Alumni Profiles

Professor Anthony Maeder Distinguished Chair

Anthony is Professor in Health Informatics at Western Sydney University, and was previously Research Director of the CSIRO eHealth Research Centre in Brisbane from 2004. Prior to that, he was Head of the School of Engineering at the University of Ballarat and subsequently at Queensland University of Technology’s School of Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering. His earlier appointments were at Monash University in the Department of Computer Science, where he undertook his PhD in Software Engineering. Anthony is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia and was the founding President of the Australian Pattern Recognition Society. He is currently chair of the Standards Australia IT-14-12 Telehealth Subcommittee and a member of the IT-14 Health Informatics Committee Australian delegation to ISO/CEN meetings. He was a Board Member of the Health Informatics Society of Australia and their representative on IMIA WG1 (Education) until 2010. Anthony was president of the Australasian Telehealth Society in the period 2010-2012, and joined the Governing Board of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth in 2013. Anthony holds appointments as Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Information Systems at Rhodes University, and Honorary Professor in the School of Nursing and Public Health at University of KwaZulu-Natal. His research areas related to eHealth and Telehealth include web and mobile computing, data mining, digital image analysis, human factors and human-computer interaction. He is leader of the eHealth Research Group at Western Sydney University, where he founded the Telehealth Research and Innovation Laboratory (THRIL) in 2010.

Anthony’s Fulbright research is titled “Promoting healthy lifestyle in children and adolescents benefits from multiple channels of intervention”. Young people’s affinity for use of mobile devices (like smart phones) and the appeal of social connectivity enabled by this environment offer opportunities for boosting engagement and adherence to more conventional approaches. Anthony’s Fulbright research project will investigate methods to develop purposeful mobile applications to support physical activity and nutrition programmes already underway with KSU collaborators, based on expertise gained in recent comparable programmes at Western Sydney University in Australia. Anthony plans to visit other research groups when presenting public lectures elsewhere in the USA, enabling broader interactions in this area.

LaShanda Taylor Adams Senior Scholars

LaShanda is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and a Professor of Law at the University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law. She joined the law faculty after ten years working on behalf of children and families at leading child welfare organizations.

As a Fulbright Scholar, she will conduct a comparative study of South Australian and American efforts to reorient child protection systems toward early intervention and family support services. Specifically, LaShanda will assess how the shift will affect children and families with chronic and repeated involvement in the child welfare system as well as Aboriginal children and families. Her research will inform the design of new prevention and early intervention services to these populations in South Australia and to similar populations in the United States. 

Professor Derek Wayne Bailey Senior Scholars

Derek grew up on a small cattle ranch in Colorado and graduated with Highest Distinction from Colorado State University in Animal Science during 1980.  He later earned an MS in Animal Science and PhD in Range Science at Colorado State University during 1985 and 1988, respectively.  After finishing his PhD, Derek worked 5 years as a rangeland management consultant in Nevada and assisted ranchers across the western US.  He then worked as a researcher with USDA-ARS for 2 years conducting gazing behavior studies, animal nutrition experiments and ecological modeling. After a short period with Cooperative Extension at University of Arizona, Derek conducted grazing management, distribution and animal behavior research for Montana State University at off-campus research center in Havre, MT. After 9 years in Montana, He began his current position at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, which includes research, teaching and administration of the Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center.

Throughout his career, Derek has strived to develop tools that cattle producers can use to make ranching more ecologically and economically sustainable. He has developed novel approaches to resolve livestock grazing issues and worked with ranches and land managers to use low-stress livestock handling and other practices to resolve on-the-ground problems.  Derek helped pioneer the use of global positioning system (GPS) tracking to measure and quantify livestock behavior on extensive and mountainous rangeland. He has authored more than 50 refereed journal publications and received over 1.3 million dollars of extramural funding for research.  Derek has conducted collaborative research with scientists across the western US as well as with researchers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Italy and Jordan.

The goal of Derek’s research is to identify livestock behaviors that may be associated with disease, welfare and grazing distribution patterns.  He and his collaborators hypothesize that behaviors that occur when livestock are watering may be useful for predicting when they are becoming ill. They will track sheep and cattle to test this hypothesis. Monitoring livestock welfare is difficult in extensive rangeland pastures, and this proposed research will be an integral part of the development of information and diagnostic software needed to remotely determine when animal welfare is comprised so that management can readily respond.

Derek will be traveling to Australia with his wife, and they are looking forward to enjoying Australia’s culture, natural wonders and outdoor lifestyle.

Professor Calum John Drummond Senior Scholars

Calum is a graduate of The University of Melbourne (BScEd (H1, 1981), BSc Hons (H1, 1982), PhD and DSc in Physical Chemistry (1987 and 2015). As the current RMIT Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation and Vice President, he has a leadership role in the development of discovery and practice-based research and in building and enhancing capability in research and innovation across the University. He joined RMIT University in 2014 from CSIRO where he was Group Executive for Manufacturing, Materials and Minerals. Immediately prior to this CSIRO Group Executive appointment, he was Chief of CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering. Previously, Calum was seconded from CSIRO to be the inaugural Vice President Research at CAP-XX, an Intel portfolio company.

He is an active researcher with interests in the area of advanced materials, including application to energy storage and biomedical products. The outstanding calibre of his research has been recognised through the award of the 2015 Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation (Physical Sciences Category), CSIRO Fellow designation (2013; CSIRO’s highest award for exceptional scientists), World Economic Forum Global Technology Pioneer (2005; awarded to CAP-XX), Frost and Sullivan (USA) Excellence in Communication and Information Technologies Award (2006; awarded to CAP-XX), an Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellowship (2003-2010), an ARC Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship (1990-1993), the inaugural R.J.W. Le Févre Memorial Prize from the Australian Academy of Science (1989), the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) Rennie Memorial Medal (1989), the RACI Applied Research Award (2002), the RACI Industrial Chemistry Division RK Murphy Medal (2004), the RACI Green Chemistry Challenge Award (2005), the RACI Physical Chemistry Division Medal (2006), the RACI HG Smith Memorial Medal (2015), CSIRO Medal for Outstanding Research Achievement (2004), CSIRO Medal for Business Excellence (2011), Distinguished Lecturer Award from The Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division of the Japanese Chemical Society (2011), Distinguished Paper Award of The Soap and Detergent Association (USA) and The American Oil Chemists Society (2001), both the David Syme Research Prize (2002) and the Grimwade Prize in Industrial Chemistry (1995) from The University of Melbourne, and a Rothmans Foundation Fellowship (1990; declined).

Throughout the term of his Fulbright Scholarship, Calum hopes to embed ongoing research collaboration between MIT and RMIT in the area of drug delivery. His plans include disseminating new knowledge through publishing research papers in high impact journals and presenting at international science and engineering conferences, with aims to advancing the understanding of therapeutic protein structure and function preservation (protein stability) in vitro and in vivo. While in Boston, Calum will be exchanging the latest thinking on enhancing university research and innovation ecosystems, improving university research and innovation management, and translating research beyond the academic community to deliver broader positive economic, community and environmental impact.

Sharon Davis Professional Scholars

“The Murray-Darling Basin is an important and iconic river basin, at both the national and international scale. It covers around 1 million square kilometers and produces approximately 40 per cent of Australia’s agricultural production. The Basin system also contains more than 30,000 wetlands and many ecological systems of international significance including 16 Ramsar Convention listed sites.”

Dr Sharon Davis, General Manager with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority will have the opportunity to contribute to the Harvard Water Initiative at Harvard University through a Fulbright Professional Scholarship.

Sharon’s research will share the Australian experience of setting sustainable water resource diversion limits, identify potential opportunities for future development, and evaluate the applicability of the approach used in the Murray-Darling Basin to other countries. “Australia is a recognised international leader in water resource management and has a significant history in water reform,” Sharon said. “Over the last 20 years Australia has made major steps forward in water resource management, most recently through the Commonwealth Water Act 2007, which requires sustainable water diversion limits to be set across the Murray-Darling Basin.” 

“The project is designed to contribute to advances in water resource management in Australia and internationally.” Sharon has a BA (Hons) (Physical Geography) Monash University and a PhD (Civ. Eng.) (Hydrology), Monash University. She received the Murray-Darling Basin Commission Leadership Award; is currently the leader of the Environmental Planning Team within the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, and was a Member of the Murray-Darling Basin Reform Taskforce. She represented the Murray-Darling Basin Commission on the Mekong River Commission/Murray-Darling Basin Commission Strategic Liaison Partnership Mission in 2007.

In her spare time she enjoys skiing, bushwalking and trekking, adventure racing, triathlons, good coffee 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. Sharon is one of 26 talented Australians to be recognised as a Fulbright Scholar in 2011.

Dr Clare Stephens Postdoctoral Scholars

Clare is a postdoctoral researcher at the UNSW Water Research Centre. Her work focuses on the implications of climate change for water resources, specifically the complex interactions between landscape processes and climate that impact the hydrologic cycle.

She will use her Fulbright Scholarship to visit a leading ecohydrology group at the University of Virginia and learn how to better apply advanced modelling tools to simulate the Australian environment under change. This project aims to provide new insights into future shifts in vegetation growth, fire regimes and nutrient cycling across Australia’s unique landscapes, focussing on hydrologic impacts at the spatial scales most useful to water managers. Clare’s time at the University of Virginia will allow her to build valuable networks while enhancing her knowledge of important vegetation processes and adaptive strategies.

Charis Teh Postdoctoral Scholars

Charis is a medical researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia. She holds an Early Career Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia to pursue her studies into how the body’s immune system behaves normally in health and abnormally during diseases, such as cancer or autoimmunity. Charis received a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from the Australian National University in 2007, Master in Public Health from University of Sydney in 2014 and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in immunology and genetics from the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University in 2012. During her PhD, she uncovered a new mechanism that prevents the immune system from attacking components of our own body, which would otherwise result in an autoimmune disease (e.g. diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis). Upon completion of her PhD, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Daniel Gray at WEHI in 2013. She is currently channelling her efforts to understand how the balance of survival and death signals can control different immune cells and how this can be harnessed for treatment of autoimmunity and cancer. Her long-term career goal is to make a real impact on improving the health of mankind as a researcher in the field of immunology and cancer.

For her Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship, she will work in the laboratory of Professor Garry Nolan at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University. The project will utilize a new cutting-edge technology (called a mass cytometer or CyTOF) to investigate the survival and death switches in blood cells isolated from healthy donors and cancer patients. She will design a unique suite of over 30 probes for cell survival and cell death that can be simultaneously detected in blood cells by the CyTOF technology. This high-throughput detection of 30 parameters in parallel is not currently possible at any institutions in Victoria and represents a leading edge new technique. She will use the probes designed to measure the cell survival and death signature in healthy donors and in cancer patients, before and after treatment with cancer drugs currently in clinical trials. The results will shed light on the specific action of the cancer drug on life/death of cancerous blood cells, and may reveal new approaches for combinatorial therapies that will enhance the elimination of cancer cells.

Besides working in the laboratory, Charis also enjoys travelling and has visited more than 20 countries. Her travels have opened her eyes to how the rest of the world lives, allowed her to experience new cultures and try the local cuisines. She is also passionate in influencing society to lead a more active life because she strongly believes that medical advances need to be coupled with increasing awareness/education about what every individual can do to maintain their bodies in optimal condition. She has found a unique avenue to do so as a Les Mills Group Fitness Sh’bam and Body Jam Instructor.

Charis sees the Fulbright Scholarship as an invaluable technology transfer opportunity and it will enable her to pursue her studies into how the body’s immune system behaves normally in health and abnormally during diseases, such as cancer or autoimmunity. The project will utilize a new cutting-edge technology (called a mass cytometer or CyTOF) to investigate the survival and death switches in blood cells isolated from healthy donors and cancer patients at the Nolan Laboratory at Stanford University (pioneers in the ground-breaking mass cytometry technology). She hopes to have gained comprehensive training on how to design experiments, run, maintain, operate and analyse the high content data obtained. This collaboration will maximize the use of this complex technology, which is still in its infancy stage in Australia. This project will also build a strong partnership and a long-standing collaboration between her institute (WEHI) and Stanford University.

Nina Alexandra Campano Postgraduate Students

Nina has an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. She has five years of experience in optical systems, including roles as the Chief Engineer for a satellite camera and an Engineering Program Manager for next generation iPhone cameras. She also volunteers for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund as an Advisory Council Member, speaker and mentor.

Nina’s Fulbright research will focus on a low-cost indoor air quality sensor system. She will study under Professor Lidia Morawska, recognised by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2021.

Anna Evans Postgraduate Students

Anna has a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering with First Class Honours and a Bachelor of Physics with Distinction. Specialising in energy technology and policy, Anna has improved solar cell efficiency with the CSIRO, worked as an engineer in a coal-fired power station, and developed national policies to reduce emissions from the electricity sector.

Anna hopes to build on this expertise through a Master of Public Policy, where she will specialise in energy. During this program, Anna will draw on leading interdisciplinary thinkers to navigate the significant policy and technical challenges faced in transitioning to a low emissions electricity sector. Anna hopes to build on her technical background and undertake rigorous training in public policy to prepare her for leadership roles in energy market regulation. Anna is a passionate supporter of women in science, and hopes to learn about initiatives underway in the United States to encourage greater representation
of women.

William Harrington Postgraduate Students

William Harrington is a Food Agility PhD at James Cook University, and CEO of Wi-Sky Queensland, a business he founded to help solve connectivity problems in the bush.

William plans to travel to Ohio State University to learn more about cutting-edge technologies that bring better internet to the regions. His goal is to apply this knowledge to his own research with the aim of reducing the digital divide between rural and urban areas in Australia and other countries such as the U.S. and Canada, and to provide tools to help guide telecommunications and social policy.

Carter Hissam Postgraduate Students

Carter completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2022. During his time at UMass, Carter developed an interest in molecular genetics and genomics, specifically in their potential to treat and cure many human diseases.

The Fulbright Future Scholarship will enable Carter to pursue a Master’s degree in Genomics, as well as to study the public and private initiatives which are embedding genomics into routine clinical practice in the Australian health care system. Carter hopes to return to the United States as a genomic specialist, being able to advance the ethical applications of genomics

Dr Jamie Maraj Postgraduate Students

Jamie is a dentist who received his Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from the University of Western Australia in 2020. Throughout his time in dental school, Jamie gained a unique insight into how dental care can relieve chronic pain, restore self-esteem and empower people to fully participate in their communities. During this time, he also witnessed how limited access to affordable dental care drives oral health inequality. This fostered a passion for public health and a desire to improve the way in which we deliver dental care in Australia.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Jamie plans to pursue a Master of Public Health, with a focus on health policy at Columbia University. He hopes to gain a greater understanding of the public policy challenges underpinning unequal access to dental care. He eventually aspires to affect large scale policy changes that produce more equitable oral health outcomes in Australia.