Alumni Profiles

Professor Ravi Jain Distinguished Chair

Ravi is a Professor at the University of New Mexico, whose formal affiliations span the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Physics, Nanoscience and Microsystems Engineering, and the Center for High Technology Materials. Besides teaching laser physics, fiber optics, optoelectronics, semiconductor and glass physics, he performs research on the development of next generation glass devices for fiber lasers and fiber-optic sensors, with an added emphasis on extending such device capabilities to the mid-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. 

Ravi plans to perform research on embedding custom nanocrystallites in “soft glasses” for new fiber laser and optical sensor applications at the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing. The lasers and optical sensors will be useful for DST with applications ranging from “blinding” incoming missiles to sensing extremely small quantities of undesirable toxic gases. Such nanocrystal-embedded glass lasers and optoelectronic sensors are expected to have significant impact on numerous health monitoring, pollution monitoring, and industrial process monitoring applications. 

Dr Heather A. Holmes Senior Scholars

Heather is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Utah and has an interdisciplinary background that includes mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, and atmospheric science. Her research group uses ground-based sensors, atmospheric models, and satellite remote sensing to investigate atmospheric physics, air pollution sources, transport and dispersion, and provide data for human health and public policy assessments.

She will spend her Fulbright Scholarship in the School of Electrical, Mechanical and Infrastructure Engineering at the University of Melbourne and will collaborate with faculty in atmospheric and environmental sciences. Heather is interested in working with scientists in Australia to improve wildfire smoke transport modeling, with a focus on developing new atmospheric turbulence models that are used in models to forecast wildfire smoke transport. Her goal is to establish long-term collaborations with the aim of improving models used in air quality warning systems that protect people living in fire prone areas.

Negar Katirai Senior Scholars

Negar directs a Domestic Violence Law Clinic where she supervises law students in providing legal representation to survivors of intimate partner violence. She also teaches Family Law and often guest lectures in other courses on related topics, including trauma-informed legal representation. Her scholarship investigates questions in intimate partner violence law, and seeks to promote conversation between practitioners and academics. Negar will be conducting a comparative study of the approach of Australia and the United States to domestic violence fatality reviews, which involve the analysis of homicides related to domestic violence for the purpose of preventing future fatalities.

Libby Maynard Professional Scholars

“The safety of women and children experiencing family violence has become increasingly prominent in both the Australian and Victorian government policy agendas since the mid-1990s. The challenge is where money can best be directed to help address this problem and how to show that intervention measures have been successful”

Libby Maynard, a partner at Julian Midwinter & Associates, a strategic practice development consultancy focussing on professional service firms, has won the 2011 Fulbright Professional Business/Industry Coral Sea Scholarship. This Fulbright scholarship was established by former U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler and U.S. companies to recognise the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea and address business and industry issues common to Australia and the U.S.

Through her Fulbright, Libby will visit think tanks and non-profit organisations in Washington DC and New York, as well as the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership at Georgetown University in Washington DC and the Department of International and Public Affairs at George Mason University in Virginia. She will spend up to four months studying methodologies for measuring the social impact of community legal services for women experiencing family breakdown and violence and explore whether partnering with other services enhances social outcomes.

“Good practice interventions can make enormous differences in women’s lives. Providing financial support for these interventions is essential. As the demands placed on government funding increase, more reliance is being placed on private philanthropic and corporate support,” Libby said.

“However, in today’s competitive environment, non-profit organisations are competing for funding based on what they can deliver. As a result, non-profits are striving to demonstrate efficiency and social impact.”

Libby’s project will explore the application of established methodologies for evaluating the performance of non-profit organisations to community legal services for women.. The results will benefit non-profits operating in both the access to justice and family violence sectors by providing guidance on frameworks for evaluating and communicating the social impact of their programs.

“This project will enable access to some of the most progressive thinking and practices in the delivery and measurement of these kinds of services. It will also provide real assistance for government, private philanthropic and corporate funders, who increasingly demand a framework for the measurement and evaluation of non-profit efficiency and effectiveness when making decisions about their investment in community programs and evaluating those investments,” Libby said.

Libby has a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts from Monash University and a Master of Business Administration from the Melbourne Business School at the University of Melbourne. She has worked for law firms including DLA Phillips Fox and Freehills and is a current Board member of Women’s Legal Service Victoria.  As a consultant, Libby has developed and delivered a variety of programmes tailored to help professional service firms achieve sustainable results including as an occasional lecturer in the Melbourne Law School Graduate Diploma of Law Firm Management and at Leo Cussen Institute.  She has two daughters and is married to fellow 2011 Fulbright Scholar, Timothy McEvoy.  She is passionate about ensuring access to the justice system for those women who need it most.

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

Damien Pearce Professional Scholars

“I aim to provide education and training that not only develops the skills and knowledge required to undertake a specific role description, but to also promote life-long learning and the transference of skills to new contexts.”

Damien Pearce, doctoral student in law enforcement education at the University of Southern Queensland, is the winner of the 2011 Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Vocational Education and Training (VET) sponsored by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

This Scholarship was established in 1995 to support the exchange of research and ideas in VET between Australia and the United States.Through his Fulbright, Damien will go to the John Jay School of Criminal Justice in New York, to undertake a comparative analysis of police education and training strategies used in Australian and the U.S. policing, from April for six months.

“Australian police are confronting increasingly complex and challenging environments of law enforcement,” Damien said.

“I aim to look at how police officers are trained in the U.S. and compare it with what we are doing in Australia. I will look for methods and strategies that they use in the U.S, to see if there are ways that we can enhance our education and training.” He will also investigate the contemporary design of the police curriculum, the practical training approaches used by police educators and look at how contemporary adult teaching methods are applied to enhance police education in the U.S.

Damien has a Master of Educational Leadership from the University of Canberra; a Graduate Diploma in Tertiary Teaching and Learning from the Canberra Institute of Technology; and trade certification as a Fitter Armourer attained while serving in the Australian Army. Damien has a long time relationship with youth development through Scouts Australia. In his spare time he enjoys outdoor activities.

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

Dr. Rocco Cavaleri Postdoctoral Scholars

Rocco leads the Brain Stimulation and Rehabilitation (BrainStAR) Lab at Western Sydney University. His research is dedicated towards understanding the mechanisms underpinning musculoskeletal and neurological disorders. Rocco uses non-invasive brain stimulation techniques to explore the ways in which the nervous system responds to processes such as pain.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Rocco will work with researchers at the University of Southern California in establishing new methods to predict whether individuals will develop chronic pain following an acute injury. He will also be investigating emerging techniques to prevent the onset of chronic pain.

Kate Johnson Postdoctoral Scholars

Kate is a plant physiologist researching how drought kills trees through damage to the pipe-like cells that transport water in plants (called ‘xylem’). In drought conditions, rapid entry of air into the xylem results in air bubbles (embolisms) which block the flow of water leading to plant damage and death. Kate is particularly interested in how xylem arrangement and connectivity influence the way that air spreads through the water transport system and whether this is linked to the drought resistance/ vulnerability of trees.

As a Fulbright scholar Kate will use the latest techniques (which utilise x-rays and optical light) to visualise, map and model drought-induced air spread through the xylem of trees. In collaboration with experts in plant physiology, Kate will use this information to predict the timing of drought-induced death and damage in different tree species which will ultimately help to inform management of native and commercial forests in the face of increasing drought.

Dr David Klyne Postdoctoral Scholars

David is a Research Fellow at the Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Spinal Pain, Injury and Health, at the University of Queensland. His internationally-acclaimed work focuses on understanding the mechanisms that underlie chronic pain, which can be addressed advantageously with clinical intervention. He holds a PhD, Master of Molecular Biology, Doctor of Physiotherapy, and a Bachelor of Applied Science.

For his Fulbright Scholarship, David will work with world leaders in pain medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine (Temple University) to tease out the role of sleep in chronic pain. A particular focus of the research will be to determine whether poor sleep is an important contributor to the development and maintenance of pain, and the biological mechanisms involved. His findings will drive the development of new treatments that aim to prevent and reduce pain with better health outcomes, lower health care costs and increased work productivity.

Joel Steele Postdoctoral Scholars

Joel is an expert in the field of proteomics; this field aims to study the proteins of cells to understand functional biology. His PhD focused on how environmental factors could be leading to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He has performed research collaborations across many institutions such as NSW Department of Primary Industries, the University of Sydney, and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG).

Joel’s Fulbright Future Scholarship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Caltech) will be aimed at investigating microbes that can survive on cleanroom surfaces and survive interplanetary atmospheric entry. These extreme condition tolerant microbes have unique biology that needs to be understood. This project will bring together several research groups from Australia and the United States, building enduring relationships that will have an impact on the future of space exploration.

Turner Block Postgraduate Students

Turner earned her BS in psychology at Fordham University located in Bronx, New York in 2017. She spent her four years at Fordham as a member of the women’s soccer team and was named Captain for her senior season. Off the field, she was a research assistant on numerous studies for the Department of Psychology. Additionally, she completed her Honors Thesis on athlete pre-screening mental health measures and their perceptions of the mental health services offered.

Turner will continue her research while at the School of Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Her specific focus will be the athletic identity formation of Paralympic swimmers with cerebral palsy as they complete a performance-focused training program. She looks forward to learning more about how this information may be beneficial to an athlete’s performance, and plans to bring these insights back to the U.S.

Peerce McManus Postgraduate Students

Peerce earned a BA/LLB from UNSW in 2014 and since that time has practiced as a lawyer with Legal Aid NSW in their human rights and coronial inquest teams. Throughout 2017, Peerce was a Federal Court Associate to the Hon. Justice Perry. Peerce has also worked in native title law and policy in the Kimberley and is involved in youth justice issues in his local community.

Having been exposed to the real practical challenges of ‘coalface’ lawyering, Peerce will use his Fulbright Scholarship to undertake a Masters of Law at Harvard University focussing on law and social justice and how law and policy can be better designed to improve access to justice for vulnerable persons. Peerce hopes to make the most of Harvard’s interdisciplinary approach to legal education as he believes that multifaceted challenges to social justice in Australia necessarily require dynamic multifaceted solutions which will in turn allow for more effective change in this space.

Daniel Sherrell Postgraduate Students

Dan Sherrell earned his BA in Environmental Studies from Brown University. He has spent the past six years organizing campus, municipal, and statewide campaigns to combat climate change, transition to clean energy, and secure adaptation resources for vulnerable communities. Most recently he coordinated a coalition of labor unions, environmental organizations, and community groups campaigning to pass equitable carbon pricing legislation in the state of New York. His writing has appeared in the Colorado Review, Wag’s Revue, and The Best American Sports Writing.

For his Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship, he will finish work on a book of ‘auto-theory’, combining personal memoir, cultural criticism, and literary prose to explore what it means to come of age under climate change, at the boundary between biographical and geological time. He will be working under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen Muecke, Jury Chair of English Language and Literature at the University of Adelaide. His project will draw on Australia’s rich tradition of environmental art and humanities to carve an affective foothold in a monolithic problem that eludes conventional narrative.