Sophie Hamel was honored with the Meheroo Jussawalla Research Award during the annual conference of the Pacific Telecommunication Council (PTC), which took place in Honolulu, Hawaii, from January 21st to 24th (PTC’24). Elizabeth Fife, co-chair of the PTC Research Committee and associate professor at the University of Southern California (USC), and Brian Moon, CEO of the PTC, were present during the award ceremony.

Sophie’s paper delved into an analysis of the geopolitical tensions between Australia and China and their impacts on the deployment of undersea fiber optic cables to the Pacific island nations.

The PTC, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the Pacific region, hosts this conference annually, bringing together professionals from industry, government, and academia. The award recognizes outstanding research papers and is open to researchers, educators, doctoral candidates, and post-doctoral scholars submitting unpublished single-authored papers.