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Janet R. McColl-Kennedy is Professor of Marketing, UQ Business School, and Lead, Innovation Pathways Program, FaBA, Trailblazer Universities program, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Multi-award winner Professor McColl-Kennedy is an Honorary Visiting Professor and Fellow, Cambridge Service Alliance, Institute for Manufacturing, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK. Research Collaborators | Cambridge Service Alliance.

Janet embodies scholarly excellence. She is an elected Fellow of the prestigious Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) from 2022 for her distinguished contribution to social sciences. She is also a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) having "demonstrated outstanding contributions to the Academy and also demonstrated eminence in the Marketing discipline through research, scholarship, education and leadership". Fellows — ANZMAC. Given her expertise in Service Innovation, Professor McColl-Kennedy is an appointed Ambassador for the International Society of Service Innovation Professionals (ISSIP) https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-society-of-service-innovation-professionals-issip-/posts/?feedView=all

In 2024 Professor McColl-Kennedy was appointed to the Australian Research Council (ARC) College of Experts based on her exemplary sustained track record of obtaining and leading her teams to the successful completion of their programs of research. https://www.arc.gov.au/about-arc The ARC College of Experts plays a very important role for the ARC and the research community more broadly. Appointees assign external assessors and help rank and moderate ARC grant applications that have been submitted under the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP). They also assist with recruitment of new assessors and provide advice for peer review reforms to the ARC. This appointment is recognition of her international standing and contributions to research both in Australia and internationally.

In 2025 she was awarded the Christopher Lovelock Career Contributions to the Services Discipline Award. This highly prestigious award is presented annually by AMA SERVSIG to the individual whose teaching, research and service have had the greatest long-term impact on the development of the services discipline. Contributions to the services discipline should be significant, frequent, and include recent contributions. 2025 Christopher Lovelock Award Winner – SERVSIG

Professor McColl-Kennedy was recognised in the "Highly Cited Researcher Awards for 2021", released by Clarivate™. This outstanding achievement is for those who are pioneers in their field, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for the field and year in the Web of Science™. In 2023 and 2024 she was ranked in the World's Best Business and Management Scientists by Research.com. https://research.com/scientists-rankings/business-and-management/au

Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy has made a significant research contribution to the discipline of Marketing, specifically in her research area of “Services”. With over 240 publications (98 international refereed journal articles, 22 book chapters/books, 27 industry articles, white papers and reports, 14 workbooks and 81 international refereed conference papers/abstracts), Professor McColl-Kennedy is not only a leading senior marketing academic in Australia, she is internationally recognised as a leading researcher in Service Science. Her research interests focus on customer experience management and measurement, the role of digital technology, AI, customer insights and choice preferences. She has particular expertise in health care services. Professor McColl-Kennedy is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of researchers mentoring over 20 PhD and honours students.

Janet leads several cross disciplinary and international research teams, obtaining over $93.7 million in competitive research grants, including 20 years of continuous funding from the prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC).

She has a H index of 64 (Google scholar) 46 (Scopus) and over 23,387 citations (Google Scholar).

Professor McColl-Kennedy has held several senior leadership positions in the UQ School of Management and UQ Business School, including Marketing Discipline Leader for 10 years from 1996 to 2005, Research Director, UQ Business School from January 2006 to June 2008 and from April 2009 to January 2010, Director International in the School of Business from January to December 2010 and Associate Director, Research (Engagement and Impact) in 2019, the Founding Co-Lead of the Service Innovation Alliance Research Hub from 2018-2025 and appointed Director of Research again in January 2020 until January 2023.

Professor McColl-Kennedy has held Visiting Professorships at Indiana University, USA, Bocconi University Milan, Italy, University of New South Wales, Sydney, and University of Cambridge, UK.

Professor McColl-Kennedy’s work consistently appears in prestigious journals in her field such as the Journal of Retailing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Service Research, Harvard Business Review, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management and Industrial Marketing Management.

In recognition of her international research reputation she is an inaugural member of the Advisory Board of the Cambridge Service Alliance, University of Cambridge, UK, a global alliance between leading businesses and universities. Founded by Cambridge University Institute for Manufacturing and Judge Business School, the Cambridge Service Alliance was formed in 2010 and is designed to bring together some of the world’s best firms and researchers devoted to delivering today the insights, education and approaches needed for the Complex Service Solutions of tomorrow. For more information on Cambridge Service Alliance see http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/service/.

Her latest work focuses on measuring and managing customer experience (CX) See https://managementink.wordpress.com/2018/12/21/gaining-customer-experience-insights-that-matter/

• Appointed to the Advisory Board of CTF Service Research Center, Karlstad University, Sweden from 2012 ongoing. Global companies on the board include Ericsson, Tetra Pak, Volvo and IKEA.
• Appointed to the Internationally Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB), Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), Norway from 2014 -2022.
• Appointed as Academic Scholar, Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures, Cornell University, New York, USA, 2016 -2019.
• Appointed Research Faculty in the Center for Service, Arizona State University, USA in 2018 ongoing.

RESEARCH AWARDS

* April 2024 – Ranked in 2024 World's Best Business and Management Scientists. (See World's Best Business and Management Scientists: H-Index Business and Management Science Ranking in Australia 2024 | Research.com). Ranked second top Marketing Professor in all of Australia.

* June 2023 - Received the inaugural Bo Edvardsson Industry Impact in Services award, QUIS18, VinUniversity, Hanoi, Vietnam.

* November 2022 – Elected Fellow of the Academy of The Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA) https://socialsciences.org.au/

* June 2020 – Awarded highly commended paper. Finalist (with two others) for the 2019 Journal of Service Research best paper award.

[McColl-Kennedy, J.R., M. Zaki, K. Lemon, F. Urmetzer and A. Neely (2019), “Gaining Customer Experience Insights that Matter”, Journal of Service Research, 22, 1, pp.8-26.]

* December 2019 awarded the 2019 University of Queensland Business School's “Research Team Engagement Award" for outstanding achievement in research - Service Innovation Alliance (SIA) interdisciplinary research group.

https://business.uq.edu.au/service-innovation-alliance

*July 2019 – “Robert Johnston Highly Commended Paper award of 2018”. “Awarded for your outstanding research” by the Journal of Service Management Editorial Review Board. Award presented at Frontiers in Service Conference, 19 July 2019, Singapore.

[Bolton, R., J.R. McColl-Kennedy, L. Cheung, A.S. Gallan, C. Orsingher, L. Witell, M. Zaki (2018), “Customer Experience Challenges: Bringing Together Digital, Physical and Social Realms”, Journal of Service Management, 29, 5, pp. 776-808.]

* November 2018 - Awarded the Cross-Discipline Research Award by the UQ Business School for outstanding achievement in research (29 November 2018).

* September 2018 - "the most influential marketing academic in Australia". Professor McColl-Kennedy is named "the leading researcher in the field of Marketing in Australia", "Australia’s Research Field Leaders” The Australian, 26 September, 2018, page 12.

* June 2017 - Best Article Finalist – “Highly Commended Paper of 2016” Journal of Service Research article.

[Patterson, P. G., M. K. Brady and J.R. McColl-Kennedy (2016), "Geysers or Bubbling Hot Springs? A Cross-cultural Examination of Customer Rage From Eastern and Western Perspectives, Journal of Service Research, 19, 3, pp. 243-259.]

* February 2016 – “Highly Commended Paper of 2015”. Short listed for the Journal of Service Management (JOSM) - 2015 - Robert Johnston Award with two others).

[McColl-Kennedy, J.R., P.G. Patterson, M.K. Brady, L. Cheung and D. Nguyen (2015), “To Give or Not to Give Professional Services to Non-paying Clients: Professionals’ Giving Backstory”, Journal of Service Management, 26 (3): 426-459.]

* October 2015 our paper Bolton, R.N., Gustafsson, A., McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Sirianni, N.J. and Tse, D.K. (2014), “Small Details that Make Big Differences: a Radical Approach to Consumption Experience as a Firm's Differentiating Strategy”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 253-274 made it into the top 20 most cited Marketing articles since 2011 list.

* March 2015 - Highly Recommended paper - Short listed (in the top four best papers) for the best 2014 article in Journal of Service Management."As of November / December 2014 , this highly cited paper received enough citations to place it in the top 1% of the academic field of Economics & Business based on a highly cited threshold for the field and publication year." Source: ISI Web of Science.

[ Bolton, R.N., Gustafsson, A., McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Sirianni, N.J. and Tse, D.K. (2014), “Small Details that Make Big Differences: a Radical Approach to Consumption Experience as a Firm's Differentiating Strategy”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 253-274.]

* March 2013 - Highly Recommended - Short listed (in the top five best papers) for the best 2012 article in Journal of Service Research. [McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Vargo, S.L., Dagger, T.S., Sweeney, J.C. and van Kasteren, Y. (2012). “Health Care Customer Value Cocreation Practice Styles”, Journal of Service Research, Vol.15, No. 4, pp. 370-389 – the lead article.]

* 2011 Appointed Fellow of ANZMAC (Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy) since 2011, having “demonstrated outstanding contributions to the Academy and also demonstrated eminence in the Marketing discipline through research, scholarship, education and leadership”. https://anzmac.org/fellows/

* 2011 Winner of the Distinguished Researcher Award (Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy). “This is an annual award for a member of the ANZMAC community judged to have made the most significant contribution to advancing our knowledge of marketing through their research”.

* 2011 Short listed (with two other papers) for the Accenture Award. The award is given each year to the author(s) of the article published in the California Management Review in 2009 that has "made the most important contribution to improving the practice of management". [Patterson, P.G., McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Smith, A.K. and Lu, Z. (2009), “Customer Rage: Triggers, Tipping Points and Take-Outs”, California Management Review, Vol. 52, No. 1, pp. 6-28.]

* 2011 “Outstanding author contribution” winner, Emerald Literary Network, Award for Excellence for 2010 chapter "Service encounter needs theory: A dyadic, psychosocial approach to understanding service encounters". [Bradley, G.L., McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Sparks, B.A., Jimmieson, N.L. and Zapf, D. (2010), “Service Encounter Needs Theory: A Dyadic, Psychosocial Approach to Understanding Service Encounters”, in Zerbe, W.J., Härtel, C.E.J., and Ashkanasy, N.M. (Eds.) Research on Emotion in Organizations, Volume 6: Emotions in Creativity, Learning, and Change, Emerald Group Publishing/JAI Press, Bingley, UK, pp. 221-258.]

* 2010 Honorable mention - Short listed for best "Services" article published in 2009 by AMA SERVSIG [McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Patterson, P.G., Smith, A.K. and Brady, M. (2009). “Customer Rage Episodes: Emotions, Expressions and Behaviors”, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 85, No. 2, pp. 222-237.]

* 2010 Awarded best paper in AMJ [Tombs, A.G. and McColl-Kennedy, J.R. (2010), “Social and Spatial Influence of Customers on Other Customers in the Social-servicescape”. Australasian Marketing Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 120-131.]

* 2009 Best paper award 2009 EIASM Naples Forum on Service, Capri Italy (McColl-Kennedy et al 2009)

* 2008 Best paper award 2008 ANZMAC conference (McColl-Kennedy and Patterson 2008)

* 2003 Best paper award European Marketing Conference (EMAC) 2003

* 2001 Best paper award AMA SERVSIG Conference 2001

MAJOR GRANTS – Leads cross disciplinary international research teams

*2022-2024 ARC Linkage Projects Grant [LP2102000586] [$1,258,024 including $596,349 cash ($496,349 cash from ARC and $100,000 cash from partner organisations)] “Transforming Primary Healthcare Service Delivery: A Digital-Human Approach” Team: (Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy (Lead CI), UQ Emeritus Professor Mieke van Driel Kalwun Health Service, Associate Professor Lisa Hall UQ School of Public Health, Professor Damian Hine UQ GCI/QAAFI, Dr Mohamed Zaki Cambridge Service Alliance, The University of Cambridge, Dr Christoph Breidbach UQ Business School, Ms Tracey Johnson CEO Inala Primary Care and Adjunct Professor Paresh Dawda)

*2016-2022 ARC Discovery Projects Grant [DP160100421] [$330,000] “Modelling Multidimensional Multiparty Decisions to Improve Outcomes for Customers and Service Providers: New Theory and Measurement Tools” (Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy (Lead CI), Assoc. Professor Len Coote, Professor Claire Wainwright, (UQ Medical School) Professor Scott Bell (UQ Medical School), Professor Michael Brady, Florida State University)

*2015-2021 ARC Linkage Projects Grant [LP150100629] [$1.1 million including $180,000 from ARC] “Examining the Effectiveness of Patient-centred Practices on Health Outcomes” (Professor Pennie Frow Uni of Sydney (Lead CI), Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy, UQ, Professor Adrian Payne UNSW, Dr Rahul Govind UNSW)

*2011-2015 ARC Discovery Projects Grant [DP110102312] [$350,000] 'Pro Bono Service: Drivers, Delight, Dark Side and Downside for the Professional' (Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy (Lead CI), Professor Paul G. Patterson UNSW, Professor Michael K. Brady Florida State University and Dr Doan Nguyen The University of Queensland.)

*2008-2010 ARC Discovery Projects Grant [DP0879469] [$220,000] 'Balancing the needs of customers and employees following service failure: A dyadic psychosocial approach' (with Graham Bradley and Beverley Sparks, Griffith University; Nerina Jimmieson, University of Queensland; and Dieter Zapf , Frankfurt University.)

* 2007-2012 ARC Linkage Projects Grant [LP0775220] [$116,000] "Customer Co-production in Ongoing Health Service Delivery: A Longitudinal Study' (Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy UQ (Lead CI), Dr Tracey Dagger, University of Queensland, Professor Jill Sweeney, University of Western Australia, Bev Mirolo and Maryanne Hargraves, Haematology and Oncology Clinics of Australasia Pty Ltd).

* 2006-2008 ARC Discovery Projects Grant [DP0664410] [$240,000] "Customer Rage Spectrum Emotions in Service Failure Encounters: Linking Experience, Expression, Behaviour and Organisational Responses" Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy UQ (Lead CI), Professor P.G. Patterson, University of New South Wales, Associate Professor A.K. Smith George Washington University, USA, Professor M.K. Brady (Florida State).

* 2004-2007 ARC Discovery Projects Grant [DP0450736] [$210,000] "'The Impact of Customer-Focused Business Strategies on Organisational Performance in a Professional Service Context" (Assoc Professor J. Sweeney University of Western Australia (Lead CI), Professor G. Soutar, University of Western Australia and Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy UQ).

TEACHING

Professor McColl-Kennedy brings a wealth of experience from over 30 years of teaching at university level. She has taught classes at both the undergraduate level and postgraduate level, as well as undertaking executive training, across all modes of delivery including intensive, weekend, and weekly modes. She has taught in Australia, Singapore, Beijing, China, Seoul, Korea, Milan, Italy and in the USA.

Awards: 2020 Excellence Award in Blended Learning – Team Award UQ Business School

Awarded to: Master of Leadership in Service Innovation Team comprising of Assoc Professor David Solnet, Ryan Waters, Darren Mead, Carrie Finn, Anna Black, Elizabeth Sara Dominguez, Buddy Nuku, Michelle Goward, Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy, Dr Teegan Green, Assoc Prof Tim Kastelle, Assoc Professor Pierre Benckendorff, Dr Russell Manfield, Dr Ida Asadi Someh, Assoc Professor Nicole Hartley, Ms Daniela Berg, and Dr Richard O'Quinn.

She has a sustained track record of high teaching evaluations in executive teaching and masters courses including MBA.

Professor McColl-Kennedy has supervised 50 masters dissertations and 15 PhD students to successful completion. Professor McColl-Kennedy has examined PhD theses from the University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales, University of Sydney, University of Auckland, Macquarie University, Sydney, and Griffith University, among others.

• Dr Nguyen is a Lecturer in Robotics at the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland. His research focuses on advancing autonomous robot capabilities in complex, large-scale environments through 1) principled and scalable fusion of complementary sensing modalities with distilled prior knowledge from learning processes for localisation & mapping, and 2) cooperative strategies for multi-robot systems. These research directions address challenging scenarios such as inspection, exploration, and manipulation, where robust localisation & mapping form a solid foundation upon which collaborative schemes can unlock new levels of efficiency and scalability.
• Dr Nguyen was previously a Research Assistant Professor at the Centre for Advanced Robotics Technology Innovation (CARTIN), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), following the Wallenberg–NTU Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship, where he led collaborative research efforts between NTU and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. He received his PhD from the School of EEE, NTU, with the best thesis (Doctoral Innovation Award) in 2020. He graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) from Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology in 2014. He is an active member of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), and is currently an Associate Editor of IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) in the area of Localisation & Mapping.

Dr Huy Nguyen is a biostatistician and epidemiologist whose 25+ year career has spanned clinical medicine and advanced quantitative research across Vietnam, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. He trained as a medical doctor at Thai Nguyen and Hanoi Medical University, before completing postgraduate qualifications in statistics, research methods and public health at Flinders University and a PhD in Statistical Modelling and Epidemiology at Queensland University of Technology, for which he received the Outstanding PhD Thesis Award. He has held academic and biostatistics roles at Hanoi Medical University, St Luke's International University, the University of Adelaide, Griffith University, and Federation University Australia, and currently serves as Senior Research Fellow (Biostatistics) at the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, University of Queensland, with honorary and adjunct appointments at Federation University, St Luke's, UMass Chan Medical School, and Mekong University.

Huy's research focuses on the design and statistical analysis of clinical trials and large observational studies, with particular expertise in causal inference, longitudinal and survival modelling, and Frequentist and Bayesian methods applied to chronic and infectious disease epidemiology. He has served as statistician or statistical/technical advisor on seven clinical trials (six ANZCTR-registered) – most recently as Technical/Statistical Advisor on the Wellcome Trust-funded E-Dengue cluster-randomised trial to reduce dengue incidence in Vietnam's Mekong Delta – and has contributed statistical expertise to over 30 funded research projects supported by the NHMRC, NIH, CDC, and Wellcome Trust, including NIH/Fogarty-funded non-communicable disease research and training in partnership with UMass Chan Medical School.

He has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed articles in international journals – including The Lancet, eClinicalMedicine, The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, PLOS Medicine, and Cardiovascular Research.

Huy has supervised 1 postdoctoral fellow, 6 PhD candidates (2 completed, 4 in progress), 25 Master's students, and 17 Honours/Bachelor students.

I study the risks from advanced AI and the policies that could reduce them. As an Associate Professor of Psychology at UQ and an Affiliate Researcher at MIT FutureTech, I run large, transparent studies that help governments and the public understand where AI is heading. My team built the Survey of AI Risk (SARA), the largest study of how Australians perceive AI, and co-authored the MIT AI Risk Repository, a public catalogue of AI hazards cited in the International AI Safety Report (2024) and Australia's proposal for mandatory AI guardrails.

I make this analysis rigorous, but translate it in ways people can understand. For over a decade I have built systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and structured expert elicitations, including a Delphi study of 272 experts mapping AI risk across 24 subdomains. My current work grades frontier labs' safety frameworks against emerging law, tracks dangerous-capability progress, and benchmarks AI risk against the safety standards other industries already accept. I also chair Effective Altruism Australia, which directs over AU$7.5 million a year to cost-effective global programs.

Research interests

Reducing catastrophic risks from AI. Four priority risks drive the work: sudden loss of control, gradual disempowerment as decisions are delegated to AI, concentration of power, and misuse by rogue actors. I focus on which mitigations experts agree on and what would tell us a risk is rising.

Mapping and measuring AI risk. Through SARA and the AI Risk Repository, I identify hazards, track public attitudes, and build evidence policymakers can use.

Evidence synthesis and expert elicitation. Systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and Delphi methods: how to produce trustworthy evidence at the speed frontier AI demands.

Dr Javad Pool is a researcher focusing on the use of AI and the sustainable implementation of emerging technologies. He completed his PhD in Information Systems at The University of Queensland, where his thesis received the ACPHIS PhD Medal for the best PhD thesis in Information Systems in Australia. He has conducted research in Digital Health, Responsible AI, and Information Systems, with a particular focus on trust in AI, data privacy, and the socio-technical aspects of Information Systems. His work aims to develop a better understanding of responsible and effective use of Information Systems, particularly in organisational contexts.

Dr Josephine Previte’s research examines how marketing, services and technology shape people’s everyday lives, wellbeing and participation in society. Her work brings together social marketing, transformative service research and social entrepreneurship to examine how people experience complex systems, and how organisations can respond with more inclusive, ethical and effective forms of change.

Current projects extend this agenda through research on disability-inclusive services, homelessness, mission-led social entrepreneurship and changing alcohol cultures, including shifts toward low- and no-alcohol consumption. Across these projects, her research focuses on how people navigate complex systems and how organisations can design more responsive, equitable and human-centred interventions. Applied research is central to this agenda, bringing marketing insight to behaviour change and service-system challenges.

Her methodological expertise spans qualitative and mixed-method research, with a strong interest in alternative and innovative methodologies. This includes expertise in using Q methodology, videography, digital and technology-enabled research approaches, and interpretive designs that reveal the complexity of people’s lives.

Across this work, Josephine is committed to research that generates practical insight, strengthens social change efforts, and brings meaningful benefits to people, organisations and society.

Research interest: Monitoring ecosystem health of coral reefs and seagrass habitats, integrating field and remote sensing image datasets, and the developing applied cost-effective mapping and monitoring approaches. Developed approaches have been adopted as standard practice globally, making a difference in conservation of these valuable habitats. The long term monitoring studies at Heron and Moreton Bay formed the basis for the development of mapping and monitoring over time and space at local to global scale. See here major research impact

Major projects:

• Long term monitoring of benthic composition at Heron Reef (2002-ongoing).
• Long term monitoring of seagrass composition and abundance in Moreton bay Marine Park (2000-ongoing).
• Smart Sat CRC Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Seagrass and Coral Reefs 2023-2027.
• Developement of Underwater Field Spectrometry and Benthic Photo Collection and Analysis
• 3D GBR Habitat Mapping Project 2015 - ongoing:
• Global habitat mapping project 2019-2023 Allen Coral Atlas .

Current position: Associate Professior in Marine Remote Sensing leading the Marine Ecosystem Monitoring Lab. . Academic Director Heron Island Research Station and affiliated researchers with Centre for Marine Science and Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science

Capacity Building and Citizen Science: Capacity: under/post graduate courses; Msc/PhD supervision, workshops/courses; Remote Sensing Educational Toolkit, and online courses (e.g. TNC).Strong supporter of citizen science based projects, as trainer, organiser and advisor for Reef Check Australia, CoralWatch, Great Reef Census and UniDive.

I am an independent researcher and advisor affiliated with The University of Queensland’s Centre for Policy Futures. My work focuses on how pricing, incentives and other signals are interpreted in regulated markets, and how signalling can produce unintended economic, behavioural and policy outcomes. I apply these frameworks to areas such as alcohol and no and low alcohol (nolo) beverage markets, and technology-affected markets more generally. I work at the intersection of economic behaviour, public policy and communication, developing frameworks that support better regulatory design, pricing strategy and clearer decision-making.

Dr Joshua Simmich is a physiotherapist and digital health researcher at UQ’s RECOVER Injury Research Centre. His work focuses on technology-enabled rehabilitation: how tools such as telerehabilitation, mobile health, wearable sensors, virtual reality, serious games and artificial intelligence can make rehabilitation more accessible, engaging and effective.

Joshua’s research spans remote and hybrid models of physiotherapy care, patient preferences for telerehabilitation, the safety and effectiveness of video-based rehabilitation and exercise, and the evaluation of digital tools for pain monitoring and clinical decision-making. His PhD examined how active video games and wearable sensors could support physical activity in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

He works with clinical and research teams to design, evaluate and translate digital health innovations for rehabilitation. Current and recent projects include virtual reality for driving anxiety, personalised motorised wheelchair trials using simulation, AI-supported navigation of the Australian healthcare system, GPS-based functional assessment for people with persistent pain, and serious games for physiotherapy education.

Joshua is available to supervise students interested in digital health, telerehabilitation, technology-enabled rehabilitation, AI in healthcare, virtual reality, wearable sensors, physical activity and rehabilitation service delivery.

I am a passionate researcher with a background in computer science and a strong commitment to leveraging technology for the betterment of society. I hold a PhD in Image Forensics and have had the privilege of conducting postdoctoral research at prestigious institutions such as SUNY Albany and Dartmouth College, where I had the opportunity to collaborate closely with Prof. Hany Farid.

During my postdoc at Dartmouth College, I focused my research efforts on addressing a critical societal issue - real-time child pornography detection. This research not only garnered recognition within the academic community but also earned praise from luminaries like Prof. Ramesh Raskar at MIT, who invited me to share my insights through a talk at MIT.

I primarily works in the area of Cyber Security, Digital Forensics, Privacy and Security Aspects, Homomorphic Encryption and Cloud Computing.

As I continue my research journey, I remain committed to making a positive impact through innovation and collaboration. I am excited about the opportunities that lie ahead and the potential for technology to create a safer and more inclusive world.

Associate Professor Mark Utting's research interests include software verification, model-based testing, theorem proving and automated reasoning, programming language design and implementation. He received his PhD from UNSW on the semantics of object-oriented languages, and since then has worked as an academic at several Queensland universities, as well as Waikato University in NZ and the University of Franche-Comte in France. He is passionate about designing and engineering good software that solves real-world problems, has extensive experience with managing software development projects and teams both in academia and industry, and has worked in industry, developing next generation genomics software and manufacturing software. He is author of the book ‘Practical Model-Based Testing: A Tools Approach’, as well as more than 80 publications on model-based testing, software verification, and language design and implementation. His current research focus is on using software verification to give strong guarantees about the correctness of compilers, correctness of blockchain smart contracts, freedom from information leaks of ARM64 binary programs, and the correctness of AI-generated code.

Dr T. Thang Vo-Doan is a Lecturer of the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at the University of Queensland. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Biology I, University of Freiburg, Germany (2019-2023). He was also a Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore (2016-2018). He was awarded his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU in 2016. He received his M.Eng. degree in Manufacturing Engineering and B.Eng. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam in 2010 and 2008 respectively. He was awarded the prestigious Human Frontier Science Program Cross-disciplinary Fellowship (2019-2022).

He directs the UQ Biorobotics lab after joining in the University of Queensland. Current research activities of the lab focus on insect-machine hybrid robots, bio-inspired robotics, insect structures and functions, biomechanics, fast lock-on tracking, and brain imaging in untethered insects.

Dr Weiming Zhao is an ARC DECRA Fellow (2026 - 2029) in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland.

A domestic (Australian citizens or permanent residents) PhD position is availble: "Learning-based control strategies for personalised and socially aware automated vehicles".

His research sits at the intersection of robotics, human behaviour, and infrastructure, focusing on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and the interactions between Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) and human drivers in mixed traffic. Using control theory and machine learning, including Model Predictive Control and Mathematica-based modelling, he develops trajectory planning solutions for CAVs at intersections and highway merging areas, aiming to improve safety, efficiency, and energy use in both urban and highway settings.

Dr Zhao completed his PhD at the University of Leeds, followed by a postdoctoral position at Aalto University. He joined UQ as a postdoc in 2022, before commencing his DECRA fellowship in 2026. His current DECRA project, Make Automated Vehicles Personalised and Socialised, investigates how control methods for automated vehicles can align with human driver behaviour to build trust.