Annual Report 1998

Fellowships and Scholarships for 1998

Sir Robert Menzies Visiting Fellowship

Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Scholarship in the Allied Health Sciences
NHMRC/RG Menzies Fellowship
Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Scholarship in Law

Robert Gordon Menzies Scholarship to Harvard

SIR ROBERT MENZIES VISITING FELLOWSHIPS
Dr Ruth Morley
In 1997, the Foundation initiated a Visiting Fellowship program tenable at the Menzies Centre for Population Health Research in Hobart and the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin. The Fellowships are valued at $100,000 per annum for two years. The first recipient was Dr Ruth Morley, a senior lecturer and Head of Clinical Trials Group at the MRC Childhood Nutrition Research Centre in London. Dr Morley has joined the Menzies Centre in Hobart to co-ordinate research activities in the area of maternal and infant nutrition and health and cognition in childhood. Since taking up her appointment in April 1998, she has been awarded grants from the Australian Research Council, Royal Children's Hospital Research Fund, and the Helen Schutt Trust.

NH MRC/RG MENZIES FELLOWSHIP

In 1996, the Foundation made the inaugural contribution to the National Health and Medical Research Council's (NH MRC) C J Martin/Neil Hamilton Fairley Fellowships with one of the Fellowships to become known as the NH MRC/RG Menzies Fellowship. These Fellowships are available for postgraduate medical study at approved overseas institutions with tenure for up to four years. Two years are spent in the overseas country followed by two years back in Australia. The Foundation has made available a supplementation of $5,000 for each of the four years of the award for activities associated with the NH MRC/RG Menzies Fellowship, e.g. conference travel.

The NH MRC/RG Menzies Fellowship for 1999 was awarded to Dr Richard Anderson from the Department of Anatomical Sciences, University of Queensland. He will carry out a study entitled "Growth and guidance of retinal axons in vivo" in the Department of Anatomy, University of Cambridge.

In 1998 Fellowship was awarded to Dr Matthew Kiernan from the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute who carried out a study entitled "Kinetics of persistent sodium channels in rat nerve and their behaviour in human axons" at the Sobell Department of Neurophysiology, Institute of Neurology, London.

Dr Matthew Kiernan

SIR ROBERT MENZIES MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIPS IN LAW

The Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Trust in London, with the support of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and of the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Foundation in Australia, offers to Australians two post-graduate scholarships in law for tenure at universities in the United Kingdom.

There were 36 applications for the two law scholarships that were available. Twenty four candidates held their Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours. Ten candidates were invited for interview in Melbourne on 21st October 1999. The final Selection Committee consisted of the Honourable Sir Daryl Dawson (Chairman), the Honourable Justice Susan Kenny and Professor Gillian Triggs (University of Melbourne). Apologies were received from the British Consul-General on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Chester Brown
The 1999 Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Scholarships in Law were awarded to Mr Chester Brown and Mr Rohan Hardcastle.

Mr Brown holds the degrees of BA (H1) and LLB (H1) from the University of Melbourne (1998) where he was placed 6/237 in his graduating class.

Mr Hardcastle holds the degrees of BA and LLB (H1) from the University of Western Australia (1997) where he was placed 2/157 in his graduating class.

Rohan Hardcastle
Mr Brown will take up his two-year scholarship at Cambridge University where he will study for a PhD and Mr Hardcastle will study for the MPhil (Law) at Oxford University for two years commencing in October 2000.

SIR ROBERT MENZIES MEMORIAL RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIP IN THE ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES

This research scholarship is valued at $24,000 per annum for each of two years and is open to graduates in any of the health sciences who have enrolled for a PhD in an Australian University and who have completed the first stage of their doctoral program. The Foundation is grateful for the support of the final selection committee and the assessors who are nominated by the respective disciplines to grade the applications in terms of topic, relevance and methodology.
In 1999, the scholarship attracted a field of 41 candidates and the disciplines included physiotherapy, speech pathology, psychology, nursing, podiatry and occupational therapy. Four candidates were invited to attend for interview in Melbourne in September. The interview panel consisted of Professor John Coghlan (Chair), Professor Alison Perry and Dr Susan Paxton.

Following these interviews the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Research Scholarship in the Allied Health Sciences was awarded to Ms Lynda Troy who holds the degrees of Master of Clinical Psychology (1994), a Graduate Diploma in Psychology (Distinction) (1991) and Bachelor of Arts (1990), all from the University of Queensland. Ms Troy's PhD project is entitled "Investigation of the impact of cisplantin-based therapy on neuropsychological function in patients with testicular cancer" and is being carried out in the Department of Psychology, University of Queensland.

Ms Lynda Troy

ROBERT GORDON MENZIES SCHOLARSHIP TO HARVARD UNIVERSITY

The Harvard Club of Australia, the Australian National University and the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Foundation jointly sponsor the Robert Gordon Menzies Scholarship to Harvard University. The Scholarship is administered by the ANU. Mr James McLachlan and Ms Rene Leon, members of the Menzies Memorial Scholars Alumni Association, were the Foundation's nominees on the selection committee.

1999/2000 Scholarship was awarded to Mr Jonathan Liew who will undertake a combined Master of Public Policy/Master of Business Administration.