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Nick joined the School in January 2008. He completed his under-graduate degree (Human Movement Studies) and PhD at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. His first post-doctoral position was at Liverpool Hope University College, UK where he lectured in Exercise Science (1997-2001). Prior to moving to UQ he was a Senior and Principal Lecturer in Exercise Science and Health within the Carnegie Faculty, Leeds Metropolitan University.

Research Interests:

Nick is an internationally recognised expert in measuring, understanding and influencing occupational physical activity, sedentary behavior, health and productivity. Recent funded work has included leading multi-disciplinary teams in developing and testing innovative health solutions for office workers, truck drivers and veterans. Nick regularly presents to international conferences and academic groups, provides consultancy services to industry, and supervises PhD and other post-graduate projects.

Associate Professor Sjaan Gomersall is Associate Director and Principal Research Fellow at the Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation at School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences and a Teaching and Research academic in Physiotherapy at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland. Established in 2022, the Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation (HWCRI) is a collaborative, co-funded research centre by The University of Queensland and Health and Wellbeing Queensland. The HWCRI combines world class research expertise in physical activity, nutrition and health at The University of Queensland, with the reach and capacity of Health and Wellbeing Queensland to integrate, deliver and evaluate evidence-based programs that provide scalable, equitable access to improve the health and wellbeing of all Queenslanders (and beyond).

Associate Professor Gomersall is an expert in physical activity, sedentary behaviour and health. Her research has focused on understanding, measuring and influencing physical activity and sedentary behaviour using a variety of methods and with a range of populations, with a focus on adults, the prevention and management of chronic disease and physical activity promotion in healthcare settings. Sjaan has a strong track record for multi-disciplinary collaborations and industry partnerships, with specific expertise in partnering with healthcare organisations to build capacity in research and physical activity behaviour change, to evaluate the impact of healthcare services and to co-design and test innovative solutions to gaps in service delivery. Dr Gomersall is a nationally and internally recognised leader in physical activity and health. She is the President of the International Society for Physical Activity and Health, Co-Lead and co-founder of the Physical Activity in Healthcare Special Interest Group for the Asia-Pacific Society for Physical Activity, a Consultant for Physical Activity for the World Health Organisation and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Activity, Sedentary and Sleep Behaviours.

Dr Ana Goode is an implementation scientist, with expertise in designing, implementing and evaluating broad-reach (e.g. telephone, SMS, digital) health behaviour change interventions in applied 'real-world' settings. Her program of research brings together training and research experience in health psychology, health promotion and public health.

Her work focusses on the adaptation and translation of evidence-based health behaviour change (e.g. physical activity, dietary change and weight loss) programs into practice at a local, state and national level. She has a particular interest in end-user and stakeholder engagement and design thinking.

She is currently the lead implementation scientist of the BeUpstanding program; an evidence-based online program to reduce sitting time in the workplace.

Within her role she leads the Healthy Lifestyle Consultancy group, where she provides knowledge leadership in health promotion, including consultancy and training services to workplaces, health providers and practitioners.

Genevieve is a Professor of Physical Activity and Health at the University of Queensland and an MRFF Emerging Leadership Fellow. Her research focuses on sedentary behaviour and physical activity in adults across the 24-hour day, including understanding impacts on health, wellbeing and performance, and the feasibility, acceptability and sustainability of modifying these behaviours in key settings and populations including desk-based workers and those with or at risk of type 2 diabetes. Co-design with stakeholders and end-users is embedded across her research program, which includes working with government, clinical, public health, private industry, not-for-profit, community and workplace partners in research and its’ translation into policy and practice. She leads the BeUpstanding program of research - an online workplace health and wellbeing initiative supporting teams of desk-based workers to reduce their sedentary time

Paul W. Hodges DSc MedDr PhD BPhty(Hons) FAA FACP APAM(Hon) is an National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership Fellow (Level 3), Professor and Director of the Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research (CIPHeR) at The University of Queensland (UQ). He is lead chief investigator on an NHMRC Synergy Grant that includes colleagues from the Universities of Queensland, Adelaide and South Australia, and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. Paul is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, which is a Fellowship of the nation’s most distinguished scientists, elected by their peers for outstanding research that has pushed back the frontiers of knowledge. He is also a Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science, and was made an Honoured member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association, their highest honour.

Paul is a recognised world leader in movement control, pain and rehabilitation. His unique comprehensive research approach from molecular biology to brain physiology and human function has led to discoveries that have transformed understanding of why people move differently in pain. His innovative research has also led to discoveries of changes in neuromuscular function across a diverse range of conditions from incontinence to breathing disorders. These observations have been translated into effective treatments that have been tested and implemented internationally.

Paul has received numerous national and international research awards that span basic and clinical science. These include the premier international award for spine research (ISSLS Prize) on five occasions; three times in Basic Science (2006, 2011, 2019) and twice in Clinical Science (2018, 2021). International awards in basic science include the SusanneKlein-Vogelbach Award (2010) and the Delsys Prize for Innovation in Electromyography (2009). National medical research awards include the NHMRC Achievement Award (2011). He has also received national community-based leadership awards including the Young Australian of the Year Award in Science and Technology (1997), Future Summit Australian Leadership Award (2010), and Emerging Leader Award (Next 100 Awards, 2009).

Paul is the Chair of the Terminology Task Force for the International Association for the Study of Pain, Chair of the Consensus for Experimental Design in Electromypgraphy for the International Society for Electrophysiology and Kinesiology and has been the Chair/Co-Chair for several major international conferences. He has led major international consortia to bring together leaders from multiple disciplines to understand pain.

Francois research focuses on the neural control of movement in health and disease. He has developed a neural framework based on the non-invasive recording of motor neurons to reveal the modular organization of movement control at the spinal motor neuron level. He has published >200 articles in peer-reviewed journals and received > 3 000 000 € funding. François received his PhD in human movement sciences from Aix-Marseille university (France - 2003). As Full Professor at Nantes Université (France), he led a research Lab until he moved to Université Côte d’azur (France), in 2021. He is an honorary fellow of the Institut Universitaire de France and an honorary professor at the University of Queensland (Australia) where he spent >5 years since 2011. François is currently Professor (full) in Human Movement Sciences at the University of Côte d’azur (Nice, France). Francois serves on the editorial board of Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology and Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sport. He is an expert for the Consensus for Experimental Design in Electromyography (CEDE) project, which is an international initiative which aims to guide decision-making in recording, analysis, and interpretation of electromyographic data.

Overview

Dr Adam Hulme studies complex adaptive systems and applies methods and models from the systems and complexity sciences to policy-resistant issues in various domains. His current interests lie in the areas of regional, rural and remote health and public health more broadly. Dr Hulme prefers to adopt a systems thinking or holistic perspective over a reductionist one, as doing so is to consider the whole system, or multiple interacting elements of it, as the primary unit of analysis. As an expert in systems modelling and analysis, Dr Hulme has applied an extensive list of over 20 qualitative and quantitative systems science approaches to address complex problems that threaten to disrupt performance and safety within various sociotechnical systems contexts. This includes the use of System Dynamics modelling and simulation, which is a relatively distinctive approach and practiced deeply by a select few inter/nationally. He is the #1 mid-career researcher in Australia (#10 nationally), for the topic ‘systems analysis’, placing him in the top 0.033% of 208,280 published authors worldwide on this topic (Expertscape).

Background

Dr Hulme is a Research Fellow and School Research Chair at Southern Queensland Rural Health (SQRH), Toowoomba, Queensland. He has qualifications in Sports and Exercise Science (BSc HONS; England), Health Promotion (MA; Australia), and obtained a PhD in Sports Injury Epidemiology and Systems Human Factors in August 2017 (Ballarat, Victoria, Australia). His doctoral program was completed at the Australian Collaboration for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention (Federation University Australia), which is recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a world leading research centre.

Following his PhD, Dr Hulme spent four years as a Post-Doctoral researcher at the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems (CHFSTS) at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC). In this role, he conceived, led, developed, and published the world’s first Agent-Based Model (ABM; complex systems microsimulation) of running injury causation in the sports sciences alongside an international multidisciplinary author team. Dr Hulme has also published multiple peer reviewed systems modelling and analysis applications to address various systems problems in leading international journals.

As a result of his achievements, Dr Hulme was offered employment as a full-time Research Fellow on an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery project though the CHFSTS. It was during this time that he worked on the theoretical development and testing of state-of-the-art systems-based safety management methods in an effort to overcome known limitations with traditional and reductive scientific approaches. Dr Hulme has applied systems-based risk assessment and incident analysis methods to multiple work domains, including defence, construction, healthcare, manufacturing, mining, sports, transportation (e.g., road, rail, aviation, maritime), and general workplace safety.

Current role

In his current role at SQRH, Dr Hulme is advancing the complexity science and systems thinking research agenda in the area of regional, rural and remote health. He is using conceptual-qualitative and computational-quantitative System Dynamics modelling to holistically map and analyse the behaviours that occur within complex rural health systems. Dr Hulme was recently awarded a highly competitive ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE 2024) to explore how climate change and extreme weather events may further impact the rural health workforce maldistribution crisis using systems science methodologies. He warmly welcomes collaborations with other researchers, both within and outside of the UQ network, and is readily available to discuss potential HDR projects that involve systems and complexity science applications to any problem in most domains.

Gregore is an epidemiologist whose research focuses on measuring and understanding 1) patterns of physical activity and sedentary behaviour across the lifespan; and 2) inequalities in population health. Gregore has been involved in various population-based cohort studies, including the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH) and the Pelotas (Brazil) Birth Cohort Studies. Before moving to Australia in 2018, Gregore had professional experience working on the Coordination of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Health Promotion in the Brazilian Ministry of Health. During his career, most of his work has involved multidisciplinary research, transitioning from an early focus on physical education to the behavioural epidemiology of physical activity.

The research focuses on the evaluation and management of neck pain from a physical therapy perspective

The research in the Cervical Spine and Whiplash Research Unit in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences has an applied clinical focus. Two models of neck pain are being investigated, idiopathic neck pain and neck pain following trauma. The research questions and investigates the possible physical and psychological processes underlying the pain and functional disturbances associated with neck disorders to better identify and quantify the impairments or disturbances in the sensory, muscle, sensorimotor and psychological systems.

Whiplash associated disorders

Processes associated with chronic whiplash associated disorders have been researched, identifying problems in the sensory, motor and postural control systems. A prospective study of prognostic indicators for whiplash from within 4 weeks of injury to recovery or chronicity (6 months post injury) identified sensory, motor and psychological processes associated with recovery and non recovery. A multicentre, international collaborative project is underway to test the sensitivity and specificity of these indicators. This research questions the current classification system for whiplash associated disorders. One RCT of management of chronic whiplash associated disorders has been completed. Currently an RCT is underway to test whether a pragmatic multi-professional management program for acute whiplash will lessen the incidence of transition to chronicity.

Cervicogenic headache

Research into cervicogenic headache has established the physical criteria which characterise cervicogenic headache. A specific pattern of articular and muscle impairment clearly identifies cervicogenic headache from other types of benign intermittent frequent headache with symptomatic overlap (eg tension-type headache and frequent migraine without aura). An RCT has been conducted to investigate the efficacy of physiotherapy treatment methods designed to address these impairments. Current research is investigating cervicogenic headache in the elderly.

Impairment in the neck muscle system and sensorimotor control

The nature of impairments in the cervical muscle system associated with neck pain is being researched. Impairments in the motor control of the deep and superficial neck muscles have been identified in cognitive, functional and automatic tasks. The changes appear to be generic reactions to neck pain syndromes regardless of aetiology. Two randomised controlled trials have been conducted testing the effectiveness of a specific exercise regime developed from this research. The possible physiological mechanisms underlying the effectives of different therapeutic exercise strategies are currently being researched to ensure best evidence-based practice in the field of therapeutic exercise for cervical disorders.

Dr Shelley Keating is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP) and a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Exercise Physiology at the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, University of Queensland. With a strong grounding in exercise metabolism and body composition, Dr Keating leads a program of research aimed at changing the way we prioritise, access and deliver lifestyle intervention for people with obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/ metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) and type 2 diabetes. Dr Keating holds qualifications in clinical exercise physiology BExSciRehab (Hon-1); MExSpSci (Clinical Exercise Science); PhD (Exercise Physiology) and over 15 years’ experience as an AEP developing, delivering, and disseminating exercise interventions in adults with obesity and related chronic diseases.

A life-long fascination in sciences provided me with the inspiration to graduate in exercise physiology (University of Sherbrooke, Canada, 2004), complete a PhD in physiology/biophysics (University of Sherbrooke, 2009) and continue in my current role as a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS) of The University of Queensland. I am a physiologist first and foremost with a particular interest in understanding how skeletal muscle cell normally functions so as to try and elucidate what changes or factors contribute to various forms of muscle weakness with ageing, inactivity or various chronic diseases.

During my previous postdoctoral appointment at La Trobe University (Melbourne, 2010-2017), I have gained considerable experience using the "mechanically skinned muscle fibre" technique in animal muscle. Importantly, I have developed this technique for the first time in human muscle which allows the exciting opportunity to investigate cellular mechanisms of muscle weakness in different clinical population. This is vitally important since most of our existing knowledge on muscle function comes from studies on muscles obtained from animal models. This technical breakthrough has been recognized by editorials of different leading scientific journals in the field of Physiology. I’m now a world recognized expert of this technique which has immense potential for examining any number of physiological questions and even allows for biochemical analyses of any protein of interest in the same cell.

Sheleigh Lawler is a health psychology expert, with research interests in understanding and intervening on health behaviours, particularly the psychosocial sequelae in relation to disease and intervention outcomes. Her breadth of knowledge across public health, health promotion and health psychology allows for a unique perspective, particularly on understanding the importance of communication. Her work involves multi-disciplinary teams of researchers, industry partners, and government organisations.

Dr Ming Li commenced with UQ’s School of Public Health in Jan 2024 as a Senior Research Fellow in cancer research under Prof Gail Garvey leading The First Nations Cancer and Wellbeing Research (FNCWR) program after a 16-year research in chronic disease epidemiology at University of South Australia. Her research is focused on understanding the impact of social and environmental factors on health-related behaviours and health conditions such as overweight and obesity, metabolic disorders, and cancer in children and adolescents and adults from different cultures in both developing and developed countries.

Ming has worked on projects on diabetes and cancer among the first nations peoples in the spectrum of prevention, treatment, complications and survival using linked data at national, state, and local level. Her research has a profound impact on developing guidelines, clinical practice, health policy, and health education. Ming has established sustained international and national collaborations and successful completion of master’s and PhD programs.

Ming is an overseas trained medical doctor and a high achiever at her PhD program and has received extensive training in epidemiological research methodology, nutritional epidemiology, clinical epidemiology, biostatistics, health education and promotion, social medical science at the University of Newcastle. Her multidisciplinary training provides the foundation for exploring the pathways of cancer and other chronic diseases and for developing effective approaches in tackling these health risks and improving the wellbeing of First Nations peoples.

Ming is working on funded projects including Healthy Hearts, CostMod, Canco, Synergy, and Blood Cancer with a growing passionate team comprised of PhD students and early to mid-career researchers.

Professor Mallett has enjoyed a distinguished career in elite coaching and academia. Prof. Mallett was an Olympic and World Championship medal-winning coach and won a National university teaching award (2011). In 2017, he was awarded the prestigious August-Wilhelm Scheer Professorial Fellowship at Technische Universität München (TUM) in Germany. He developed a world-renowned online program in sports coaching and consults nationally and internationally to many elite sporting organisations. Prof. Mallett is a leading international scholar in two broad and interrelated research areas - sport psychology and coaching; specifically:

Understanding the person-in-context

• Multi-layered understanding of the person-in-context (personality profiling of coaches and athletes)
• Motivation of elite coaches and athletes (Self-Determination Theory - SDT);
• Autonomy-supportive learning environments in sport (Self-Determination Theory - SDT);
• Mental toughness in elite sport (coaches and athletes).
• Players' leadership: A Social Identity Approach (SIA)

High Performance coach learning and development:

• How high performance coaches learn in the workplace;
• Coaches as sculptors, architects, performers and leaders.

In 2016, Professor Mallett led and completed an international research project examining what can we learn from some of the world's most successful coaches. Prof. Mallett was Chair and Co-Chair of the Research Committee for the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) from 2010-2019.

Background

Professor Cliff Mallett joined the School of Human Movement Studies in 2000 after a career in physical education and also in elite coaching as a National High Performance Coach in track and field with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and the Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS). He teaches undergraduate and graduate students and actively researches in the area of elite sport. Prof. Mallett regularly consults with elite coaches and athletes as well as coach developers in several national sporting organisations and international organisations.

Dr. Alejandro Melendez-Calderon has an interdisciplinary background in robotics and biomedical engineering with extensive experience in human augmentation technologies used in medicine (robotics, wearable devices) and computational approaches to understand human neuromuscular control (unimpaired, stroke and SCI population). He has over 19 years of experience gained in academic, clinical and industrial environments.

He leads the NeuroEngineering, Rehabilitation and Medical Robotics Lab at UQ, and is currently a Senior Lecturer within the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering and the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (affiliate) at the University of Queensland (Australia; Jan 2020-present). He is also a Principal Research Fellow at the Jamieson Trauma Institute, Queensland Health (Australia, Jun 2022-present) where he leads the Rehabilitaiton and Outcomes theme.

Work experience | Clinical - He was previously a Senior Research Scientist and acting Head of Technology at the cereneo Advanced Rehabilitation Institute / cereneo Center for Neurology and Rehabilitation (Switzerland; 2017-2019), where he led and conducted research in the area of neuromechanics of movement deficits after stroke. He was also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Northwestern University (USA; 2014-2020) and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago) (2012-2013), where he conducted research in cross-modal multisensory interactions and assessment of neuromuscular impairments. Medical industry - He led the areas of Robotic Hand Rehabilitation and Assessments, and work on adaptive control of robotic trainers (arm and legs) at Hocoma AG (Switzerland; 2014-2016), one of the world-leading manufacturers of robotic and wearable technologies for rehabilitation. Academic research - He was a Guest Researcher at ETH Zurich (Switzerland; 2016-2019), where he conducted research in biomechanics and motor control/learning. He received his PhD degree from Imperial College London (UK; 2007-2011) for research in robotics, rehabilitation and human motor control.

Interests | Dr. Melendez-Calderon has a scientific interest in understanding principled mechanisms of human behavior, in particular related to movement control/learning and physical interaction; his technical interests are in robotics and computational modeling for medical diagnostics, assistive applications & (bio)medical education.

I'm a researcher with interdisciplinary interests spanning social and biological sciences. I'm currently an ARC Future Fellow at UQ working on social and temporal dynamics of bone metabolism in humans. My technical expertise is in skeletal histology, which I have applied to a range of questions and samples across different disciplines, including bioarchaeology, biology, biomedicine, forensics, and palaeontology. What fundamentally unites all this research is understanding how the environment and societal structures impact skeletal growth and health. My research has attracted ~$1.7 mln in funding, including an ARC DECRA and Future Fellowship.

I am the current Editor-in-Chief of Anthropological Review, Review Editor of Human Bioarchaeology and Paleopathology (Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology), and Vice-President of the Australasian Society for Human Biology, In 2024, I was awarded the Trail-Crisp medal for outstanding contribution to microscopy as an essential tool for the study of natural history by The Linnean Society of London.

In my previous roles over the last 10 years I was a Martin & Temminck Fellow at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in The Netherlands; spent almost 7 years at the Australian National University in Canberra working as an ARC DECRA Fellow, Senior Lecturer, and Lecturer; and worked as a Research Assistant in medicine at Imperial College London. Until 2014, I spent about 8 years at the University of Kent in Canterbury completing a BSc Hons, PhD (2014), and PGCHE, and working in various teaching roles, including tutoring, lab demonstration, sessional lecturing, and lecturing. I was also previously Treasurer of the Australasian Society for Human Biology, Editor and Associate Editor of The Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, and Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports and Anthropological Review.