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Kathryn began her academic career five years ago as a research analyst at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM), recently completing her PhD on company-community relations in the mining sector. Her thesis explores the emergence, escalation, and resolution of mining-related community-level issues within the operational grievance landscape, providing new insights into the visibility and management of mining-related issues, particularly through public processes of inquiry.

She holds a Master of Development Practice from the University of Queensland, where she focused on the social, environmental, and political dynamics of communities impacted by international development projects, as well as an undergraduate degree in Economics.

As a dedicated researcher in socially responsible mining practises, Kathryn has achieved key milestones during her PhD candidacy, including a publication in the Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law (JERL), first place award at an international conference for her research methodologies, and presentations as an invited speaker at the International Sociological Association as well as the Cadia Community Sustainability Network in Orange, NSW.

In the second year of her PhD, Kathryn established the HDR Exchange Network. This student-led initiative offers a supportive space for social science-focused students to share and collaborate throughout their candidature. Through this initiative, Kathryn has organised and facilitated two field visits, enabling students to engage with community organisations and industry stakeholders, thereby gaining practical experience in the current Australian mining context.

Kathryn has project experience developing and analysing large global datasets and case studies across the mining life cycle to understand how company and community approaches to the grievance landscape are shifting in response to geopolitical, social, and regulatory challenges.

Now a postdoctoral researcher, Kathryn aims to publish her thesis findings, further develop her expertise in the context of the energy transition and engage in projects that strengthen her professional development as an early-career researcher passionate about sustainable and responsible practices and relationships through international projects and research collaboration.

Disrupting the status quo and closing the circular bioeconomy

Dr Jitka Kochanek is the founder and leader of the Plant Performance Laboratory at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. At the interface of biology and materials science, she utilises bioengineering to disrupt the status quo within the global bioeconomy. Specifically, her pioneering research aims to supersede dated industry practices with new, highly efficient products and to replace outdated materials (unsustainable, damaging etc) with cutting-edge biomaterials that close the circular economy.

Her latest scientific achievement has been the discovery of a new material that is a ‘technology platform’ upon which multiple technologies are being developed through tailoring of parent materials, such as for biomedical and food packaging applications, as well as for agriculture and environmental rehabilitation. In 2021 she gained private industry funding from a prominent Australian SME for translation and commercialisation is expected over a 2–5-year timeframe. Since parent materials are plant-based, the platform promises a closed circular economy.

In the agri-environmental space, Dr Kochanek’s vision is sustainable real-time plant regulation, using novel biomaterials and technologies. The most commercially advanced product promises to be a disruptive tool for better future-proofing agriculture and wild plant ecosystem restoration, having successfully delivered emerging growth regulators that assist plants to cope with climate-related stressors, such as heatwaves and drought. Additionally, classic chemistries have been delivered to plants at 100-10,000-fold lower dosages than current commercial practices, thus generating social licence and slashing chemical costs.

Dr Kochanek has collaborated with some of the world’s top organisations and researchers, such as conservation ecologists at Kew Gardens in the UK, natural product chemists via the Flematti Group at the University of Western Australia and materials scientists within the Rowan Group at the University of Queensland. She has had the pleasure of supervising/mentoring >30 research students and 2 postdoctoral researchers.

Other notable career achievements

Since 2010 Dr Kochanek has been principal chief investigator across 8 industry and government projects worth >$2.3M (Federal/Horticulture Innovation Australia, Local/Brisbane City Council, State/Qld Government and private industry projects), a research consultant for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR, developing sustainable and cost-effective crop sanitation technologies in Papua New Guinea) and won the CSIRO ON-Prime accelerator program in 2019 for her visionary agri-technologies. Other notable achievements are that Dr Kochanek became a stand-alone researcher at <2 years post-PhD, after securing funding as principal CI ($302K, 2010); has developed a novel systematic framework to close the circular economy for waste recycling technologies; was among the first to confirm empirical evidence for epigenetics in plants or animals; and has developed a bioassay to rapidly ascertain plant responses for growth promoting/harming compounds. The bioassay provides the ability to predict chemical dosages for plants within 1 week.

Wei Qi Koh is a Lecturer in Occupational Therapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Since graduating as an occupational therapist, she has worked in acute and community health and social care settings primarily with older adults. She was awarded with a Marie-Sklodowska Curie Fellowship from 2019-2022 as part of the EU funded DISTINCT (Dementia: Intersectorial Strategy for Training and Innovation Network for Current Technology), where she worked with an international consortium of multidisciplinary dementia researchers and industry partners conducting research on various technology for (and with) people living with dementia. She was awarded her PhD in 2023, which was focused on evaluating the impacts of low-cost pet robots and developing strategies to support the implementation of pet robots in aged care for people living with dementia. Her research interests are in the care of people with dementia, older adults, implementation science, health promotion and evidence synthesis. She is also passionate about open science practices.

Professor Anna Koltunow has a formidable record of accomplishment in plant reproduction research and translating that research into gains in agricultural sectors.

Her research focus is on the molecular and genetic mechanisms that regulate development of plant reproductive cell types and, therefore, seed and fruit formation. Accomplishments include developing seedless fruit, a sought-after commodity in the horticultural sector.

She was selected by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to head an international collaborative research venture between six research organisations and a multinational seed company to develop technologies so smallholder African farmers could economically save seed from cowpea and sorghum hybrids. Professor Koltunow led the first five-year phase of this project, called Capturing Heterosis, while at CSIRO. This project finished in July 2019. The second phase, also funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – Hy-Gain for smallholders – commenced in March 2020, at The University of Queensland.

The Hy-Gain project is a multi-party international research project comprising seven world leading teams aiming to develop a novel technology to increase seed yield and productivity in sorghum and cowpea crops for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. This exciting 5-year project, is led by Professor Koltunow in QAAFI’s Centre for Crop Science. Hy-Gain aims to ensure the technology is compatible with plant breeding to support the future, rapid delivery of new high yielding sorghum and cowpea hybrids and improved varieties. The project has some fundamental discovery work, however its key aim is building and testing the utility of the technology in plants. The research objectives span molecular work in the laboratory to field work involving genetic, genomic and transgenic technologies and testing reproductive productivity of sorghum and cowpea plants in glasshouse and in the field.

Together, the Hy-Gain project team is developing new ways to breed sorghum and cowpea varieties that make it possible to achieve large gains in yields, while increasing resilience to diseases and environmental stress.

Professor Koltunow’s collaborations have had an international focus and she has consistently obtained external research funding from several sources (ARC, Australian rural development corporations, and bilateral funding involving CSIRO and India, China, Japan and Brazil and philanthropic funds). She has participated in EU consortia, trained international researchers and national and international students in plant reproduction research in partnership with national and international University collaborators. She has Professorial Affiliations with the University of Adelaide, La Trobe University and works with Huazhong Agricultural University in China.

Whilst maintaining an international profile in plant reproduction research, Professor Koltunow has also held senior leadership roles at CSIRO (including Program leader and Deputy Chief). She served on the Premier’s science council in South Australia, ARC College of Experts, as President and Past President of the International Association of Plant Reproduction Research and on various scientific boards including a CRC and two New Zealand Crown Research Institutes. She has been involved in the organization of 9 international conferences, works on advisory panels, editorial boards. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.

Biography: Dr Muxina Konarova is an Associate Professor in the UQ School of Chemical Engineering. She gained her PhD in Chemical Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. Dr Konarova has led multiple academia/industry projects, securing >$15M as lead CI and her team partnered with five large organisations under her Advance Qld Research (Early) and Mid-Career Fellowships, ARENA-UQ, ARC-Linkage, ARC-Hubs and Innovation Connections.

Research: Dr Konarova’s research team focuses on the development of sustainable chemical processes and is directed to address climate change, waste utilisation and provide technical solutions for a circular economy. Current chemical industries are heavily reliant on fossil-fuel feedstock and significant advances in process engineering will be required to enable a carbon-neutral chemical industry. To accelerate the transition to circularity, fossil-fuel based industries are now seeking to introduce waste products and renewables as their feedstock. However, selective catalysts and suitable reactor designs are largely unknown for these new types of feedstock (biomass, plastic waste and CO2). This lack of knowledge has prevented both commercialisation of new chemical processes and the utilisation of sustainable resources. Dr Konarova’s research program focuses on the (1) design of selective, stable and active solid catalysts; (2) integration of solid catalysts into a reactor environment where an optimum mass and heat transfer can occur. Her team uses a range of advanced spectroscopic tools to analyse reaction products, elucidate underlying reaction mechanisms and control product selectivity. The overall research aim is to identify new generations of catalysts and reactors designs and address fundamental challenges associated with catalytic conversion and contribute to the development of sustainable chemical industry.

Teaching and Learning Contributions:

Dr. Konarova is a dedicated educator at the School of Chemical Engineering, where she plays a key role in the Master of Sustainable Energy (MSE) program. She coordinates and lectures the course Energy Transitions in Industrial Processes (ENGY7003), imparting critical knowledge on sustainable practices within industrial settings. Since 2021, Dr. Konarova has also been actively involved in coordinating and teaching Process Modelling and Control (CHEE3007), a core course in the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum at UQ. Through these roles, she integrates her expertise in energy and process engineering to provide students with a robust understanding of modern industrial processes and control systems.

Associate Professor Srinivas Kondalsamy Chennakesavan is the Head of Research at the University of Queensland’s Rural Clinical School. With a background in medicine and public health, his research expertise is in the areas of public health, translational research, rural health and medical epidemiology. He has received competitive grants, $8.1m+ including seven major grants from the NHMRC/MRFF and other agencies and actively contributes to NHMRC/MRFF and other international peer review panels for major funding schemes. His expertise in the areas of community-based screening and surveillance programs for chronic diseases in rural and remote Indigenous communities is well known. On invitation, those models of screening and management have been replicated in South Africa and some parts of India (resource-poor and challenging environments). He has unique skills in utilising information technology, clinical medicine and statistics to improve clinical outcomes.

I am a researcher specializing in plant biotechnology and plant physiology. My work focuses on advancing the clonal propagation of coconuts and other high-value species through innovative in vitro methods, aimed at enhancing sustainability and productivity in agriculture. My current focus is to understand industry focused research question on blueberry root wrapping and associated crown disorder.

Current Focus:

• Clonal propagation of four high-value plant species (turmeric, saffron, lemon myrtle, gladiolus)
• Determine the bioactivity of two Australian native plants
• Investigating blueberry root wrapping and associated crown disorders

Areas of Expertise:

• Plant biotechnology
• In vitro culture methods
• Coconut biology and in vitro propagation
• Crop phenotyping and physiology

My research plays a vital role in improving agricultural practices, contributing to food security and sustainability. My work is particularly relevant to those interested in plant science, sustainable agriculture, and the physiology of high-value crops.

Dr. Kontogiorgos has received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Food Science from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). A full scholarship was then awarded from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (I.K.Y) for Ph.D. studies in Food Science at the University of Guelph (Canada). After his Ph.D. degree, he worked as an NSERC research fellow at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (Canada). Following that post, he worked as academic at the Department of Biological Sciences of the University of Huddersfield (UK) before joining the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences at the University of Queensland. Dr. Kontogiorgos research interests are focused in the area of polysaccharide characterisation and physical chemistry of food macromolecules, gels, and colloidal systems. Currently, he is working on the physical, chemical and technological properties of soluble and insoluble fibres extracted from agricultural wastes. Dr Kontogiorgos is Associate Editor of Food Hydrocolloids and Associate Editor of Food Biophysics.

Dr Kevin M. Koo is currently a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Fellow and Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) Future Leader Fellow at The University of Queensland (UQ). Dr Koo was awarded his PhD (Dean’s Award for Outstanding Thesis & Springer Thesis Prize) from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanotechnology (AIBN), UQ in 2018.

Post-PhD, he begun a productive postdoctoral career with dual industry/academia appointments: as the Head of Assay Development/Lab Director in XING Technologies Pty Ltd (a Brisbane-based biotech start-up) to undertake product development projects for commercialization of disease in vitro diagnostics, and as an Honorary Fellow/Principal Research Scientist at UQ Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR) to continue his academic research in precision cancer nanodiagnostics. His research skills and experiences are honed through dedicated career time spent in both academic research and regulated industry environments.

Dr Koo's research encompasses multi-disciplinary fields of molecular biomarker and nanobiosensor development, translation, and commercialization for precision disease management applications. Presently, he is working on the design and development of integrated multi-bioanalyte sensing technologies to resolve the various challenges around holistic disease pathway understanding and clinical biomarker profiling.

Dr Koo's research endeavours have been recognized by a Metrohm Australia-New Zealand Young Chemist Award (2018), Australian Institute of Policy & Science (AIPS) Queensland Young Tall Poppy Science Award (2023) and UQ Faculty of Medicine "Rising Star of the Year" Excellence Award (2024).

Teaching

UQ School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB)

BIOT7018 Biologics: Course Coordinator 2025-Present

BIOC7001 Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory: Guest Lecturer 2024-Present

BIOC6001 Introduction to Molecular Biology Laboratory: Guest Lecturer 2024

Isaac koomson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Business and Economics of Health (CBEH). He also serves in an adjunct role as a Faculty Director with the Center for Social Development at the Brown School in the Washington University in St. Louis, United States. He is a guest lecturer in Quantitative Research Methods in the University of North Carolina and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the United States.

He holds a PhD degree in Economics (Applied Econometrics) from the University of New England, Australia; Master of Philosophy degree in Economics from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana; and a BSc (Hons) degree in Economics (Social Sciences) from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Apart from research, he has more than 10 years of teaching experience at the University of New England, Australia, the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and the University of Professional Studies, Accra, Ghana.

Dr Koomson’s current research is in the areas of health and development economics and cuts across topics such as child health (i.e., malnutrition), healthcare utilisation, out-of-pocket health expenditure, mental health, disease outbreak resilience, poverty, vulnerability, food insecurity, and energy poverty. He has worked on projects as a consultant to organisations such as the World Bank, the United Nations, and other policy-oriented research institutes.

His experience in producing translational research outputs. He was part of a three-member research team on the UNE/BUPA Health System Project which assessed students' access to the Australian Health System. He also led a team of researchers from the United States to introduce a novel multidimensional disease outbreak resilience index (DORI).

Jonathan Kopinski is a Teaching Associate within the University of Queensland’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning. With over 18 years of teaching experience, he has successfully guided hundreds of undergraduate and master’s students and participated in over 40 architectural design and communication courses.

His teaching expertise is additionally complemented by a strong foundation in architectural practice, having worked on a variety of projects within architecture, urbanism, and landscape design since 2008. A notable highlight of his practice career was the award-winning Flinders Street Revitalisation (Townsville) project (Cox-Rayner Architects and Planners), which garnered recognition at both state and national levels for its civic design and urban planning excellence. He has also co-led several curatorial projects and exhibitions.

His key teaching areas include:

• Architectural design.
• Elements of architecture.
• Architecture and landscape.
• Typology.
• Urban design.
• Experimental mapping.
• Vernacular architecture and tectonics.
• Architecture as drawing.

Not only do soils provide humans with 98.8% of our food, they also provide humanity with a broad range of other services such as carbon storage and greenhouse gas regulation. Whilst soil takes hundreds or thousands of years to form, it can be destroyed in a matter of years if not managed correctly.

Peter's work aims to understand the hidden processes in soil that control how plants obtain nutrients, how carbon is stored, and how agricultural systems can remain productive while also protecting the environment. He has worked across highly diverse systems, both in Australia and developing countries. He has a demonstrated ability to lead outstanding research programs across a range of inter-connected themes, spanning in scale from fundamental research to landscape-scale projects, with this demonstrating a unique ability to link industry partners with high quality research.

Peter is Past President of Soil Science Australia (QLD), a former ARC Future Fellow, recipient of the JK Taylor Gold Medal in Soil Science (2018), and recipient of the CG Stephens Award in Soil Science (2005).

A/Prof Jennifer Koplin is Group Leader of Childhood Allergy & Epidemiology at the University of Queensland Child Health Research Centre and Principal Research Fellow with the HERA 360-Kids Community Network. She leads the Evidence and Translation Hub of the National Allergy Centre of Excellence (www.nace.org.au) and the Food Allergy Prevention stream of the NHMRC-funded Centre of Research Excellence in Food Allergy (CFAR; www.foodallergyresearch.org.au). From 2019-2022 she was the Director of CFAR and Group Leader of the Population Allergy Research Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

A/Prof Koplin has over 15 years of research experience in epidemiology and allergy, and has developed an internationally recognised program of research in the epidemiology of childhood food allergy. Her research has explored the prevalence, natural history, causes and consequences of childhood allergic disease. She has led a series of large NHMRC-funded population-based allergy cohort studies including the EarlyNuts study and age 10 follow up of the HealthNuts cohort, collectively involving over 7,000 participants. She is also a co-investigator on the SchoolNuts and MACS studies as well as several food allergy prevention RCTs (VITALITY, PrEggNuts, TrEAT and Pebbles), an RCT of food allergy treatment (LMNOP) and collaborates on research exploring immunological mechanisms underlying childhood food allergy and improving food allergy diagnosis.

Her recent research focused on using population-based studies to inform the design and implementation of prevention interventions and determine their effectiveness in reducing allergy prevalence at the population level. She also has a strong research interest in the role of infant feeding in allergy prevention and contributed to the development of new Australian and international guidelines on infant feeding for preventing food allergy. In 2018, she received a National Health and Medical Research Council project grant to conduct the first study internationally to measure the impact of these guidelines on infant feeding practices and the population prevalence of peanut allergy.

A/Prof Koplin has been awarded over $20 million in competitive research funding as chief investigator, including 6 NHMRC project grants, 2 consecutive NHMRC fellowships and a Centre of Research Excellence. She has authored more than 150 peer reviewed journal articles with >4,500 citations and is on the editorial board of the international Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.