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.

Project Director, Australia-Papua New Guinea Network

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

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

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

Senior Fellow, Pacific Islands Program

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

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.

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.

Senior Fellow for Military Studies, International Security Program

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

First Nations Fellow

Laura is a proud Ngemba women who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Criminology from the University of New England. A career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Laura has occupied a range of policy roles within the department in Canberra, including on Taiwan, counter-terrorism, and development assistance. Laura most recently served as the Deputy Director (equivalent to a Second Secretary) at the Australian Office in Taipei.

Laura is on secondment from DFAT as the Lowy Institute First Nations Fellow. Views and opinions expressed during this fellowship are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian government.

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 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.

2024 Michael and Deborah Thawley Scholar in International Security

Joshua Armstrong is the 2024 Michael and Deborah Thawley Scholar in International Security at the Lowy Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. His topic for the fellowship is US-China nuclear deterrence and arms control. His research interests include the domestic political drivers of China’s foreign policy, the history of Sino-Western relations, and nuclear strategy more broadly.

Joshua is an Assistant Director in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, currently responsible for leading the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations’ work on improving Australia’s China capability. He previously managed its track 1.5 and 2 dialogues. Prior to joining DFAT, he was a Warfare Officer in the Royal Australian Navy and Research Assistant to former Prime Minister the Hon John Howard OM AC. He holds degrees in International Relations and Chinese from the University of Sydney and a Master of Strategic Studies from the Australian National University.

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, 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

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

China; Chinese foreign and domestic policy; Chinese development policy

Operations staff

Chief Operating Officer
Executive Officer
Event and Media Assistant
Head of Media and Communications
Head of Partnerships
Events and Program Manager