Professor Farrah Ahmed and Professor Bruce Campbell named as 2020 Woodward Medallists

Research on religious freedom and personal law, and a new treatment for stroke earn 2020 Woodward Medals for University academics.

Professor Farrah Ahmed of the Melbourne Law School has been awarded the 2020 Woodward Medal  in Humanities and Social Sciences, for her monograph Religious Freedom under the Personal Law System and a journal article, Remedying Personal Law Systems. These develop a highly original analysis of personal law in relation  to religious freedom, minority rights and uniform civil code.

The scholarly significance and impact of this work has been commended by international peers and members of the judiciary, and represents a timely contribution to ongoing debates that address important yet overlooked aspects of the personal law system.

Published by Oxford  University Press, the monograph was praised by peer reviewers: “The work is thorough, well researched and scholarly, and raises some new, complex and nuanced questions regarding the continued existence of religion-based personal laws.’

The 2020 Woodward Medal in Science and Technology has been awarded to Professor Bruce Campbell from the Melbourne Medical School at the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences for his publications on Endovascular Thrombectomy for strokes.

Professor Stephen Davis, a Director of the Melbourne Brain Centre said in his nomination that “the body of work submitted for this award is truly outstanding and has directly led to clinical practice change in Australia and internationally”.

The treatment is dubbed “a gamechanger by lead investigators, and found to be more than twice as effective at restoring blood flow to patients’ brains as clot-dissolving drugs used alone.” These publications show that “Recovery to independent function increased from 40 per cent to 71 per cent of patients: for every three patients treated with thrombectomy, an extra patient recovered independence, one of the most powerful treatment effects in any field of medicine.

The Woodward Medals were established by Sir Edward Woodward, a former University Chancellor, and Lady Woodward to recognise research published in the five years leading up to 31 December of the preceding year that has had a significant contribution to knowledge in a field of science and technology   or humanities and social sciences.