UQ student Geoffrey Jones has become the first Australian student to be selected by the United Nations University (UNU) to pursue a PhD under their supervision.
Mr Jones who is currently completing a Master of Business Administration and a Master of International Economics and Finance was one of 12 PhD candidates from around the world admitted into the prestigious program.
Mr Jones said growing up in Papua New Guinea had given him a desire to focus his upcoming PhD research on technological change in developing countries.
“The experience of growing up among people living in tremendous poverty drove me to focus on how technologies could be adapted to benefit people in less developed countries,” he said.
Mr Jones said he had always been fascinated by how people used technology. He previously worked in behavioural psychology at the Australian National University and later as a systems consultant for Microsoft in Washington.
“My passion for technology began with my first job after school; driving satellite tracking systems with NASA at the ACT’s Orroral Valley Tracking Station. It was during this time I taught myself to program by using NASA’s computers,” he said.
Mr Jones said he decided to move to UQ to study after the e-world crash. He said UQ’s Head of Economics Professor John Foster encouraged him to apply for the PhD program at UNU.
He will begin his PhD studies in September at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, which runs the program in conjunction with the UNU.
“The attraction of the PhD was the opportunity to contribute to the development of economically disadvantaged countries,” he said.
“With all we have in our lives today it is simply unacceptable that people are still living in poverty.
“I plan to focus on how the benefits from technological change and innovation processes can be captured by developing countries such as Vietnam. Ideally I would like to do this by working in research and advisory consulting roles to government and industry.”
Mr Jones also said he was looking for sponsorship in order to fund his studies.
“This is the world peak research program of its kind however, the UN only offer scholarships to candidates from developing countries, which means I have to find my own funding,” he said.
He said he was proud to be the first Australian selected to be part of the program.
“I am pleased that through this I might be able to contribute in my own personal way to economic growth in poorer countries,” he said.
Media: For more information, contact Geoffrey Jones (telephone 07 3367 8899 or Mobile 0412 588 104, email: geofj11@hotmail.com) or Chris Saxby at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2479, email: c.saxby@uq.edu.au).
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