Alumni Profiles

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.