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Dr Natacha Omer is a paediatic oncologist at the Queensland Children's Hospital in Brisbane. She is specialised in solid tumours, with a spacial interest in paediatric and adolescent sarcomas, cancer immunotherapy and molecular oncology. She is undertaking a PhD in immunology studying natural killer (NK) cell immunotherapy in paediatric sarcomas at the Frazer Institute, University of Queensland, in Dr Fernando Guimaraes lab.

Ommeh (Sheila Cecily) was born on the slopes of Mount Elgon which is an extinct volcano that straddles both Kenya and Uganda and it was once the tallest mountain in Africa before the glaciers melted away. She spent her early years growing up on the foothills of this majestic mountain with her grandmother who is a small-holder rural farmer. From a young age, she witnessed first-hand the effects of disease and climate change on vulnerable livestock like poultry, cattle, goats and sheep among others leading to the loss of livelihoods for the farmers in her community.

During her formative years; 1984- 2002, Ommeh had an interest and pursued Agriculture and STEM upto the tertiary level. Her mentor was her late mother who was also an accomplised scientist and quite a visionary leader. For her postgraduate and early-career years; 2003 - 2011 Ommeh was affilliated at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) where she did research on poultry genetics with a focus on genetic resitance to viral diseases. Her main fields of training and research are in Molecular Genetics and Bioinformatics.

In 2012, Ommeh joined the Institute for Biotechnology Research (IBR) at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) as a Research Fellow. She formed the Animal Biotechnology Research Group and the flagship project was on Indigenous poutry. Ommeh led other research projects that aimed to understand the origins, domestication and biodiversity of indigenous livestock and domesticates. The focus of these projects was to characterize candidate genes for both production and adaptive traits like disease and heat stress. Along with key collaborators, she did extensive research on emerging livestock species like minor poultry species, camels and donkeys. This also involved research on the diversity and domestication of bushmeat like guineafowls and quails. She also lead extensive research on pathogen surveillance and genomics using a Onehealth approach on bats, rodents, dogs, cats, ticks, humans among others. In 2019, Ommeh was promoted to Senior Research Fellow position and took up various leadership roles. She was a Principal Supervisor, Mentor and successfully graduated over twenty students affilliated to her own projects and funds; 6 were PhDs and over 15 Msc students.

In 2023, Ommeh Joined QAAFI as an Associate Professor in Animal Biotechnology. She plans to intergrate key outputs from previous research into her current research program at CAS. Ommeh's primary research focus is on improvement of Animal Health and Production at the "Onehealth" interface. Her research group at the Center for Animal Science aims to develop Molecular Diagnostics and Vaccines that will detect and control notifiable animal diseases. She will also lead research on diversity and harnessing bushtucker AKA bushmeat as emerging livestock species and a source of quality protein.

Associate Professor Italo Onederra serves as the Director of the Centre for Future Autonomous Systems and Technologies (FAST) at the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering. He leads a research group focused on improving mineral extraction methods with reduced environmental impact through advanced preconditioning and fragmentation techniques.

Recognised internationally as a specialist in explosives and blasting engineering technology, Italo holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) with honours from the University of Melbourne, and a Master of Engineering Science and PhD from the University of Queensland. With over 25 years of R&D experience and consulting work in Australia, South America, Africa, and Europe, Italo has demonstrated exceptional leadership and impact in both research and industry. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, contributed to technical reports and books, and co-invented novel nitrogen oxide-free explosives based on hydrogen peroxide. Italo is also known for developing fragmentation modelling techniques, which have been incorporated into commercial software used globally by industry and academia, as well as pioneering the use of physics engines in blast movement modelling to improve ore control and maximise recovery.

Desmond Ong is currently a Clinical Academic in the Discipline of Orthodontics at the University of Queensland School of Dentistry, where he is involved in both the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Orthodontic Programs.

Desmond is also in full-time specialist orthodontic private practice in Townsville.

Desmond received the Raj Prasad Award from the Australian Society of Orthodontists (SA) in 2016 and is a past winner of the Young Lecturer Award from the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons.

Dr. Ong is an exceptional and driven researcher in the field of Animal Health, and her work revolves around studying pathogen genomes, transcriptomes, and host-associated metagenomes to enhance animals' resistance to diseases and improve their overall health and productivity.

One remarkable aspect of Dr. Ong's expertise is her versatility and enthusiasm for both wet lab and dry lab (bioinformatics) work. She finds equal joy in conducting hands-on experiments in the wet lab and diving into data analysis and computational work in the bioinformatics domain. This multidisciplinary approach empowers her to gain comprehensive insights into her research subjects and tackle complex challenges from various angles. Dr. Ong's vast skillset encompasses molecular biology and expertise in utilizing 2nd and 3rd generation sequencing technologies, along with her proficiency in bioinformatics tools and techniques. This diverse knowledge allows her to explore and employ cutting-edge methodologies, providing her with a unique advantage in her research endeavors.

One of Dr. Ong's significant achievements was conducting the first cattle reproductive tract metagenomic study in Australia. This groundbreaking study likely contributed valuable information about the reproductive health of cattle and opened new avenues for further research in this area. Additionally, her contributions extend to the assembly of complete genomes for multiple pathogens, such as Campylobacter fetus and Bovicola ovis. This accomplishment is instrumental in understanding these pathogens' genetic makeup, evolution, and mechanisms of infection, which is vital in developing targeted strategies to combat diseases affecting animals.

Keywords: Microbiome and Metagenomics, Pathogen genomics, Animal health, PCR, Sequencing, Host-microbe interactions

Dr Faith Ong's research focus lies in the role of events, tourism and hospitality as tools of social change. Thus, she researches into the social impacts of events and tourism on communities. Her work explores how different forms of festivals, community gatherings and targeted events impact the social inclusivity of places. Volunteering is also one of Faith’s areas of expertise, determining the impacts of volunteering in tourism and events on the individual.

Faith is interested in enabling full and inclusive participation of communities across a broad spectrum of events and travel. In particular, her work has focused on communities that are sexually and culturally diverse, as well as people with disabilities. She continues to explore the signals of inclusion and exclusion at occasions that are meant to bring communities together.

Dr. Jhoana Opena, a seasoned researcher, joined the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2021. Dr. Opena has over 18 years of experience in research related to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in vegetables and weed management within rice-based cropping systems across Australia, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Lao PDR. Previously, she worked as an Associate Scientist in the Weed Science group at the International Rice Research Institute and was appointed as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños. She successfully completed her Doctor of Philosophy in Agriculture at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, Australia, in 2021. Currently, she is working on an ACIAR project entitled “Weed Management Techniques for Mechanized and Broadcast Lowland Crop Production Systems in Cambodia and Lao PDR.”

Anwar joined the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland in mid 2023 as a lecturer in Fire Safety Engineering. His background is in Structural Fire Engineering, including numerical simulation for performance-based engineering, large-scale analysis of structures in fire, and application of AI and data science for real-time risk mitigation. Anwar has several years of teaching and academic experience in Hong Kong, where he managed and took part in keystone projects including SureFire: Smart Urban Resilience and Firefighting, and the Integrated Safety Engineering knowledge transfer initiative.

James is an ecologist interested in how stressors impact the diversity, stability, and functioning of ecological communities. He is particularly interested in the interactions between species that lead to complex dynamics and in the interactions between multiple stressors that make predicting global change impacts so challenging. He uses a combination of mathematical theory, experimental ecology, and research synthesis in his work. Although much of James' research focuses on fundamental questions in population and community ecology, he is also interested in applied questions in the fields of global change biology, (freshwater) environmental science, and microbiology.

Before joining UQ, James did his PhD at Trinity College Dublin and he then worked for three years as a postdoctroal research at the University of Oxford. In 2024 he was awarded a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council to study how the temporal synchronization of antibiotics and phages impacts the ecology of bacterial communities and the evolution of antimicrobial resistance. He is based in Dr. Andrew Letten's microbial ecology lab in the School of the Enviornment (room 262).

The law of politics, in particular electoral law, is Professor Graeme Orr's primary research expertise. He has authored The Law of Politics (1st edn 2010, 2nd edn 2019) and Ritual and Rhythm in Electoral Systems (2015), co-authored The Law of Deliberative Democracy (2016), co-edited Realising Democracy (2003), Electoral Democracy: Australian Prospects (2011) and The Cambridge Handbook of Deliberative Constitutionalism (2018) and edited 3 symposia on the law of politics. His doctoral thesis explored the nature and regulation of electoral bribery. In the field of the law of politics, he does consultancy and pro bono work, and regular media commentary. Graeme has published over 100 commentary pieces in both the traditional press and online outlets.

Graeme has also published extensively in labour law, the law of negligence and on issues of language and law. Currently he is the legal adviser on the NSW Electoral Commission’s iVote panel and was recently part of the Australian Republican Movement’s Constitutional Advisory Board that drafted a model for an elected Head of State.

An Associate to two judges in the Federal Court of Australia and solicitor of the Queensland Supreme Court, prior to joining UQ Graeme was also an Associate Professor at Griffith University, where he taught for 13 years. In recent times he has been international editor of the Election Law Journal and board member of the Australian Journal of Labour Law. He was formerly managing editor of the Griffith Law Review, columnist with the Alternative Law Journal on sport's links to law, and employment law columnist with the Australian Journal of Administrative Law. He currently authors the entry on Australia for The Annual Register, a 257 year old almanac of world affairs.

He was a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law (2014-24) and has been an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences since 2020.

In The Ortiz-Barrientos Lab we seek to understand how natural selection drives the origin of traits and new species. We combine empirical and theoretical approaches from across multiple disciplines.

We are located in beautiful Brisbane, Australia, in the School of The Environment at The University of Queensland.

Please explore our pages to learn about research, culture, and the team of scientists that bring their passion and creativity to discovering how nature works.

Dr Osborne, BSc(Hons), MAgSc, PhD is an epidemiologist and toxicologist with research interests in using environmental epidemiology to examine aetiology and pathological pathways of disease. He has worked on a range of projects examining environmental exposures and health outcomes including exposure to metals, pollen, mould, chronic exposures to low levels of chemicals, pesticide and cyanotoxins. He also has experience examining how exposure to the environment may increase health and wellbeing (green/bluespace and solar irradiance and vitamin D).

He has developed skills in the linkage of environmental and population health data in an interdisciplinary context, and has expertise in design, linkage, hypothesis formulation, analysis, interpretation, translation and dissemination.

He has experience in designing and collecting epidemiological data and initiating studies of primary collected data (HealthIron, HealthNuts, Cornwall Housing Study, Survey of Recreational Water Users, Monitoring of Meniere’s Symptoms).

He also has used secondary data from existing cohorts (NHANES, UK Biobank, 1958 Birth Cohort, British Household Survey, Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study, South Asian Clinical Toxicology Research Collaboration), as well as linkage of previously unconnected “big data” sets in mashups on novel platforms (MEDMI project). He has used traditional statistical methods such as linear/logistic regression, time series analysis, interrupted time series and Cox regression to ascertain associations between exposures and outcomes, as well as integrating confirmatory structured equation modelling with environmental/health data sets to construct conceptual diagrams of associations and assess pathway directions.

He currently researches pollen and health outcomes as well as chronic kidney disease in low to middle income countries.

He has supervised 6 PhD students to completion (2 primary supervisor, 4 co-supervisor) and currently supervises 4 PhD student. He has been associate editor of Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health since 2011 and is on the editorial board of International Journal of Epidemiology and Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Pulmonology. He is a member of Australasian Epidemiology Association, International Society of Environmental Epidemiology and International Epidemiology Association.

He has previously worked at the Universities of NSW, Sydney, Exeter, Melbourne, Portsmouth, Queensland and Flinders, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the Cancer Council Victoria. He completed his PhD at the School of Population Health, University of Queensland/National Research Centre of Environmental Toxicology working on the toxicology and public health effects of cyanobacterial toxins in southeast Queensland.

Gary has a range of research interests in the historical and contemporary dimensions of sport. These include Indigenous Australian sport histories, Australian and Pacific aquatic sport, racial stereotyping, sport myth, social memory and sporting histories beyond the written word.

Gary gained his PhD in the field of sport history from the University of Queensland, following joint enrolment in the School of Human Movement Studies and the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics. Dr Osmond teaches in the socio-cultural dimensions of sport and physical activity.

Hs major grants include:

• Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery project (DP190100647: 2020-2023), titled Pride, Resilience and Identity: Reimagining Aboriginal Sport History [Murray Phillips (UQ), Gary Osmond, Barry Judd (Melbourne)].
• ARC Future Fellowship (FT160100212: 2017-21), titled Sport, Stories and Survival: Reframing Indigenous Sport History.
• Chief Investigator on a ARC Linkage digital history project (LP130101031: 2014-2019) titled Creating Histories of the Australian Paralympic Movement: A New Relationship between Researchers and the Community [Murray G. Phillips, Gary Osmond, Tony Naar (Australian Paralympic Committee)].

Dr Lisa Ottenhaus is a structural engineer and senior lecturer, with expertise in design of timber connections. Lisa's research interests encompass the theory, analysis, design and performance of timber connections, including detailing for timber durability. Lisa and their team research offsite timber construction using both engineered wood products and light timber framing, design for adaptability, disassembly and reuse, and reversible timber joints.

Lisa holds a PhD from the University of Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand, on the seismic performance of connections in tall timber buildings, a Masters of Science in structural engineering from Delft University of Technology, and a Bachelor of Science from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

As part of the ARC Advance Timber Hub, Lisa co-leads Node 3 on Extending Building Life, and project 1.2 on timber connections. Lisa is a steering committee member of WG1 a COST Action Helen (Holistic Design of Taller Timber Buildings), and a founding member of the International Association for Mass Timber Construction.

Lisa is a committee member of TM-010 (Australian Standards technical committee on Timber Structures and Framing), and a steering committee member of the Australian Timber Construction Educator Network.

Lisa has been an invited speaker at the prefabAUS Offsite conference, the Brisbane Architecture and Design Festival, the International Holzbau Forum (Innsbruck, Austria) and has been interviewed by the Guardian, ABC Radio, Built Offsite, and the Holzmagazin.