Top scholars spread their wings to the US

Three of the University of Adelaide’s brightest young people have been awarded Fulbright Scholarships to continue their studies in maths, evolutionary biology, and data science and machine learning.

Tyson Klingner, Nozhat Hassan and Brandon Smart will continue their studies at US universities as part of the program.

“Congratulations to Tyson, Nozhat and Brandon for being awarded prestigious Fulbright Scholarships,” said the University of Adelaide Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Peter Høj.

“Fulbright scholarships foster leadership, learning, and empathy between cultures, and are an opportunity to bring back knowledge, networks and experience to Australia.

“I wish them the greatest success as they pursue further research and studies which will help them excel in their chosen fields.”

The Fulbright Program is the flagship foreign exchange scholarship program of the US, aimed at increasing binational collaboration, cultural understanding, and the exchange of ideas.

Tyson Klingner is an inquisitive scholar obsessed with abstract patterns that permeate the natural world. His studies at the University of Adelaide included a Bachelor of Mathematical Sciences (Advanced) degree which he completed in 2020, majoring in pure mathematics. This was followed by a Master of Philosophy degree in Pure Mathematics. He is researching Higgs bundles, which are rich geometric objects relevant to different areas of mathematics and physics.

As a Fulbright Future Scholar, Mr Klingner will pursue a PhD in the US, aiming to explore further algebrogeometric aspects of his current work.

“Fulbright scholarships foster leadership, learning, and empathy between cultures, and are an opportunity to bring back knowledge, networks and experience to Australia."Professor Peter Høj AC, Vice-Chancellor and President, University of Adelaide

Nozhat Hassan is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Adelaide where she is currently pursuing her PhD. Ms Hassan’s research focuses on the evolution and distribution of mobile genetic elements (transposons) across avian genomes with a particular focus on the underlying principles of adapting transposons into new-generation gene editing tools.

As a Fulbright Future Scholar, she will be spending some time at UC Berkeley under the supervision of Professor Kathleen Collins where she will be combining bioinformatics with biochemical techniques to investigate the evolutionary history and impact of transposons in both the genome and the cell.

Brandon Smart is a data science and machine learning student eager to develop computational tools that can allow machines to have comprehensive understanding of 3D environments. He has previously focused on robust 2D computer vision research at the University’s Australian Institute for Machine Learning, where he was awarded a University Medal for his studies.

As a Fulbright Future Scholar, Mr Smart hopes to undertake a PhD where he will combine and simplify methods that learn to model the geometry, objects, materials and semantic information present in a scene, providing interpretable information for researchers, roboticists and 3D artists.