Professor Derek Abbott
Independent Global Talent Advisor
Professor Derek Abbott works in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Adelaide University, South Australia. His research interests include multidisciplinary physics and electronic engineering applied to complex systems and quantum systems, networks, game theory and information theory, energy policy, stochastics, computational neuroscience and biophotonics. Prior to joining academia, he worked for the General Electric Company in London, UK, and Austek Microsystems, Adelaide, Australia.
His research seeks to apply multidisciplinary physics and engineering aspects to several challenges from biomedicine to space science. He has had a long career in supporting international students and has supervised over 50 PhD students. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), USA, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IoP), U.K., and Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia. He has received a number of awards, and in 2020, he was profiled as being in the top 100 engineers “making a difference” by Engineers Australia, and in the 2020 Stanford List he was ranked the highest in the Photonics and Optoelectronics field for Australia. See Profile.
Dr Fariba Behnia-Willison
Independent Global Talent Advisor
Dr Fariba Behnia-Willison is a fully accredited gynaecologist, an advocate of women’s health specialising in female pelvic medicine, reconstructive surgery, and single incision/advanced laparoscopy.
Fariba’s experience is broad. After graduating from medical school in Germany, she undertook her obstetrics and gynaecology specialist training in Sydney, Australia then continued studies in Adelaide where she founded her private practice FBW Gynaecology Plus, a holistic, women-centred approach to care and Desert Flower Centre Australia; supporting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) victims.
She has pioneered a range of procedures, contributed to scientific symposiums and written journal articles. As a senior consultant at Flinders Medical Centre and senior lecturer in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University, she presents workshops for fellows and consultants.
Her goal is to continue researching the role of regenerative medicine in the non-surgical and surgical management of gynaecological disorders and develop an autologous graft that can replace the mesh in pelvic floor disorders. See Profile
Professor Kamran Eshraghian
Independent Global Talent Advisor
Professor Eshraghian is best known in the international arena as one of the fathers of CMOS VLSI (Very Large-Scale Integration) and has influenced two generations of researchers in academia and industry. His distinguished academic career has included roles at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Adelaide, South Australia; Foundation Chair of Computer Electronics and Communications Engineering in Western Australia; Head of School of Engineering and Mathematics, and Distinguished University Professor and subsequent Director of Electron Science Research Institute.
Professor Eshraghian, who has worked overseas and in Australia, has co-authored six textbooks, lectured widely in very large scale integrated and multi technology systems and has over 40 patents. His current interests remain in nanotechnology within the arena of computational neuroscience. He has founded six high technology companies, providing intimate links between university research and industry. Click here to find out more.
Associate Professor Omid Kavehei
Independent Global Talent Consultant
Having completed studies in Electronic and Computer Engineering, Omid won a PhD scholarship to study in Adelaide, Australia. He was awarded his PhD in Nanoelectronics from The University of Adelaide in 2012 along with the Postgraduate University Alumni Medal, the top University award, and a Doctoral Research Medal. In 2011 he won the South Australian Young Nanotechnology Ambassador award. Omid is an experienced engineer, team leader, executive, academic researcher, and biomedical entrepreneur who provides advice on matters relevant to the Global Talent Program in areas of science, technology, and engineering. He is the founding Director of BrainConnect Pty Ltd, a privately-owned stealth start-up that aims to develop new solutions for neurotechnology. He has previously worked with the Centre for Neural Engineering at The University of Melbourne as a Research Fellow in Microelectronics, contributing to an Australian flagship engineering project, the Bionic Eye. Earlier in his career, Omid was also a tenured Lecturer with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Omid’s work in supervising international students is evidence of his commitment to supporting potentially talented people to grow and be recognised. He is involved in and connected with many international research projects, contributing regularly through forums and papers.
In life apart from work, Omid enjoys sharing the Australian outdoors with his wife and children. See Profile
Dr Giorgia Mori
Independent Global Talent Advisor
Dr Giorgia Mori is a Molecular Microbiologist with a special interest in finding solutions that address the global health emergency posed by tuberculosis. She is currently a Senior Research Officer at the Diamantina Institute, the University of Queensland.
Giorgia received her Master degree at the University of Pavia (UNIPV) working in the context of the “New Medicines for Tuberculosis” consortium and continued her research during the “More Medicines for Tuberculosis” European project in her PhD years. Following her PhD, she successfully applied for a UNIPV sponsored fellowship for studying the gut microbiome in cancer patients, she also worked for the European Institute of Oncology as a Bioinformatician.
Her 7 years of postdoctoral research plus industry experience have given Giorgia a rare combination of skills including tuberculosis drug characterisation, mycobacterial microbiology, cancer, microbiome, and bioinformatics. She has been the recipient of several national and international awards and received the 2021-22 Translational Research Institute (TRI) – LINC Scheme grant. See Profile.
Associate Professor Mohsen Kalantari
Independent Global Talent Consultant
Mohsen Kalantari is an Associate Professor of Geospatial Engineering at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Co-Founder at Faramoon.
Previously, he worked for the Department of Infrastructure Engineering at the University of Melbourne. Before his academic career, he worked with the surveying and spatial industry through his role in the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) as the Victorian coordinator of a nationwide land and survey information modernisation initiative, ePlan.
His area of research covers land administration, cadastre, spatial data infrastructures, 3D GIS, space situational awareness and the nexus of construction engineering and geospatial engineering, most notably BIM and digital engineering. He teaches Engineering Construction and Engineering Operations. He has previously taught Land Administration, Spatial Analysis and Building Information Modelling. See Profile