Alumni Profiles

Melissa S. Cardon Distinguished Chair

Melissa is the Haslam Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She studies the psychology of entrepreneurs as they found, persist, and succeed (or not) with their ventures. Topics of special interest include entrepreneurial passion, emotion, resource acquisition, persistence, exit, failure recovery and learning, stress, burnout, and exhaustion, as well as coping mechanisms to address pervasive problems. Melissa’s Fulbright project focuses on understanding the loneliness experiences of Australian entrepreneurs, which can have profound effects on individual well-being and performance, and how entrepreneurs cope behaviorally, cognitively, socially, and emotionally.

Richard Ziolkowski Distinguished Chair

Richard received the Sc.B. degree in physics, magna cum laude with honours, from Brown University (1974), and the M.S. (1975) and Ph.D. (1980) degrees in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was awarded an honorary doctoral degree (Doctor Technish Honoris Causa) from the Technical University of Denmark in 2012. Richard was a member of the Engineering Research Division at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1981 to 1990 and served as the leader of the Computational Electronics and Electromagnetics Thrust Area for the Engineering Directorate. He joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona as an Associate Professor in 1990, and was promoted to Full Professor in 1996. Richard was selected by the Faculty to serve as the first Kenneth Von Behren Chaired Professor for 2003-2005. He currently is serving as the Litton Industries John M. Leonis Distinguished Professor. Richard holds a joint appointment with the College of Optical Sciences. He also is a Distinguished Adjunct Professor to King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Richard’s research interests include the application of new mathematical and numerical methods to linear and nonlinear problems dealing with the interaction of acoustic and electromagnetic waves with complex media, metamaterials, and realistic structures. He has been a plenary, keynote and invited speaker at numerous professional society events

Richard is an IEEE Fellow (1994). He was the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) Vice President in 2004 and President in 2005. He has served as a member of the IEEE AP-S Administrative Committee (AdCom), and as a member and the Chair of the IEEE Electromagnetics (Technical Field) Award Committee. For the URSI (International Union of Radio Science) Society he has served as Secretary of the US Commissions B and D and as the Chairperson of the US Commission B Technical Activities Committee. Richard served as a Member-at-Large of the URSI U.S. National Committee (USNC). He is currently a member of the URSI International Commission B Technical Activities Board. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (2006). Richard has served as a Co-Chair of the 2008, 2010 and 2012 SPIE Europe Conferences on Metamaterials. He has been a member of the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of several meetings including iWAT, ISAP, ISAPE and MAPE. He was the general co-Chair of iWAT 2012 in Tucson, AZ. Richard also was the Technical Program Committee Chair for the 2008 Metamaterials Congress and has been a member of the Steering Committees for the 2009-2014 Metamaterials Congresses. He served on the Editorial Board of the Elsevier journal: Metamaterials, and is now serving on the Editorial Board of the journal: EPJ Applied Metamaterials. He is also a member of the American Physical Society (APS) and the Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, Sigma Xi, and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies. Richard has received several teaching awards at the University of Arizona and also holds the title of Sensei in Matsunoryu Goshin Jujitsu (Nidan rank) and in Kajukenbo (Nidan rank).

There has been a paradigm shift in recent years in the research of materials and their physical properties. This trend can be traced primarily to the development of metamaterials, which are artificial media whose responses to electromagnetic, acoustic, and thermal stimuli can be tailored for specific applications. Metamaterials have proven exotic physics properties and unusual engineering applications. Richard will be investigating a variety of metamaterial-engineered structures to control the radiation, scattering and absorption of electromagnetic and acoustic waves in systems that are interest to DSTO and its customers.

Gregory L. Alexander PhD, RN, FAAN Senior Scholars

Dr. Gregory L. Alexander PhD, RN, FAAN has a broad background with specialized education in health systems, human factors, informatics, gerontology, patient safety and quality improvement. Alexander is principal investigator of a research team that is for the first time ever, comparing nationally, nursing home (NH) quality measures and information technology (IT) implementation in the United States through an R01 funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). He co-leads a large national demonstration project funded by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). In this research, his team is implementing a health information exchange system and monitoring adoption and use of technology designed to improve communication between healthcare stakeholders. Alexander has published widely in interdisciplinary, national/international journals including nursing, engineering, gerontology, health services research, and quality improvement. He has spoken around the world at conferences about his research and has served as a U.S. ambassador in international workshops. Alexander has hosted international graduate PhD students at his university who are interested in gerontology and informatics.

Alexander’s research will be the first international comparative assessment of IT adoption in NHs, which will include identifying types of IT used, extent of IT use and degree of IT integration. Currently, IT is not linked to key quality measurement systems. If our preliminary results, conducted in the United States, are replicated in Australia and increasing IT adoption is associated with changes in reports of quality measures used in aged care facilities, this finding would strongly support ongoing international collaborations exploring the use of NH Quality Measurement systems and IT adoption as a way to build benchmarks for resident care.

Dr. Alexander is eager to promote his work internationally as a Fulbright Scholar at Macquarie University in Sydney Australia by working with faculty and graduate students focused on using informatics to promote better clinical environments in long term care.

Jill Thistlethwaite Senior Scholars

“I’d like to develop an argument for further development of IPE in Australia and the research agenda.”

Jill Thistlethwaite is an Adjunct Professor in Medical and Health Professional Education at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Since qualifying as a General Practitioner in the U.K, she has been involved health professional education with a strong focus on interprofessional education (IPE) and collaborative practice for health professionals.

She will study at the newly established National Centre for Interprofessional Practice and Education at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis from May to September 2014. Specifically, the research will consider how health professionals may learn more or optimally together to work together in teams.

“The majority of undergraduate and postgraduate training in Australia is undertaken uni-professionally. This is an opportunity to share expertise and consider big questions about IPE. I’d like to develop an argument for further development of IPE in Australia and the research agenda.”

Professor Maggie Walter Senior Scholars

Maggie, a palawa Tasmanian Aboriginal woman, is the Pro Vice-Chancellor of Aboriginal Research and Leadership at the University of Tasmania.

Maggie will use her Fulbright opportunity to undertake a comparative analysis of Australian/U.S. Indigenous educational data and policy at Arizona State University. She brings to this research an extensive track record in the field of Indigenous children’s educational attainment and is a long term member of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children Steering Committee. Maggie will also set the foundations for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander/Native American network to foster scholarly collaboration and the sharing of knowledge. The network’s purpose is to facilitate cross-national engagement and research on Indigenous children’s educational attainment and will bring a combined Indigenous academic strength to bear on the shared aspiration of a strong educational future for our children.

Lane Burt Professional Scholars

Lane is the Founder and Managing Principal of Ember Strategies, an energy efficiency and green building consulting firm located in San Francisco, California. Lane is a licensed professional engineer and after leaving engineering practice, he served as the Policy Director of the U.S. Green Building Council and as the federal energy efficiency lead for the Natural Resources Defence Council in Washington, D.C. Lane has Masters and Bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida and North Carolina State University respectively. He enjoys cycling, backpacking, fly fishing and outdoor activities that provide temporary disconnection and recalibration.

Since founding Ember Strategies, Lane has worked with numerous U.S. cities and NGOs developing and implementing policies and programs designed to eliminate energy waste in big buildings. The U.S. “efficiency brain trust” is very interested in better understanding the impact of Australia’s trend-setting efficiency policies, especially the Commercial Building Disclosure program. Through his research and time in Australia, Lane hopes to facilitate that understanding while directly experiencing Australia and Melbourne day to day. He spent some time in Australia in 2007 and looks forward to returning with some context to find what has changed and what remains the same. Lane would like to return home with a broader outlook and greater understanding of the efforts both countries are making to confront big challenges.

Dr Louise Byrne Postdoctoral Scholars

Louise is a Lived Experience Mental Health academic. Her work is informed by her personal experience of significant mental health challenges, service use, and periods of healing.

During her Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship, Louise will work in the Yale University Program for Recovery and Community Health.  Louise’s research focuses on the emerging lived experience mental health workforce and will explore factors that assist in the successful inclusion of lived experience roles within the wider workforce. These roles contribute to better outcomes for mental health service users.  However, the lived experience workforce faces many barriers.  Findings will be compared to Louise’s previous studies in Australia and used to inform the development of a toolkit to aid the inclusion of lived experience roles.

Steven Burroughs Postgraduate Students

“Malaria is one of the most disruptive diseases on the planet, affecting almost a billion people worldwide and killing over 700,000 every year. The extent and impact of this crippling disease is believed to be a significant contributor to economic and political instability in the Third World.”

Mr Steven Burroughs is a recent graduate of The United States Military Academy. Through his Fulbright he will pursue a Masters in International Public Health at the University of Queensland. His particular area of interest is malaria.

“Southeast Asia is known as the world’s hotspot for drug resistant strains of Plasmodium, the group of organisms responsible for malaria, and Australia stands at the forefront of the battle to quickly identify, isolate, and track the spread of these strains,” Mr Burroughs said.

“It leads the world in these efforts as it is literally on the frontlines, but unlike other nations who primarily track and study malaria, Australia has embarked on an effort to eradicate malaria.”

“Australia is in a unique position as it is a developed Western nation that has dealt with and successfully eradicated malaria within its borders despite being neighbors with countries where malaria remains endemic.”

Steven plans to plan to learn as much as possible from Australia about what actions the United States could take to effectively contribute resources to the campaign to eradicate malaria.

“As a future Army officer, I hope to bring back the policies and techniques used successfully by our Australian counterparts and applying these procedures to our government’s operations in malaria stricken countries. If the U.S. gains an increased understanding of operating in malaria endemic environments, it can control the disease more effectively and provide aid more efficiently, thus saving lives. The experience with malarial control policy cannot be mimicked anywhere else, as no other country has been as active and as successful as Australia has been in controlling malaria at an international level,” Mr Burroughs said.

Steven has a B.S. in Life Sciences and Psychology from The United States Military Academy. He also is a member of the Gamma Sigma Epsilon (Chemistry Honor Society) and the Phi Kappa Phi (All-Discipline Honor Society). In his free time he enjoys orienteering, is a member of the Catholic Catechists and the American Chemical Society and he has worked with Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Madison Hecht Postgraduate Students

Madison is a recent graduate of the University of Virginia, earning dual degrees in neuroscience and English. At the university as an Echols Scholar, she conducted research in neural development, contributing to her Distinguished Majors Thesis and sparking her interest in child brain development.

In partnership with renowned autism researcher Professor Liz Pellicano, Madison will use her Fulbright Scholarship to address autistic people’s increased risk of sexual victimization. Her study is co-produced with autistic researchers and elicits the perspectives of multiple informants, including young autistic people, their parents, and their teachers. Her findings will illuminate what good ‘sex and relationships’ education looks like for this population and ultimately influence Australian educational policy and practice. It is her hope that this project helps ensure that the rights of autistic people, to feel safe and supported in their schools and communities, are protected and promoted.

James F Peyla Postgraduate Students

James is an aspiring zoologist with interests in ecology, evolution, systematics, behavior, and physiology. His research has focused on the distribution, skin structure, and behavior of cephalopod mollusks. Having interned at a variety of institutions in the United States, including the Marine Biological Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Smithsonian Institution, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, he is excited to conduct cephalopod research abroad. Under Dr. Zoë Doubleday, he will study the effects of ocean acidification on the giant Australian cuttlefish (Sepia apama) by analyzing a time series of museum specimens spanning decades from collections across Australia. He hopes also to determine the effects of elevated seawater acidity on the development of cuttlefish embryos. The results of his investigations will inform our understanding of the resistance and resilience of marine organisms in the face of global climatic changes.

James Riggall Postgraduate Students

James is currently the Managing Director of Bitlink a company that specialises in STEM education and teacher training.  He is also currently the President of Startup Tasmania and is one of the founders of the Battery Shed, a community hackerspace in Launceston, Tasmania.

James will use his Fulbright Scholarship to travel to Seattle and work with Bellevue College to establish their own on-campus hackerspace, the Collaboratory.  This project has evolved, in part, out of an ongoing collaboration between James and staff at Bellevue College.  The Fulbright Scholarship will enable this partnership to be further developed and for James to work with the team at Bellevue College, and other partners, to undertake research into how to best teach STEM subjects in a collaborative, project-based way, where teaching staff and project partners are distributed all over the world.

Tandee Wang Postgraduate Students

Tandee is committed to the critical study of race and ethnicity, particularly in relational, comparative and transnational modes. He graduated from the Australian National University with first class honours and the University Medal in 2020, where his thesis examined Chinese migration at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Since 2019, Tandee has been a researcher at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), drawing on critical Indigenous scholarship to inform policymaking. His mission is to build the emergent field of Asian Australian Studies, believing that it holds radical potential to transform how we conceive of and address injustice and inequality in Australia and abroad.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Tandee will undertake an MA/PhD program in the History Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, specialising in the comparative history of race and ethnicity, and working closely with the Department of Asian American Studies.