Dr Brett Summerell Distinguished Chair

Brett is the Director of Science and Conservation at the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust in Sydney where he has worked for the past 28 years. He has research interests in plant pathology and mycology and is a world authority on the fungal genus Fusarium which causes some of the most important plant diseases globally, produces toxins in food and is a pathogen of humans.

For his Fulbright project, Brett will spend time in the Department of Plant Pathology at Kansas State University expanding his research on Fusarium species in natural ecosystems to the U.S. allowing a comparison of these fungal plant pathogens in Australian and U.S. ecosystems. He will also complete a second edition of the widely-used diagnostic manual, the Fusarium Laboratory Manual, on these important fungi.

Professor Karen Barad Senior Scholars

Karen Barad is Professor of Feminist Studies, Philosophy, and History of Consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Barad’s Ph.D. is in theoretical particle physics and quantum field theory. Barad held a tenured appointment in a physics department before moving into more interdisciplinary spaces. Barad is the author of Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning (Duke University Press, 2007) and numerous articles in the fields of physics, philosophy, science studies, poststructuralist theory, and feminist theory.

Professor Margaret S. Barrett Senior Scholars

Margaret is Head of the School of Music at the University of Queensland. She has held senior roles in music education leadership including President of the International Society for Music Education. Her Fulbright Senior Fellowship, The rhythms and modes of musical childhoods: an international investigation of young children’s creative music practices, builds on her longitudinal studies of Australian children’s singing and song-making and the role these play in young children’s learning and development.

Margaret will work with colleague Professor Patricia Campbell from the University of Washington to access the archives of the Smithsonian Institute and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and analyse their collections of children’s song and song-making. The project will contribute to understandings of the nature of children’s song-making across diverse cultures and epochs, the social and cultural settings that support this work, and the meaning and value for children of singing and song-making.

Professor Timothy A. Carey Senior Scholars

Tim is Director of the Centre for Remote Health in Alice Springs. He is a clinical psychologist researcher and clinician and is particularly interested in improving patients’ control in health care settings in terms of the way in which services are designed and delivered, as well as how patients are able to access these services. Patient control is especially important in remote settings where access to services is compromised and health outcomes lag unacceptably behind the health enjoyed by urban citizens.

Tim will use his time on the Fulbright Scholarship to develop research training for practicing health professionals in conjunction with colleagues at the Center for Behavioral Health Innovation at Antioch University so that health professionals in remote and other underserved communities can evaluate and improve the programs and services they offer for the benefit of the patients they serve.

Dr Menna Jones Senior Scholars

Menna is an ecologist specialising in wildlife conservation and ecosystem restoration in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Tasmania. She leads research on native marsupial carnivores, Tasmanian devils and quolls, how their ecological interactions might protect wildlife from feral cats, and how the Tasmanian devil is evolving to save itself from a devastating novel transmissible cancer.

Menna’s Fulbright project, Harnessing Native Predators to Conserve Wildlife at Landscape-Scale, is a major opportunity to expand the scope of ecological science for tackling Australia’s biodiversity crisis. She will work with Professor Bill Ripple at Oregon State University to understand how ecological history influences the impacts on biodiversity of invasive predators, and to test the efficacy of native predators for invasive predator control. The project will contribute to understanding the natural ecological processes that can be harnessed to restore native species and functional ecosystems on large scales in unconfined landscapes.

Elsa B. Kania Senior Scholars

Professor Tim Mehigan Senior Scholars

Tim is a Professor of German and the Deputy Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Queensland.

Tim will use his Fulbright Senior Scholarship to spend time at both the University of Chicago and the University of Texas at Austin’s Harry Ransom Center. In Chicago he will investigate the writer J.M. Coetzee’s links to The Committee of Social Thought, which Coetzee regularly visited from 1996 to 2003. In Austin he will do follow-up research at the Coetzee archive. His aim will be to advance a major project focusing on Coetzee, one of the most important writers in the world today. Beyond this, his visit will consolidate ties between IASH at UQ and the Committee on Social Thought at Chicago, two prominent centres of world-leading research in the Humanities.

Dr Todd Oliynyk Senior Scholars

Todd is an Associate Professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences at Monash University.

The main aim of Todd’s Fulbright project, Gravitating relativistic fluid bodies: a mathematical analysis, is to develop a rigorous mathematical foundation for gravitating relativistic material bodies that is applicable to astrophysical systems. This project will significantly improve current understanding of how matter and gravitational fields behave near the matter-vacuum boundary of physical bodies and provide important guidance for constructing stable numerical schemes to numerically model systems of gravitating relativistic fluid bodies. During his time at Princeton University, Todd will work with leading researchers in the field of Mathematical Relativity and will participate in the activities of the Focussed Research Group in Mathematical General Relativity hosted by the Mathematics Department. He will also visit the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University to collaborate with researchers on aspects of his project.

Dr. Paul R. Sanberg Senior Scholars

Dr. Sanberg is Senior Vice President for Research, Innovation & Knowledge Enterprise; Distinguished University Professor; and Executive Director, Center of Excellence for Aging & Brain Repair, University of South Florida (USF). He is an international leader in advancing recognition of academic innovation as founder and President of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and on prominent national committees providing future direction for science and innovation in the United States. His leadership has propelled USF forward in national and international rankings. He led a national dialog to transform academic tenure and promotion to include innovation activities. His scientific work and industry experience were instrumental in translating novel therapeutics to clinical trials and commercialization for neurodegenerative diseases such as stroke, ALS, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. He trained at York University, University of British Columbia, Australian National University, Curtin University, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, among others. He holds 158 worldwide patents; authored 650+ articles and 14 books with 30,000+ citations; Fellowship in the NAI, Royal Societies of Chemistry, Public Health and Medicine, AAAS, and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering; received Sigma Xi’s McGovern Science & Society Award; Florida Inventors Hall of Fame inductee; and AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador. In Australia, he will share expertise in changing the culture to enhance industry engagement, entrepreneurship and impact of academic innovation on society.

Professor Matthew Clarke Professional Scholars

Matthew is currently Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University and an executive member of the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership (CHL).

Matthew will use his Fulbright Scholarship in Non-Profit Leadership to spend three months at Save the Children USA, Harvard University and Tufts University to develop formal relationships between these institutions and the CHL. These partnerships will enhance the professional development of humanitarian workers in responding to complex humanitarian emergencies. Working with Save the Children USA, Matthew will increase connections between aid agencies in the U.S. and the CHL in Australia and create new professional development initiatives that respond specifically to the needs of humanitarian workers responding to disasters in North and South America.

Daniel C. Dennett Professional Scholars

Daniel Dennett is University Professor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, where he has been teaching since 1971. He is responsible, along with his colleagues, for starting a Ph.D. program in Cognitive Science at Tufts University. He is the author of several books and articles about consciousness, free will, religion, and evolution, including Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (1995) and most recently, From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds (2017). He has won many awards, including the APA Barwise Prize (2004), the Richard Dawkins Prize (2007), and the SINe medal at the University of Padova (2016). In 2012 he won the Erasmus Prize in Amsterdam. During his time at Charles Darwin University, Dennett will focus on consciousness research, and why the key steps to progress are so hard for many people to accept.

Dr David Dorman Professional Scholars

David’s formal training includes chemistry, veterinary medicine, and toxicology. His research interests focus on three broad areas: toxicology, chemical risk assessment, and cognition and olfaction in dogs. David teaches courses in veterinary toxicology, veterinary ethics, and cell and molecular biology at NCSU. David has also served extensively on governmental and non-governmental organisations advisory boards tasked with assessing the impact of chemicals on human and environmental health. While in Australia, he will draw on these experiences to provide lectures for the public and academic community as well as develop several workshops on chemical risk assessment for the University of Adelaide and the Australian Department of Health. The overarching goal of this project is to improve ways that scientists and regulators can prevent adverse health effects of environmental chemical exposure thereby protecting public health.

Dr Stephan Frühling Professional Scholars

Stephan is an Associate Professor in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University.

As the Fulbright Professional Scholar in Australia-U.S. Alliance Studies, based at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Stephan will examine why both countries have created fewer permanent arrangements to implement their treaty commitments than is the case in other U.S. alliances.  He will examine, through interviews in Canberra and Washington, whether this will remain sustainable as strategic pressures in the Asia-Pacific increase, and make recommendations on how Australia and the United States could improve the political-military management of closer alliance cooperation through an alliance strategic concept, integrated staff or new command arrangements.

Judge Paul Howard Professional Scholars

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

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

Dr Simon Humphrys Professional Scholars

Simon is a passionate advocate for improving the options that agricultural producers use to manage pest animals that affect how they grow our food. He is currently a Program Leader in the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre where he works across its 27 government and commercial partners to take research concepts through to new products aimed at managing Australia’s most destructive agricultural pests. Simon’s career focus has been applied R&D in biotechnology, pharmaceutical and animal health companies to register new products in Australia, the United States and the EU.

Simon’s Fulbright program will expose him to world-leading wildlife toxicology testing/modelling and he’ll work with registration specialists to incorporate the modelling outcomes into registration data packages. These can be used in Australia and the U.S. to more efficiently expedite approval of effective and safer-to-use products for grain producers to protect crops from mouse plagues.

Dr Belinda Russon Professional Scholars

Belinda is a passionate adult education activist and is the CEO of Australia’s oldest indigenous education provider, Tranby.

Belinda’s Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Vocational Education and Training (VET) will examine the positive emotional, cultural and social factors associated with Indigenous learners in the VET sector, which contribute to resilience, self-motivation and academic success. Belinda will collaborate with Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and will evaluate the proven success of U.S. College leadership and mentoring programs. Findings from her research, will be used to engage and retain indigenous students across the Australian VET sector leading to higher graduation rates. Belinda seeks to promote the positive benefits of VET education and the inarguable impact that the acquisition of job-related and technical skills have on the lives of Indigenous learners and their communities. Her Fulbright Scholarship is a means to start a dialogue on the value of adult education and to create further opportunities for Indigenous adults in Australia.

Dr Peter Stanwell Professional Scholars

Peter is a medical imaging research scientist with a strong interest in understanding the biochemical and biophysical changes that occur following brain injury. He has a goal of providing quantitative metrics, via MRI scanning, to inform evidence-based strategies to optimise medical treatment of traumatic brain injuries.

Peter is seeking to achieve this by working with Dr Alexander Lin, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Dr Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT for the duration of his Fulbright Scholarship, and he hopes to strengthen existing collaborative ties between these centres and the University of Newcastle. While in Boston, Peter is looking forward to increasing his technical research skills in fluorescence microscopy and brain connectivity methods, and expanding his knowledge of implementation science to facilitate translation of his research findings beyond the academic community. Through this he will deliver positive healthcare, community and societal outcomes following traumatic brain injury.

Charles R Wolfe, Esq, MRP, JD Professional Scholars

Chuck is Principal of Seeing Better Cities Group, a consulting firm, and an American lawyer. He is Affiliate Associate Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington in Seattle, and a Visiting Scholar at KTH University, Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

He holds professional degrees in urban planning and law, and complements his consulting and law practices with writing on urban issues. His books, Seeing the Better City, (2017), and Urbanism Without Effort (2013), prioritize the visual sense, pluralistic observation methodologies, and tools addressing urban change.

As a Fulbright Specialist, Chuck will be based at JCU in Cairns, and will facilitate community consultation, related action plans, and outcomes. He will engage stakeholders and local government in Cairns and Townsville through one-day events based on the UN New Urban Agenda. These cities present unique landscapes, climates and more remote locations particularly suitable for consultations on positive change and good-quality urban environments.

Dr Louise Byrne Postdoctoral Scholars

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

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

Dr Gwilym Croucher Postdoctoral Scholars

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

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

Dr Stephanie Gilbert Postdoctoral Scholars

Stephanie is the Coordinator of Teaching Quality and Development at the University of Newcastle’s Wollotuka Institute. Her research focuses bringing disparate communities together through the provision of culturally minded social spaces, literature and tertiary curricula.

Stephanie’s Fulbright project, Living as Indigenous: Inside the Dysmorphic Body, provides a major opportunity to build on research into the creation of bodily informed identity particularly for Indigenous populations. She will explore the way body dysphoria might also be etched into psyche, body, and genetics across generations, and work with researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz to understand and articulate the ways that body dysmorphic concepts might exist in indigenous populations in the U.S.

Dr Claire Higgins Postdoctoral Scholars

Claire is a Senior Research Associate at the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW, where she specialises in refugee policy history. Prior to joining the Kaldor Centre Claire completed a DPhil in History at Merton College, the University of Oxford.

As a Fulbright Scholar Claire will spend six months at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of International Migration to investigate how the United States has used ‘in-country’ resettlement programs. These visa pathways allow people who are in refugee-like situations to apply for entry into the United States while still in their home countries–for example, by submitting an application at an embassy. Claire’s Fulbright project is part of her ongoing research into ways that countries such as Australia can expand safe and orderly pathways for refugees. Her findings will build historical knowledge of in-country programs and shed light on their future potential.

Dr Simon O’Rourke Postdoctoral Scholars

Simon is a Police Inspector currently assigned to the Counter Terrorism and Emergency Response Command at Western Australia Police. His current role is to develop and prepare senior Police Commanders for the challenges they will face during a major police operation, where they will be required to make critical decisions in a highly complex and fluid environment. His Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship will see him attend the Harvard Kennedy School as a visiting Fellow, at the Program on Crisis Leadership.

Simon’s Fulbright project at Harvard University presents a unique opportunity for police to engage with a practitioner focused and internationally renowned centre of excellence in the field of Crisis Leadership. This partnership will identify ways to enhance the professional development of senior police officers, who will fulfil the role of Police Commander during a major incident, including terrorism.

Dr Flavia Di Pietro Postdoctoral Scholars

Flavia is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Research Fellow, working in the Neural Imaging Laboratory at the Sydney Medical School. Using technologies like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Flavia investigates the critical role of the brain in chronic pain, and how the ever-changing and plastic nature of the brain influences our perception of pain.  Chronic pain is poorly understood and places a huge burden not only on the individual, but on healthcare systems and economies around the world. Flavia’s research has made a significant contribution to the understanding of pain and potential avenues for treatment.

Flavia’s Fulbright Scholarship will take her to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, where she will work with Professor Robert Coghill on testing a novel and non-invasive treatment for chronic widespread pain in children and adolescents.

Andrew W.M. Pomeroy Postdoctoral Scholars

Andrew is a Coastal Oceanographer and Engineer, and a Postdoctoral Researcher in coral reef studies at The UWA Oceans Institute.

For his Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship, Andrew will work with researchers at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center of the US Geological Survey in Santa Cruz to understand the dynamics of sediment transport in coral reefs. Elevated sediment volumes are the dominant local stressor to coral reef ecosystems around the globe, which may be affected by anthropogenic activities, differences in coral reef morphology (i.e., shape and size) and the prevalent forcing conditions (i.e., waves and currents). Andrew’s project aims to develop quantitative methods to estimate baseline sediment volumes. Understanding these baselines is fundamental to distinguish the contribution of natural processes to the volume of sediment in reefs, which will inform management decisions, as well as enable targeted interventions to better protect coral reef eco-systems.

Arjun Bisen Postgraduate Students

Arjun is an Australian diplomat who has served in Cambodia, where he was responsible for the Australian Government’s engagement on domestic politics, human rights, trade, commercial affairs, media relations, public diplomacy, and aid programs on disabilities, de-mining, electoral reform and private sector development.

Arjun will use his Fulbright-Anne Wexler Scholarship to undertake a Masters in Public Policy in the U.S, researching China’s relationship with weak states, its impact on security in the Indo-Pacific region, and possible responses by Australian and U.S. Governments. He will also explore the opportunities presented by emerging technologies and advances in behavioural sciences to improve the implementation of Australia’s foreign policy and deliver development outcomes.

Pearse Buchanan Postgraduate Students

Pearse is a PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania. He is interested in defining how the ocean has responded to, and driven climate change in the past through exploring the complex interaction between ocean physics and biogeochemistry.

Pearse’s Fulbright project will focus on the oceanic nitrogen cycle, which forms an essential component of the ocean’s weighty role in the climate system. Past variations in nitrogen are tell-tale signs of changes in ocean productivity, and therefore whether the ocean acted as a net contributor, or consumer of greenhouse gases. Pearse will work with researchers at the Sigman Lab at Princeton University to explore how past changes in the oceanic nitrogen cycle affected the air-sea exchange of two major greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O). In this way, the ocean’s continued role in the changing climate system can be better defined and predicted.

Grace Chipperfield Postgraduate Students

Grace is a PhD student in Creative Writing at Flinders University, South Australia, where she also tutors in English Literature. She is researching what it is to be an American citizen and the bidirectional relationship between individual and national identity, using the works of American author David Foster Wallace to explore what he described as U.S. citizens’ ‘adolescent’ approach to their citizenship.

With her Fulbright Scholarship,  Grace will spend a semester studying at the University of Texas at Austin, in the College of Liberal Arts. She will also use this opportunity to access the David Foster Wallace archive at the Harry Ransom Center. After Texas, she will travel to Illinois to do field research for her novel that will complement the theme of her thesis. Her project will contribute to understanding America’s contemporary and potential national identity, with a view to return and apply this knowledge to an Australian context.

Jody Fisher Postgraduate Students

Jody Fisher is currently undertaking a PhD in applied mathematics investigating microbial systems at Flinders University, South Australia.

Jody will use her Fulbright Scholarship to travel to a specialist complex networks research group and explore alternate mathematical modelling methods for microbial communities. It has only recently been recognised that microbes are often the dominant force in regulating ecosystems from the local to global scale. Yet, with more bacterial species on Earth than there are stars in the universe, defining their functions and interactions is a problem of enormous scope. A complex network approach will allow Jody to explore how individual parts within microbial populations influence the whole. Findings will contribute to current understanding of the governing properties of these critically important systems, and potentially open avenues through which it may ultimately be possible to predict and control them.

Simon Jankowski Postgraduate Students

Simon is a Masters of Hydrogeology student at the University of Western Australia, focused on regional groundwater management strategies. Simon will perform research at Stanford University’s Centre for Groundwater Evaluation and Management in the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences.

His research will focus on the development of new geophysical and remote sensing imaging techniques to support sustainable groundwater management in California’s Central Valley. California’s Central Valley is a $20b agricultural precinct reliant on groundwater irrigation during periods of drought. Simon will use his findings to inform comparable Australian systems and seek to apply his research internationally – specifically in developing nations in order to encourage sustainable water management practices.

Simon’s research will be translational. It will contribute to more effective water resource management strategies that can be applied by governments in Australia and within the world’s most vulnerable climatic regions.

Marryum Kahloon Postgraduate Students

Marryum graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) and Bachelor of International Relations (Business) from Bond University. Throughout her undergraduate degree, Marryum was actively involved in student life serving as President of the Law Students’ Association and as a councillor on the Student Philanthropy Council. She also helped establish the Bond Law Clinic, a pro bono legal service. Marryum was the Australian representative at the 2015 G(irls)20 Summit in Istanbul. She has also previously served as a UNICEF Young Ambassador. Since graduating Marryum has worked as Associate to President Margaret McMurdo AC in the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Queensland. She has also worked as a volunteer at the Salvos Legal Asylum Seeker Clinic, assisting asylum seekers with their visa applications.

For her Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship, Marryum hopes to study a Master of Laws (LLM) at Columbia University, focusing on public international law and international refugee law.

Victoria Reynolds Postgraduate Students

Tori is a PhD student with the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland with a joint affiliation with CSIRO.

For her Fulbright Scholarship, Tori will be working in the Environmental Science Department of Emory University helping to develop a standardised protocol for quantifying insect-collected pollen using DNA meta-barcoding techniques. The outcomes of this project will increase understanding of plant-pollinator interactions, with particular applications for the complex mosaic agricultural landscapes that dominate most of the planet today. This in turn will help decipher how pollinators are foraging in agro-ecosystems around the world. This is a key area of research for the future of agricultural production and biodiversity conservation. Tori will also spend her time in the US developing a research network of American and Australian scientists at the forefront of insect pollination research, through collaborative research and academic enquiry.

James Riggall Postgraduate Students

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

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

Jessa Rogers Postgraduate Students

Jessa is a leading Aboriginal education specialist, currently in the position of Assistant Professor in Education at the University of Canberra. Jessa started her career as a teacher, and in 2015 was the inaugural principal of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls’ boarding school in Far North Queensland. Her PhD research looks at the experiences of Aboriginal and Māori girls attending contemporary boarding schools, using photoyarn, an Indigenous arts-based method she is developing. As a creative artist, Jessa’s undergraduate studies at Queensland University of Technology focused on film, television and drama, while her current research draws on visual arts methodologies including photography and ink-work. Jessa sits on the National NAIDOC Committee, and in 2016 was named ANU Postgraduate Student of the Year, and QUT Young Alumnus of the Year.

For her Fulbright Scholarship, Jessa will be a Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University, between the Peabody Museum and HUNAP (Harvard University Native American Program) to grow her Indigenous research skills and further her research in Indigenous girls’ education.

Michelle Frances Rourke Postgraduate Students

Once viewed as the common heritage of humankind, scientific information and biological samples are fast becoming commodified articles of trade. Michelle’s research examines the legal basis for this commodification with a specific focus on viruses. Viruses pose the greatest risk to global health due to their ability to rapidly mutate, jump host species and evade vaccines and drug treatments. It is essential that scientists maintain access to virus samples on which to conduct lifesaving research.

The Fulbright Scholarship will enable Michelle to work alongside global health law experts at the O’Neill Institute to characterise the matrix of international laws and policies that govern virus access and benefit sharing. Michelle’s objective is to develop an access and benefit sharing system for all viruses that will better ensure global health security and a more equitable distribution of the benefits arising from medical research.

Dr Eddy Thientosapol Postgraduate Students

Eddy is a practising medical oncologist and PhD student at The Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology, Sydney. For his Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship, Eddy will train under Professor Michel Nussenzweig at the Rockefeller University, mastering recently developed molecular biology techniques to identify and characterise specific DNA mutations. DNA damage is the underlying cause of all cancers and, to combat this, our cells have DNA repair pathways to reverse these processes. Incorrect repair of DNA breaks is involved in gene translocation, a type of mutation leading to the activation of cancer-causing genes. Gene translocations are especially important in the development of lymphoma and leukaemia.

During his Fulbright program at the Rockefeller University, Eddy will learn translocation capture sequencing, a tool to precisely identify gene translocations. On his return to Australia, he hopes to train fellow scientists in these methods to advance cancer research and clinical practice.

Alison Whittaker Postgraduate Students

Alison is a Gomeroi law scholar and author. She is currently a Research Associate at the University of Technology Sydney’s Faculty of Law and Centre for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges. Her work centres on the contact Indigenous women make with Australian justice systems, Indigenous ways of knowing and doing law and Indigenous legal research methodologies. Her independent research focusses on contemporary forms of Indigenous lawmaking and their relationship to Indigenous self-determination and gendered violence.

Alison will use her Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to complete Harvard Law School’s Masters of Laws (LLM) program. She will spend her time in the LLM program exploring similarities and tensions in the enforcement and development of Indigenous lawmaking alongside emerging responses by Indigenous women against gendered violence. In doing so, Alison hopes to foster relationships between the Indigenous Australian and Native American scholarship that makes governance and violence its focus, and contribute to implementing it locally.