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Dr Phillip Isaac is a mathematician interested in algebraic structures, particularly those related to quantum integrable systems.

Phillip received his PhD in mathematics in May 2001 from UQ. The title of his thesis was "Quasi Hopf superalgebras and their dual structures".

He worked as a JAVA programmer/cryptographer for about 9 months before undertaking a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan. His project was entitled "Symmetries in quantum spin chains".

After his return to Australia in September 2003, he began casual employment at UQ, working as a first year tutor and developing course materials.

His current research activities involve developing the constructive representation theory of Lie (super)algebras, quantum groups and related structures, and its utility in application, particularly to quantum integrable systems.

Dr Min-Chun Hong has solved a number of open problems and conjectures on harmonic maps, liquid crystals and Yang Mills equations in the areas of nonlinear partial differential equations and geometric analysis. He has collaborated with top mathematicians such as Professor Mariano Giaquinta (SNS-Pisa), Professor Jurgen Jost (Germany), Professor Michael Struwe (Zurich), Professor Gang Tian (Princeton) and Professor Zhouping Xin (Hong Kong).

Some highlights of his research after joining UQ in 2004 are:

In the area of harmonic maps, collaborated with Giaquinta and Yin (Calc. Var. PDEs 2011), he developed a new approximation of the Dirichlet energy, yielding a new proof on partial regularity of minimizers of the relax energy for harmonic maps as well as for the Faddeev model. The method leads to solve an open problem on partial regularity in the relax energy of biharmonic maps by him and Hao Yin (J. Funct. Anal. 2012). Based on the well-known result of Sack and Uhlenbeck in 1981 (Uhlenbeck 2019 Abel Award Winner), with collaboration of Hao Yin in 2013, he introduced the Sack-Uhlenbeck flow to prove new existence results of the harmonic map flow in 2D and made new application to homotopy classes.

Collaborated with his PhD student L. Cheng (Calc. Var. PDEs 2018), he settled a conjecture of Hungerbuhler on the n-harmonic map flow.

Bang-Yen Chen in 1991 proposed a well-known conjecture on biharmonic submanifolds: Any biharmonic submanifold in the Euclidean space is minimal. Collaborated with Fu and Zhan (Adv. Math 2021), he confirmed Chen’s conjecture for hypersurfaces in R5 with n=4.

In the area of Yang-Mills equations, with Gang Tian (Math. Ann. 2004), he established asymptotic behaviour of the Yang-Mills flow to prove the existence of singular Hermitian-Yang-Mills connections, which was used to settle a well-known conjecture of Bando and Siu. Collaborated with Tian and Yin (Commun. Math. Helv. 2015), he extended the Sack-Uhlenbeck program to Yang-Mills equations and introduced the Yang-Mills alpha-flow to approximate the Yang-Mills flow in 4D. More recently, collaborated with his PhD student Schabrun (Calc. Var. PDEs 2019), he proved the energy identity for a sequence of Yang-Mills α-connections.

In the area of liquid crystals, he (Calc. Var. PDEs 2011) resolved a long-standing open problem on the global existence of the simplified Ericksen-Leslie system in 2D. Collaborated with Zhouping Xin (Adv. Math. 2012), he solved the global existence problem on the Ericksen-Leslie system with unequal Frank constants in 2D. Collaborated with Li and Xin (CPDE 2014), he resolved a problem on converging of the approximate Ericksen-Leslie system in 3D.

I bring industry and academic experience in working on quantum error mitigation, quantum error correction, and quantum control theory to enable quantum computing demonstrations on near-term hardware. I am currently investigating the feasibility of combining error mitigation and error correction techniques with quantum machine learning algorithms at the University of Queensland. With Sally Shrapnel and partnering with the Queensland Digital Health Center (QDHeC), we are analysing the operational robustness of quantum machine learning, with an eye to digital health use-case discovery and testing. Prior to this, I worked on execution of dynamic circuits for error mitigation and quantum error correction applications at IBM Quantum (US) for three years. My work resulted in 3 patents and being recognised as one of IBM Research’s Top Technical Contributors in 2023 globally. I have also designed classical algorithms for noise filtering and prediction for trapped ions at the Quantum Control Laboratory in the University of Sydney, winning ARC EQUS inaugural Director’s Medal in Australia in 2019.

I research extrasolar planets - planets around other stars - and focus on developing and applying new data science approaches for detecting and characterizing them. I have taken nearly every approach to exoplanet and stellar observation, including transits, radial velocities, direct imaging, and asteroseismology.

As an ARC DECRA Fellow I'm mainly working on exoplanet direct imaging with the James Webb Space Telescope, and especially how we can use differentiable & probabilistic programming to enhance data analysis to detect faint objects in noisy data. I also work on radio astronomy to study planets' magnetic interactions with their host stars, and using radiocarbon in tree rings as a tracer of long term solar activity.

I grew up in Sydney, New South Wales, and studied for my Honours and Masters at the University of Sydney. I studied abroad at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 2017 I completed my DPhil in Astrophysics at Balliol College, Oxford. From 2017-20 was a NASA Sagan Fellow at the NYU Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics and Center for Data Science. I'm now a Lecturer in Astrophysics and DECRA Fellow at the University of Queensland.

I'm into open source, open science, and climate action. I was a member of the winning Balliol College team in the 2016-17 series of University Challenge on BBC2, with the wonderful Joey Goldman, Freddy Potts, and Jacob Lloyd. Sometimes I write: see my latest piece in The Monthly, about the possible discovery of phosphine on Venus.

Emeritus Professor Phil Pollett has research interests in Markov process theory, and mathematical modelling in population biology, ecology, epidemiology, chemical kinetics and telecommunications.

He holds an honours degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Adelaide and a PhD degree in Applied Probability from the University of Cambridge. He joined the then Department of Mathematics in 1987 as Senior Lecturer, having previously held positions at the University of Adelaide, Murdoch University and University College of Cardiff. He was promoted to Reader in 1993 and to Professor in 2004.

His research is recognized internationally for significant contributions to Markov process theory, and mathematical modelling. This research has been supported by 12 ARC Large/Discovery/Linkage grants. He is a Chief Investigator within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistics Frontiers (ACEMS), and was a Chief Investigator (2002-2014) within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems (MASCOS). In 1993, he was awarded the Moran Medal by the Australian Academy of Science for distinguished research in Applied Probability.

Phil Pollett has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society, Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability, Stochastic Models, and The Annals of Applied Probability, and has served on the organizing committees of several major international conferences. He devised the Probability Web, recognized as the main Web resource for probabilists throughout the world, and one of the first academic web sites. He has a strong record of innovation in undergraduate teaching, and has guided the development of many postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows through supervision and collaboration.

Benjamin Burton's research interests include computational geometry and topology, combinatorics, and information security. He also maintains an active role in gifted-and-talented programmes for secondary school students.

Benjamin Burton's research involves a blend of techniques from pure mathematics and computer science. His main interest is in computational geometry and topology in three and four dimensions, looking at problems such as how a computer can recognise whether a loop of string is knotted, or how it can identify large-scale geometric structures in a three-dimensional space. He is the primary author of the open source software package Regina, which implements state-of-the-art algorithms in this field.

His multi-disciplinary background includes a PhD in geometry and topology, an honours degree in combinatorics, research experience in information security, and three years as a research analyst in the finance industry. He has worked at several universities in Australia and overseas.

He maintains a strong interest in enrichment programmes for gifted and talented high school students, including the Mathematics and Informatics Olympiads and the National Mathematics Summer School. From 1999 until 2008 he directed the Australian training programme for the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), and from 2009 to 2014 he holds a seat on the international IOI Scientific Committee.

Benjamin is an active member of the UQ Ally Network, an award-winning program that supports and celebrates diversity of sexuality, gender and sex at UQ and in the broader community.

I am a teaching focussed academic in the School of Mathematics and Physics. I have a PhD in applied statistics and love mathematical programming in R, python and Matlab.

I am particularly interested in understanding the ways in which first year university students seek help outside of their shceduled classes and the role that university first year learning centres can play in helping students succeed.

Jerzy Filar is Emeritus Professor of Applied Mathematics. Jerzy is a broadly trained applied mathematician with research interests spanning a spectrum of both theoretical and applied topics in Operations Research, Stochastic Modelling, Optimisation, Game Theory and Environmental Modelling. Professor Filar co-authored, or authored, five books or monographs and approximately 100 refereed research papers. He has a record of research grants/contracts with agencies and research institutes such as NSF, ARC, US EPA, World Resources Institute, DSTO, FRDC and the Sir Keith and Sir Ross Smith Foundation. He is editor-in-chief of Springer’s Environmental Modelling and Assessment and served on editorial boards of several other journals. He has supervised or co-supervised 29 PhD students. Jerzy's Erdos Number is 3.

Dr Huang has an Honours degree in Science (Advanced Mathematics) from the University of Sydney, and a PhD (Statistics) from the University of Chicago on a McCormick Fellowship. He previously lectured at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Technology Sydney, before moving to the University of Queensland where he is currently the Statistics Major Convenor and Mathematics Honours Coordinator.

Dirk Kroese's research interests are in: Monte Carlo methods, rare-event simulation, the cross-entropy method, applied probability, and randomised optimisation.

Dirk Kroese is a professor of Mathematics and Statistics at the School of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Queensland. He has held teaching and research positions at The University of Texas at Austin, Princeton University, the University of Twente, the University of Melbourne, and the University of Adelaide. His research interests include Monte Carlo methods, adaptive importance sampling, randomized optimization, and rare-event simulation. He has over 120 peer-reviewed publications, including six monographs:

• Rubinstein, R.Y., Kroese, D.P. (2004). The Cross-Entropy Method: A Unified Approach to Combinatorial Optimization, Monte-Carlo Simulation, and Machine Learning, Springer, New York.
• Rubinstein, R. Y. , Kroese, D. P. (2007). Simulation and the Monte Carlo Method, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons.
• Kroese, D.P., Taimre, T., and Botev, Z.I. (2011). Handbook of Monte Carlo Methods, Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
• Kroese, D.P. and Chan, J.C.C. (2014). Statistical Modeling and Computation, Springer, New York.
• Rubinstein, R. Y. , Kroese, D. P. (2017). Simulation and the Monte Carlo Method, 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons.
• Kroese, D.P., Botev, Z.I., Taimre, T and Vaisman, R. (2019) Data Science and Machine Learning: Mathematical and Statistical Methods, Chapman & Hill/CRC.
• Kroese, D.P. and Botev, Z.I. (2023). An Advanced Course in Probability and Stochastic Processes, Chapman & Hill/CRC.

Professor Matthew Davis is a theoretical and computational physicist. His main research area is non-equilibrium quantum many-body systems, and he particularly focuses on the platform of ultracold quantum gases. He particularly enjoys connecting theory with experiment, and has published several high impact papers with several international experimental groups.

His specific research areas include:

• Non-equilibrium dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates and other quantum gases;
• Superfluidity, vortices, and quantum turbulence;
• Dynamics of phase transitions and formation of topological defects;
• Relaxation of isolated quantum systems and quantum thermodynamics;
• Computational methods for quantum systems.

He did his undergraduate studies in physics at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, before completing his PhD at the University of Oxford in 2001 under the supervision of Sir Professor Keith Burnett. He has been at the University of Queensland since 2002, and was promoted to Professor in 2013. He is currently a chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies.

Dr Stephane Dufau is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Cognitive neuroscience within the Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland. Stephane is a Senior Research Fellow at Mater Research (Mater Epilepsy Unit Research group). He worked as a Research Engineer at CNRS, France (currently on unpaid leave).

Dr Forbes has an extensive background in applying optimisation methods to industrial problems. He spent over 20 years working in industry before returning to academia in 2010. Dr Forbes now focuses on building Mixed Integer Programming models for industrial applications and specialised techniques for solving difficult Mixed Integer Programming models.

Dr Forbes has experience in many application areas including

• vehicle routing;
• supply chain optimisation;
• mine planning;
• public transport vehicle and crew scheduling and rostering (buses, trains and planes);
• hospital staff scheduling and rostering, including operation scheduling and room allocation;
• power generation and planning;
• network design (communications, electricity, gas, water);
• maintenance scheduling.

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.

I am interested in low-dimensional geometric topology, with a focus on knot theory, quantum invariants of 3-manifolds, and knot homologies --especially in relation to concordances and 4-dimensional smooth topology. I recently got interested in the deep connections, usually provided by combinatorial algebraic topology, between discrete structures --such as matchings and discrete Morse functions-- and their smooth counterparts. As a side interest, I try to apply techniques from topological data analysis to knot theory.

I joined UQ in September 2014 as Senior Lecturer in Mathematics and Director of the Master of Financial Mathematics (MFinMath) Program. Through strategic and effective leadership, I've overseen the Program's transformation into one of Australia's largest. My commitment to enhancing teaching methodologies, fostering a vibrant student and alumni community, and emphasising industry relevance and collaboration, has significantly contributed to this growth. Additionally, I've had the privilege of supervising well over 100 MFinMath graduates and several PhD candidates, many of whom are making significant contributions in corporations worldwide. My commitment to academic rigour, industry relevance and collaboration ensures our graduates are well-prepared for their careers.

My research focuses on the development of reliable numerical methods for stochastic control problems in finance. In particular, I have worked on complex mathematical challenges such as Defined Contribution superannuation and valuation adjustments, which stem from governance issues and broader societal needs. My robust collaboration with key sectors including FinTech, Superannuation, Energy, Investment, Banking & Finance, Information Technology, and Commercial, reinforces the practical relevance of my academic endeavors and strengthens the bridge between academia and industry.

My ongoing commitment is focused on fostering an enriching educational environment, promoting impactful research, and strengthening industry-academia collaborations at UQ.

Beyond my professional commitments, I find balance through a range of personal interests. I am a blackbelt in Judo and an enthusiastic CrossFit practitioner.

Furthermore, I have a deep appreciation for music, particularly piano compositions. My daughter, now an advanced pianist, has been a source of both inspiration and amusement for me. Despite enduring her initial stages of piano practice, filled with the typical off-key notes and stumbles that come with learning an instrument, I've been rewarded with the joy of her progress. Her dedication to mastering the piano serves as a continual source of motivation and a reminder of the beauty found in commitment and growth.

I hold a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, Canada.

Dr Evgenii Nekhoroshev is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Chemical Engineering and a member of the Pyrometallurgy Innovation Centre led by Prof. Evgueni Jak.

He graduated with a Master in Chemistry (chemical thermodynamics) from Lomonosov's Moscow State University, Deparment of Chemistry in 2012. His Master's Thesis was "Thermodynamic optimization of the NaOH-Al(OH)3-Na2SiO3-H2O system for applications in Bayer's process of bauxite treatment" as part of a bigger project initiated in collaboration with Rusal company aimed at utilisation/valorisation of red mud residues accumulated during the production of aluminium oxide from bauxite ores.

In 2019, he completed a PhD in Metallurgical Engineering at Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal, Canada within The Centre For Research in Computational Thermodynamics (CRCT), where he acquired expertise in FactSage software, multicomponent database development, and was included in the list of official collaborators of FactSage. His PhD thesis was "Thermodynamic optimization of the Na2O-K2O-Al2O3-CaO-MgO-B2O3-SiO2 system" sponsored by Glass Consortium including Corning and SCHOTT glass producers. The purpose of the database he developed was to assist the industry in designing new glasses with special properties: chemically hardened glasses (smartphones), technical glasses with high thermal and chemical resilience (boron-containing glasses), chemically inert glasses, etc.

Short after receiving his PhD, Dr Evgenii Nekhoroshev accepted a position at The University of Queensland as part of the Pyrometallurgy Innovation Centre's team where he has an official title of Theme Leader in Thermodynamic Computations, combining his broad expertise in metallurgy, chemical engineering, applied mathematics, and programming.

Dr Evgenii Nekhoroshev has always been passionate about formalisation and automation of big research tasks. He started working on developing an automated solver for thermodynamic optimisation during his PhD thesis which was improved and finalised using the ideas of Prof. Evgueni Jak about real-time derivative matrix optimization and sensitivity analysis applicable to large multicomponent systems. His contribution to the Centre allowed to make transition to a continuous optimization approach when experimental and modelling streams of work in the Centre are efficiently combined together. It allows to include the most recent experimental datasets into a self-consistent database update with minimal time delays.

I was born in Argentina and found an early passion for mathematics as a high school student by participating in the Math and Programming Olympiads. I obtained an undergraduate degree from La Plata University in 2009, and a PhD in mathematics from Cordoba University under the supervision of Prof. Jorge Lauret in 2013. After that I was a postdoc in the Differential Geometry group at the University of Münster in Germany (first as a Humboldt fellow, and then as Prof. Wilking's assistant). I also spent three months at MSRI in Berkeley, California during 2016. Since mid 2018, I am a Lecturer at the School of Maths and Physics in UQ.

Holger Baumgardt received his PhD thesis from the University of Heidelberg in 1997. After receiving his PhD, he held postdoctoral positions at the universities of Heidelberg, Edinbugh, Tokyo and Bonn. From 2010 to 2014 he was an ARC funded Future Fellow and since 2014 he has been Associate Professor at the University of Queensland.

More information about Holger's research can be found in the article Heart of Darkness