The American Australian Association is delighted to announce the selection and award of the following scholarship recipients. Meet our scholars and find out more about their career aspirations below.
Claire Barr is a PhD candidate at Flinders University researching the movement ecology of southern right whales in southern Australia. Her work focuses on identifying migratory corridors and assessing exposure risks from human activities such as shipping and wind farms. By addressing these threats, her research aims to inform evidence-based conservation strategies for this endangered species.
Claire holds a Master of Science in Environmental Management from James Cook University, where she conducted groundbreaking research on dwarf minke whale mother-calf occurrence and migratory patterns in eastern Australia. She has worked on two of the world’s three largest barrier reefs, across three continents, and with diverse marine species and ecosystems. Committed to advancing marine conservation, her work looks to protect species in complex and changing environments.
Laura Berthold is a dedicated wildlife and conservation biologist with over 15 years of experience, specializing in endangered Hawaiian honeycreepers. Her work focuses on protecting biodiversity through field research, habitat restoration, and implementing conservation strategies. Currently pursuing a Master of Science in Tropical Biology and Conservation at James Cook University, she is expanding her expertise through coursework in remote sensing, conservation genetics, and statistical analysis. This program enhances her ability to make science-based decisions, equipping her to drive ecosystem-wide changes and strengthen conservation efforts and partnerships. While studying in Australia, Laura is actively involved with the Queensland Bird Research and Banding Group, gaining valuable experience in the region’s unique ecosystems and learning from experts. Inspired by her work with Hawaiian honeycreepers, Laura’s long-term goal is to lead projects that restore native habitats and support the recovery of endangered species.
Sophia Emmons is an American PhD candidate dual enrolled at James Cook University and the University of South Florida, studying the physiological impacts of climate change on sharks and rays. She holds an MSc in marine biology from James Cook University and a BSc in environmental science from Davidson College. Her current research focuses on how the epaulette shark, a resilient coral reef species endemic to the Great Barrier Reef, responds to compounding environmental stressors projected under climate change and how it may be used as a model for other coral reef species. In collaboration with the Australian Institute of Marine Science, this project is the first to assess physiological responses using dynamic simulated environmental conditions under future climate scenarios. Sophia hopes her current and future research will meaningfully contribute to climate change science and have a positive impact on the protection of sharks and their relatives.
Morty Hagh earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Rutgers University where he discovered a passion for data-driven engineering and conducted research on assessment of infrastructure systems. He pursued postgraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, expanding his research to include seismic assessment of historical buildings through numerical modelling. He has worked professionally as a structural engineer in New Jersey and California specializing in the design and analysis of complex cable-stayed bridge systems. Morty Hagh is continuing his academic journey as a doctoral researcher at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. His research focuses on the performance and serviceability of large-scale infrastructure systems constructed with eco-efficient materials. By combining data-driven and experimental analyses, he aims to enable an economically viable transition to sustainable infrastructure development in the United States, Australia, and across the globe
Mina Hatayama is a research associate and PhD candidate in the Fish & Fisheries Lab at James Cook University. Mina graduated with her bachelor’s in marine science from James Cook University in 2022, before continuing on to study an Honours degree in Physical Sciences, exploring the use of models in predicting the impacts of ocean warming on the physiology and distributions of sharks. For academic excellence in her Bachelors and Honours degrees, she was awarded the Ayling Prize in Marine Science and the JCU University Medal. Her current research takes a multi-disciplinary approach to characterizing shark depredation, an increasingly prevalent human-wildlife conflict. Since human-wildlife conflicts are at the intersection between humans and the natural world, Mina uses a toolkit of social-science, shark ecology, physiology, and physical sciences to capture the complexity of the conflict.
Nicole Luu is a second-year PhD student at the University of Queensland under supervision by Prof. Warwick Bowen and Dr. Christopher Baker. Nicole completed her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she excelled in research as a student of Prof. Dirk Bouwmeester’s Quantum Optics Lab. These achievements led to several awards and an invitation to work as a guest researcher at Leiden University in the Netherlands. At the University of Queensland, Nicole is currently working with superfluid helium to investigate the behaviour of fluids as it relates to quantum turbulence and vortex dynamics. By utilizing advanced techniques in nanofabrication, cavity optomechanics, and cryogenics, Nicole aims to create a coherent model for fluid dynamics, which can be applied to environmental engineering, aerodynamics, medicine, and more. Because fluid dynamics research has universal applications, Nicole is eager to contribute her achievements to both the United States and Australia.
Jordan Roballo is an aspiring shark biologist and conservation researcher with a passion for marine ecosystems. She graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Marine Biology and Conservation, where she excelled in ichthyology and shark biology, earning top honors. Roballo’s academic excellence was recognized through her award-winning research, the Murrells Inlet Assessment 2022, and the prestigious Outstanding Undergraduate Award for being the top student in her Interdisciplinary Studies major. Currently, she is collaborating with a former professor on a research project focused on the recruitment and movement patterns of two ladyfish species and Atlantic tarpon in a South Carolina estuarine nursery. For her proposed research, Roballo plans to use BRUVs and/or acoustic telemetry to study the population dynamics of Grey Nurse, Scalloped Hammerhead, Blacktip Reef, and Tiger sharks at offshore islands in the Great Barrier Reef, aiming to uncover correlations between shark population density and proximity to shore.
Julian Sheppy is an Earth Scientist from Baltimore, Maryland. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from Towson University then attained a Master of Science degree in Urban Hydrology from Georgia State University as an AGU Bridge Program Fellow. Now, Julian is a PhD Candidate at Southern Cross University pursuing a Doctorate degree in Environmental Science and Management. His thesis is on carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide fluxes from man-made agricultural ponds across the four major climate zones of Australia. The ultimate product of his dissertation will be an estimate of the total net greenhouse gas emissions from all agricultural ponds in Australia. Following his PhD candidature, Julian plans to work as a post-doctoral researcher at a university in Europe to continue measuring greenhouse gas fluxes from man-made waterbodies. His goal is to conduct monitoring on freshwater in a US National Park within the next five years.
Daisy Anderson is a screenwriter and filmmaker from Adelaide, South Australia who is passionate about telling female-centric stories. In 2022 Daisy co-wrote and directed her first short film The Unrequited Life of Farrah Bruce (Adelaide Film Festival winner of “Best Short Film”, St Kilda Film Festival Official Selection). Daisy is currently completing her second year at The American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles, studying for a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting for which she was awarded a Screen Australia Industry Grant. Daisy is passionate about diversity on the screen; her thesis film “Song of Silence” featured an almost entirely female and deaf cast with most of the dialogue in American Sign Language. In her final semester at AFI, Daisy hopes to continue to expand and explore her storytelling through a focus on long-form projects that can thrive in both the American and Australian film and television industries.
Andrew Emmerson has been writing since he was eight years old, when he wrote a series of hand-written stories titled, “Snake of Doom”. He promises he’s improved since then. He grew up on a farm in rural Australia and has always been captivated by stories, whether they gave him the feeling of a warm hug like Gilmore Girls, or, like Titanic, gave him nightmares of drowning despite living on a farm during one of the worst droughts in history.
Andrew received an Advanced Diploma in Screenwriting in 2018, and is studying a Masters in Screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University. He also worked as an editor on the LEGO series “Monkie Kid”, for which he earned an Australian Screen Editor’s Guild Award, and has interned for companies such as Atlas Entertainment, 87North and AGBO Films. He dreams of one day creating his own series, and also learning to juggle with four balls.
Cameron Fermoyle grew up in Perth, Australia, with a family history in South Africa, Cameron continued his family’s drumming legacy through various local music scene opportunities such as WAYJO, the Perth Jazz Society and the WAAPA Young Artists Ensemble. Following his school years consisting of late night gigs and jam sessions, Cameron took his studies to the Brubeck Institute in California, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and the University of Miami, where consistent and disciplined practice bolstered a variety of his personal skills and techniques. Additionally, under the tutelage of skilled drummers such as Ben Vanderwal, Jochen Reuckert, Francesco Ciniglio, and Jorge Rossy, he has elevated his concepts and methodologies to that of a professional level, opening up many performance and recording opportunities. Cameron is currently studying under the highly-esteemed Obed Calvaire at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, exploring his own artistic vision, and taking external lessons with Kweku Sumbry to research his interest in West African music.
Jade Park is a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School and has begun her Bachelor’s degree. She also gained full scholarships from the Royal College of Music (ABRSM scholarship) and the Curtis Institute of Music.
She is a Dual Soloist earning her Australian Music Examination Board’s LMusA in Oboe and with Distinction in Trumpet. Jade has performed as a soloist with numerous Australian orchestras performing the Haydn, Hummel and Arutiunian Trumpet Concertos.
Internationally, Jade won the Young Talent Prize by Grand Virtuoso presenting her winning performance in Rome and in Carnegie Hall having won the Golden Classical Competition. She also won the ITG Young Artist Award and Youth Competitions. Jade was awarded the IWBC Penny Turner Young Artist Award and performed at IWBC in Japan. She also won the Vienna International Competition performing at the Mozarteum and continues to grace international stages as an uprising soloist.
Kim Võ’s research interest ranges from the representation of and by architecture, the construction of histories, the legacies of modernity, and its unfinished projects. Kim received his first architecture training at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture, Vietnam, and his Master of Architecture at the University of Melbourne, Australia. After years of working in design practice and academia, he found his interest drifting toward the production of knowledge in the visual fields and the discursive apparatuses to scaffold, sustain, and propagate such knowledge. Kim is pursuing the Master in Design Studies (Narratives) program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His current research focuses on the museum as an architectural medium to mediate and reiterate modern subject/object positions. This relatively novel typology, invented in the nineteenth century, can be understood as a self-portrait of the modern human being.
Zaachariaha Fielding resides in Adelaide, South Australia but was born and raised in the remote community of Mimili on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (APY Lands). Zaachariaha was already an accomplished musician in Electric Fields before he embarked on a visual arts career, in 2020. Under the careful guidance and cultural leadership of elders from the APY Lands, Zaachariaha joined the APY Art Centre Collective’s Art Centre in Adelaide. For First Nations Australians from remote areas, the Aboriginal Art Centre model delivers a socially and culturally appropriate program regarded by Aboriginal leaders as the equivalent of art school. Zaachariaha has achieved a great deal in a short amount of time as a practicing artist. His cultural and artistic knowledge base expanding rapidly as a result of being amongst the large cohort of established and early career First Nations artists and leaders working daily in his studio.
Aside from considering himself a student of the university of life, constantly engaged in dialogue with people of the world and drawing an enormous amount of inspiration from the every day, Zaachariaha has taken part in public programming in almost every Australian public institution and was a member of the Artist Reference group at National Gallery of Australia alongside Australian artists like Sally Smart.
This artistic and professional development program planned for the US will afford Zaachariaha the opportunity be both challenged and inspired by interactions with curators, directors and founders of important museums, galleries and studios across Los Angeles, Miami and New York city. He is particularly excited by the potential for ideas-exchange, and creating lasting connections and relationships.
Zaachariaha was already an accomplished musician in Electric Fields before he embarked on a visual arts career under the guidance and leadership of elders from the APY Lands. Zaachariaha has taken part in public programming in almost every Australian public institution and was a member of the Artist Reference group at National Gallery of Australia. The artistic and professional development program planned for the US will afford Zaachariaha the opportunity be both challenged and inspired by interactions with curators, directors and founders of important museums, galleries and studios across Los Angeles, Miami and New York city.
Alfred Lowe moved to Adelaide from Central Australia in 2014 and started making ceramics in late 2021 beginning his practice at the APY Art Centre Collective’s Art Centre in Adelaide. For First Nations Australians from remote areas, the Aboriginal Art Centre model delivers a socially and culturally appropriate program regarded by Aboriginal leaders as the equivalent to art school. Alfred has rapidly acquired knowledge, both cultural and artistic from the large cohort of established and early career artists around him- some of whom are first contact artists.
Alfred undertook a mentorship with Australian artist Peter Waples Crowe in 2023, was selected for an artist in residence program at the Indian Ocean Art Trienale in August 2024 alongside artists like Vipoo Srivilasa and Madoda Fani in 2024 and worked with the National Gallery of Australia delivering a public program including workshops and and developing educational resources as part of Ever Present: First People’s Art of Australia, where Alfred’s work was also exhibited, in September 2024.
Alfred’s US exhibition and bespoke professional development tour in December 2024 will be Alfred’s first ever international travel and had been designed to promote personal and artistic growth with a foundation of cross-cultural exchange, at a pivotal time in his career. Alfred will meet artists, curators, founders & collectors in gallery, museum and studio environments across three exciting cities being Miami, LA and NYC.
Gary Nunn is a published author, human interest features journalist and writer.
He was in-house features writer for BBC Australia and a regular columnist for the Guardian.
He now writes features, op eds and interviews for major publications in Australia, the UK and the US. He has a First Class Honours degree in English from the University of Leicester.
Gary’s debut narrative non-fiction book, The Psychic Tests (Pantera), was critically acclaimed by the Sydney Morning Herald as “a work of lethal reportage, an exhilarating ride of scrutiny and flair.”
He adapted the book into a one-man storytelling show, directed by Vincent Andriano, and written and performed by Gary himself. The show debuted at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in March 2023, then transferred to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Gary’s research goal is to broaden the breadth, nuance and tone of LGBTQI storytelling on the stage by giving voice to fresh perspectives. ENDS
Megan Brown is a dedicated Public Affairs Specialist with a distinguished background in diplomatic communications and international relations. Currently serving as the senior Public Affairs Specialist at the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, Consular Notification and Access team, she specializes in managing communication protocols between U.S. law enforcement and foreign diplomatic missions. Her experience as a Combat Photographer in the Marine Corps’ Public Affairs section honed her ability to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics, enabling her to build trust and establish meaningful diplomatic connections with law enforcement agencies and diplomatic personnel.
Megan is pursuing a Master’s in International Relations at the University of Sydney, with a focused goal of becoming a U.S. diplomat specializing in Country Risk Assessment. Her academic journey aims to develop advanced analytical skills in geopolitical risk assessment, enhance cross-cultural communication, and deepen her understanding of Asia-Pacific international relations while broadening her global strategic insight.
Ramiro Joseph Canales is a 23-year-old United States Air Force Veteran studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Sydney. He joined the USAF at 18 and served four years as an Aircraft Environmental and Electrical Specialist. During his time in service, he toured overseas twice where he gained invaluable technical skills and cultural insights at a young age, which ultimately led to his decision to study abroad and continue expanding his horizons. He was Honorably Discharged in January 2024 and commenced his studies in February 2024.
Ramiro is currently a Double Major student in both Power and Humanitarian Engineering. With these diverse yet complementary fields of study, he aims to assist in the Power Industry’s ongoing mission to create more sustainable forms of power generation across the United States. Additionally, he aspires to bring reliable and sustainable forms of power to impoverished communities around the globe. He is expected to graduate from both majors in early 2028.
AMERICAN AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION SCHOLARSHIPS ARE PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY
