Alumni Profiles

David Stoesz, PhD Distinguished Chair

Dr. David Stoesz received his doctorate from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Since then he has published articles and books on various aspects of social policy, including public welfare, the Clinton Presidency, children’s services, international development, financial services, and politics and policy. From 1995 to 2000 he held the Wurtzel Endowed Chair at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the coauthor of American Social Welfare Policy, ed. His book, Quixote’s Ghost: The Right, the Liberati, and the Future of Social Policy, received the Pro Humanitate Literary Award. A Fulbright award at the University of Birmingham resulted in The Dynamic Welfare State, recently published by Oxford University Press. His current project is a book, Theory and Social Welfare.

Dr. Stoesz is planning on writing a sequel to The Dynamic Welfare State while at Flinders University. Tentatively titled From Welfare State to Investment State, the book will propose a future configuration for social programming among industrialized nations. In addition, he plans on lecturing at universities in Australia.

Dr. Stoesz is an avid whitewater kayaker, downhill skier, and chef. When time permits, he makes furniture and weaves.

Scott Cameron Chapman Senior Scholars

Agricultural research is a diverse area – from studying soils and microbes through to looking at the DNA of plants. As a crop physiologist, Scott enjoys trying to understand how plants ‘work’. This helps plant breeders to develop better varieties for farmers to grow. His focus is on dryland crops, especially those subject to drought and heat, so he tries to determine how to select crops with the best growth characteristics – how the patterns of growth of leaves, roots and grains are best ‘organised’ over the season to efficiently use light, water and nutrients. The work involves detailed experiments to measure crop growth using basic tools (rulers and knives), and developing and applying new remote sensing methods (cameras, lasers, heat sensors) mounted on ground or aerial robots. Processing these large datasets into useful information is a major activity for Scott, and he then uses this information to build computer models of how plants grow. Just as computer models are essential to the design of new cars and aero planes, they are also useful to describe biology of crops and how they respond to soil and climate conditions. Scott uses historical weather records to predict how plants would have grown over the last 50 years, and this information helps breeders and farmers to know how ’virtual’ crops should perform in any place where we would propose to grow them. These models also allow him to predict how crops should grow in ‘future’ climates.

During Scott’s PhD at The University of Queensland and a short term at the state research department, he developed a great interest in crop physiology and the adaptation of crops. With a four year post-doc at an international centre (CIMMYT) in Mexico, Scott learnt how these research areas could be used to design better crop varieties for farmers, especially in the developing world. Since then he has been based in Australia (for the last 17 years at CSIRO) and has been able to work with researchers and breeders around the world on multiple crops including sunflower, sorghum, sugarcane, maize (corn) and wheat. In that time, there have been great improvements in the opportunities to genetically characterise and manipulate crops. So now, the main limit to breeding better crops is the ability to more rapidly measure how they grow (their phenotype), especially in the field. In recent years, Scott’s work has focused more on using wireless sensors and aerial robots in high-throughput applications to measure these plants and to try to integrate this information into crop models.

Scotts’ Fulbright Scholarship will allow him to undertake new research into how best to characterize wheat plant growth in response to field stress conditions. KSU is located in a low rainfall zone with some of the largest areas of wheat and sorghum production in the USA, the two crops that Scott works on in Australia. Although he has frequently worked with scientists in the region, this study period will help build new collaborations with KSU and other agricultural centres in the US into the future. It will also provide the opportunity to better understand how plant breeding can be used to improve adaptation to drought and heat conditions.

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.

Associate Professor Donna Hancox Senior Scholars

Donna is part of the School of Creative Practice in the Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice Faculty at Queensland University of Technology. She is an international leader in creative community engagement and arts-led social change projects. Her research focuses on the potential for arts, culture and creativity to foster healthy and resilient communities, and the co-creation of innovative methods for under-represented groups to share their lived experiences and agitate for positive community-led change. Donna has led research projects collaborating with rural and remote communities, culturally and linguistically diverse groups and First Nations peoples. In 2013 Donna was a Leverhulme Visiting Fellow at Bath Spa University and a 2017 Smithsonian Research Fellow at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Museum.

Donna’s Fulbright Scholarship will explore large scale collaborations between universities, industry and community partners to progress the role of arts and culture in global public health.

Professor Gretchen E. Minton, PhD Senior Scholars

Gretchen is Professor of English at Montana State University. She has published extensively on Shakespeare and his contemporaries, including several critical editions. She is the co-founder of Montana InSite Theatre, which is dedicated to sitespecific performances that use classical texts to address environmental issues. Gretchen also serves as dramaturg and script adaptor for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, which participated in the 2021-22 international project called Cymbeline in the Anthropocene.

Gretchen will travel to James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland for her Fulbright project entitled Applied Theatre for Shakespeare and the Environment. She is writing and workshopping an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night that speaks to local environmental concerns in North Queensland.

Dr Eden Robertson Postdoctoral Scholars

Dr Eden Robertson is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Behavioural Sciences Unit at the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital. She is also the Research and Evaluation Manager at the Starlight Children’s Foundation. During her PhD, Eden developed the world’s first decision aid, ‘Delta’, to support families deciding whether to enroll their child with cancer in a clinical trial.

For her Fulbright Future Scholarship, Eden will first visit the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital to adapt ‘Delta’ for use by families who have children with cancer. Eden will then visit Teen Cancer America to expand ‘Delta’ to cater for young adults with cancer. Until cancer can be cured, clinical trials will remain the bedrock of cancer medicine. Eden is committed to supporting all patients and families to make an informed clinical trial enrolment decision that aligns best with what matters most to them. 

Victoria Austin Postgraduate Students

Victoria is a PhD candidate researching the structure and function of female superb lyrebird vocalisations at the Lab of Animal Ecology at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University. For her Fulbright Scholarship, Victoria will learn cutting edge song analysis techniques with Professor Mike Webster at Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Female song is widespread in song birds, but there is limited understanding of its function both independently and in relation to males. Hypotheses proposed in recent research have yet to be empirically tested and field-based studies are urgently needed. Using a comprehensive field-based study of female superb lyrebirds accompanied with detailed acoustic analysis, Victoria aims to identify sex-specific ecological and social drivers of elaborate female vocalisations, and account for variation in song within and between females. Her research will contribute to the understanding of both the evolution of bird song and the behavioural ecology of this iconic Australian species.

Dylan Cronin Postgraduate Students

In 2003 Dylan began his tertiary education at the Queensland University of Technology, where over the next four years he obtained his bachelor’s degrees in both Information Technology and Applied Science (majoring in Chemistry).  It was during this time that Dylan met Professor William Doherty, with whom he still works with today.  He began his professional relationship with Professor Doherty and the Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities (CTCB) as a research assistant, working on various projects related to the sustainable development of value-added products from waste agricultural materials produced in the Australian sugarcane industry.  Realising the social and ethical merit of this general area of research, as well as the necessity for its continued growth in the future, Dylan began to develop his career within this institute.

In 2008 Dylan completed a postgraduate honours course in Applied Chemistry research on the preparation of biodegradable multicomponent films.  The project culminated in the preparation of a thesis entitled “Formation of Multicomponent Films Using an Ionic Liquid”, defended during a final presentation several weeks later.  He was awarded the grade of 1st Class Honours for his work and commercial interest towards the project has been expressed by the international packaging company Inova.  Having the opportunity to direct his own research project confirmed his aspirations towards a career in research, particularly within the sustainable energy and materials sector.

On completion of Dylan’s honours thesis he was offered a scholarship to partake in a cultural exchange program in Cordoba, Argentina. Having never travelled outside Australia, Dylan considered this a great opportunity to contribute to his cultural education and knowledge of the Spanish language.  After spending a month attending school and living with numerous other students from around the world, Dylan spent a further nine months travelling and studying Spanish throughout Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia.  Having greatly enjoyed this experience Dylan returned to South America in 2011 to live in Rio for one year studying Portuguese, working as an English and Science teacher, and volunteering with a community outreach centre within one of the local favelas.

The most recent stage in Dylan’s career progression was his enrolment in a doctoral research project in 2013 with the CTCB, and as such his immediate academic goals relate to the successful completion of this work. The refining of organic waste materials into sustainable fuels and products is an area which Dylan has been involved in for nine years, and which interests him greatly.

With the depletion of non-renewable petroleum resources and a growing global demand for both energy and raw materials, biorefining is a socially and ethically pertinent area of research, with the potential to make a significant and immediate contribution to alleviating society’s dependence on fossil fuels. The opportunity to work at the Bioproducts, Sciences and Engineering Laboratory at Washington State University will be of immense value to Dylan’s research, and to the immediate research community. Dylan’s area of specialisation relates to the pulping of lignocellulosic (plant material) and the valorisation of the lignin obtained therein (in basic terms this means the attempt to use a material such as lignin, but also similarly cellulose and hemicellulose,  in such a way as to exploit greater economic and environmental potential). .  It is his objective to gain valuable experience and further knowledge in the application of biomass utilisation processes and technologies, in particular those technologies relating to the acquisition, depolymerisation and subsequent valorisation of lignin.

Sophie Faustine Hollingsworth Postgraduate Students

Sophie Hollingsworth is the recipient of the 2016 Fulbright-Anne Wexler Scholarship. Hollingsworth graduated from NYU with a Bachelors in Environmental Science and double minor in Global Public Health and Psychology. In 2017, she will commence her Master of Health Security at University of Sydney. Health security is concerned with the areas in which national security and public health overlap. In today’s globalized world, safeguarding the health of the public can no longer be a solely domestic concern. The University of Sydney developed a cutting edge multidisciplinary postgraduate program to train a new generation of health, policy- maker, and security sector personnel with responsibility for human, animal, and national health security. As the first globally recognized health security masters, there is no other program like it in the world.

Hollingsworth’s paramount focus will be on shared political interests and cooperation between the US and Australia in trade, security, and development related to health security. Under the Anne Wexler Masters Award in Public Policy Hollingsworth will enroll in graduate courses at the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Disease and Biosecurity where she will undertake four core units of study: health security, policymaking power and politics, leadership in organizations and public relations management, and conflict resolution. From there she will follow a concentration in biodefense and biosafety.

One of Hollingsworth’s principal goals will be to acquire the knowledge and skill set to develop and implement international health security policy. Through the University of Sydney, she will deepen her complex analysis, quantitative, and technical skill set in international health policy. Furnished with these skills, Hollingsworth will foster effective and meaningful collaboration between Australia and the United States.

Outside of academia, Hollingsworth is a modern female explorer.  She has sailed across the Pacific Ocean, transected Madagascar, and holds a 200-ton captains license. At the time of certification, Hollingsworth was the youngest female to obtain a 200-ton MCA Yachtmaster Captains License. For the past five years has worked as the Founder and Director of Operations of AquaAid International – an organization establishing sustainable sources of clean drinking water and basic sanitation in remote Central American jungles.  Hollingsworth is currently apart of a world first expedition to document and conduct the only ethnographic study of the female chiefs of Maewo Island, Republic of Vanuatu. Hollingsworth is a proud member of The Explorers Club, The Royal Geographical Society and Flag Carrier of WINGS Worldquest.

Treves Li Postgraduate Students

Treves is a geotechnical engineer who is excited about using artificial intelligence to solve complex ground engineering problems. His industrial experience in mining has spanned from Interior Alaska to Outback Queensland, where he has been responsible for upholding and raising the standard of safety in challenging underground environments. He received his Bachelor of Mining Engineering from UNSW, and graduated with the University Medal and the prize for Best Thesis for using microseismic data to forecast underground rockbursts. He intends to expand on this work by developing more robust prediction algorithms that could be applied across varied geomechanical contexts.

Through his Fulbright research at University of California, Berkeley, Treves aims to deepen his technical expertise and explore how advances in machine learning can be used to represent, understand and mitigate geotechnical hazards in mining and tunnelling – industries that underpin Australia’s economy and cities.

Tierney O’Sullivan Postgraduate Students

“Conservation of the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle is paramount, not only because of its iconic status, but also because it performs a vital role in the ecosystem.”

Ms Tierney O’Sullivan, a recent graduate in ecology from the University of Georgia, has won a 2013 Fulbright Scholarship to come to Australia for a year. She will work with Tasmanian Forest Practices Authority and University of Tasmania to undertake research into the breeding success of the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle.

“The wedge-tailed eagle is the largest bird of prey in Australia, and one of the largest eagles in the world,” Tierney said.

“The endemic Tasmanian subspecies Aquila audax fleayi is recognized as endangered on a state and federal level due to a small population as a result of low breeding success and a high mortality rate from unnatural causes.”

Tierney’s project aims to understand how habitat disturbance affects the behaviour and breeding success of the threatened Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle. In collaboration with her host institutions she will monitor nesting sites and record behavioural responses to nearby traffic and determine nesting success at the end of the breeding season.

Tierney has a B.S. in ecology from the University of Georgia. She has won various awards and prizes including a Charter Scholarship, University of Georgia; the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation Scholarship; and the HOPE Scholarship. She is a keen outdoor enthusiast, and enjoys whitewater kayak racing, in which she competes internationally, and rock climbing.

Matthew Thompson Postgraduate Students

“Maintaining the highest possible standards of fingerprint evidence is important for making sure that innocent people are not wrongly accused.”

Matthew Thompson, a PhD candidate at The University of Queensland, is the winner of the prestigious 2011 Fulbright Queensland Scholarship, sponsored by the Queensland Government and Universities. “Everyday, law enforcement agencies identify thousands of fingerprint matches that can be used as evidence in convicting criminals,” Matthew said. ”Contrary to popular belief and TV shows like CSI, computers are not relied upon to match crime-scene fingerprints. Instead, human fingerprint experts decide whether a print belongs to a suspect or not.”

“But, despite its 100 year history, there have been few peer-reviewed studies directly examining the extent to which experts can correctly match fingerprints to one another. And mistakes made to date have resulted in innocent people being wrongly accused.” Matthew’s Fulbright Scholarship will allow him to further his research on assessing inaccuracies in fingerprint identification, and collaborate with US fingerprint experts from the Los Angeles Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

He will carry out his research at the University of California, Los Angeles to determine how accurate fingerprint experts are, explore the psychology that affects how well they match fingerprints, and maximise the reliability of fingerprint evidence in the criminal justice system. “I’ll work with fingerprint experts in the US to determine the factors—about the person and about the print—that will allow experts to make the most accurate matches,” Matthew said. “I believe the outcomes of my research will improve the welfare of Australians and Americans by upholding the process of law, and help to prevent wrongful convictions and promote rightful ones.”

Matthew has a BInfTech and a BSc (First Class Honours) in Psychology from The University of Queensland. He has won awards and prizes including the Queensland Government Smart Futures PhD Scholarship, the NICTA Research Project Award, and the ATSE Young Science Ambassador Award. Matthew is also a keen photographer, blogger and musician. 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. Matthew is one of 26 talented Australians to be recognised as a Fulbright Scholar in 2011.