RCC Research Computing Systems Engineer Owen Powell was awarded the University of Queensland Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Individual Excellence Award earlier this month.
Owen won the award for his tireless commitment to RCC’s mission in delivering the latest in advanced computing infrastructure for UQ and supporting researchers to facilitate their research outcomes.
He received his award from Professor Mark Blows, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) during a ceremony at UQ St Lucia on Wednesday, 7 December.
RCC Chief Technology Officer Jake Carroll said Owen brings a “unique blend of deep technical expertise” and a “peerless personable approach to research support.”
“Owen is committed to doing both the smaller tasks and the hard yards that need to be done to get the big projects completed,” said Jake. “Without Owen, [new UQ supercomputer] Bunya would not have been ready for our researchers by the end of 2022. He is core to many of the infrastructure functions in Bunya’s storage, compute and network.
“Owen is testament to why sustained investment in our people is critical to the future of research outcomes,” said Jake.
Owen said receiving the award was “an unexpected surprise and a wonderful way to round off my first year working within DVCRI with a fantastic team at RCC.”
“It's only because of the RCC team’s passion, dedication and expertise that these systems and services exist for our researchers to do their important work. I'd like to thank each one of them for their hard work this year and let them know that I look forward to working with them in many more exciting projects in the years ahead,” said Owen.
RCC Director Professor David Abramson said he was delighted to see Owen receive the award. “It highlights the outstanding research support provided by the RCC team,” he said.
Owen has a substantial history in the tertiary IT sector, having worked for QUT in similar roles, ITS at UQ and at RCC. “He is a stalwart of what it takes to be good at support and at the same time, is deeply interested and focused in the technical and more arcane aspects of our work in research and advanced computing,” said Jake.