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Joseph's (Joe) research focuses on the characterisation and commercialisation of Australian native plants, particularly for applications in food, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, and material science. He is especially interested in the bioactive properties of polyphenols and other phytochemicals/secondary metabolites found in traditionally used species, and how these compounds can be validated and applied in modern health, wellbeing, and biomaterial applications.

An expert in food metabolomics, Joseph employs advanced metabolomics platforms, particularly liquid chromatography coupled with time-of-flight and tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ToF-MS/MS), to comprehensively profile the complex chemical makeup of native plant species. He uses multivariate data analysis and chemometric modelling to correlate bioactivity and functional outcomes with specific compound profiles. This integrative approach allows for the identification of key bioactive markers and supports the development of high-value products derived from native flora, grounded in both traditional knowledge and cutting-edge analytical science.

Alongside his academic work, Joseph has collaborated with a range of industry partners across Australia and internationally, including companies in the cosmetics, personal care, and health and wellness sectors. His experience spans product development, extract standardisation, and the translation of scientific data into evidence-based formulation and design strategies. This applied perspective supports his ability to link laboratory findings with commercial and environmental relevance. His work contributes to safety assessments, quality assurance, and the development of ethical, traceable supply chains. He is particularly committed to ensuring that Traditional Knowledge is recognised, protected, and appropriately integrated into industry frameworks.

Active Projects:

• A Deadly Solution: Towards an Indigenous-led Bush Food Industry (Indigenous ARC Discovery)
• Restoring the Identity of Country with Cultural Fire building resilient Agricultural landscapes (Australian Government Climate-Smart Agriculture Program)
• Nutritional profiling and stability of fruit-based purees and powders of Australian Native Sour Fruits: Impact of processing and storage conditions (BIRRST Partner 2025 Scheme)
• Indigenous Innovation: Developing Jumbun’s Muyginy Cherry Fruit Products to Diversify Global Supply Chains

Previously Completed Projects:

• Exploration into the optimal storage and processing from the point of harvest through the whole supply chain of whole and extracted pearls of Australian native finger limes (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)
• Explore and Validate the Therapeutic Benefits of Australian Aged Black Garlic (UQ’s Agri-Food Innovation Alliance (AFIA) Industry Kickstarter Grant program)

Dr. Marina Naval-Sanchez is a NHMRC Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland (Australia). She pursued postdoctoral studies in 2019-2024 in the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland (Australia) and as an Office Chief Executive (OCE) Fellow in 2015-2019 at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) (Australia). She received her PhD in Molecular Biosciences in 2014 from KULeuven (Belgium). She received her MSc in Applied Bioinformatics in 2009 from Cranfield University (UK) and MSc in Agriculture Engineering in 2008 from the Universitat de Lleida (Spain).

Marina’s research program applies state-of-the-art bioinformatic, machine learning, and genetic and genomic tools to unearth the master regulators and enhancer grammar governing development and ageing across species (mouse and human) and to decipher the genomic (regulatory) impact of evolution, domestication and human selection in farm species (sheep, cattle, salmon). Her research outcomes have been published in high-impact journals such as Cell Metabolism, Nature Communications, Genome Biology, Nucleic Acids Research, Genome Research and Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Her research efforts have been supported by domestic and international fellowships and grants, including the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC, EL1 2024 Recipient), Advance Queensland, UQ Innovation Connections, CSIRO Scientific Investment Projects, CSIRO OCE Fellowships, and Flanders Wetesnchappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) PhD Fellowship.

I am a veterinarian and animal nutrition scientist focused on improving the health, welfare, and performance of pigs and poultry through nutrition and physiology. My research integrates sensory biology, digestive function, and early-life programming to develop practical, evidence-based solutions for modern livestock systems.

My work sits at the interface of monogastric nutrition, feed intake regulation, the gut–brain axis, and animal welfare in intensive production. I combine mechanistic research with strong industry engagement to ensure outcomes are relevant, scalable, and applicable on farm. Current projects focus on early-life nutritional strategies, functional feed additives, and the use of advanced analytical tools, including spectroscopy and multi-omics, to better understand animal responses to diet and environment.

At The University of Queensland (QAAFI), I lead and contribute to multidisciplinary, industry-linked research programs and supervise HDR students and early-career researchers. My goal is to generate robust scientific evidence that supports more sustainable, efficient, and welfare-focused animal production systems while strengthening the translation of research into practice.

Kylie (Anderson) Navuku is a teaching-practice focused academic, teaching primarily in Communication (undergraduate and postgraduate) and Journalism (undergraduate). Her teaching schedule in 2026 includes: Public Interest Communication; Communication Theory; Communication Management and Leadership; and Intercultural Communication.

Kylie's teaching is both research and practice informed. Her research interest is at the intersection of communication (including media/journalism) and politics. Most recently her work has focused on climate change and international ocean journalism. As a communication practitioner, Kylie has worked with non-government, government, and inter-governmental stakeholders contributing to campaigns/ initiatives with the purpose of raising awareness and furthering public education on various themes (including conservation, climate change, and civic education). A current area of exploration is the challenges for island-based artists engaged in environmental communication.

In addition to a PhD from UQ, Kylie has a MA (IntRel)(Res) [Master of Arts (International Relations) by Research] and a BIntSt (Hons) [Bachelor of International Studies (Honours)] from Flinders University.

Other university employment includes the University of the South Pacific (USP) and Flinders University of South Australia. At USP, Kylie was based at Laucala Campus in Fiji but her role also took her to the campuses and centres in Majuro (Marshall Islands), Honiara (Solomon Islands), Nuku'alofa (Tonga), Alafua (Apia, Samoa), and Rarotonga (Cook Islands). At Flinders, Kylie was based at the Bedford Park Campus, while at UQ she is based at St Lucia campus in Queensland.

Dr Naydenova is an emerging early-career researcher in the field of quantum biotechnology with a rare cross-disciplinary expertise in quantum biotechnology and molecular biology. She specialises in single-molecule detection and optical trapping of proteins using biomolecular optomechanics approaches at the University of Queensland’s Quantum Optics Lab led by Prof. Warwick Bowen. She is interested in fundamental research questions such as the relationship between function-dynamics-structure in proteins, as well as applications of biomolecular optomechanics for sensing in sport (e.g. anti-doping) and in biosecurity contexts (e.g. plant pathogens).

Dr Naydenova holds a PhD in Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry by the Medical University-Sofia, Bulgaria, where her research focused on plant biotechnology, epigenetics and plant-derived chiral metabolites with anti-cancer properties. Chiral metabolites have a property called chirality, also known as handedness, that underpins many interactions between molecules, including drugs binding to molecular targets such as proteins and enzymes to modulate activity. Her work was recognised with the Medical University – Sofia’s Award for best research in pharmacy, an annual distinction for outstanding doctoral and early-career researchers.

In 2023, she was awarded a prestigious National Intelligence Postdoctoral Research Grant to investigate protein dynamics using molecular optomechanics approaches. She joined Prof. Bowen's lab and successfully transitioned to the field of quantum biotechnology, securing over $1.2M in external research funding from Australian and Queensland Governments in the past two years. Previous experience in industry engagement and program management in Australia's higher education sector further provides a strong foundation for translating cutting-edge science into real-world applications, bridging academic innovation with practical impact.

In addition to her research development, Dr Naydenova is also committed to her leadership development. Through her affiliation with the Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology (QUBIC), she served as the inaugural co-Chair of the centre's EMCR Committee and is an active member of the centre's Outreach and Engagement Portfolio, engaging in STEM outreach to school students.

Dr Naydenova's goal is to harness and continue building skills and expertise to drive impactful cross-disciplinary research that can drive both applied and cutting-edge fundamental research in biosecurity and broader national security context.

Andrew is Professor of Business and Organizational Psychology. Andrew leads a large program of applied research into human performance and safety in complex environments. This program has received more than $10 million in funding from the ARC, Federal and State Governments, and industry. A key focus of this program has been on end user impact, with the ultimate goal of improving the safety and effectiveness of critical national infrastructure.

Andrew's major scientific contributions have been in two areas:

1. Performance, safety and effectiveness of people at work. He has published a series of influential papers on safety climate and work role performance. For example, the paper by Griffin, Neal and Parker (2007), which has been highly cited, reports the development of a theory of work role performance that explains how different forms of behaviour, such as adaptivity and proactivity, contribute to the effectiveness of individuals, as well as the teams and organizations that they work in.
2. Workload, decision making, and self-regulation. Andrew's research has improved our understanding of how people manage task demands in complex systems, such as air traffic control and emergency response. These environments require people to make decisions under time pressure, and often require tradeoffs to be made amongst competing goals (eg safety vs productivity). He has developed computational models to simulate the way that people make decisions in these environment, and how they manage their workload. His research has clarified the mechanisms by which people make choices amongst competing goals, and regulate the amount of effort they apply.

A/Prof. Neely leads research projects on quantum turbulence in quasi-uniform 2D BEC superfluids, atomtronics, quantum sensing, and spinor condensates. He was an associate investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS) and is currently an associate investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Biotechnology (QUBIC).

His career has spanned three institutions, first the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona, where he received his PhD in 2010 working with Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and quantum turbulence. Subsequently, he had a postdoctoral position at NIST (2010-2012), where he developed and advanced new techniques for midinfrared spectroscopy with pulsed lasers.

The Bose-Einstein condensation lab has openings for honours, PhD, and undergraduate projects. Please contact A/Prof. Neely (t.neely@uq.edu.au) regarding current opportunities.

Kindly visit my laboratory's webpage for more information

Dr Micah Nehrings’ research interests are in: Mine Planning, Production Scheduling Optimisation, Optimal Ultimate Pit Limit (UPL) determination, planning for In-Pit-Crusher-Conveyor (IPCC) systems.

Micah is a Lecturer within the Division of Mining Engineering of the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering. He leads the High Performance Surface Mining Research Group which is heavily focused on delivering high quality research outcomes in the planning and installation of In-Pit-Crusher-Conveyor (IPCC) systems.

Micah joined the School in 2011, after completing his PhD at The University of Queensland. Micah has since undertaken an early career academic program which has resulted in collaborations with European universities in Sweden, Germany and Kazakhstan. Micah has also developed an industry network that works with him in the implementation of some of his groups research outcomes.

Micah research outputs have been published in numerous high ranking journals including Minerals Engineering, Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Mining Technology and the International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment.

Dr Evgenii Nekhoroshev is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Chemical Engineering and a member of the Pyrometallurgy Innovation Centre led by Prof. Evgueni Jak.

He graduated with a Master in Chemistry (chemical thermodynamics) from Lomonosov's Moscow State University, Deparment of Chemistry in 2012. His Master's Thesis was "Thermodynamic optimization of the NaOH-Al(OH)3-Na2SiO3-H2O system for applications in Bayer's process of bauxite treatment" as part of a bigger project initiated in collaboration with Rusal company aimed at utilisation/valorisation of red mud residues accumulated during the production of aluminium oxide from bauxite ores.

In 2019, he completed a PhD in Metallurgical Engineering at Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal, Canada within The Centre For Research in Computational Thermodynamics (CRCT), where he acquired expertise in FactSage software, multicomponent database development, and was included in the list of official collaborators of FactSage. His PhD thesis was "Thermodynamic optimization of the Na2O-K2O-Al2O3-CaO-MgO-B2O3-SiO2 system" sponsored by Glass Consortium including Corning and SCHOTT glass producers. The purpose of the database he developed was to assist the industry in designing new glasses with special properties: chemically hardened glasses (smartphones), technical glasses with high thermal and chemical resilience (boron-containing glasses), chemically inert glasses, etc.

Short after receiving his PhD, Dr Evgenii Nekhoroshev accepted a position at The University of Queensland as part of the Pyrometallurgy Innovation Centre's team where he has an official title of Theme Leader in Thermodynamic Computations, combining his broad expertise in metallurgy, chemical engineering, applied mathematics, and programming.

Dr Evgenii Nekhoroshev has always been passionate about formalisation and automation of big research tasks. He started working on developing an automated solver for thermodynamic optimisation during his PhD thesis which was improved and finalised using the ideas of Prof. Evgueni Jak about real-time derivative matrix optimization and sensitivity analysis applicable to large multicomponent systems. His contribution to the Centre allowed to make transition to a continuous optimization approach when experimental and modelling streams of work in the Centre are efficiently combined together. It allows to include the most recent experimental datasets into a self-consistent database update with minimal time delays.

Dr Kristy Nell (née Campbell) holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the North-West University (NWU), South Africa. She continued with post-graduate studies at the CRCED (Centre for Research and Continued Engineering Development), NWU, and completed her PhD, which focused on emission quantification in the ferrochrome industry.

While pursuing her post-graduate studies, Kristy worked as an engineer at ETA Operations for eight years. During this time, she gained experience in government tax incentives and disincentives, energy savings quantification as well as energy and emissions budgeting and reporting. Industry exposure includes gold and platinum mines, ferrochrome smelters and oil and gas refineries. She is also a Certified Measurement and Verification Professional (CMVP).

As a Research Fellow at JKMRC, Kristy will engage in research around carbon emission monitoring and quantification, and the evaluation of mitigation opportunities. Kristy is eager to further contribute to the field of carbon emission management in order to assist the mining sector in achieving its sustainability targets.

Prof Nestor joined the Queensland Brain Institute in October/2017 and has a conjoint appointment as a cognitive neurologist at Mater Misericordiae Ltd (Mater Hospital).

His particular interests include understanding the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease (i.e. before dementia is established); atypical forms of dementia with a particular focus on primary progressive aphasia and dementias related to Parkinson's and Lewy body diseases; and improving differential diagnosis between the major categories of neurodegenerative diseases.

He works on development of neuropsychological tests of cognition, both to accurately track change over time and improve diagnostic accuracy between the major diseases causing dementia. He also uses multi-modal imaging (magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] and positron emission tomography [PET]) to understand the sequence of events occurring in degenerative brain diseases (particularly Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson's disease, motor neuron disease [ALS], progressive supranuclear palsy [PSP] and corticobasal degeneration [CBD]) and identify novel biomarkers. A major focus of his is on developing novel approaches to MR imaging for single subject pathological diagnoses that can be exported into the everyday clinical setting; recent examples include diffusion tensor imaging to identify PSP and CBD (Sajjadi et al, 2013) and quantitative susceptibility mapping in Parkinson's disease (Acosta-Cabornero et al, 2013).