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.
Lachlan is a PhD candidate at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania. His research is examining the triggers of hay fever, a common and debilitating allergic disease. As part of his Fulbright Future Scholarship, Lachlan will be working with a world leader in aerobiology (the study of airborne biological particles that affect human health). He will be implementing a new technique called the Halogen Immunoassay. This will provide scientifically robust information about which pollen types are triggers of allergy symptoms. Importantly, this method is able to detect novel pollen allergens, including Australian native taxa that cannot be tested for using conventional techniques.Â
Upon his return to Tasmania, Lachlan hopes that his training will help to contribute to the knowledge of aerobiology in Australia which can foster improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of hay fever and allergies.Â
Sid is currently a junior doctor at Royal Perth Hospital, graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 2018. He was awarded the School of Medicine Medal for his commitment to patients, contribution to social justice and academic excellence. Sid has always been naturally drawn to the questions public health seems best positioned to answer. This growing passion led to collaboration with the Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia surrounding a foot care quality improvement initiative. He received the John Snow Scholarship for his reflections on the experience, allowing him to share his thoughts at the Royal Australian College of Physician’s Congress.
Sid will pursue a Master of Public Health in the United States, hoping to develop the skills, knowledge and models of thinking required to ask incisive population health questions and answer them effectively. He endeavours to forge a career in Public Health and/or General Practice
Hamid is a PhD candidate and a passionate science communicator who is eager not only to advance the field of Tissue Engineering, but also, to engage the broader community with scientific and academic discourse through his podcast – Blab Coats.
For his Fulbright, Hamid will spend 10 months at Tufts University working with Dr Michael Levin’s world leading team in Molecular Developmental Bioelectricity. Cells are biological machines that carry an electrical charge on their membranes, and just like machines, they use electricity to store and process information. While much of the research in the field has been focused on the cytoplasmic-membrane’s electrical dimensions, Hamid is exploring how the electrical properties of the cell nuclear-membrane affects what genes get activated during embryo development. This has the potential to reveal the electrical dimensions of the cell nucleus as an important regulator of stem-cell differentiation, knowledge that can be harnessed to advance tissue engineering.Â
Joshua completed a Bachelor of Computer Science at Griffith University in 2019, majoring in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. A lover of strategy and problem solving, he went from playing chess at a young age to competing in a professional esports league for over a year. He founded the Griffith Artificial Intelligence Society and is passionate about applying artificial intelligence within interdisciplinary fields, having conducted research under the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, one of Australia’s leading biomedical research institutes.
As a Fulbright Future Scholar, Joshua will complete a PhD in Computer Science. Whilst abroad, he aims to enhance his academic abilities and establish strong institutional and industrial relationships between Australia and the United States. These relationships will assist him in applying this transformative technology within society and facilitating the growth of the artificial intelligence community in Australia.Â
Joey is completing a PhD in quantum physics under the supervision of 2018 Australian of the Year, Professor Michelle Simmons. His research focus is to develop an atomically precise quantum integrated circuit, a major step towards building a quantum computer.Â
As a Fulbright Future Scholar, Joey will work in the Harvard laboratory of Professor Amir Yacoby learning world leading measurement techniques for quantum computing. The outcome of this project will be to implement these techniques on silicon nanoelectronic devices to accelerate the development of a quantum computer. Such a machine promises exponential advantage over classical computers in areas such as artificial intelligence, cyber security, financial services and drug development.Â
Sasha is a Lawyer and delegate for the United Nations Association of Australia-Qld Division. She is passionate about advocating for the rights of marginalised and isolated communities. As a Torres Strait Islander Sasha has a particular interest in the preservation and advancement of Indigenous human rights.
Sasha has practiced in the area of foreign affairs, Police Prosecutions (criminal and domestic violence law) and child Protection litigation and currently works as a researcher in Indigenous and social and criminal justice affairs. Sasha holds dual qualifications in Law and International Relations.
As a Fulbright Scholar, Sasha hopes to study a Master of Laws specialising in international law, human rights and environmental law. Her aim is to understand the intersection of human rights law with regard to preventing and remedying crimes perpetrated against marginalised communities. Upon completion of the LLM program Sasha’s intention is to complete her PhD focusing on research relating to climate change and patterns of gendered violence whilst continuing to advocate at the United Nations.
Penny is passionate about understanding remote and wild ecosystems and undertaking research applicable to conservation and management. Islands are global biodiversity hotspots but are often threatened by invasive mammals. Whilst successful eradication of invasive mammals from islands is becoming more common, evaluating ecosystem response post-eradication is both challenging and expensive. Penny’s PhD is investigating the recovery of island ecosystems following the eradication of invasive mammals.
Collaborating with leading researchers at NIU, Penny will investigate the use of stable isotopes to monitor the progression of recovery in island ecosystems by undertaking a large-scale natural experiment across more than 30 Australian, New Zealand and sub-Antarctic islands. Seabird guano provides significant nutrient input to many non-invaded islands, and these nutrients have a traceable stable isotope signature. By comparing never-invaded islands to islands at different stages post-eradication, Penny’s research will investigate a novel cost and time-efficient technique for assessing the progression of ecosystem recovery in Australia.Â
Somya is currently a research assistant at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and Burnet Institute. Over the past two years, she has been researching the epidemiology of malaria, with a focus on parasite genomics. Somya has also developed mathematical models of parasite dynamics and host immunity as student researcher at the University of Melbourne. In 2020, Somya will commence a Master of Science (Mathematics and Statistics) at the University of Melbourne. Her project will focus on barcoding, a genomic tool that involves taking DNA ‘fingerprints’ from malaria parasites to uncover transmission dynamics and population connectivity. Using mathematical models of the parasite genome, Somya will investigate the ability of barcoding to capture trends in parasite relatedness.
As a Fulbright Scholar, she will work with Caroline Buckee’s team at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health to optimise barcoding, with the aim of maximising outputs from genomic surveillance in malaria endemic areas.Â
Michael holds a Bachelor of Music with first-class honours from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts where he specialised in conducting and early keyboard performance. He also obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia with a double major in Music Studies and Political Science, graduating in 2018. While at UWA, Michael resided at St George’s College where he was supported by the Eric Glasgow Memorial Bursary, several Argyle Scholarships and was Organ Scholar from 2017-2018. Michael was the Assistant Organist of St George’s Cathedral from 2016-2019 and holds an AMusA and LMusA from the AMEB, winning the A. J. Leckie Memorial Award for the best diploma candidate in WA in 2015. As a singer, Michael frequently performs with groups such as the St George’s Cathedral Consort, the Giovanni Consort and the WA Opera Company.
Michael intends to use his Fulbright Scholarship to study a Master of Music in conducting to equip him with the necessary skills to educate and provide opportunities for future generations of musicians in Australia.Â
Florence is undertaking a PhD in Professor Charles C. Sorrell’s research group at UNSW Sydney’s School of Materials Science and Engineering in collaboration with Professor Ralph J. Mobbs of Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney. Her project involves developing multifunctional mineral-biologics coatings on materials used to fabricate orthopaedic devices. The end goal of this work is to address one of the key causes of failed surgeries (aseptic loosening, failed implant-bone bonding in the absence of an infection) by enhancing and expediting the osseointegration (implant-bone bonding) process. Florence will be working with Professor Lara A. Estroff’s research group at Cornell University’s School of Materials Science and Engineering that has pioneered innovative characterization techniques of early stages of biomineralization. These techniques will be applied as analytical tools for the characterization of the hybrid coatings, with particular focus on the interfaces.
This opportunity will initiate an Australian-American research collaboration that involves research universities, orthopaedic surgeons, and biomaterial device manufacturers. Since such coatings are just emerging and in their nascent stages of growth, this work has the potential to direct the controlled engineering of next-generation hybrid coatings for orthopaedic devices. The novel technology shows promise in improving patient outcomes through shorter recovery periods, lowering the risk of failure, and ultimately reducing economic burden on health systems.Â
Narelle is a PhD candidate in the Nicholson laboratory at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne. For her Fulbright Future Scholarship, Narelle will work in the laboratory of Professor Jean-Laurent Casanova at Rockefeller University in New York. In the Casanova laboratory, Narelle will have access to clinical samples collected from patients, where she will investigate whether patients with rare genetic mutations in important immune signalling molecules are more susceptible to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis.
Narelle’s research will advance our understanding of molecular signalling within immune cells and the fundamental components that not only drive the immune response, but also those that switch it off. Findings may inform clinical practice, by triggering genetic counselling for patients and their families who are found to carry these rare genetic variants or implementing targeted vaccination strategies to ‘at risk’ individuals.Â
Liam graduated from the University of Western Australia in 2019 with a Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) in Economics and Finance, and a Diploma in Mandarin Chinese. He was previously the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan Fellow to China (2017), having studied and worked there for nearly three years, and maintains active involvement in Sino-Australia relations as Partnerships Manager for the Australia-China Youth Dialogue (ACYD). Â
Liam is particularly interested in the intersection of international trade and development, completing placements at the United Nations Capital Development Fund (Myanmar), KPMG Advisory and the Australian Embassy (Beijing). He plans to pursue a master’s degree in the U.S. to deepen his knowledge on changing patterns of trade and foreign investment, and their implications for developing economies.Â
Huw is a PhD student at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University. He is passionate about translating research findings into improvements in health care practice and policy, and ultimately into better outcomes for people with psychiatric and neurological disease. Prior to his PhD, he completed studies in medical science (University of Tasmania) and public health (University of Melbourne), and worked in research translation at the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia’s leading expert body in health and medical research. He also completed policy internships at the Grattan Institute (Melbourne) and the World Health Organization (Geneva).
Huw’s Fulbright Future Scholarship at Yale University will enable him to develop mathematical models of mood and motivation in people experiencing depression. He will collect data remotely from participants using smartphones – a new approach that shows great promise for estimating individual differences related to brain functioning.
Lucy is a political scientist and filmmaker who works across areas of climate change, conservation and sustainability. Lucy’s PhD topic is the framing of climate risk and crisis in UNESCO’s World Heritage convention, with a comparative case of the Everglades and Great Barrier Reef. As part of her Fulbright research, she will make a documentary to explore filmmaking as a new method in international relations. Prior to her PhD, Lucy lived in Indonesia, working at the Centre for International Forestry Research in science communications. She has a Master’s degree in Development Practice and a Master of Public Policy. Â
Lucy will use the Fulbright Scholarship to extend her existing research capacity and networks at the University of Michigan. She aims to be a leader in sustainability who can effectively communicate the political and social dimensions of climate change to policymakers, stakeholders and the public.Â
Nicholas currently serves as a lecturer in the first-year statistics and data science programs at the University of Sydney as well as a PhD candidate at the ACRF Image X Institute. His doctoral research focuses on using artificial intelligence and sophisticated image processing to drive improvements in image-guided radiotherapy. By taking lung cancer as its starting point, his work seeks to address the predominant driver of cancer-related death and one of the most challenging sites in radiation therapy. As a Fulbright Scholar, Nicholas will join the machine learning group at the MGH/HST Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging.
During his time as a Fulbright researcher, Nicholas hopes to initiate a binational research program which combines translational expertise in Australia with the strong artificial intelligence profile of the U.S. He is confident that this global and multi-disciplinary approach will be crucial to the safe and effective implementation of machine learning in the clinic.Â
Caroline is passionate about Linguistics and the intersection of language and education, particularly with respect to the educational experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. She has completed a Bachelor of Languages with Honours in Linguistics at the Australian National University, analysing part of the sound system of a newer Aboriginal language called Light Warlpiri. Since 2017, she has also been working on the creation of resources for teaching another Aboriginal language, Kriol, to English speakers online.
As a Fulbright Scholar, Caroline hopes to begin a PhD with which she will gain experience in community-centred linguistics and fieldwork, and the skills to make a strong, positive contribution to mother-tongue and bilingual education programs.Â
Allison is passionate about improving healthcare through research and education. She is a specialist in rural and remote medicine and lives on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait, providing primary and emergency medical care to her community. Her research focuses on tropical infectious diseases and she advocates for the building of research capacity within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. She is the Chair of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Registrar Committee and was awarded the 2019 Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine and Rural Doctors Association of Australia Rural Registrar of the Year Award.
With her Fulbright Scholarship, Allison will study a Master of Public Health specialising in global health and infectious diseases. Allison plans to return to Australia and continue working in partnership with Indigenous people to improve their health outcomes.
Shane is a Gender Specialist for international humanitarian organisations and doctoral student at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. His doctoral research investigates how humanitarian actors respond to the protection needs of adolescent boys in emergencies, such as refugee or disaster settings. Previously, Shane worked for child protection, maternal health, and women’s organisations in Timor-Leste and Indonesia on gender equality and empowering women and girls. He completed his doctoral fieldwork while working for Swiss child protection organisation Terre des hommes in the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh.
As a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia, Shane will develop a mixed-methods tool for assessing the capacity of child protection actors to respond to cases of sexual abuse against adolescent girls and boys in humanitarian emergencies. He intends to partner with humanitarian organisations to pilot the tool in ongoing crises, with a view to facilitating greater support for girl and boy survivors.Â
Rebecca is a writer and cultural critic, who is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing at Monash University. Her previous positions include film editor at The Big Issue and theatre critic at The Age. Her research centres on the critical essay—a subgenre of the literary essay that is prominent in contemporary North American creative nonfiction—exploring how this hybridised literary mode creates space for previously marginalised critical voices and narratives. Such ideas are tested via her creative essay collection, Terror Australis, which examines the history of fear in Australian cinema.
Rebecca’s Fulbright Scholarship will allow her to spend six months at Columbia School of the Arts’ Writing Program, an important nexus of creative and scholarly research. She will access literary archives, conduct interviews with essayists, forge cross-cultural literary communities, and learn more about the pedagogy of the writing workshop.Â
Courtney is a PhD candidate at RMIT University who is passionate about improving long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes for the smallest and most vulnerable babies. Her research is focused on characterising brain dysmaturation in individuals born prematurely and the implications this may have for mental health later in life.Â
As a Fulbright Future Scholar, Courtney will work at Washington University in St. Louis (Neonatal Developmental Research Laboratory) and Harvard Medical School to develop skills to analyse neuroimaging data using a machine learning approach. This approach will be used to detect complex patterns in connections within the brain that may underlie later anxiety.Â
She hopes that her research will provide indicators of anxiety that may be used by clinicians for early detection and targeted interventions in prematurely born children. Upon her return, Courtney hopes to promote applications of machine learning technologies in the neuroscience and paediatrics community in Australia.  Â
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. Â
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.Â
Edward is a medical registrar at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, with a passion for public health policy, particularly in nutrition, obesity and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. An aspiring physician scientist, Eddie completed his MBBS (Hons) at Monash University, and his Bachelor of Medical Science with first class honours at the University of Oxford, studying the physiology of neonatal diabetes. He has previously worked on policy locally, nationally and globally, including on the national executive of the Australian Medical Students’ Association and for NCDFREE, an NGO, in areas from mental health to primary care.
Eddie will undertake a Masters of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, to hone his technical public health and policy skills. Eddie hopes to combine this knowledge with his experience treating patients, to research and advocate for improved, evidence-based health policy, in order to better prevent and treat obesity, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases.
Jake hunts down and characterises newly found worlds beyond our solar system and is a current PhD candidate at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). After receiving a first-class honours in Physics at the University of Adelaide and obtaining a Master of Science Communication Outreach at the Australian National University, his main research focus is determining the chemical and geological makeup of large rocky and small gassy worlds known as super-Earths.Â
Jake’s Fulbright Future Scholarship will take him to the Southwest Research Institute’s headquarters in San Antonio Texas, where he will craft and confirm a new planet discovery technique dedicated to finding super-Earths. These planets will likely be confirmed with both NASA’s new planet finding mission TESS and USQ’s planet hunting observatory, MINERVA-Australis.Â
Monique is a PhD candidate and program manager for the national influenza surveillance system – the Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network (ASPREN). Monique began working as the ASPREN program manager in 2009 during the H1N1 influenza pandemic. Her work has seen the surveillance system evolve from a simple, paper and web-based data collection system to include virological testing, automated data extraction, and point-of-care testing. Monique is passionate about improving the health of people in underserved populations. Her latest project, working with the University of Washington on the Australian arm of the Seattle Flu study – flu@home study – involved the assessment and enhancement of an in-home test for influenza, coupled with an app that collects patient symptom and risk-factor data.
Through support from the Fulbright Commission and The Kinghorn Foundation, Monique will work with Professor Matthew Thompson and Associate Professor Barry Lutz at the University of Washington. Her work will focus on further enhancement of the flu@home app in a bid to create a cheap and accurate test for influenza that could be utilised by individuals without access to healthcare, or as a surveillance tool in countries that cannot afford traditional methods of surveillance. In addition, she will forge collaboration and research opportunities at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Through understanding how U.S. disease surveillance systems work, Monique plans to further enhance Australia’s influenza surveillance systems.
Sam graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Science (Advanced), with a major in Microbiology and received First Class Honours in Biotechnology from Swinburne University of Technology. His current PhD research at RMIT University involves the development of functional nanomaterials for antimicrobial applications to combat the rapid development of antimicrobial resistance in pathogenic micro-organisms. During his time at North Carolina State University, Sam will work under Professor Michael Dickey, a world leading researcher in material science, which will complement his background in microbiology. In particular, his project will involve the manipulation of liquid metals to develop stimuli-activated antimicrobial nanomaterials for biomedical applications. North Carolina has a prominent biotechnology sector and start-up scene.
The Fulbright Scholarship will provide Sam with a deeper understanding of how to successfully bridge the gap between academia and industry. He hopes to share this knowledge with fellow researchers on his return to Australia.