Fellowship recipient to study in Prato

20 August 2004

Strategy analyst Mr Val Chow has been awarded the $5,000 Bruce McComish Research Fellowship in Economic History to undertake research in Prato, Italy.

Mr Chow, will take up his fellowship during 2005 at the Monash University Centre in Prato. He intends to explore the origins of Italian regionalism using the techniques of new economic geography.

"The fellowship will significantly enhance my research credentials and represents a fantastic opportunity to conduct applied field-work in one of the hottest areas of current economic research," a delighted Mr Chow said.

The research fellowship is an initiative of the Bruce McComish Fund for Economic History, created in the Trinity College Foundation at the University of Melbourne in 2002 by Mr Bruce McComish, businessman and author of Antilogic: Why Businesses Fail While Individuals Succeed.

The fellowship provides for the support of either a post-graduate student or a more established scholar undertaking research in economic history, based at the Monash University Centre in Prato, Italy.

Mr Chow, who has an arts degree and a first-class honours degree in commerce, has recently submitted his PhD thesis on the origins of the Thai financial crisis. He has worked as a senior markets officer at the ANZ Bank, and on assignment as an economist in the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance. Until recently he was an assistant lecturer in Monash University's Department of Economics, but is now a strategy analyst at Accenture.

The Warden of Trinity College and chair of the selection committee Professor Donald Markwell said he was delighted that a scholar of such outstanding potential would be assisted to undertake research in economic history.

"This is made possible through the generosity of a donor committed to encouraging work in this important but often neglected field," he said. "The fellowship is also a good example of practical co-operation between the University of Melbourne and Monash University."

The Director of the Prato Centre, Professor Bill Kent, also welcomed the joint initiative, which uses the Prato Centre to foster outstanding research of benefit to Australia as a whole.

Details of the fellowship may be found at the fellowship website.

For more information contact Mrs Rosemary Sheludko, Director of Communications, Trinity College, the University of Melbourne on +61 3 9348 7148 or email rsheludko@trinity.unimelb.edu.au, Ms Diane Squires, media communications Monash University, on +61 3 9905 5828,or email diane.squires@adm.monash.edu.au or Mr Val Chow on +61 3 9543 8950.