Alumni Profiles

Benny Freeman Distinguished Chair

Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Science, Technology and Innovation (Sponsored by CSIRO)

Benny Freeman is the Richard B. Curran Centennial Chair in Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Chemical Engineering. He earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley in 1988. In 1988 and 1989, he served as a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI), Laboratoire Physico-Chimie Structurale et Macromoléculaire in Paris, France. Dr. Freeman’s research is in polymer science and engineering specifically in mass transport of small molecules in solid polymers. His laboratory focuses on gas and liquid separations using polymer and polymer-based membranes, developing and characterizing new materials for hydrogen separation, natural gas purification, carbon capture, water/ion separation, desalination, and fouling resistant membranes. His research is described in 395 publications and 22 patents/patent applications. He has co-edited 5 books on these topics.

He has won numerous awards, including the PMSE Distinguished Service Award (2016), Fellow of the Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Division of ACS (2014), AIChE Clarence (Larry) G. Gerhold Award (2013), Joe J. King Professional Engineering Achievement Award from The University of Texas (2013), Society of Plastics Engineers International Award (2013), Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings from the PMSE Division of ACS (2012), the ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science (2009), AIChE Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology (2008), and the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program Project of the Year (2001). He is a Fellow of the AAAS, AIChE, ACS, and the PMSE and IECR Divisions of ACS. He has served as chair of the PMSE Division of the ACS, chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Membranes: Materials and Processes, President of the North American Membrane Society, chair of the Membranes Area of the Separations Division of the AIChE, and chair of the Separations Division of AIChE.

Benny’s interests in new materials design for separations important for clean water, clean energy, and manufacturing process intensification aligns synergistically with the world-leading materials science and characterization research at CSIRO. He will work closely with colleagues at CSIRO, the University of Melbourne and other institutions across Australia to lay the groundwork for a long and productive, bilateral collaboration to develop, characterize and understand, at a fundamental level, disruptive, over the horizon, separations membranes for applications such as air separations, desalination, high value materials recovery from waste (e.g., waste to energy), toxic materials separation from waste and recycle/recovery of critical and strategic materials and metals. Benny has a strong interest in seeing results from fundamental research reduced to practice, which is also a topic of common interest with his Australian colleagues.

On a personal front, Benny is intensely interested in exploring the historical and cultural heritage of Australia, discovering the extraordinary natural beauty of Australia and sailing with current and new-found friends and colleagues.

Professor Valerie M. Hudson, PhD Distinguished Chair

Valerie M. Hudson is Professor and George H.W. Bush Chair in The George H.W. Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, where she directs the Program on Women, Peace, and Security. An expert on international security and foreign policy analysis, Dr. Valerie M. Hudson received her PhD in political science at The Ohio State University and came to Texas A&M University from a senior faculty position at Brigham Young University. In 2009, Foreign Policy named her one of the top 100 Most Influential Global Thinkers. Her co-authored book, Bare Branches: Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population, and the research it presents, received major attention from the media with coverage in theWall Street Journal,New York Times,Financial Times, Washington Post,BBC,CNN, and numerous other outlets. The book also received two national book awards. Her co-authored bookSex and World Peace, published by Columbia University Press, was named by Gloria Steinem as one of the top three books on her reading list. Her most recent book, with Patricia Leidl, isThe Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy, published in June 2015. Hudson was also recently named a Distinguished Scholar of Foreign Policy Analysis by the International Studies Association.

Dr. Hudson has developed a nation-by-nation database on women (http://womanstats.org) that triggered both academic and policy interest (the latter includes its use by both the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and various agencies of the United Nations). Using this data, Hudson and her co-principal investigators from The WomanStats Project have published a wide variety of empirical work linking the security of women to the security of states, with research appearing in International Security, the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Peace Research, Political Psychology, and Politics and Gender.

Throughout her career, Dr. Hudson has demonstrated a strong commitment to collaboration with other scholars both in her own field and in other disciplines, and received significant research grants, including grants from the US Department of Defense’s Minerva Initiative and the National Science Foundation, to support her work in international affairs. Her research and teaching experience is also complemented by three major teaching awards and numerous research awards, and she has recently been awarded an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. Hudson served as vice president of the International Studies Association for 2011-2012. She is a founding editorial board member of Foreign Policy Analysis, and also serves on the editorial boards of Politics and Gender and The American Political Science Review.

Dr. Hudson hopes to spend her time in Australia researching the implementation of UNSCR 1325 by the Australian government and military through its National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, as well as developing a more in-depth understanding of the field of Foreign Policy Analysis as it has evolved in Australia. She is looking forward to meeting scholars throughout Australia that have similar interests. Her family will accompany her, and they are keen to see and learn as much about “Oz” as possible.

David Stoesz, PhD Distinguished Chair

Dr. David Stoesz received his doctorate from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Since then he has published articles and books on various aspects of social policy, including public welfare, the Clinton Presidency, children’s services, international development, financial services, and politics and policy. From 1995 to 2000 he held the Wurtzel Endowed Chair at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the coauthor of American Social Welfare Policy, ed. His book, Quixote’s Ghost: The Right, the Liberati, and the Future of Social Policy, received the Pro Humanitate Literary Award. A Fulbright award at the University of Birmingham resulted in The Dynamic Welfare State, recently published by Oxford University Press. His current project is a book, Theory and Social Welfare.

Dr. Stoesz is planning on writing a sequel to The Dynamic Welfare State while at Flinders University. Tentatively titled From Welfare State to Investment State, the book will propose a future configuration for social programming among industrialized nations. In addition, he plans on lecturing at universities in Australia.

Dr. Stoesz is an avid whitewater kayaker, downhill skier, and chef. When time permits, he makes furniture and weaves.

Dr Brett Summerell Distinguished Chair

Brett is the Director of Science and Conservation at the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust in Sydney where he has worked for the past 28 years. He has research interests in plant pathology and mycology and is a world authority on the fungal genus Fusarium which causes some of the most important plant diseases globally, produces toxins in food and is a pathogen of humans.

For his Fulbright project, Brett will spend time in the Department of Plant Pathology at Kansas State University expanding his research on Fusarium species in natural ecosystems to the U.S. allowing a comparison of these fungal plant pathogens in Australian and U.S. ecosystems. He will also complete a second edition of the widely-used diagnostic manual, the Fusarium Laboratory Manual, on these important fungi.

Professor Timothy A. Carey Senior Scholars

Tim is Director of the Centre for Remote Health in Alice Springs. He is a clinical psychologist researcher and clinician and is particularly interested in improving patients’ control in health care settings in terms of the way in which services are designed and delivered, as well as how patients are able to access these services. Patient control is especially important in remote settings where access to services is compromised and health outcomes lag unacceptably behind the health enjoyed by urban citizens.

Tim will use his time on the Fulbright Scholarship to develop research training for practicing health professionals in conjunction with colleagues at the Center for Behavioral Health Innovation at Antioch University so that health professionals in remote and other underserved communities can evaluate and improve the programs and services they offer for the benefit of the patients they serve.

Professor Richard G. Sonnenfeld Senior Scholars

Richard is an experimental physicist who has built and applied novel scientific instruments to particle physics, magnetic disk drives, and lightning research since 1981.

In Australia, Richard intends to combine a new radio imaging technique with high speed video and hopes to capture lightning striking mine shafts or other tall structures. Kalgoorlie, WA is a perfect location for this work because of the excellent visibility, intense summer storms, and proximity of WASM.  If Sonnenfeld can capture the final meters of a lightning channel, microseconds before it strikes, the understanding can improve structure protection in the energy industry as well as illuminate the fascinating physics of how nature makes 40-kilometer-long sparks.  Working with the Museum of the Goldfields and Curtin University, he is preparing a talk, Lightning like you have never seen it before, to share field results and nurture lay interest and support for atmospheric science. 

Rod Kennett Professional Scholars

“The growing empowerment of Indigenous peoples to create livelihoods based on the management of traditional estates is a game changer in biodiversity conservation.”

Dr Rod Kennett, a Program Manager with the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance at Charles Darwin University, has won this year’s Fulbright Northern Territory Scholarship. Through his Fulbright, Rod will go to the Nature Conservancy for six months to further his research into developing new tools and strategies to support Indigenous livelihoods in conservation.

“Intact ecosystems on Indigenous-held lands in north Australia and the Pacific United States are critical to the conservation of the world’s biodiversity,” Rod said.

“Effective conservation programs for Indigenous lands must bring together Indigenous knowledge and practice with the best scientific conservation methods to create Indigenous conservation-based livelihoods.”

Rod will collaborate with experts in the United States to identify tools and strategies that will inform new approaches to conservation in north Australia.

Rod has a BSc in biological sciences from Macquarie University, an Honours degree from The Australian National University and a PhD from the University of Queensland. He has won awards and prizes including an Australian Research Council Fellowship; a Kinship Conservation Fellowship; three National Banksia Environment Awards; and was a finalist in the National Landcare Awards. His interests include bushwalking, sailing, scuba, travel, mosaics, creative writing and singing in a community choir.

Dr Georgina Gurney Postdoctoral Scholars

Georgina is an Environment Social Science Research Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University. Her research focuses on understanding the sociocultural and institutional conditions that influence opportunities for collaborative environmental governance, and the multiple outcomes of such initiatives. Georgina has undertaken much of her research in the context of coral reef governance in the Asia-Pacific region.

Georgina’s Fulbright Scholarship involves collaborating with researchers and practitioners in the fields of sustainability and environmental governance at the University of Michigan, Harvard University and the Wildlife Conservation Society. The project aims to understand the conditions that give rise to co-benefits and trade-offs among the social and ecological outcomes of environmental governance and to foster the incorporation of this knowledge into on-ground practice. Through understanding what environmental governance interventions work where to achieve sustainability, Georgina hopes her research will contribute to meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr Nina Papalia Postdoctoral Scholars

Nina is a postdoctoral researcher with the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science at Swinburne University of Technology. She is also a clinical and forensic psychologist with the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, providing psychological assessment and treatment to offenders with complex mental health profiles. Nina completed her doctoral degree in 2017, which examined the long-term impacts of child sexual abuse, focussing on adverse mental health, criminal offending, and revictimization outcomes. She is interested in how exposure to childhood maltreatment and other early adversities can shape life course trajectories, and, for some, lead to participation in crime and violence.  

As a Fulbright Scholar, Nina will collaborate with world-leading experts at John Jay College of Criminal Justice to explore the psychosocial mechanisms that influence maltreated children to either commit or avoid engaging in violence themselves over the lifespan. Child maltreatment and violence are both unfortunately widespread, and the socio-economic burdens of these phenomena make prevention and effective intervention international priorities. By investigating the factors that place maltreated children at risk for aggression and violence, along with the factors that buffer some children against the negative impacts of early trauma and adversity, Nina hopes her Fulbright project will contribute to improved strategies to reduce violent behaviours, foster individual resilience and wellbeing, and promote safer communities.

Dr Stirling Roberton Postdoctoral Scholars

“My Fulbright research aims to identify the impact of soil constraints on the American Agricultural industry and advance novel approaches to help farmers better diagnose farm-specific limitations to production. My time spent at The United States Department of Agriculture will provide me with the skills and experiences to build game-changing soil analytics for Australian farmers.”

Stirling is currently a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Southern Queensland. Stirling’s area of research is focused on applying Digital Soil Mapping techniques at the sub-field scale to help farmers and advisors better manage their variable soils. He is particularly interested in developing approaches to help farmers spatially identify which of their soils offer the greatest potential for improvement through the implementation of soil amelioration strategies. .

During his Fulbright Scholarship, Stirling will work with Dr Ken Sudduth at The United States Department of Agriculture to identify the impact of soil constraints on the American Agricultural industry.

Dr Ben Sparkes Postdoctoral Scholars

Ben is an ARC DECRA Fellow at the University of Adelaide’s Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing. For his Fulbright Future Scholarship, Ben will work in the lab of Professor Alexander Gaeta at Columbia University, bringing together Australia’s pioneering work in atom-light interactions with Columbia’s world-leading expertise in mixing multi-coloured light fields towards tackling the global challenge of cybersecurity. Ben’s project aims to develop a technology which will increase the range of quantum-secured fibre information networks. This work has the potential to provide a quantum-leap forwards in data security for both countries’ government, defence, business and broader communities.

Ben is also a passionate STEM advocate and will use his Scholarship to engage with a wide range of American students through his Laser Radio outreach activity, teaching valuable practical skills while communicating the joy and wonder of science.

Dr Khoa Cao Postgraduate Students

Khoa holds an MBBS(Hons)/BMedSc(Hons) from Monash University and is currently a Master of Public Health candidate from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is an Austin Health doctor and the CEO of HorusAI, a medical AI company previously recognised by the Victorian Government in malaria diagnosis. Khoa has published medical AI research with Professor John Fox at the University of Oxford and formerly interned with IBM Watson Health and the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland under Universal Eye Health Architect Dr Ivo Kocur.

As a Fulbright Future Scholar, Khoa will undertake further postgraduate studies in Biomedical Engineering to develop a deeper understanding of medical technology and strengthen the connections between the Australian and American med-tech ecosystems. In the future, Khoa hopes to harness the power of advanced medical technology to improve health equity for disadvantaged Australians.