Alumni Profiles

Gayle is the founder and principal Clinical Psychologist at the Psychological Wellness Centre, a private practice formed in 2006. The practice is comprised of a team of Clinical Psychologists dedicated to providing best practice by matching client’s presenting issues with the most appropriate Clinical Psychologist based on their different areas of special interest, experience and therapeutic approach.

Gayle has worked as a Clinical Psychologist for the past 15 years since graduating with the masters prize in psychology from Curtin University in 2000. Gayle holds a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) with first class honours; a Masters degree in Psychology (Clinical); and a Ph.D. She is a member of the Australian Clinical Psychology Association and the International OCD Foundation.

Gayle has gained extensive clinical experience working with adult clients and multi-disciplinary clinical teams in diverse environments including Western Australia’s largest public and private hospitals. Gayle has training in a range of psychotherapeutic approaches including cognitive-behavioural therapy, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, schema therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Gayle’s clinical work is predominantly in the area of providing psychological treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), perfectionism and anxiety. Gayle also provides clinical supervision and training in psychological therapy to other mental health professionals.

Through her clinical work Gayle became fascinated by the more complex causes of OCD and elected to undertake further research in this area, while continuing to work in her private practice. Gayle was the recipient of an Australian Postgraduate Award to complete a PhD during 2007-2011 that investigated the salient aetiological factors in the development of unrelenting levels of perfectionism, which is a known factor associated with OCD. In particular she examined how parental bonding and temperament interact to form specific core beliefs that contribute to the development of perfectionism. Gayle has presented her research at national and international conferences.

In addition to practicing evidence-based psychological therapy for OCD, Gayle’s research interests are concurrently focused on the development of adjunct psychological treatment strategies for OCD sufferers whose symptoms do not adequately respond to existing available psychotherapeutic approaches and medications. Gayle believes that the process of achieving successful treatment outcomes often requires drawing on knowledge from multidisciplinary teams, and a variety of therapeutic approaches to develop optimised treatment methodologies.

As a Fulbright scholar, Gayle will collaborate on a research program with one of the leading experts in OCD, A/Professor Christopher Pittenger at the Yale OCD Research clinic, during July-November 2015. The Yale clinic has a 25-year history of groundbreaking advances in the understanding and treatment of OCD. In particular, they will work together on combining an adjunct clinical component with established treatments whilst utilising Yale’s neuroimaging technology, in order to expand the scientific evidence base for new OCD treatments. Gayle will have the opportunity to learn about aetiology and treatment from a wide breadth of disciplines through observing research trials that seek to advance the field’s understanding and treatment of the disorder. Gayle will also complete advanced-level courses on OCD and related treatments, at training facilities only available in the U.S.

Through pursuing research areas that combine Gayle’s clinical experience with OCD sufferers with the biological and neuroimaging expertise at the Yale OCD Research Clinic, the collaboration seeks to foster mutual enrichment of knowledge between Australia and the U.S. to inform further research, and develop desperately needed new adjunct treatments in the field of OCD.

Based on additional knowledge gained in the U.S., Gayle will provide training to the Clinical Psychologists working at the Psychological Wellness Centre, and make available professional development webinars and workshops for Clinical Psychologists and Psychiatrists in the broader Australian profession involved in the treatment of OCD.

By far the most important area to disseminate the findings of the Fulbright scholarship is to the sufferers of OCD and their families. Hence, Gayle plans to open the ‘Perth OCD and Anxiety Clinic’ in 2016, which will be comprised of a team of experienced Clinical Psychologists with a special interest in the treatment of OCD. The clinic will also provide ongoing advanced professional development opportunities in the field of OCD psychological treatment.

William Feeney is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland. He completed his PhD at the Australian National University, and held an Endeavour Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on the ecology and evolution of competitive interactions between species, and how these interactions affect biological diversity. He will work with Dr Danielle Dixson at the School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, from January 2016 to October 2016.

His research will focus on mutualistic interactions between coral reef fishes. In particular, he will investigate whether interspecies mutualisms predict resilience to a changing environment.

“While competitive interactions are relatively well studied, and tend to generate biological diversity, mutualistic interactions are generally less well studied, but seem to conserve diversity. Coral reefs are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and this project will investigate whether mutualistic interactions will help the involved species cope with their changing environment.”

Whilst at the Georgia Institute of Technology William will study if mutualistic interactions between species confer resilience or vulnerability in a changing environment, which continues on from his work at the University of Queensland.

Renxun obtained his bachelor degree in Nanotechnology with honours from the University of New South Wales. He continued at UNSW where he completed his PhD under the supervision of Prof Naresh Kumar and Prof Mark Willcox with the support of the National Health and Medical Research Council Dora Lush Postgraduate Scholarship. In his current role as a postdoctoral fellow as well as in his PhD, Renxun has been working in a cross-disciplinary field encompassing chemistry, material science and microbiology, to develop new antimicrobial coatings to prevent infections on medical devices and implants using novel antimicrobials. His research specifically focuses on the development of antimicrobial chemical coatings on biomaterial surfaces for biomedical devices and implants. The use of biomedical devices and implants such as catheters, stents and contact lenses has resulted in enormous improvements in the quality of life and patient survival rates. However, the development of infection on these devices and implants results in high patient morbidity and mortality, as well as enormous associated medical costs to the community. It was estimated that more than 50% of hospital-acquired infections are biomaterial related. By grafting antimicrobial agents such as novel antimicrobial peptides (synthetic peptide “melimine” and its analogues) and quorum sensing inhibitors such as dihydropyrrolones (DHPs), Renxun has shown that biomaterial infections can be prevented and/or treated. Melimine and DHPs are both Australian inventions and are being developed by Prof Kumar and Prof Willcox in UNSW. These new antimicrobials have unique proposed mechanisms of action which does not readily induce resistance in microbes. This is a significant advantage in their future development.

The results from these projects have been published in high impact journals in the field such as Biomaterials, Biofouling and Acta Biomaterialia. The potent ability of tethered melimine to prevent microbial adhesion and colonisation on biomaterial surfaces were demonstrated. Furthermore, the structure-activity relationship for effective tethering of antimicrobial peptides was found, whereby the cationic portion of antimicrobial peptides has to be exposed to the bacteria for optimal activity. Renxun also demonstrated the link between attachment chemistry, and final activity for peptide-coated surfaces. The significance of these papers is demonstrated by the 28 citations so far. Furthermore, Renxun also demonstrated the use of “click” chemistry to covalently attach DHPs, quorums sensing inhibitors, which acts as an antimicrobial without killing bacteria, onto surfaces. He demonstrated this unique mechanism of action through the use of fluorescence staining and GFP-mutants strains of bacteria.

Building on the work of Prof Kathryn Uhrich’s group at Rutgers University, Renxun’s Fulbright project aims to develop a new dual action drug-releasing polymer that not only prevents the increasingly hard-to-treat microbial infections, but also promotes wound healing and reduces inflammatory response. It is envisaged that this new therapy will become the gold-standard for infection prevention and wound management and revolutionise the biomedical devices industry. The potential outcome of this project is significant for the community as bacterial infection is a growing problem that is worsening due to lack of new treatments and emerging antibiotic resistance.

Emma grew up with her family in the grounds of the scenic Gladesville Psychiatric Hospital, established in 1838, on the Parramatta River in Sydney, Australia. Inspired by her mothers work there as a psychiatrist, Emma pursued a career in Psychology with a keen interest in the treatment of psychological trauma. During her Masters degree in Forensic Psychology she worked with a number of individuals within prison settings, most of whom had experienced serious trauma (often in their childhood) and were suffering from anxiety or depression, and substance misuse. It was at this time when Emma recognised an ever-growing need for psychological treatments to address both mental health and substance use disorders in an integrated fashion.

Emma completed her PhD at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales. Combining her clinical and research skills, she worked on a world-first randomised controlled trial of an integrated treatment for adults with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorder. During her PhD candidature, Emma recognised the alarmingly high rates of childhood trauma among individuals with PTSD and substance use disorder and that these comorbid (i.e. co-occurring) disorders tended to develop during adolescence. These individuals, however, did not receive any treatment until much later in life, if at all. By adulthood the disorders and related harms were well established and it was clear that the chronic disability associated with the conditions may be reduced with effective early intervention. With a view to pursuing research in this area, Emma sought to improve her knowledge and skills in adolescent mental health at the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Mental Health and Substance. She was successful in obtaining a competitive Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Centre and her passion for research into mental health and substance use comorbidity has continued to thrive.

To date, Emma’s research has contributed significantly to improving the understanding of comorbid PTSD and substance use and the related harms. She has published articles in leading peer-reviewed journals and her research has received national and international recognition at over 60 major scientific conferences. Most notably, in 2014 she was awarded the College of Problems on Drug Dependence (CPDD) Early Career Travel Award to present her research on mental health and substance use outcomes associated with child trauma at the CPDD Annual Meeting in Puerto Rico. In recognition of the quality and significance of her research, Emma has received a total of 15 travel grants and awards for scientific excellence. Emma is delighted to be awarded the Fulbright Scholarship as it will provide her with an unparalleled opportunity to work closely with leading comorbidity experts in the US to increase her knowledge and clinical skills, and to improve treatment options for individuals exposed to trauma.

During her time on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Medical University of South Carolina, Emma aims to develop and test an integrated psychological treatment for co-occurring traumatic stress and substance use among adolescents. She will work closely with international experts in this area to share knowledge, advance clinical research and foster strong, long-lasting research collaborations. Given the severe and chronic mental health consequences associated with trauma, research on the development of effective, theory-driven treatments for adolescents is of paramount public health importance. Upon her return to Australia, Emma will share her experiences and new knowledge, maintain the cross-national collaborations, and will strive to become a recognised leader in comorbidity research.

Annette’s career has spanned a wide range of roles in three very different industries – starting in Information Technology, then Financial Services, and now in the not-for-profit world of Conservation. Through these roles she has built a broad skills base covering systems development, business planning, strategy development, and business process improvement. This on-the-job experience has been augmented with broader insights from academic learning; Annette has a Masters of Business Administration from Macquarie University, and a Masters of Environmental Management & Restoration from Charles Sturt University.

Annette’s particular interest in all roles has been to analyse how a business operates and then identify opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness. In the commercial world this is an accepted and fundamental activity that leads to improved profitability. In the not-for-profit world, there is rarely the opportunity for capacity-building activities such as these, and yet continual efficiency and effectiveness improvements are critical for ensuring that donors’ funds are used wisely.

In recent years Annette’s role at Bush Heritage Australia has provided the opportunity to leverage her skills in a field that she is passionate about – protecting Australia’s plants and animals for future generations. In collaboration with her colleagues, she has been able to make significant improvements in the way they plan, implement and monitor their conservation work. Annette has also found innovative ways to connect their conservation projects and information into their other core business processes of financial management, people management, and fundraising. The result has been a significant improvement in the way they manage the business of conservation.

Through this work Annette has had the opportunity to collaborate with people in conservation groups around the world who are working on similar endeavours; these people have been inspirational in showing what can be achieved by smart, committed people working with very limited resources. She has greatly benefited from the experiences of others, and is keen to give something back.

Annette is fortunate in that her professional work fits easily alongside her personal passion of protecting the planet for future generations. Outside of work she enjoys travelling to wild and remote places, to observe wildlife going about its daily life far from the influences of human activity. These opportunities are increasingly rare, which motivates her to work towards solutions that allow for a happy co-existence amongst all living creatures. Beyond work and travel, Annette spends her time bushwalking, photographing landscapes and wildlife, and being inspired by creative people in many areas of the arts. Watching sports of all sorts has created and sustains many valued friendships.

The privilege of receiving a Fulbright Scholarship gives Annette the opportunity to work closely with the Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP), which is an active consortium of leading conservation organizations, agencies and funders in the US. The CMP brings together its members to share experiences and conduct research to improve the practice of conservation. This work is encapsulated in the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation, a series of best practices for designing, managing, monitoring, and learning from conservation work, along with some supporting software, Miradi.

Annette’s Fulbright project aims to develop a series of case studies. These case studies will help to demonstrate to the senior leadership of conservation and donor organizations the benefits obtained through systematic project planning and implementation, and the resultant improvements to business efficiency and effectiveness. The case studies will also highlight the barriers faced by organisations, providing a focus for further work to address these issues.

Annette is hoping that she will be able to develop new insights to empower conservation organisations around the world to achieve better protection for the world’s wildlife and landscapes.

Mark graduated from Melbourne University Medical School in 1998 and became a Fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine in 2007. His emergency medicine training was predominantly completed at The Western Hospital Footscray, in Melbourne’s western suburbs. He also spent time at The Royal Children’s Hospital, The Alfred Hospital and with Careflight Queensland. For the past seven years he has been an emergency physician at Bendigo Health in central Victoria and has shared the role of Co-Director of Emergency Medicine Training there for the past four years. In that time he has also worked part-time for the state critical care retrieval service coordinating and carrying out the retrieval of critically ill patients from rural areas to the city and in private and public urban emergency departments.

Mark is interested in the way well constructed systems allow talented people to do extraordinary things. Working as a director of training he has been passionate about building an educational environment at Bendigo to best bring out the talents of his trainees. Working in public and private, rural and urban EDs and for the state retrieval coordination service he has developed a broader interest in health care systems and the way they can be structured to make the most of the talents and resources available. He is particularly passionate about building capacity in rural and regional areas, having been part of a team that has built a successful and highly functioning emergency department and sought-after medical training hub in a hospital that only recently struggled to find medical staff year by year.

Mark will travel to several US states to examine the ways in which the concept of a “model trauma system” has been implemented to suit local needs. He will focus on identifying the features which are successful in some jurisdictions but absent in others. In this way he will gain a perspective that can inform the further evolution of Victoria’s very successful trauma system. He hopes to bring back knowledge that could be applied in other Australian states and in other countries that are looking to develop their emergency care systems. Following his research term in the US, Mark will take up a sabbatical position at the National Trauma Research Institute at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne where he aims to consolidate his work on the project.

Sean grew up on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, coming from a small regional centre Sean was eager to broaden his view of the world. He saw a continuing commitment to tertiary education throughout his life as an important part of that journey.

After finishing his first degree at Charles Sturt University, Sean returned to Port Stephens where he had grown up and took a job as a journalist on the local newspaper. Sean was able to use this experience to provide a platform for local environmental and social causes. This also kindled an interest in local Aboriginal people and he published a range of stories highlighting the Aboriginal culture of the area.

Later that year, Sean joined the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and worked as a detective in the Sydney office. A strong driver in this role was his sense of justice and the great satisfaction that Sean drew from being able to assist victims of crime. While Sean was in the AFP he obtained a Master of Arts degree from the University of New South Wales. Sean’s major was Australian studies and this included a historical analysis of Aboriginal people and culture which opened his eyes to the plight of Indigenous Australians and the terrible dislocation and disparities they faced.

In 1993 Sean took on a policy analyst role in the NSW Ministry for Police and then went on to work as a senior policy analyst for NSW Corrective Services. During this time he began working part-time at night as a teacher for TAFE and gained formal VET qualifications in adult education. NSW Corrective Services has a large training academy, and in 1997 Sean accepted a role running the professional development team. Sean obtained a Masters in Education and moved into a range of leadership roles over the next nine years. He ultimately became Academy Director.

In 2006, Sean was appointed Director Learning & Development with the NSW Department of Community Services. Eventually, this department was amalgamated with several others to form Family and Community Services – effectively the social justice arm of government. He became Director Learning & Development for this larger department, which is still his role today.

Over the past decade Sean has had five books published, studied at Harvard University, won a Churchill Fellowship and become an accredited executive coach. Sean has also had a platform in this role for his writing and has been fortunate to have had a wide range of his work experiences both published and presented as conference papers.

Aboriginal children and families are grossly over-represented as clients of the human services system in all Australian States and in many international jurisdictions where there are significant indigenous populations, including the USA. Over the past decade, Sean has been part of a process of developing the capabilities and building the career paths of Aboriginal staff in the human services sector in NSW as a means of addressing some of this imbalance.

An understanding of cultural differences is at the heart of good organisational education and career development programs that have a meaningful impact on indigenous employees. Sean’s project aims to strengthen the capability and career options for Aboriginal people working in the human services sector. It builds on best practices in learning approaches and career development programs delivered via the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) for indigenous people working in the social welfare context in the United States.

Detailed research into the success factors for the NCWWI’s programs can be leveraged to enhance career development opportunities for Aboriginal Australians in human services. Furthermore, in the course of conducting this research and working collaboratively with the NCWWI, Sean believes there will be multiple opportunities to share insights, which will benefit practitioners in this field in both countries.

Before joining the Department of Policing and Counter Terrorism (PICT), Adam was a Research Fellow in Defence Studies at the University of New South Wales. He has also held positions at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington, DC, and was the Lowy Institute’s 2008 Thawley Scholarship in International Security winner. He also spent four years serving in the Australian Army.

Adam has published widely on issues relating to Australian defence strategy, US defence and foreign policy, post-conflict reconstruction, governance and insurgency. His article titled “The Logic of Interoperability: Australia’s Acquisition of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter” won the SAGE Award for the best international contribution to a Canadian academic journal in 2013. His article entitled “Evaluating Civil Development in Counterinsurgency Operations” won the prestigious Boyer Prize for best original article published in the Australian Journal of International Affairs in 2012.

The Fulbright Scholarship in Australia-United States Alliance Studies will provide Adam with an opportunity to pursue his research on the future of the alliance in the Indo-Pacific Arc region. The Indo-Pacific Arc is vital to both Australia and the United States. As such, at first glance, it would seem an ideal area for enhanced security cooperation. However, despite many voices of optimism, there are reasons to suspect that cooperation between the allies will be more challenging in the Indo-Pacific Arc than many assume. Australia and the United States have their own unique bilateral relations with many of the countries that constitute the Indo-Pacific Arc, including Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Adams research examines the compatibility of US and Australian aims in the region within the context of their own diplomatic histories. Adam hopes his research will eventually inform both an article and chapter in his larger project on Australian defence strategy.

Simon’s main current research interest is the development of genetic methods to study age in animals. The processes driving ageing at the molecular level have become far better understood in the last few years. The most significant change in the understanding of molecular ageing is the recognition that the process of ageing is not just the accumulation of damage, but also includes aspects that are part of a genetic program. The programmed aspects of ageing involve control of gene expression through epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation and expression of regulatory microRNAs. His research on whale age estimation has focused on changes in methylation of specific parts of whale DNA that can be measured in DNA purified from small skin samples to provide an estimate of the age of a whale.

Simon trained as a geneticist at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland where he first learnt about epigenetics and molecular ageing. He then moved back to Australia and pursued some short research projects at the Australian National University and the University of Adelaide on developmental genetics, the first part of the ageing process. He then moved to the University of Tasmania to research of the evolutionary genetics of Antarctic krill as a PhD project. After completing his PhD he worked for the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO) marine research division for a year on developing methods to study population genetics in a diverse range of marine animal species. During this time he developed ideas for studying animal diet from the DNA of animals and plants that survive digestion and can then be detected in stomach contents or scats of an animal. This approach allows the diet of animals like whales or penguins to be studied without harming them. He persuaded the Australian Antarctic Division to employ him to develop these methods for studying the diet of whales. This work was successful and Simon continues to work in this organisation with a team of fellow scientists using DNA-based methods to study the diet of many Antarctic animals such as penguins, Antarctic krill, seals and whales. The success of the application of DNA-based approaches to studying animal diet led to consideration of other features of animal ecology that could be studied with molecular methods such as genetic estimation of animal age.

Simon is lucky to live in the Australian island state of Tasmania, which has large wild areas of coast, rivers and small mountains. He enjoys exploring this island by sea kayak, packraft, bicycle, skis and on foot. Simon has built most of the house in which he lives and hopes to complete this project sometime in the middle of the century.

Simon’s Fulbright scholarship will allow him to work with whale ecologist Dr Jooke Robbins on the applications of population age structure information in whale ecology. Dr Robbins works on the population of humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine. This population has been studied for many years and contains the largest number of whales that have a known age from being recognised visually when less than one year old, and re-sighted in subsequent years. Samples from these known-age whales were essential for calibrating DNA-based methods for age estimation. Commercial harvesting of the Gulf of Maine humpback whales ceased in the early 1900s, whereas the east coast Australian whale fishery was still operating until 1962, which is within the 95 year lifespan of humpback whales. The reearch will compare the population age structures found in both areas and relate the modern day age structures to differences in past whaling history.

This work will also provide a foundation for application of genetic methods for age estimation in other animal species. Simon intends to develop similar genetic age estimation methods for other long-lived wild animals such as albatross and penguins and to use the age information for population status monitoring.

Rob is an Adjunct Law Professor at the University of South Australia, where he continues to teach and research in the field of environmental law after a career spanning almost forty years. In the course of his career, he has served in a number of leadership roles, including as co-founder and co-director of the Australian Centre for Environmental Law; Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Adelaide; Project Leader for an AUSAID judicial training programme on Indonesian environmental law and enforcement; and as a Program Leader for a Cooperative Research Centre on site contamination (CRC CARE) at the University of South Australia.

Rob held a Chair in International Environmental Law at the University of South Australia until 2008, when he decided to pursue other activities. In particular, he served for five years until 2013 as Chair of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, a global network of over 170 law schools involved in the field of environmental law. For the past three years, he has also been a member of the Board of the South Australian Environment Protection Authority. Alongside these professional activities, Rob has given voluntary service over many years to a number of non-government organisations, including the Australian Conservation Council, the Environmental Defenders Office (SA), the Conservation Council of South Australia, the Places You Love Alliance and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Rob’s research and writing has focused on various aspects of environmental law, including environmental impact assessment, soils and land degradation, biodiversity conservation and climate change. Alongside these specific areas, he has had a long-standing interest in the nature of environmental federalism, in particular the question of what is the appropriate role of the Federal government in environmental matters and how this role can be pursued to the greatest effect. He has just commenced writing a book on federal environmental law and policy that will explore this issue in greater detail. His proposed research in the United States will focus on environmental federalism generally and its application to climate change and clean energy specifically. Given current efforts by the US Environment Protection Agency to develop a Clean Power Plan that will rely considerably on state agencies for its implementation, this research could provide useful insights for Australia as it seeks to develop new approaches to climate mitigation and also engages in a wider reflection upon the appropriate role of the Federal government in relation to the environment.

Rob’s personal interests include sport, music, bush-walking, reading, wine collection and gardening. For many years, he was a passionate tennis player but has converted more recently to golf – applying himself with an equal dedication but considerably more frustration. He loves to attend live music performances of all kinds and is especially proud that his two youngest daughters have formed a band that performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2014. Rob also loves to travel and enjoys reading travel writers with a cultural perspective (such as Newby, Chatwin, Thesiger and Theroux) for relaxation.

Rob will investigate from a US perspective how the federal government collaborates with other levels of government (state, regional, local) to manage environmental challenges, with a particular focus on climate change and clean energy. His research will involve collaboration with some of the leading environmental law scholars in the USA who are based in or near Washington DC, and also consultations with senior administrators within the various levels of government for their perspectives on this subject. He looks forward to building a network of scholars interested in future collaboration from a comparative perspective on Australian and US approaches to environmental federalism.

Michelle grew up in the Townsville region of North Queensland and is a mother of 3 children. She has worked in both the government and NGO sectors as a senior manager and held prominent senior leadership roles. From 2001-2010 Michelle was the Executive Director of the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre and in 2001 she was awarded ACT Aboriginal Person of the year. She has also held a number of community advocacy roles such as the co-chair of the Canberra Bushfire Recovery Appeal, Chair of Midtha Goothilans Indigenous women’s network in Townsville and was appointed to the Queensland Justice Taskforce in 2012. She is currently a Director of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service and Fair Agenda.

She has been an Australian NGO representative (representing Indigenous women) at the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) negotiations and the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations over a number of years. This work has prompted her interest in further research and development of gender equality principles and domestic policy development. She is a strong advocate for Indigenous women and human rights with a background in gender equality work and research that ensures the voices of Indigenous women are represented at all levels.

Michelle has completed a BA Honours (First Class) in Political Science and Indigenous studies at James Cook University and she is now in her final stages of a PhD on ‘enabling the participation of Aboriginal Women in public and political life in Australia’. Michelle has received a University Medal and Dean’s List award from James Cook University. She was awarded the Runner Up in the 2012 Queensland Rural Woman of the Year and in 2013 Michelle was named in the Australian Financial Review/Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards.

She is also a Fellow with the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation and an accredited trainer and facilitator in Leadership, Politics and Governance fields. Michelle is passionate about working with Indigenous women and in particular runs a range of Indigenous women’s leadership programs across the country to empower and engage women in capacity building.

Michelle will be working collaboratively with the Udall Center and Native Nations Institute to undertake a comparative analysis on First Nations women in governance roles. This will include the completion of an Indigenous Governance program at the University of Arizona. She will be working to identify best practice and key principles that contribute to effective nation building and link to areas of self-determination and decision making as underpinned by the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Michelle is eager to learn from an international gendered perspective on tribal leadership, native nations development and educational services between CANZUS countries. Michelle wants to enhance the capacity to engage broadly and increase Indigenous knowledge and apply these principles to an Australian context. Importantly the relationships established as part of the collaboration will lead to the development of new tools and resources to engage Indigenous women in areas of leadership and governance in Australia.

Matthew is currently General Counsel within Western Australia’s Department of Commerce, and practises extensively in regulatory law, and consumer protection in particular. Matthew is a lawyer admitted to practise in New York, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, the High Court of Australia, and Victoria, and has appeared as counsel in federal, State, and Territory courts and tribunals across Australia, including the highest State courts. Matthew holds undergraduate degrees with honours in English & History, and in Law, from Monash University in Melbourne, a Master’s degree in law from Monash, and is completing a doctorate in law at the University of Western Australia in Perth, where he is also a Visiting Lecturer from time to time. Matthew’s professional career and interests have been unusually broad, covering taxation, administrative law, customs & trade, family law & child support, employment, criminal law, property & leasing, banking & finance, native title, and ‘law enforcement’, and he has represented at least a dozen federal agencies in court. Matthew is also a reservist Legal Officer with the Royal Australian Navy.

Matthew is particularly interested in regulatory law systems, and in consumer protection regulation and modes of regulatory enforcement. Regulation is now the dominant mode of governance in developed economies, corresponding broadly with a withdrawal of government as provider of goods and services. The incapacity of legislatures to respond effectively to complex market systems has led to the rise and rise of ‘the regulator’. Matthew is also particularly interested in ‘civil penalty’ litigation as a mode of enforcement of regulatory systems. The ‘rediscovered’ civil penalty mode of enforcement, ancient in origin but with modern appeal, is a flexible and efficient tool in the regulator’s toolkit – a hybrid of criminal law-type sanctions and civil procedure – which has seen it being introduced into a wide range of regulatory schemes, which schemes are being introduced more widely. This ‘rediscovery’ in Australia has placed pressure on the courts to develop a consistent jurisprudence across jurisdictions, crystallized by its hybrid nature. In the United States a mature civil penalty jurisprudence already exists, yet many of the similar issues have never been entirely satisfactorily settled, and in fact have turned full circle. The United State’s Federal Trade Commission is arguably the world’s leading and most sophisticated exponent of regulatory law, including in particular consumer law and anti-trust (competition) law, which celebrated its centenary in 2014.

Matthew will be joining the Federal Trade Commission at its headquarters in Washington DC as an International Fellow. This will provide him with an opportunity to examine first-hand one of the world’s leading and most sophisticated regulators at a time in which the Global Financial Crisis has invited considerable public debate in the United States and Australia. This debate about regulators and regulatory systems has also focused on the actual application of civil penalty litigation in the United States. Matthew will progress his doctoral work, a comparative analysis of civil penalty litigation in Australia and the United States as a Visiting Scholar, and hopes to meet with experts in New York who preside over some of the biggest civil penalty cases in the world. He also hopes to meet American colleagues interested in cooperating on a forum for United States – Australia comparative law. Matthew can’t wait to share this experience with his fiancée and young family.

Jill’s interest is in the influence of nursing on health policy. As Dean of the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Sydney until recently, Jill has been involved in encouraging greater contribution of nurses to health policy debate and influence. The focus of Jill’s work is to gain a better understanding of the consequences of a global move away from social justice as the underpinning framework for health policy decision-making, to health as an economic good, and the import of this move for nursing and its role in improving health outcomes and patients experiences of health and illness. Jill is a Registered Nurse and Registered Midwife, has a Bachelor and a Master degree in Education, a PhD and is currently completing a Master of Health Policy.

Jill notes that she “fell into nursing and fell in love” – she knew immediately it was what she wanted to be involved in for the rest of her life and she has been fortunate enough for that to have happened. She states that “nursing is one of life’s best kept secrets which is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing in that people’s lack of real understanding of the work enables the nurse to work quietly and supportively to ensure extraordinary experiences are able to be coped with, that the unbearable is able to be helped to become bearable and that people are kept safe in unsafe situations. Expert nursing is often only recognized in its absence; when practiced well the hand of safety and support is virtually invisible. This is good for patients and their families but bad for the general population understanding and respect for what is done by nurses. It results in nurses being dismissed as valuable contributors to broad health care discussions and policy making. The lack of understanding and acknowledgement of this wonderful work is the genesis of all her career choices.”

Jill fought for and was engaged in the pilot programmes of nursing into the higher education sector – necessary in her opinion for understanding and articulating the work of nurses and for producing a research base for practise. She participated in government commissions into nursing and its future as the nominee of the Federal Minister of Health. Jill sought engagement within the universities to gain respect and profile for the profession and took progressively more senior positions to further this goal. She fought for legislative change and ended up as president of the New South Wales nursing and midwifery regulatory body, and with national regulation, as the inaugural chair of the Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council, the largest health professional accreditation council in the country. Jill speaks on any occasion she believes will make a difference which has led to the joy of giving papers in 28 countries and providing workshops and undertaking projects in 15. Jill has been privileged by having been recognized in the Australian Honours system as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM). She has come to believe in the inseparability of education, research, practice and policy and having fought for 35 years for the former three she is now crusading for the fourth – input into policy.

Jill believes the Fulbright Scholarship will assist her to make this next step of “voice into policy” thus completing the circle in her “quartet of concern” – education, research, practice and policy and providing a sustainable legacy of education and internships to develop articulate policy leaders in nursing. During her Senior Fulbright Jill proposes to work with senior health policy scholars at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), School of Nursing and Wharton Business School, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the World Bank, the American Academy of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine in Washington. Each of these institutions has a major role in either health policy development or in the capacity building of policy skills for senior nurses.

Stuart is currently a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Immunology & Immunodeficiency lab in the Immunology department at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of NSW. He completed his PhD on B-cell leukemia under the supervision of Prof Bob Raison at the University of Technology Sydney in 1995 and then undertook postdoctoral training at the DNAX Research Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology (Palo Alto California, USA; 1996-1999) in the laboratories of Drs Jan de Vries, Joe Phillips and Lewis Lanier. It was during this time that his passion for human immunology, cell biology and immune deficiencies took hold. He returned to Australia in 2000 as a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney to work with Dr Phil Hodgkin at the Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology (The University of Sydney). He established his own independent research lab in 2002, and was recruited to the Garvan Institute in 2006

His research interests focus on the biology of human lymphocytes in health and disease, and elucidating mechanisms whereby defects in signalling, activation and function underlie the development and clinical features of several immunodeficiencies. This is achieved by studying lymphocyte development, signalling, differentiation and effector function in patients with diseases resulting from monogenic loss-of-function mutations in key regulators of immune responses, as well as in corresponding animal models of these human conditions. In the past few years, his lab has made significant contributions to elucidating how these mutations can result in some of the clinical features that are associated with primary immunodeficiencies.

Since 1995, he has published over 115 peer-reviewed research articles and invited reviews and has been funded by research fellowships and grants awarded by the NHMRC, Cancer Council NSW, XLP Research Trust and Association for International Cancer Research (exceeding $38 million total for all funding awards). In 2011, he received the Gottschalk Medal from the Australian Academy of Sciences, which recognises “outstanding research in the medical sciences by scientists no more than 40 years of age”. He is regularly invited to present his latest findings at numerous international immunology conferences. In addition to overseeing his own research lab, he serves as the Deputy Editor of the journal Immunology & Cell Biology, as an Associate Editor of Journal of Immunology and Journal of Clinical Immunology, and an Advisory Editor for the Journal of Experimental Medicine. When he is not at work, he enjoys surfing, cycling, swimming and most of all being a Dad to his three beautiful children!

The goal of the research performed in his lab is to make substantial discoveries in the regulation of normal immune cell function and to understand how defects in these processes cause the clinical features of human immunological diseases such as primary immunodeficiencies. Stuart’s research to date has had significant success in these efforts – but the ultimate outcome will be to see this work have a lasting and substantial effect on human health. This will be achieved by acquiring the skills and know-how required to discover novel disease-causing mutations, and deciphering how these errors in single genes result in human immunological diseases. The guidance and instruction provided by the host lab of Prof Casanova and his team at the St. Giles Laboratory will ensure the success of this endeavor, contributing to long-term interactions between the two labs and collaborative discoveries that result in not only new knowledge but novel approaches to treating patients with primary immunodeficiencies.

Tim was the Foundation Australian Red Cross Professor of International Humanitarian Law (1996-2010) at the Melbourne Law School and also the Foundation Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law (2001-2010) – a collaborative initiative (established 2001) between the Melbourne Law School and The Australian Defence Force Legal Service. He has developed an international reputation for his expertise in International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law. In June 2011 he was appointed by the Government of Israel as one of two international observers for Phase 2 of the Turkel Commission of Enquiry into Israel’s Processes for Investigation of Alleged Violations of International Humanitarian Law. The Final Report of the Commission including its recommendations was presented to Prime Minister Netanyahu in February 2013 in Jerusalem. From 2002 – 2006 he acted as amicus curiae on international law matters to the judges of Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague for the trial of Slobodan Miloševic. From 2003 – 2007 he provided expert International Humanitarian Law advice to Major Mori for the defence of David Hicks. In that capacity Tim travelled to Guántanamo Bay to attend the US Military Commission proceedings against David Hicks in March 2007.

Tim is a member of the international advisory boards of a number of academic institutions in Israel, Germany and Sweden and serves on editorial advisory boards of academic journals in the US, UK, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia. He is co-editor-in-chief with Sir Christopher Greenwood of the International Humanitarian Law Series published by Martinus Nijhoff in Leiden and is also the Correspondents’ Reports Editor for the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law. He is a graduate of the University of Tasmania (LLB Hons – 1982) and of Monash University (PhD – 1990).

Tim will take up the position of Charles H Stockton Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence in the Stockton Center for the Study of International Law at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island (August 2015 – June 2016) and has also been appointed Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School to teach in the Winter Term (January 2016). His research will focus on responsibility for violations of the law arising from emerging weapons technologies.

Ted graduated from the University of Western Australia with a degree in agricultural science in 1973. He spent the next 12 years working in agricultural extension and rural development in Queensland and Papua New Guinea. In Papua New Guinea he worked for the North Solomon’s Provincial Government through the Australian Volunteers Abroad program on a project to improve food self-sufficiency on four remote coral atolls. In 1987 he returned to Western Australia to work with watershed groups in a United Nations Man and the Biosphere project to improve environmental management on farmlands surrounding the World Heritage listed Fitzgerald River National Park. He has since held positions in agricultural and environmental research with the Western Australia Department of Agriculture, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Universities of Western Australia and Tasmania. For the last 15 years he has led interdisciplinary research teams working with land managers to solve problems in agriculture, natural resource management and nature conservation. In 2003 he was awarded a Eureka Prize for research into the potential of the Australian native plant Weeping Rice Grass (Microlaena stipoides) as a perennial grain crop. In 2005 he was appointed Professor of Environment and Director of the Centre for Environment at the University of Tasmania. Since 2006 has led two national research projects Landscape Logic and the Landscapes and Policy Research Hub that brought together ecologists, geographers, economists and social scientists to work with land managers, planners and policy makers on environmental problems in agricultural landscapes and protected areas. This has included management of soil salinity, conservation of threatened species, control of invasive plants and animals, adaptation to climate change, development of alternative crops and adoption of conservation farming methods.

At the University of Washington Ted will conduct research for an illustrated book ‘The Myths of Nature and the Rise of Ecology”. The book will explore the gap between perceptions of nature in popular culture and concepts accepted within the scientific disciplines of ecology and conservation biology. Ted’s contention is that this gap is currently limiting our ability to develop and implement effective environmental policy. He plans to critically test the ideas behind the book with scholars from a wide range of fields including history, sociology, philosophy, ecology and conservation biology. Ted is also keen to learn about research methods used in environmental history and the history and philosophy of science.

Agricultural research is a diverse area – from studying soils and microbes through to looking at the DNA of plants. As a crop physiologist, Scott enjoys trying to understand how plants ‘work’. This helps plant breeders to develop better varieties for farmers to grow. His focus is on dryland crops, especially those subject to drought and heat, so he tries to determine how to select crops with the best growth characteristics – how the patterns of growth of leaves, roots and grains are best ‘organised’ over the season to efficiently use light, water and nutrients. The work involves detailed experiments to measure crop growth using basic tools (rulers and knives), and developing and applying new remote sensing methods (cameras, lasers, heat sensors) mounted on ground or aerial robots. Processing these large datasets into useful information is a major activity for Scott, and he then uses this information to build computer models of how plants grow. Just as computer models are essential to the design of new cars and aero planes, they are also useful to describe biology of crops and how they respond to soil and climate conditions. Scott uses historical weather records to predict how plants would have grown over the last 50 years, and this information helps breeders and farmers to know how ’virtual’ crops should perform in any place where we would propose to grow them. These models also allow him to predict how crops should grow in ‘future’ climates.

During Scott’s PhD at The University of Queensland and a short term at the state research department, he developed a great interest in crop physiology and the adaptation of crops. With a four year post-doc at an international centre (CIMMYT) in Mexico, Scott learnt how these research areas could be used to design better crop varieties for farmers, especially in the developing world. Since then he has been based in Australia (for the last 17 years at CSIRO) and has been able to work with researchers and breeders around the world on multiple crops including sunflower, sorghum, sugarcane, maize (corn) and wheat. In that time, there have been great improvements in the opportunities to genetically characterise and manipulate crops. So now, the main limit to breeding better crops is the ability to more rapidly measure how they grow (their phenotype), especially in the field. In recent years, Scott’s work has focused more on using wireless sensors and aerial robots in high-throughput applications to measure these plants and to try to integrate this information into crop models.

Scotts’ Fulbright Scholarship will allow him to undertake new research into how best to characterize wheat plant growth in response to field stress conditions. KSU is located in a low rainfall zone with some of the largest areas of wheat and sorghum production in the USA, the two crops that Scott works on in Australia. Although he has frequently worked with scientists in the region, this study period will help build new collaborations with KSU and other agricultural centres in the US into the future. It will also provide the opportunity to better understand how plant breeding can be used to improve adaptation to drought and heat conditions.

Anthony is Professor in Health Informatics at Western Sydney University, and was previously Research Director of the CSIRO eHealth Research Centre in Brisbane from 2004. Prior to that, he was Head of the School of Engineering at the University of Ballarat and subsequently at Queensland University of Technology’s School of Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering. His earlier appointments were at Monash University in the Department of Computer Science, where he undertook his PhD in Software Engineering. Anthony is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia and was the founding President of the Australian Pattern Recognition Society. He is currently chair of the Standards Australia IT-14-12 Telehealth Subcommittee and a member of the IT-14 Health Informatics Committee Australian delegation to ISO/CEN meetings. He was a Board Member of the Health Informatics Society of Australia and their representative on IMIA WG1 (Education) until 2010. Anthony was president of the Australasian Telehealth Society in the period 2010-2012, and joined the Governing Board of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth in 2013. Anthony holds appointments as Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Information Systems at Rhodes University, and Honorary Professor in the School of Nursing and Public Health at University of KwaZulu-Natal. His research areas related to eHealth and Telehealth include web and mobile computing, data mining, digital image analysis, human factors and human-computer interaction. He is leader of the eHealth Research Group at Western Sydney University, where he founded the Telehealth Research and Innovation Laboratory (THRIL) in 2010.

Anthony’s Fulbright research is titled “Promoting healthy lifestyle in children and adolescents benefits from multiple channels of intervention”. Young people’s affinity for use of mobile devices (like smart phones) and the appeal of social connectivity enabled by this environment offer opportunities for boosting engagement and adherence to more conventional approaches. Anthony’s Fulbright research project will investigate methods to develop purposeful mobile applications to support physical activity and nutrition programmes already underway with KSU collaborators, based on expertise gained in recent comparable programmes at Western Sydney University in Australia. Anthony plans to visit other research groups when presenting public lectures elsewhere in the USA, enabling broader interactions in this area.

Benjamin graduated with a degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Princeton University in June 2015. He is specifically interested in exploring how science and engineering can be used as vehicles for global development. He has traveled to Peru, where he spent five weeks with Engineers without Borders implementing a water system for a rural community. He served as the technical team leader for two years, successfully coordinating the team in planning the layout of the water system, which would bring clean water to nine families. He wrote multiple grant proposals receiving funding for the service trip to Peru and also wrote much of the documentation needed to obtain trip approval by the national Engineers without Borders organization. He has also taken a class titled “Design for the Developing World,” where he collaborated with an Israeli-Palestinian NGO to improve the performance of a magnetic water pump that would be distributed to rural villages. Co-leading the check valve team, he helped to optimize check valve performance, thereby improving the pump efficiency. Benjamin also won a scholarship from the Princeton Center for Health and Wellbeing to serve 11 weeks as a research intern for Diagnostics For All (DFA), a nonprofit that develops inexpensive paper technology to diagnose easily preventable diseases. He designed lab experiments to optimize paper-based assays that determine levels of glucose and iron in blood serum for diagnostic purposes. His work has contributed to two publications, one in Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research and another that has been presented at the 2015 IEEE International Conference. Finally, Benjamin was president of Manna Christian Fellowship at Princeton, leading weekly meetings to organize fellowship events.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Benjamin will work with Professor Michelle McIntosh and her team at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences to develop an oxytocin aerosol to prevent postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), or bleeding after childbirth. Over 100,000 women die each year from PPH, though it can be prevented with an injection of oxytocin; oxytocin stimulates uterine contractions, which prevents PPH. However, the injectable form of oxytocin requires refrigeration infrastructure that is not available in many low-resource settings. Our team seeks to develop an aerosol formulation with oxytocin that does not require refrigeration and can be inhaled by patients immediately after childbirth, a product that could save numerous lives of mothers in low-resource settings. Benjamin also plans to interact with the indigenous Australian population to assess its healthcare needs, especially as they pertain to maternal health.

Jana Soares graduated Magna Cum Laude, from the Honors Program, with a major in Biology and minor in Chemistry from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas in May 2015. As an undergraduate student, she was a Holy Cross Scholar, receiving a four-year merit-based full tuition scholarship, was on the Dean’s List each semester, and conducted three scientific research projects related to the prevention of cardiovascular disease, food-borne illness, and hospital-acquired infections. She also worked as a Resident Assistant for three years, a Hilltop Mentor, a Student Ambassador, was involved in many academic clubs, and helped lead service projects.

As a sophomore, Jana won an Undergraduate Research Capstone Award to attend and present her research at the American Society for Microbiology 113th General Meeting in Denver, Colorado. She also presented her research at the Texas Academy of Science conferences and the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students. Jana was a recipient of the Alpha Chi National College Honor Society Alfred H. Nolle Scholarship in 2014, and upon graduating, received the St. Edward’s University Presidential Award and the Outstanding Graduate in Biology Award in 2015.

According to the WHO’s 2014 report, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a risk to treating common infections in hospitals. Each year, in the United States, 1 in 25 patients has at least one hospital-acquired infection (HAI), resulting in 75,000 deaths, and in Australia, there are 200,000 cases of HAIs. It is important to discover a way to slow the threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, to prevent illnesses and deaths. Jana is interested in how scientific research can spur innovations and help provide solutions to pressing global health problems such as antibiotic resistance. Her Fulbright research will incorporate the study of antibiotics and bacterial interactions in a nematode model organism, using cutting-edge imaging technologies, to identify alternatives to standard antibiotic treatment.

As a Fulbright scholar with a passion to improve people’s lives, Jana seeks to learn as much as possible while in Australia. She hopes her research will allow her to approach large problems with a scientific understanding, and plans to broaden her perspective through participation in available opportunities in professional, academic and work environments. Jana is interested in translating scientific research findings into improvements that help the public, and aspires to attend lectures and partake in workshops to learn how scientific innovations are making an impact on the world. Beyond her research in the lab, Jana looks forward to immersing herself in Australian culture by sampling different cuisines, exploring new sights, and taking part in recreational activities.

Vince graduated Summa Cum Laude with Honors in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, & Law from the University of Arizona in 2015. He transferred to the UA in 2012 from Pima Community College. While at the University of Arizona, Vince earned many distinguished awards, including Outstanding Native American Student of the Year, Distinguished Student Speaker in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Outstanding Graduating Student in PPEL. He was also named an Honors College Pillar of Excellence and was a university medalist. He will commence in his pursuit of a Master of Philosophy degree, in Philosophy, at the Australian National University in 2015.

Vince has general interests in both the applied and theoretical areas of philosophy, politics, economics, and law. His emphases at ANU will be in deliberative democracies, constitutional reform, and Indigenous rights. Evidence suggests that randomly selected democratic citizens, in places all over the world, are both able and willing to engage in substantive good faith deliberation over complex and polarized political issues, and that their decisions, in comparison to Congressional or Parliamentary decisions, often lead to more democratically legitimate, as well as epistemically correct, outcomes. During his two years at ANU, Vince will research the efficacy of deliberative democratic institutions as mechanisms for the substantive inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander interests in public policy.

Outside of academia, Vince has a burgeoning interest in beer-brewing. During his stay, he will actively engage with the brewing community in Canberra as well as with the many vineyards that surround the city.

Vince has three aspirations for his Scholarship term: first, he would like to begin changing the world. He believes that democratic institutions must evolve in order to remain democratic in the diverse world that we all share, and that Australia may be a good place to start. Secondly, Vince would like to learn from the current relationship between the Australian government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, as their historical relationship is unfortunately similar that of the United States and the Native American populations. Lastly, Vince would like to take advantage of this unique opportunity to develop strong relationships with Australian academics, activists, leaders, and politicians.

As a game designer, health professional, and chair of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA)’s Serious Games SIG, Matthew is passionate about the potential for digital entertainment software to enhance people’s lives and improve society. His research focuses on developing a framework for the design of therapeutic games outside the confines of the clinical environment, and his publications examining how entertainment-focused games and other media engage audiences through narrative, gameplay, and social cues.

His previous work explores how virtual worlds could be used for the public good, and he has collaborated with the University of Southern California and the MacArthur Foundation. Matthew designed the simulation and assessment tools of the “PTSD Toolkit for Nurses” – an e-learning program designed to train registered nurses in recognizing the symptoms of PTSD in patients and how to respond effectively, and Quarantine – a public health game best described as “Sherlock Holmes meets SimCity.”

After graduating from the University of Southern California in 2009, he went on to obtain certifications as an EMT and a registered nurse to better understand community health and how games could be useful both in a clinical setting, and in a broader public context.

In 2014, he founded AFK Studios, a company dedicated to tackling real-world problems through the power of games as virtual experiences. Their early work with Tethys, a game tackling the issue of global water management, brought them to the finals of the G20 Global Business Challenge.

Among other awards, Matthew has been chosen as a two-time IGDA Scholar (honoring the most promising students in game development) and one of “15 to Watch in 2015” by The Feast, an international network of social innovators.

While in Australia, Matthew will be studying the relationship between peer aggression in online games and the design of underlying systems that promote or inhibit communication, cooperation, and other forms of social interaction, in an effort to learn how online communities – just as communities in the offline world – are shaped by the context of their interactions. Through an understanding of this relationship, Matthew seeks to minimize online ‘toxicity’ through better design, ultimately helping online communities foster a culture of tolerance and transparency while remaining true to their community’s character and guiding principles.

Abby began her professional career as a residential interior designer after completing a Bachelor of Science in Design at the University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL) in 2005. After working as a designer for three years in Lansing, Michigan, she decided to return to school to pursue a degree in engineering in order to make a more significant contribution to society. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Biological Systems Engineering from UNL in 2012. At the end of her bachelors, she was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship due to her undergraduate research on the use of Raman spectroscopy to characterize and diagnose muscle degradation associated with Peripheral Arterial Disease and for her work in engineering education on the accreditation and assessment of undergraduate engineering curricula. Abby conducted her Masters research in the field of gene delivery, developing a method to improve the delivery of foreign DNA to human mesenchymal stem cells through nonviral means for improved genetic reprogramming. She was awarded a Master’s degree in Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering from UNL in 2014. Abby is currently pursuing a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Washington, where her research focuses on the development and evaluation of more effective drug delivery systems to combat pulmonary infections caused by tier 1 agents Burkholderia pseudomallei and Francisella tularensis. Abby has coauthored multiple publications on her undergraduate and graduate research as well as on her work in engineering education, and is a co-inventor on a patent for a device to more accurately quantify air-leaks from the pleural space following a traumatic lung injury.

Abby will conduct her Fulbright research at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in the manufacturing flagship where she will characterize the effects of polymer architecture on the efficacy and toxicity of peptide delivery. She is most excited to improve her polymer synthesis skills while working with the inventors of one of the most-used polymerization techniques in the world, reversible addition fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Abby will be joined in Australia by her husband, an aspiring filmmaker who is excited to document their once-in-a-lifetime Australian Fulbright adventure.

Brian received his Cum Laude degree in Neuroscience and Biology from The University of Scranton in 2013. During his undergraduate career he quickly excelled in research and his institution awarded him both the Presidential and Casey Fellowships for his independent research entitled ‘Morphine addiction in Ants: a new model for addiction, reward, and self-administration.’ Brian first developed his passion for scientific research while interning in Panamá at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. While in Panamá his research focused on the associative learning abilities of two closely related species of rainforest ant. His research in Australia will utilize a similar paradigm.

Brian then received his M.S. in Biochemistry from The University of Scranton in 2015 and was the recipient of a full tuition scholarship and Graduate Teaching Assistantship. As a GTA, Brian actively taught general chemistry lab and assisted in teaching both analytical and forensics labs. During his masters he designed a novel experiment entitled ‘Morphine addiction in Ants: Quantifying serotonin, dopamine, and octopamine using HPLC equipped with Electrochemical Detection.’

Working with Dr. Andrew Barron at Macquarie University and his collaborator Dr. Vincent Daria at The Australian National University Brian will examine mechanisms of choice and decision in the honeybee brain to enable computer modeling of insect brain function. Understanding how the brain works, processes thought, and how both thought and decisions emerge from brain circuitry are the last grand challenges of modern neuroscience. Currently there is enormous interest in efforts to model the human brain, but Dr. Barron, Dr. Daria, and Brian share a mutual conviction that first modeling an organism with a far smaller brain will reveal the essential and fundamental mechanisms by which thought and decisions emerge.

Mary received her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and Behavior from Barnard College, Columbia University in 2008. She received a Columbia Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship in 2007 to support her neuroimmunology-related senior thesis research at the Silver Neurobiology Laboratory. Mary investigated whether the presence of mast cells, which are immune cells best known for their role in allergy, may also promote blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) in the developing central nervous system. Mary became fascinated in neuroimmune mechanisms of normal development as well as disease and desired to pursue further study in a translational research setting.

After learning that she had a sensitivity to gluten and enrolling in Columbia University’s Institute of Human Nutrition for graduate study in 2011, she connected with Dr. Armin Alaedini, PhD who was also interested in studying the immune response to gluten and other food-related, bacterial, or self-antigens in different patient populations, including those with non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), psychiatric illness, and neurological disease. Mary began working in Dr. Alaedini’s Laboratory and Columbia University’s

Celiac Disease Center for her master’s thesis work, which received Honors. Mary’s first master’s project explored serological markers of Lyme disease in children with autism; her work was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Mary’s second master’s project aimed to investigate a potential immune response to exorphins, which are products of gluten and casein digestion in the intestinal tract, in patients with autism and schizophrenia. Mary will be continuing exorphins-related research as a Fulbright Scholar in Australia. Since beginning work at the Alaedini Laboratory as a master’s student and after graduation as laboratory manager and researcher, Mary has contributed to the publication of 4 peer-reviewed articles, including 3 first-authorships, and 3 conference abstracts with several more publications currently under review or in preparation.

Mary has also volunteered in Armenia between college and graduate school. She provided research support and non-invasive clinical care to patients at a local hospital as well as engaged in NGO work to provide medical access for an underserved community in the de-facto state of Nagorno-Karabakh. When Mary is outside the laboratory, she enjoys volunteering in her local community, traveling, hiking, dancing, and cooking.

Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) is gaining global awareness, yet there is a great lack of scientific knowledge about this condition. Individuals with NCGS have reported positive behavioral health benefits of following a gluten-free diet. Exorphin peptides derived from the digestion of gluten in the gut are a possible explanation of food’s ability to modulate brain function. These peptides exert marked effects on stress response, anxiety, memory, and emotionality as evidenced by behavioral tests in animal models, yet little is known about their role in human systems.

Mary’s Fulbright project will investigate gluten and casein’s role in the neurobehavioral and extra-intestinal symptoms of NCGS. Mary will perform immunoassay-based experiments as well as analyze data from experimental dietary and drug interventions conducted by Dr. Peter Gibson, MD and Dr. Jane Muir, PhD ‘s team at Monash University Central Clinical School/The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. Mary’s Fulbright experience will allow her to continue exorphins-related research that she started for her master’s thesis as well as connect two leading research groups at the forefront of characterizing an emerging disease entity.

Like the US, Australia experiences a deficit of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), especially at higher levels of academic or institutional seniority. Australia also faces educational iniquities for students of indigenous descent. As part of her community engagement, Mary seeks to mentor students from underrepresented backgrounds who are interested in STEM fields, particularly female students and those of indigenous descent. She hopes to encourage a new generation’s curiosity in stem fields, bolster confidence, inspire action to reach out to potential career mentors, and understand challenges from a different cultural perspective.

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