Fulbright honour for CDU academic

A prominent Charles Darwin University academic will travel to the United States this year to collaborate and build on her research, which seeks to engage remote communities in biosecurity surveillance.

Northern Institute Director Professor Ruth Wallace is the first woman to be awarded the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Agriculture and Life Sciences Scholarship.

Professor Wallace’s research focuses on marginalised learners’ identities and the intersections with educational systems in regional and remote areas of Northern Australia, and is predominantly undertaken with Aboriginal people. Her stay in the US will contribute to the “Biosecurity Policy at the Margins Project”.

“The Biosecurity Policy at the Margins Project is an opportunity to build on research in Northern Australia,” Professor Wallace said. “The focus is on engaging regional and marginalised communities in biosecurity identification and response systems, at a national and local scale.”

Professor Wallace will work with researchers at the Research and Extension Division at Kansas State University.

“Throughout the fellowship I will work with the team to understand and articulate ways that remote communities can contribute and partner in the effective delivery of plant biosecurity surveillance through engaging a wide range of decision makers and knowledge systems,” she said.

Professor Wallace holds key leadership roles nationally and in Northern Australia to improve research integration and utilisation, particularly in remote areas. She leads the Workforce Development research theme and focuses on collaborative approaches with community, governments and industry that are sustainable and scalable.

Professor Wallace’s Fulbright been sponsored by Kansas State University.