Lasting impact: FLEET alumni
Members who have already moved on to great new careers leverage skills developed at FLEET.
Ultimately it will be FLEET’s alums as much as its research outputs that define the success of the Centre.
One of the most lasting and valuable legacies left by any Centre of Excellence is its people, and four years into the life of the Centre, FLEET is already seeing its alumni move on to great careers in diverse areas. We are extremely proud of our alumni, and for both personal and professional reasons, FLEET works hard to maintain contacts – sharing alums’ stories with current members and keeping alums connected via Centre communications.
Four years in now, I’ve now seen students who started their studies in FLEET submit their theses and graduate, and postdocs land their first permanent positions. It's bitter-sweet to see FLEET members moving on, but I am glad we’ve made their experiences better. I hope they’ll take a bit of FLEET with them when they leave, and make the place they go better as well.
Prof Michael Fuhrer FLEET Director
Alumni highlights
Ex-FLEET members Dr Dianne Ruka (previously FLEET’s outreach coordinator) and Dr Charlotte Hurry (executive officer) both moved on from FLEET to lead their own ARC Centres, with Dianne heading up the new ARC Training Centre for Cell and Tissue Engineering Technologies, and Charlotte leading the ARC Training Centre in Optimisation Technologies.
Dr Hareem Khan (previously with FLEET at RMIT) was recognised by the RMIT HDR Impact Award, recognising considerable impact outside the academia. Hareem is now continuing her investigations of synthesis and study of atomically-thin materials in electronic devices with CSIRO Energy.
FLEET alums have moved on to diverse new roles, from Australian and international commercial scientific entities to consulting, finance, government policy or publishing. Of those choosing to remain in academia for the present, many have moved overseas, securing postdocs, fellowships or lecturer roles in Belgium/Switzerland, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain and the US.
Staying in touch
It is a testament to the sense of belonging at FLEET that almost all departing members choose to remain on the FLEET monthly newsletter list to stay in touch with the Centre.
FLEET alumni updates and career highlights are included in the Centre newsletter while ‘Where are they now?’ profiles show how our alums are applying their scientific and transferable skills in different areas, helping current PhD candidates envision more diverse future careers. Spotlights so far include:
- Dr Paul Atkin (ex RMIT) now working for Australian commercial scientific-equipment company Scitek
- Dr Jesse Vaitkus (ex RMIT) at a German commercial quantum software company
- Dr Carlos Kuhn (ex Swinburne) in government policy and consultancy, Canberra.
- Dr Shilpa Sanwlani (ex Swinburne) in financial crime risk management
FLEET.org.au
Congratulations to the following FLEET members who submitted their PhDs in 2021:
Alexander Nguyen (Monash), Chutian Wang (Monash), Dhaneesh Kumar (Monash), Guangsai Yang (University of Wollongong), Haoran Mu (Monash), Muhammad Nadeem (UOW), Sultan Albarakati (RMIT), Tatek Lemma (Swinburne), Tinghe Yun (Monash), Tommy Bartolo (RMIT), Vivasha Govinden (UNSW), Wafa Afzal (UOW), Weiyao Zhao (Monash), Yonatan Ashlea-Alava (UNSW)