Applications open for chance to spend time at famous US museums

The Palaszczuk Government is offering the opportunity of a lifetime for Queensland teachers and researchers to spend time at one of the world’s leading scientific and cultural research institutions.

Minister for Innovation, Science and the Digital Economy Leeanne Enoch today (Wednesday) announced applications had opened for the 2017-2018 Queensland-Cooper Hewitt Fellowship for Queensland teachers.

Ms Enoch said applications will also open on November 13 for the 2017-2018 Queensland Smithsonian Fellowships for Queensland researchers.

She said the government had a special relationship with the Smithsonian, going back to 2000 when it established the fellowship programs.

“The programs have been a great success, facilitating the exchange of knowledge and skills and strengthening ties between Queensland and the USA on science, culture and education,” Ms Enoch said.

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum and research complex with 19 museums, nine research centres and more than 140 affiliate museums around the world.

The $20,000 Queensland-Cooper Fellowship provides an opportunity for a Queensland teacher to travel to New York to work at the prestigious Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.

“The successful fellow will spend up to 12 weeks in 2018 working with the museum’s experts looking at how design thinking can be used to engage school students more fully so they get a lot more out of their education,” Ms Enoch said.

Ms Enoch said the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum was renowned for its education design, often working very closely with schools across the United States.

The Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship Program provides Queensland researchers with the opportunity to further a research project in the United States.

“The successful applicants will spend between eight and 16 weeks at one of the Smithsonian’s research facilities, thanks to grants of up to $25,000,” Ms Enoch said.

Research projects by previous recipients ranged from looking at the environmental impact of urea-based nitrogenous fertilisers on the Great Barrier Reef to gaining a better understanding of the fossil plant record of northern Australia.

One of the 2017 Queensland-Smithsonian Fellows Dr Ashley Field from the Australian Tropical Herbarium at James Cook University in Cairns is currently spending time at the United States National Herbarium at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.

The United States National Herbarium is one of the world’s largest repositories of botanical specimens, including 250,000 ferns and lycophytes.

Dr Field, who is also a senior botanist at the Queensland Herbarium, said it also housed collections of Australian and Oceanian specimens, including species presumed to be extinct in Australia and not represented in Australian botanical collections.

He is examining type collections of all Australian ferns and lycophytes in the US to progress his research on the classification and description of Queensland species.

Dr Field’s work is critical in helping to provide a better picture on the status of Queensland species and, as such, informing better decisions on their management.

“The Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship is a unique opportunity, especially for a researcher like myself who works with collections and collaborates with a network of researchers globally,” he said.

For more information, see https://advance.qld.gov.au/uni-researchers/qld-cooper-hewitt-fellowships.aspx or https://advance.qld.gov.au/uni-researchers/qld-smithsonian-fellowships.aspx

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