2013 Alumni

Christopher Elvin Distinguished Chair

“Nature offers the inspiration to guide us in the development of new artificial materials, which can be used to develop better medical devices.”

Dr Christopher Elvin, a Senior Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Animal, Food and Health Sciences in Queensland, will spend three months in the U.S. furthering his research in the design and synthesis of materials for the fabrication of advanced biomedical devices, at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in San Francisco and Duke University, North Carolina.

“In my current research I see major opportunities in the area of molecular biomimicry, for fabrication of new materials and devices. This means that we observe materials that exist in nature and develop synthetic versions in the laboratory, based on the molecular designs and structures that have evolved over hundreds of millions of years.”

Christopher’s work was based on the research of a 1960s Danish scientist, Professor Torkel Weis-Fogh, who described a rubber-like protein found in insects, called resilin. This almost perfectly elastic material enables fleas to jump, cicadas to sing and improves the efficiency of insect flight.

Christopher was entranced by these studies, and decided to clone and express the resilin gene from Drosophila melanogaster (the vinegar fly). He drew on the scientific expertise of a multidisciplinary team of friends, colleagues and family to develop a new approach to create a rubbery biomaterial, recombinant resilin, which has similar properties to the native material. This work was published in 2005, in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. The result was the most resilient (energy efficient rubber) material known and it displays remarkable fatigue lifetime, surviving for more than 500 million cycles of strain/relaxation.

He will work with his U.S. host institutions to further develop biocompatible and durable synthetic versions of these new materials. Practical applications for this technology include new spinal disc prostheses and artificial heart valves.

Christopher has BAgSc (Hons I) Adelaide University; an MPhil (Biochemistry) University of Cambridge; PhD (Biochemistry) University of Cambridge; Certificate III in Financial Markets – Securities Institute of Australia. Chris has won various awards and prizes including a CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement, a Research Innovation Award from CSIRO, an Ena Orrock Lewcock Award for Botany, Adelaide University, and a Faculty of Agricultural Science Medal, Adelaide University. His interests include photography, golf, movies, social justice and gardening.

Victoria A. Farrar-Myers Distinguished Chair

“The 21st Century world is rife with challenges ranging from globalization, a world fiscal crisis, and problems and issues that defy traditional boundaries. Further, as a world of nations, we are confronted with the necessity to cross-collaborate and create opportunities to foster innovation and growth.”

Professor Victoria A. Farrar-Myers, Professor in Political Science and Distinguished Teaching Professor with The University of Texas-Arlington is the 2013/14 Fulbright Flinders University Distinguished Chair. Through her Fulbright, Victoria will come to Flinders University in Adelaide to undertake research into executive foreign policymaking with a particular emphasis within the Pacific Rim.

“I will address the overall question of how do the constraints posed by past commitments, institutional structures, and current political dynamics dictating internal political contexts affect the development and pursuit of foreign policy by the respective heads of government within Australia and the United States, both as individuals and institutional actors,” Victoria said.

“My research project will contain several interrelated aspects. The primary theme of my research will be a comparative focus on the power, authority, and constraints of the U.S. president and Australian prime minister in foreign relations. I will explore this theme from both intra-state (i.e., within country) and inter-state (i.e., external relations) perspectives.”

“Perhaps most importantly, and an aspect about which I am most excited, this research will enable me to explore these issues within the context of U.S. and Australian policy with and involving China; thus, allowing me to take advantage of and contribute to Flinders University’s recently created Centre for United States and Asia Policy Studies.”

Victoria has a BS in Political Science and Public Administration from Russell Sage College; an MA in Political Science from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and a PhD in Political Science from State University of New York at Albany. She has won awards and prizes including the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, The University of Texas System; being a National Finalist, Citizen Service Before Self Honors, The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation; and an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship. Her interests include the American presidency, executive politics and foreign policy, and institutional development.

Murray Loew Distinguished Chair

“In military applications, robotics, security, surveillance, and mobile systems, it is essential to have the ability to detect, track, and identify moving objects over a great distance to provide time sufficient for the most appropriate response.”

Professor Murray Loew, Professor with the School of Engineering and Applied Science, at George Washington University, is the inaugural recipient of the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Advanced Science and Technology, sponsored by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). Through his Fulbright, Murray will come to the DSTO laboratories in Adelaide Australia for five months to work on the tracking of moving objects.

“This is important for a range of activities including surveillance (of borders, around a base, of shorelines), missile defence, and navigation and collision avoidance (of aircraft, of robots and their end-effectors),” Murray said.

Murray said that because of its ability to observe objects rapidly and at large distances, long-range ground-surveillance radar is used in many of the applications noted above. However radar surveillance of moving objects on and near the ground generates many false alarms. For this reason he will look at fusing imagery (infrared and visible) with radar data to improve the tracking and detection of moving targets in a surveillance setting

“A variety of sensors could be used in support of those tasks, and often it is the case that combining the outputs of multiple sensors will yield more accurate and timely information than can be provided by any single sensor.”

Murray has a BS in electrical engineering from Drexel Institute of Technology (now Drexel University); and an MS and PhD from Purdue University. At GW, he teaches courses in pattern recognition, image analysis, and computer vision. His accomplishments include the development of new techniques to measure the clinical utility of medical-image registration methods in the absence of ground-truth (including recent applications to the analysis of binder materials used in paintings); development and validation of machine-independent algorithms for detecting early bladder cancer in optical coherence tomography imaging; contributing to new theory for quantifying the uncertainty in receiver operating characteristic measurements of classifier performance (important for formal comparisons of classifiers); and he is a Fellow, Inst. of Electrical and Electronics Engrs., and of American Inst. Med. and Biol. Engrg. His interests include photography, music, and travel.

The prestigious Fulbright program is the largest educational scholarship of its kind, created by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and the U.S. Government in 1946. Aimed at promoting mutual understanding through educational exchange, it operates between the U.S. and 155 countries. In Australia, the scholarships are funded by the Australian and U.S. Governments and corporate partners and administered by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission in Canberra.

Robert Shellie Distinguished Chair

“Chemical measurement usually involves taking samples to a laboratory where an analyst makes measurements using specialized scientific instrumentation. However, a preferred tactic in many circumstances may be to employ miniaturized instrumentation, permitting the analyst to ‘bring the laboratory to the sample’.”

Associate Professor Robert Shellie, ARC Australian Research Fellow, with the University of Tasmania (UTAS) is this year’s winner of the Fulbright Tasmania Scholarship sponsored by the Tasmanian State Government and UTAS. Robert will go to Purdue University for three months to further his work in the development of an in-situ system for chemical measurement of environmental pollutants in remote locations. This could be used in locations such as Antarctica, the sub-Antarctic, and by extension industrial sites, and remote communities.

Robert has led research into developing instrumentation for environmental monitoring of fuel spills in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic, and this is what sparked his interest in the development of this technology.

“Having performed work in the AAD laboratory at Macquarie Island as part of Australia’s 2007-2008 Antarctic Program, I became acutely aware of the need to develop readily transportable instrumentation for performing chemical analysis in remote locations,” Robert said.

“I have since developed a significant interest in miniaturized instrumentation and my research group is currently developing and testing field-transportable instrumentation. In the future I aim to intensify development of miniaturized instrumentation for chemical analysis of complex mixtures in my research group.”

Robert has a BAppSc and a PhD in chemistry from RMIT University. He has won awards and prizes including a Australian Research Council Australian Research Fellowship; a Royal Australian Chemical Institute Robert Cattrall Medal;  Australian Institute of Policy and Science Tasmanian Young Tall Poppy of the Year; and a University of Tasmania Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence. He has also published extensively. His interests include music, art, and renovating.

The prestigious Fulbright program is the largest educational scholarship of its kind, created by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and the U.S. Government in 1946. Aimed at promoting mutual understanding through educational exchange, it operates between the U.S. and 155 countries. In Australia, the scholarships are funded by the Australian and U.S. Governments and corporate partners and administered by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission in Canberra.

Ellen Douglas Senior Scholars

“One of the major reasons for human overuse of water is that conventional economic analyses do not assign a value to the freshwater itself; we use the water for free, typically only paying for the cost of developing and transporting it to where we need it.”

Associate Professor Ellen Douglas, Associate Professor with the University of Massachusetts—Boston has won a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to come to Australia for six months in August to work with the CSIRO on establishing the value of freshwater.

“Quantifying the value of freshwater ecosystems and incorporating that value into water management models will be the focus of my Fulbright research,” Professor Douglas said.

“The U.S. is facing many of the same water-related challenges but Australia is leading the way in meeting them, and my research with CSIRO will be directly translatable and transferable to water management in my home state and country.”

Ellen will work with the Australian CSIRO and combine her quantitative expertise in hydrologic modeling with methods for ecosystem valuation to advance sustainable water use practices. Concrete outcomes will include peer-reviewed publications and presentations at national and international conferences.

Ellen has a BS in hydrology, University of New Hampshire; MS civil engineering, University of New Hampshire and a PhD water resources engineering, Tufts University. She has won awards and prizes including Outstanding Environmental Education Leadership, Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions; Outstanding Graduate Researcher In Engineering, Tufts University; US EPA Science To Achieve Results (STAR) Graduate Fellowship; and a Tufts Watershed Center Fellowship. Her interests include.

Arthur Durband Senior Scholars

“The skeletons at Roonka represent the largest single sample of pre-contact Aboriginal Australians known. These individuals date from approximately 7,000 years before present (BP) to around 1840, with roughly half of the series dating to pre-4,000 years BP.”

Associate Professor Arthur (Art) Durband, Associate Professor with the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at Texas Tech University will come to Flinders University for four months to study the skeletons from the Early Holocene site of Roonka in South Australia.

“This research project will enable the discovery, recording, and dissemination of biological and behavioural data from the largest excavated pre-contact cemetery site in Australia. Consisting of nearly 200 Aboriginal Australian skeletons, many dating to between 4,000-7,000 years, this is one of the largest early Holocene cemetery sites excavated anywhere,” Art said.

“During the period of my proposed Fulbright support I will collect data from the skeletal sample that will form the basis for a volume in a proposed monograph series on this site. This work will preserve valuable information on this irreplaceable skeletal sample in anticipation of its eventual repatriation.”

Art said that the Aboriginal group responsible for the Roonka remains, the First Peoples of the River Murray and Mallee Region (FPRMMR) has granted permission for researchers to conduct research on the collection but has also expressed their desire to eventually repatriate and rebury it.

“It is crucial to document this important collection while we have the opportunity. My proposed Fulbright support will run between January-May, 2014. During this time, I will study the Roonka remains at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, South Australia as a member of a team dedicated to producing, sorting, and updating the archaeological and biological data from the site for a proposed monograph series.”

Art has B.A. English and Anthropology, Northern Illinois University; M.A. Anthropology, Northern Illinois University; and a Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of Tennessee. He has won awards and prizes including Mortar Board Professor of the Year and he has published widely. In his spare time he enjoys reading and travelling.

Michelle Meade Senior Scholars

“Training older adults to rely on others for memory cues is a practical strategy that may benefit memory performance in healthy older adults as well as older adults suffering from memory debilitating diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease.”

Associate Professor Michelle Meade, Associate Professor with the Department of Psychology, Montana State University—Bozeman, has won a Fulbright Scholarship to come to Macquarie University for six months. Through her Fulbright, Michelle will work on human memory, and will examine why collaborating with others can disrupt individual memory in some settings and enhance individual memory in other settings (i.e. when individuals remember a greater amount of accurate information when working with a partner than when working alone).

“Research has not yet identified the cognitive processes that underlie successful collaboration. In fact, given the frequency with which individuals collaborate and the potential impact of collaboration on group efficacy and individual memory in young and older adults, there is surprisingly little research in the area,” Michelle said.

In Australia, Michelle will participate in a range of research related activities that include: 1) developing and implementing research experiments that determine when remembering with other people benefits individual memory in both young and older adults, 2) planning and writing grant proposals on social memory and aging, and 3) learning strategies for career advancement and mentoring such as how to build an interdisciplinary team, promote research dialogue and collaboration, and how to mentor female scientists. Her research will have implications for group efficacy and maintaining healthy memory in old age.

Michelle has a BA in Psychology from Grinnell College; and an MA and PhD in psychology from Washington University in St. Louis. Michelle has received awards and prizes including a Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois and she was nominated 3 years in a row for the President’s Excellence in Teaching Award at Montana State University. In her spare time she enjoys enjoy gardening, reading, and spending time with her family.

Scott Stephens Senior Scholars

“Wildfires continue to cause great destruction in the US and Australia and changing climates will make a very serious situation worse. Whether it is the 2009 Black Saturday Fire in Victoria or the 2012 Whitewater Fire in New Mexico, wildfires continue to challenge natural resource managers, politicians, and the public.”

Prof Scott Stephens, Professor with the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at University of California—Berkeley has won a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to come to the University of Western Australia for six months. He will work on the mitigation of large bush or wildfires.

“For over a century fire has been thought of as an arch-enemy with billions of dollars expended to eliminate it,” Scott said. “This policy has not worked because even though 96-99% of all ignitions can be suppressed when they are very small, the fires that get away burn huge areas and can damage natural resources, structures, and kill people.”

Scott says that instead of trying to eliminate fire from landscapes where it is ecologically critical a more appropriate goal would be to learn how humans can live with fire.

“One place in the world that has attempted to follow such a strategy is southwestern (SW) Western Australia. In contrast to SW Western Australia, the US continues to focus on the elimination of fire in most areas even though several recent US federal policies (National Fire Plan, Ten Year Comprehensive Strategy, Healthy Forest Restoration Act) have all attempted to diversify fire management to get away from only fire suppression,” Scott said.

This area has one largest fire management programs in the world and the largest in a Mediterranean climate. His project will analyze key characteristics of this novel program to take the knowledge back to the U.S. to see if it could be adopted there. In addition he will assist in the teacing of a gradute fire ecology class at the University of Western Australia.

Scott has a BS in electrical engineering and an MS in Biomedical Engineering from the California State University, Sacramento and a PhD in fire science from UC Berkeley. He has delivered testimony before the US House of Representatives on fires and forest and water protection. He has also been presented with an Undergraduate Teaching Excellence award from the ESPM Department. In his free time he enjoys hiking, backpacking and rebuilding old vehicles including a World War II military jeep.

Aaron Hann Tapper Senior Scholars

“In ‘the Apology,’ Australia began an incredibly ambitious process of reconciliation and forgiveness. But was it successful? And, if so, can this act be reappropriated to other places in need? Does this model have the potential to transform the world?”

Prof. Aaron J. Hahn Tapper, Chair and Associate Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Francisco, has won a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to come to Monash University and the University of Melbourne for six months. He will work on issues around reconciliation and forgiveness, focusing in particular on the Apology made by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in February 2008, when he formally apologized to the country’s indigenous communities for their prolonged maltreatment.

“The last half century has seen powerful, new developments in the field of inter-communal reconciliation and forgiveness,” Aaron said.

“Countries like Australia have started to take ownership over past wrongdoings, committing themselves to not repeat government-sanctioned abuses.

Between December 2013 and June 2014 I will conduct research on the Apology and its potential to heal communities in non-Australian contexts.

During the six months of the research grant I will primarily focus on the first aspect of this project, the Apology and its aftermath. There is nowhere but Australia to properly conduct this research.

The primary actors in this performance of political reconciliation live in Australia, indigenous and non-indigenous people alike. Further, most scholars who have written about the Apology specifically and ATSI communities generally are also based in Australia.”

Aaron has a BA in psychology from Johns Hopkins University; a degree in religious studies from Harvard University Divinity School and a PhD in religious studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the Mae and Benjamin Swig Chair in Jewish Studies and Director of the Jewish Studies and Social Justice program at the University of San Francisco; Co-Editor, Muslims and Jews in America: Commonalities, Contentions, and has held numerous prestigious fellowships, such as the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, a Fulbright-Hayes Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, and the Harvard University Frederick Sheldon Travelling Fellowship, among others. In his free time he enjoys spending time with his family and reading books.

Tessa Boyd-Caine Professional Scholars

“Australian non-profit organisations, like their international colleagues, pride themselves on identifying community needs and finding solutions to them through independent, community-led approaches. However Australia’s non-profit sector has neither the data collection processes, nor the relationships across its many parts, to sustain strong, sector-led accountability.”

Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Australian Council of Social Service, has won one of the two inaugural Fulbright Professional Scholarships in Non-Profit Leadership, sponsored by the Origin Foundation and supported by the Australian Scholarships Foundation. Through her Fulbright Tessa will go to New York City and Washington DC for four months to research issues around how non-profit organisations can strengthen and lead the trust and confidence in which this sector is held.

“My project will examine the work of the Foundation Center, an organization instrumental to building openness within the American non-profit sector, and its partnership with the National Center for Charitable Statistics,” Tessa said.

“In a sector driven by values of innovation and independence, non-profits need to develop their own models for measuring their social and economic contribution. I want to identify strategies, processes and relationships underway in the USA that could be adapted to better support the contribution of the Australian non-profit sector. These might include benchmarks of accountability, operational standards or indicators of performance and outcomes that the sector itself can develop as markers of its effectiveness.”

Tessa has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney; a Masters in Criminology from the University of Sydney Law School; and a PhD from the London School of Economics. Her previous awards and prizes include the JH McClemens Memorial Prize in Criminology at Sydney University and a Studentship from the Sociology Department at the London School of Economics. Her book, ‘Protecting the public: detention and release of mentally disordered offenders’ was published by Routledge in 2010.

Tessa has worked in university and government roles and has extensive experience in the non-profit sector, where she worked for several international human rights organisations before joining ACOSS in 2009. Her interests include health, law and justice, human rights, representative governance and accountability, and community development. She plays Ultimate Frisbee and is an avid walker.

Michelle Circelli Professional Scholars

“It is a matter of national concern that the 2006 international Adult Literacy and Life Skills survey (ALLS) found that almost half of Australia’s adult population has literacy and numeracy skills below the minimum level required to adequately function on a day-to-day basis in an advanced economy.”

Ms Michelle Circelli, Senior Research Officer, National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) in South Australia, is the 2013 winner of the Fulbright Professional Scholar in Vocational Education and Training sponsored by the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE). Michelle will undertake research into measuring success of adult literacy and numeracy education programs in the U.S. with the Californian Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and the Office of Vocational and Adult Education in Washington D.C, for 3-4 months.

“Both national and international research demonstrates the relationship between higher adult literacy and numeracy skills and positive outcomes for individuals as well as communities and the economy,” Michelle said.

“The importance of this relationship is recognised by the federal government with recent increases in funding for programs and services.”

“This renewed recognition and increasing investment is welcomed but, unlike in the US, little is known in Australia about the returns on this investment for funders and providers, or outcomes for learners.”

Michelle’s research will shed light on how the success of a learner and a program can be measured and how this information is used for continuous improvement.

Michelle has BSc (Hons) in psychology from the University of Adelaide and an MSocSc (Applied Social Research) from the University of South Australia. She has been a joint winner of the 2003 Excellence in Policing Awards for research on improving policing for women, has published widely and, before joining NCVER  built a career in research at the Australasian Centre for Policing Research and University of South Australia. Michelle is a member of reference groups for the Australian Industry Group ‘Building Employer Commitment to Workplace Literacy’ and Australian Bureau of Statistics Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies.

Sarah Dalton Professional Scholars

“Healthcare organisations around the world depend on the development of clinicians as leaders to ensure the delivery and improvement of quality care. Leadership development is a top priority for high performance healthcare organisations, with many well established programs in the United States.”

Dr Sarah Dalton, a Paediatric Emergency Physician at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, has won this year’s Fulbright Professional Business/Industry (Coral Sea) Scholarship to go to the Anne Arundel Medical Centre. She will investigate the delivery of Clinical Leadership Development Programs in the U.S. and look for ways to apply this knowledge to the Australian Healthcare environment.

“I think that building leadership capacity is critical to improving patient outcomes and is an essential precursor to health system reform. Key lessons in leadership transcend cultures and industry, making international collaboration imperative to this field,” Sarah said.

“Australia has well established models of leadership education and hospitals are increasingly looking to translate this knowledge into in-house programs to consolidate these lessons in the workplace.”

“Elements of the U.S. healthcare system have delivered such programs for many years, making it an important resource for lessons in the delivery of clinical leadership development programs. My Fulbright Scholarship will provide me with the ideal medium to investigate these opportunities and foster national and international collaboration in this field.  I believe it is essential to identify and develop the upcoming leaders in our healthcare community, as it is their ability and their future which will see our system survive and flourish.”

Sarah has a BMed and a Master of Applied Management in Health from the University of Newcastle, a DCH from Sydney Children’s Hospital and a Paediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. She has won a Merit Award for Academic Excellence from the University of Newcastle; a NSW Government Scholarship for Rural Medicine and has been a Rotary International Youth Ambassador in New Zealand. In her spare time Sarah enjoys biking, hiking and running as a way to explore the great outdoors.

Rod Kennett Professional Scholars

“The growing empowerment of Indigenous peoples to create livelihoods based on the management of traditional estates is a game changer in biodiversity conservation.”

Dr Rod Kennett, a Program Manager with the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance at Charles Darwin University, has won this year’s Fulbright Northern Territory Scholarship. Through his Fulbright, Rod will go to the Nature Conservancy for six months to further his research into developing new tools and strategies to support Indigenous livelihoods in conservation.

“Intact ecosystems on Indigenous-held lands in north Australia and the Pacific United States are critical to the conservation of the world’s biodiversity,” Rod said.

“Effective conservation programs for Indigenous lands must bring together Indigenous knowledge and practice with the best scientific conservation methods to create Indigenous conservation-based livelihoods.”

Rod will collaborate with experts in the United States to identify tools and strategies that will inform new approaches to conservation in north Australia.

Rod has a BSc in biological sciences from Macquarie University, an Honours degree from The Australian National University and a PhD from the University of Queensland. He has won awards and prizes including an Australian Research Council Fellowship; a Kinship Conservation Fellowship; three National Banksia Environment Awards; and was a finalist in the National Landcare Awards. His interests include bushwalking, sailing, scuba, travel, mosaics, creative writing and singing in a community choir.

Tracy Logan Professional Scholars

“Australia’s goal of 20 per cent renewable energy by 2020 is a climate change mitigation strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that is critically dependent upon electric infrastructure to transport renewable energy from the point of generation to consumers.”

Ms Tracy Logan, Program AnalystEnergy Project Manager with the U.S. Department of Energy, has won a Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Climate Change and Clean Energy, sponsored by the Australian and U.S. Governments. Through her Fulbright Tracy will come to Australia for four months to undertake research at the University of Sydney working on the development of a clean energy policy around the movement of energy.

“Without the ability to reliably transmit renewable energy to demand centres, the most abundant resources will not be developed and Australia will not meet its goal of 20 per cent renewable energy by 2020,” Tracy said.

Tracy’s project involves developing a policy approach to increasing incentives for the planning and financing of electric infrastructure. It is her intention that this will facilitate the expanding renewable energy market and lay the groundwork for future initiatives that require a comprehensive, interconnected electric grid.

Just as in the U.S., “Currently, there is no policy to incentivize electric grid upgrades. Without upgrading the grid, Australia’s vast renewable resources will remain untapped since developers can’t move the renewable energy to market,” Tracy said.

“My project seeks to bridge this crucial gap through a policy resulting in market-based incentives for private investment in the electric infrastructure required for Australia to meet their renewable energy goal. This will then become a model for other countries with similar electric utility regulatory landscapes, such as the U.S.”

Tracy has a BA in economics, summa cum laude from the University of Nevada; and a JD from the University of San Diego School of Law. Her accomplishments include identifying a new approach to facilitate cost-effective Federal renewable projects for Civilian Agencies; published comparative law legal article on carbon capture and sequestration entitled, Carbon Down Under—Lessons From Australia; and she was a Class of 2009 is a Presidential Management Fellows Program graduate, a flagship leadership development program for advanced degree candidates. Tracy is an experienced martial artist and in her free time she enjoys baking, SCUBA diving and hiking.

Iona Novak Professional Scholars

“Cerebral palsy is under-researched but deserves our attention because it is the most common physical disability in childhood, and for the first time scientists believe a cure may be possible.”

Associate Professor Iona Novak, Head of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Institute, has won a Fulbright Professional Scholarship to go to the University of California San Francisco for four months. Through her Fulbright Iona will continue her work to accelerate the rate of stem cell research aimed at find a cure for cerebral palsy.

“I aim to accelerate the rate of curative research, by establishing and leading an American-Australian Cerebral Palsy Stem Cell Research Consortium – Xcellerate,” Iona said.

“Consortiums in other fields have convincingly shown that an intense, coordinated, strategic and shared effort delivers faster and better results for patients. Consortiums are efficient, effective and economical and they work because researchers share vision, knowledge, ideas, expertise, effort, track record, funding, and publications.”

Iona said that her project has a high likelihood of success because the research project is in an agreed priority area; her home Not-For-Profit has a strong track record in supporting breakthrough cerebral palsy research and is well positioned to ethically protect patient’s interests; and she has a proven track record in building successful collaborations. The host institution is a world leading research centre and the location leverages new funding toward the project.

Iona has a BAppSc (OT) from the University of Sydney; an MSc (Hons) and a PhD from the University of Western Sydney. She has won awards and prizes including PhD Presentation Award Winner from UWS, and she has been an Allied Health representative on the Premier’s Spinal Forum Fellowship program. Her interests include photography, painting and cooking.

Clare O’Neill Professional Scholars

“Effective civil-military decision making to meet human insecurity challenges during conflicts and disasters is paramount due to the complexity of the security environment regionally and globally. Militaries will continue to take on humanitarian roles as part of combat and non-combat operations. When military commanders and field practitioners are equipped with the knowledge to quickly understand an environment and the implications of multiagency responses, they will be able to make effective decisions to best achieve strategic intent.”

Major Clare O’Neill, 2013 Chief of Army Scholar, Australian Army has won this year’s Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Australia-US Alliance Studies sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She will go to Georgetown University for four months to carry out research that will propose developments to current military decision-making models for the execution of humanitarian action at the tactical level. The outcomes of the research will assist deployed forces make effective and strategically relevant decisions during the response phase of operations. Clare commences her research in Australia through the Land Warfare Studies Centre and University of Canberra’s National Security Institute.

“My research will present a civil-military decision making model for military commanders and field practitioners at the tactical level. The model will propose a set of organising principles intended to inform the development and improvement of processes already in use by United States and Australian government agencies. This will enhance civil-military cooperation and enable effective decisions to best achieve strategic intent,” Clare said.

“I will demonstrate where agencies’ decision making processes overlap, where external input is required and how they can apply identified best practices. It will include valuable analyses of methods decision makers can utilise when faced with human security considerations to address the needs of the individual whilst achieving strategic aims for regional and global security.”

Clare has a BEng from the University of New South Wales and an MA from Deakin University.  She is a Chartered Professional Engineer and has deployed with the Australian Army to Afghanistan and Padang, Indonesia after the 2009 earthquake. Clare has received prizes and awards including a Chief of Defence Force Commendation for her work in Afghanistan and the Australian Society for Defence Engineering Prize. Her interests include running and rowing.

Craig Roussac Professional Scholars

“Up to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the operation of buildings worldwide and the proportion is set to grow.”

Mr A. Craig Roussac, CEO at Buildings Alive Pty Limited, and PhD candidate within the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney, has won one of two Fulbright Professional Scholarships in Climate Change and Clean Energy for 2013 sponsored by the Australian and U.S. governments.  Craig will join the Energy Performance of Buildings group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Center for the Built Environment at UC Berkeley for four months to further his research into exploring the potential for information-based approaches to reduce energy use in commercial buildings.

“Despite well accepted assessments that buildings present by far the largest opportunity for cost effective emissions reductions, relatively little is known about the potential contribution from non-technological (i.e. human) approaches,” Craig said.

“Evidence is emerging that significant reductions can be achieved by providing simple, timely and actionable feedback to the operators of buildings. My project will establish the international significance of recent Australian research on information-based approaches through my engagement with leading U.S.-based researchers and industry.”

Craig has a BComm from ANU; a Bachelor of Construction Management & Economics with honours from the University of Canberra; a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance & Investment from Financial Services Institute of Australasia; in addition to other Assessment and Climate Change qualifications. He has worked for Lend Lease and Investa Property Group in addition to Buildings Alive. In his time leading the sustainability and environment functions at Investa, the company achieved a 31 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions intensity and a 43 percent reduction in water use intensity. In 2005 he was awarded the NSW Government’s ‘Energy Champion’ Green Globe Award and for over 12 years his career focus has been on ‘greening’ the built environment. His other interests include spending time with his young family, bushland regeneration and backyard construction projects.

Gary Tabor Professional Scholars

“Translation of climate science for policy makers and natural resource managers has been a critical impediment to its application to decision making.”

Dr Gary Tabor, Executive Director with the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, has won a Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Climate Change and Clean Energy, sponsored by the Australian and U.S. Governments. Through his Fulbright, Gary will come to Australia for four months to undertake research at the University of Queensland working on climate adaptation.

Gary will examine and assess existing and emerging tools for assisting decision making processes about climate adaptation in the United States and Australia, two global epicenters of decision-theory research for conservation and climate adaptation.

“Climate science has been heavy on the informational supply side and weak on the demand side for its use. Policy makers and resource managers are often overwhelmed by the data; lack the ability to discern the complexity of models; and cannot determine how to use the science within the context of their positions,” Gary said.

“Decision theory has emerged to bridge this barrier. My project will examine the various climate adaptation decision science tools used at Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions and I will then contrast these with similar efforts in the United States.”

Gary has a BS in biological sciences from Cornell University; an MS in Environmental Sciences from Yale University; and a Veterinariae Medicinae Doctoris from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Co-Founder, Consortium for Conservation Medicine (Harvard, Tufts, Johns Hopkins and Ecohealth Alliance); Co-Founder, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative and Designer, Mgahinga/Bwindi Impenetrable Forest Mountain Gorilla Trust. He has also received a Henry Luce Scholarship. In his free time, Gary enjoys long distance swimming, cross country skiing, mountaineering, biking and the parental challenges of teaching his kids Suzuki violin and piano.

Andrew Tyndale Professional Scholars

“Around the world and throughout Australia, the infrastructure used to deliver social services (education, aged care, social and affordable housing, disability accommodation and delivery of health services) is in need of significant investment, both to update existing capital items and to meet the new demand of a growing and aging population.”

Mr Andrew Tyndale, Director and Founder of Grace Mutual Limited, has won one of two inaugural Fulbright Professional Scholarships in Non-Profit Leadership, sponsored by the Origin Foundation and supported by the Australian Scholarships Foundation. Andrew will go to The Milken Institute in the U.S. for four months, to further his research in social investment.

“Social Investment is a new field in which commercial investment is directed to investments which generate a good social outcome. They may include employment, community enterprise, environmental or social inclusion,” Andrew said.

His focus is on mechanisms to attract wholesale capital into the infrastructure necessary to deliver social services such as affordable housing, aged care, disability accommodation, education and health. Through his project he will research developments in the US that may be applied in Australia.

“Over the next 5 years in Australia, it is estimated that more than $100 billion is needed for aged care and housing alone. There is a general, global acceptance that governments cannot fund these needs, and there is considerable thought being given to the problem at State and Commonwealth levels. Much is based on work being done in the UK and the US to develop ways to attract commercial funding (primarily pension savings funds) into this sector,” Andrew said.

Andrew’s goal will be to write up a number of initiatives, using his technical finance skills and knowledge of the social sector to assess the compatibility and likelihood of success in Australia. Then he will work with government, investors, financial intermediaries and the social sector to implement them.

Andrew has a Hon, BComm in Business Administration from Queen’s University in Canada. He has been an investment banker for 30 years: 26 years in a competitive commercial environment, and 4 years in a not-for-profit vehicle that he founded. Together with his wife, Philippa, he has also had extensive involvement, over almost three decades, in the charitable sector, both in domestic welfare and international development. His interests include travel, skiing, rugby and trekking.

Allan Young Professional Scholars

“Adaptation to sea level rise is a significant global issue and requires concerted action in both Australia and the U.S. There is a groundswell of government and community interest in sea level rise and this is the opportune time to respond in a positive and pragmatic way.”

Mr Allan Young, Manager, Coastal Policy, NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure has won one of two of the Fulbright Professional Scholarships in Climate Change and Clean Energy for 2013, sponsored by the U.S. and Australian governments. Through his Fulbright, Allan will go to the New York City Mayor’s Office and MIT in Boston for four months to work on urban planning issues around adapting to climate change.

“Sea level rise due to climate change will affect almost every aspect of coastal life for communities in Australia and the U.S. How we plan and adapt is a vitally important global issue but it is still a relatively young field of inquiry,” Allan said.

“I will study how the shared knowledge and experience of Australia and the U.S. can be used to improve our land use planning systems and to better engage the community to generate workable solutions,” Allan said.

“My program will build essential skills and networks between Australia and the United States in this crucial and complex field.”

Allan has a BA and DipEd, University of New South Wales; DipLib, University of Technology, Sydney; Master of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Sydney. In his professional career, he has played a major role in the creation of the first Aboriginal owned and managed national parks in NSW; and led the policy and planning reforms in East Timor to enable the new nation to create their first conservation reserve. He has also delivered major reforms of the planning systems and regulations pertaining to Sydney Harbour. His interests include public policy, behavioural economics and all things coastal.

Michelle Evans Postdoctoral Scholars

“Indigenous arts leadership is not a list of individual qualities. We cannot understand what individual leaders do without deeply understanding the context – social, cultural, political, historical, economic – of the work and mapping the spaces or ‘territories’ across which they are trying to have impact.”

Dr. Michelle Evans, Research Fellow at the Melbourne Business School has won the Fulbright Indigenous Scholarship sponsored by Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE) to go to the University of Alaska, University of California and University of Hawaii over a six-month period. Through her scholarship she will replicate her doctoral research, a pioneering study that investigated the phenomenon of Indigenous leadership in the arts.

Her research will investigate whether the practices and experiences of First Alaskans, Native American and Native Hawaiian artists and arts manager’s overlap with the ‘territories of Indigenous arts leadership’ identified in her Australian based research.

“I will explore the experiences of North American Indigenous artists, arts managers and leaders to reveal the distinctive contexts across which they work and the practices they use to provide leadership to their communities, other artists and the wider American community,” Michelle said.

“On the basis of in-depth interviews with 30 diverse Indigenous American artists and leaders (Native Hawaiian, Native Americans and First Alaskans), the research aims to compare and contrast the leadership contexts and practices Indigenous Americans traverse and employ to provide leadership, often in the face of ongoing institutionalised racism.”

Michelle has Bachelor of Comm, Charles Sturt University; Grad Dip and MCA, The University of Melbourne; and a Ph.D. in Management, Melbourne Business School. Michelle won the inaugural University of Melbourne Diversity and Inclusion Award for her individual leadership and has been appointed Visiting Fellow to the University of Victoria (Canada) 2012/3. ); and is directing the new MURRA Aboriginal Business Master Class program, bringing Aboriginal business owners into the Melbourne Business School. Michelle was the founding head of the Wilin Centre at the Victorian College of the Arts 2003-2010 where she was awarded the Wurreker Award for Best Indigenous Centre at a Higher Education Institution 2007. She has previously been a finalist in the Women Chiefs of Enterprise International Business Awards 2004. Her interests include Indigenous Australian contemporary art, reading and walking her two dogs, Lewis and Pearl.

Tune in to YouTube and hear all about Michelle Evans. We thank SBS’s Living Black program for permission to link to this video.

Andrea Gordon Postdoctoral Scholars

“Dependence on illicit opioids, such as heroin, during pregnancy has increased 5-fold since 2000. Consequently associated health care costs have also risen.”

Dr Andrea Gordon, Research Fellow at the University of South Australia has won a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship to go to John Hopkins University for nine months. Through her scholarship she will further her research into treatment options using methadone and buprenorphine for pregnant women who are dependent on opioids.

“My initial interest to commence research in the area of substance use was sparked during my undergraduate science degree when the mechanism of how somebody dies from a heroin overdose was explained, and for the first time I could directly relate science to problems faced in society. I then became particularly interested in the additional specific issues that women and their potential offspring in this population face,” Andrea said.

“In the US, pregnant substance using women and their infants receive care during and after pregnancy through comprehensive multidisciplinary treatment facilities shown to reduce health care cost and improve outcomes. Australia does not currently have such facilities,” Andrea said.

“By attending the Centre for Addiction and Pregnancy in Baltimore to observe the operations of a multidisciplinary treatment facility to manage substance use in pregnancy, this will improve my knowledge to aid in establishing such critically needed facilities in Australia.”

Andrea has a BSc and a PhD in medical sciences from the University of Adelaide. She has also conducted the only national, and one of few international, clinical trials prospectively assessing methadone and buprenorphine use for dependence on illicit opioids, such as heroin, during pregnancy. She has also received several grants and scholarships and has published widely. Her interests include scuba diving (particularly cave diving), exercising (gym, netball, running, mountain biking, trail walking), reading and cooking.

Danielle Moreau Postdoctoral Scholars

“Our modern, noisy, world is the most advanced in history. Yet, the technologies that let us thrive are also ruining our enjoyment of life itself.”

Dr Danielle Moreau, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Adelaide is this year’s Fulbright South Australia Scholar, sponsored by the South Australian Government and the universities in the state. Through her Fulbright, Danielle will go to Virginia Polytechnic Institute for three months to study airfoil noise generation.

“A near ubiquitous component in modern technology responsible for unwanted noise is the airfoil. It is one of engineering’s great challenges to understand and control airfoil noise for the betterment of society,” Danielle said.

Airfoil noise is produced when fluid flow interacts with the airfoil (wing, rotor blade or fin) surface and this is the major source of noise for fans, aircraft, wind turbines and submarines. It is one of engineering’s great challenges to understand and control the noise from airfoils and airfoil-like shapes.

“I will investigate, via testing in the world-class aeroacoustic facilities at Virginia Tech, how fluid flow interacts with an airfoil to produce sound. By connecting the details of airfoil flow to noise generation, this project will facilitate the development of quiet aircraft, wind turbines and submarines, reducing noise in our communities and improving human health and quality of life.”

Danielle has BEng and a PhD from the University of Adelaide. She has won the University Doctoral Research Medal, PhD thesis commendation from the Dean of Graduate Studies and been invited to present seminars at Stanford University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. Her interests include travel, reading and the arts.

Thomas Newsome Postdoctoral Scholars

“The Australian understanding and approach to dingoes is characterised by conflicting and often extreme views on what role the dingo should have, if any.”

Dr Thomas Newsome, an Honorary Research Fellow of the Desert Ecology Research Group at the University of Sydney, and Senior Ecologist at the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation, is this year’s Fulbright NSW Scholar Sponsored by the New South Wales Government and universities. Through his Fulbright, Thomas will go to Oregon State University (OSU). He will collaborate with researchers from both OSU and the University of Washington on research into the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park. Bringing together experts in the U.S. and Australia, Thomas’ focus will be on whether there would be benefits for Australia in using similar measures with dingoes in areas where they have become locally extinct.

“Research on the dingo is important for two reasons. First, wild dogs, including dingoes, cause millions of dollars of damage to agricultural productivity annually. However, and second, recent studies suggest that the reintroduction of the dingo into areas from which it has been extirpated (made locally extinct) could be the key to restoring Australian ecosystems decimated by introduced predators such as the feral cat and European red fox,” Thomas said.

“From a scientific point of view the key questions are whether the dingo has a positive or negative impact on ecosystems and whether it should be reintroduced into areas where it no longer exists. From a social and economic point of view, the questions are whether humans and dingoes can co-exist and, if so, how to manage negative interactions. Due to the contentiousness of the issues, the conflicting interests of stakeholders, and the present uncertainty in the evidence, no reintroduction of the dingo has been trialled.”

“My career goal is to find answers to those questions and be part of a solution to an issue that has remained unresolved for decades: how to manage dingoes in Australia.”

Thomas has a BSc, MSc and PhD from the University of Sydney. He has received several grants and has published his doctoral research. His awards include: Awards Australia – Finalist – Northern Territory Young Achiever; combined Australian Postgraduate Award and Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre PhD scholarship. He was selected for the pioneering Desert Knowledge Australia two-year cross-cultural leadership program for emerging leaders in Central Australia. His interests include rowing, mountain biking and golf.

Tiago Tomaz Postdoctoral Scholars

“The development of crops that are able to grow under changing climactic conditions is essential to guarantee a food supply for humans in the future.”

Dr Tiago Tomaz, a recent graduate from the University of Western Australia (UWA) has won one of two Fulbright Western Australia Scholarships, sponsored by the WA Government and WA universities. Through his Fulbright, Tiago will go to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) for a year to further his research in crop improvement through the application of genomic and post-genomic techniques, which involve analyses of plants at both the molecular (gene) and physiological (whole plant) level.

“Genomic and post genomic tools are major drivers for development of agriculturally beneficial traits in crop plants” Tiago said. “A priority area for further development is to look for ways to enhance plant tolerance to increased concentrations of ground level (tropospheric) ozone. Currently, few efforts have used these tools to uncover mechanisms for enhancing ozone tolerance in one of the worlds’ most valuable crop plants, maize”.

“This research is important due to elevated concentrations of air pollutants posing a significant threat to the productivity of global maize (and other major cereal) crops. The most damaging of these pollutants is tropospheric ozone”.

Tiago’s project will involve the transfer of valuable tools developed at both UWA and UIUC. UIUC is a pioneer in analysing the impact of global change factors on crop plants, and Tiago will assist in efforts to screen over 200 candidate maize lines for ozone tolerance using innovative free air concentration enrichment (FACE) experimental field plots.This research will provide target maize lines from which to selectively breed ozone tolerant hybrids.

Tiago has a BSc and a PhD in biological sciences from the University of Western Australia. He currently works as part of a Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC) funded team at the Department of Agriculture of and Food Western Australia (DAFWA), who are looking to improve drought and cold tolerance of Australian wheat varieties in pre-breeding field trials. In his free time, Tiago enjoys participating in a variety of ocean sports, improving his Portuguese and travelling.

Daniel Viete Postdoctoral Scholars

“In recent years, large offshore earthquakes have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. The availability of sophisticated techniques to identify the risk of a large earthquake could have significantly reduced the death toll in each case.”

Dr Daniel Viete, a postdoctoral fellow at Monash University is the winner of the 2013 Fulbright Victoria Scholarship, sponsored by the Victorian Government and Victorian universities. Daniel will go to the University of California – Santa Barbara to study geology, and in particular the geology of deep earthquakes. His work will focus on ‘subduction zones’, which occur at tectonically-active ocean–continent boundaries, and provide a location for most of the world’s large earthquakes.

“Large earthquakes that occur at depth within subduction zones have been responsible for hundreds of thousands of human deaths. However, subduction zones remain one of the most poorly understood components of the Earth system,” Daniel said.

Daniel’s project will test the hypothesis that metamorphism (changes in the minerals that comprise a rock) can result from modifications in temperature and pressure conditions triggered by large earthquakes.

“Such earthquake-induced metamorphism would cause changes in the physical properties of the ruptured rocks, leaving a signature of earthquake activity that could be identified using remote geophysical methods. Confirmation of the hypothesis could assist development of new geophysical tools for assessment of earthquake risk,” Daniel said.

Daniel’s study will contribute to understanding of the links between earthquake activity and metamorphism in subduction zones.

“Knowledge of these links can be used to inform the development of methods to detect regions of subducted slabs (on the basis of their geophysical properties) that may present a threat to human society from large earthquakes.”

Daniel has BSc and BEng from Monash University and a PhD from ANU. He has won awards including a Young Author of the Year Award, from Journal of the Geological Society, and Outstanding Student Paper Award, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco. His interests include playing baseball and golf, studying the natural world and volunteering with community and environmental organizations.

Abel-John Buchner Postgraduate Students

“Understanding how natural biological systems work can lead to enhanced solutions to complex engineering problems; this is the science of “biomimicry”. It is the fascinating union between industrial fluid dynamics and biomimetic design that drives the proposed research.”

“Wind power is increasingly becoming a large part of Australia’s energy producing sector. Though significant progress has been made in expanding the use of wind energy technology, traditional horizontal axis wind turbines still pose a number of daunting technical challenges constraining further growth of wind-based renewable energy,” John said.

“The area I am focussing on is an unsteady aerodynamic phenomenon called “dynamic stall” and, though my research to date has been in the context of the aerospace industry, I have found that dynamic stall is surprisingly ubiquitous in flows both natural and man-made.”

“It affects the thrust and lift forces produced by the flapping wings of birds or the caudal fins of marine vertebrates, occurs in the working of cardiovascular valves, and also affects the efficiency, force and noise production of helicopter rotors, wind turbines, and other rapidly moving mechanical systems. Dynamic stall is a very fundamental and interesting, but complex and poorly understood flow.”

“By extending my research into the dynamic stall of pitching wings to the growing area of wind energy, my project will lead to design for better renewable energy technology, empowered by naturally evolved solutions to fluid flow. Strategies found in nature shall be applied to enhance the efficiency of wind turbines by reducing or controlling dynamic stall.”

Abel-John has a BE(Aeronautical Engineering)(Honours) from the University of Sydney, and a Certificate III Business, from the Kangan-Batman Institute of TAFE. He has won awards and prizes including the Dean’s honours list, the CAE Prize for excellence in Advanced Flight Mechanics, and the Graduates’ Prize for Senior Aeronautical Engineering all from the University of Sydney. In his free time he enjoys flying gliders, sailing and salsa dancing.

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.

Alex Carter Postgraduate Students

“My research has discovered the influence of the Black Arts Movement in America on Australian cultural and political activists, and I have found a tangible link at a 1970 conference hosted by the cultural-nationalist Congress of African People (CAP) in Atlanta, Georgia.”

Mr Alex Carter, a PhD candidate in Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst has won a Fulbright Scholarship to come to Monash University in Australia to further his PhD research in Afro-American Studies.

“In 1970 Robert Maza, Aboriginal Australian activist and actor embarked on a journey to the United States to attend the Congress of African People conference and study black drama at the National Black Theater of Harlem,” Mr Carter said.

“During his stay, he was highly influenced by black drama and its appeal to the real and lived conditions of oppressed people.”

Mr Carter’s study traces Maza’s time in the United States and his subsequent work in Aboriginal drama in Australia.

“Maza was part of a delegation of Aboriginal activists from the AAL that attended that conference. This event was pivotal to the development of international cultural and political exchanges between African Americans and Aboriginal Australians because it linked hundreds of activists that sought to connect politics and performing arts.”

“After leaving the conference, Maza traveled to Harlem and observed the workings of the NBTH under the guidance of its founder Barbara Ann Teer. In Teer and the NBTH, Maza found a model that suited his political and aesthetic sensibilities of merging performing arts and politics as, in his words, “the best way that black people can protest effectively.” Guided in part by his experiences in Harlem, Maza later cofounded the National Black Theatre of Sydney and this institution served as a platform for actors and community members to develop distinct politically-driven art forms to critically engage and assess their lived social and political experiences as Aboriginals.”

Alex has a BA in political science from the University of Alabama State University and an MA from the University of Iowa in African-American World Studies. He has won awards including University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Distinguished Teaching Award Finalist, 2012, the Student Choice Award from the Center for Multicultural Advancement and Student Success and being on the dean’s list twice. His interests include Transnational and African-Diaspora Studies along with research on the influence on Black Feminisms throughout the world.

David Gwyther Postgraduate Students

“I had a friend at university, Terry, who hailed from the tiny Polynesian nation of Tuvalu. He commented to me that sea level rise had left his parents’ land half the size it once was. It was these words that changed the course of my career.”

Mr David Gwyther, a PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania, will have the opportunity to spend twelve months at the University of Texas at Austin through his Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship. He will study the interaction between the ocean and the Antarctic ice shelves.

“This interaction is a poorly understood, but critical component of climate change,” David said.

“My project aims to improve simulations of ice shelves in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin, leading to improved understanding of ice shelf melting, ice sheet flow and global sea level rise.”

David will work with the ICECAP program, one of the most comprehensive airborne observing systems that exists, to measure properties of ice shelves in the Totten ice shelf region of East Antarctica.  He expects that his Fulbright will give him expanded knowledge of the processes, increased networks and the opportunity to enhance his work in his chosen field, which is climate change research.

When he returns he plans to finish his doctorate, then volunteer for a year in the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development program, educating and aiding Pacific islands in climate change adaptation.

David has a BSc in physics from the University of Queensland, is currently undertaking a Grad. Diploma in Marine Science and is a PhD candidate in Ocean Modelling. He has received various awards and prizes including Dean’s commendations for high achievement, and a UTAS Elite Research Scholarship amongst others. His interests include bushwalking, mountain biking, road cycling, climbing and rogaining. He is also a volunteer member of the State Emergency Service in Tasmania.

Iain Henry Postgraduate Students

“Despite Australia’s close relationship with the United States, few Australians in the foreign policy and defence fields have studied America’s alliances in Asia under the supervision of American experts.”

Iain is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.  His PhD dissertation examined how states assess the reliability of their allies, with a particular focus on America’s alliances in Asia. His research interests include Asian security, the Cold War in Asia, diplomatic history and Australian strategic policy.

In 2014, Iain was a visiting Fulbright Scholar at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Katherine Lacksen Postgraduate Students

“There has been very little research about the effects of nutrient pollution from agricultural development in northern Australia; yet data on the amount of nutrient input and its effects on water quality are vital for ensuring the protection of the ecological and cultural integrity of the region’s tropical rivers.”

Ms Katherine Lacksen, a recent graduate in Ecology from the University of Georgia, has won a Fulbright Scholarship to spend a year at Charles Darwin University to work with fellow Fulbrighter Professor Michael Douglas (2012 Fulbright Australian Scholar). Professor Douglas is Director of the Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge (TRaCK) Research Hub at Charles Darwin University in Darwin. Through her Fulbright, Katherine will further her research into protecting tropical rivers from nutrient pollution.

Katherine’s proposed research will focus on the Daly River in the Northern Territory. The Daly River is renowned for its barramundi (Lates calcarifer) fisheries and conservation values, but it is also the focus of increasing agricultural development.

“Northern Australia has an historic opportunity to preserve one of its most valuable assets and implement sustainable policies before unchecked development and careless pollution degrade these precious water resources. It is my hope that this research will make a meaningful contribution to this effort,” Katherine said. Katherine has just completed a B.S. in Ecology from the University of Georgia. She has won various awards and prizes including the Reynolds Plantation Foundation Scholarship; Southeastern Conference (SEC) Academic Honor Roll; Dean’s List; and induction into the Dean William Tate Honor Society at the University of Georgia. In addition, she interned with the nonprofit organization Living Water International and worked as a GIS Assistant at the University of Georgia. Katherine is a keen distance runner and her interests include travelling, hiking, and meeting new people. She enjoys exploring new landscapes and attributes her family’s camping and backpacking trips, as well as growing up on a pine tree plantation, to nurturing her interest and love for the outdoors.

Robert Mason Postgraduate Students

“Coral reefs are a “critically endangered” ecosystem, but one that also supports the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people globally. Due to climate change, they are expected to suffer severe degradation over the coming century, a challenge that I hope to address in my current and future career.”

Mr Robert Mason, a PhD candidate in Marine Biology at The University of Queensland has won the Fulbright Queensland Scholarship sponsored by the Queensland Government and Universities. He will go to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for a year to further his research in coral bleaching.

“The research which shows a link between ocean acidification and coral bleaching is new. Therefore, it is not known why this effect occurs at the physiological level or the conditions under which this effect will occur,” Robert said.

“My aim is to determine why this effect happens, because this knowledge will help us to take ocean acidification into account when we are attempting to predict coral bleaching and to understand its ecological impacts. This line of enquiry is very important as ocean acidification will steadily increase in severity over the next 50 years,” Robert said.

Robert will work with Dr. Ruth Gates, an internationally-renowned expert on coral physiology and bleaching at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, which has a strong research tradition examining biological and physical processes on coral reefs. He will use an experimental aquaria system purpose built for modifying ocean acidification and temperature. The results of the project will be useful for understanding and managing the threats facing areas such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Triangle of Southeast Asia.

Robert has a BSc with Honours in biology from Macquarie University. He has won awards and prizes including a Macquarie University Honours Scholarship, a Wildlife Preservation Society of Australia University Grants Award and recognition of outstanding scholastic achievement and excellence from the Golden Key International Honour Society. His interests include travelling, hiking, wildlife watching, and Indonesian Gamelan music.

Matthew McCrary Postgraduate Students

“Sydney, specifically, has the longest standing tradition in the field of Performing Arts Medicine (PAM), beginning with the opening of the Sydney Musician’s Clinic in 1979, the world’s first medical clinic devoted entirely to the needs of musicians.”

Mr James Matthew “Matt” McCrary, a recent exercise science and drumset performance graduate from the University of Michigan, has won a Fulbright Scholarship to complete a 1-year Master’s by Research project at the University of Sydney Medical School’s Elite Music Performance Laboratory. He will spearhead a project investigating the utility of core muscle activation in preventing upper extremity pain and injury in instrumental musicians.

“Instrumental musicians, as a result of the duration, repetition, and tension involved in their practice and performance, undergo athlete-level physical stress on a daily basis,” Matt said.

“For a variety of reasons, however, athlete-level care for the physical needs of musicians is uncommon, despite substantial published research on the prevalence of upper extremity pain in musicians of varied ages, nationalities, and instruments.

This disconnect forms the basis of my hypothesis: since musicians and elite athletes place comparable levels of strain on their bodies, activity-specific physical preparations for musicians (“warm-ups”) should yield similar preventative benefits to those of athletes.”

Matt has a B.S. in Kinesiology and a B.F.A. in Jazz Studies from the University of Michigan, where he was awarded the Edwin & Mary Meader Jazz Scholarship, University Honors, and the distinctions of James B. Angell Scholar and Lloyd Hall Scholar. In the year since his graduation, Matt has gained valuable, relevant experience for his Fulbright project through full-time work as both a musician at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and a researcher at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. His interests outside of music and medicine include playing and watching sports (especially (soccer/”football”), and fitness/nutrition.

Roxanne Moore Postgraduate Students

“I aspire to become a human rights advocate; to use the power of the law to protect the rights of vulnerable people and to demand justice where human rights have been abused.”

Ms Roxanne Moore, lawyer, will have the opportunity to spend a year at New York University through winning one of two Fulbright Western Australia Scholarships sponsored by the Western Australian Government and universities. She will undertake a LLM (International Legal Studies), specialising in public international law and human rights law. Roxanne will learn about comparative human rights systems and gain expertise in specific topics, with a view to contributing to Australian human rights law reform and becoming an advocate.

“This experience will provide me with an excellent foundation to return to Australia to advocate for human rights within the current legal framework – either via pro-bono work as a commercial lawyer or barrister, or by working for a non-government organisation – and to significantly contribute to reforming Australia’s legal structures for human rights protection,” Roxanne said.

Her further study aims to achieve four objectives: to expand and develop her knowledge about international law and international systems; to learn about comparative human rights law systems, particularly in the Asia Pacific region; to increase her knowledge about specific human rights topics; and to gain practical experience in human rights advocacy and research.

“Studying a LLM in the U.S. will provide many opportunities not otherwise available in Australia; to learn from the most respected academics and leaders in their field at the highest ranked universities in the world and to gain hands-on experience in human rights advocacy through participation in the university clinics.”

Roxanne has an LLB (Dist.)/BA (Indonesian Language) from the University of Western Australia and was admitted as a lawyer in 2012. Roxanne previously represented UWA in the international rounds of the Philip C Jessup International Law Mooting Competition, and after graduating became the Principal Associate to the Hon Chief Justice Martin AC of the Supreme Court of WA. She has volunteered with many organisations, but most extensively with Amnesty International Australia, for whom she founded the national ARTillery arts festival, culminating in her recognition as a finalist for the 2010 WA Young Person of the Year Award. Her interests include learning languages,live music and the Arts.

Matthew Norris Postgraduate Students

“There is an ongoing need to discover new pharmaceutical agents, medicines and vaccines to combat the ever increasing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and cancerous cell lines that threaten human health on a global scale.”

Mr Matthew D. Norris, a PhD candidate at Flinders University in Adelaide, is the 2013 winner of the Fulbright Australian Alumni (WG Walker) Scholarship which is funded through donations by Fulbright Alumni and is awarded to the highest ranked Postgraduate Scholar each year. Through his Scholarship, Matthew will go to Princeton University for 12 months to further his research into the synthetic preparation of rare and highly complex natural medicines.

“The need for new pharmaceutical agents has driven the chemical search to remote biological ecosystems with a rich diversity of organisms that have been found to produce a plethora of highly complex and unique organic (carbon-based) molecules,” Matthew said.

“Interestingly, many of these naturally occurring compounds, often with bizarre and somewhat mysterious structures, show promising attributes as potent antibacterial and anticancer medicines.”

These natural products are only produced in trace quantities and hence, their preparation by synthetic means is required to enable further research and development in the pharmaceutical industry, Matthew says.

“Owing to the unusual architecture of many natural drug candidates, their construction is typically too difficult, ineffective or costly using methods currently established in modern synthetic chemistry. The primary motivation of my research is to develop new methods of synthesis in which chemists can rapidly access highly complex structures in a cost-effective manner from simple, cheap starting materials.”

Matthew has a BSc (Hons) Chemistry from Flinders University. Matthew was the recipient of the MF & MH Joyner Scholarship in Science, Flinders University Medal, The Malcolm Thompson Prize for Research in Organic Chemistry, Royal Australian Chemical Institute SA Branch Prize and The Max Clark Prize in Science and Engineering. Outside of his research he enjoys university teaching and playing the guitar.

Tierney O’Sullivan Postgraduate Students

“Conservation of the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle is paramount, not only because of its iconic status, but also because it performs a vital role in the ecosystem.”

Ms Tierney O’Sullivan, a recent graduate in ecology from the University of Georgia, has won a 2013 Fulbright Scholarship to come to Australia for a year. She will work with Tasmanian Forest Practices Authority and University of Tasmania to undertake research into the breeding success of the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle.

“The wedge-tailed eagle is the largest bird of prey in Australia, and one of the largest eagles in the world,” Tierney said.

“The endemic Tasmanian subspecies Aquila audax fleayi is recognized as endangered on a state and federal level due to a small population as a result of low breeding success and a high mortality rate from unnatural causes.”

Tierney’s project aims to understand how habitat disturbance affects the behaviour and breeding success of the threatened Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle. In collaboration with her host institutions she will monitor nesting sites and record behavioural responses to nearby traffic and determine nesting success at the end of the breeding season.

Tierney has a B.S. in ecology from the University of Georgia. She has won various awards and prizes including a Charter Scholarship, University of Georgia; the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation Scholarship; and the HOPE Scholarship. She is a keen outdoor enthusiast, and enjoys whitewater kayak racing, in which she competes internationally, and rock climbing.

Nathan Pensler Postgraduate Students

“Questions about scientific rationality are important for policy decisions and are of general public interest. When policymakers or laypersons accept a scientific theory based on testimony from scientists, it is preferable to know why scientific institutions are trustworthy producers of knowledge. Additionally, scientific rationality also figures into significant legal decisions.”

Mr Nathan Pensler, a recent graduate in philosophy from Pitzer College in Claremont California is a 2013 Fulbright Scholar sponsored by the ANU College of Business and Economics. He will come to the Australian National University in Canberra to further his studies in Philosophy. Nathan’s particular areas of expertise are epistemology and the philosophy of science. His research is at the intersection of these two areas, in the field of formal epistemology.

“Exciting interdisciplinary inquiry into the nature and scope of human rationality is being conducted in a field known as formal epistemology. Formal epistemology is a subarea in philosophy that uses mathematical techniques to study human reasoning.” Nathan said.

While in Canberra, Nathan will investigate philosophical theories of scientific rationality. He will study Bayesian Confirmation Theory, a mathematical model that uses concepts from the study of probability, and Inference to the Best Explanation, a qualitative account. Nathan hopes to determine whether these two accounts can be unified and if so, explore how this unification can best be carried out. He plans to investigate these two ways of thinking about scientific reasoning with Professor Alan Hájek, an ANU professor of philosophy who is a leading researcher in formal epistemology.

Nathan has a BA in Philosophy from Pitzer College. Nathan won several awards and grants while at Pitzer and attended the selective Colorado Summer Seminar in Philosophy. His interests include mountain biking, skiing, and hiking.

Melanie Poole Postgraduate Students

“If Australia was to act with a compassion and sense of global responsibility that matched the enormous resources available to us, we could make a much more powerful contribution to alleviating poverty, promoting human rights and building a world where more people really do have a ‘fair go’.”

Ms Melanie Poole, Parliamentary Advocacy Co-ordinator, with CARE Australia will spend two years in the United States to undertake a Masters in Public Policy. Melanie’s work is in the area of humanitarian advocacy and global development, with a strong focus on promoting the rights of women and girls.

“Australia is one of the most prosperous, peaceful, democratic nations in the world. We are a good global citizen that makes many contributions through our aid and diplomacy programs, which we can be proud of, but there is more that we can do,” Melanie said.

By studying public policy in the U.S., Melanie will learn how to engage a broader range of sectors in the promotion of human rights and global citizenship. Her aim is to be able to help to make Australia’s aid program stronger and more gender focused through steering and shaping the national agenda for international aid and diplomacy.

“Completing this Masters will give me the opportunity to develop a deep understanding of how government operates, including the impact of market forces, society, culture and the media in shaping policies. It is a program explicitly focused on producing strong leaders, with core required courses including strategic and financial management, politics and advocacy, ethics, leadership and quantitative analysis. I will specialise in global development and on learning to design and advocate for polices that promote human rights and gender equality.”

Melanie will also intensively study the political, social and economic dynamics that shape aid and humanitarian policy decisions, and how social attitudes are constructed and transformed.

Melanie has a BA (Political Science) and LLB (Honours) from the Australian National University; a training certificate in Humanitarian advocacy from Fordham University (New York); and a Certificate in Health and Human Rights from the United Nations University for Peace. She has volunteered with the Kenyan Voluntary Development Association, been a Fieldwork Team Leader, Aga Khan Education Services, Gilgit, Pakistan and Australian Youth Ambassador to the United Nations. Her interests include political theory and processes, community organising, the role of education in shaping national values and issues of gender and sexuality. She is especially passionate about reproductive and LGBTIQ rights.

In 2009, the Australian Government announced the establishment of a prestigious annual scholarship program to recognise the many contributions by Mrs Anne Wexler for her role in fostering Australian-American relations. She was made an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) by the Australian Government for her work on the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement and the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue.

The Anne Wexler Scholarships are part of the Australian Government’s Australia Awards Program and are funded through the Department of Industry Innovation Science, Research and Tertiary Education and administered by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission. The Scholarships are awarded for up to two years and are valued at up to A$140,000 each. Two Wexler Scholarships are awarded annually, one for an Australian citizen to go to the U.S. and one for an American (US) citizen to come to Australia.

Miriam Shiffman Postgraduate Students

“Marsupials play unwitting host to an array of relatively unexplored microbial diversity .The microbes that scientists have been able to culture – the sole basis for decades of microbiology research – are estimated to represent less than one per cent of the true diversity that exists.”

Ms Miriam Shiffman, a recent graduate in Molecular Biology from Pomona College in California, has won a Fulbright Scholarship to come to Australia for a year. She will go to the University of Queensland’s Australian Centre for Ecogenomics (ACE) to undertake research into microbes harboured by Australian native marsupials.

“The isolated island continent of Australia has given rise to unique animals harbouring a host of previously uncharacterized microorganisms. ACE is home to the resources and scientific mentorship I need to study these microbes.”

Miriam says that this is because ACE is one of the only institutes in the world devoted to the sequence-­‐based study of microbial ecosystems.

“ACE is working to spearhead the international charge to complete the microbial Tree of Life and to catalogue native Australian microbes as part of the Atlas of Living Australia. Besides filling in huge gaps in our knowledge about the Tree of Life, my research will address how microbes actually live in nature: in complex, interactive communities.”

Miriam says that these microbial interactions have implications for everything from global warming to human health and disease.

Miriam has a BA in Molecular Biology, magna cum laude, from Pomona College. She has won honours including the Walter Bertsch Prize in Molecular Biology; election to Phi Beta Kappa; Sigma Xi award for promise in scientific research; and a research internship at the Center for Systems Biology at Harvard. Her extra curricular activities include photography and mentoring and tutoring in science.

Rebecca Erin Smith Postgraduate Students

“I create music partly because I have this innate ability to see the potential of it in its most elemental state and to direct its progress into a fully-fledged work of art, and partly because of necessity.”

Ms Rebecca Erin Smith, a musician from Western Australia has won a Fulbright Scholarship to go to the Manhattan School of Music to undertake a two year Master of Music degree.

“The masters course which I plan to undertake is designed to target specific areas of my skill set that, as they stand, are impeding full realisation of my compositional potential. The specialised courses I intend to partake in are instrumentation and orchestration, form and analysis, and operatic and collaborative composition.”

“My specialised interests lie in the realm of collaborative mediums; specifically opera, theatre, installation, dance, and film composition. It is my greatest aspiration to establish a career in this area of music composition,” Rebecca said.

“The masters degree I have chosen to undertake offers unparalleled educational and practical experience opportunities in these specific areas. This course is designed to encourage and assist the development of individual’s creative output, whilst equipping students with the knowledge and skills essential for the fullest development of their creative gifts.”

Rebecca has a BA with first class Honours in music from the W.A Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). She has won awards and prizes including the Western Australian Barbara MacLeod Scholarship and Dr Harold Schenberg Music Prize, Marvin Hamlisch Scholarship in Composition from the Juilliard School and a Manhattan School of Music Scholarship. She is a member of the Golden Key Honour Society. Her interests include dressmaking and musical improvisation and she is an active member of the Perth indie-pop contemporary music scene.

Yuriy Veytskin Postgraduate Students

“Currently, Australia’s national industries are aggressively pushing for cleaner advanced materials and alternative energy sources to secure a reliable, renewable, and responsible energy future.”

Mr Yuriy Veytskin, a PhD candidate at North Carolina State University, is this year’s Fulbright CSIRO Postgraduate Scholar. Through his Fulbright, Yuriy will spend 12 months with CSIRO in Melbourne and Perth, further developing his work in nanomechanics and materials science.

“As part of Australia’s international commitment to climate change and carbon emissions reductions, the nation is seeking pioneering technologies to reinforce its upcoming position in the international carbon market,” Yuriy said.

“Nanotechnology addresses sustainable development issues by creating new materials, identifying new uses for existing materials, regulating material behaviour, and improving processing and production technologies for engineered systems to benefit the environmental, energy, and manufacturing sectors for Australia’s highly urbanized environments.”

Working with CSIRO’s Energy flagship, engaged by CSIRO Earth Science and Resource Engineering, and spending some time at the University of Melbourne, Yuriy is conducting atomic force microscopy (AFM) on shale, a sedimentary rock. AFM is a surface science technique for extracting and manipulating chemical and mechanical properties at small length scales. Yuriy is specifically investigating the effects of proppants, a commercial additive to fracking fluid, in maintaining shale rock fractures for hydraulic fracturing, along with the effects of these proppants on the surface chemistry of shale. Shales are important to Australia’s petroleum, geothermal, and sustainable energy markets, and AFM can motivate and inform industrial sectors on the benefits of nanoscale systems, technologies, and applications.

Both shales and polymers are important to Australia’s petroleum, geothermal, sustainable energy, and future manufacturing markets and can motivate and inform industrial sectors on the benefits of nanoscale systems, technologies, and applications.

“This is a real opportunity to use a high-precision method to explore an unconventional resource in a completely new way, whilst using minimal raw resources.

“The crux of my research is using microscale technologies to improve our understanding of hydraulic productivity in shale gas reservoirs, which contributes to one of the Energy flagship’s core goals of developing more sustainable energy sources,” said Yuriy.

Yuriy has a B.S.E. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Duke University and a Master of Civil Engineering degree in Structures and Mechanics from North Carolina State University. He has past awards and honors including the University Graduate Fellowship from North Carolina State University, a Duke endowed scholarship, and a Valedictorian Scholars award. His interests and hobbies include tennis, soccer, badminton, art, and travelling, and he is eagerly awaiting the 2014 Australian Open.

David Waddington Postgraduate Students

“My project presents an application of fundamental quantum nanoscience that could be used clinically within the foreseeable future.”

Mr David Waddington, a PhD candidate in physics from the University of Sydney, has won this year’s Fulbright ANSTO sponsored Scholarship. Through his Fulbright David will be hosted by the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology for 12 months to undertake research towards his PhD in physics.

“My project involves investigating the potential medical applications of quantum nanoscience,” David said.

“What I am aiming to do is to develop an entirely new bio-probe based on the detection and tracking of nontoxic nanoparticles in biological environments,” David said.

“Through manipulation of nuclear and electron spin states in nanodiamonds, this research aims to develop novel in-vivo imaging modalities based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). This will enable nanoparticles to act as beacons within living tissues, allowing tracking and labeling of disease.”

“There are leading research groups in the U.S. working on imaging of hyperpolarized molecules. This scholarship will enable me to work with one of these groups, learning the skills and techniques required for biomedical imaging.”

David has a BSc in Physics with 1st Class Honours from the University of New South Wales. He has won awards and prizes including the University of New South Wales Medal in Physics and a University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor’s Research Scholarship. His interests include travel, skiing, cycling and rugby union.