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Neurologist with extensive specialist experience in epileptology and electroencephalography (EEG). Following UK neurology training, Prof McGonigal spent many years as a senior clinician in Marseille, France, one of the world’s leading centres of epileptology. Her research aims at better understanding of epilepsy, through studying seizures recorded using video and brain electrical activity (EEG and stereo-EEG) and investigating how behavioural expression relates to brain rhythms. She is also interested in neuropsychiatric aspects of epilepsy, including anxiety and depression. She is current Chair of the American Epilepsy Society’s Special Interest Group on Stereo-EEG, and member of the Epilepsy Surgery Commission of the International League Against Epilepsy, helping to shape standards for epilepsy care. Aileen McGonigal has published 150+ articles and lectures and teaches internationally.

Profile on Mater Research Institute (Faculty of Medicine): https://www.materresearch.org.au/Researchers/Our-researchers/Researcher?r=Prof-Aileen-McGonigal

Dr Lee McGowan is a researcher, writer, and teacher. He has been awarded Category 2 and 3 grant funding. His publications include journal articles, book chapters, a digital history, an exhibition, fiction, and creative non-fiction. In 15 years of learning and teaching, he has designed, delivered, and coordinated programs and courses in higher degree research, postgraduate coursework, and undergraduate studies. He has accumulated 19 HDR completions to date and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Lee’s primary research interests are in the intersections of creative writing, sport, and community engagement. In 2024 he co-authored Women’s Football in Oceania (Routledge) and Beach Soccer Histories (Routledge). Before that, he co-edited an anthology on Intersections of Creative Writing and Sport (Springer 2023), wrote Football in Fiction: a history (Routledge 2019) and co-authored Never Say Die: The Hundred Year Overnight Success of Australian Women’s Football (New South 2019). His new co-authored monograph, Contemporary Literary Sports Journalism (Palgrave), will be published in early 2026. He is currently working up a small number of new writing projects.

Professor Hamish McGowan is a Geographer and Professor of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences with research interests in: Severe weather (thunderstorms, bushfire meteorology), Earth surface – atmosphere energy and trace gas exchanges, Aeolian processes (meteorological controls on wind erosion, dust transport and the impacts on regional and global climate dynamics), Palaeoclimate reconstructions, Mountain meteorology and hydroclimate. He leads the Weather and Climate Science Research Alliance https://sites.google.com/view/uqaorg/home

Hamish received his PhD from the University of Canterbury in 1995. His research interests are in the fields of:

• Meteorological hazards
• Earth surface - atmosphere interactions and energetics
• The Weather and Climates of Alpine and Mountainous Regions
• Long Range Dust Transport and Climate Impacts
• Climate dynamics
• Palaeoclimate reconstruction

Associate Professor Matthew McGrail is the Head of Regional Training Hubs research at UQ’s Rural Clinical School. Joining UQ in Nov 2017, he is based at the Rockhampton Clinical Unit, and he is chair of the research and evaluation working group of UQ’s Regional Medical Pathway as well as chair of UQ RCS’s medical graduate cohort longitudinal tracking study (UQ MediCoS). He is widely known for co-developing Australia's Modified Monash Model rurality classification, applied to most health research and policies.

Matthew has a particular interest in the ongoing concerns with medical workforce distribution, connecting that through his research and evaluation to health policies, training pathways and healthcare systems. To date he has been a chief investigator on two separate Centres of Research Excellence, one on medical workforce dynamics and the other on rural and remote primary health care access. He has also co-researched with various GP training organisations, specialty colleges, rural workforce agencies, as well as state and commonwealth health departments

Matthew has worked in the university sector for over 25 years, working mostly as a researcher in rural health. He was originally trained as a statistician, expanding his skills across GIS and software development, completing his PhD in 2008. He has been lead biostatistician on 3 large NHMRC-funded RCTs that are published in the world-leading general medical journal, the Lancet. Matthew’s research is mostly centred on improved access to health care for rural populations, mainly focused in the medical sector. He has a unique blend of ‘generalist’ research skills and experience across the disciplines of statistics, geography, rural health, econometrics, public health and clinical research.

John McGrath AM, MBBS, MD, PhD, FRANZCP, FAHMS, FACPsych

John McGrath is a psychiatrist interested in discovering the causes of serious mental disorders. He has affiliations with the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, the Queensland Brain Institute (University of Queensland), and past appointments with the National Centre for Register-based Research (Aarhus University) Denmark. His research aims to generate and evaluate nongenetic risk factors for schizophrenia. He has forged productive cross-disciplinary collaborations linking risk factor epidemiology with developmental neurobiology (e.g. using animal models to explore candidate exposures). He has supervised major systematic reviews of the incidence, prevalence and mortality of schizophrenia. He was awarded a John Cade Fellowship by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, and a Niels Bohr Professorship by the Danish National Research Foundation. He has been awarded the Erik Stromgren Medal, the Lieber Prize for Outstanding Schizophrenia Research and made an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists.

~~Mike McGuckin is a NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and is Deputy Director (Research) at at the Mater Research Institute – The University of Queensland within the new Translational Research Institute in Brisbane, where he leads the Inflammatory Disease Biology and Therapeutics Research Group. Mike is the author of over 130 scientific publications with his research currently focused on mucosal infection, chronic inflammation and cancer in the gastrointestinal tract, and has held 4 patents. He has particular interests in the role of secreted and cell surface mucin glycoproteins in cancer and in host defense from infection and inflammation. Mike also has a strong interest in the role of protein misfolding and ER stress in secretory cells in chronic inflammatory disease, including diabetes. He is heavily involved in national and international peer review, is on the Editorial Boards of four international journals, and has served as the lead member of the Academy of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council for Gastroenterology. Mike chairs the Mater Research Committee, and serves on the Research Committees of the Gastroenterology Society of Australia, University of Queensland Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and chairs the Facilitations Committee of the Translational Research Institute. In addition he is an elected Councilor for the International Society for Mucosal Immunology, and serves on the Board of Directors and Chairs the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee for the Cancer Council Queensland, and is a member of the ANZ Trustees Limited Queensland Medical Research Grant Program Advisory Committee, and the Research and Development Committee for the Autism Collaborative Research Centre.

As an evolutionary quantitative geneticist, I conduct research that aims to extend our understanding of how genetic variation determines the capacity of populations to adapt. Over the 20+ years of my research career, I have designed experiments in species ranging from freshwater fish to Drosophila fruit flies. My research group uses a combination of statistics and machine learning to answer questions about the nature of genetic variation in complex traits, like swimming speed, wing shape and sex pheromones. This fundamental knowledge underpins predictions of the rate at which individual traits within the complex, multi-trait phenotype of organisms can evolve. We are particularly interested in understanding how historical adaptation might affect the ability of populations to adapt to changing conditions now and into the future. I’m interested in bringing evolutionary quantitative genetic tools to answer questions about natural and manipulated evolution in non-model species, in complex natural environments. I am passionate about training researchers in genetics and statistics, foundational skills for a range of careers addressing both applied and fundamental questions. I teach these skills to undergraduate and coursework Masters students, as well as research students ranging from undergraduate projects, through Honours and PhD.

Associate Professor Treasure McGuire graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy and a Bachelor of Science (Pharmacology) from the University of Queensland UQ). She also completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy and Graduate Certificate in Higher Education at UQ. In 2005, she completed her PhD in the School of Population Health, UQ, entitled Consumer medicines call centres: a medication liaison model of pharmaceutical care.

She held a conjoint appointment between the School of Pharmacy, UQ and Mater Pharmacy, Mater Health, South East Queensland between 1996 and December 2022. She was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in 2006, Associate Professor, Clinical in 2021 and since 2023 Honorary Associate Professor. Treasure also holds a conjoint appointment between Mater and the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University as Associate Professor of Pharmacology. In her clinical role at Mater, she is Assistant Director of Pharmacy (Practice and Development). At UQ, she coordinated a graduate clinical pharmacy course within the Master of Clinical Pharmacy program for over a decade. In 2016, this program received a UQ Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences Team Award for Programs that Enhance Learning and in 2017 a citation in the University of Queensland Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

Treasure’s research is translational, focusing on patient centred-care and quality use of medicines in the domains of medicines information, evidence-based practice, medication safety, reproductive health, complementary medicines, communicable diseases and interprofessional education. She is a Emeritus Fellow of the Australasian College of Pharmacy, Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and Foundation Fellow, Australian and New Zealand College of Advanced Pharmacy. In recognition of her services to medicines information, she received the Lilly International Fellowship in Hospital Pharmacy and the Bowl of Hygeia of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. In 2015, she was the recipient of the Sr Eileen Pollard Medal (Mater Research-UQ) for excellence in incorporating research into clinical care provision.

Dr Lisa McHugh is a perinatal and infectious diseases epidemiologist at the UQ School of Public Health (SPH). A Level C Senior Research Fellow and NHMRC Emerging Leader (EL1) Investigator Grant recipient, Lisa leads her own small team of researchers through her 5-year program ‘VaxiMums’, which is evaluating the uptake, effectiveness and equity of maternal vaccinations and respiratory infections.

Lisa is a CI on a national study evaluating RSV hospitalisations in children <5yrs of age, and a CI on a Qld Health project looking at the acceptability of new RSV strategies among parents.

Lisa is currently leading a pilot study investigating pregnancy loss after receiving influenza and COVID-19 vaccinations in early pregnancy-the first of its kind in Australia, and one of only a few internationally. Lisa’s extensive collaborations involve Primary Health Care Networks, First Nations midwives, maternal and child health nurse immunisers, consumers, Queensland Health, and national and international experts in the field.

Lisa has supervised 3 MEpi students to completion-all with the highest GPA of 7. She is currently the primary advisor of 2 PhD students, 2 MEpi students and a MBiostats student.

Projects currently being investigated by her and her students include:

• Effectiveness of influenza, pertussis & COVID vaccinations in pregnancy against adverse maternal-infant outcomes
• RSV hospitalisations among First Nations children aged <2yrs (Lisa is leading this collaboration with UQCCR)
• Adverse birth outcomes among NT mother-infant pairs after maternal vaccinations
• Pertussis vaccine effectiveness among preterm infants
• Vaccine failures after influenza + pertussis vaccination in pregnancy

Lisa is the Academic Integrity Officer for SPH, and mentors 2 academics in the SPH Mentoring Program. Her research expertise and interests include clinical midwifery, First Nations health, infectious diseases, pregnancy and birth outcomes, and maternal vaccination. She has been a member of the Public Health Association of Australia since 2014, and Immunisation Special Interest Group working group member, contributing to the latest Immunisation Policy Review (2026).

Lisa is also member of the Australasian Epidemiological Association and Editor for the Aust and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

She reviews for NHMRC grant applications.

When not working Lisa can be found (or not found) trail running, hiking in the middle of nowhere and swimming.

I am a clinician-academic whose interactions with patients have shaped my research questions and fuelled my enthusiasm for the importance of clinical research. I trained as a genetic counsellor and my research now focuses on the integration of genomics into clinical care. My research program has had three primary themes: evaluating the psychosocial impact of genetic conditions and/or genetic testing; evaluating genetics education preferences for patients and healthcare providers; and using next-generation sequencing to increase diagnostic yield for rare disorders.

Current research projects include:

1. Exploring whether genetic fatalism affects sun-related health behaviours in high-risk individuals following genetic testing.
2. Exploring the referral journey to genetic services for individuals with rare diseases
3. Assessing Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) members’ confidence in reviewing genomic research applications.
4. Mainstreaming Genetic Testing for Melanoma into Dermatology Practice.
5. Using Exome sequencing to identify new genes in families with inherited melanoma, negative for mutations in known genes.

Neil is civil engineer with expertise in hydrology and water resources. He splits his time between the Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry and the School of Civil Engineering. His current research interests include water resource systems modelling, understanding impacts of mining on water resources, remote sensing applications in hydrology and stochastic hydrology. Neil graduated with a BEng in Civil Engineering from Edinburgh University in 1990 and then worked for seven years in the Scottish pubic sector on wastewater treatment and disposal scheme design and construction. He obtained an MSc in Environmental Engineering in 1998 then a PhD in water quality modeling at Imperial College. Neil worked at Imperial as a Lecturer and Reader in Surface Water Hydrology between 2001 and 2013. This included teaching water quality, hydrometry, hydraulics, and water resources engineering; and a 5-year spell as Director of the Hydrology MSc program. His research there focused on surface water quality, uncertainty in modelling, land use management impacts, and hydrological up-scaling and regionalisation. While most of Neil’s research has been UK and Australia-based, international activity has included projects in Thailand, Uganda, Botswana, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Mongolia and China. He has been a member of the British Hydrological Society national committee, the ICE’s Water Expert Panel, and the NERC Peer Review College. He was won several awards, including the Institution of Civil Engineer’s Baker Medal and RA Carr Award for water resources research. He held an ARC Future Fellowship from 2014-2019.

Professor David McIntyre trained in Endocrinology in Australia and Belgium. He works clinically as Director of Obstetric Medicine at Mater Health Services and is an Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Medicine (Mater Research). David has published over 250 papers (>25000 citations), primarily in the field of medical complications of pregnancy, with a particular focus on diabetes and obesity. Recent research has examined the effects of diabetes, obesity and hypertension during pregnancy on the health of Mothers and Babies, during pregnancy and with long term follow up. David is a Past Chair of the Australasian Diabetes in Pregnancy Society and the International Association of Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG). In 2016, David became the first Australian trained clinician to receive the Norbert Freinkel Award for contributions to diabetes in pregnancy from the American Diabetes Association. In 2019 he was awarded the Jørgen Pedersen Lecture for diabetes in pregnancy by DPSG Europe and the Stream Lead Award Lecture for “Diabetes and Women” by the International Diabetes Federation.

Professor McIntyre develops and applies advanced imaging techniques to study flow environments. He conducts research within the Centre for Hypersonics where he implements a range of interferometric, spectroscopic and imaging techniques to probe the harsh environment generated in ground-based hypersonic facilities. He also has interests in the development of laser-based imaging methods in the field of Biophotonics including differential interference contrast microscopy and super-resolution coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy.

Dr Ross McKenzie's research interests are in the fields of: Condensed Matter Theory, Chemical Physics, and Quantum Many-Body Theory.

He received his PhD from Princeton University in 1989. His chief research projects are in the areas of:

Models for strongly correlated electron materials such as organic and cuprate superconductors

Magnetoresistance of layered metals including topological insulators

Excited states of organic molecules

Hydrogen bonding

Emergent phenomena in complex systems

The relationship between science and theology

Simon McKenzie is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland School of Law. Simon's current research focuses on the legal challenges connected with the defence and security applications of science and technology, with a particular focus on the impact of autonomous systems. His broader research and teaching interests include the law of armed conflict, international criminal law, and domestic criminal law.

Prior to joining the University of Queensland, Simon was a policy officer in the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety, working in a team responsible for reforming the criminal justice system to better respond to family violence. He has held teaching roles at the Melbourne Law School and as a researcher at the Supreme Court of Victoria where he completed a major research project on the management of expert evidence in the Kilmore East Bushfire Proceedings, the largest class action in Victoria's history. He has also worked as a researcher at the International Criminal Court assisting the Special Advisor to the Prosecutor on international humanitarian law. He began his career in 2011 at a large commercial law firm in Melbourne.

Simon graduated in 2011 from the University of Tasmania with a combined Arts and Law Degree with First Class Honours in Law and was admitted to practice in Victoria later that year. He received his PhD in international criminal law from the University of Melbourne in 2018.

Prof. Bob McKercher has been a tourism academic since 1990. Prior to that he worked in the Canadian tourism industry in a variety of advocacy and operational roles. He received his PhD from the University of Melbourne in Australia, a Master’s degree from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada and his undergraduate degree from York University in Toronto, Canada. He has published over 300 scholarly papers and research reports, is the author/co-author of The Business of Nature-based Tourism, Cultural Tourism and Tourism Theories, Concepts and Models. He has also edited a number of other books. Prof McKercher is the Past President of the International Academic for the Study of Tourism; a Fellow of the International Academic for the Study of Tourism; the Council for Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education and; the International Academy of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research.