New Australian Fulbright Scholars advancing research collaboration with the United States

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L-R: Priyanka Banerjee, Professor Alicia Dennis, Dr Prasanti Kotagiri, Calum McConville.

The University of Melbourne is the home institution to four Fulbright Scholars for 2023, as they set out to undertake research collaborations in the United States in heart health, aging immune systems, data security accountability and the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.

Fulbright Scholarships support professional development opportunities in the US and promote cultural and educational exchange between the two countries.

University of Melbourne Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International) Professor Michael Wesley said the prestigious scholarships are a testament to the strength of the research and researchers affiliated with the University of Melbourne.

“I am proud to see our institution again well-represented amongst the 2023 Fulbright Scholars, who are strengthening academic relationships between Australia and the United States of America and highlighting the importance of global learning experiences,” Professor Wesley said.

“Congratulations to our Fulbright Scholars for 2023, I look forward to following their research journeys.”

This year’s Fulbright Scholars are:

  • Priyanka Banerjee, will undertake a Master of Law degree focusing on how law and policy can hold corporations and governments accountable for their collection and use of data.
  • Professor Alicia Dennis, from the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, will use her Fulbright Future Scholarship to undertake The Hopeful Hearts Project at The Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. This project will create a collaborative platform to advance understanding of the mechanisms of high blood pressure (using heart ultrasound) in people with preeclampsia.
  • Dr Prasanti Kotagiri, from the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, will collaborate with researchers from Cambridge and Stanford working to understand the changes occurring in the immune system with age that render it less equipped to contain infection, less responsive to vaccination but also more likely to attack the body itself.
  • Calum McConville, who will undertake a PhD program in the USA, seeking to characterise human-microbiome interactions implicated in inflammatory bowel diseases. These insights will have important clinical applications, both as therapeutic targets and early diagnostic factors, ultimately improving treatment outcomes for patients in both Australia and the USA.

Six exceptional Fulbright Scholars from the US have also selected the University of Melbourne as their host organisation, and will pursue research and studies in public health, genomics, malaria, water management, mathematics, and sports access amongst incarcerated young people:

  • Radhia Abdirahman, from the University of Kansas, who will connect her education and research experiences to the ways that public health and policy intersect to serve the global community.
  • Carter Hissam, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who will pursue a masters degree in genomics, and study the public and private initiatives which are embedding genomics into routine clinical practice in the Australian health care system.
  • Anna Truong, from Duke University, whose research at the Bio21 Institute will expand her interests to the context of malaria drug resistance, which will ultimately reveal fundamental mechanisms underlying this immense global health threat.
  • Lillie M. Haddock, from the University of Arkansas, who will conduct a comparative policy and hydrological modelling analysis of water market management and accessibility between Australia and the US, aiming to improve our understanding of the relationships between water policy and large river basin management.
  • Dr Jacob Shapiro, from the University of Kansas, who will work with colleagues to develop new differential equation models of waves in complex environments. These models will help to improve performance of remote sensing technology.
  • Kalyn McDonough, from the University of Delaware, whose research project focuses on understanding opportunities and overcoming barriers to sport access among youth who are incarcerated in Australia.