Alumni Profiles

Professor Ray Taras Distinguished Chair

Born and educated in Montreal, Ray Taras completed postgraduate studies at European universities. Beginning in the 1980s he authored and edited books on such subjects as the collapse of the USSR; Russia’s identity in international relations; the making of liberal and illiberal nationalisms; internationalization of ethnic conflicts; fear, xenophobia and Islamophobia in Europe; critiques of multiculturalism; the impact of fear on foreign policy; reworked understandings of nationhood in a globalized world; and early in his career, the language debate in Quebec. He held posts in North American and European universities including Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Vermont, the European University Institute, Aalborg, Malmö, Warsaw, and Sussex. In 2019 he is Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the Australian National University in Canberra where his work focuses on measuring social cohesion – a process in which nativists, indigenous peoples and recent migrants work together to build prosperous, creative and robust societies. Ray’s home is in Salt Lake City and his passions include world literature, skiing, skating, running, and border collies.

Professor Carlos Hiller Hidrovo Chavez Senior Scholars

Carlos is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at Northeastern University. He earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to joining Northeastern University, Carlos held professional appointments at MIT, Stanford University and the University of Texas at Austin. He is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award from the Fluid Dynamics program, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Young Faculty Award from the Microsystems Technology Office, and an American Society of Mechanical Engineers Robert T. Knapp Award.

The overarching goal of Carlos’ Fulbright Future Scholarship research is to integrate and implement a surface acoustic wave (SAW) control methodology into pneumatic based gas-liquid droplet microfluidics (GasLiD-μ) generation systems. The premise is that SAW control could lead to enhanced liquid droplet generation in terms of smaller size, higher generation rate and homogeneity.

Professor Kate Dolan PhD Senior Scholars

Kate is the Head of the Program of International Research and Training at the University of New South Wales. During her Fulbright Scholarship, she will spend six months in Kansas, establishing a formal partnership between her research centre and Kansas State University (K-State). This partnership, as well as the existing partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, will address many of the health issues facing prisoners in the U.S, Australia and in the developing world. Kate will use her time at K-State to build professional networks in the prison health care and research fields, to enhance her knowledge and to commence collaborative projects between the two institutions.

Charles Meneveau Senior Scholars

“What is the best distance between wind turbines in a wind farm that maximizes power extraction? How far apart should organic crops be planted from genetically modified crops to avoid cross-pollination? How can we reduce the power lost due to frictional drag forces acting on airplanes, ships and cars?—The answers to these and many other questions depend crucially on a branch of fluid dynamics called turbulence research.”

Professor Charles Meneveau, a professor in mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, has won a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to spend six months at the University of Melbourne. Professor Meneveau is an internationally recognised expert on a field of engineering researching turbulence, and he will use his Fulbright to explore a new dimension of this field.

“Turbulent fluid motions affect many important processes, such as power production in wind farms, pollen dispersal, and drag on airplanes,” Charles said.

“A most challenging aspect of turbulence is its dual nature combining ordered and random fluid motion.”

Charles’ past research has focused on models inspired by the random nature of turbulence. Australia’s Melbourne group is at the international forefront studying turbulence’s coherent nature. His time with the Melbourne group will give him the opportunity to develop and test new hybrid turbulence models, combining both random and coherent elements.

“The new models will enable more trustworthy computer predictions of turbulent flows in (e.g.) wind farms, pollen dispersion, etc.,” Charles said.

Charles has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering: Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso (Chile), a Master of Science from Yale University, a Master of Philosophy from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering: Yale University. He has been the recipient of the Julian D. Cole Award from the AIAA, the Stanley Corrsin Award from the American Physical Society (APS), is a Fellow of APS, the American Academy of Mechanics and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and was elected foreign corresponding member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences in 2005. He is the Deputy Editor of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Turbulence. In his spare time he enjoys music, film and travel.

Dr Gary Reger Senior Scholars

Gary’s research has focused on the economic history of the Greek and Roman worlds, which led — through the rich documentary and archaeological evidence of the Eastern Desert in Egypt — to a passion for the history of human interaction with desert environments. Going beyond the classical Mediterranean world, this new research project has led to articles on the history and literature of the southwestern deserts of the United States.  

The centerpiece of his time in Australia will be the organization of a conference that will bring humanities scholars and desert specialists together to share work and perspectives on the western deserts. The planned publication of the papers from this conference will, it is hoped, be an important contribution to interdisciplinary work on the Australia desert world. Gary also plans to take advantage of his residence in Perth to travel as much as possible in the western Australian deserts. 

Dr Chris Dixon Professional Scholars

Chris is a Reader in History at the University of Queensland’s School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts (Honors) and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Western Australia he completed his PhD at the University of New South Wales. Prior to his appointment at the University of Queensland, he held academic positions at the University of Sydney, Massey University, and the University of Newcastle. He has served two terms as President of the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association.

Believing passionately that history provides a window to the world, present as well as past, Chris has sought, through both his teaching and his research, to help others gaze through and open that window. As well as teaching undergraduate courses on US history, he has supervised 15 PhD and Masters students, and over 60 Honors students, to successful completion. He has also served as his Faculty’s Associate Dean, with particular responsibility for Research Higher Degree matters.

Chris’s own research focuses on two themes: the history of race relations, especially African American history; and the Pacific War. Having completed Hollywood’s South Seas and the Pacific War: Searching for Dorothy Lamour (co-authored with Professor Sean Brawley) he is currently writing African Americans and the Pacific War for Cambridge University Press.

When he’s not pursuing his interests in American history and politics, Chris enjoys supporting the mighty Hawthorn Football Club. A keen runner, he has completed 50 marathons, including the Boston Marathon and the 90 kilometer Comrades Ultramarathon in South Africa. Chris has traveled widely and in 2009 trekked the Kokoda Trail with his twelve year-old son, Sam.

The Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Australia-U.S. Alliance Studies will enable Chris to explore the experiences of the 100,000 African-Americans who spent time in Australia during World War Two. This project will shed light on the social and cultural bases of the wartime relationship between the US and Australia – which was the platform upon which the postwar ANZUS alliance was forged. The University of Texas at Austin’s Edward A. Clark Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies provides an ideal base for conducting this research, and will also enable Chris to work with the University’s internationally-renowned scholars in History and African American Studies. In deepening our understanding of the alliance between Australia and the US, Chris’s project will also foster closer scholarly relations between the two nations.

Dr Fatemeh Salehi Postdoctoral Scholars

Fatemeh is currently a senior lecturer at the School of Engineering and Co-Director of Sustainable Energy Research Centre (SERC) at Macquarie University. Her research focuses on developing computational models for turbulent flows to advance clean energy technologies.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Fatemeh will spend four months at the world-class clean energy laboratory at the University of Michigan to create a new cost-effective computer tool for modelling spray flows in combustion devices. This will assist the design of engines with extremely low emissions. The significance of such accurate spray models will also benefit other applications, notably flame spray pyrolysis for nanoparticle synthesis and inhalers. Her aim is to take this opportunity for establishing a sustainable bilateral partnership between Macquarie University and the University of Michigan at the institutional level that will facilitate collaboration in the field of clean energy beyond the timeframe of this project.

James Barrett Postgraduate Students

James is dedicated to the pursuit of justice, particularly as it affects young, socio-economically disadvantaged, and Indigenous Australians. James’s formative experiences in the law and social justice have included his time at the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory and as an Aurora Native Title Intern. He pursued his passion for legal theory and constitutional law as Senior Associate to Justice Edelman of the High Court of Australia. He also enjoys teaching, which runs in his family, and has taught law at the Australian National University.

As a Fulbright Scholar, James will pursue a Master of Laws at Harvard Law School. James believes that insights gained from his diverse, global classmates and teachers at Harvard University will enhance his ability to contribute to law reform and public life in Australia.

Dr Owen Bradfield Postgraduate Students

Owen is a dual-qualified medical practitioner and health lawyer, who aspires to solve complex dilemmas at the intersection of medicine, ethics and the law. A graduate of Monash University’s pioneering Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery and Bachelor of Laws double degree programme with First Class Honours, Owen combines medical practice with sessional appointments to Victoria’s Patient Review Panel, the Suitability Panel and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Ethics Committee. Owen’s PhD examines the relationship between medical regulation processes and doctors’ wellbeing. As a Fulbright Future Scholar, Owen will collaborate with global experts in patient safety research at Stanford Law School, where he hopes to better understand how complaints processes impact on doctors’ health in the United States. Owen hopes to strengthen existing research ties and unlock valuable policy insights to assist regulators and decision-makers simultaneously promote clinicians’ health, while safeguarding the public from preventable harm.

Dr Yun Young (Vanessa) Cho Postgraduate Students

Vanessa is a specialist paediatric dentist and a clinical academic who is passionate about understanding the psychology of young children to respond to their oral health needs and treat them. She has published several scientific papers in high impact factor dentistry journals, a monograph and obtained several awards – the recent one being the first prize from the Australia New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry Colgate postgraduate research competition. To obtain an objective assessment of a child’s perspective, she embraced eye-tracking technology for her PhD to conduct Eye Movement Analysis In chiLdren (EMAIL).

The goal of Vanessa’s research is to better understand what children see and connect the visual search patterns to common oral health problems affecting children. In turn, the results be translated if visual search can be used as an early predictor for children at risk of common oral health conditions.

Kerry Hamilton Postgraduate Students

Kerry is originally from Rockville Centre, New York and graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2008 with a BA in Public Health and in 2009 with a MHS in Environmental Health Sciences. She completed her Master’s thesis work on well water quality in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where she sampled wells for contaminants and interviewed well-owners about treatment and use practices. Following her Master’s work, Kerry was an Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) fellow for two years at the US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development. Kerry is currently a doctoral student at Drexel University where she is advised by Dr. Charles Haas. Her research interests are quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA), dose-response modelling, green infrastructure, and water quality. She is also president of the student organization Drexel Graduate Women in Science and Engineering which organizes academic, social, and community outreach events for graduate students and the Philadelphia community. Outside of the lab, Kerry loves running, hiking, skiing, soccer, and generally anything outdoors! She is extremely honored to have received the opportunity to research, learn, and form new friendships in Australia as a Fulbright-CSIRO Postgraduate Scholar.

During her ten month Fulbright Scholarship, Kerry plans to measure concentrations of waterborne pathogens in roof-harvested rainwater tanks and model their association with meteorological factors. She will also compare two different laboratory methods and conduct a risk assessment to inform Australian public health policies in the laboratories of Dr. Simon Toze and Dr. Warish Ahmed at the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Agency (CSIRO). Outside of the lab, she plans pursue integrated water resources management coursework at the University of Queensland, volunteer through the CSIRO “Scientists in Schools” Program, and expand the Brisbane chapter of CSIRO Women in Science.

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.