Rob Eley

Rob Eley is a Chartered Biologist, Chartered Scientist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology for whom he is the Secretary to the Australasian Branch. For two decades Rob's research was on the reproductive physiology of cattle and non-human primates. Since 2003 his research focus has been in the health sciences and specifically emergency medicine.

Rob's tertiary education started in the UK where from 1969-1973 he completed a BSc Hons at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) in Agriculture/Animal Production. This was followed over the period 1973-1980 with MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Florida. His postgraduate research projects were on reproductive physiology and endocrinology of cattle during pregnancy. In 1980 he joined the Department of Physiology within the Veterinary School at the University of Nairobi teaching physiology to veterinary and animal science students.

From 1982 to1992 Rob was employed at the Institute of Primate Research (IPR), National Museums of Kenya. Initially he was Head of Reproduction and thereafter Chief of Research. IPR was the host body to primatologists working in Kenya and had a large biomedical research programme undertaken with funding from WHO, EU and NIH. The research focus was on the menstrual cycle of non-human primates as models for human reproduction and on care and management of captive primates.

Whilst at IPR Rob also oversaw development of a large capacity building program establishing departments of parasitology and virology as well as a programme of training for technical staff. During his tenure at IPR Rob established the first animal care and use committee (forerunner to institutional ethics committees) in East Africa and supported development of six other committees in other Kenyan national institutes. During his tenure at IPR was a co-director of the Kenyan National Centre for Research in Reproduction.

In 1992 Rob joined the Nairobi-based International Laboratory for Research in Animal Diseases (ILRAD) as Education Officer. ILRAD, a member of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research, merged with the International Livestock Centre for Africa in 1997 to become the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Rob remained with ILRI employed as Education Officer overseeing training of staff and postgraduate students hosted by the centre. Additional responsibilities included the position of chair of the animal care and use committee overseeing research predominately in Ethiopia and Kenya, but also in institute sites in Zimbabwe and Nigeria. Whilst at ILRAD/ILRI Rob was a founder member and Secretary of the Nairobi Cluster of Research Institutions and Secretary of the sub-Saharan Inter-Centre Training Group.

In 2001 Rob returned to the UK as Academic Coordinator for the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) Engineering Centre based at Loughborough University. The LTSN role provided support to academics in over 100 British universities in order to improve the provision of learning and teaching in higher education.

At the end of 2003 Rob and his wife came to Australia where from 2004 to 2012 Rob was a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Rural and Remote Area Health (CRRAH), jointly badged centre of the University of Southern Queensland and the University of Queensland. Research at CRRAH was directed to enhance the health of rural and remote people in Australia by project research and by supporting the work of health policy planners, health workers, and consumers through consultancy work and project management.

From 2012 to the present Rob has been employed as Academic Research Manager to the Emergency Department at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH). His position is conjoint between the PAH (Queensland Health) and the University of Queensland’s Faculty of Medicine. Rob’s responsibilities include conducting research, interacting with internal and external collaborators, and initiating funding applications. For five years (2015 – 2020) Rob also held the position of Postgraduate Coordinator for the Southside Clinical School.

Rob has an extensive publication record during his active research periods (1973-1992, 2004-present). This includes more than 140 peer-reviewed journal articles and books, book chapters, conference proceedings, research reports to government and industry, annual reports and popular articles.

He has additional experience in the organisation of five international conferences; consultancies for FAO/IAEA; supervision of postgraduate students; external examiner of BVM, BSc, MSc, and PhD students; reviewer of papers for over 20 refereed journal; and reviewer of competitive grant applications.