Alan Stoneham receives Dean’s Award for Outstanding PhD Theses

We are proud to announce that Alan Stoneham has received a 2023 Dean’s Award for Outstanding PhD Theses, in recognition of his PhD thesis AC(σ)-Operators and Functions of Bounded Variation, opens in a new window.

The Dean’s Award for Outstanding PhD Theses recognises high quality PhD theses produced at UNSW. The award goes to PhD graduates who have submitted a thesis that requires only minimal corrections, received outstanding levels of achievement for all examination criteria, and is in the top 10% of PhD theses examined. Examiners are external to the University, and are leaders in their fields. 

Dr Stoneham completed his PhD under the supervision of Associate Professor Ian Doust. 

"I am delighted that Alan's thesis has been recognised with a Dean's Award", said A/Prof Doust.

"As well as being very clearly written, his thesis is full of many original ideas. To quote one of his examiners: 'I ... consider the thesis under review to be at the level of the best theses in mathematical analysis produced in Australia over the past ten years, and to be competitive against the best theses in the field worldwide'.

"Hopefully the start of a fine career as a mathematician!", said A/Prof Doust. 

This isn't the first time that Dr Stoneham been recognised for academic excellence: He won the 2018 University Medal, which is the most distinguished academic award to be bestowed on an undergraduate. He also received an Honourable Mention for the B.H. Neumann Prize at the 2021 Australian Mathematical Society's Annual Meeting for his talk, "A generalisation of the spectral theorem for self-adjoint operators".

Dr Stoneham took up a position in the School of Mathematics and Statistics in early 2023 as Associate Lecturer (Education Focussed). We warmly congratulate Dr Stoneham for this wonderful achievement.