Fellowships: American Australian Association

27 July

The American Australian Association has awarded its 2009 Australia to US Fellowships to some of Australia's brightest minds. This year's Fellows are pursuing studies in a range of fields from key medical research to alternative fuels at top institutions such as MIT, Harvard and Princeton.

The Association received a record number of applications eliciting keen interest from top Australian researchers. Applications were submitted by a highly competitive pool of scholars from leading universities such as University of Melbourne and Australian National University. Candidates participated in a rigorous evaluation process based on their research proposal, notable academic acheivements and innovation.

The Association's 2009 Fellows are one of the most outstanding groups to date. As these Fellows pursue exciting research opportunities in the United States, the Association is looking forward to supporting their achievements and endeavors.

The Education Fund

The Association established its Education Fund in 1998 to promote educational exchanges between the United States and Australia. The Association awards Fellowships for postgraduate and postdoctoral research, particularly in medicine, science and engineering. In addition to its annual Australia to US Fellowship Program, the Association also awards Fellowships to American researchers through its US to Australia Fellowship Program. To date, over 90 Fellows have received awards totaling over $2.5 million. 

The Fellowships are funded through sponsorship of key corporate members and a series of Annual Benefit Dinners honoring prominent Australians and Americans. Our 2009 Benefit Dinner honors Kevin Sharer, Chairman and CEO of Amgen and Dave O'Reilly, Chairman and CEO of Chevron. The Benefit Dinner will be held on Monday, November 9, 2009, at Cipriani 42nd Street.

2009 Australia to US Fellows

Anna Barron
The University of Western Australia / The University of Southern California
Research Interest: Neuroscience - neuroendocrinology and neurodegenerative disease

Anna's postdoctoral research at the University of Southern California aims to establish an experimental foundation for the development of hormone therapies for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease in women, who are at a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease than men.

Alex Bissember
The Australian National University / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Interest: Organic Chemistry - asymmetric Catalysis

Alex's postdoctoral research is directed towards establishing more viable and sustainable ways of performing chemical transformations. By exploiting unprecedented catalytic processes and creating new reaction pathways, the construction of novel medicinal compounds and other significant bioactive molecules may become possible.

Marcin Grabowicz
The University of Adelaide / Princeton University
Research Interest: Microbiology

Marcin's postdoctoral research at Princeton University aims to understand how a broad class of bacteria assemble an effective membrane barrier, insulating themselves from the environment, immune system and antibiotics. Unraveling this process may yield much needed new targets for antibiotic intervention, amid the rising threat of widespread resistance to current drugs.

Katherine Jackman
The University of Melbourne / Weill Cornell Medical College 
Research Interest: Cerebrovascular physiology and pharmacology

Katherine's postdoctoral research at Cornell is seeking to establish the involvement of a potentially novel anti-inflammatory mediator in the brain following stroke. The aim of her research is to increase the understanding of stroke pathogenesis and ultimately improve stroke therapy. Katherine completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne as the recipient of a National Health and Medical Research Council postgraduate scholarship.

David Keith
The University of Melbourne / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Interest: Engineering systems - adoption of alternative fuel vehicles

David is undertaking doctoral research into the dynamics of adoption of alternative fuel vehicles at MIT. He plans to investigate the attractiveness of electricity as a transportation fuel, and the potential for transformational change of the electricity grid through widespread deployment of renewable energy technologies and electric vehicles.

 

Angela Nickerson
The University of New South Wales / Harvard Medical School
Research Interest: Clinical Psychology - refugee mental health

Angela's postdoctoral research at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital will investigate anger responses in Cambodian refugees following mass trauma. Her postdoctoral research at Harvard will complement her doctoral examinations of the mental health of Mandaean refugees resettled in Australia, and the testing of psychological interventions for refugees and torture survivors at the Traumatic Stress Clinic in Sydney, Australia.

 

Slavé Petrovski
The University of Melbourne / Duke University
Research Interest: Medicine - genomics and machine learning

Slavé's doctoral research at Duke University focuses on the development of multigenic models to predict clinical outcomes in complex diseases. He will be investigating novel genome-wide approaches to detecting combinations of genetic markers inferring disease and/or treatment outcomes, which would otherwise be missed by single variable approaches. Slavé is a PhD student at The University of Melbourne. He has a combined background in Information Systems and Genetics with international training in Bioinformatics.

 

Edward Sanders 
The University of Melbourne / Stanford University
Research Interest: MBA - Energy, climate change and sustainability

Edward's current research interest reflects some of the key issues facing the Australian economy: energy, climate change and sustainability. His study aims to bring back to Australia the critical thinking, business models and leadership perspectives to launch a new venture in the clean technology sector. Prior to commencing his MBA studies, Edward completed an Economics degree at The University of Melbourne before working internationally as a strategy consultant.

Tracy Slatyer
The Australian National University / Harvard University
Research Interest: Physics - particle astrophysics

Tracyis researching the nature and properties of ""dark matter""

 

 

 

 

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