Ben Fohner

Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar

Media Profile

"Present-day biotechnology researchers face a challenge – while they have made discoveries that could save millions of lives, success depends on their ability to develop and distribute products. Currently, the biotechnology in Australia often falls short in this vital ability, stalling their potentially lifesaving discoveries in the laboratory."

Ben Fohner, a Stanford University graduate, will have the opportunity to study the development and commercialisation of Australian biotech innovations thanks to winning a Fulbright Scholarship. Ben, one of fifteen Americans to be granted a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to Australia in 2007, will study at Monash University’s Graduate School of Business and the Monash Asia-Pacific Center for Science and Wealth Creation, in Melbourne.

Ben plans to complete both a research project analysing current barriers to innovation and commercialisation in the biotechnology sector, as well as coursework for a Masters of Business in Commercialising Science and Technology (CST).

“Through my Fulbright, my primary objectives will be to further my own knowledge of management and government research policy and to provide an analysis of and recommend modifications to government policies designed to stimulate biomedical research, an area identified as being of timely importance to Australian universities, businesses, and government.”

According to Ben, Monash University in Melbourne, and Australia in general, are ideal places to study biotechnology, government policy, and management.

“Melbourne, in addition to being a vibrant, international city, is also a rising world centre of biomedical research and commercialisation, with the government of Victoria striving to make it one of the world’s top five biotechnology locations by 2010. On a larger scale, the government of Australia has established medical and agricultural research as national priorities, making the country an ideal place for policy research that will enable the sector to grow more effectively.”

After studying innovation management and completing research through the Fulbright Scholarship Ben plans to attend both medical and business school, developing an expertise in the commercialisation of health technology to benefit the poor.

At Stanford, Ben won the Kirsten Frohnmayer research prize in Human Biology for academic excellence and contribution to society in 2005 and took out honours status through a grant award for research in Human Biology in 2006.