Trauma specialist is South Australian of the Year

Associate Professor Bill Griggs AM ASM is the 2009 South Australian of the Year.
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Engineering graduate Julian O'Shea is the 2009 Young South Australian of the Year.
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Saturday, 21 November 2009

Associate Professor Bill Griggs AM ASM has been announced as the 2009 recipient of the prestigious South Australian of the Year Award.

The award was presented by His Excellency Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce AC CSC RANR at a dinner held at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre last night.

Dr Griggs is an Associate Professor in the University of Adelaide's Discipline of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care (School of Medicine) and is Director of Trauma Services at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH).

A passionate South Australian, he has dedicated his life to helping others through aeromedical retrievals and trauma research.

Dr Griggs graduated in medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1981. He joined the consultant staff of the RAH and assumed his current position as the Director of Trauma Services in 1995.

He has a strong interest in safety and injury prevention and is the founder of the Roads2Survival community road safety program. He is the State Controller (Health and Medical) for disasters within SA Health.

He is perhaps best known for his work in disasters, having been deployed to manage evacuations and victim care for the Bali bombings, the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and most recently, has headed up the medical team in the Samoan disaster.

Dr Griggs has completed hundreds of aeromedical retrievals within the State and has been instrumental in the establishment of MedSTAR - South Australia's new retrieval service - where he is the Director of Retrieval Coordination.

Dr Griggs was recently recognised with an Ambulance Service Medal in the 2009 Queens Birthday honours and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003 for services to medicine, particularly in trauma, emergency and intensive care management and education.

He has also worked as an Ambulance Service Medical officer for SA Ambulance Service since the early 1990s, having previously spent 15 years as a volunteer ambulance officer.

The author of more than 60 publications, he has lectured widely and is an Associate Professor at both the University of Adelaide and James Cook University. He is a volunteer Medical Officer with St John Ambulance Australia and a Group Captain with the RAAF as well as the current Director of Air Force Health Reserves for South Australia.

In 1989 Dr Griggs invented a surgical instrument and associated medical procedure known as the "Griggs technique" which is now used worldwide to help thousands of patients each year. He has just completed a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Adelaide.

"I was born in South Australia and have lived here for the majority of my life. I am extremely proud of all South Australian achievements. In my field as in other fields, we often seem to punch above our weight; it fills me with pride to be a member of the South Australian family," Dr Griggs said.

Meanwhile, University of Adelaide engineering graduate Julian O'Shea has been named Young South Australian of the Year.

Julian is a young leader within the engineering profession, the Australian Defence Force and the wider community as an active volunteer.

He completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Information Technology & Telecommunication) with Honours at the University of Adelaide in 2005, followed by a Masters in Engineering Science from the Australian Defence Force Academy. He is currently completing an MBA at the University of South Australia.

His professional expertise has seen him represent Australia at international conferences, serve as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy, and he currently represents young engineers on the national board of the College of Information, Telecommunications, and Electronics Engineering.

Julian manages the West Head Gunnery Range in Flinders, Victoria, a 15-acre live-fire training facility associated with HMAS Cerberus, the navy's premier training facility.

Late last year he was an Australian delegate to the World Engineers Convention in Brazil. He has received the South Australian Department of Trade and Economic Development Achievement Award and the 2009 Advertiser Pride of Australia Medal in the Serving Australia category, presented to service personnel who showed extraordinary courage and devotion to duty under extreme circumstances.

Supported by the Government of South Australia and run by Advantage SA (formerly known as SA Great), the South Australian of the Year Awards celebrate and profile individuals or organisations that have a consistent record of excellence and outstanding achievement while contributing and further developing the State.

On Thursday night, the University of Adelaide's Professor Rob Norman was named the winner of both the Health and Science categories of the 2009 South Australian of the Year Awards, while Adelaide music graduate Timothy Sexton won in the Arts category. To see details of that announcement, click here.

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