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I am currently a senior lecturer and an ARC DECRA fellow at the University of Queensland, where I conduct research in the field of Information Retrieval. My research focuses on efficient and effective representations for large-scale search engines, including indexing, compression, and retrieval. I am also interested in understanding how to measure improvements in the end-to-end search pipeline, including system-oriented effectiveness measurements and user behaviour analysis. I have a broad interest in empirical experimentation, operating systems, data structures, and algorithms.

Previous Positions

• From February 2020 to January 2022 I worked as a postdoctoral research fellow on an ARC discovery project with Professor Alistair Moffat at the University of Melbourne.
• I completed my PhD at RMIT University under the guidance of Professor J. Shane Culpepper and Professor Falk Scholer.

Dr Stephanie MacMahon is a Senior Lecturer in the Science of Learning and in Arts Education, teaching in both the ITE and post-graduate programs in the School of Education at The University of Queensland, and is the program coordinator for the Science of Learning Field of Study. She has over 20 years’ experience as a P-12 educator and school leader, and draws on this experience to support her students in understanding how research can be used meaningfully in educational practice.

Stephanie is also the Co-Founder and Program Director of the UQ Learning Lab: a group of multi-disciplinary researchers, educators, and industry partners who collaborate to transform learning, teaching and training in diverse school and post-school contexts through the science of learning. Her research within the UQ Learning Lab are in human connection and learning, and in understanding how to effectively mobilise insights from the Science of Learning into practice in diverse educational and workplace learning contexts, collaborating with partners to develop, implement and evaluate contextually relevant, actionable, scalable and sustainable solutions to real-world teaching, learning and training needs. Stephanie is a member of the UNESCO Science of Learning Alliance.

Her teaching and leadership in the Science of Learning have recently been recognised with a UQ Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2025), an Australian Council for Educational leaders (ACEL) National Excellence in Leadership Award, and the ACEL Miller-Grassie Award for Outstanding Leadership in Education (2025).

Stephanie collaborates widely with multi-disciplinary researchers on science of learning projects using a range of methodologies.

Harrison is a medicinal chemist with a research focus on bioactive peptides as therapeutics and molecular tools. He completed his Honours and PhD at UQ in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences where he developed synthetic peptide-based vaccine candidates against a range of targets including Group A Streptococcus and small molecule substances of abuse in the laboratory of Professor Istvan Toth. He is now a postdoctoral research fellow in the Muttenthaler group at IMB where he is involved in several programs of peptide-based drug discovery and pharmacological probe development.

Dr Barbara Maenhaut's research interests are in combinatorial design theory and graph theory.

She received her PhD from the University of Queensland in 1999. Her current research projects are in the fields of:

• Graph decompositions
• Latin squares and perfect one-factorisations

I am an art historian and art writer. My research specialisms and interests include photography and contemporary art; artists' films and video installations; documentary practices; the visual cultures of labour; the history of illustrated magazines and Australian colonial photography. For the last twenty years I have researched and taught in the fields of modern, contemporary art, and visual culture. I am particularly interested in interdisciplinary theoretical methodologies drawing from art history, sociology, and political theory.

My first monograph, Documents of Utopia: The Politics of Experimental Documentary (Columbia University Press: 2015) explores the work of contemporary artists such as Hito Steyerl, Joachim Koester, Walid Raad, Jean-Luc Moulène, and Anri Sala. I have published numerous book chapters, peer-reviewed articles and exhibition catalogue essays. My articles have been published in leading international journals such as Oxford Art Journal, Third Text, Afterall, Philosophy of Photography, Photography and Culture, Journal of Chinese Contemporary Art, and History of Photography. My writing has recenttly appeared in Labour History (2025 and 2026) and in the French open-source journal Photographica (2026).

My second monograph brings to light the forgotten histories of Australian South Sea Islanders. Between 1863 and 1907, more than 60,000 men and women from Melanesian islands were forced by trickery or fraud to work in the burgeoning sugar industry of Queensland. The history of their representation in art and visual culture has never been adequately studied. The book fills this significant gap in the scholarship. It includes a critical examination of untapped photographic archives and discusses contemporary Australian artists’ attempt to address this traumatic and often unspoken history. The monograph invigorates debates in the field of photography and visual culture studies, racial capitalism and colonial studies, Indigenous and Pacific studies, and in social and economic history.

I received a B.A. in Communication and Media and an Honours in Film Studies from the University of Bologna. I was awarded my M.A. in 2008, and my PhD in the History of Art in 2012, both from the University College London.

I welcome enquiries from potential PhD students. Research topics I would be particularly interested in supervising include: contemporary art and, in particular, documentary and screen-based practices; histories and theories of photography; histories of exhibition-making and spectatorship; colonial photography in Australia and the Asia-Pacific; the visual cultures and politics of illustrated magazines and activists' pamphlets; Marxism and the Frankfurt School thinkers; artists and curators' use of AI. Potential applicants should contact me directly to discuss their proposals.

I’m interested in modelling consumer choice to uncover the hidden patterns in our decision-making. I’m passionate about public transport, sustainable travel and tourism, mobility in cities, consumers’ use of technology, and societal wellbeing.

My research has been published in Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, the Journal of Choice Modelling, Frontiers in Psychology, the Journal of Service Management, Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, and Physiotherapy Research International. During my PhD I developed models of complex decision-making in public transport and air travel using latent variable structural choice models, identifying patterns in consumer heterogeneity attributable to the choice context and explaining these patterns through behavioural decision theory.

Within the UQ Business School, I am the Major Convenor for Business Analytics in the Bachelor of Advanced Business (Honours) and Bachelor of Commerce programs.

I am the Programme Chair for the International Choice Modelling Conference (ICMC2026).

Dr. Gulshan Mahajan started his career in agronomy and has worked at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, India, for more than 23 years in different capacities and engaged in research, teaching and outreach activities. He also worked in matrix management at UQ, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) as well and PAU and have interacted across programs, institutes, and regions and developed and implemented programs successfully. He has guided one PhD student, four MSc students as a Principal Advisor and more than 20 students as an Associate Advisor. His interests fall within a broader area of agronomy, regenerative agriculture with particular emphasis on weed science, enhancing input-use efficiency, and developing ecologically based integrated crop management strategies for sustained production. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India and an Associate Editor of the Weed Science Society of America.

I am a postdoctoral researcher exploring biotechnology and computational biology to understand health and diseases. My passion lies in leveraging biotech for longevity and innovative healthcare solutions.

My current research focuses on the role of gut microbiome in type-1 diabetes. More specifically, I am interested in identifying early-life biomarkers using multi-omics approach (metagenomics, metabolomics, proteomics), with the goal of enabling early diagnosis for preventation and treatment.

Beyond academia, I am keen on research translation, believing in interdisciplinary collaboration with industry and startups to tackle biotech and AI challenges. I find true solace and inspiration in my faith which instils in me a sense of purpose and compassion for the well-being of others. I like spending time outdoors, and volunteering which keeps me grounded and inspired.

Melanie Maher is a design lecturer, strategist, and visual communication designer whose work explores how design can be used as a tool for social justice, sustainable futures, and systems change. Her expertise sits at the intersection of visual communication design, design education, and applied social impact, with a particular focus on how strategic visual communication shapes understanding, influences decision-making, and supports collective action in complex social and environmental contexts.

Melanie’s design practice applies strategic design and visual communication to challenges across public and social infrastructure, community and disaster resilience, housing, health, and education. Working across Australia and internationally, her projects have addressed issues including cost-of-living pressures, energy equity, food security, social isolation, mental health and environmental protection. She has led and contributed to projects with government, non-government, and industry partners including the Queensland Government, Brisbane City Council, Oxfam, YMCA, ANHCA, HVEC, and Neighbourhood Centres Queensland (NCQ). As Strategic Communications Lead at NCQ, her team helped secure a record $115.8 million uplift in Queensland Government funding for the Neighbourhood Centre sector and formal recognition of NCQ as the state’s peak body.

Melanie has over a decade of experience as a lecturer and is currently an Associate Lecturer in Design in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at The University of Queensland. Before joining UQ, she coordinated, lectured in, and developed over seventeen unique University courses in design over a twelve-year period, contributing to the advancement of an innovative, interdisciplinary design curriculum. In 2023, Melanie was awarded one of the Top 30 Design Lecturers internationally in the TDK Design Awards, amongst lecturers from across the UK, USA, Australia and NZ.

Melanie’s research and research communication span peer-reviewed academic publications, practice-led research, and non-traditional research outputs, including sector impact reports, government submissions, and public-facing publications. This work has contributed to significant change—it’s informed government policy, influenced funding, grown public awareness and shaped educational programs. A 2023 Sector Impact Report identified a seven-fold increase in the median emergency food relief distributed by Centres between 2019 and 2023, which led to the government funding of the $1.3m Community Food Program as well as an increase in emergency food relief funding directly to Centres statewide. She has co-authored research in Sustainability Science (a Q1 journal) and regularly collaborates with researchers, community organisations, and practitioners to translate complex research into accessible, impactful outcomes. Her work is driven by a strong commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration.

Melanie’s extensive collaborations span state, national and international networks while leading and contributing to projects with government and industry. She currently holds a strategic leadership role at the peak body Neighbourhood Centres Queensland, an organisation funded by the Department of Communities, Housing, and Digital Economy with a membership of over 150 organisations across Queensland. She’s also a regular lead contributor to the national peak body for Neighbourhood and Community Centres and involved with the International Federation for Settlement Houses.

Associate Professor Christopher Maher is a tertiary-referral Urogynaecologist at the Wesley & Mater Private Hospitals and Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital and active researcher and teacher at the University of Queensland. His long-term commitment to research and evidence based medicine has been rewarded with over 100 peer-review publications and many presentations at National and International conferences. He is the past president of the Queensland CFA (Continence Foundation of Australia), former Secretary of AGES, Chairman of IUGA Scientific Committee, Chair of Urogynaecology committee RANZCOG and is currently lead author of the Cochrane Review and International Collaboration on Incontinence on the surgical management of prolapse. Associate Professor Christopher Maher is the current Chairman of the Urogynaecological Society of Australia.

Dr Ray Maher is Director of Research at the School of Architecture Design and Planning at The University of Queensland. Ray collaborates broadly across institutions while leading research and capacity-building projects with government and industry. His work focuses on sustainable development strategy, urban development and design, Sustainable Development Goals, decision-support tools, circular economy, and addressing ‘wicked’ problems using systems, design, and futures thinking. Ray’s research is engagement-focused, interdisciplinary, and applied, which builds the capacity of stakeholders.

Ray is Lead Chief Investigator on research funding totalling over $1m, and a Chief Investigator on research funding totalling over $5m. He has 32 traditional and non-traditional research outputs with state, national, and regional impact.

Professor Stephen Mahler is a Senior Group Leader at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and Director of the Australian Research Council Training Centre for Biopharmaceutical Innovation (CBI), University of Queensland. Professor Mahler is a biotechnologist with a focus on R&D of recombinant-DNA derived protein biopharmaceuticals, drug delivery systems and nanomedicines. Professor Mahler has a record of translational research success and engages extensively with industry associated with the biomedical sciences both nationally and internationally.

Research within CBI covers three thematic research areas; discovery of new biopharmaceuticals, engineering cells for production of protein-based biopharmaceuticals and advanced manufacturing for industrial production. A current research interest is at the interface of the life sciences and materials science, using a synthetic biology approach for creating novel therapeutic entities as well as new systems for drug delivery.

Professor Mahler has a strong interest in education and training and was formerly Head of the Chemical and Biological Engineering Plan at the University of Queensland (2010-2016). Other educational initiatives include development of Masters Programs and a Continuing Professional Development program in the area of biopharmaceuticals. The CPD program is available to stakeholders in the industry, both in Australia and internationally.

Nadali (S'08–M'15 IEEE) is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland. He received the B.Sc. in electrical engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, Iran, in 2007, the M.Sc. degree in power engineering from Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran, in 2010, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical power engineering from the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, in 2015. His research interests include power systems economics and electricity markets, demand response, renewable energy, optimization, and stochastic programming.

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Awards:

UQI Scholarship, 2011-2015;

IEEE Australia Council Postgraduate Student Paper Award, 2014;

Poster Presentation Award, IEEE Australia and New Zealand Student Congress, Brisbane, 2014;

IEEE PES Queensland Travel Award, 2013;

Top First Year PhD Student, School of ITEE, University of Queensland, 2012.

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Current PhD Positions:

PES Group at UQ is always looking for talented prospective PhD students. Currently, we are looking for a PhD candidate who has experience in Demand Response and Distribution Network Issues, as well as confident at Mathematical Programming and Optimization. If you are interested, please contact me through my email (Attach your resume in PDF). Please keep in mind to be successful in your application at UQ, in addition to a good GPA, you have to show your strong research skill through your publications. So, if you don't have the above criteria, please don't bother yourself to contact me as your chance is slim.

Dr Kathleen Mahon is a Senior Lecturer, Higher Education, at the University of Queensland. Kathleen’s main research areas are higher education pedagogy and the professional learning of university teachers and leaders. She is particularly interested in how the university environment affects teaching and learning and educational leadership in higher education, and how sustainable and sustaining conditions can be promoted. Much of her work is centred on the notions of praxis and praxis-oriented pedagogy, and the challenges and possibilities for both in today's universities. Her interest in praxis has stemmed from concerns she has, after over thirty years as an educator, that there is still much work to be done to ensure that educational institutions live up to their own good intentions. Since completing her PhD on critical pedagogical praxis in higher education in 2014, Kathleen has become known internationally for her work on both educational praxis and practice theory, with her co-authored publications on the theory of practice architectures being particularly widely cited.

Kathleen is a co-founding Senior Editor of the international journal, Journal of Praxis in Higher Education, and a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal for Experiential Education. She is also a member of the Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP) international collaborative research network, which includes scholars from universities in Australia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Colombia, and New Zealand.

Kathleen is a Docent (Associate Professor) at the University of Boras, in Sweden, where she has been working as an academic developer since 2016. Her research and university teaching is grounded in many years of teaching and leading in secondary schools in Queensland and the Northern Territory, and outdoor education centers in Queensland, Australia. Kathleen currently supervises PhD doctoral candidates in Sweden and Uganda.

Ray Mahoney is a descendant of the Bidjara people of Central West Qld and is a Research Scientist with the Australian e Health Research Centre (AEHRC) at CSIRO. Ray’s research background includes cardiovascular disease, e-health, culturally safe care and racism in the health sector.

Prof Tim Mahony joined QAAFI’s Centre for Animal Science in October 2010, after 15 years of conducting research projects with the Queensland Government. He obtained his PhD from James Cook University in the area of molecular microbiology. During 2001 and 2002, Prof Mahony was a visiting professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

Research interests

Dr Mahony’s research interests are in the area of molecular virology revolving around improving viral disease control in production animals such as cattle and poultry. His group is characterising the molecular interactions between invading pathogens and the subsequent host responses with the goal of developing new vaccines and diagnostic technologies. A key component of this work includes improving the basic understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underpin and drive viral virulence and evolution. Next-generation sequencing has been used to sequence the genomes of herpesviruses and adenoviruses from a variety of species including, cattle, chickens, marsupials, horses, and crocodiles. Prof Mahony’s team is also investigating the role of virally encoded microRNAs in virulence, replication, and disease development. His group was one of the first in the world to apply bacterial artificial chromosome infectious clone technology for the efficient manipulation of herpesviruses that have large DNA genomes. These strategies are also being exploited to understand viral gene function and the development of vaccines.

Currently, Prof Mahony is researching risk factors that protect and predispose feedlot cattle to developing bovine respiratory disease (BRD). He is also leading the development of new vaccines for BRD and cattle tick infestations. Prof Mahony has also led the development of new vaccine delivery technologies for the poultry industry targeting the application of in ovo strategies. Prof Mahony research into improving animal health is increasing industry productivity, food safety, and consumer confidence in food products and he is keen to explore collaborations with other scientists in this area.

Prof Mahony has a strong interest to work with post-graduate students and has supervised a number of post-graduate students from Australia and overseas. These projects have covered research areas in molecular virology, animal health, vaccine development, and pathogen-host interactions.

Biography

Jeffrey Mak (PhD) is an organic chemist at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience. His publications cover a range of disciplines such as biological and medicinal chemistry, total synthesis, and physical organic chemistry. Dr Mak was selected as a Rising Star of Chemistry by the Australian Journal of Chemistry (2022).

Jeffrey Mak was awarded the Harriett Marks Bursary and a UQ University Medal before undertaking doctorate studies in natural product total synthesis with Prof. Craig Williams. This culminated in the first total synthesis of two caged diterpenes, (−)-neovibsanin G and (−)-14-epi-neovibsanin G. Next, he joined Prof. David Fairlie's group at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience. He is currently active in the fields of chemical biology and drug development. He is recognised for his development of ligands that modulate mucosal associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, which are a newly characterised subset of immune cells important in antibacterial defence (Accounts of Chemical Research, 2021). In 2014, he was part of an Australian team that discovered the identity of the ligands that activate MAIT cells, as published in Nature, playing a key role in the chemical synthesis and characterisation of the unstable and structurally unprecedented ligands (Nature Communications, 2017). He was selected as a CAS SciFinder Future Leader by the Chemical Abstract Service (a division of the American Chemical Society, 2017). In 2018, Dr Mak was chief investigator on a UQ Early Career Researcher Grant for developing new drug leads that target MAIT cells. Other recent awards include RSC Twitter Poster Conference (Chemical Biology) 1st Prize (2018), and a CASS Travel Award (2018).

Dr Mak has lectured in the undergraduate course Advanced Organic Chemistry (CHEM3001, 2017-2023). He has also served as a member of the UQ Cultural Inclusion Council, and as an ACS Wikipedia Fellow to systematically improve the chemistry and scientific content on Wikipedia (2018).

Student projects

Projects in medicinal chemistry, synthesis, and chemical biology are available (depending on lab space) for enthusiastic organic chemistry students at all levels (PhD, Masters, Honours, Undergraduate). These include the design and synthesis of:

1. Stable analogues of immunostimulating bacterial ligands towards vaccines and anti-cancer immunotherapies
2. Chemical biology tools for exploring MAIT cell activation
3. Highly selective histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors as new drug leads

Previous student publications:

1. Mak JYW* et al. (2024) Potent Immunomodulators Developed from an Unstable Bacterial Metabolite of Vitamin B2 Biosynthesis. Angewandte Chemie, e202400632.
2. Mak JYW et al. (2021) HDAC7 inhibition by phenacetyl and phenylbenzoyl hydroxamates. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 64 (4), 2186-2204.
3. Awad W, Ler GJM et al. (2020) The molecular basis underpinning the potency and specificity of MAIT cell antigens. Nature Immunology, 21 (4), 400-411.
4. Ler GJM, Xu W, Mak JYW, Liu L et al. (2019) Computer modelling and synthesis of deoxy and monohydroxy analogues of a ribitylaminouracil bacterial metabolite that potently activates human T cells. Chemistry – A European Journal, 25 (68), 15594-15608.