Yesterday evening (7 April), four PhDs were conferred in the University of Canberra’s Faculty of Health graduation ceremony.
All four were students in UCRISE. Three of the students, Jocelyn Mara, Adam Hewitt and Nehad Makhadmeh researched football performance. All three added to the research literature on women’s football.
Jocelyn thesis was titled The physical and physiological characteristics of elite female soccer players. (There is more information about Jocelyn’s work here.)
Adam Hewitt’s thesis was Performance analysis in soccer: applications of player tracking technology. (There is some information about Adam’s work here and his thesis here.)
Nehad was unable to attend the ceremony. She was back in her home city of Al ramtha in Jordan. Her thesis was Talent identification and development in women’s football: integrating Australian insights in Jordan. (There is more information about Nehad’s work here.)
One of my hopes for the Institute of Sport Studies (the predecessor of UCRISE) was that it would provide opportunities to address research in women’s sport. I was delighted that last night’s ceremony was able to support those hopes.
Two of the three PhDs were supervised by Dr Kate Pumpa and the Director of UCRISE, Professor Kevin Thompson.
The fourth PhD conferred was for Anthony Walker’s thesis Maximising the safety and performance of urban firefighters working in heat. Anthony was supervised by Dr Ben Rattray.