Loose joints; safe water; the limits of executive power – 2013 Menzies scholars

Scholarships announced today to young leaders in physiotherapy, engineering, and the law in Sydney and Melbourne.

The treatment of “loose joints”, or hypermobility, a painful inherited condition particularly of adolescent girls; the provision of safe and adequate water resources to communities in Australia and the developing world; and examining the possibilities and limits of executive power—these are just some of the issues being tackled by this year’s crop of Menzies scholars.

Three of the scholarships will be presented at an Awards dinner tonight.

Each year the Menzies Foundation provides scholarships for graduates to pursue studies in engineering, law, business, the allied health sciences and medical research. This year seven scholarships have been awarded.

The three scholarships to be presented at the Awards dinner tonight are to:

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  Mrs Verity Pacey, a senior physiotherapist at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead near Parramatta, who has won the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Research Scholarship in Allied Health Sciences for 2013. The two-year scholarship will help her complete her PhD at The University of Sydney into the management and treatment of connective tissue dysplasias, particularly hypermobility—loose joints—an inherited condition which tends to occur most commonly in adolescent girls and can lead to pain, injury and fatigue.

   

   

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  Ms Mahala McLindin, a water resources engineer with Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) in Sydney, who has won the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Scholarship in Engineering for 2013. Mahala will attend the School of Geography and Environment, University of Oxford, to undertake a one-year MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management.

   

   

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  Mr David Heaton, a Melbourne lawyer at present working as an associate with the Boston Consulting Group, who has won the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Scholarship in Law for 2013. David will undertake the Bachelor of Civil Law/Master of Philosophy at Oxford University over the next two years, and is particularly interested in the applications of executive power.

   

   

Four other Menzies Scholars received their awards earlier this year, and are already overseas. They are:

• Dr Sarah-Jane Dawson, a molecular biologist from the Translational Research Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, who won the 2012 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/R.G. Menzies Fellowship. She has taken up a position in the Breast Cancer Functional Genomics Laboratory at the Cambridge Research Institute where she is studying breast cancer markers in the bloodstream.
• Mr Matthew Brown, an engineer and former RAAF fighter pilot, who became a financial analyst with Morgan Stanley. Matthew won a Menzies Scholarship to Harvard Business School to undertake a Master of Business Administration.
• Ms Jessica Roth, a lawyer from Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Sydney interested in human rights, who won a Menzies Scholarship to Harvard Law School to undertake a Masters in Law.
• Mr Tristan Webster, a Chartered Public Accountant with experience in the not-for-profit sector, who won a Menzies Scholarship to Harvard Business School to undertake a Master of Business Administration.

The NHMRC/R.G. Menzies Fellowship is awarded annually by the NHMRC in association with the Menzies Foundation.

The Menzies Scholarships to Harvard are awarded in association with the Harvard Club of Australia and the Australian National University.

For further information on all of the above, please contact Niall Byrne or Tim Thwaites at Science in Public (03) 9398 1416 or visit www.scienceinpublic.com.au/menzies.

2013 Menzies Scholars: background information

Three Menzies scholars are receiving their awards at the Menzies Foundation dinner:

Mrs Verity Pacey is senior physiotherapist in the Connective Tissue Dysplasia Clinic at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead near Parramatta. The two-year Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Research Scholarship in Allied Health Sciences for 2013 will help her complete her PhD at The University of Sydney into the management and treatment of the connective tissue disease known as hypermobility or loose joints. This is an inherited condition which tends to occur most commonly in adolescent girls and can lead to pain, injury and fatigue.

Her project aims to provide greater understanding of the physical differences between children who have the condition and their peers who do not, and the impact of loose joints on daily function and quality of life. “It’s a condition that affects a lot of people, but is really poorly recognised,” she says.

A professional physiotherapist for 13 years, Verity has a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Sydney and a Graduate Certificate in Sports Physiotherapy from La Trobe University. She began the physiotherapy service to The Children’s Hospital Institute of Sports Medicine. At present she is on maternity leave with her second child.

Ms Mahala McLindin became interested in environmental engineering and water resources in the final year of her civil engineering degree at The University of Sydney in 2004. The next year she moved to the UK for five years to gain engineering experience. It was the middle of a construction boom, and Mahala ended up working on heritage buildings, roads and tunnels.

To follow her goal of water resource engineering, in 2010 Mahala came back to Australia to work with Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) in Sydney. “Because of the Millennium drought that that had been affecting Australia, there was a lot of investment in water resource research. So this was the place to be.” At SKM she has been working on a wide range of projects from integrated regional water planning—looking at all the different options for water supply—to designs for individual projects, such as stormwater harvesting.

She has also been overseas with Engineers Without Borders, inspecting water projects in Cambodia and learning about the critical role of engineering in a developing nation.

“I think the MSc at Oxford will be great for me, because it’s not just a technical degree. It looks at all the different issues surrounding water and water resources—the science, the policy, the politics and social issues. It also provides an international perspective.”

“Ultimately, I would like to contribute to achieving sustainable water practices and policies in Australia.”

Mr David Heaton is a Melbourne lawyer formerly with King & Wood Mallesons, who is presently working as an associate with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). His current project involves improving the efficiency of a supply chain for a retailer. The job has provided him with the experience of working much more closely with a client than law usually allows, but it has also made him recognise his passion for the law.

Before BCG, he was Associate to Hon Justice Kenneth Hayne in the High Court of Australia. The taste this time provided of constitutional law and the theatre of the court will probably draw him back to that arena, he says. “I see myself in the longer term going to the Bar. After further study, I would like to practice in constitutional law, perhaps in a government solicitor’s office.”

The Bachelor of Civil Law/Master of Philosophy degree he intends to undertake at Oxford University will provide a chance to reflect more deeply on issues in constitutional law. He wants to write a thesis on the limits of executive power.

David is also interested in languages and speaks German and Indonesian.

Four other Menzies scholars received their awards earlier this year, and are already overseas:

Dr Sarah-Jane Dawson, a molecular biologist from the Translational Research Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, won the 2012 National Health and Medical Research Council/R.G. Menzies Fellowship.

She has taken up a position in the Breast Cancer Functional Genomics Laboratory at the Cambridge Research Institute where she is studying the genetic material shed by tumour cells that can be found in the bloodstream of people with cancer. Sarah-Jane is hoping doctors can use this material, known as circulating tumour-specific DNA (ctDNA), to track the progression of breast cancer. This would involve a simple blood test followed by measuring and analysing the ctDNA it contains.

Sarah-Jane will return to Australia to carry out the last two years of her Menzies Fellowship at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne. The Foundation provides an annual grant of $50,000 towards the Fellowship, as well as $5000 a year for four years for supplementary research activities, such as conference travel.

Mr Matthew Brown is an engineer and former RAAF fighter pilot, who has worked as a financial analyst with financial services company Morgan Stanley.

He won a Menzies Scholarship to Harvard Business School to undertake a Master of Business Administration, and is interested in gaining a better understanding of international markets and capital flows.

Ms Jessica Roth is a lawyer with Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Sydney and lecturer at the University of New South Wales. She is also a past national president of the Australian Union of Jewish Students,

Jessica won a Menzies Scholarship to Harvard Law School to undertake a Masters in Law. A former Associate to the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, she is particularly interested in the value to business of promoting and protecting human rights.

Mr Tristan Webster is a Chartered Public Accountant who has worked with business consultants A.T. Kearney, and is interested in helping clients to make rational investment decisions

Tristan won a Menzies Scholarship to Harvard Business School to undertake a Master of Business Administration. In the longer term, he wants to become a leader in, and advocate for, the not-for-profit sector in Australia.

The NHMRC/R.G. Menzies Fellowship is awarded annually by the NHMRC in association with the Menzies Foundation.

The Menzies Scholarships to Harvard University are awarded in association with the Harvard Club of Australia and the Australian National University.