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They’re two of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world – and for Dr Jack O’Sullivan, the journey to attending both Oxford and Stanford universities began with his time at Bond.
Dr O’Sullivan, who graduated from Bond in 2013 with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, was recently admitted to US-based Stanford’s medical residency program, alongside only 60 other doctors from around the world.
The honour marks a continuation of Dr O’Sullivan’s time at Stanford, which began in November 2018 with a job as a post-doctoral researcher.
He’d spent the previous three years at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, completing his PhD and working clinically at the university’s hospitals after being awarded a Clarendon Scholarship.
Dr O’Sullivan said he felt privileged to have achieved the unique double of attending both Oxford and Stanford, but was also grateful for the connections he made at Bond.
“Oxford was fantastic, I think as well as my formal research education, I think it’s a fantastic place to be a student, I was surrounded by passionate students, supervisors, people that were broadly interested in numerous facets of the world, and that sort of really sparked my research interest.
“Stanford is equally exciting but is probably a little more focused on innovation, and it’s been interesting to see how new medical innovations are both developed and then implemented into practice.
"Stanford has a real energy for new things, brave ideas, I’ve enjoyed myself," he said.
“I feel very lucky first and foremost, it’s been really amazing to learn so much from quite brilliant people around me.
"One thing I definitely feel strongly about is the people I surrounded myself with at Bond, both the people within the medical school but also my many friends outside the medical school, I think a lot of people I met there had an equally diverse outlook on life in terms of their aspirations for their career.”
Dr O’Sullivan’s work at Stanford will see him rotate through different internal medicine specialties including cardiology, oncology, and general medicine.
He plans to do that for two years before sub-specialising in clinical cardiology for three years, including a research year. Long-term, his goal is to practice cardiology while setting up a lab to run a group supervising and conducting research.
While there’s some 11,000 kilometres between the Gold Coast and Stanford’s manicured campus lawns, Dr O’Sullivan says his links with Bond University remain strong.
“I do feel an affinity towards Bond and the Gold Coast, and I’m in regular contact with people from the medical school and outside the medical school, I think many of the people from the medical school I’m in touch with have achieved a lot, they’ve done some amazing things.
“I’m really grateful for the sense of community I felt at Bond, I think it does a really good job, not only educating Australia and other parts of the world, not only doctors but other healthcare leaders, but I think the group of friends that I made through the environment the university creates…I hold very fond memories and I still have lifelong friendships.
“The people I surrounded myself with, medical or non-medical, I think also shared an approach to life that was slightly less conventional, I think my road from medical school to where I am now is slightly less conventional, and I think the people I was surrounded by had a lot to do with that.”