Alumni Profiles

Timothy Bralower Senior Scholars

“Ecosystems are being altered by climate change—coral reefs are dying, food chains are being damaged, and marine diversity is dropping. A combination of scientific research and policy decisions are desperately needed to address the changes. It is an effort for which international collaboration is essential.”

Professor Timothy Bralower, Professor and Head of the Department of Geosciences in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Pennsylvania State University has received a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to come to the Climate Research Centre at the University of New South Wales for six months. He will focus on ocean acidification and climate change.

Timothy will set up a joint U.S.-Australian project that will address acidification and the larger issue of climate change on three levels.

Firstly the collaboration will work on improving our scientific understanding of ocean acidification. Secondly he will work with Australian geoscience departments to strengthen programs focused on climate change, and thirdly, he will play a role in educating the broader public on pressing environmental issues by developing an on-line course, “Earth Futures.”

“As humans add increasing amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, temperatures are rising and global climate is changing. The oceans are becoming more acidic, causing important marine organisms such as reef-forming corals to dissolve,” Professor Bralower said.

“Current projections suggest that the oceans will become sufficiently acidic to extinguish coral reefs within this century. Acidification will also threaten some of the most important plankton at the bottom of the food chain, and loss of these organisms could hurt life throughout the oceans.”

Timothy has a BA with Honours in Geology, Oxford University, England; an MS in Oceanography, and PhD in Earth Sciences from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. He is a recognised leader in the field of paleoceanography, has published extensively, and is a dedicated educator and administrator. In his spare time he enjoys gardening, travel, and a variety of sports.

Nicole Carter Senior Scholars

“That water availability can influence energy choices and that energy choices have freshwater implications are only recently part of the international and national debates over the future energy economy and prospects for energy and environmental security.”

Dr Nicole Carter, Natural Resources Specialist with the Congressional Research Service at the U.S. Library of Congress, Washington, DC, will come to the Australian National University in Canberra to explore factors shaping the energy sector’s water use in Australia and other water resource management issues.

“In the last decade, Australia more than any other country has invested financial and political capital in transforming its water policy. It is exploring opportunities to more efficiently use water and to more reliably meet human and environmental needs,” Nicole said. “Pursuing water policy reforms, however, is neither simple nor politically expedient. I want to learn about both the benefits and drawbacks of these reforms.”

“Climate change and new demands for water are testing freshwater systems globally. My research will investigate whether Australia’s investment in reforming water policy will allow it to better adapt and prosper in midst of increasing constraints.”

Using data compiled from government and industry sources and collected through interviews Nicole’s Fulbright research will analyse water-related decisions by the energy sector.

Her research aims to identify policies that may increase energy’s water use (e.g., promotion of some climate mitigation and renewable electricity technologies) and policies that are or could be used to manage this use. The results could inform water, energy, and climate policy in Australia and elsewhere.

The Fulbright Scholar Program will provide Nicole with the opportunity to concentrate her research and thoughts on issues of long-term significance for U.S. water policy through the lens of Australia’s experience.

Nicole has a BS (Civil Engineering) from The University of Texas at Austin; an MS (Engineering) and a PhD (Civil and Environmental Engineering) from Stanford University. She has published extensively, including many reports to Congress. In her spare time she enjoys hiking and water sports.

Professor Calum John Drummond Senior Scholars

Calum is a graduate of The University of Melbourne (BScEd (H1, 1981), BSc Hons (H1, 1982), PhD and DSc in Physical Chemistry (1987 and 2015). As the current RMIT Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation and Vice President, he has a leadership role in the development of discovery and practice-based research and in building and enhancing capability in research and innovation across the University. He joined RMIT University in 2014 from CSIRO where he was Group Executive for Manufacturing, Materials and Minerals. Immediately prior to this CSIRO Group Executive appointment, he was Chief of CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering. Previously, Calum was seconded from CSIRO to be the inaugural Vice President Research at CAP-XX, an Intel portfolio company.

He is an active researcher with interests in the area of advanced materials, including application to energy storage and biomedical products. The outstanding calibre of his research has been recognised through the award of the 2015 Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation (Physical Sciences Category), CSIRO Fellow designation (2013; CSIRO’s highest award for exceptional scientists), World Economic Forum Global Technology Pioneer (2005; awarded to CAP-XX), Frost and Sullivan (USA) Excellence in Communication and Information Technologies Award (2006; awarded to CAP-XX), an Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellowship (2003-2010), an ARC Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship (1990-1993), the inaugural R.J.W. Le Févre Memorial Prize from the Australian Academy of Science (1989), the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) Rennie Memorial Medal (1989), the RACI Applied Research Award (2002), the RACI Industrial Chemistry Division RK Murphy Medal (2004), the RACI Green Chemistry Challenge Award (2005), the RACI Physical Chemistry Division Medal (2006), the RACI HG Smith Memorial Medal (2015), CSIRO Medal for Outstanding Research Achievement (2004), CSIRO Medal for Business Excellence (2011), Distinguished Lecturer Award from The Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division of the Japanese Chemical Society (2011), Distinguished Paper Award of The Soap and Detergent Association (USA) and The American Oil Chemists Society (2001), both the David Syme Research Prize (2002) and the Grimwade Prize in Industrial Chemistry (1995) from The University of Melbourne, and a Rothmans Foundation Fellowship (1990; declined).

Throughout the term of his Fulbright Scholarship, Calum hopes to embed ongoing research collaboration between MIT and RMIT in the area of drug delivery. His plans include disseminating new knowledge through publishing research papers in high impact journals and presenting at international science and engineering conferences, with aims to advancing the understanding of therapeutic protein structure and function preservation (protein stability) in vitro and in vivo. While in Boston, Calum will be exchanging the latest thinking on enhancing university research and innovation ecosystems, improving university research and innovation management, and translating research beyond the academic community to deliver broader positive economic, community and environmental impact.

Dr Patrick Kilby Senior Scholars

Patrick is the Coordinator of the Masters in Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development Program at the Australian National University, and carries out research in gender and development, foreign aid policy, and NGOs.

Patrick’s Fulbright project will see him working with Feed the Future Innovation Labs at Kansas State University to analyse their agricultural research in aid and development programs, and in particular how local communities (particularly women) can adapt this research to their local needs. From this research Patrick will gain an insight into the future directions foreign aid-supported agricultural research may take. The focus will be on the implications for U.S. and Australia’s agricultural development assistance in a rapidly changing world, and most importantly, how this research can have the greatest impact on local communities.

Richard Adams Professional Scholars

“Military service is military service, not military servitude. Service does not entail a pledge to be unquestioningly and mindlessly compliant.”

Dr Richard Adams, a Lieutenant Commander within the Royal Australian Navy Directorate of Leadership and Ethics, has won a Fulbright Professional Scholarship to go to Yale University for four months.

Through his Fulbright, Richard will examine expectations in military doctrine that soldiers subjugate their will to command. His research will illuminate the obligation of soldiers to act with moral purpose and autonomy as a force for good in the world, rather than as brute instruments of state power. The research aims to establish the basis upon which military doctrine may take a more morally sophisticated form.

“Fighting under duress, people are denied opportunity to fight voluntarily. They become utensils of the state and ‘their battles are no longer theirs,’” Richard said.

“The idea of subjugation is further significant because it connotes the “failure of most people to resist unjust authority”. The risk of atrocity following from this failure is conspicuous and grave.”

“Acknowledging the place of conscience and free will, my research will articulate a new doctrinal argument,” Richard said.

“It will be a delicate balance, because there is something concerning about the citizens of a democracy, volunteering to offer military service, and becoming commodified as unthinking and morally quiescent cogs in the military machine. But on the other hand I acknowledge, the very real need for an efficient, obedient military instrument.”

The research will be supported by the Global Justice program, led by Professor Thomas Pogge at Yale University. It has great resonance with the espoused aim of this program to explore morality in foreign policy and transnational institutional arrangements.

Richard has a BEd (Hons 1), Master of Industrial Relations and PhD from the University of Western Australia. He has won awards and prizes including the Bertha Houghton Prize for Best Fourth Year Student in the B. Ed programme at UWA; the Cecil Andrews Prize for Best Honours Graduate, UWA; an Admiral’s Commendation for Professional Excellence and Dux of the Junior Officers’ Management and Strategic Studies Course. He has submitted a thesis in fulfilment of a Master of Arts in classics, ancient philosophy and military ethics at the University of New South Wales.

Dr Peter Stanwell Professional Scholars

Peter is a medical imaging research scientist with a strong interest in understanding the biochemical and biophysical changes that occur following brain injury. He has a goal of providing quantitative metrics, via MRI scanning, to inform evidence-based strategies to optimise medical treatment of traumatic brain injuries.

Peter is seeking to achieve this by working with Dr Alexander Lin, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Dr Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT for the duration of his Fulbright Scholarship, and he hopes to strengthen existing collaborative ties between these centres and the University of Newcastle. While in Boston, Peter is looking forward to increasing his technical research skills in fluorescence microscopy and brain connectivity methods, and expanding his knowledge of implementation science to facilitate translation of his research findings beyond the academic community. Through this he will deliver positive healthcare, community and societal outcomes following traumatic brain injury.

Steven Tong Postdoctoral Scholars

“Staphylococcus aureus (golden staph) is a major cause of severe community and hospital acquired infections.”

Dr Steven Tong, a Consultant Physician at Royal Darwin Hospital and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research is the winner of the inaugural Fulbright Northern Territory Scholarship, supported by the Northern Territory Government, Charles Darwin University and corporate sponsor Blackboard Asia Pacific. The first project will examine the relationship between the bacterium and infection of the lining of the heart muscle. The second will build on Dr Tong’s existing work on a certain strain of the bacterium to assess its virulence and assist with management of infections. The projects will have benefits both for the medical profession generally and for the Top End in particular.

“The Menzies School of Health Research is establishing an internationally and nationally recognized role in staphylococcal research. This project will further enhance this reputation and establish an ongoing collaborative link with one of the world’s leading centres for staphylococcal research,” Steven said. Steven has an MBBS with honours from the University of Melbourne, is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and has a PhD in Biomedicine from Charles Darwin University.  He has received various awards and prizes including the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases travel award: best advanced training project, American Society of Microbiology Student and Post Doctoral Fellows Travel Grant, and the Australian Society for Antimicrobials travel award, and he has also published extensively.

In his spare time he enjoys reading, bike riding and assuming the role of the prince in various games with his two young daughters. 

The prestigious Fulbright program is the largest educational scholarship of its kind, created by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and the U.S. Government in 1946. Aimed at promoting mutual understanding through educational exchange, it operates between the U.S. and 155 countries. In Australia, the scholarships are funded by the Australian and U.S. Governments and corporate partners and administered by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission in Canberra. Steven is one of 26 talented Australians to be recognised as a Fulbright Scholar in 2011.

Hannah Etchells Postgraduate Students

Hannah earned her BSc in Botany and Conservation Biology and first class honours in Botany at the University of Western Australia. She is currently completing her PhD research, focussing on the ecological impacts of large-scale, catastrophic wildfire events.

For her Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship, Hannah will work in the laboratory of Professor Scott Stephens at University of California Berkeley, researching wildfire impacts and prescribed burning in California. The forested regions of Australia and North America have both witnessed unprecedented large-scale wildfire events over the last decade, and wildfire in both regions is projected increase in frequency and severity over the next century. However, the ecological impacts of such events and consequences for future management are poorly understood. Hannah’s research will promote the sharing of knowledge between Australia and the U.S., forging research ties and developing collaborative projects to understand catastrophic wildfire events in a global context. She looks forward to both sharing and learning innovative new techniques for quantifying and monitoring the complex ecological impacts of catastrophic wildfire, as well as gaining a greater understanding of how fire research can be used to inform management actions under a changing climate.

Joel Fuller Postgraduate Students

Joel has always had a love for sport and being active. Growing up he competed in basketball, Australian football and cricket and currently he spends his spare time surfing and scuba diving. Joel’s love of sport has also seen him develop a passion for encouraging others to be active. Throughout high school Joel was a coach in local community sporting programs where he helped school children enjoy being physically active. These early experiences as a leader taught Joel how rewarding it is to help others and ever since he has pursued careers that bring benefit to the community. In 2008, Joel was accepted into the bachelor of physiotherapy program at the University of South Australia, which allowed him to combine his passion for helping others with his love of sports. Joel supplemented his study with work at Flinders Medical Centre as a physiotherapy assistant, where he helped patients improve their level of function and return to the home.

After completing two years of his physiotherapy degree Joel was given the opportunity to complete an honours research project. While completing the honours program Joel learned how research could be used to benefit the widespread community. As an avid sportsman that also enjoys maintaining a good level of physical fitness, Joel has always been aware of the frustrations associated with being injured and unable to participate in the physical activities you love or complete the necessary physical activity to maintain fitness. Sedentary lifestyle is a major cause of chronic illness (in particular cardiovascular disease) and premature morbidity in the U.S. and Australia. As a result, absence from sport and physical activity can have tragic health consequences. Sport and physical activity are also a common form of positive social interaction and absence from this interaction through injury can have a negative effect on mental health. As a result, Joel has always been interested in understanding what can be done to prevent the occurrence of injury and this topic has become a research passion for him. Currently, Joel is completing a Phd with the University of South Australia that is investigating prevention of injury in distance runners in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Sport.

As part of his PhD research, Joel is investigating how variability in the running stride can be used to identify individuals at the greatest risk of injury. To undertake this research Joel undertook a short placement at the University of Massachusetts in 2014 in order to learn the techniques required to study running stride variability. At the University of Massachusetts Joel had the pleasure of working with some fantastic researchers and learnt that international collaboration is the best way to pioneer innovative health strategies. Following this initial exposure to international collaboration Joel has worked towards undertaking further research with the University of Massachusetts in 2015. Joel hopes that this collaboration will lead to improved injury prevention within sports medicine and help reduce the negative health effects that are associated with absence from sport and physical activity through injury.

Joel aims to improve sports injury prevention strategies through the combined expertise of Australian and U.S. sports scientists. Joel will undertake a prospective study investigating whether running stride variability can predict musculoskeletal injury amongst athletes. Undertaking this research at the University of Massachusetts provides the opportunity to work with a large cohort of high-performance athletes. This opportunity is typically not possible at Australian universities, which rarely have high-performance sporting programs. Joel hopes that his Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship will establish an ongoing collaboration between the University of Massachusetts and the University of South Australia. Additionally, Joel’s ongoing collaboration with the Australian Institute of Sport will allow the findings of his scholarship to be effectively integrated into the management of Australia’s athletes and community sporting initiatives.

Ariel Marcy Postgraduate Students

Ariel is an evolutionary ecologist dedicated to communicating science, especially through games. Her research focuses on the evolution of digging mammals – particularly how differences in digging adaptations give certain species an advantage in specific soil types. Her first publication on the North American Western pocket gophers (genus Thomomys) demonstrated that their unusual pattern of species distributions could be explained by differences in soil type and digging adaptations.

During her Fulbright Scholarship, Ariel will be working with Dr. Vera Weisbecker of The University of Queensland in Brisbane. They plan to conduct similar study with Australian short-beaked echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus) as Ariel did with pocket gophers. Echidnas and gophers are both digging mammals found across a variety of ecosystems and soil types. Echidnas, unlike gophers, lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. Their research will lay the groundwork for understanding how two digging mammals with radically divergent development strategies evolve differently to similar selection pressures. This work will contribute to the growing field of Evolutionary Development, which looks at the developmental process to understand what variations are possible for certain animals to evolve. This organism-centric approach complements the more traditional approach to evolution research which focuses on how the environment selects for certain variations.

Since graduating from Stanford in 2011, Ariel has taught in both college and high school settings as well as designed mobile and tabletop science games. In 2011-2012 academic year, Ariel taught Human Biology at Stanford as a Course Associate. Observing how difficult it was for students to imagine the dynamic cell environment, Ariel and a team of Stanford faculty applied for a grant to create an educational game. The resulting mobile and web game, Cancer Avenger is now used as part of the introductory biology classes to help students get hands-on experience with stem cells, cell signaling, and cancer.

In 2013, she founded an education company, STEAM Galaxy Studios. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. The company makes games, books, and toys that emphasize the creativity inherent in STEM as well as encourage a wider diversity of youth to pursue STEAM fields. Ariel’s first card game for STEAM Galaxy, Go Extinct!, was successfully funded through a Kickstarter campaign in May 2014. Go Extinct! teaches people years and older how land animals are related, how to read evolutionary trees, and the evidence scientists use to create the trees.

When Ariel is not looking at mammal bones or making games, she enjoys road biking, reading science fiction, and playing fiddle in a bluegrass band called Nimbleweed.

North American pocket gophers and Australian echidnas provide a unique evolutionary study system: both are digging mammals but have radically different developmental strategies. During her Fulbright scholarship, Ariel plans to complete morphometric (i.e. functional shape) analyses of forelimbs for both gophers and echidnas and also conduct a geographical study of echidnas comparing shape differences to soil types similar to her work with gophers. These two studies would provide a unique comparison of digging monotremes and placentals, as well as lay the groundwork for investigations on how their different developmental strategies impact adaptation to a variety of soil types. As part of the civic engagement component, Ariel will create an educational card game featuring Australian fauna that engages middle and high school students in ideas about evolutionary development. Ariel hopes to publish her research with Dr. Vera Weisbecker of the University of Queensland and will make the card game freely available online to download and print.

Roxanne Moore Postgraduate Students

“I aspire to become a human rights advocate; to use the power of the law to protect the rights of vulnerable people and to demand justice where human rights have been abused.”

Ms Roxanne Moore, lawyer, will have the opportunity to spend a year at New York University through winning one of two Fulbright Western Australia Scholarships sponsored by the Western Australian Government and universities. She will undertake a LLM (International Legal Studies), specialising in public international law and human rights law. Roxanne will learn about comparative human rights systems and gain expertise in specific topics, with a view to contributing to Australian human rights law reform and becoming an advocate.

“This experience will provide me with an excellent foundation to return to Australia to advocate for human rights within the current legal framework – either via pro-bono work as a commercial lawyer or barrister, or by working for a non-government organisation – and to significantly contribute to reforming Australia’s legal structures for human rights protection,” Roxanne said.

Her further study aims to achieve four objectives: to expand and develop her knowledge about international law and international systems; to learn about comparative human rights law systems, particularly in the Asia Pacific region; to increase her knowledge about specific human rights topics; and to gain practical experience in human rights advocacy and research.

“Studying a LLM in the U.S. will provide many opportunities not otherwise available in Australia; to learn from the most respected academics and leaders in their field at the highest ranked universities in the world and to gain hands-on experience in human rights advocacy through participation in the university clinics.”

Roxanne has an LLB (Dist.)/BA (Indonesian Language) from the University of Western Australia and was admitted as a lawyer in 2012. Roxanne previously represented UWA in the international rounds of the Philip C Jessup International Law Mooting Competition, and after graduating became the Principal Associate to the Hon Chief Justice Martin AC of the Supreme Court of WA. She has volunteered with many organisations, but most extensively with Amnesty International Australia, for whom she founded the national ARTillery arts festival, culminating in her recognition as a finalist for the 2010 WA Young Person of the Year Award. Her interests include learning languages,live music and the Arts.

Gar-Wing Truong Postgraduate Students

“Improved and more reliable data for global warming research are of significant benefit to society, as they help to better understand its causes and accurately evaluate the impact of policy decisions.”

Gar-Wing Truong, a PhD candidate from the University of Western Australia (UWA) is the winner of the 2011 Fulbright Postgraduate Alumni (WG Walker) Scholarship, which is funded through donations by Fulbright Alumni and awarded to the highest ranked Scholar. He is also the winner of the prestigious 2011 Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship in Technology and Communications sponsored by Telstra.

Gar-Wing’s research will further his PhD research in  high-sensitivity and accurate measurements of gas properties using a novel optical analysis technique based on laser spectroscopy  at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Maryland, U.S. “These fields of fundamental physics have led to deep insights into how our universe works at the finest levels by modeling the interaction between light waves and atoms or molecules. Modern technologies like the laser and the Global Positioning system are enabled by such fundamental research,” Gar-Wing said.

With Dr Joseph Hodges at NIST, Gar-Wing will extend a technique that can measure the temperature of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) in the atmosphere with high precision. The collaboration will combine methods of measuring accurate gas pressure and abundance using the apparatus available at NIST, with temperature measurement that is currently the subject of Gar-Wing’s PhD research. “This research is of particular significance to Australia if it is to take the lead in global warming abatement policy and research. Indeed, it is also highly relevant to the state of Western Australia, whose economy is strongly driven by oil, gas and mineral industries,” Gar-Wing said.

Gar-Wing has a BSc (physics, First Class Honours), University of Western Australia. He has won awards and prizes including the UWA Hackett Postgraduate Scholarship, Muriel and Colin Ramm Medal and Scholarship for Experimental Physics and the Digby Fitzhardinge Memorial Prize. His other interests include science communication, photography, tennis and soccer.

The prestigious Fulbright program is the largest educational scholarship of its kind, created by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and the U.S. Government in 1946. Aimed at promoting mutual understanding through educational exchange, it operates between the U.S. and 155 countries. In Australia, the scholarships are funded by the Australian and U.S. Governments and corporate partners and administered by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission in Canberra. Gar-Wing is one of 26 talented Australians to be recognised as a Fulbright Scholar in 2011.