Two Murdoch staff receive Perth Convention Bureau scholarships

Thanks to financial assistance from the Perth Convention Bureau, two Murdoch academics will be able to travel overseas for professional development and play a key role in attracting conferences to be held in Perth.

Murdoch Adjunct Research Lecturer Mr Brad Norman and Associate Professor Lance Fung have both received $5000 scholarships.

Mr Norman is a marine conservationist who founded the ECOCEAN whale shark project which engages members of the public to monitor the movement of the world’s largest fish and ultimately protect them.

“This scholarship will allow me to attend the annual meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology in China and share with them my latest research findings, that whale shark numbers in Ningaloo are steady and perhaps even increasing,” Mr Norman said.

“Visiting China gives me the opportunity to build relations with the authorities and encourage monitoring and ultimately protection for whale sharks in China – one of the only countries that still hunts them.

“The success of the ECOCEAN project is contingent on the public’s help, so an opportunity to present at conferences helps us to continue our important work and increase the chances of survival of the whale shark which is still vulnerable to extinction.”

Associate Professor from Murdoch’s School of Information Technology, Lance Fung’s background is in engineering, computer science and intelligent systems.

“I’ll be using the scholarship to attend the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers Asian Pacific Region 10 Conference to be held in Singapore and the Federation of International Robosoccer Association’s International Conference on Social Robotics in Korea,” Professor Fung said.

“I believe social robotics is going to be the next wave of technology changing the world.

“My aim will also be to bring future conferences by both these institutes to Perth.”

The scholarships, launched for the first time this year, serve the dual purpose of providing recipients with professional development while also assisting the Perth Convention Bureau to attract future conferences to Perth.