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TYLER OKIMOTO is a Professor and Associate Dean (Academic) for the Faculty of Business, Economics, and Law at the University of Queensland. He received his Ph.D. in Organisational Psychology from New York University in 2005, and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Psychology at Flinders University in Australia, and in the School of Management at Yale University.

Tyler's research aims to better facilitate collaboration and consensus between diverse points of view, and to understand the role of leadership in overcoming those challenges. He often examines consensus/collaboration as a conduit for social justice in organisations and society, both how a lack of consensus contributes to injustice and inequality, and how people can effectively collaborate to move past conflict and repair harmonious relationships.

He is also an award-winning educator, teaching both traditional and online/blended courses on leadership, human resources, conflict/negotiation, and decision-making in the Undergraduate, MBA, and Executive levels. He was also the Program Director and Academic Lead Designer of UQ’s MicroMasters Program in Business Leadership, a series of five postgraduate-level MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses); in its first year, this program reached over 60,000 learners from 193 different countries, and was a 2019 finalist for the global edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions to Online Education.

Dr. Elvis Okoffo is a Research Fellow at the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), The University of Queensland, Australia. His research is centred on developing innovative analytical methods to characterize and monitor environmental and human exposures associated with plastics. He has pioneered novel sampling approaches and analytical techniques for the rapid screening and monitoring of various types of plastics, including microplastics, nanoplastics, and biodegradable plastics in environmental samples (e.g., drinking water, wastewater, biosolids, seafood, marine water and sediments, compost, food, road dust, among others). By leveraging cutting-edge technologies (such as pressurised liquid extraction, ultrafiltration and pyrolysis gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry) and scientific methodologies, his research aims to provide valuable insights into the distribution, abundance, and impacts of plastic pollution, ultimately contributing to the development of effective strategies for mitigating the adverse effects of plastic pollution on ecosystems and human health.

Dr Gerry Olive is a Queensland trained Respiratory Physician and early career researcher, undertaking a PhD in the field of lung cancer diagnosis. He has a keen clinical and research interest in the diagnostic approach to nodules and diagnostic bronchoscopy, including endobronchial ultrasound.

Rebecca Olive joined the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences in 2017. Her work about lifestyle and nature sports contributes to critical cultural, social and historical teaching and research relating to sport, physical cultures, bodies, and health. Rebecca publishes in journals and books across Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Sport Sociology, and Sport History, and has co-edited a book with Holly Thorpe, Women in Action Sport Cultures: Identity, Politics and Experience (2016).

In 2019, she was awarded a DECRA for her project baout human-ocean health, 'Understanding ecological sensibilities in recreational lifestyle sports'. This project explores practices and cultures of ocean swimming and surfing to understand intersections human and environmental health. The project uses ethnographic methods (fieldwork and interviews) to make sense of ocean-swimmers’ and surfers' relationships to sharks, plastics, and localism at a range of urban and regional beaches. You can read more about this work on her Moving Oceans website.

Rebecca also continues focus on issues of equity and diversity and action/lifestyle sports and cultures, in particular women's experiences. Taking a feminist cultural studies approach to theories of power, ethics and pedagogy, she is interested in how we influence cultural change in everyday lived physical cultures towards more inclusive access and participation. Current projects include:

• Bluespaces and health
• Nature sports
• Women in sport, physical activity and leisure practices
• Self-representation on social media – elite athletes, recreational sports and fitness cultures
• Feminist research methods

Rebecca Olson is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Queensland, cutting-edge translational qualitative researcher, mentor and award-winning educator with expertise in the sociologies of health and emotions. Her work advances the human aspects of care. It empowers students, teachers and researchers to foreground social and emotional aspects in addressing emerging health challenges through collaborative, interdisciplinary research with in-built impact. As Co-Founder and past Director of SocioHealthLab, she leads an interdisciplinary collective of researchers, health professional educators and practitioners interested in doing health and healthcare differently: more socially aware, more relational, more inclusive and more just. As Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Social Science, she prioritises collaborative, reflexive, creative and emotions-centred practices in higher education. As Joint Editor-in-Chief of Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, Olson fosters dialogue across theory-curious clinician researchers and critical health social scientists. With 100+ scholarly publications – as well as news media and creative video productions – Rebecca is a prolific contributor to public debate. With research interests spanning medicinal cannabis and health professions education to climate anxiety, Olson is internationally renowned for bringing sociological insight to complex challenges related to emotions, wellbeing, healthcare and caregiving.

Emma is a Koori, Aboriginal woman from the Wiradjuri Nation in New Sourth Wales through her mother and grandparents, and Middle-Eastern, Jewish Australian on her Father’s side. While Emma was born in Muloobinba (Newcastle, New South Wales), she moved and grew up in Winnam (Wynnum), on Quandamooka Country (Moreton Bay).

Emma has a professional background in leadership, executive management, management, organisational change and Indigenous Engagement. Emma's research, informed by Indigenous methodologies, is on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples Employment, reviewing State Government strategies, programs, policies and legislation focused on the targeted recruitment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Hannah is an experienced Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) who holds positions as a Senior Dietitian at The Surgical, Treatment and Rehabilitation Service, Knowledge Translation Workforce Development Officer for Metro North Hospital and Health Service, and Honorary Research Fellow within the University of Queensland, Centre for Health Services Research.

Hannah completed her PhD at the University of Queensland in 2024. Her PhD focused on person-centred care and interprofessional practice in nutrition and food services in rehabilitation, and has been internationally recognised. Hannah published four first-author peer-reviewed articles from her PhD research and has been invited to present her work at national conferences. Hannah has also secured competitive research funding to advance her clinical research program and translate her findings into practice across Queensland hospitals and health services, establishing herself as a promising early-career clinician-researcher. This has been reflected in recent awards, including the Practice-based Evidence in Nutrition Prize from Dietitians Australia (2024).

Hannah’s clinical research program aims to improve nutrition care in rehabilitation populations by harnessing technology, data-driven decision-making, and consumer engagement. Recent projects within this program include co-designing and implementing innovative nutrition education videos: https://metronorth.health.qld.gov.au/news/nutrition-information-for-patients, co-developing quality indicators for rehabilitation nutrition and food services with consumers and multidisciplinary staff, and using body composition measures to inform precision nutrition care.

As a Knowledge Translation Workforce Development Officer and clinically embedded researcher, Hannah is committed to bridging the gap between contemporary research and clinical practice. Hannah leads the Metro North arm of the Allied Health Translating Research into Practice (AH-TRIP) initiative: https://www.health.qld.gov.au/clinical-practice/database-tools/translating-research-into-practice-trip/translating-research-into-practice, aimed at increasing knowledge translation capacity in health professionals. Her involvement in various projects reflects this commitment to both knowledge translation and innovation, including contributing to developing and implementing a new high-value Malnutrition Model of Care and supporting the implementation of interprofessional mealtime enhancement strategies into routine practice.

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 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. 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