Emeritus Professor Gisela Kaplan
Council, at its meeting of 25 November 2016, unanimously resolved to award Professor Gisela Kaplan of the School of Science & Technology, the title of Emeritus Professor.
Professor Gisela Kaplan has a long association with the University of New England and in retirement, continues her outstanding contribution to the field of animal behaviour (in particular, ornithology) and to the education of adult and school-aged children about wildlife, generally.
Prof. Kaplan is the author of Bird Minds – the first definitive work to be published on Australian birds since 1975. She is well-known to media both nationally and internationally and are frequently called on for expert comment, most notably in the recent saga of Harambe the gorilla. Prof Kaplan specialises in vocal and cognitive behaviour in animals and is a prolific writer with over 250 research articles and 20 books to her name, including the very well-known Australian Magpie and Tawny Frogmouth.
Congratulations Emeritus Professor Kaplan on this well-deserved award.
At the same meeting, Council unanimously resolved to award Professor Pauline Allen the award of Honorary Doctor of Letters honoris causa (HonDLitt).
Prof. Pauline Allen
Professor Allen is honoured for her many accomplishments in her scholarly field of Early Christian Studies, particularly the study of letters and homilies, and UNE had a role to play in her early tertiary education.
Following her BA in Classical Languages at the University of Queensland, Pauline Allen moved to the University of New England, where she gained a Double First Class Honours BA in Greek and Latin in 1969. She completed her MA Hons (conferred in 1973) with a thesis on Euripides. During this period she held an appointment in Classics as a part-time lecturer. For some of her years spent in Armidale she lived in Mary White College.
By bestowing on Prof. Allen our highest academic award UNE acknowledges the significant achievements of one of our alumni, who is internationally recognised in a field not widely known in Australia. Congratulation Prof. Allen.