Despite vast geographical distance, The U.S. and Australia have enjoyed over 80 years of strong diplomatic relations.
80 Years of mutual understanding and camaraderie.
80 years of research collaborations and expertise sharing.
The long history of research collaborations between the U.S. and Australia has continued through Fulbright foreign exchange scholars, who conduct research exchange across the U.S. with other participating countries including Australia.
Fulbright exchange partnerships are more than just research projects, they present the opportunity for:
• exchanging research cultures between countries
• Launching technology development through identifying technology use cases globally,
• Fostering long term relations and trust between host and exchange organizations through development of a global network web.
The HYPER Lab’s fresh chapter in its’ new building coincides with the arrival of the first Fulbright scholar from Australia to the lab, Liam Turner.
Although Liam arrived in Pullman for the first time a few weeks ago, he is already a key player in the future of hydrogen energy and research here at Washington State University. Throughout his 10 month visit to the Hyper Lab, Liam will learn the bleeding edge of HYPER’s liquid Hydrogen experimental techniques. He aims to utilize this insight to kick-start the Australian cryogenic Hydrogen industry, to accelerate the uptake of Hydrogen as a clean energy fuel globally. Washington State is no stranger to Australian connections, especially Liam’s hometown. First Mode, for example, has locations in Seattle as well as Perth.
Liam grew up in Perth, Australia, an area known for its booming resource industry focusing on oil, gas, and mining. With close exposure to the energy industry, Liam hungered to develop a sustainable energy vision of Australia, where Hydrogen, made from renewable energy could be distributed to growing world population centres.
Two years prior to Liam’s graduation in 2021 with a Bachelor’s of Science in chemical engineering from Curtin University, he attended a liquid Hydrogen energy conference hosted by Eric May. After listening to Jacob Leachman, the WSU HYPER lab director, give his keynotes speech the course of Liam’s education changed and a passion for liquid hydrogen energy blossomed. Since then, Liam has stayed in touch with HYPER’s blog posts and has been an active mentor on numerous hydrogen projects in his own undergraduate and postgraduate work.
“Australia’s world leading expertise in large scale liquefied natural gas storage could marry with the United States’ expertise in liquid Hydrogen to propel large scale liquid hydrogen energy use in both countries.”
Liam is currently pursuing his PhD in liquid hydrogen storage at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, where he is experiencing a more fast-paced and urban environment. Here, the industry of his home town integrates with the cultural diversity of Melbourne; where a key emphasis of Hydrogen technology development is its seamless integration into our society.
While working at HYPER, Liam’s project aims to understand how liquid Hydrogen boil off can undergo the Para-Ortho quantum state transition to act as a refrigerant for bulk liquid Hydrogen transportation ships. This application of the Para-Ortho state transition will be investigated using the Cryo-catalysis Hydrogen Experimental Facility (CHEF) to measure the kinetics of the Hydrogen conversion process.
Through developing Australian sovereign cryogenic Hydrogen expertise, Liam intends to explore how liquid Hydrogen infrastructure can enable other cryogenic technologies such as liquid air energy storage. Through emerging cryogenic industries, Liam hopes that cryogenics is embraced as a school of thought for tackling problems rather than just a static skillset.