Sydney academics and alumni awarded 2022 Fulbright Scholarships

Eleven prestigious Fulbright Scholarships have been awarded to members of the University of Sydney community and alumni. 

The Australian-American Fulbright Commission scholarships are awarded to foster educational exchange and understanding between the United States and Australia.

Fulbright Senior Scholars

Associate Professor Ryan Naylor - Staff

Associate Professor Ryan Naylor works in the Sydney School of Health Sciences where his current research focuses on understanding and addressing barriers to success in higher education. He has published widely on issues of access to higher education, equity interventions and their evaluation, and the experiences and expectations of students. 

Associate Professor Naylor will visit Kansas State University to continue his work on understanding how students, particularly those from under-served or equity backgrounds, conceive of success at university and how their self-concept changes during the transition to university. 

Associate Professor Michael Walsh - Staff

Associate Professor Michael Walsh is Director of Weed Research in the Faculty of Science’s plant breeding unit where he leads a research team focused on the development of alternative weed control technologies. 

As a Fulbright Scholar, Associate Professor Walsh aims to improve the efficacy and durability of harvest weed seed control systems. He will work closely with Professor Mithila Jugulam and the weed science team at Kansas State University and their colleagues across major US cropping regions to expand and refine the operational use of these systems.

Professor John McLean Bennett II – Alumni PhD '11 

Professor Bennett completed his PhD at the University of Sydney in 2011 and is now a soil physicist and Deputy Director of the Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems at the University of Southern Queensland. His academic focus is on the complexity of soil structure and its variability at all scales and dimensions. 

Professor Bennett’s Fulbright project at the United States Department of Agriculture and University of Missouri will focus on soil-specific on-farm management strategies that are profitable and environmentally sound. 

Professor Alex Frino – Alumni PhD ‘96

Professor Frino completed his PhD at the University of Sydney in 1996 and is now Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Innovation, Enterprise and External Relations) and Professor of Economics at the University of Wollongong.

Professor Frino will be travelling to the U.S. to work with scholars in the Cyber Security Department at Florida Polytechnic University and his research project will examine the impact of cyber-attacks on listed companies in NATO countries.

Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholars

Dr Luke Carroll - Staff

Dr Carroll is a postdoctoral researcher at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre. As a Fulbright Scholar, he will visit a leading endocrinology group at Wake Forest University to learn cutting edge research techniques to investigate mitochondrial function in individuals with Diabetes. 

Dr Carroll’s Fulbright project aims to provide new insights into the mitochondrial function, quality and quantity in individuals with Diabetes and lay the groundwork for therapeutic interventions. 

Dr Ali Entezari - Staff

Dr Entezari is an early career researcher in the ARC Centre for Innovative BioEngineering and Tissue Engineering and Biomaterial Research Unit in the School of Biomedical Engineering, His research focuses on the design and optimization of synthetic tissue scaffolds to repair diseased or damaged tissues such as bone defects. 

As a Fulbright Scholar, Dr Entezari will undertake research at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School where he will use state of the art bioprinting technologies to develop novel hydrogel-based scaffolds for the reconstruction of damaged tissues.

Dr Thomas Guy – Alumni BSc(Hons) ’10, GradCertInn&Ent ’13, PhD ’16

Dr Guy completed his PhD at the Centenary Institute 2016 and is now a clinician researcher training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. His research aims to understand why some cancers are cured by immunotherapy but not others. 

Dr Guy will join the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard where he will learn state of the art technologies at this NIH-funded Autoimmune Center of Excellence and bring these skills back to further his IHMRI based cancer research.

Dr Behnam Sadeghi - Staff

Dr Sadeghi is a Geoscientist in the school of Geosciences in the Faculty of Science. His research is focused on mathematical and computational geosciences applied to exploration geochemistry through which he integrates GIS, data science, geomathematics, and geostatistics and simulations to develop new advanced and efficient decision-making models to discover new mineral deposits.

Dr Sadeghi will complete his Fulbright project at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Earth and Planets Laboratory (EPL) in Washington which has close collaborations with NASA and his project could potentially be applied to the future exploration of mineral deposits and resources on other planets.

Fulbright Postgraduate Student Scholars

Jennifer Darmody - Staff

Jennifer Darmody lectures in Equity at the Sydney Law School. As a female athlete and lawyer, she has witnessed the impact of gender discrimination and abuse in sport and knows that much needs to change. 

As a Fulbright Scholar, Jennifer will study an LLM focusing on the civil and human rights movement for women, transgender and minority athletes. She intends to return to Australia to lecture on the intersect between sports law and human rights and to establish the first student-run pro bono program for athletes in Australia.

Rameen Malik – Alumni BE(Hons) ’20, LLB '21

Rameen Malik graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (First Class Honours) in 2020 and a Bachelor of Laws in 2021. She is currently a policy officer at the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources working on energy transition and electricity market reform in Australia. 

As a Fulbright Anne Wexler Scholar, Rameen will study a Master of Public Policy with a specialisation in energy. She aims to focus on energy justice, emerging energy technologies and data driven policy development. 

Bryce Mullens  - Research Student

Bryce is completing a PhD in Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Brendan Kennedy in the Faculty of Science. His research is on the development of materials capable of safely storing radioactive waste with a focus on understanding how their structure influences their functionality.

Bryce will visit the State University of New York at Stony Brook to work with renown materials scientist Professor Karena Chapman. He will develop techniques for understanding the long- and short-range ordering of various materials to design further nuclear storage media.

American Fulbright Scholarships

The University of Sydney will host Anna Lachenauer from the Stanford Medical School. Prior to completing her Bachelor of Arts in Molecular and Cellular Biology and a secondary degree in Global Health and Health Policy at Harvard University, Anna developed genomic technologies to detect new and ongoing viral outbreaks, including Ebola and Lassa fever.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Anna will continue her research on pathogenic outbreaks with renowned virologist Dr Edward Holmes in the Faculty of Science. She will use metagenomic techniques to investigate mechanisms by which pathogens emerge in new hosts, focusing on Australian tick-borne disease.