Alumni Profiles

Dr Edward Sazonov Distinguished Chair

Edward is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. His research interests span wearable devices, sensor-based behavioral informatics, and methods of biomedical signal processing and pattern recognition. He develops wearable devices such as a wearable sensor for objective detection and characterization of food intake; a highly accurate physical activity and gait monitor integrated into a shoe insole; a wearable sensor system for monitoring of cigarette smoking; and others. These devices have been utilized in multiple studies of health-related human behaviors. 

As a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Newcastle, Edward will work on collaborative research projects targeting studies of human nutrition and eating behavior. 

Professor Michael Breadmore, FTSE, FRACI Senior Scholars

Michael obtained his PhD in Analytical Chemistry in 2001 from the University of Tasmania (UTAS), and was awarded his DSc in 2017. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed papers, supported over the past 18 years at UTAS with over $22M of research funding. He has held three Australian Research Council fellowships, and received numerous prizes and recognition, including the 2019 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science for Safeguarding Australia. Michael is a co-inventor on a number of patents, with four commercial products at market, and in 2022 was made a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).

Michael’s Fulbright research aims to develop a new dry, solid-state platform with which to measure important molecules for personalised medicine, environmental analysis, forensic science and industry process monitoring and control.

Associate Professor Neal P. Sullivan Senior Scholars

Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. His research is focused on production of green hydrogen. As Director of the Colorado Fuel Cell Center, Neal seeks to advance new electroceramic materials that harness renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, enabling long-term energy storage. Green hydrogen is a key feedstock in green steel, green ammonia and other large-scale industrial products.

As the 2023 Fulbright Scholar in Resources and Energy, Neal will work with John Curtin Distinguished Professor Zongping Shao of Curtin University, a world expert in electroceramic materials.

Sarah Dalton Professional Scholars

“Healthcare organisations around the world depend on the development of clinicians as leaders to ensure the delivery and improvement of quality care. Leadership development is a top priority for high performance healthcare organisations, with many well established programs in the United States.”

Dr Sarah Dalton, a Paediatric Emergency Physician at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, has won this year’s Fulbright Professional Business/Industry (Coral Sea) Scholarship to go to the Anne Arundel Medical Centre. She will investigate the delivery of Clinical Leadership Development Programs in the U.S. and look for ways to apply this knowledge to the Australian Healthcare environment.

“I think that building leadership capacity is critical to improving patient outcomes and is an essential precursor to health system reform. Key lessons in leadership transcend cultures and industry, making international collaboration imperative to this field,” Sarah said.

“Australia has well established models of leadership education and hospitals are increasingly looking to translate this knowledge into in-house programs to consolidate these lessons in the workplace.”

“Elements of the U.S. healthcare system have delivered such programs for many years, making it an important resource for lessons in the delivery of clinical leadership development programs. My Fulbright Scholarship will provide me with the ideal medium to investigate these opportunities and foster national and international collaboration in this field.  I believe it is essential to identify and develop the upcoming leaders in our healthcare community, as it is their ability and their future which will see our system survive and flourish.”

Sarah has a BMed and a Master of Applied Management in Health from the University of Newcastle, a DCH from Sydney Children’s Hospital and a Paediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. She has won a Merit Award for Academic Excellence from the University of Newcastle; a NSW Government Scholarship for Rural Medicine and has been a Rotary International Youth Ambassador in New Zealand. In her spare time Sarah enjoys biking, hiking and running as a way to explore the great outdoors.

Dr David Dorman Professional Scholars

David’s formal training includes chemistry, veterinary medicine, and toxicology. His research interests focus on three broad areas: toxicology, chemical risk assessment, and cognition and olfaction in dogs. David teaches courses in veterinary toxicology, veterinary ethics, and cell and molecular biology at NCSU. David has also served extensively on governmental and non-governmental organisations advisory boards tasked with assessing the impact of chemicals on human and environmental health. While in Australia, he will draw on these experiences to provide lectures for the public and academic community as well as develop several workshops on chemical risk assessment for the University of Adelaide and the Australian Department of Health. The overarching goal of this project is to improve ways that scientists and regulators can prevent adverse health effects of environmental chemical exposure thereby protecting public health.

Clare O’Neill Professional Scholars

“Effective civil-military decision making to meet human insecurity challenges during conflicts and disasters is paramount due to the complexity of the security environment regionally and globally. Militaries will continue to take on humanitarian roles as part of combat and non-combat operations. When military commanders and field practitioners are equipped with the knowledge to quickly understand an environment and the implications of multiagency responses, they will be able to make effective decisions to best achieve strategic intent.”

Major Clare O’Neill, 2013 Chief of Army Scholar, Australian Army has won this year’s Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Australia-US Alliance Studies sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She will go to Georgetown University for four months to carry out research that will propose developments to current military decision-making models for the execution of humanitarian action at the tactical level. The outcomes of the research will assist deployed forces make effective and strategically relevant decisions during the response phase of operations. Clare commences her research in Australia through the Land Warfare Studies Centre and University of Canberra’s National Security Institute.

“My research will present a civil-military decision making model for military commanders and field practitioners at the tactical level. The model will propose a set of organising principles intended to inform the development and improvement of processes already in use by United States and Australian government agencies. This will enhance civil-military cooperation and enable effective decisions to best achieve strategic intent,” Clare said.

“I will demonstrate where agencies’ decision making processes overlap, where external input is required and how they can apply identified best practices. It will include valuable analyses of methods decision makers can utilise when faced with human security considerations to address the needs of the individual whilst achieving strategic aims for regional and global security.”

Clare has a BEng from the University of New South Wales and an MA from Deakin University.  She is a Chartered Professional Engineer and has deployed with the Australian Army to Afghanistan and Padang, Indonesia after the 2009 earthquake. Clare has received prizes and awards including a Chief of Defence Force Commendation for her work in Afghanistan and the Australian Society for Defence Engineering Prize. Her interests include running and rowing.

Dr Louisa Selvadurai Postdoctoral Scholars

Louisa is a researcher and clinical trainee in neuropsychology. She is passionate about using these dual roles to improve the lives of individuals living with brain disorders and has a particular interest in disorders of the cerebellum, a structure at the base of the brain.   

For her Fulbright Future Scholarship, Louisa will work within Professor Jeremy Schmahmann’s clinical-research group at Massachusetts General Hospital, investigating new clinical tools designed to detect cognitive and psychiatric difficulties in individuals with cerebellar disorders. Louisa will evaluate existing clinical data and observe current practice at Professor Schmahmann’s dedicated cerebellar disorders clinic. Based on these approaches, she aims to develop a practical clinical resource to inform wider uptake of these tools. Louisa looks forward to sharing this resource and her learnings in Australia, informing both clinical and research practice in order to better meet the needs of Australians living with these conditions.

Kamel Awayda Postgraduate Students

Kamel Awayda is a graduate of the University of Rochester’s Undergraduate Program in Biology and Medicine, having received a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. During his time at the University of Rochester, he became interested in RNA. Kamel’s research focuses on the ability of RNA molecules to be modified by the human protein THUMPD1, and the functional impacts of these modifications.

Kamel will work with Dr Thomas Preiss, a renowned expert in RNA biochemistry at the Australian National University, to better understand the significance of THUMPD1 in the modification of small RNAs. As THUMPD1 has been identified as a candidate gene for disease, he hopes to uncover the mechanism by which a loss of function of this protein leads to negative outcomes.

Bryce Geoffrey Mullens Postgraduate Students

Bryce is completing a PhD in Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Brendan Kennedy. His studies are concerned with the development of materials capable of safely storing radioactive waste, with a focus on understanding how their structure influences their functionality.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Bryce will spend 4 months with Professor Karena Chapman, a renowned materials scientist and expert in disseminating relationships between structure and reactivity in functional energy materials. There, he will develop techniques for understanding the long- and short-range ordering of various materials to design further nuclear storage media.

Jo Palazuelos-Krukowski Postgraduate Students

Jo is a Chancellor’s Fellow and PhD candidate in theatre at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she teaches acting and playwriting. She has served as producer for the storytelling nonprofit the Moth, assistant director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and consultant for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Jo’s Fulbright project grew out of her doctoral work, which aims to promote greater international appreciation for the incredible history of mid-century Australian horror radio. Her research explores how we perform ghost stories to better understand ourselves and each other.

Cecilia Prator Postgraduate Students

“Arthropod pests (insects, ticks, mites etc) are responsible for destroying a third of the world’s food supply, as well as transmitting a diverse array of human and animal diseases.”

Ms Cecilia Prator, a recent graduate in biology from Occidental College has won a Fulbright scholarship to spend a year at the University of Queensland. Through her Fulbright, Cecilia will explore the venom of understudied spiders, scorpions and centipedes, for compounds known as peptides, which could possibly be used to make environmentally friendly insecticides.

“The development of resistance to chemical insecticides, along with concerns about their safety, has spurred a need for new methods of pest control,” Cecilia said.

“The Institute of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Queensland has plunged forward in this movement to uncover new avenues for environmentally friendly insect control. The team there has shown that spiders produce a cocktail of insecticidal peptide toxins with potential for control of insect pests, and already one potential insecticide is undergoing development.”

“Centipedes and scorpions possess a largely unexplored repertoire of venom components that target insects. With this in mind, countless numbers of available peptide toxins are waiting to be discovered and could someday be developed into the next environmentally friendly insecticide.”

Cecilia will work with Dr Glenn King and his team for a year to screen and assess possible compounds which could be used in the future for new pesticides.

“This work has major implications for both Australian and U.S. agriculture because of the unmet demand for safe insecticide alternatives in both countries.”

In addition to her BA from Occidental College, Cecilia has won awards such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Fellowship as well as a prestigious Fletcher Jones Science Scholar Award. She is also a skilled musician – snare drums, has competed in equestrian events and enjoys scuba diving.

Elizabeth Schmidt Postgraduate Students

Elizabeth (Liz) earned her Bachelor of Arts in Applied Conflict Management from Kent State University’s School of Peace and Conflict Studies. Liz’s work and research have centered around immigration, grassroots peacebuilding, and narrative in identity-based conflict. With experience at the International Organization for Migration, the International Institute of Akron, Lighthouse Relief, and Kent State University’s Center for Sexual and Relationship Violence Support Services, Liz is dedicated to promoting migrants’ rights, safety, and stories and the inclusion of diverse voices within communities. 

For her Fulbright Anne Wexler Scholarship, Liz will conduct a policy and media analysis of global and Australian discourses concerning LGBTQ refugees for a Master of Research at Western Sydney University. Through her research, Liz aims to promote dialogue and further research on the unique challenges faced by LGBTQ people in displacement. She hopes that by bringing these challenges to awareness, stronger human rights protections can be developed to include LGBTQ people.