Alumni Profiles

Professor Pablo Garcia Distinguished Chair

Pablo is currently Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he teaches art and design in the Department of Contemporary Practices. His research practice produces artworks, designs, and scholarship inspired by technology’s historical connections to creative practice.  

In 2013, Pablo launched the NeoLucida, a modern reinterpretation of the camera lucida. Assuming interest in a 19th century obsolete drawing aid would be low; he was caught by surprise when his crowdfunding campaign raised nearly US$500,000 from more than 11,000 worldwide backers. The ensuing lessons in rapidly growing his practice motivated interest in teaching contemporary arts entrepreneurship.  

As a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Pablo will explore new strategies and methods for building and sustaining an art practice. Internet tools and global marketplaces are now accessible by artists and designers of all levels; Pablo’s research will encourage artists around the world achieve creative independence. 

Professor Craig Baillie Senior Scholars

Craig is the Director of the Centre for Agricultural Engineering and the Deputy Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Engineering and Space Sciences at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). Craig’s research is focused on farming systems innovation and technology solutions to improve farm productivity and profitability. Specifically this research includes innovative farming systems and practices, energy efficiency, bioresources, irrigation modernisation, precision agriculture and automation. Craig is also involved in major initiatives and collaborative research with Deere and Company in the USA on new and innovative farming technologies.

Craig’s Fulbright Scholarship will establish collaborative research opportunities between USQ, Texas A&M, Deere and Company as well as other research institutions in the United States. The collaboration will align agricultural research and technology developments in areas such as automation, precision agriculture and energy independence, which meet the future needs of both countries as well as broader global demands. This work will establish research initiatives whereby Australian agriculture has first access to emerging agricultural technologies. Craig’s vision is for Australia to be a global incubator for agricultural technologies by working with the United States.

Barry Bradford Senior Scholars

Barry grew up in the “flyover country” in the middle of the USA; Iowa, to be specific. Growing up on a beef cattle operation provided him with a tremendous immersion in applied science from a very young age. Questions about weather patterns, data analysis, animal behavior, genetics, reproduction, and a slew of other fascinating topics were part of everyday life for Barry as a kid. When he went off to college, Barry initially planned to return to the farm, but after landing a job in a nutrition lab during his freshman year, he was hooked on research. That experience convinced him to double-major in biochemistry and animal science to better prepare for graduate school. After completing his BS degrees at Iowa State University, Barry went on to complete a PhD in animal nutrition at Michigan State University.

After finishing his doctorate, Barry was fortunate to find a faculty position at Kansas State University, where he has worked for the past 8 years. Barry’s appointment is a 40% teaching / 60% research role, with a focus on animal nutrition and physiology, particularly that of dairy cattle. Barry’s research attempts to translate novel findings in fundamental metabolic physiology to practical applications in animal agriculture. Ultimately his goal is to improve the health, productivity, and efficiency of dairy cattle, and in turn, to improve the sustainability of dairy foods. This field is a perfect fit for Barry because it combines his two great passions: finding answers to complex questions, and doing his part to improve the world around us. Barry especially appreciates the opportunity to work with and mentor outstanding students in the pursuit of his teaching and research goals.

Working closely with 12 graduate students and dozens of collaborators, Barry has contributed to more than 40 peer-reviewed publications in the past 8 years. The work by his research team has been recognized with several research awards from the American Dairy Science Association, and Barry was honoured to receive a Kansas State University Presidential Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2014. The most rewarding parts of Barry’s job is seeing his students go out and make a difference, and hearing from producers that their research is helping them to become better at what they do.

Barry and his wife spend much of their time parenting their 3 young children; however is yet to receive an award in that category. Together they enjoy music, the culinary arts, spending time in the great outdoors, and playing tricks on one another.

Ruminant agriculture contributes substantially to the food supply and economy of both the U.S. and Australia. Metabolic disease is a key threat to the sustainability of the sheep and dairy industries, despite decades of research on these problems. Barry’s goal is to investigate the use of RNA interference (RNAi) as a precise tool for correcting deranged nutrient metabolism and preventing metabolic disease in ruminants. Barry will work at the CSIRO Australian Animal Health Lab to identify a small interfering RNA delivery method that will produce the first knockdown of a liver transcript in a ruminant, an exciting initial step toward the use of RNAi as a tool to prevent ruminant metabolic diseases.

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.

Professor Maranda McBride Senior Scholars

Maranda is a Professor of Supply Chain Management and Director of the Center for Advanced Transportation Mobility at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, North Carolina. Her research focuses on investigating people’s trust in and willingness to utilise shared autonomous shuttles/buses to increase the likelihood of implementation and help decrease traffic fatalities.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Maranda will study factors that impact acceptance and adoption of shared autonomous vehicles particularly by vulnerable road users. Findings will be relevant to road users in the U.S. and Australia where traffic fatalities are one of the leading causes of non-natural/accidental death.

Kate Golebiowska Professional Scholars

Kate is an international migration scholar with research interests in immigrants’ social and economic inclusion. The micro-entrepreneurship of immigrant women is an area that is awaiting new insights and provides opportunities for informing social justice advancements. As a Fulbright scholar, Kate will explore and experience the Emory University Goizueta Business School’s business accelerator for immigrant and minority micro-entrepreneurs, most of whom are women. This program is delivered in partnership with place-based organisations. Kate will leverage the insights from Goizueta’s business accelerator model to design a framework for establishing a similar initiative for immigrant women micro-entrepreneurs in Darwin. She will develop new collaborative research networks that will advance our mutual understanding of immigrant women’s entrepreneurship. Kate plans to utilise her newly acquired knowledge to contribute to conversations in Australia about how university-led partnerships in acceleration can promote immigrant women’s empowerment and inclusion through micro-enterprise and positively impact communities.

Dr. Mitchell Gibbs Postdoctoral Scholars

Mitchell is a proud Dunghutti man through kinship, and Lecturer and Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Sydney in the Schools of Geosciences and History, and Philosophy of Science. From Indigenous traditional owners and knowledge holders, he learns about our environments and ways to manage those environments using shellfish-associated practices handed down through oral and lived histories.

Mitchell’s Fulbright project is a collaboration between Australian First Nations and Coast Salish people to share their respective knowledge of shellfish. The aim is to improve understanding of the mechanisms and protocols that have been set in place to initiate and continue cultural revitalisation in association with community-driven habitat restoration.

Daniel Viete Postdoctoral Scholars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Madison Hecht Postgraduate Students

Madison is a recent graduate of the University of Virginia, earning dual degrees in neuroscience and English. At the university as an Echols Scholar, she conducted research in neural development, contributing to her Distinguished Majors Thesis and sparking her interest in child brain development.

In partnership with renowned autism researcher Professor Liz Pellicano, Madison will use her Fulbright Scholarship to address autistic people’s increased risk of sexual victimization. Her study is co-produced with autistic researchers and elicits the perspectives of multiple informants, including young autistic people, their parents, and their teachers. Her findings will illuminate what good ‘sex and relationships’ education looks like for this population and ultimately influence Australian educational policy and practice. It is her hope that this project helps ensure that the rights of autistic people, to feel safe and supported in their schools and communities, are protected and promoted.

Karri Neldner Postgraduate Students

Karri is undertaking a PhD examining the origins of tool creation and innovation at the University of Queensland, Australia. In her PhD, Karri has investigated how young children in different cultures create new tools to solve problems on their own. This research has led Karri to South Africa, Vanuatu and Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in Australia to explore children’s tool innovation and development, in order to build understanding of the mechanisms driving a defining feature of our species.

Karri will use her Fulbright Scholarship to visit the University of Texas, Austin, and the National Centre for Chimpanzee Care at the Keeling Centre for Comparative Medicine and Research. She will examine our closest living relatives, the chimpanzee, to better understand the evolutionary history of our tool making abilities. Chimpanzees can be more inventive with tool making than the average human child, so examining their behaviour may provide clues as to where children struggle to act creatively when designing tools. Learning more about the building blocks that lead to tool innovation will help determine how young children’s creativity and innovation might be fostered and encouraged.

Himmat Panag Postgraduate Students

Himmat is an aerospace engineer who is passionate about space systems and how they can be used to solve global issues. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Aerospace) and a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) from UNSW Sydney. Since graduating Himmat has worked as a flight control engineer, designing autopilots for various aircraft.

As a Fulbright scholar, Himmat will undertake a Masters in Aerospace Engineering, specialising in control theory and astrodynamics, where he will design trajectories and control algorithms for future space missions. He aspires to conduct research in collaboration with NASA and partner with leading institutions in the US and to share this knowledge with fellow researchers on his return to Australia.

Laura Williams Postgraduate Students

“Land-use changes, invasion of exotic species and fragmentation have caused widespread degradation of ecosystems. Fortunately, this has triggered substantial efforts to mitigate damage and to manage and restore ecosystems. Effective ecological management and restoration depends on sound knowledge of community and ecosystem dynamics.”

Laura Williams, a research assistant at Monash University, is one of two Australians who have won International Fulbright Science and Technology Awards, which are the most prestigious and valuable awards offered by the U.S. Government.  The IS&T Awards cover full tuition, stipend and living expenses for three years to undertake a PhD in the U.S. They are offered to only about 40 people worldwide. Laura will undertake a graduate program in ecology at the University of Minnesota in the U.S. that will help achieve her objectives of developing ecological theory in the context of restoration. This program will combine research and coursework to advance her skills in plant ecology and ecological modelling, and include the capability to specialise in phylogenetic and trait-based community analyses.

“This will complement my current education—undergraduate Arts and Science degrees with Honours in ecology—and research experience—including monitoring the effects of riparian restoration in south-eastern Australia and testing theories of community assembly in tropical rain forest,” Laura said. Studying toward a PhD will help Laura to achieve her career goals by developing her skills in ecological research, teaching and communication. The skills that she will acquire in ecological fields have significant potential to be applied in Australia. Laura has completed a BA and BSc (Honours) at Monash University. She received several awards from Monash University during her studies, including the AR Wallace Prize for her Honours thesis, the Vice Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Scholarship, prizes for second and third year biology, Dean’s List Fellowship Awards and Academic Excellence Awards in Geography and Environmental Science.

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. Laura is one of 26 talented Australians to be recognised as a Fulbright Scholar in 2011.