About the Awards
Celebrating its 13th year in 2023, the James Cook University Outstanding Alumni Awards recognise graduates of the University, and its predecessor institutions, who have made an outstanding contribution in their field of endeavour at a local, state, national or international level, and celebrate their successes and achievements.
Anyone can nominate a JCU graduate for an Outstanding Alumni Award. Nominations open in May and close on the 19th June. After careful consideration by our judges, successful nominees and unsuccessful nominators will be contacted in July. Recipients will be publicly announced at an event in Townsville in September.
Explore the Outstanding Alumni Awards
Award Design
Each year, the Outstanding Alumni award is specially designed and created by local Townsville artist and JCU Alumni Sue Tilley.
Sue’s designs consist of hard cut glass sheets and delicate powders fused together to create colourful translucent pieces that capture the vibrant colours, power and movement of our local environment. Each piece is cold worked and fused by Sue, before being slumped over a hand-cut three dimensional representation of striking Licuala Grandis (Elegant Fan Palm), then mounted on a block of Australian hardwood. The award’s colours and design draw inspiration from the crystal clear waters, intense blue skies and warmth of the outback. The glass pieces capture the intensity of colour and the feeling of movement we see each day in nature. Glass is surprisingly strong yet easily shattered; a beautiful representation of the power and strength of nature, but also the delicate fragility of our ecosystem and all of its inherent elements.