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Nuru Said walked for 14 days after escaping from detention in Ethiopia as a political prisoner.

"It was a difficult journey to freedom but I am lucky to be alive and to have made Australia my new home," said Dr Said, who recently completed his PhD in the Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET).

Dr Said is an Oromo refugee who arrived in Australia in 2001. Oromos are the biggest single ethnic group in the modern Ethiopian state, some 40 per cent of the total population. Oromia lost its free and democratic government (the Gadaa system) about 130 years ago.

It is hard for Dr Said to talk about his past: the political struggles, the imprisonment, his family's hardship. But as he looks forward to the rest of his life in Australia, he realises how lucky he is, and wanted an opportunity to thank UWA for the support he has received.

After finishing his PhD, Dr Said was employed by the CET and was recently awarded funding from the Vice-chancellor to finalise some publications before embarking on a new three year ARC Linkage project with CET's Director, Professor Campbell McCuaig.

"Words can't express the gratitude I feel for Professors Alan Robson, Robyn Owens, Robert Kerrich, Cam McCuaig, David Groves, Mark Barley, Wolf Maier and Marco Fiorentini and Sato Juniper, Jan Dunphy, and Heath Nelson. They have done so much for me. They have been the key to my new life," he said.

Dr Said had a geology degree from Ethiopia and knew that he had to continue his education to make his way in his new home. "I had no documents saying I had a degree, no papers at all. But I went to see Professor Mark Barley, who arranged for me to do a semester of undergraduate work. My results were distinctions, so I was able to progress to a postgraduate diploma in ore deposit geology, with even better results."

In those early days, he had invaluable help from Sato Juniper and Jan Dunphy in the Graduate Research and Scholarships Office. "I didn't even know how to open a computer when I came to this university. I wrote my first assignment by hand while the rest of students used a computer but I got the highest mark (90 per cent). Despite my huge problems with computing, Dr Juniper and Dr Dunphy had faith in me and helped me so much."

In 2005, he was accepted to do his PhD, in which he produced research of the highest quality. His PhD examiners said he had created one of the best datasets in his field.

Dr Said has had seven papers published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at an international geology conference. He won best paper for 2009 in the geochemistry and tectonics journal Lithos.

"There are about 300 Oromo families in Perth who have suffered like me, but with the friendship and support of Australian people and the academic and humanitarian help I have received from everybody at UWA, I feel as though I am at home," he said. "They are all helping me to forget what went before and look forward to my new life."

Published in UWA News , 29 November 2010