People

The Lowy Institute has a core of highly credentialed research staff and nonresident fellows. It also draws on external partners and invites leading international figures to participate in the Institute's activities.

Experts

Executive Director

Australian foreign policy; US politics and foreign policy; Asia and the Pacific; Global institutions

Director of Research

Strategy and geopolitics; global governance; Australian foreign policy; Southeast Asia; Data analysis

Research Associate, Indo-Pacific Development Centre

Macroeconomics; structural transformation; energy transition; Southeast Asia; economic development.

Research Associate

Southeast Asian politics and economic security.

Research Editor

Australian foreign policy news; long-form research publishing on strategy, security, geopolitics and economics.

Deputy Director, Indo-Pacific Development Centre

Politics and economics in Asia and the Pacific; Aid and international development policy.

Research Fellow, Pacific Aid Map

Pacific Islands aid and development, development finance, sovereign debt, China’s foreign assistance and overseas lending

Managing Editor, The Interpreter

Australian foreign policy and politics; Australia’s intelligence services; international relations in Asia

Research Associate, Indo-Pacific Development Centre

Climate adaptation, foreign aid and finance, decarbonising development

Program Director, Transnational Challenges

Terrorism and violent extremism; digital technology; disinformation; authoritarianism; national security; emergency management and countering violent extremism; crisis and natural disasters; radicalisation; counterterrorism; policy; Middle East; US national security

Senior Fellow for East Asia

China’s political system and the workings and structure of the communist party; China’s foreign relations, with an emphasis on ties with Japan, the two Koreas, and Southeast Asia; Australia’s relations with Asia.

Director, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program

Australian foreign policy and public opinion, climate change and sustainability, multilateral diplomacy, China and Hong Kong.

Project Director, Australia–Papua New Guinea Network

Climate change, national security, PNG governance and politics, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, and broader international relations across the Pacific region.

Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre

Digitalisation, digital economy, economic development and empowerment, innovation and technology, social welfare

Research Associate, Transnational Challenges Program

James Paterson is the Research Associate for the Transnational Challenges Program at the Lowy Institute. He holds a PhD from Monash University where his research focuses on insurgent dynamics and legitimacy.

Deputy Research Director and Program Director for Southeast Asia

Indo-Pacific strategy; Australian foreign policy; Southeast Asia.

Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre

Climate change, including climate change adaptation, loss and damage, international policy, and climate finance; and small island developing states

Lowy Institute Lead Economist; Director, Indo-Pacific Development Centre

International economic policy; Asia Pacific economies; macroeconomics; economic development; aid and development finance; globalisation; geo-economics.  

Director, International Security Program

Australian foreign and defence policy, China’s military forces, US defence and foreign policy, drones and other military technology. Also, trends in global democracy.

Senior Fellow for Military Studies, International Security Program

Russia-Ukraine war; military history and strategy; advanced technologies

Data Analyst, Asia Power Index

Statistics

Director, Pacific Islands Program

Australian foreign policy, geopolitics in the Pacific, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, conflict analysis and fragile states.

Research Associate, Southeast Asia Aid Map

Foreign aid, global development finance

Senior Fellow, Southeast Asia Program

Macroeconomic policy; economic reform; the role of financial institutions in economic development; Myanmar; Indo-Pacific

Research Associate, International Security Program

Australian defence policy; military capability

Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre

International economics and political economy, geoeconomics, growth and development, macroeconomics

Research Fellow, Southeast Asia Program

Southeast Asian defence and security

Nonresident Fellows

Nonresident Fellow

Bill Bishop an entrepreneur and former media executive with more than a decade’s experience living in and working in the PRC. He writes the Sinocism Newsletter, a daily publication about China, that is read by thousands of paid subscribers around the world. He also cohosts the weekly Sharp China podcast. Since leaving Beijing in 2015 Bill has lived in Washington DC. In the late 1990s he co-founded MarketWatch.com and before that got a BA from Middlebury College and an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS. Bill first lived in Beijing in the Spring of 1989, then the Fall of 1991 to the Summer of 1993, then 2005-2015.

Nonresident Fellow

Papua New Guinea; The Pacific Islands region; Australia's foreign correspondents

Nonresident Fellow

Political and strategic developments in East Asia; transnational security issues; intelligence; Australian national security and defence

Nonresident Fellow

Australian economic policy; monetary policy; international economics; banking

Nonresident Fellow

Indonesian foreign policy; Indonesian democratization; ASEAN and regional political and security issues

Nonresident Fellow

History and strategy of warfare.

Nonresident Fellow

Japan's foreign policy; Australia-Japan relations; Japanese foreign aid

Nonresident Fellow

Rising powers and the global security order

Nonresident Fellow

International security; defence and security; Chinese defence policy

Nonresident Fellow

International economic policy, economic and financial development, productivity growth, social policy and evaluation

Distinguished Fellow for International Security

Rose Gottemoeller is the Lowy Institute’s 2025 Distinguished Fellow for International Security. She is currently the William J Perry Lecturer at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Prior to this, she served as Deputy Secretary General of NATO from 2016 to 2019 and was Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the US State Department. In 2009 and 2010, she was chief US negotiator of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with the Russian Federation, due to expire in 2026.

Nonresident Fellow

Regional economic integration; Australia's economic relations with East Asia; international financial flows and the global financial architecture; financial sector development in East Asia

Nonresident Fellow

Politics; economics; foreign policy

Nonresident Fellow

Pacific Islands politics; Pacific Islands economic and social development; governance; statebuilding

Nonresident Fellow

Indian foreign policy, politics, economics, and society

Nonresident Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre

Rob Jauncey is a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute, with a background in Pacific and international development issues.

As the inaugural chief investment officer of the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific from 2019 to 2023, Rob built a A$1.5 billion portfolio of sovereign and private sector investments across the region. Prior to that, Rob spent almost 20 years with the multilateral banks. As the Asian Development Bank regional director based in Suva from 2014 to 2018, Rob ensured ADB became Fiji’s largest external financier and secured the first Green Climate Fund grant for the Pacific. Coordinating the World Bank’s engagement across a range of Pacific countries from 2009 to 2014, Rob mobilised a significant increase in financing for Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu, as well as the first bank funding for Kiribati, RMI and Tuvalu. From 2000 to 2009, Rob worked at the World Bank in Washington DC coordinating engagement with the Western Balkan countries and as an advisor to the Managing Director.

Rob started his career in AusAID in 1990, managing programs in PNG and the Pacific, as First Secretary at the Australian embassy in Lao PDR, and in a variety of corporate policy roles.

Nonresident Fellow, Pacific Islands Program

Pacific Islands development and security, resource management, human security and resilience. 

Nonresident Fellow

Russian foreign and security policy; Sino-Russian relations

Matthew Newman is the 2025 Michael and Deborah Thawley Scholar in International Security at the Lowy Institute and Center for Strategic and International Studies. His research will focus on the utility of geopolitical risk advisory to enhance Australian private sector resilience and preparedness. During his time in the United States, Matthew will explore the evolution and expansion of geopolitical services and how they can be replicated in an Australian setting.

Matthew is currently a Surface Warfare Officer in the Royal Australian Navy, and his career has included operational postings to HMA Ships Newcastle, Maitland and Ballarat as well as roles in Navy Headquarters in Canberra. In 2023, Matthew was awarded a General Sir John Monash Scholarship and completed postgraduate study in international relations and public policy at both the London School of Economics and University of Oxford.

He has written extensively on international affairs, exploring topics such as the uptake of climate security in the Australian and United States militaries, sub-national actors in Australia's diplomatic order, and the geopolitical implications of the conclave.

Nonresident Fellow

Pacific and PNG; international development assistance; international health challenges; global issues impacting on indigenous peoples

Nonresident Fellow

Jane Perlez is a former longtime foreign correspondent for The New York Times. She was Beijing bureau chief and correspondent for The New York Times from 2012 to 2019. Before that she served in Pakistan, Indonesia, Poland, Austria and East Africa. She was part of the reporting team that won the Pulitzer in 2009 for reporting on Afghanistan and Pakistan. From 1998 to 2001, she was Chief Diplomatic Correspondent based in Washington, DC.

Ms. Perlez is now producing and hosting the award winning podcast Face-Off: US vs China. She is a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School where the podcast is based. Her colleague, Rana Mitter, distinguished historian of modern China, joins Ms Perlez in every episode. Soon to enter its third season, the podcast aims to deliver informative and interesting discussion for a non-specialist audience. She has made two other podcasts on China and the US.

Ms. Perlez graduated from Sydney University BA (Hons). She first visited China in 1967 during the Cultural Revolution on a trip organized by the National Union of Australian University Students.

Nonresident Fellow

International politics; US foreign policy; European Union; globalisation; Southeast Asia

Nonresident Fellow

China; Chinese foreign and domestic policy; Chinese development policy

Nonresident Fellow

US foreign policy and grand strategy; President Donald Trump's worldview; Europe; Asian security

Operations staff

Chief Operating Officer

Amy Dobbin is the Chief Operating Officer at the Lowy Institute. She leads the finance and operational functions at the Institute including business development, events, media and communications, and is company secretary. 

Amy was previously a senior policy adviser to Australian Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull, responsible for legal, technology, media and telecommunications policy. She has also worked as a commercial lawyer at global law firm Allens Linklaters, and as an executive with a UK venture firm and an Australian technology company. In 2020, Amy was appointed as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development by the Australian Government and completed a posting with UNICEF in Ghana as a legal adviser. She graduated in arts and law from the University of Sydney, and studied at London Business School, where she received a Master of Business Administration.

Event and Media Assistant
Head of Media and Communications
Head of Partnerships
Events and Program Manager