19 - 08 - 2022

Join us for this week's roundup of inspiring Scholar news...

^{Left to right: Darcy Dunn-Lawless, 2022 Australian Universities' John Monash Scholar; Rebecca Keeley, 2022 Tim Fischer John Monash Scholar; Her Excellency the Honourable Frances Adamson AC, Governor of South Australia.}

Earlier this month, a reception was held at Parliament House of South Australia to recognise the 2022 South Australian John Monash Scholars, Darcy Dunn-Lawless, Australian Universities' John Monash Scholar and Rebecca Keeley, Tim Fischer John Monash Scholar, who were presented to Her Excellency the Honourable Frances Adamson AC, Governor of South Australia, and Mr Rod Bunten.

Among guests at the event were friends and supporters, volunteers who sit on the selection panel in South Australia and several John Monash Scholars from previous years who have returned to their home state. Her Excellency expressed immense appreciation of the scholarships awarded to Darcy and Rebecca highlighting that the breadth of their studies will help them both gain vast expertise and skills, contributing to increasing their capacity for leadership.

“I seek actively to encourage our leaders both current and emerging to look widely when developing their ideas and expanding their expertise.” Read Her Excellency’s speech here.

^{Left to right: Rebecca Keeley, 2022 Tim Fischer John Monash Scholar; Dr Amy McLennan, 2009 John Monash Scholar; Dr James Daniell, 2009 John Monash Scholar; Dr Ashley Kingsborough, 2012 John Monash Scholar; Alies Sluiter Australian Cultural (Tim Fairfax AC and Australia Council of the Arts) John Monash Scholar; Dr Laura Diment, 2015 Australian Universities' John Monash Scholar; Ben Mylius, 2014 Murray-Darling Basin Authority John Monash Scholar; Darcy Dunn-Lawless, 2022 Australian Universities' John Monash Scholar; Alexander Makarowsky, 2019 Commonwealth Bank John Monash Scholar.} 

Scholars connecting in South Australia

Last week, Ben Mylius, 2014 Murray-Darling Basin Authority John Monash Scholar, and Dr Amy McLennan, 2009 John Monash Scholar, were invited to Parliament House South Australia with The Honourable Emily Bourke MLC, Asst Minister to the SA Premier and newly appointed Special Minister for Autism.

After an insightful conversation about the roles of local, state and federal government in responding to pressing issues, Emily invited Ben and Amy for a tour of Parliament House to discuss the work that Parliament is doing, parliamentary history and process, and gender representation in parliament over the years. As well as visiting the chambers and old parliament house, they were fortunate to have access to the parliamentary library/museum, where they spoke with the librarian about SA's geographical and electoral history and the complexities of managing a parliamentary archive.

Last week May Samali, 2014 NSW Premier’s John Monash Scholar, was selected to join FORWARD as a Senior Industry Fellow. FORWARD is the Centre for Future Skills and Workforce Transformation, part of RMIT University's College of Vocational Education. The Centre is focused on building an innovative learning ecosystem at scale, creating new collaborative applied research and inventing next-generation skills solutions. 

“As a Senior Industry Fellow, I am part of an expansive workforce ecosystem supporting FORWARD's mission to invent next-generation skills solutions.” 
Read the official announcement here.

New podcast episode featuring Jonathan Kummerfeld

In our latest podcast episode, we speak to Jonathan Kummerfeld, 2010 John Monash Scholar, about his academic journey, work in Human-AI Collaborative Systems and thoughts on the future of AI. 

Jonathan is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science at The University of Sydney and was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, working at the University of Michigan, in Computer Science. He develops systems that use machine learning to enable computers to understand language and has written over 20 papers in leading publications on the subject. Jonathan has also advised three startups working on AI-based products, including one that was acquired in 2018.