ADVANCE
CONNECTING
AUSTRALIANS
GLOBALLY

Introducing our 2022 GameChangers. The Global Australian Award finalists include Australians living and working overseas; Australians who have built their career overseas in the past; international alumni of Australian universities; and recent migrants to Australia. The Global Australian Awards showcase the achievements of these inspiring global Australians who are innovating in their field and shaping the world.

We are excited to introduce to you our 2022 GameChangers below.

Global Australian of the Year

Professor Terence Tao

Global Australian of the Year

Professor Terence Tao is a humble achiever who happens to be one of the greatest mathematicians in the world. A child prodigy who grew up in the hills of Adelaide, Prof Tao is regarded as the Mozart of Maths, recognised globally for his natural ability to solve enormously complicated problems across a broad range of mathematical fields. More here.


Global Impact

Professor Gaye Sculthorpe

Global Impact Awardee

Professor Gaye Sculthorpe is a Palawa woman from Tasmania who has become an international steward of Australia’s Indigenous cultural heritage. As curator and Head of Oceania at The British Museum in London for the past nine years, Professor Sculthorpe has collaborated internationally on a series of key research projects tracking down Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural materials held in British, Irish and French museums. More here.


Education & Research

Caroline Malcolm

Education & Research Finalist

Caroline Malcolm is one of the world’s most influential voices on blockchain and digital assets, and their impact on international public policy. As a senior leader working at the intersection of technology and financial systems, Ms Malcolm has spent the past decade at the forefront of global policy-making on tech, finance and tax issues. More here.

Professor Phiala Shanahan

Education & Research Finalist

Professor Phiala Shanahan is a world-leading theoretical physicist and an inspiration to aspiring young scientists all over the world. At just 31 years of age, Prof Shanahan was just 27 years old when she became the youngest Professor of Physics at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where her research in theoretical nuclear and particle physics has shed new light on the structure and interactions of the most fundamental building blocks of our universe. More here.

Professor Terence Tao

Education & Research Awardee

Professor Terence Tao is a humble achiever who happens to be one of the greatest mathematicians in the world. A child prodigy who grew up in the hills of Adelaide, Prof Tao is regarded as the Mozart of Maths, recognised globally for his natural ability to solve enormously complicated problems across a broad range of mathematical fields. More here.


Emerging Leader

Dr Elizabeth Jens

Emerging Leader Finalist

Dr Elizabeth Jens is one of the world’s leading rocket scientists, working on the front line of the international space industry. As a Propulsion and Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Dr Jens helps lead the team working on the design of a new propulsion system to safely land the largest spacecraft ever attempted on Mars. More here.

Professor Kate Manne

Emerging Leader Finalist

Professor Kate Manne is a moral philosopher, regarded as one of the world’s top thinkers in the field of feminist philosophy. A prominent writer and commentator, Prof Manne’s first book Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny was published at the height of the #MeToo movement, exploring the nature, function and persistence of misogyny. The award-winning book offered a bridge between academic analysis and the broader…More here.

Dr Martin Seneviratne

Emerging Leader Awardee

Dr Martin Seneviratne is a doctor-turned-data scientist, bridging the divide between technology and healthcare. As a Clinical Data Scientist with Google Health in London, Dr Seneviratne is pushing the boundaries of modern medicine, exploring the potential of artificial intelligence and machine learning to drive new discoveries, revolutionise clinical workflows and improve the efficiency of medicine in day-to-day practice. More here.


Inspiring Corporate Leader

Tanya De Hoog

Inspiring Corporate Leader Finalist

Tanya de Hoog is a world-leading structural engineer placing impact at the centre of structural engineering. As a Principal at structural engineering and design firm Thornton Tomasetti, Tanya has built a global platform for driving social and environmental innovation across the industry. After almost fifteen years establishing, growing and leading the firm’s London, Farrington office, in 2019 she moved to New York to launch the firm’s pioneering social impact initiative, Doing Good Business. More here.

Dr Siobhan Martin

Inspiring Corporate Leader Awardee

Dr Siobhan Martin is a global champion of diversity and inclusion, whose leadership is transforming the experiences of workers and communities around the globe. Named one of the world’s most influential HR Practitioners and top 10 global LGBT executives, Dr Martin has combined a PhD in Forensic Psychology from Monash University, with decades of global experience in human resource management, to establish best practice in People and Culture leadership that creates safe and inclusive workplaces and communities. More here.

Cameron Mclean

Inspiring Corporate Leader Finalist

Cameron McLean is a global leader in the rapidly growing fintech industry. Since starting out at Westpac in Sydney more than 25 years ago, he has built a global career as a senior executive working at the intersection of technology and financial services. Today, he is Senior Vice President for Europe and Australia Enterprise at PayPal, where he’s responsible for the commercial growth of PayPal’s global digital payments platform in some of the world’s largest and most dynamic economies. More here.

Science & Healthcare

Dr Stephen Hicks

Science & Healthcare Finalist

Dr Stephen Hicks is a scientist-turned-tech entrepreneur whose pioneering work is changing the lives of people living with visual impairment. An award-winning Oxford neuroscientist, Dr Hicks has spent the past decade researching and inventing at the cutting edge of medical innovation, combining neuroscience, computer vision, augmented reality and wearable technologies to launch two tech startups in this complex and critical field. More here.

Dr Barry Kirby AO

Science & Healthcare Awardee

Dr Barry Kirby AO is a carpenter-turned-doctor whose radical career change is now saving the lives of new mothers and babies in remote communities across Papua New Guinea. The founder of not-for-profit organisation, The Hands of Rescue, Dr Kirby has dedicated the second half of his life to reducing maternal mortality across PNG, providing remote maternal health checks, training midwives and delivering ‘baby bundles’ to incentivise expectant mothers to attend health clinics for the safe delivery of their babies. More here.

Dr Rosemary Morrow

Science & Healthcare Finalist

Dr Rosemary Morrow is a global expert on one of the most critical metrics of climate change: sea level. As a leading oceanographer, based at the Laboratory of Space Geophysical and Oceanographic Studies (LEGOS) in France, Dr Morrow’s research over the past three decades has played a central role in scientific understanding of sea level variations, and the connection to global warming. Dr Morrow’s expertise lies in the use of satellite and in-situ observations to monitor and measure ocean dynamics…More here.


Technology & Entrepreneurship

Dr Seiji Armstrong

Technology & Entrepreneurship Awardee

Dr Seiji Armstrong is a quantum physicist and machine learning specialist on a mission to make the internet safer. As Head of Machine Learning in the Trust and Safety division at Google headquarters in California, Dr Armstrong leads a dedicated team focused on protecting child safety, countering violent extremism and, most recently, eradicating Covid-19-related racial vilification online. More here.

Professor Kate Crawford

Technology & Entrepreneurship Finalist

Professor Kate Crawford is a leading scholar of the social and political implications of artificial intelligence (AI). As an award-winning author and academic who has dedicated more than 20 years to researching the impacts of technology on the modern world, Prof Crawford plays a critical role in shaping the global understanding of how machine learning, data and AI have been shaped by political and historical contexts, and are now influencing the foundations of human existence.  More here.

Dr Lee Rong

Technology & Entrepreneurship Finalist

Dr Lee Rong is a global pioneer of telecommunication technologies and their application in Industry 4.0. With over 20 years international experience in the field of telecommunications, Dr Rong is one of the world’s leading technical and commercial experts on 5G and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Having studied and worked in the field in Australia, France, Japan, and China, Dr Rong has had a quintessentially global career, which has taken him from academic researcher, to industry expert, and most recently, tech entrepreneur. More here.


Alumni

Aisha Jalil

Alumni Awardee

Aisha Jalil is a trailblazer in international cricket, driving women’s participation from the pitch to the boardroom. As Manager of Game Development at the Pakistan Cricket Board and Manager of the national women’s team, Ms Jalil isthe architect behind a new approach to engaging women and girls in cricket from junior sport through to elite international representation. More here.

Madhavi Shankar

Alumni Finalist

Madhavi Shankar is a tech entrepreneur breaking through barriers for women in STEM across India and beyond. As co-founder and CEO of one of India’s fast growing tech startups, SpaceBasic, Ms Shankar inspires for women and girls across her country, eager to overcome gender and cultural stereotypes to become leaders in business and entrepreneurship. She represents a new generation of leaders, determined not to replicate business as usual and passionate about the impact their work has on the world. More here.

Dr Antoni Tsaputra

Alumni Finalist

Dr Antoni Tsaputra is a champion of inclusion and accessibility for people living with a disability. Following extensive studies in Australia, Dr Tsaputra has combined his positions as a government official, academic researcher and disability activist to drive systemic change in the way government policy is developed to include and benefit those living with a disability. More here.


Australian Global Talent

Dr Sonu Bhaskar

Australian Global Talent Awardee

Dr Sonu Bhaskar is a medical entrepreneur and global health leader responsible for establishing the world’s first Blood Clot Biobank in Sydney. Founding Director and Chief Investigator at the NSW Brain Clot Bank, Dr Bhaskar is among world’s top specialists in the fields of stroke and cerebrovascular disorders, and is leading the effort to discover the unknown causes behind the disease that is now Australia’s third leading cause of death.  More here.

Dr Aida Brankovic

Australian Global Talent Finalist

Dr Aida Brankovic is an engineer and scientist working at the cutting edge of biomedical innovation. In her role as a Research Scientist with the Australian e-health Research Centre at CSIRO, and Adjunct Fellow at the University of Queensland (UQ), Dr Brankovic is applying her expertise in complex algorithms and machine learning to the development of new medical devices and decision support tools, improving the provision of healthcare… More here.

Dr Shafali Gupta

Australian Global Talent Finalist

Dr Shafali Gupta is a molecular biologist on a mission to eradicate plastic pollution. As Co-founder and Co-CEO of sustainable packaging startup Uuvipak, Dr Gupta is chasing the ambitious goal of replacing 1 billion plastic products with their biodegradable, vegan, edible eco-packaging by the end of 2025. Dr Gupta leapt into the world of entrepreneurship just one year ago, after spending the past seven years as a Doctoral and Post-Doctoral research fellow… More here.


The Arts

Christel Cornilsen

The Arts Finalist

Christel Cornilsen is an international filmmaker harnessing the power of storytelling as a tool for social change. Based in LA, the director, writer and producer has worked all over the world as a commercial and documentary filmmaker, focused on socially-conscious, investigative and comedic storytelling. Christel wrote and directed… More here.

Dr Sarah Grunstein

The Arts Finalist

Sarah Grunstein is an Australian pianist of international acclaim, praised by The New York Times for her “penetrating musical intelligence”. She has performed in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and her homeland. Critics have described her performances as “tempestuous”, “enraptured”, “mesmerised”, “imbued with a luminous calm”, “each note like a tiny pearl”… More here.

Tara June Winch

The Arts Awardee

Wiradjuri author, Tara June Winch, is one of the greats of contemporary Australian literature. Through her writing, she tells the stories of characters forced to live at the margins, compelling readers to understand the complexity of life for those who society has rejected, ignored and abused. Through Ms Winch’s cast of critically-acclaimed novels and short stories… More here.


Sustainability

Khunapong Khunaraksa

Sustainability Finalist

Khunapong Khunaraksa is an energetic advocate for sustainability and social impact in Asia, and has dedicated his career to solving the region’s toughest sustainability issues in water sanitation and plastic pollution. He has pioneered sustainable market-based models to address the intersection of environmental, social, and financial barriers to build inclusive and circular economies. Programs that he built and contributed to have now improved the lives of millions in Asia…  More here.

Craig Leeson

Sustainability Finalist

Craig Leeson is an award-winning filmmaker, journalist, presenter and entrepreneur, on a mission to end single-use plastic within a generation. He is the executive producer, director, writer and narrator of landmark global documentary A Plastic Ocean (2016), which documents the devastating global impact of plastic pollution on people and the planet. This year, he released his much anticipated follow-on film, The Last Glaciers; the most comprehensive film ever produced… More here.

Nicole Rycroft

Sustainability Awardee

Nicole Rycroft has been transforming unsustainable supply chains to save the world’s forests for over two decades. As founder and Executive Director of award winning environmental not-for-profit, Canopy, Ms Rycroft works with some of the world’s biggest publishing, print and fashion companies to introduce sustainable solutions for the manufacture and distribution of everyday products. More here.


Social Impact

Rachel G. Barnard

Rachel G Barnard

Social Impact Finalist

Rachel G. Barnard is a social practice artist who uses art to divert young people out of the criminal justice system. In 2011, Ms Barnard founded Young New Yorkers (YNY), an arts diversion program for teens being prosecuted as adults in criminal courts. To date over 1500 young people have been sentenced to make art at YNY instead of jail or other adult sanctions, and most participants have their adult criminal cases dismissed and sealed. More here.

Rachel Davis

Social Impact Finalist

Rachel Davis is a passionate advocate for human rights who has played a critical role in shaping the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The Guiding Principles have set the benchmark for how business must operate in a human rights context around the world. Today, as co-founder of New York based non-profit Shift, Ms Davis continues to influence the way those principles are implemented across industries, communities and geographies. More here.

Frances Voon

Social Impact Awardee

Frances Voon is a global human rights leader who has dedicated her life to advancing the rights of refugees. As Executive Manager of UNSW’s Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, Ms Voon provides strategic leadership at the world’s first centre for international refugee law, with the aim of placing evidence and principle at the centre of what remains a divisive topic of public and policy debate. More here.


Asia Impact

Anuradha Gupta

Asia Impact Awardee

Anuradha Gupta is a global health leader whose work has saved the lives of millions of children in communities around the world. As Deputy CEO of Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, she led the push to identify ‘zero-dose’ children, aiming to ensure all children have access to critical immunisation and no one is left behind. Her leadership has resulted in 81% of children now having access to immunisation in Gavi-supported countries… More here.

Dr Hum Gurung

Asia Impact Finalist

Dr Hum Gurung is a relentless conservationist dedicated to ensuring communities are placed at the centre of environmental sustainability. He has dedicated his professional life to promoting environmental conservation and has become a respected ambassador for conservation between Nepal and Australia. In this capacity, he has provided and continues to seek opportunities to strengthen professional and volunteer engagement… More here.

Noni Purnomo

Asia Impact Finalist

Noni Purnomo is one of South-East Asia’s most influential business leaders and is a champion of education for all, with a strong focus on supporting female entrepreneurship. Ms Purnomo is the President Director of Bluebird Group Holding as well as the founder of Bluebird Peduli, a philanthropy division of Blue Bird Group. More here.


Our past GameChangers 2012 to 2021 can be found on our GameChangers page.