Mr Aiello, distinguished guests, staff and students

It gives me great pleasure in welcoming back to the College Alessandro Antonello as our most recent recipients of the Old Paradians Association Distinguished Old Collegian Award.

Special welcome to Alessandro’s mother Fernanda and one of his former teachers Mr Ross Smith.

The OPA is now into its 111^th year of serving the College and its old collegians. An important part of what the Association does is look for opportunities to connect its former students and also look for opportunities to recognise those old collegians for the contributions they have made to the community after leaving our wonderful school.

The Old Paradians Association first made the Distinguished OP Award in 2004. Our aim is to bring back to the College those Old Collegians who have made a significant and outstanding contribution to his community or profession, and or have a story of interest and edification to our students; and also represents in his personal life the values and expectations of the College and authentic role models for our students

Alessandro completed Year 12 at the College in 2003. He was a member of the Prefect body as Academic and Debating Prefect and was an outstanding student winning the subject awards for Legal Studies, Text and Traditions and History Revolutions. At the Valete Graduation evening Alessandro was awarded the prestigious Malouf Trophy for General Excellence. He went on to be Dux of College for his year.

After his VCE Alessandro accepted a place at Australian National University which began an outstanding academic career. He completed a Batchlor of Philosophy Honours degree, winning the University Medal in 2007. He then completed Graduate Diploma in Arts with Honours (Museums and Collections), 2008-2009. He then went on to complete his PHD Doctorate at ANU in 2014. Since 2014 Alessandro has engaged in Research at the University of Oregon in the US, University of Melbourne and Flinders University in South Australia. In 2023 he was a visiting fellow at the Centre for Environmental Humanities at the University of Bristol in the UK.

His current position is Associate Professor in Environmental History at the University of Tasmania.

His first book published in 2019 was titled ‘The Greening of Antarctica: Assembling an International Environment’ He is a contributor to a number of scholarly publications and scholarly services.

His particular area of expertise and research revolves around the environmental and international histories of Antarctica, the cryosphere, that is where parts of the Earth’s surface is frozen, the world’s oceans and other marine environments in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. In a world where there are grave threats from global climate change. Alessando’s work is of particular relevance.

We are proud to welcome you back to your old school Alessandro. We thank you for making the trip to Melbourne from Tasmania. You are a most worthy recipient of the OPA's Distinguished Old Paradians' Award.

Presented by John Nicholls, Alumni Relations Officer, on Friday the 9th of May 2025.