My Australian Fulbright experience came as a fresh BSc graduate in Chemical Engineering and took me to the creative Chemical Engineering Department of the University of New South Wales and Professor Joe Norman. Entering the research world, the Fulbright experience taught me to work at the outer reaches of engineering knowledge, because this is where the next decade of advances are being born. My 55 year university career, still very much in progress, led to the discovery of the environmental Genome – the core base of chemicals that align to make virtually every product in our global society. Mapping the Environmental Genome is in early stages, but leads to development of analytics for such diverse fields as national supply chain connectivity and security, geospatial links to environmental pollutants impacting ocean health, manufacturing process economics, defining the origins of environmental pollutants that are causative factors in the Human Genome for chronic disease, diagnosis of maternal fetal health impacts, and others.

It is these exciting opportunities, that I have linked to the 1966 Australian Fulbright and for this I am immensely grateful. Another huge benefit was that I met my wife-to-be, Mary, at the Basser/Baxter Common Room, and we continue to live in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Michael Overcash – Fulbright to Australia 1966