Alumni Profiles
Alumni Networks
Our alumni network includes Nobel laureates, government leaders, industry pioneers, and renowned academics. We provide ongoing opportunities for engagement, mentorship, and professional development to ensure that Fulbright connections remain strong throughout a scholar’s career.
"My Fulbright project will yield comparative data about how the different evidence laws of the U.S. and Australia lead to similar and different patterns of judicial decision making about psychological evidence, with the potential to inform revisions to laws governing the admissibility of expert evidence in both countries."
Tess is an associate professor of psychology, a founding faculty member of Arizona State University’s Law and Behavioral Science Initiative, and inaugural director of ASU’s Future of Forensic Science Initiative. She is a scientist; a clinical psychologist trained to assess, diagnose, and treat mental and behavioral disorders; and a forensic psychologist trained to bring psychology into legal contexts. She studies the nature and limits of expertise. Her basic work focuses on understanding and improving human judgment processes – especially among trained experts, and her more applied work focuses on improving forensic experts’ judgments in particular. Her Fulbright project will advance both basic and applied science in these areas.
Courtney, a professor in agricultural communications at Texas Tech University, is dedicated to improving communication efforts about agriculture. As a Fulbright Scholar, Courtney will research how agricultural issues are being communicated in Australia. Insights gained from her research will be used to create teaching case studies to help students develop critical thinking and communication skills. She will also collaborate with colleagues at Charles Sturt University to facilitate the curriculum development process for agricultural communications.
As a recipient of the inaugural Fulbright Scholar Award funded by the Regional Universities Network of Australia (RUN), Courtney will visit other universities in the RUN group to explore the potential for creating agricultural communications as a disciplinary concentration. Her goal is to provide the foundation and motivation to establish a new curricular focus that will serve to strengthen regional communities and the Australian agriculture industry.
Sandra is a Professor in the School of Freshwater Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. For her Fulbright Future Scholarship, Sandra will work with Dr. Justin Seymour at the University of Technology Sydney to study how microbial life in urban environments can improve city sustainability and promote clean water. While microorganisms are responsible for important biogeochemical cycles in nature, their role in metabolism of nutrients and waste products in city water infrastructure is relatively unexplored. Additionally, the unique collection of microbes found within city sewer and stormwater pipe systems can serve as sensitive tracers of discharges to natural waters including beaches that have a high recreational value.
As a Fulbright Scholar, Sandra hopes to launch a long term collaboration with researchers in Australia to determine how to engineer urban water microbiomes to make cities more sustainable and to devise better methods for assessing negative impacts to coasts and beaches.
Matthew is a professor and extension specialist at The Ohio State University and a contributor to efforts aligning plant, human, and other resources, specifically for vegetable farming but, overall, for greater prosperity and quality of life. His people-and planet-focused research and outreach activities emphasize accountability to present and emerging concerns and draw from diverse disciplines, talents, and capacities.
As a Fulbright Scholar, Matthew will partner with Central Queensland University, community leaders, and representatives of the solar energy and farming sectors to better understand agrivoltaics, a promising but challenging integration of farming and solar energy production. Dr. Kleinhenz and partners will study the optimism and hesitation surrounding agrivoltaics in Australia, a process essential to ensuring its responsible utilization.
"My Fulbright research aims to improve our knowledge of intimate partner violence and effective methods for preventing fatalities."
Negar directs a Domestic Violence Law Clinic where she supervises law students in providing legal representation to survivors of intimate partner violence. She also teaches Family Law and often guest lectures in other courses on related topics, including trauma-informed legal representation. Her scholarship investigates questions in intimate partner violence law, and seeks to promote conversation between practitioners and academics. Negar will be conducting a comparative study of the approach of Australia and the United States to domestic violence fatality reviews, which involve the analysis of homicides related to domestic violence for the purpose of preventing future fatalities.
"My Fulbright research aims to explore the central dogmas of quantitative and molecular genetics and thus advance genomic selection and design to the next level."
Zhihua is a full professor of genome biology in the Animal Sciences Department at Washington State University. He also serves as the Hatch Program Chair to promote research and education in Animal Biology and Biomedicine. Zhihua’s current research focuses on how genes use alternative transcripts in response to internal, external and universal environments, thus improving functional annotation of animal genomes. The ultimate goal of these studies is to understand how a finite genome coordinates an infinite phenome to benefit an animal’s performance, health and wellbeing.
As a Fulbright U.S. scholar to Australia, Zhihua will learn new knowledge and skills about big data sciences from colleagues at University of New England. The proposed research aims to explore the central dogmas of quantitative and molecular genetics and thus advance genomic selection and design to the next level.
Heather is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Utah and has an interdisciplinary background that includes mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, and atmospheric science. Her research group uses ground-based sensors, atmospheric models, and satellite remote sensing to investigate atmospheric physics, air pollution sources, transport and dispersion, and provide data for human health and public policy assessments.
She will spend her Fulbright Scholarship in the School of Electrical, Mechanical and Infrastructure Engineering at the University of Melbourne and will collaborate with faculty in atmospheric and environmental sciences. Heather is interested in working with scientists in Australia to improve wildfire smoke transport modeling, with a focus on developing new atmospheric turbulence models that are used in models to forecast wildfire smoke transport. Her goal is to establish long-term collaborations with the aim of improving models used in air quality warning systems that protect people living in fire prone areas.
Marc is a tenured professor of law at the City University of New York, Baruch College, Zicklin School of Business, where he teaches and writes in the areas of sports law, antitrust law, intellectual property law, and fantasy sports / gambling law. Marc is regularly cited by the media about how the Sherman Antitrust Act applies to professional sports leagues, how gaming laws apply to fantasy sports contests, and how both antitrust and labor laws apply to the rights to college athletes. A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and cum laude graduate of Michigan Law School, Marc began his professional career by practicing sports and antitrust law at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP. Thereafter, he practiced sports and intellectual property law at Dewey Ballantine LLP.
Marc’s research as a Fulbright Scholar will focus on a comparative analysis of the regulation of U.S. and Australian sports entities, and best practices for ensuring the physical, mental, and economic wellbeing of commercial athletes.
Amanda is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut. She specializes in the study of interpersonal, sexual, and health communication, with a focus on communication processes related to maintaining successful relationships and the role of biology in understanding communication behavior. Taken together, her research aims to identify communication practices and processes in close relationships that contribute to people’s physical, psychological, and relational health.
As a Fulbright Scholar at the Translational Health Research Institute at Western Sydney University, Amanda will explore how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer (LGBTIQ+), and heterosexual couples, in which one partner is in treatment for cancer, communicate about the effects of cancer on their relationship. The goal of the project is to identify the specific forms of communication that contribute to individual and interpersonal well-being when managing the relational and sexual changes that accompany cancer and its treatment.
Cayelan is an Associate Professor of freshwater ecosystem science at Virginia Tech, where she leads a research lab that integrates ecology, engineering, and data science to study lake and reservoir water quality.
As a Fulbright Future Scholar, Cayelan will collaborate with the Aquatic EcoDynamics research group at the University of Western Australia to develop a water quality forecasting system for Australian reservoirs. Her research aims to improve drinking water management in Australia and the U.S. by providing water utilities with probabilistic forecasts of future water conditions, thereby enabling managers to anticipate and preempt impairment. Cayelan’s overarching goal is to create new forecasting tools that will increase freshwater ecosystem resilience and the security of the water supply in the face of increasingly variable environmental conditions.
"My Fulbright research explores the knowledge, values, and behaviors of young people related to sustainability and climate change action. The research will provide youth ages eleven to fourteen with opportunities to learn about climate change by designing and implementing a project-based learning experience using an educational action research approach."
Mary is Professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Louisville. She is a participatory researcher who conducts work in school, organization, and community settings. She is the editor, with David Coghlan, of the SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research. Her most recent book with Sarah Banks is Ethics in Participatory Research for Health and Social Well-Being: Cases and Commentaries. She is currently working on an international middle-school citizen science project focused on global climate change education. She is a recipient of the 2021-2022 Fulbright Scholar Award at the University of Technology Sydney.
Mary’s Fulbright research explores the knowledge, values, and behaviors of young people related to sustainability and climate change action. The research will provide youth aged eleven to fourteen with opportunities to learn about climate change by designing and implementing a project-based learning experience using an educational action research approach.
Matt is a Professor of Geological Sciences at California State University, Long Beach, and holds the Bert and Ethel Conrey Chair in Hydrogeology. He has spent much of his career understanding how groundwater flows through complex geologic systems, and its implications for groundwater pollution, geothermal energy extraction, and coastal ecosystems.
For his Fulbright Scholarship, Matt will work with researchers at Curtin University to develop groundwater resources in the bedrock of Western Australia. A particular focus will be managed aquifer recharge and the use of fiber optic distributed sensing tools for characterizing and monitoring the storage and movement of groundwater.
Jennifer Albert received her Ph.D. in Science Education from North Carolina State University and has an M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from Austin Peay State University. She specializes in STEM education research and evaluation with an emphasis on K-16 computer science education, science education, educational assessment, and teacher professional development. She is currently an Associate Professor and Director of the STEM Center of Excellence at The Citadel.
Her project will investigate how students who have participated in the ELSA project use the Experience, Represent, and Apply model when interacting with Mobile Maker Kits, demonstrating transfer of skills and content learned.
Michael is an Associate Professor and Director Weed Research at University of Sydney leading a research team focused on the development of alternative weed control technologies. His research has centered on the advancement of alternative weed control technologies aimed at reducing the destructive impact of herbicide resistance on grain cropping systems. For 25 years, Michael has focused on the research and development of harvest weed seed control systems for Australian grain production. Inspired by the resilience and innovation of growers Michael continues working to progress the efficacy and opportunities for using these and other novel weed control systems.
As a Fulbright Scholar, Michael aims to improve the efficacy and durability of harvest weed seed control systems. He will work closely with Professor Mithila Jugulam, the weed science team at Kansas State University and their colleagues across major US cropping regions to expand and refine the operational use of these systems.
"My Fulbright research aims to leverage bilateral existing expertise in optical-imaging and MRI to collaboratively develop a cost-effective, readily accessible medical imaging platform to aid in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Such a paradigm shift would improve access to screening for Alzheimer’s disease globally, particularly in low to middle income countries."
Peter is a medical imaging scientist undertaking biomedical research utilising advanced neuroimaging at University of Newcastle. Alzheimer’s disease is a gradually progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting over 32-million people worldwide. The presence of beta-amyloid deposits is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, and is currently thought to commence 15-20 years before obvious cognitive decline.
As a Fulbright Future Scholar, Peter will collaborate with clinicians and biomedical researchers at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on developing new imaging methods for the detection of beta-amyloid to improve early diagnosis and management of Alzheimer’s disease and improve outcomes for patients and their loved ones.
"My Fulbright research aims to ‘dig deeper’ to assess benefits of soil microbes to rangeland restoration bringing together field experts and state-of-the-art tools. The project is a timely response to global calls to restore working landscapes, given climate change, land-use legacies, and persistent invasive weeds. "
Rachel is Associate Professor of Ecology at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. Her research is focused on restoration of native ecological communities that have been degraded or destroyed by human activity. Rachel is internationally recognised for her contributions to advancing the theory and practice of ecological restoration.
As a Fulbright Scholar, Rachel will collaborate with her hosts to assess benefits of soil microbes to rangeland restoration. Findings will be relevant to ranchers in Australia and the US where rangeland sustainability underpins socio-economic prosperity and environmental stewardship. She will also teach classes in vegetation and soil ecology.
Ryan Naylor is Associate Professor (Education) in the Sydney School of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. His current research focuses primarily on understanding and addressing barriers to success in higher education. He has published widely on issues of access to higher education, equity interventions and their evaluation, and the experiences and expectations of students.
Ryan will use the Fulbright Scholarship to understand how students, particularly those from under-served or equity backgrounds, conceive of success at university and how their self-concept changes during the transition to university. This research will ensure students are better supported during transition, so that all students, regardless of background, are equally able to transition effectively to university study.
Peyman Mostaghimi is an Associate Professor in Minerals and Energy Resources at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where he leads a multidisciplinary research group on Multiscale Transport in Porous Systems (MUTRIS). He is also a Council Member for the International Society for Porous Media. His research is focused on fluid dynamics and transport phenomena in porous media with application to geological carbon dioxide storage, subsurface hydrology, minerals and hydrocarbon recovery and groundwater modelling. He performs theoretical, numerical and experimental research into the characterisation of heterogeneous porous materials at different scales.
As a Fulbright Scholar, Peyman will spend three months at Kansas State University to focus on hydrogen as a future clean fuel that produces no carbon emissions. This research collaboration will provide unprecedented insights into unique transport phenomena associated with underground hydrogen storage and reduce uncertainty related to largescale gas storage in geological formations.
Troy is an Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow (Precision Agriculture) at the University of Southern Queensland where his career has focused on applying engineering technologies to agriculture.
With research interests in controlled traffic farming, yield monitoring, precision agriculture (PA), remote sensing, agricultural mechanisation and weed management, Troy’s Fulbright journey will take him to the University of Florida to utilise on-farm technologies to benefit sugarcane production systems. The use of imagery and PA datasets will identify constraints and provide the ability for the system to be continually refined and updated, ensuring farming enterprises are more efficient and environmentally sustainable.
Alex is Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Innovation, Enterprise and External Relations) and Professor of Economics at the University of Wollongong. He holds postgraduate degrees from University of Wollongong, University of Sydney and Cambridge University and has published over 100 scholarly articles in leading journals. He has been ranked amongst the top 150 scholars in his field globally by an influential survey of finance researchers. Professor Frino is a two time Fulbright Awardee – previously hosted by Georgetown University in 2005.
Alex will be travelling to the U.S. to work with scholars in the Cyber Security Department at Florida Polytechnic University and his research project will examine the impact of cyber attacks on listed companies in NATO countries.
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
Jenny is a vascular neurologist and the Director of the University of Utah Comprehensive Stroke Center and 6-state Telestroke Network. She also manages a clinical trials network across 3 states. To better serve patients with stroke, she is passionate about improving stroke systems of care, particularly patients in rural areas without readily-available specialty services.
For her Fulbright, she plans to learn from Australian telemedicine and stroke trials experts how to use existing telestroke networks to enroll rural patients into acute clinical trials. She also hopes to determine which long-term outcomes measures in stroke trials could be feasibly and accurately conducted over telemedicine platforms, to avoid patients needing to travel long distances for follow-up. Last, she hopes to learn how national policy can shape and improve the efficiency of clinical trials overall, with the ultimate goal to shape trial conduction back in the US.
Dean is a professor of history at Salisbury University, specialising in United States political, diplomatic, and transnational history. He is the author of Nixon’s Civil Rights: Politics, Principle, and Policy (Harvard University Press, 2001) and Paul V. McNutt and the Age of FDR (Indiana University Press, 2015) and the editor of The European Union: From Jean Monnet to the Euro (Ohio University Press, 2000). Based at the Australian National University, he will use his Fulbright to research his current book project, a study of the parallels and connections between United States and Australian indigenous policy between 1945 and 2000.
Dean received his PhD in history at Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1998. He has lectured in twenty-three countries across North America, Europe, and Australasia, including on two earlier Fulbright Scholar Awards. He is excited to share his insights on—and passion about—the modern American presidency.
Naim is Pegasus Professor of Public Administration and Policy and former Director of the School of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He is also joint faculty at the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs and the Center for Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems (RISES).
Naim received the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Applied Public Policy, Democratic Resilience award, and will be jointly hosted by Flinders University and Carnegie Mellon University Australia in 2022. His core research interests are network governance and leadership, decision-making in complex environments, organizational learning and design, and social inquiry and public policy. Naim has published widely in areas of public administration, network governance, and emergency and crisis management.
In February 2021 Aileen joined the Bioengineering faculty at Northeastern University and became the Director of Life Sciences and Engineering Programs at The Roux Institute (Portland, Maine). Aileen has a fourteen-year history of bringing about organizational change in higher education, leveraging evidence-based practices at University of Michigan. She created the U-M BME graduate design program, co-founded the U-M College of Engineering Center for Entrepreneurship, launched the U-M National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps Node, and developed the U-M BME Instructional Incubator. She is a canonical instructor for both the NSF and National Institute of Health (NIH) I-Corps Programs. Dr. Huang-Saad has received numerous awards for her teaching and student advising, including the 1938E College of Engineering Award, the Thomas M. Sawyer, Jr. Teaching Award, the U-M ASEE Outstanding Professor Award, the International Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award, and the College of Engineering Outstanding Student Advisor Award.
Dr. Huang-Saad’s current research areas are entrepreneurship, innovation, and transforming higher education. She is funded by the NSF to explore the influence of the microenvironment of entrepreneurship education on minoritized populations, entrepreneurial ecosystems, and fostering graduate student professional development.