$55,000 for Adelaide graduate to study in US

Dr Tran
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Thursday, 27 June 2002

AN Adelaide PhD graduate has been awarded a $50,000 fellowship from the New York-based American Australian Association.

Dr Cuong Duy Tran, who recently completed his PhD in Physiology, is one of five Australians to share in $200,000 worth of fellowships from the association.

The fellowships will be used for graduate research in the United States. Dr Tran will pursue post-doctoral research at the University of Colorado Health Science Center.

Dr Tran's field is nutrition and gastroenterology. He graduated with his PhD in August last year and has been working at the Women's and Children's Hospital.

In Colorado, Dr Tran will study micronutrient supplementation and the gut health of indigenous Australians. He will also participate in designing potential therapies in improvement of gut function and health. He hopes on his return to establish a centre for micronutrient research.

Founded in 1948, the American Australian Association is the largest non-profit organisation in the United States devoted to relations between the US and Australia and New Zealand. Its goal is to encourage stronger ties across the Pacific, particularly in the private sector.

The fellowships have been funded through a series of annual benefit dinners that have honored prominent Australians in the United States and from direct donations to the Education Fund.

This year's awards are the first by the association to promote educational exchange between the United States and Australia, and strengthen science, technology and business relationships.

"The Fellows are representative of Australia's academic and cultural diversity and have a wide range of academic interests," said Mr Malcolm Binks, Chairman of the Association.

"As an association with the strongest of ties to both Australia and to the United States, we want to contribute to the growth of the intellectual capital of Australia by giving young Australians the opportunity to advance their knowledge in the US. They will be able to work with research facilities and mentors unavailable in Australia."

Dr Tran is one of those fellows who represents both the academic and cultural diversity of Australia. He and his family arrived in the country in the 1970s as boat people from Vietnam.

For more information on the American Australian Association visit the website: www.aaanyc.org

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