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Cristián Maluk is a Senior Lecturer of Civil Engineering. His background is in structural fire engineering and in the broader scope of fire safety science. His research interests are in the fire performance of building construction materials and the resilience of structural systems during and after fire. Cristian has coordinated and contribute towards research studies in the fire safe design of structural concrete systems prestressed with fibre reinforced polymer tendons, heat-induced concrete spalling, performance of intumescent coatings under non-standard heating regimes, and developing novel fire testing methods.

Teaching and Learning

• Introduction to Fire Safety Engineering
• Fire Design for Implicit Safety
• Fire Dynamics Laboratory
• Structural Fire Engineering
• Introduction to Structural Design
• Engineering of Small Buildings

Awards

• Best Poster Award at the 10th International Conference on Structure in Fire (SiF), Belfast, UK, 2018.
• Recipient of the International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) Best Thesis Award “Excellence in Research” (years 2014-2016) to be presented during the 12th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science (IAFSS), Lund, Sweden, 2017.
• Finalist of the Best PhD Thesis Award from the International Institute for FRP in Construction (IIFC). Award competition took place during the Composites in Civil Engineering (CICE) conference to be held in Hong Kong, 2016.
• Recipient of the Thomas Howard Medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).
• Price for 2016 Best Paper in the Journal of ICE Construction Materials.
• Recipient of the Philanthropic Grants for Early Career Engineering Researchers from the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology, The University of Queensland.
• Best Paper Award at the 2nd Postgraduate Conference on Scotland Infrastructure and Environment, Edinburgh, UK, 2014.
• Best Poster Award at the 11th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science (IAFSS), Christchurch, New Zealand, 2014.
• Recipient of the John Moyes Lessells Scholarship from The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, 2013.
• Recipient of the Training School Travel Grant for Young Researchers on Integrated Fire Engineering and Response (COST TU0904) – Key Issues for the Future of Fire Engineering, Naples, Italy, 2013.
• Best Poster Award at the 10th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science (IAFSS), Maryland, USA, 2011.

Dr Mason began at The University of Queensland in late 2014 after holding academic positions at The University of Sydney and QUT. Prior to joining UQ he also worked as a catastrophe risk researcher for the industry-focused research centre, Risk Frontiers at Macquarie University. Matthew’s key areas of interest and expertise lie in the fields of:

• Wind Engineering
• Stochastic modelling of hazards, including convective storms and tropical cyclones
• Probabilistic modelling of structural and infrastructure vulnerability to wind, water and hail
• Catastrophe loss modelling for natural hazards
• Modelling and observation of the atmospheric boundary layer
• Wind tunnel testing and analysis
• Disaster insurance

Dr Mason is currently the Chair of the Standards Australia wind loading sub-committee responsible for maintenance of AS/NZS1170.2.

Dr Olivia Mejías González is the group leader of the Mine Waste Transformation through Characterisation (MIWATCH) group at the W. H. Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre (BRC) within the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI), and Research Fellow in the ARC Training Centre for Critical Resources for the Future (CCRF).

Olivia is a geologist/geometallurgist (MSc, PhD) with 14 years of combined industry and research experience, including her PhD research, applying geochemical and mineralogical characterisation throughout the mining value chain, from exploration and production geology to geometallurgy, across both ore and mine waste materials.

Throughout these years, she has gained valuable experience leading, developing, and applying geometallurgical approaches to Cu-Mo porphyry ores; advancing geochemical studies in Co-rich IOCG systems; and understanding the biogeochemical cycling of In in anthropogenic environments and its implications from a resource-recovery and environmental perspective, particularly in mine wastes derived from Cu-Sn granite-related and Cu-Au VMS deposits, and surrounding creek systems.

She has been growing her expertise across a range of analytical techniques, including LIBS, automated mineralogy (QEMSCAN, MLA and MAPS Mineralogy), LA-ICP-MS, synchrotron-based XFM and XAS, atom probe tomography, and geochemical modelling.

Olivia is a dedicated and collaborative researcher who is passionate about characterising mine waste materials, with a focus on identifying potential metals, critical minerals, and other recoverable products to support sustainable mine waste reprocessing, using an industry-driven research approach to make outcomes transferable and applicable. If you are interested in these topics and keen to collaborate or explore research and industry problem-solving opportunities together, please get in touch!

Dr. Partha Narayan Mishra obtained his PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Queensland, Australia in 2020 with the Dean’s Award for Outstanding HDR theses. He was conferred with the Institute Gold and Institute Silver Medals from National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India during his graduation with a dual degree (B.Tech. Hons. In Civil Engineering and M.Tech. in Geotechnical Engineering) in 2015.

Research

Partha is a Geotechnical Engineer and researcher with research interests in the arenas of improvement of soft soils, behaviour of unsaturated soils, electromagnetic characterisation and monitoring of soil processes, biomediated geotechnical engineering and clay barrier systems in hazardous waste disposal facilities. Outcomes of his research have been summarised in 30+ technical articles in top tier international journals, conferences, and book chapters. In academic and research space, Partha has worked as a summer research fellow at IIT Guwahati, India (2013) and at IIT Madras, India (2014), research scholar at IIT Madras, India (2015-2016), casual academic/research assistant in Civil Engineering at UQ, Australia (2016-2020), adjunct lecturer in Civil Engineering at UQ, Australia (2020-cont.) and at UCSI university, Malaysia (2020-2021).

Industry

As a practicing engineer, he has worked on several projects pertaining to tailings storage facilities (TSFs) in Australia and overseas. His industry experience comprises of working as a consulting geotechnical engineer with Klohn Crippen Berger (KCB Australia) (2020- 2021) and as an owner’s engineer with Rio Tinto Aluminium (2021-2022). Through these roles he has developed an intimate understanding of the challenges encountered in engineering, operation, and management of TSFs, some of which he aims to address through his research.

Teaching

Partha has co-supervised 1 PhD, 1 masters, 2 bachelors and 3 summer research thesis to completion at UQ. He currently advises 2 PhD and 5 masters students. He has co-delivered Advanced Soil Mechanics (CIVL4230) at UQ in 2021. He has also tutored Fundamentals of Soil Mechanics (CIVL2210) and Geotechnical Engineering (CIVL3210) at UQ from 2016 - 2020. In 2020, Partha initiated the ‘Lecture Series on Advancements in Geotechnical Engineering: from Research to Practice’ (AGERP) in collaboration with Professor Sarat Das. The AGERP lecture series is a pro-bono attempt towards disseminating the coupled learnings from academia and industry on several key topics in Geotechnical Engineering. The AGERP lecture series has reached to participants (academics, practicing engineers and students) from over 125 countries. More on the AGERP initiative is here: https://www.age-rp.com/. Partha was conferred with fellowship (2021) and associate fellowship (2019) from the Higher Education Academy, UK for his teaching portfolio benchmarked against UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) for teaching and supporting learning in higher education.

Service

Partha is a member of the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS), the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE), the Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS) and an associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He regularly reviews technical articles (50+ so far) for top tier international journals in the discipline such as Geotechnical Testing Journal, Acta Geotechnica, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering etc. Partha was the President of UQU association of postgraduate students (2016-2017) and chair of the annual conference of the EAIT faculty of UQ (2017-2018). He has also sat in the UQ library advisory committee (2018) and student experience committee of UQ academic board (2017).

Dr. Saeed Mohammadian is a postdoctoral research fellow in Transport Engineering. His primary research is on understanding freeway traffic flow dynamics and their safety implication with a special focus on the role of human factors. As part of his doctoral work, he has conducted critical meta-research on the state-of-the-art of macroscopic traffic flow modelling, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The central part of his doctoral thesis develops unifiable mathematical models of traffic flow dynamics and rear-end crashes and presents new insight into the role of human factors on complex traffic phenomena and traffic safety.

His main work at UQ involves conducting research on driver interactions with connected and automated vehicles and studying the implications for both congestions and crashes. He is currently involved in several research projects related to freeway traffic flow modelling and control and safety assessment. His research outcomes can be explicitly utilized in traffic control research for moving towards faster and safer roads.

David Morrisset joined the School of Civil Engineering in November 2024 as a Lecturer in Fire Safety Engineering. Prior to his appointment at UQ, Dr Morrisset completed his PhD in Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. His research interest cover a broad range of fire safety and combustion science related topics including material flammability, fire testing, fire performance of timber, lithium-ion batteries, combustible cladding, and advanced measurement techniques (e.g., laser diagnostics). In addition to his research experience, he also has experience working as a fire safety engineer in both the United Sates and Australia.

Dr. Nguyen’s research interests are in the areas of ocean energy converters and large floating structures. He has developed numerical methods for analysing the interaction between ocean waves and several marine structures (large floating platforms, wave energy converters and floating breakwaters). He is working on: (i) attaching perforated/porous elements (such as perforated plates) to floating structures for increased safety and cost-effectiveness; and (ii) developing floating platforms for farming seaweeds.

Dr. Eric O.Ansah is a hydrometallurgist with geochemistry expertise focused on developing sustainable solutions for enhanced metal extraction and improved mine closure outcomes. His research integrates innovative technologies to advance eco-efficient mineral processing and mine waste repurposing.With extensive expertise in geochemistry, hydrometallurgy, and heap leaching, Eric has a proven track record in technology development. As part of BHP’s Think & Act Differently (TAD) Essential Minerals Cohort, he pioneered protonated brine lixiviant technology for copper heap leaching, stemming from his PhD research at the University of Melbourne on coupled chalcopyrite dissolution and reprecipitation. This work has driven advancements in sustainable metal extraction.

Eric’s research and projects encompass:

• Metals: Copper, gold,zinc, cobalt, uranium, rare earth elements (REE) etc.
• Applications: Metallurgical research, plant operations, and translating laboratory innovations into industrial applications.
• Focus: Sustainable heap and in-situ leaching, mine waste management through reuse and repurposing, and mineral carbonation for environmental benefits.

His interdisciplinary approach bridges research and industry, delivering solutions that balance economic and environmental goals. Eric collaborates globally to innovate mineral processing technologies, ensuring efficient resource recovery and responsible mine closure.

Anwar joined the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland in mid 2023 as a lecturer in Fire Safety Engineering. His background is in Structural Fire Engineering, including numerical simulation for performance-based engineering, large-scale analysis of structures in fire, and application of AI and data science for real-time risk mitigation. Anwar has several years of teaching and academic experience in Hong Kong, where he managed and took part in keystone projects including SureFire: Smart Urban Resilience and Firefighting, and the Integrated Safety Engineering knowledge transfer initiative.

Dr Ottenhaus is a structural engineer and senior lecturer, with expertise in design of timber connections. Their research interests encompass the theory, analysis, design and performance of timber connections, including detailing for timber durability. Dr Ottenhaus and their team research offsite timber construction using both engineered wood products and light timber framing, design for adaptability, disassembly and reuse, and reversible timber joints.

As part of the ARC Advance Timber Hub, Dr Ottenhaus co-leads Node 3 on Extending Building Life, and project 1.2 on timber connections. They serve as a committee member of TM-010 (Australian Standards technical committee on Timber Structures and Framing), and a steering committee member of the Australian Timber Construction Educator Network.

Dr Ottenhaus has been an invited speaker at the prefabAUS Offsite conference, the Brisbane Architecture and Design Festival, the International Holzbau Forum (Innsbruck, Austria) and has been interviewed by the Guardian, ABC Radio, Built Offsite, and the Holzmagazin.

See Google Scholar page

Research achievements other than research outputs

Dr Pedroso is an expert in numerical and computer methods for solid mechanics and materials modelling. He has a strong background in tensor calculus, partial differential equations, computational geometry, and computer programming, among other topics. Dr Pedroso has been developing methods to model the mechanical behaviour of porous media including mixtures of solids, liquids and gases. Dr Pedroso has also developed new methods in molecular dynamics to model solids and granular assemblies. Therefore, his research work is quite multi-disciplinary but revolves around computational engineering and mechanics.

Dr. Pedroso received the highly prestigious Argyris Lecture Award of 2016 from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, which is internationally recognized. The Argyris Lecture is the top award for experts working on Modeling and Simulations, in particular, with the Finite Element Method (FEM), because Prof Argyris is a pioneer of the FEM. Today, this method is the most attractive for approximating the solution of partial differential equations with complex geometries and boundary conditions. One key aspect that the committee considered in the award was the innovative papers on new techniques for porous media, such as a new method to handle unilateral and variable boundary conditions for the interface between liquid and gases within porous media.

Journal Reviews

Dr Pedroso is an expert in computational mechanics for porous media and optimisation and is reviewing papers for top journals such as Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, Nature: Scientific Reports, Computers and Geotechnics, Geotechnique Letters, Advances in Engineering Software, Journal of Engineering Mechanics ASCE, Computer Physics Communications, International Journal of Plasticity, Soils and Foundations, Advances in Structural Engineering, Engineering Structures, among others.

Research Grants Reviewer

Dr Pedroso is an Australian Research Council (ARC) reviewer for DPs, DEs and LPs. He is also a reviewer for th Hong Kong Research Grants Council HK-RGC

Conference Services

Dr Pedroso has organised the 1st Workshop on New Advances on Computational Geomechanics in Australia in 2008 and the 5th Workshop on New Frontiers in Computational Geotechnics in 2010. Both in Brisbane, Australia.

Ilje Pikaar received his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science (2004) and Master of Science in Environmental Technology (2006) from the Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He received his PhD degree in Environmental Engineering in 2012 from The University of Queensland, Australia.

Ilje Pikaar expertise involve the areas of environmental electrochemistry, the global nitrogen cycle, sewer corrosion, next generation sludge management, metal recovery, integrated urban water management and resource recovery with a special focus on nitrogen recovery and production of microbial proteins. Central theme in his international oriented research approach is to conduct high-quality research and extrapolate fundamental knowledge and scientific discoveries to real life applications and development of innovative technologies.

In the past 8 years, Ilje Pikaar has obtained signification funding, including 7 ARC projects as chief investigator. He also played an important role in the development in the CRC Blue Economy, a 10-year AUS$50 million dollar project (https://blueeconomycrc.com.au/). Equally important, his work on integrated urban water management led to a first author publication in the prestigious journal Science. In 2018, his work on the re-engineering the global nitrogen cycle was awarded the prize of best feature article of 2017 in the esteemed journal Environmental Science and Technology. He has also published in other prestigious journals such as Nature Food and The Lancet Planetary Health. Overall, he has published over 40 peer reviewed articles with an average impact factor of his publications of 8.51, which is quite uniquely considering his field of research.

From 2015 to 2019, Ilje Pikaar was the secretary of the International Water Association (IWA) Cluster of Resource Recovery from Water. As the secretary of the cluster for resource recovery from water of the IWA, Ilje Pikaar has been very active in organizing international conferences and workshops and other IWA related activities. Since 2019 he is the co-chair of the cluster. He was the co-chair of the 3rd IWA Resource Recovery from Water Conference in Venice (8-12 September 2019).

Since January 2018, Ilje Pikaar is board member of the International Waste Working Group (IWWG). The IWWG is the leading organisation in the field of solid waste management globally. Since September 2018 joined the editorial board of Waste Management, the leading scientific journal dedicated to solid waste management, as Associate Editor, handling over 100 manuscripts annually. In 2020, he was the handling guest editor of a special edition on 'Resource Recovery from Water' in Water Research. Moreover, in October 2020 he joined the Early Career Editorial Advisory Board of Environmental Science and Technology. Lastly, Dr. Pikaar has signed a book contract with the IWA publishing for the development of a graduate entry masters textbook on Resource Recovery from Water. The expected publication date of this book will be mid 2021. Finally, he is a managing program committee member for the bi-annual Resource Recovery from Water conferences of the International Water Association.

Carlo Prato is Professor in Transport Engineering at the School of Civil Engineering of The University of Queensland. He has a PhD from the Politecnico di Torino in Italy where he approached the study of travel behaviour by focusing on route choices of car drivers. It is his natural curiosity and passion for behavioural modelling that drives his research into understanding what makes people behave the way they do as pedestrians, cyclists, public transport users, and car drivers.

His research also looks at how people value congestion and reliability of transport systems, react to legislation trying to make their journeys safer, and accept and/or adapt (or not) to novel technologies and mobility solutions. Carlo contributes to the advancement of science in a cross-disciplinary environment by presenting his work in international conferences and publishing his contributions in prestigious journals as well as serving as a reviewer and editorial board member of journals spanning from engineering to psychology and medicine. Recently, Carlo has been named Associate Editor of Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, the journal of the International Association of Applied Psychology.

Prior to joining UQ’s School of Civil Engineering at the beginning of 2016, Carlo worked at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology – and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) where he became Professor in 2013. During his time at DTU, he received the 2014 Pyke Johnson Award from the Transportation Research Board of the U.S. National Academies for the best paper in planning and environment at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board: “Estimating value of congestion and value of reliability from the observation of route choice behavior of car drivers” with Thomas K. Rasmussen and Otto A. Nielsen.

Most recently, Carlo was the recipient of the 2017 Partners in Research Excellence Award from The University of Queensland for his work in the partnership with the Port of Brisbane that aims at developing port growth. Awardees for the partnership were also Dr. Alistair Grinham from the School of Civil Engineering, Dr. Peggy Schrobback from the School of Economics, and Mr Rob Nave, General Manager of Infrastructure and Environment of the Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd. The project is to futureproof Brisbane’s largest multi-cargo port in terms of sustainability, transport and economy, regionally and globally.

In 2016, Carlo was invited to join the UQ Self-Assessment Team for the SAGE pilot of the Athena SWAN program, which The University of Queensland is part of in order to address and improve gender equity in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) disciplines. He is also a member of the equity and diversity group at the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT).

Carlo has about 90 peer-reviewed journal papers and over 130 reviewed conference contributions and a coming book with publisher Taylor & Francis Group that will bring him back to his initial interests in traffic: “Route Choice Behaviour and Traffic Assignment Models”.

Currently working as a Senior Research Officer/Lab manager of the Geomechanics Engineering Centre lab at UQ. Currently in projects related to instrumentation and long term monitoring of drying and wetting cycles of large scale columns with tailings or soil. Over 10 years of experience testing mechanical, physical and chemical properties of soil and tailings. Specific experiences in consolidation, direct shear, triaxial, SWCC, sensor instrumentation and characterization tests.

PhD student at the school of Civil Engineering

Mehdi Serati completed his PhD at The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) through The University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane, Australia in Geotechnical Engineering. His core research expertise is in the design and setup of advanced equipment and experiments to test rocks and brittle composites. His area of work is analytical and experimental methods of geotechnical problems, materials testing, rock mechanics, and rock fracture mechanics. He is also the Deputy Manager of the internationally-recognized Large Open Pit Project, which is a collaboration funded by mining companies worldwide aimed at addressing critical gaps in the current understanding of rock slope failures and landslides in large open pit mines (see also https://www.lopproject.com/).

Dr Adnan Sufian completed his PhD at UNSW Sydney, spending one year as a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the University of Queensland, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Imperial College London and has also worked as a geotechnical engineer with SMEC Australia. Dr Sufian's field of research is in the area of multi-scale and multi-phase mechanics of granular materials. His research aims to develop tools and guidelines so that geotechnical engineers can better handle, manipulate and construct with granular materials, and this can lead to innovative solutions to geotechnical issues surrounding the development of urban infrastructure. He is also interested in understanding natural phenomena associated with granular geomaterials such as landscapes affected by erosion, mass movement of materials in landslides, and mitigating the spread of contaminants in subsurface flows. Dr Sufian has strong expertise in the development of novel, efficient and rigorous multi-scale computational modelling techniques, including the Discrete Element Method, Computational Fluid Dynamics and Network Models, with a core focus on the interaction of water with soil particles. His research is naturally multidisciplinary and he currently collaborates with physicists, mathematicians and engineers to uncover emergent phenomena from the collective behaviour of granular particles.

Denys Villa Gomez holds a joint appointment at the University of Queensland as Senior Lecturer at the School of Civil Engineering and as a Research Fellow at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. She obtained her PhD at the world-leading institute’s IHE-Delft/Wageningen University, The Netherlands in 2013. She applies advanced methodologies such as omics approaches and micro spectral tools to develop biotechnology processes that reduce carbon emissions and recover resources from mine waste and wastewater. She is the leader of the key area “Synbio Mining” within the recently created UQ Biosustainability Hub and chief investigator at the ARC Training Centre in Critical Resources for the Future. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers cited more than 500 times, and has served as editor and reviewer for leading journals and advisory roles in industry and scientific committees (e.g. International Mine Water Association).

Teaching and Learning:

• Course coordinator and lecturer for Introduction to Environmental Engineering (CIVL2135)
• Course coordinator and lecturer for Environmental Phenomena (ENVE3160)
• Lecturer in Integrated Design for Environmental Management (CIVL4516)
• Lecturer in Sustainable Built Environment (CIVL4180)