Neonatal specialist Zsuzsoka Kecskes has been named ACT Australian of the Year 2014.
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The German-born associate professor, 48, was a leading figure in the design and development of the neonatal intensive care unit at Canberra's new Centenary Hospital for Women and Children.
Dr Kecskes consulted widely with families during the design, and pioneered the use of cameras in the unit - allowing the remote viewing of babies by loved ones, an Australian hospital first - as one of many family-focused features.
The Fisher resident’s award was announced by ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher at the National Arboretum on Monday evening together with other category winners. Dr Kecskes – who arrived in Australia in 1994 – said she had not expected the civic honour.
“I’m doing my job, that’s my life, my passion – the safety of patients, the future of babies,” she said. “With all the time we have spent working and all the grievances we have with sometimes sad stories – to have people think that is something out of the ordinary is mind-blowing.”
Dr Kecskes is the clinical director of the hospital’s neonatology department, and said the neonatal ICU cameras – the first of its kind in Australia – had been an idea she had after seeing them in a European hospital.
Dr Kecskes has been recognised for her work into perinatal asphyxia, with her research widely respected in Australia and around the world, and said the award would provide an opportunity to highlight the health needs of the young.
Humanitarian engineer and disability advocate Huy Nguyen received the award for ACT Young Australian of the Year 2014. Mr Nguyen, who migrated to Australia from Vietnam in the early 1990s, contracted polio when he was 18 months old and has lived with a wheelchair since. The entrepreneur has facilitated disability programs in the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste, and this year founded the Enable Development social enterprise, which brings together professionals to tackle the challenges of disability in the global community. Graham Walker was awarded ACT Senior Australian of the Year 2014 for his work as a veterans campaigner after a 21-year military career.
In his work for more than 30 years with Vietnam Veterans organisations, Mr Walker has assisted thousands of veterans to receive their entitlements, advised governments, authored research and campaigned for the official history of Agent Orange to be rewritten.
Patricia Mowbray, OAM, was awarded the ACT Local Hero 2014 for her tireless work as a disability champion.
Ms Mowbray trained as a special education teacher and later learned her and husband Glenn could not have children biologically, deciding to adopt a child with a disability. The couple adopted Luke, who was born with Down syndrome, and later added two other boys who also have Down syndrome, and another girl with a now resolved medical condition to the family.
The ACT recipients will join recipients from the other states and territories as finalists for the national awards on January 25.
