Alumni Profiles

Professor Renee Newman Knake Distinguished Chair

Renee earned her JD from the University of Chicago Law School in 1999. After practicing in corporate law firms and government, she became a professor at Michigan State University in 2006, where she founded an award-winning law laboratory devoted to entrepreneurship and innovation. In 2016, she became the Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics and Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center. Among her scholarly interests, Renee researches innovations in the regulation of legal services.  She is the author of numerous books and articles regularly cited in leading journals and featured in media including the Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Forbes and CNN. She served as Reporter for the American Bar Association Commission on the Future of Legal Services and is an elected member of the American Law Institute. While at RMIT University, Renee will research Australian innovations in legal services delivery to expand access to justice.

Professor Timothy Brodribb Senior Scholars

Tim is currently a Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Tasmania, the same institution where he graduated with a BSc in Biology. His doctoral studies examined the evolution and function of conifers in the Southern Hemisphere involving extensive field work in the forests of PNG, New Caledonia, New Zealand and South America. Following this, he worked as a postdoc at Harvard University studying plant physiology in Costa Rican forest trees, before returning to Australia to undertake an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship award. Tim now leads a lab group that focusses on the vulnerabilities of plants during drought. His Fulbright will allow him to travel to northern California to use technology developed by his group to monitor the impact of climate on plant stress levels

Associate Professor Eric Knight Senior Scholars

Eric is Associate Professor in Innovation and Strategic Management, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research – Enterprise & Engagement), at the University of Sydney. His work focuses on how organizations formulate and implement strategies, with a specific focus on the challenges associated with enabling strategic change and fostering new forms of regional innovation. His studies have covered firm performance in diverse settings including biotechnology, clean energy finance, fin-tech, and advanced manufacturing.

During his Fulbright tenure, Eric will collect data for a multi-case study examining the role of university research environments in fostering different types of industrial and economic development. The outcomes will inform scholarship on patterns of competition and cooperation in the fields of strategic management and regional innovation. He will also foster deeper knowledge exchange between universities in Australia and the United States, especially in the areas of large-scale Research & Development partnerships with industry, IP commercialization, and entrepreneurship education.

Dr Ateev Mehrotra Senior Scholars

Ateev is a physician and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Health Care Policy. His research focuses on the growing use of telemedicine in the United States and its impact on improving the care patients receive and increasing access to rural communities.  

During his Fulbright Scholarship he will partner with hosts at the Centre for Online Health to compare how telemedicine is being used in the United States and Australia. In both countries, the use of this promising technology is growing rapidly, but which conditions is telemedicine being used to treat? Is it reaching the most underserved populations? Findings will inform clinical practice, policy discussions, and reimbursement policies in both countries. 

Professor John A. Rees Senior Scholars

John is an international relations scholar with an interest in understanding how countries and communities can benefit from a greater awareness of religious and cultural tradition. He is Co-Chair of the International Development & Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion and has delivered keynote presentations and lectures at several U.S. universities. John applies his research to international ethics and the impact that enhanced knowledge about religions and cultures can have on social, economic and political cohesion. The University of Wyoming is dedicated to serving the state of Wyoming and producing graduates who go on to be global leaders. John’s work as a Fulbright Scholar will seek to further these aims by teaching specialised classes in ‘religion and world politics’ and ‘nationalism in global perspective’, and continuing research collaborations with U.S. scholars in the study of religious literacy in international studies. 

Dr Adam Bartley Professional Scholars

Adam Bartley is a specialist in U.S. foreign policy and regional Indo-Pacific security. He is the author of two manuscripts examining U.S. foreign policy and China and has contributed to articles examining whole of government applications to Indo-Pacific strategy in the United States. He is a Non-resident Lloyd and Lilian Vasey Fellow, Pacific Forum, and a lecturer and regional foreign relations specialist at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University in Australia. Dr Bartley also speaks fluent Mandarin.

For his project, Adam will examine how ASEAN members can cooperate with emerging security programs in the Indo-Pacific at a time when the regional spatial configurations of security, where the “zones of war” “zones of peace” have become increasingly blurred. American and Australian efforts are expanding to meet the threat of so-called grey zone activities. The extent that these nations can contribute to a more inclusive regional pushback against such threats will rely on an acute understanding of ASEAN’s threat perceptions and the implications of intersecting systems effects. In undertaking his project, Adam will be situated at the Sigur Center for Asian Affairs, George Washington University, and in collaboration with the Elliot School for International Affairs, Washington DC.

Judge Paul Howard Professional Scholars

Paul hears cases in Australia’s busiest federal trial court, the Federal Circuit Court of Australia.

The aim of Paul’s research as a Fulbright Scholar is to improve access to justice in Australia by reducing court delays. Properly directed federal funding for the Australian federal trial courts is the key. The judiciary in the United States is integrally involved with the legislature in the setting of federal court budgets each year. Paul will use his Fulbright Scholarship to examine the process of federal court funding in the United States and in particular, the interaction between the federal judiciary and the U.S. Congress in this process with a view to formulating a similar proposal suitable to the Australian federal landscape. In order to conduct this research Paul will be based at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. and also at Harvard University.

Dr Gwilym Croucher Postdoctoral Scholars

Gwilym is Senior Lecturer in the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education and Principal Policy Adviser in the University of Melbourne’s Chancellery. While based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, Gwilym will examine an emerging dilemma for governments and universities in supporting research. University based research efforts are crucial to solving global challenges, from climate change to improving human health. Increasingly complex problems require long-term and multidisciplinary research approaches.  However, ensuring ongoing support and funds is a significant challenge for universities and governments.

Gwilym’s Fulbright project will engage policy makers and university leaders, as well as colleagues at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and at UC Davis, to develop new options for system design, university strategy and government policy to help provide greater surety for research systems in California and Australia, and the outcomes they facilitate.

Dr Ali Entezari Postdoctoral Scholars

Ali is an early career researcher within the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on the design and optimization of synthetic tissue scaffolds to repair diseased or damaged tissues such as bone defects. As a Fulbright Scholar, Ali will undertake research for 10 months at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where he will use state of the art bioprinting technologies to develop novel hydrogel-based scaffolds for the reconstruction of damaged tissues.

Dr Anna Urbanowicz Postdoctoral Scholars

Anna is a postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Queensland funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC). The Autism CRC is the world’s first national cooperative research effort focused on autism across the lifespan. As the recipient of the RMIT University sponsored Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship, Anna will be moving to RMIT prior to commencing her travel to the U.S.

For her Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship, Anna will work with a team at Portland State University who bring together the academic and autistic communities to conduct research relevant to the needs of autistic adults. This team have developed an online Healthcare Toolkit for autistic adults, their support persons and primary healthcare providers. Anna’s project will adapt this toolkit for use in hospitals with the aim of improving the hospital experience for adult autistic patients, their support persons and hospital staff.

Guy Coleman Postgraduate Students

Guy is a Precision Weed Control Scientist at the University of Sydney, based in Narrabri, NSW and is passionate about the use of machine learning and robotics in weed management. His research investigates alternative control technologies, all of which are enabled by machine learning-driven weed detection. Guy is active in agricultural advocacy, founding AgriEducate to help connect consumers with producers and holding positions on the AgriFutures Ignite Advisory Panel and previously as Vice-Chair, Ag Institute Australia. Guy’s PhD focuses on the impact of plant biology on machine learning-driven detection, quantifying how crop-weed similarity and growth stage influence accuracy.  

As a Fulbright Future Scholar, Guy will complete a six-month research program with the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M University. The research will focus on developing efficient machine learning data pipelines and testing how growth stage of wheat, cotton and relevant weeds influences detection accuracy. The research will assist in the development of improved site-specific weed management opportunities in both U.S. and Australian conditions, reducing the cost and impact of herbicidal options, whilst opening doors for alternative weed control techniques. 

Carter Hissam Postgraduate Students

Carter completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2022. During his time at UMass, Carter developed an interest in molecular genetics and genomics, specifically in their potential to treat and cure many human diseases.

The Fulbright Future Scholarship will enable Carter to pursue a Master’s degree in Genomics, as well as to study the public and private initiatives which are embedding genomics into routine clinical practice in the Australian health care system. Carter hopes to return to the United States as a genomic specialist, being able to advance the ethical applications of genomics