Friday, 20 March 2009

It appears that Rhodes Scholars must have more hours in each day than the rest of us. This year’s winner, John McAnearney, at the age of 22 has a double degree in Science and Engineering; he plays keyboard and guitar in a band; plays squash, tennis and golf; is setting up a children’s charity with his brother; and has worked as a volunteer for the Lions Eye Institute and Siemens Healthcare in Sydney.

He is the 19th Rhodes Scholar from the Faculty. At Oxford John will work towards a DPhil in biomedical engineering and one day hopes to develop technology to help severely disabled people communicate. “Brain computer interface is any system which allows direct communication from a human brain to an external device, such as a computer, and that’s where I hope my research at Oxford will lead,” he said.

John’s thesis, handed in just the day before he was announced the 2008 Rhodes Scholar, is on transcranial magnetic stimulation for a brain-computer interface. He hopes to publish his work this year before taking up his scholarship. Other outstanding UWA Rhodes Scholars who have graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics include Arthur H Christian (1925), Keith L Cooper (1927), Henry J Hopkins (1934), Geoffrey A Hillman (1936), Gordon B Hill (1940), Albert L Arcus (1946), Bernard H Lochtenberg (1954), Jerry K Ellis (1959), Rod I Eddington (1974), Michael C Fitzpatrick (1975), Ian D Reid (1988), Timothy N Davidson (1991), Byron W Byrne (1996), Andrew J Fry (1997), Craig D Wood (1999), Stuart I Munro (2004), David J Knezevic (2005) and Scott Draper (2006).

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