A senior biomechanist leading research in governing wearable tech, a PhD candidate developing state-of- the-art gene editing technologies for cancer immunotherapy, an offshore engineer delivering novel technology for Australia's future energy sustainability and a First Nations law and policy expert are among four researchers from The University of Western Australia who have received 2023 Fulbright scholarships.
"Fulbright scholars are engaged in genuinely collaborative research and enhancing cultural understanding, contributing their expertise and learning from other global leaders in all sorts of fields."
UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Amit Chakma
They will travel to the United States to collaborate with world-class researchers and make important advancements in fields directly affecting humanity.
The Fulbright program is a foreign exchange scholarship program aimed at increasing research collaboration, cultural understanding and the exchange of ideas. It involves more than 160 countries sending recipients to the US to work on projects to expand global knowledge.
Image: Jacqueline Alderson.
Professor Jacqueline Alderson, co-director of the UWA Tech & Policy Lab and Professor of Biomechanics at UWA, will be based at Stanford University for her Fulbright Professional Alliance Scholarship. She plans to extend her research stream on the development of 'digital human twins', with a specific focus on the urgent need for technology regulation and governance in this area.
"It is a sincere honour to receive a prestigious Fulbright and an additional privilege to be selected by AmCham to receive their Professional Alliance Award," Professor Alderson said. "I'm heartened by the selection committee's conviction in my research and excited to further this important work at Stanford University."
PhD candidate Eric Alves' research links world-class research teams across WA to tackle cancer in a transdisciplinary approach. His Fulbright Future Scholarship will see him travel to Vanderbilt University Medical Centre to work on a project developing new genomic approaches to investigate how cancer cells are able to evade our immune defences.
Ben Turner, an offshore engineer and PhD candidate with the UWA Oceans Graduate School, is developing technology to enhance offshore wind installation. As a Fulbright Scholar, he will travel to the University of Massachusetts to combine seabed investigations with numerical modelling to support upcoming developments off Victoria, Tasmania and the Carolina Long Bay.
Professor Simon Young, an Adjunct Professor at UWA, is a public law and First Nations law and policy specialist. For his Fulbright research at the University of Wisconsin's Global Legal Studies Centre and Great Lakes Indigenous Law Centre he will examine First Nations' water rights to establish how law and policy can best support First Nations' economic and management participation.
"It will be a great privilege to build on my work with First Nations communities and colleagues in Australia by looking for new insights on water law and policy in a country with a strong treaty history and where native title was recognised in 1823," Professor Young said.
UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Amit Chakma congratulated the recipients.
"Being selected as a scholar for the prestigious Fulbright program is a tremendous achievement and we are very proud of our new scholars and wish them well in the important work before them," Professor Chakma said.
"Fulbright scholars are engaged in genuinely collaborative research and enhancing cultural understanding, contributing their expertise and learning from other global leaders in all sorts of fields."
The scholars will be officially announced at a dinner in Canberra at Parliament House tonight.
