Four Flinders University graduates are among 112 Australians awarded Churchill Fellowships.
The fellowships aim to create positive change in our communities by finding ways to address challenges facing contemporary Australia.
Among this year’s recipients are:
- Mary Leaker BSocWk(Hons), BSocPg ’08 – to gain insights into the impact of new domestic violence criminal offences on women’s safety – UK investigation.
- Kylee von Ohle BTech(Forensic&AnalyticalChem) ’07 – awarded the Donald Mackay Churchill Fellowship to optimise policing of outlaw motorcycle gangs through innovative investigation techniques studied in the US.
- Bernadette Zanet DipT(Prim) ’89 (now residing in NSW) – to investigate the relevance of design thinking principles on tourism business development – focusing on Canada, Netherlands and Denmark.
- Rebecca Plummer MSW ’15 (based in the NT) – to evaluate practical models to improve access to justice in isolated and disadvantaged communities – in Canada, US, India and South Africa.
Despite international travel being on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the prestigious Churchill Fellowship encourages recipients from a wide range of areas to meet and work with leaders of influence around the world to gain and exchange knowledge as well as experience for the betterment of themselves, their industry, their community and Australia.
“With international travel on hold for some time due to COVID-19, we will be supporting our new Churchill Fellowship recipients in making good use of this additional preparation time by connecting them with some of our highly achieved Churchill Fellows who work in similar fields or project areas via virtual networking and collaboration events,” said Churchill Trust CEO, Mr Adam Davey.
“All untravelled Churchill Fellowship recipients have been granted an extended timeline to undertake their Fellowships to allow them the opportunity to experience the real-life benefits of meeting ‘in person’ with their international counterparts.”
One of last year’s fellows, Dr Rami Al-Dirini, hopes to pursue his research ambitions to improve prostheses performance by focusing on expertise on advanced biomechanical modelling and 3D printing for personalised prosthetic design in the UK, Italy and US.