Three University of Queensland graduates are among 25 Fulbrights and one Anne Wexler Scholarship winner announced today by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission.
• UQ Arts/Education graduate Katherine Truss receives the 2012 Fulbright Queensland Scholarship, sponsored by the Queensland Government and universities.
Ms Truss is currently the Curriculum Leader for English at Redeemer Lutheran College, Rochedale, Brisbane.
Through her Fulbright, Katherine will undertake a one year Master of Education in human development and psychology, focusing on developmental psychology, risk and resilience.
She will use this to improve her ability to meet the needs of her students and to allow her to develop programs to enhance skills of Queensland teachers.
“I think that it is essential for teachers to receive training in the area of risk and resilience from a developmental psychology perspective,” she said.
“This will allow schools to take a proactive approach to the prevention of negative social and educational outcomes for students, and enable schools to act more effectively in response to tragedy.”
• UQ Bachelor of Science and Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery graduate Dr Michael Findlay is the 2012 winner of the Fulbright Victoria Scholarship, supported by the Victorian Government and Victorian universities.
Dr Findlay is a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon with the Department of Surgical Oncology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and researcher at The O’Brien Institute, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne.
Through his Fulbright, he will spend a year at Stanford University to further his work in using stem cells to grow tissues for breast reconstructions.
“Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Following cancer surgery, breast reconstruction with the patient's own tissue is ideal but increases morbidity and donor tissue is not always available,” he said.
“Tissue engineering may provide new tissue for breast reconstruction but has only been successful in animal models. Widespread clinical application requires improved understanding of the signals controlling stem cell growth and differentiation in humans.”
• UQ Bachelor of Science and PhD graduate Professor Alex Loukas, who is a Professor with the Queensland Tropical Health Alliance at James Cook University, will spend three months at the University of California-Irvine through a Fulbright Senior Scholarship.
The scholarship will give him the opportunity to work in the U.S. with Dr Phil Felgner at University of California, Irvine, with whom he has recently established a research collaboration into antigens that potentially could be used for development of a hookworm vaccine.
“Helminths (worms) infect 2 billion people in developing countries. Despite the enormous morbidity and mortality that these parasites impose, there are currently no vaccines for any human helminth infection,” he said.
“Whilst hookworms can be treated with anthelmintic drugs, this does not prevent re-infection, and there are concerns about resistance to these medications. A vaccine is therefore a highly desirable goal.”
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.
Applications for Fulbright Scholarships in 2013 open on June 1. For further details, visit www.fulbright.com.au
To download images please visit: http://omc.uq.edu.au/images/fullbright/
Media: Rosemary Schmedding 02 6260 4460
