Find an expert

Dr Marlize Bekker is a Senior Lecturer in Food Chemistry at The University of Queensland’s School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability. She has a PhD in Chemistry and has over 15 years of experience in flavour and aroma chemistry in food and beverage products. Her research interests include fermented food and beverages. Specifically, evaluating the formation, fate, and function of key aroma and flavour compounds in these food and beverage products and examining the impacts of processing on flavour. Marlize is also interested in the isolation and identification of important flavour and aroma compounds from natural Australian bush foods and the development of new products. Her expertise lies heavily in the application of chromatographic techniques.

Coursework Masters research projects are available on all active projects. Please register your interest by emailing m.bekker@uq.edu.au

Active projects:

• A Deadly Solution: Combining Traditional Knowledge and Western Science for an Indigenous-led Bushfood Industry (ARC Discovery-Indigenous)
• Maximising flavour throughout the vanilla production process (Faculty of Science BIRRST Partner 2024 funding scheme)
• Exploring the Flavour Potential of Australian Cocoa (Faculty of Science BIRRST Partner 2024 funding scheme)
• Unlocking Nature's Signals: Discovering the Semiochemicals for Effective Management of Australian Native Sugarcane Soldier Fly(Sugar Research Australia’s 2024 Sugar Industry Research Award Round)
• Optimising Cold Brew Tea Extraction and Concentration Processes (FaBA Industry Kickstarter)

Recently completed projects:

• Identifying heirloom sugarcane varieties with high sugar and unique flavour profiles (UQ’s Agri-Food Innovation Alliance (AFIA) Industry Kickstarter Grant program)
• Identifying the desirable flavour, aroma, and sensory profiles of novel Australian native lime hybrids (UQ’s Agri-Food Innovation Alliance (AFIA) Industry Kickstarter Grant program)

Dr. Sewunet Admasu Belachew (PhD, MSc, BPharm) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the FNCWR Program at the University of Queensland. He is involved in linked data analysis surrounding cancer, also participating in the investigation of the risk of cardiovascular events and outcomes among Australians with a cancer diagnosis. He takes the lead and collaborates in undertaking various research projects (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research), especially related to cancer and antimicrobial use and resistance surveillance, as well as control.

Before pursuing his PhD, Dr. Belachew served as a lecturer, clinical preceptor, and mentor/supervisor at the University of Gondar in Ethiopia, where he taught courses such as pharmacotherapy, pharmacoepidemiology, and clinical pharmacy practice. In 2023, he completed his PhD at the University of Queensland. Since 2015, he has published over 53 peer-reviewed articles, with citation so far: 1700+, H-index:26, i10-Index:32. His research has garnered attention from esteemed institutions and media outlets including the World Health Organization, the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), Health Reporter, Medscape, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Conversation and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Insights. underscoring the significance of his contributions to shaping policy and practice. In addition, one of his articles has been referred in two policy documents by the World Health Organization. During his PhD study, he worked as a casual academic at the University of Queensland and a research assistant at Menzies Health Institute-Centre for Applied Health Economics, Griffith University.

Dr. Belachew is an experienced medical and public health researcher (especially in antimicrobial resistance control and cancer research), academic, and chief pharmacist, with over six years of experience. He has been recently nominated for the Faculty of Medicine Graduate of the Year Award at the University of Queensland due to his outstanding research output/track record. He has demonstrated ability in writing research grants, effective teamwork, research project management, and supervising research students. Dr. Belachew has been invited to speak in numerous scientific research meetings, including the Annual Symposium on Global Cancer Research organised by the National Cancer Institute of the USA (after winning prestigious travel grant), the International Congress of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy in Perth, Australia and the Australasian Epidemiological Association Annual and Early Career Researchers conference. He is a director for membership of the Pharmaco-economics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Ethiopian regional chapter and a board member of the Ethiopian Organisation for Cancer Prevention and Research. Moreover, he is also one of the few Ethiopian Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) alumni.

Graduated with a B Agric Science (Hons() degree from UQ in 1978, after which I worked as a research agronomist for the West Australian Dept of Agriculture at Kununurra, in the Ord River Irrigation Area, until 1983. During that period I worked primarily with grain legumes (chickpeas and cowpeas) and peanuts, focussing on agronomic management practices (fertilisers, soil amendments, crop protection strategies, irrigation), and enrolled part time in a research Masters on growth physiology of peanuts through UQ. IThe M AgrSc was conferred in 1985.

I took up a position with the Qld Dept Primary Industries at Kingaroy in mid 1983, working on soil fertility management/restoration and continuing to research the physiology of the peanut crop. We ran long term farming systems experiments, and also participated in and ultimately led two successive phases of ACIAR funded research on peanut production in Indonesia.

In 1990 I was granted study leave from DPI to undertake a sponsored PhD program at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. This was completed in 1993 and I returned to Kingaroy with DPI, where I remained based at the Kingaroy Research Station until 2014. During that time our research focussed on soil fertility management (especially P and K), soil physical restoration using ley pastures, soil water dynamics and legume N fixation in rainfed cropping systems, and also in researching the Yield Decline phenomenon in the sugar industry. The latter was a major collaborative, multidisciplinary research project over 15 years, that led to the design and testing of a new sugarcane cropping system. Most research was externally funded, through the Grains, Cotton and Sugar Research and Development Corporations.

In 2010 I was invited to join UQ on secondment at the establishment of the Qld Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), and accepted that role while being based in Kingaroy. In 2014 I was appointed to the Chair in Tropical Agronomy in the School of Agriculture and Food Science (SAFS) at Gatton Campus, relocating to Gatton in 2015, but remain a QAAFI Affiliate. Since that time, I have increasingly focussed on soil fertility management and the development and testing of management strategies to optimize the efficiency of nutrients and water in grains, cotton and sugarcane cropping systems.

I have led an ACIAR project developing more sustainable management systems for sloping lands in NW Vietnam and NE Laos, and have also been involved in advisory bodies associated with the Reef Water Quality Management Plan, and with overseeing research activity in grains and sugarcane industries. Currently I lead national and regional research projects on improving fertiliser N management and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the grains cropping systems in Australia, funded by GRDC and the Federal Goverment Soil Science Challenge initiative.

Dr Craig Bell is an Industry Fellow with the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, and the Centre for Advanced Imaging. Since obtaining his PhD in 2011, he has been the recipient of two international fellowships, a prestigious Newton International Fellowship (2013-2014) funded by the Royal Society, and the NHMRC CJ Martin Early Career Fellowship (2014-2018). He has contributed scientific articles to various leading journals in his field, and is the co-inventor on two patents. His current research focus is on the development of degradable polymer devices for imaging and tracking of disease and cellular processes by using a tool-kit of controlled polymerisation techniques along with polymer and molecular coupling methodologies. The incorporation of degradable moieties into these constructs not only allows for enzymatic and hydrolytic degradation for complete body clearance of these constructs but also allows for tracking of these devices in vivo upon degradation to help elucidate cellular processes. Dr Bell currently engages with Aegros, a membrane fabrication and human serum fractionation company based in Sydney.

A/Prof Stephen Bell is a senior social scientist, advisor and international development research consultant with 23 years’ experience tackling global health challenges in settings across South-East Asia, Africa, Western Pacific and Europe. He works respectfully with not-for-profits, public institutions, businesses and community organisations, using innovative, inclusive, people-centred approaches to identify sustainable solutions to critical health challenges and accelerate health equity.

As Principal Research Fellow and ‘Theme Lead - Social Science and Global Health’ at the Burnet Institute, Steve’s role includes:

• Research on young people's sexual, reproductive and maternal health, including adolescent-responsive health services and systems, contraceptive innovation, safe abortion, enabling socio-structural environments, and the intersections of health and climate change;
• Providing methodological expertise, technical support and mentoring in social science, co-design and community-based, community-led research practice across the Institute’s global health programs and business development across working groups and programs;
• Supporting a growing regional network of youth research, advocacy and thought leadership hubs across Asia and the Pacific;
• Managing and delivering consultancy, advisory and research work for institutional partners.

Steve’s work brings together lived experience, socio-ecological systems thinking and social theory to understand what works (or not) in global health and social development. He has researched and published widely on HIV, sexual and reproductive health, maternal health, neglected tropical diseases, TB and Indigenous health. He is particularly interested in understanding the socio-structural determinants of health and social inequities, and injustices associated with marginalisation due to gender, sexuality, age and geography. He has published two edited collections on interpretive and community-led approaches in research, design, monitoring and evaluation: ‘Peer research in health and social development: international perspectives on participatory research’ (2021), and ‘Monitoring and evaluation in health and social development: interpretive and ethnographic perspectives’ (2016). With international colleagues, he is working on a third edited collection called, ‘Lived Experience: Critical Perspectives in a Changing World’. Steve is currently taking on new PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of these areas, so please do reach out to him for a chat!

Steve is Commissioner on The Lancet Global Health Commission on People-Centered Care for Universal Health Coverage, Technical Consultant (Strategy and Insights) with PSI, and Member of the International Editorial Board at Culture, Health & Sexuality. Steve has served as a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group, and has worked in senior research and consultancy roles with international governments, NGOs, UNAIDS, UNFPA and WHO.

Chris Bell is a lecturer in the finance discipline to undergraduate and postgraduate students within the UQ Business School. Chris has over 20 years industry experience as a banking and finance risk professional. His experience includes management roles in bank treasury departments for Australian banks and structured derivatives for global investment banks. He also has experience in risk consulting at an accounting Big Four. Chris is a Senior Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute in the United Kingdom.

Chris has a research interest in bank capital market decisions and financial stability. He completed his PhD on the topic "Systemically Important Bank bond funding and implications for financial stability."

Justine Bell-James is a Professor at the TC Beirne School of Law with expertise in environmental and climate change law. She holds a PhD from QUT (2010) and was a postdoctoral research fellow at UQ's Global Change Institute from 2011-2013.

Justine’s main research interest is legal mechanisms for the protection, management and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems. She has led projects funded by the Australian Research Council, CSIRO, and the National Environmental Science Program. Currently she is leading the legal component of two National Environmental Science Program projects related to upscaling coastal wetland restoration.

Justine's work on legal mechanisms to facilitate blue carbon projects in Australia and internationally informed the development of the first 'blue carbon' methodology under Australia's Emissions Reduction Fund. This methodology has allowed for the carbon abatement generated by particular coastal restoration activities to receive Australian Carbon Credit Units. Much of her research now focuses on remaining legal barriers to upscaling coastal and marine restoration, including legal permitting processes and land tenure. She is also working on the second blue carbon methodology for abatement generated by feral ungulate control.

Justine's work cuts across disciplines, and she is an affiliated researcher with UQ's Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science. Her recent collaborations and consultancies have involved colleagues from science, industry, NGOs, government and legal practice. Justine is a Director of the National Environmental Law Association, a Member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and an editor for Conservation Letters.

Alex Bellamy is Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at The University of Queensland, Australia. His recent books include "Syria Betrayed: War, Atrocities and the Failure of International Diplomacy" (Columbia 2022) and "World Peace (And How We Can Achieve It)" (Oxford 2020)

Electrophysiology of synaptic transmission, ion currents and central pattern generation in CNS neurones.

Current research focuses on the electrophysiology of central nervous system neurones using various in vitro slice and in vivo preparations, patch clamp techniques, imaging, molecular biology and computer modelling.

Projects include :

• Neurobiology of motor control
• Motor neuron disease
• Synaptic transmission in the cochlear nucleus
• Potassium currents in the brainstem and cerebellum
• Rhythmic control of breathing movements

Dr Emma Belton is an Early Career Researcher, with a strong track record of research in radicalisation and Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) demonstrated by a number of academic achievements and collaborations with industry partners. She acted as lead project manager on an ARC funded project responsible for the development of the Profiles of Individual Radicalisation in Australia (PIRA) dataset, which collects data on terrorist offenders and individuals who have radicalised to extremism. She has received training in the use and application of the Violent Extremist Risk Assessment (VERA-2R) tool by the Dept of Home Affairs and undertaken a validation study of the VERA-2R instrument. She has also worked with various government and law enforcement agencies to conduct evaluations of custody and community-based CVE programs that target convicted terrorists and vulnerable populations at risk of radicalisation. She holds a PhD in Criminology from the University of Queensland. Her research focuses on characteristics of individual radicalisation and violent extremism in Australia and aims to improve understanding of risk factors associated with violent compared to non-violent extremists.

Gabrielle Belz originally trained in veterinary medicine and surgery and received her PhD in understanding the organisation of lymphatics and lymphoid tissues at The University of Queensland. After a short stint in Canada to work on B cells, she moved to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital to work with Peter Doherty supported by an NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship. Here she established a number of systems that now allow tracking of virus-specific T cells and established the paradigm changing notion that CD4 T cell help was required for generating antiviral responses. She returned to The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and uncovered the identity of the key dendritic cells necessary for initiating antiviral infections. Subsequently she was awarded the Burnet Prize and NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship. Her research contributions have been recognized by a number of awards including a Wellcome Trust Overseas Fellowship, HHMI international fellowship, ARC Future fellowship, Doctor of Veterinary Science, the Gottschalk Medal (Australian Academy of Science) and in 2024 an ARC Laureate Fellowship. Her laboratory focuses on deciphering the key cellular and transcriptional signals of protective immunity particularly by T cells and in understanding how innate immune cells develop and make novel contributions to mucosal immune defence.

Professor Pierre Benckendorff is an award-winning researcher specialising in visitor behaviour, technology enhanced learning and tourism. He has held several teaching and learning leadership positions at The University of Queensland and James Cook University in Australia. His experience includes coordinating a team of teaching and learning staff, program quality assurance and accreditation, and curriculum reviews of undergraduate and postgraduate coursework programs in business, tourism, hospitality and event management. He has developed and taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in introductory tourism management, international tourism, tourist behaviour, tourism and leisure futures, tourism transportation, tourism operations, tourism technologies, tourism analysis, business skills and marketing communications.

Pierre has been actively involved in a number of national teaching and learning projects totalling close to AUD 1 million in grant funding. In 2007, he received a national Carrick citation for outstanding contributions to student learning. Pierre was part of the national team that developed the Learning and Teaching Academic Standards for Tourism, Hospitality and Events and has continued to co-lead efforts to embed and measure these standards under the auspices of CAUTHE. He is currently the co-chair of knowledge creation for the BEST Education Network and in this capacity, has worked with the World Travel and Tourism Council to edit a book of international cases based on Tourism for Tomorrow award finalists and winners. He is the co-editor of the Handbook of Teaching and Learning in Tourism. Pierre serves regularly as an external reviewer of tourism programs in Australia and overseas institutions.

His research interests include visitor behaviour, tourism information technologies, and tourism education and training. He has authored over 80 publications in these areas in leading international journals and is a regular speaker at tourism research conferences. He is on the editorial board of several leading tourism journals and is a regular reviewer of papers. He has also co-authored one of the leading textbooks on tourism and information technology. He has served as a judge for the Queensland Tourism Awards as well as the Australian Tourism Awards. His passion for travel and tourism has taken him to some of the world’s leading theme parks and airports, the major cities of Europe and North America, the African Savannah and the bustling streets of Asia. He has also travelled extensively throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Online Profiles

• LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/pub/pierre-benckendorff/5/8b7/766/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/PBenckendorff
• ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pierre_Benckendorff
• Academia.edu: https://uq.academia.edu/PierreBenckendorff
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LjNJJXIAAAAJ
• UQ Researchers: http://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/2336

Dr Kath Benfer is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre, The University of Queensland. Her Post-Doctoral work focuses on community-based early detection and intervention for infants at high risk of cerebral palsy in low-resource countries (India and Bangladesh). She was awarded the prestigious Endeavour Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship through the Australian Commonwealth Government to conduct the study. Kath’s PhD explored oropharyngeal dysphagia, gross motor function, growth and nutrition in preschool children with cerebral palsy, in both Australia and Bangladesh. Her work arising from her doctoral studies has been published in 10 peer-reviewed publications and presented widely at international conferences. Dr Benfer has over 12 years of experience as a speech pathologist within paediatric disability, with community-based child and family support services. Kath also has an interest in cross-cultural issues in child health, having worked in Bangladesh for over 2 years both as an AusAid volunteer teaching on the country’s first Bachelor of Speech Therapy degree, as well as conducting research in this context. She has completed her Master of Public Health at La Trobe University in Melbourne within the research and international health streams.