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Three graduates from The University of Western Australia have been awarded 2009 Fulbright Scholarships to carry out research in the US.

Law graduate Hugo Leith and engineering and science graduate Alexander Wyatt have been awarded Fulbright Western Australia Scholarships while science graduate and PhD in botany Dr Tina Bell was awarded a Fulbright Professional Business/Industry (Coral Sea) Scholarship.

The twenty-three 2009 Fulbright Scholars were presented with their scholarships at the Annual Fulbright Presentation Dinner, held last week at Moorilla Estate in Hobart.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Robson said the Fulbright Scholars were to be congratulated on their outstanding achievement.

"Our University has an ambitious vision of achieving international excellence and these prestigious scholarships suggest we are well on our way to reaching that goal," Professor Robson said.

Mr Leith, a solicitor with the State Solicitor for Western Australia and tutor and adjunct lecturer in law at UWA, will use his scholarship to visit Yale University to undertake a comparative study of government power and constitutional structures in Australia and the US as part of a Master of Laws by coursework.

Mr Wyatt is undertaking a PhD investigating the relationship between oceanographic processes and coral reef ecosystems and will use his Fulbright to further his collaborative research and training in this area at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego, one of the world's leading oceanographic institutes.

A Senior Research Fellow in Fire Ecology at the University of Melbourne, Dr Bell will use her scholarship to undertake three months' research at the Center for Fire Research and Outreach and the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. Her project will explore the effects of smoke on wine grapevines.

Fulbright Scholarships were established in 1949 under the first treaty signed between Australia and the US. The purpose of the Fulbright program is to support educational and cultural exchange between the US and other countries, and to foster international peace and friendship.

For more information about the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, visit the website: https://www.fulbright.com.au/ .

Media references

Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716