Global Impact

From Indonesia to Italy, from Africa to the US, Adelaide alumni are making an impact on the world. Gaining new knowledge and engaging with diverse cultures, this varied group of achievers and bright thinkers have one thing in common - the University of Adelaide. Lana Guineay profiles three graduates from around the world to give a snapshot of what Adelaide alumni are doing on a global scale.

Finding answers to childhood leukaemia

MBBS (Hons) 1993
MD Medicine 1998

Leukaemia is the most common cancer in children up to age 15, accounting for around one-third of all childhood cancers. Dr Charles Mullighan, a postdoctoral fellow at St Jude Children's Research Hospital in the US, is committed to putting the catastrophic disease under the microscope with the aim of developing treatments and cures for future generations.

St Jude is an internationally-recognised paediatric treatment and research facility whose mission is to study and cure childhood diseases like leukaemia. Since 2004, Charles has been performing research at the Memphis-based institution to better understand the genetic basis of acute leukaemia - and has made some groundbreaking discoveries.

"Over the last three years, we have looked at tumour cells from several hundred patients with acute leukaemia, and used microarrays, or gene chips, which look for changes in the genetic (DNA) makeup in leukaemia cells." This method has produced some remarkable breakthroughs, identifying several important new types of genetic mutation that contribute to the development of leukaemia - leading to identifying potential new targets for treatment.

Haematology has always been of interest to Charles, who has divided his time since graduating from Adelaide in 1998 between training as a physician and haematologist and performing research. "Haematology is a wonderful medical specialty that combines direct patient care, laboratory testing, and a strong interest in the basic science of the diseases that we treat," he says.

It was while looking after patients with leukaemia that Charles decided to join the research team at St Jude. "I was deeply affected by the devastating impact of this disease, and the poor efficacy of our current treatments. There is an urgent need to develop more effective treatments, and to do this, we need a better understanding of why normal
blood cells become cancerous. This is the basis of the research I am involved in at St Jude."

Charles says St Jude has been a unique and ideal environment to perform this sort of research - and enjoys the challenge of exploring the unknown. "The research itself is highly novel, and poses many questions that have no `ready-made' solution. Solving these problems is challenging, but tremendously exciting and satisfying."

All roads lead to Rome

BE Electrical Engineering (Hons) 1992
PhD Engineering 2000

For engineering alumnus Joe Fabrizio, all roads led to Rome in 2007. The research scientist is spending 12 months at Europe's largest university, La Sapienza, working with some of the most distinguished names in radar research.

"My attachment to La Sapienza University enables me to work closely with leading researchers in the Italian radar community, on topics that can potentially enhance the performance of Australian radar systems," Joe explains.

Contributing to Australia's defence is all in a day's work - Joe is a senior research scientist with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). His role focuses on over-the-horizon radar, a system that is able to detect targets over millions of square kilometres.

The excitement of contributing to one of Australia's key defence assets is a major drawcard to the area of radar and defence, says Joe. "The most rewarding part of my job is turning an idea into a tangible, practical benefit for the Australian Defence Force."

A prolific writer, Joe has been awarded the Barry Carlton Award for best article in IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems for two consecutive years.

He also enjoys sharing his knowledge through training, from conducting courses for CEOs to mentoring younger professionals in the defence industry. "I really enjoy teaching," he says. "In the future I aim to pass on what I have learnt to emerging scientists and engineers."

Joe has benefited enormously from sharing his ideas with researchers around Australia and overseas. "The presentation of research results at conferences in Australia and overseas has been instrumental in my career development," he says.

"By attending such conferences, I was able to form international links with scientists working in the same field and have benefited greatly from sharing new ideas and opportunities with them. Such exchanges have had a high motivational effect on my work."

East meets West: a science role model in Indonesia

Bachelor of Science (Hons) Biochemistry 1996
PhD Cellular and Molecular Biology 2002

"Citizen of the world" is a fitting description for scientist Ines Atmosukarto. With a Romanian mother and an Indonesian father, Ines was born in Romania, spent her childhood in Algeria, and moved to Jakarta at age 13. After finishing high school, Ines received a scholarship to study at the University of Adelaide, and her career has seen her travel everywhere from Europe to the US.

"My travel has exposed me to various cultures and traditions and this has also allowed me to embrace rather than be scared of difference, appreciating how enriching diversity really is," she says.

After completing her studies at the University of Adelaide in 2001, Ines returned to Indonesia where she screened libraries of natural organisms extracted from Indonesian plants for potential medical and agricultural use.

"Indonesia has seen the loss of biodiversity through environmental degradation over the years. One of my goals was to prove that biodiversity and the Indonesian forest are critical and important to research, and might be hiding extremely important novel compounds with use in industry and medical research."

Ines' groundbreaking work saw her become the first ever Indonesian recipient of the prestigious Unesco-L'Oreal Fellowship for Young Women in Science in 2004. The program selects 15 researchers from all over the world and provides financial help for their research, a grant that allowed Ines to carry out further research in the US.

The fellowship, Ines says, made her even more interested in promoting science as a career for young women, and she became involved in establishing a number of programs advertising science as an accessible and stimulating career for girls in school, and supporting scientists at the postgraduate level.

Ines' current work sees her developing vaccines with Canberra-based company Lipotek. "It gives me a good feeling that something I am part of might potentially be able to save someone's life," she says.

Splitting her time between Indonesia and Australia, Ines is enthusiastic about connecting the two countries in science and research. "Coming from a mixed heritage background has allowed me to understand both the eastern and western way of thinking, which in some cases can be quite different," says Ines. "I think this is a good attribute in trying to develop collaborations between Australian and Indonesian entities."