Our Fellows

Associate Professor Katie Attwell is in the School of Social Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, Telethon Kids Institute. A global research leader exploring parental vaccine refusal and government responses to address it, Katie has published 27 journal articles in top publications such as Milbank Quarterly, Politics, and Social Science and Medicine.

Katie’s research pre-eminence is evidenced by her large number of lead-author publications with senior scholars in Europe and North America, arising from her leadership of several multidisciplinary research collaborations. She is a member of the scientific committee of the annual Vaccine Acceptance meeting in Annecy, France.

In 2018, Katie won an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, which funds her full-time research for three years on mandatory childhood vaccination in Australia, Italy, France and California. Her work has shaped government policies in Victoria and New Zealand, and she regularly translates her research to policymakers, practitioners and the public.

Ullrich Ecker is a cognitive psychologist at the University of Western Australia’s School of Psychological Science. His research focuses on the impact of misinformation on memory, reasoning, and behaviour. Ullrich engages in the development and rigorous testing of effective methods to ‘debunk’ misinformation post-exposure or ‘pre-bunk’ it through educating people about common disinformation tactics.

With his students and collaborators, he has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters, and he holds editorial roles at five international journals. He has provided expert advice to German and Australian courts of law, parliamentary committees in Singapore and Victoria, and the Australian Government as a member of the national COVID-19 “Roadmap to Recovery” taskforce. He currently holds an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, working on the project “Combating Misinformation – Designing a Toolkit to Address a Global Problem”.

Alex Gardner is Professor of Law at The University of Western Australia. He has extensive experience in national interdisciplinary research teams addressing major water management challenges. In 2009-2014, he was a Chief Investigator with the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training. In 2012-2017, he was a Key Researcher with the Co-operative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities. In 2014-15, Alex led an action research project on “Mining and Water Law Reform for Ghana”, funded by the International Mining for Development Centre. In 2020 he was appointed a project leader with the new CRC for Transformations in Mining Economies. 

Alex also maintains a natural resources and environmental law practice, assisting governmental agencies, NGOs and private entities. From December 2015 to November 2018, he was Convener of the management committee of the Environmental Defenders Office Western Australia, overseeing a challenging transition to majority private funding for this important community legal centre. 

Christophe Gaudin is an engineer and scientist with over 20 years’ experience in offshore geotechnical engineering. Over the last 10 years, Christophe has focused his research effort towards offshore renewables, pursuing scientific interests and becoming acutely aware of the imperative for renewable energy and its potential for the Australian economy.

He is Director of the UWA Oceans Institute, a large multidisciplinary research centre aiming at advancing the understanding of our oceans for better conservation and more sustainable access. 

Professor David Gilchrist is a chartered accountant and historian. He has held senior roles in the public sector, not-for-profit sector and commerce, and has taught at The London School of Economics and a number of universities in Australia.

His research focuses on charitable and not-for-profit human services, the public sector and public policy. He has advised all levels of government in Australia and internationally. 

He is the author of three books focusing on public policy and governance, and is the author of the forthcoming book Collaboration for Impact: Lessons from the Field for the Australian National University Press. David is also an author of the seminal work Australian Charities 2013, the first substantive work analysing this important sector in Australia.

Caleb Goods is a Senior Lecturer of Management and Employment Relations in the University of Western Australia Business School. His research focuses on work and workers lived experiences in the ‘gig’ economy and understanding how climate mitigation and adaptation is reshaping work and with-it contemporary society. 

He is currently Co-Investigator on the Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Climate Change project, based at York University, Toronto, and a lead researcher on the Marginalized workers in the Australian platform-economy project based at the University of Sydney and supported by Uber Australia.

Caleb has published widely in leading policy, industrial relations and sociology journals. His research findings have regularly informed industry, unions and government policy and he frequently contributions to public policy discussions via the ABC, The Conversation and Sydney Morning Herald. 

Professor Fiona Haslam McKenzie has expertise in regional economic development, with extensive experience in population and socioeconomic change, housing, and analysis of remote, regional and urban socioeconomic indicators. She has published widely and undertaken work for the corporate and small business sectors both nationally and in Western Australia, has conducted work for all three tiers of government, and, since 2015, has been co-director of the Centre for Regional Development at UWA. She is also a member of the Western Australian Environmental Protection Board.

Fiona is currently researching the socioeconomic impact of different workforce arrangements for the mining industry and uneven economic development in Western Australia, focusing on the key issues of competitiveness, resilience and spatial integration. She is also a project lead on the Cooperative Research Centre for Transformation in Mining Economies.

Kate Hislop is a registered architect and has been an academic at UWA for over 20 years. As Dean and Head of the School of Design, she is responsible for academic leadership across the disciplines of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Fine Arts and History of Art. She also teaches within the Architecture program and supervises HDR students.

Kate is active in the wider architectural community. She is an examiner for the Architects Board of WA’s Architectural Practice Examination (APE) and Chair of the National Advisory Panel for the Architecture Accreditation Council of Australia (AACA). She was the first female editor of the WA professional journal “The Architect”, has chaired and been a jury member on numerous architecture award panels, and was joint Convener of the 2020 Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Conference. In 2021 she was the recipient of the WA Architects Board Award for sustained contribution to the profession.

During her career she has made sustained contributions to biotechnology without borders in Australia. Her significant achievements in genetics, genome assembly, climate smart crops, biodiversity conservation and biodiscovery have had international impacts – pivotal to current research by scholars based in the USA, Europe, Asia and Central and South America.

Dr Kaur has led cross-disciplinary developments for innovation and research translation as an academic and entrepreneur. She is the Director, Chief Science Officer and Co-founder of ExPlanta Pty Ltd, a spin-out company merging tech with science to develop clean, green bio-engineering solutions and natural compounds for human and animal health products.

To her, being a woman in science means opening doors to education and research for girls and women in STEM. She hopes that by being a visible role model as a mother and professor in science, she can encourage and inspire the next generation of diverse scientists to pursue their passion for science and discovery.

Julie Lee is a Winthrop Professor in Marketing and Associate Dean of Research for the UWA Business School. She founded the Centre for Human and Cultural Values at UWA in 2018. Her research focuses on understanding human values and how they link to beliefs, attitudes, and behaviour. 

Julie has held senior roles in the tourism industry and has taught at a number of universities, including the University of Hawaii and University of Miami in the USA. She is an author on multiple books, including International and Cross-Cultural Business Research and Marketing Across Cultures, as well as a number reports and articles on Australian values and how they are changing over time. 

Associate Professor Paul J. Maginn is an urban planner/geographer with research expertise/interests in: (i) strategic metropolitan planning; (ii) urban regeneration/renewal; (iii) Australian and global suburbanisms; (iv) urban politics, (v) multiculturalism and sexualities; and, (vi) geographies of retail.

He is Editor-in-Chief of Australia’s leading urban studies journal, Urban Policy and Research; and, was Co-Convenor of the Australasian Cities Research Network, the academic network that oversees the biennial State of Australasian Cities Conference, which Paul Co-Chaired in 2009 and 2019 when it was held in Perth. He is Co-Convenor of an international seminar series (2021-2022), Peripheral Centralities: Lost, Past, Present and Future, funded by the Urban Studies Foundation.  

Dr Fiona McGaughey She/Her (PhD, MHumRights, LLB (Hons)) an Associate Professor of international human rights law at the UWA Law School. She has published widely on human rights topics including modern slavery, United Nations human rights bodies, Indigenous rights, and NGOs in international human rights law.

Fiona previously worked in the private sector in Ireland and Australia, and then in the not-for-profit sector in research and policy roles.

Her book on NGOs and the UN Human Rights System was published by Routledge in 2021. Fiona co-founded UWA’s Modern Slavery Research Cluster, a network of scholars across disciplines with an interest in tackling modern slavery.

Nicki Mitchell is a zoologist and conservation biologist. For the past 20 years she has used her skills in physiological ecology to understanding how rapid climate change will affect threatened vertebrates, and to explore interventionist approaches to prevent extinctions. Along with her students and collaborators, she has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters, and her pioneering work on assisted colonisation has featured in The New York Times and Nature. She currently leads a major project aiming to protect biodiverse peatlands from the synergetic threat of climate change, fire, and invasive species. Nicki served on the Commonwealth Threatened Species Scientific Committee from 2015-2023, providing scientific expertise for listing threatened species, ecological communities and threatening processes under Australia’s national environmental legislation.

Nicki is a lead councillor for the Biodiversity Council and Deputy Director of the UWA Oceans Institute, a multidisciplinary centre linking ecology, engineering, oceanography, genomics and governance to address key challenges and opportunities in the Indian Ocean.

David Pannell is Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UWA and Director of the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy (CEEP).

His research includes the economics of land and water conservation, environmental policy, farmer-adoption of new practices, risk, and economics of farming systems. His research has been published in seven books and 200 journal articles and book chapters, and has been recognised with awards from the USA, Australia, Canada and the UK, including the 2009 ARC Eureka Prize for Interdisciplinary Research. He collaborates with a wide variety of environmental and natural-resource-management organisations to help them improve their planning and prioritisation.

Julian Partridge is a marine biologist with internationally recognised expertise in animal sensory systems and deep-sea biology. He's had over 30 years of research and teaching experience at world-leading universities in the UK and Australia, with research having a consistent focus on links between engineering and biology. Julian is experienced in multidisciplinary science, science communication, and business development and, via memberships of WA and National marine committees, influencing the direction of State and Australian marine research.

As former Director of the Oceans Institute (OI; until 30 Sept 2022) he was focussed on aligning the OI’s strategic development with the needs of the University and the ambitions of the OI members to promote the development of the University's marine research via clearly identified objectives, ultimately to enhance UWA’s marine research capacity and capabilities. Now retired, he remains an active OI Adjunct Senior Research Fellow and Fellow of the UWA Public Policy Institute.

Anu Rammohan is Professor of Economics in the UWA Business School. Anu currently serves as a member of the Australian Research Council's College of Experts and on the editorial board of the Economic Record.

Anu’s research expertise is in development economics, health economics and agricultural economics. The focus of her research has been on understanding household-level socioeconomic factors that can influence maternal and child health outcomes, gender, and food security issues in South and South East Asia, particularly in India, Indonesia and, more recently, Myanmar. Her research is published internationally, and has been funded by competitive research grants from the Australian Research Council, DFAT, Australian Council of International Agricultural Research and the Australia India Institute.

Peter Robertson is a Professor of Economics and is Dean of the UWA Business School. He has served as an expert consultant to the Productivity Commission and the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, and as member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts.

Peter's research focuses on the interactions between economic growth, trade and economic development, but also on related areas including international political economy of trade restrictions, defence economics, immigration and international security, as well as the economic miracles of East Asia, China and India. His research is published in leading international peer-reviewed journals.

Krishna Sen is Professor Emerita in the School of Social Sciences UWA and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She was appointed by the Foreign Minister as a member of the Reference Group for the New Colombo Plan, and served on it from its inception in 2013 until December 2019.

Krishna was Dean of the Faculty of Arts at UWA from 2009-2017. She is internationally recognised for her work on the media and has written extensively on Indonesia. She is also editor of several monographs and is a member of editorial boards of several international refereed journals.

Krishna grew up and completed her undergraduate education in India and continues to maintain her networks in India and Indonesia. She is the interim Chair of PEN Perth, an affiliate Centre of PEN International.

Kadambot Siddique is the Hackett Professor of Agriculture and Chair and Director of the UWA Institute of Agriculture. He has more than 30 years' experience in agricultural research, research training and management in Australia and overseas. He is a highly cited researcher in the field of agricultural science.

Kadambot has a national and international reputation in various aspects of agricultural science, including crop physiology, production agronomy, farming systems, genetic resources and breeding, with a focus on wheat, grain legumes and oilseed crops.

Associate Professor Sally Thompson is an ecohydrologist who studies the connections between ecosystems and the water cycle. She completed her PhD at Duke University as a General Sir John Monash Scholar, and held the Claire and Hsieh-Wen Shen Distinguished Research Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, before beginning at UWA in 2019.

Sally has received the US National Science Foundation CAREER award, the American Geophysical Union Early Career Award in Hydrology, and the European Geophysical Union Jim Dooge Award for best paper in Hydrology and Earth System Science. Sally uses a broad suite of tools, including mathematical modeling, remote sensing, and field observations to address conservation, climate change adaptation and water resources management issues in Western Australia and worldwide.

Dr Lachlan Umbers is a philosopher working at the intersection of political science and political theory at the University of Western Australia.

His work engages with a wide array of issues, from the design of electoral institutions, to the climate duties of sub-national governments, corporations, and individuals. His current research projects include a monograph on the merits of compulsory voting, the regulation of political speech by civil society groups, the ethics of combatting vaccine hesitancy, and the role of labour unions in protecting employees’ interests in the workplace. With Jeremy Moss, he is the co-editor of Climate Justice and Non-State Actors (Routledge, 2020) and the co-author of Climate Justice Beyond the State (Routledge, 2021). 

A committed interdisciplinary researcher and passionate teacher, he is also the co-ordinator of UWA’s Bachelor of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

Peter van Onselen is an Australian political academic, author and commentator. He is currently a Winthrop professor of politics and public policy at The University of Western Australia, and a weekend columnist at The Australian. He also appears regularly on ABC Insiders.

Peter was political editor at Network Ten from 2018-2023, also co-hosting the Sunday Project with Lisa Wilkinson and The Professor & The Hack podcast with Hugh Riminton during his time at the network. From 2010 to 2017 Peter hosted news and politics programs on Sky News Australia, including the daily lunchtime program To The Point with former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally and Sky’s flagship Sunday morning program Australian Agenda with Paul Kelly.

Peter has won Walkley and Logie awards for his political broadcast journalism (at both Sky News and Network 10), News Awards for his political print commentary and been a finalist in News Awards for his business journalism. Peter has authored or edited ten books, including five bestsellers. His biography of John Howard was rated by The Wall Street Journal as the best biography of 2007. His latest book Victory is published by HarperCollins.

Peter holds a PhD in political science (UWA), a masters in commerce (CSU) and a masters in policy studies (UNSW), having also studied economics and public policy at the University of Oxford.

Growing up in Perth, Rob completed his PhD at Cornell University as a Fulbright Scholar and taught in the USA and Canada for most of the past 30 years. He is especially interested in science, technology, and social policy.

For the past decade, the study of eugenics in Canada has been Rob’s research focus, a focus that continues in the Australian context by exploring cultural forms of eugenics (such as indigenous child removal practices). During his career in Canada, Rob directed the project that built the public, digital resources available at the Eugenics Archive.

He is also active in the philosophy in the schools movement and is currently exploring other venues in which children and youth can develop their philosophical skills in communities of inquiry.

In recognition of his contributions to philosophy, Rob was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2010.

Professor Samina Yasmeen AM is a specialist in political and strategic developments in South Asia (especially Pakistan), Islamisation and its impact on societies in the Indian Ocean region, radicalisation and de-radicalisation strategies, and Muslim minorities in the West (especially Australia).

Samina is the director of the UWA Centre for Muslim States and Societies; a member of the advisory board for the Australian Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies; a Vice-President of the Australian Institute for International Affairs (WA Branch), and a member of the Management Committee of the WA Australian Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She was recognised with the Sir Ronald Wilson Leadership Award in the 2011 WA Citizen of the Year Awards,  is a Fellow of Australian Institute of International Affairs, and was named a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in June 2014.