Early Career Conference Grants

Dr Donnie Adams is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Educational Management, Planning and Policy, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Malaysia. The ACU Early Career Conference Grant will support his career development as a young and emerging researcher and facilitate increased international collaboration and network activity among the members of the ECER 2021 network on Health and Wellbeing Education.

Dr Leandy Bertrand is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan with an academic background in Nutritional Sciences. Her research interests include food environments and health outcomes. Dr Bertrand is very passionate about cooking and trying new recipes. She will be presenting her research at the Nutrition 2021 conference, June 7-10, 2021, with the support of an early career conference grant.

Madu Solomon C is a researcher at the African Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development, University of Nigeria, and is passionate about conducting academic research in advanced materials engineering. She applied for a grant to present her paper at 2021 Sustainable Engineering and Industrial Technology Conference.

Dr Kenzie Friesen is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, studying sports biomechanics/kinesiology. The funds from will enable her to attend the prestigious International Society of Biomechanics conference where she can meet potential future collaborators and discuss current research and methods with top tier researchers. With a passion for keeping young athletes healthy and happy along their sport journey, Dr Friesen’s research specifically seeks to track athlete movement patterns longitudinally to understand injury etiology and ideally reduce injury risk.

Dr Theodora Fteropoulli is a research fellow at the University of Cyprus Medical School and her research interests include quality of life and psychosocial functioning in chronic illness and recently the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare professionals. Theodora is passionate about patient empowerment, patient-centred care, and environmental protection. The grant will enable her to present her research at the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) conference, helping to widen her network and potentially bring about collaboration for her university.

Dr Paulina Ramirez Garcia is a postdoctoral research fellow at Monash University within The ARC Centre of Excellence in Bio-Nano Science and Technology (CBNS). Paulina continues the optimisation of nanoparticles for pain relief through an industry collaboration with Endosomes Therapeutics. Her main research interest are stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems, pain and G-protein coupled receptor pharmacology.

Prashneel Ravisan Goundar is a Lecturer in Language at Fiji National University, Lautoka, Fiji. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics from University of New England, Australia.  Goundar's research interests include language policy and planning, language assessment, language testing, and academic English writing skills. He applied for ACU's Early Career Conference Grant to support in funding a post graduate conference he is presenting at in June this year and it will assist in getting proper internet connectivity as well as preparation workshop participation. When he is not busy reading and writing, Goundar enjoys cooking for his dad and sister at their home in Nadi, Fiji. To connect, email him on prgoundar@gmail.com or follow on Instagram & Twitter: @prgoundar