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 Assistant, Indo-Pacific Development Centre

Ahmed Albayrak is a Research Assistant in the Lowy Institute’s Indo-Pacific Development Centre. Prior to joining the Lowy Institute, he completed a Master of Environmental and Resource Economics degree at the Australian National University where he specialised in economic modelling. His research interests include structural transformation, energy transition and climate change policy. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne.

Research Editor

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

Research Fellow, Pacific Islands Program

Aid to Pacific Islands, Pacific development policy, Pacific women’s development, Pacific Island politics, remittances.

Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre

Public finance, debt management and crisis, poverty and inequality, growth and emerging markets

Deputy Director, Indo-Pacific Development Centre

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

Research Assistant, Pacific Aid Map

Gilliane De Gorostiza is a Research Assistant at the Lowy Institute working on the Pacific Aid Map. Her research interests include foreign policy in Asia and the Pacific, nowcasting, and identifying sources of persistent changes in macroeconomic and financial conditions.

Prior to joining the Institute in 2023, Gilliane worked as an Economic Researcher at the Asian Development Bank, where she contributed to ADB's flagship publication, the Asian Development Outlook (ADO), and a range of Knowledge and Support Technical Assistance (KSTA) projects. She also gained valuable experience working in various Philippine government agencies, including the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), the House of Representatives — Ways and Means Committee, and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Gilliane holds an MSc in Industrial Economics from the University of Asia and the Pacific in the Philippines and is currently completing her PhD in Economics at the University of Sydney.

Research Assistant, Southeast Asia Aid Map

Jia Deng is a research assistant working on the Lowy Institute Southeast Asia Aid Map project. She has a PhD in International Relations and in 2018 was a Visiting Fellow at the Coral Bell School, Australian National University.

Research Associate, Pacific Aid Map

Pacific Islands aid and development; development finance

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

Director, Pacific Islands Program

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

Project Director, Digital Threats to Democracy Project; Research Fellow, 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

Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre

Climate change policy, climate finance, climate change implementation and evaluation

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.

FDC Pacific Fellow

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

Dr Hilman Palaon is a Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute in the Indo-Pacific Development Centre. His work focuses on digital economy issues in the Indo-Pacific region. Hilman has extensive experience in government, development, engineering, fintech, digital platform, audit and consulting, and academia. He has previously worked for Ernst & Young, USAID, TNP2K (the Indonesian Government's National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction), Gojek/GOTO, and the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge. He has also worked as a consultant/adviser for the Asian Development Bank, MoneyGram, Eachmile Technologies, Novus Technologies, and Protiviti.

Hilman holds a PhD in Management Science from the Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia. He studied in Germany and Spain for his postgraduate degrees: Process Engineering and Energy Technology at the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven, Global Management at the University of Applied Sciences Bremen, and International Marketing at the University of Valencia. His undergraduate degree is in Electrical Engineering from the University of Indonesia. His research interests are the digital economy, economic empowerment, financial inclusion, and technology innovation.

Director, Southeast Asia Program

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.

Data Analyst, Asia Power Index

Statistics

Project Director, Australia-PNG Network

Australian foreign policy in the Pacific; Australia-PNG relations; geopolitics in the Pacific; Melanesia; 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

Australian defence policy; military capability; military history

Research Associate, 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.

2023 Michael and Deborah Thawley Scholar in International Security

International Space Law and International Law and Technology

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

US politics, US foreign policy

Nonresident Fellow

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

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

Russian foreign and security policy; Sino-Russian relations

Nonresident Fellow

Southeast Asian security; violent extremism; international law and cyber-security

Nonresident Fellow

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

Nonresident Fellow

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

Nonresident Fellow

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

Nonresident Fellow

China; Chinese foreign and domestic policy; Chinese development policy

Operations staff

Chief Operating Officer
Executive Officer
Digital Producer
Reception and Events Assistant
Head of Media and Communications
Head of Partnerships
Director, Events
Office Manager
Financial Accountant