29-09-2023
Welcome to our final edition of MonashMinds for September. We have officially come to the close of our first round of panel interviews for this year - congratulations to all, the panels have been delighted by the outstanding talent and obvious passion demonstrated across the country. National interviews will soon commence, starting October 12 in Melbourne.
This week we hear from Scholars around the world who, through their academic excellence and leadership ability, are driving social change and scientific innovation.
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Approximately 300 people gathered in New York to support the Yes Campaign, led by Karri Walker (front).
Over 300 Australians in New York gathered on Saturday 16th of September, marching across the Brooklyn Bridge to show support for the upcoming referendum.
Scholars Karri Walker (2023 Victorian Government John Monash Scholar), Bronte Gosper (2021 Gandel Foundation John Monash Scholar, Arts) and Tess Kelly (2020 Zelman Cowen John Monash Scholar) were responsible for helping to organise and promote the march. They form part of the ‘New York For Yes’ committee, a group of Australians living in the US campaigning in favour of the Voice.
Many US expats, including these Scholars, were determined to show their support despite living on the other side of the world. For Karri, Bronte and Tess, this referendum is an opportunity to enact positive social change.
Karri is a Nyiyaparli woman who volunteered as lead organiser for the campaign.
“This is a historic moment. As an Aboriginal woman living overseas, I’ve found it hard feeling so far away from home during this time”, says Karri.
“Even though we are in NYC and halfway across the world, we believe in this referendum. It’s given me a lot of faith. Over 80% of Aboriginal people support the Voice. And it is my hope that a majority of all Australians do too.” Karri has recently commenced her Master of Laws at Harvard Law School.
Bronte Gosper, a Wiradjuri woman originally from Orange, tells us - “The New York for Yes march was a reminder that we must center the conversation around the dignity and power of Indigenous people over the trauma and tragedy.”
Bronte is undertaking an Oral History Master of Arts at Columbia University. Tess is currently a Senior Associate at the Correctional Association of New York.
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Dylan Sherman.
Dylan Sherman (2020 BHP John Monash Scholar) has been awarded the 2023 Ashok Kumar Fellowship to provide briefing material for parliamentarians on emerging science topics.
The annual fellowship is jointly funded by IChemE and the Materials Processing Institute, offered in partnership with the UK Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST). Dylan’s work will enable politicians to benefit from dedicated scientific research, supporting informed debate, discussion, and decision-making.
Dylan is a final-year DPhil student in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, UK, supported by his John Monash Scholarship.
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Dr Isabel Hanson.
Dr Isabel Hanson (2022 BHP John Monash Scholar) has received an Andrew Markus Scholarship to spend a month researching moral injury in healthcare. Moral injury may occur when a health care practitioner is required to violate their ethics or values while treating patients, resulting in an increased risk of psychological harm.
Isabel will present some of her research at a talk in Oxford this October, and will “explore the ethical foundations of moral injury in healthcare, drawing on my experience as a General Practitioner working with rural and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.”
“The concepts of moral distress and moral injury have been widely applied in healthcare, military, and first responder industries. However, there are debates on the definition and scope of moral injury in healthcare” Isabel explains.
Currently, Isabel is pursuing a DPhil in Primary Care at Oxford University with research funding support from the John Monash Foundation, Rotary, and the National Institute for Health Research in the UK. Before her scholarship, Isabel served as a strategic policy analyst in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and held the role of Senior Policy Advisor at the Centre for Policy Development.
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Lydia and fellow John Monash Scholar, Dr Victoria Cox (2015 Chairman's Circle John Monash Scholar) both from the University of Adelaide.
The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, where Lydia Braunack-Mayer (2015 Commonwealth Bank John Monash Scholar) is currently completing her PhD, has hosted the Australian Ambassador to Switzerland for a full day of discussion regarding Swiss-Australian innovation and partnerships.
The current Ambassador, Elizabeth Day, has been in the post since November last year - marking the first time in 60 years that Australia has had an embassy in Switzerland.
“We had quite a lot of discussion about opportunities to jointly support research”, Lydia tells us, “…we had such a great time hosting her.”
Lydia is a statistician for the Swiss Tropical Public Health Institute and supports modelling efforts to develop innovative treatments for malaria prevention. She used her John Monash Scholarship to study for a Master of Science in Statistics at ETH Zurich.
Transforming the sounds of classical music
Jonty Coy.
Jonty Coy (2020 Gandel Foundation John Monash Scholar, Arts) has been selected amongst two other finalists to compete for the coveted 2023 Freedman Classical Fellowship. The deciding final performance will be held before esteemed judges in Sydney on October 15th.
The Fellowship is funded by The Freedman Foundation, a philanthropic foundation centred on assisting young Australians in music and visual arts, as well as providing support to medical and scientific programs. Each finalist has proposed a project up to the value of $21,000, ranging from multidisciplinary concerts, large ensemble commissions, international professional development, and innovative recordings.
Jonty’s proposal, The Warder Flute, hopes to take the mixed sounds of flute and electronics to multiple venues across Australia and the Netherlands.
Using his Scholarship, Jonty undertook a Master of Early Music from the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague.
PODCAST: Language, Law, Human Rights and Justice - a conversation with Associate Professor Jacqueline Mowbray
In this podcast, we chat with Associate Professor Jacqueline Mowbray (2004 John Monash Scholar), who currently works as an external legal adviser to the Commonwealth of Australia's Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.
Jacqueline explains what Barbie can teach us about international law, what the different categories of human rights mean within modern society, and her reflections on how Australian lawyers stack up on the global stage.
As a University of Cambridge graduate (LLM (Hons) PhD) and Associate Professor at The University of Sydney Law School, we ask Jacqueline what her advice is for those considering a legal career and her insights into how the profession may have changed.
In the media
Professor Mark Dawson (2006 John Monash Scholar) is quoted in an article from The Age regarding FDA approval of an Australian-made cancer drug, Momelotinib.
Momelotinib was invented by an Australian team in Burnley in the late 1990s, and while Mark was not involved in the drug’s development, he works as the co-head of Cancer Biology and Therapeutics at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
“There are few stories that really encapsulate how great Australian science can be better than this one,” said Mark.