HDR Supervisor of the Month

The ANU Higher Degree Research (HDR) Supervisor of the Month Award recognises good practice in ANU HDR supervision.

All HDR supervisors, conveners, administrators, and anyone else who works to support HDR candidates, are eligible to be nominated.

The awardee will receive ANU-wide recognition.

Nominations are welcome from all members of the ANU community. Nomination involves completion of the simple HDR Supervisor of the Month – Nomination Form.

Current HDR Supervisor of the Month awardee

March 2025

Associate Professor Alex Potanin
Associate Director HDR
School of Computing
ANU College of Systems and Society

Alex's supervisory approach:
"I was once told by my former PhD advisor (now retired) that any student willing to listen and put in the time should be able to complete a PhD. That is if we are there to support them every week with the best possible advice given our own experience and understanding. Having spent a few years looking after a large school with many PhD students (over 200 in our School of Computing), there are always interesting cases to work through. These always require a lot of human and personal interaction to help everybody involved while being fair and helpful.

PhD is a substantial multi-year undertaking that requires considerable self-motivation and work ethic while pushing the boundaries of intellectual pursuit. This journey requires a lot of support, and the expectation as a supervisor is that a PhD candidate will be a lot more of an expert in their pursuit than the supervisor towards the last year or more of their study. As a result, being a supervisor is both a scary and rewarding experience that we should be lucky to count as an essential part of our academic careers."

Find out more about Alex’s work by visiting Alex's profile webpage on the School of Computing webpage.