors that impact their effective implementation.
Michael is a Bardi person and Wingara Mura Research Fellow at the University of Sydney. Michael began his health career when he enrolled into the Aboriginal Health Worker training program in the Kimberley, while working in the general store of his home community of Djarindjin in 1997. Since then, Michael has worked in men’s health in the Aboriginal community controlled sector in Western Australia. He was worked for the Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia and helped establish the peak body for Aboriginal community controlled health services in that state. Michael continues to work closely with colleagues in the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector. This includes serving as a member of the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW Human Research Ethics Committee. Michael has worked in research on alcohol and other drugs since 2008, including at the National Drug Research Institute, the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales. Since 2017 Michael has worked at the University of Sydney in the Centre of Research Excellence in Indigenous Health and Alcohol.
2017 APSAD Awards
Congratulations to the 2017 APSAD Award Winners
The APSAD Conference Dinner and Awards was held at The Park overlooking the Albert Park Lake. Incoming APSAD President Dr Tony Gill presented the 2017 APSAD Awards. The recipients of the APSAD Awards are recognised as having made an outstanding contribution to reducing the harms associated with alcohol and other drug use in Australasia. It is a special experience to formally acknowledge the dedication of our peers and celebrate the quality of their work.
Congratulations to the below APSAD Award winners.
Left to right: Dr Briony Larance, Dr Ingrid van Beek, Mr Stephen Ling, Prof. Dan Lubman, Mr Scott Wilson
Mentor Award Dr Ingrid van Beek
Ingrid is a public health and addiction medicine physician who has been a leader in the Harm Minimisation and public health sector for many years. She is renowned and respected both nationally and internationally and has long been the voice of reason social justice and disadvantaged people, such as sex workers, people who inject drugs and at-risk youth. Ingrid was also the founding Medical Director of the first and only Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in the
southern hemisphere from 2000 until 2008 and the author of a book “In The Eye Of The Needle” which tells the story of the MSIC, how it came to be, the ongoing controversy, and fight to defend its existence.
The Mentor Award recognises an individual who has made an important contribution to mentoring and supporting the career development of clinicians, researchers or students.
Early Career Award Dr Briony Larance
Briony Larance is an NHMRC Australian Public Health Early Career Fellowship recipient and has worked at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), Faculty of Medicine, UNSW, since 2004. Her research interests include opioid dependence, opioid substitution therapy and pharmaceutical opioids. Her research focuses on understanding the trajectories and health consequences of pharmaceutical opioid use among diverse populations, including chronic pain patients and people who are opioid dependent and/or inject drugs.
The Early Career Award is for excellence in research relative to career opportunities.+
First Peoples Award Scott Wilson
Scott has had an eminent career, being a key advisor to Commonwealth and State Governments in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) alcohol and other drug issues over the past two decades. This includes as the Deputy Co-Chair of the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee between 2001 and 2014. Amongst his many other contributions, Scott has acted as the Australian delegate to the United Nations “Beyond 2008” International Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Forum, Vienna. As founding and current CEO of the Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Council, SA (ADAC) Scott is responsible for delivering a range of innovative services and programs to Aboriginal communities across South Australia.
The First Peoples Award recognises an individual that has made an important contribution to the advancement of the health of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander or Māori peoples.
Clinician Award Stephen Ling
Stephen Ling is a pioneer nurse practitioner in the alcohol and drug field in Australia. Mr Ling was one of the first of a very small number of clinical nurse consultants in the alcohol and drug field who applied for nurse practitioner status when this became possible. Since attaining this recognition, he has continued to lead the nursing field in NSW, though his clinical work and involvement in teaching and research.
Clinician Award recognises excellence and leadership in clinical practice in substance use in any discipline.
Senior Scientist Award Professor Dan Lubman
Professor Dan Lubman is a Psychiatrist and Addiction Medicine Specialist. He has worked across mental health and drug treatment settings in both the UK and Australia. He is Director of Turning Point and Professor of Addiction Studies and Services at Monash University. Dr Lubman’s research is wide-ranging and includes investigating the impact of alcohol and drug use on brain function, the relationship between substance use and mental disorder, as well as the development of targeted intervention programs within school, primary care, mental health and drug treatment settings.
The Senior Scientist Award is for a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of substance use and misuse.
APSAD Awards for Excellence in Science, Research & Practice
Nominations for the 2024 APSAD Awards for Excellence in Science, Research & Practice will open in April.
The 2024 APSAD Awards will be presented at the 43rd APSAD Conference on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country (Canberra) from Wednesday 30 October to Saturday 2 November.
As Australia's leading multidisciplinary organisation for professionals involved in the drug and alcohol field, these prestigious Awards are our unique celebration of the outstanding efforts and achievements of individuals and teams who provide devoted and unstinting service to their communities in diverse fields and go unrecognised.
Acknowledging dedication and excellence in our sector is a key part of the APSAD Awards and encouraging future generations of great researchers and clinicians.
The Awards are nominated by APSAD members and decided by the APSAD Awards Committee.
All seven APSAD Awards reflect excellence in the application of theory, knowledge and practice to any aspect of drug and alcohol use.
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The focus of the Awards: The Early Career Award is for excellence in research relative to career opportunities. The Mid Career Award is for significant contribution in the alcohol and other drug field. The Senior Scientist Award is for a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of substance use. The First Peoples Award recognises an individual that has made an important contribution to the advancement of the health of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori peoples. The Clinician Award recognises excellence and leadership in clinical practice in the field of substance use in any discipline. The Mentor Award recognises an individual who has made an important contribution to mentoring and supporting the career development of clinicians, researchers or students. The Advocacy Award recognises the outstanding impact by an individual or a team in the alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs sector who works in the policy and/or advocacy area. |
Please contact the APSAD Office by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you require further information.
Details of the Awardees and highlights of the 2023 Awards can be found here.