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Paul Meehan's research interests are in: Smart Machines; Railway Engineering and Technology, Analysis and Control of Nonlinear Instabilities and chaos in rolling processes, spacecraft systems and biological/human body processes, advanced manufacturing modelling and analysis.

Paul Meehan is an expert in modelling, analysis and control in non-linear mechanics applied to engineering systems. He has over 25 years experience in engineering research, development, commercialization and consulting in the areas of non-linear dynamics, vibrations, controls, rolling contact, elastoplastic and wear phenomena, with applications to manufacturing, mining, railway, spacecraft and biomedical systems. He has initiated and led many successful large collaborative R&D projects in this area.

Paul has recently led or is currently leading major projects in novel prediction and control of non-linear phenomena in railway, mining and manufacturing systems, including Decarbonisation, Bearing Degradation Phenomena, Incremental Sheet Forming, Wheel and Brake Squeal, Advanced Duty Detection and Millipede Technology. He has organised three international conferences in various areas of non-linear mechanics and has authored over 140 internationally refereed publications and three international patents in this area. He also teaches several intermediate and advanced level courses in mechanics at the University of Queensland, and consults regularly to high technology industries.

Tim Mehigan is Professor of German in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland.

He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities (elected 2003) and former President of the German Studies Association of Australia (2003-2007). He was Humboldt Fellow at the University of Munich for two years in 1994 and 1995. In 2013 he was awarded the Research Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. In 2017 he was awarded the Fulbright Senior Scholarship.

From 2013 to 2022 Tim has held a guest appointment as Humboldt Prize Winner at the University of Bonn, Germany. In 2017-2018 he was Fulbright Research Fellow in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, USA. Previous appointments include Honorary Professor in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland in 2011-2012.

Tim’s work is focused on two key periods in German and European literary and intellectual history: on the one hand, the literature and philosophy of the time of Goethe and Kant, which is to say, the late 18th and early 19th century; on the other hand, the literature and philosophy of Austrian modernism in the first three decades of the 20th century.

Beyond such a focus, Tim is vitally interested in the connections that flow between literature and philosophy and has explored these in relation to writers such as Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) and Robert Musil (1880-1942) and topic areas such as the deployment of space in literature.

Tim has also recently edited two collections devoted to assessing the work of J.M. Coetzee (Camden House, 2011; Camden House, 2018) and published, with B. Empson, the first English translation of K.L. Reinhold’s major work of philosophy Versuch einer neuen Theorie des menschlichen Vorstellungsvermögens (Walter de Gruyter, 2011). Most recently, with Antonino Falduto (Ferrara), he has edited The Palgrave Handbook on the Philosophy of Friedrich Schiller (Palgrave/Macmillan 2022).

Larissa Meinicke's research interests include mathematical notations and techniques for the formal specification and development of computing systems; probabilistic systems; computer security; abstract algebra and refinement algebra; real-time and fault-tolerant systems.

Dr Meinicke is currently a lecturer in the Division of Systems and Software Engineering Research in the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering.

She completed her PhD in the area of Computer Science at the University of Queensland in 2008 under the supervision of Professor Ian Hayes. Since then she has worked as a researcher at the Department of Information Technologies at Åbo Akademi University in Finland, both as a part of Professor Ralph-Johan Back’s Formal Methods and Programming research group, and as a member of the European Commission for Information and Communication Technologies project "Deploy".

From 2009 to 2011 Dr Meinicke worked on the ARC Research project "Hidden-state modelling for modular analysis of information flow, protection and risk evaluation" in conjunction with Associate Professor Annabelle McIver and Professor Carroll Morgan at Macquarie University in Sydney. Information about this research may be found at the Specification and Development of Probabilistic Systems page (below).

Katie currently holds a Postdoctoral Research Fellow within UQ’s Business School. Her research interests include sustainability, circular business models, post-disaster resilience; cross-sector partnerships and collaboration to address climate change; and, public engagement processes such as public consultation and inquiry processes, specifically power imbalances and the use of technical information.

Katie completed her PhD in Environmental Communication in 2020 at UQ. The thesis examines how citizens experienced the public participation undertaken for four proposed mines in Queensland’s Galilee Basin through the lens of fairness and competence in environmental decision-making. The study found that fairness and competence were impeded by three factors: the relationship between inclusion and fairness, mining company control of information, and the Queensland Government’s dual role as regulator of, and beneficiary from, mining projects. These findings have implications for both practice and theory, namely: addressing resource inequality between stakeholders; establishing equitable access to information; and, changing regulatory practice to improve the legitimacy, accountability, and impartiality of public participation.

Katie has taught at UQ since 2018 across a range of Business School management, strategy and sustainability subjects, including most recently as course coordinator of Principles of Strategic Management in the Master of Business program.

Prior to commencing her PhD at UQ, Katie worked in communication roles across a variety of industries including mining, transport, tourism and retail.

Olivia Mejías is a Research Fellow in Critical Minerals and Mine Waste Geoscience at the W. H. Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre within the Sustainable Minerals Institute and a member of the ARC Training Centre for Critical Resources for the Future. She is also part of the Mine Waste Transformation through Characterisation (MIWATCH) research group. Olivia holds a Masters degree in geometallurgy and has recently submitted her PhD, which focused on indium mobility and transformation in mine waste environments.

A geologist with more than 10 years of combined industry and research experience, Olivia has worked across a range of deposit types and commodities. She has applied geometallurgical frameworks to copper-molybdenum porphyry ores, advanced geochemical studies in cobalt-rich IOCG systems, and most recently characterised indium-bearing mine wastes from copper-tin granite related and copper-gold VMS deposits.

Her research uses multi-scale characterisation approaches to investigate critical minerals in mine waste materials and acid mine drainage. Through this work, she aims to improve understanding of their biogeochemical cycling and to translate these insights into sustainable mineral extraction and geometallurgical practices. This research is supported by experience with a wide range of analytical techniques, including laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), automated mineralogy using Maps Min, MLA and QEMSCAN, LA-ICP-MS, synchrotron based XFM and XAS, atom probe tomography (APT) and geochemical modelling using PHREEQC.

She is a dedicated and collaborative researcher who is passionate about advancing critical minerals science in ores and mine waste materials and about contributing to a more sustainable future.

A/Prof. Alejandro Melendez-Calderon has an interdisciplinary background in engineering and rehabilitation with extensive experience in rehabilitation technologies (e.g. robotics, wearables, biofeedback) and computational approaches to understand human neuromuscular control (unimpaired, stroke and SCI population). He has over 20 years of experience gained in academic, clinical and industrial environments. He is one of a select few experts who has working experience in area of Rehabilitation Engineering at top academic, industrial and clinical environments around the world (Australia, Switzerland, USA, UK, Italy, Denmark). This diversity of working environments provides him with a solid understanding of the development and clinical translation processes of rehabilitation technologies - from conception in academia, to transfer, commercialization and adoption in clinical settings.

He is Principal Research Fellow and Theme co-lead of Rehabilitation and Outcomes at the Jamieson Trauma Institute (Jun 2022-present), and an Honorary Associate Professor at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Queensland (May 2026-present).

Work experience | Clinical - He leads the Rehabilitation Innovation and Technology Assessment (RITA) service across STARS (Metro North Health) and Princess Alexandra Hospital (Metro South Health); RITA aims to close the gap between the potential of existing/emerging technologies and their practical, sustainable integration into everyday rehab care. He was previously a Senior Research Scientist and Head of Technology at the cereneo Advanced Rehabilitation Institute / cereneo Center for Neurology and Rehabilitation (Switzerland; 2017-2019), where he led and conducted research in the area of neuromechanics of movement deficits after stroke. He was also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Northwestern University (USA; 2014-2020) and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago) (2012-2013), where he conducted research in cross-modal multisensory interactions and assessment of neuromuscular impairments. Medical industry - He led the areas of Robotic Hand Rehabilitation and Assessments, and work on adaptive control of robotic trainers (arm and legs) at Hocoma AG (Switzerland; 2014-2016), one of the world-leading manufacturers of robotic and wearable technologies for rehabilitation. Academic research - He was previously a Senior Lecturer within the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland (Australia, Jan 2020-May 2026), where he led the NeuroRehabilitation and Medical Robotics group. He was a Guest Researcher at ETH Zurich (Switzerland; 2016-2019), where he conducted research in biomechanics and motor control/learning. He received his PhD degree from Imperial College London (UK; 2007-2011) for research in robotics, rehabilitation and human motor control.

Interests | A/Prof. Melendez-Calderon has a scientific interest in understanding principled mechanisms of human behavior, in particular related to movement control/learning and physical interaction; his technical interests are in robotics and computational modeling for medical diagnostics, assistive applications & (bio)medical education.

Dr Erika MELER, DVM, IPSAV, CEAV, MSc, MVSc, Dipl ACVIM (SAIM), Dipl ECVIM-CA

Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Internal Medicine - Registered Veterinary Specialist

Erika graduated from the National Veterinary School of Lyon (France) in 2003 and continued her clinical training with a rotating internship at the University of Montreal in small animal medicine and surgery (Canada). She pursued her clinical training with a Certificate in advanced studies in internal medicine at the National Veterinary School of Nantes (France) which is equivalent to an Australian Membership. Then interested in laboratory research work, she completed a Master in Oncogenetics at the Medical School of Marseille (France) and worked on the side as veterinary general practitioner.

Erika who enjoys both clinical research and internal medicine practice, decided to take the experience to the next step further. In order to broaden her knowledge and competences in both fields she entered a combined Master in Veterinary Sciences and residency program in small animal internal medicine at the Purdue University Veterinary Teaching Hospital (United States). She was awarded both her Master by the University of Purdue and her Certification in Small Animal Internal Medicine by the American College of Veterinary Medicine in 2010. During her Residency, Erika won the Osborne case report competition organized by the Phi Zeta Society which rewards the best case presentation of the year.

After her residency, Erika worked for about 3 years in one of the biggest emergency and referral private practices in Canada where she founded the internal medicine service. Erika has trained in her career many students, interns, veterinary nurses and mentored younger colleagues. She has given continuing education conferences and written numerous articles summaries for general practitioners. Having worked in both private and academic environments, she can prepare her students for both careers and understands the challenges of both types of practice.

Erika's academic activities encompass clinical teaching and management of referral cases in the department of small animal internal medicine at the University of Queensland Veterinary Medical Centre, classroom teaching for veterinary students in their 3d, 4th and 5th years and veterinary technology students in their 3d year of training, as well as research work bridging human as well as laboratory science and IT technology to clinical practice (so called collaborative and translational medicine). She has also an interest in developing business management field in veterinary medicine as well as innovative teaching methods for veterinary students and professionals.

Erika’s clinical areas of interest are the use of new technologies in veterinary medicine such minimally-invasive techniques (including laser and stenting) in dogs.

Erika's research areas of interest are infectious diseases such as MRSA, MRSP, protozoal, viral and fungal diseases in pet companions.

Erika's teaching areas of interest are the development of new teaching methods in the veterinary clinical setting and the exploration of a new balance between economic needs of teaching hospitals and their educational goals.

Erika is definitively a team player and has an excellent track record in student supervision and graduation. Although veterinary oriented, these themes are also deeply translational so any colleague from a medical or educational background who would like to collaborate is very much welcome to make contact. Erika looks forward to work with any colleagues and students interested any of the themes listed above.

Dr Katelyn Melvin is a Lecturer and Researcher in Speech Pathology in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland. Katelyn's qualitative and mixed-methods research focuses on collaborating with families, professionals, and communities to drive meaningful, long-term improvements in developmental outcomes for children and families. Her clinical experience as a speech pathologist working alongside families navigating social and economic disadvantage and families with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds has deeply shaped her approach to research and practice. Katelyn is committed to equity in the early years, ensuring that all children and families have access to the support they need to thrive.

Her research themes include:

1. Health promotion and prevention in the early years. Designing and implementing proactive, community- and population-level approaches to supporting children's development, with a particular focus on communication.
2. Advancing best-practice family-centred care through collaboration with families. Supporting collaborative working with families in pre-professional training through to professional practice in complex early years settings.
3. Co-design for health service innovation. Equipping clinicians and services to bring stakeholder voices together to solve real-world problems and improve service delivery.

Professor Paul Memmott is an anthropologist and architect and for some decades was the Director of the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre at the University of Queensland (School of Architecture and Institute for Social Science Research). This has now become the Aboriginal Environments Research Collaborative (AERC) within the School of Architecture, Design and Planning. The AERC has provided and continues to provide an applied research focus on a range of topics in relation to Indigenous populations, including institutional architecture, vernacular architecture, housing, crowding, governance, well-being, homelessness, family violence and social planning for communities.

Paul was the first full-time architectural-anthropological consultant in Australia, being principal of a research consultancy practice in Aboriginal projects during 1980 to 2008. His research interests encompass Aboriginal sustainable housing and settlement design, Aboriginal access to institutional architecture, Indigenous constructs of place and cultural heritage, vernacular architecture, social planning in Indigenous communities, cultural change and architectural anthropology.

Paul’s scholarly research output includes over 300 publications (including 11 books and monographs), 215 applied research reports and 40 competitive grants. He has supervised over 50 postgraduate and honours students and has won a number of prestigious teaching awards in Indigenous education (including an Australian Award for University Teaching – AAUT). One of his books, titled 'Gunyah, Goondie + Wurley: Aboriginal Architecture of Australia', received three national book awards in 2008 (Edition 1), including the prestigious Stanner Award from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, and then upon the publication of an expanded edition 2 in 2022, another three national book awards.

Paul also has extensive professional anthropological experience in Aboriginal land rights claims, Native Title claims and associated court work since 1980. He has presented evidence and been examined in a variety of Australian courts as an expert witness on a cross-section of Indigenous issues, in addition to the Native Title work.

Awards

• AIA Neville Quarry Award, 2015
• Best Exhibit, Australian Architectural Exhibit, Venice Biennale 2018 (Team led by Baracco + Wright Architects, Melbourne)

Memberships

• Life Member, Academy of Social Sciences (Australia)
• Life Fellow, Australian Institute of Architects
• Fellow, Australian Anthropological Society

Flavio Menezes is a Professor of Economics and Director of the Australian Institute for Business and Economics at the University of Queensland (UQ). He is also a part-time member of the Australian Competition Tribunal and a member of the Sydney Airport Demand Management Compliance Committee. His third and final term as Chair of the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) concluded in September 2025, following almost a decade as a member of the Authority.

Professor Menezes was engaged by the Australian Treasury to provide independent strategic advice to the Australian and New Zealand governments on reducing regulatory barriers to the net zero transition. His report, released in September 2025, informed a joint commitment by both governments to strengthen regulatory settings, facilitate trans-Tasman trade, and improve productivity and living standards.

He served on the NDIA's Pricing Arrangements Reference Group from 2023 to 2026 and was a member of the Expert Panel for the 2022–2023 National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Specialist Disability Accommodation Price Review. He was President of the Economic Society of Australia (Queensland) from 2016 to 2018 and served on the advisory board of the Australian Government's Deregulation Taskforce between 2019 and 2020.

Professor Menezes was Head of UQ's School of Economics from 2009 to 2015. He chaired the Economics and Commerce Research Evaluation Committee for Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2018 and served as a member of the same committee for ERA 2015. He was also an elected member of UQ's Academic Board and its Standing Committee from 2018 to 2021.

Before joining UQ in 2006, Professor Menezes was Professor of Economics and Professor of Regulatory Economics at the Australian National University, where he was the foundation Director of the Australian Centre for Regulatory Economics. He also served as a part-time Vice President at Charles River Associates in Canberra from 2005 to 2006.

Professor Menezes is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and a Distinguished Public Policy Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia. He has previously served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Public Economic Theory and Co-editor of the Economic Record. His research focuses on competition policy, regulation, market design, and the economics of the net zero transition, with applications spanning energy, digital platforms, infrastructure, and public policy. He is regularly sought by the media and policymakers for expert commentary on Australian economic policy, competition policy, and regulation.

His engagement with government and industry has been extensive. He has advised the Australian Government, the Australian Energy Market Commission, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South Wales, the Queensland Competition Authority, and the ACT and Victorian governments on competition, regulation, and market design. He has also provided expert economic advice to public and private organisations across a wide range of sectors, including telecommunications, defence, fisheries, water, gambling, natural resources, electricity markets, dairy, banking, health, transport, aged care, the NDIS, and early childhood education and care.

I study aspects of reproductive physiology that impact fertility in cattle, early embryonic development, and precision animal agriculture technologies that can improve animal health and performance. The goal of my research program is to apply research-based knowledge to refine current and develop new bio-technologies that can be readily adopted by cattlemen.

My research program is centered on three focus areas:

1. To investigate reproductive physiology and advance reproductive efficiency of beef cattle through the development of reliable bio-technologies that can be quickly implemented;
2. To maintain collaborative research that focuses on investigating early embryonic development in cattle;
3. To develop reliable, efficient, and profitable management strategies and technologies that can enhance the productivity of beef production systems.

My research and teaching interests include development, applied microeconometrics, agriculture, poverty, and the environment. I am particularly interested in using new data sources and new empirical methods to improve our understanding of a wide range of outcomes, especially the SDGs.

My current work focuses on three separate strands of literature: labor allocation, poverty, and methodologies to improve estimates of statistics of interest to economists and policymakers. Ongoing work studies how households allocate their labor in developing countries, especially across sectors. I work on the effects of pollution on agricultural productivity as well as how a changing environment affects labor allocation decisions. I also have ongoing work studying poverty and the best ways to improve poverty estimates, whether across time or across space. Relatedly, in work with regular collaborators, we are studying the best options to estimate different statistics – including poverty and labor force statistics – in developing countries, where data infrastructure may not allow the types of methods used in developed countries. For example, we are studying whether small area estimation methods or machine learning methods offer more accurate predictions of different outcomes and at different levels of aggregation. As part of my small area estimation and poverty work, I take part in capacity building with the United Nations Statistics Division and the World Bank to improve the understanding of small area estimation across the world. Current work revolves around disseminating working guidelines as well as in-person workshops for officials from national statistics offices.

I lead the Carbon & Climate Change Group in the Centre for Environmental Responsibility in Mining.

My research to date has focused on:

• The role of weathering of serpentinites and other ultramafic rocks in the global carbon cycle
• Development of carbon offset projects for mining companies, including reforestation, enhanced rock weathering, and carbon mineralisation projects
• Sourcing feedstocks for reaction with carbon dioxide
• Carbon accounting at mine sites, with a focus on accounting for land-use change emissions
• Environmental impacts of nickel mining, particularly laterite deposits
• Exploration and mining of marine placer deposits, including diamond, gold, and platinum‑group‑element deposits
• Geochemical and mineralogical tools for mineral exploration, for both traditional commodities and feedstocks for reaction with carbon dioxide

I joined the Sustainable Minerals Institute in 2026 after 14 years working in the mining industry in both geology and sustainability roles, including working as a Climate Change Specialist for the De Beers Group and a Carbon Mitigation Principal for Anglo American.

I have worked on mining and mineral exploration projects on four continents: North America, South America, Africa, and Australia. During my Ph.D. studies, I conducted fieldwork in the Sultanate of Oman in the Middle East.

In addition to my academic research, I am a writer and enjoy writing about science for a general audience. I wrote a geology blog for the American Geophysical Union for several years, and my book Rocks & Minerals: An Illustrated Field Guide was published by Cider Mill Press (an imprint of HarperCollins) in 2023.