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Dr. Ove A. Peters joined the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, in 2020 after faculty positions in Heidelberg, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as at the University of California, San Francisco. Most recently, he was the founding director of the postgraduate endodontic program at the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco, a professor with tenure and the Chair of the Department of Endodontics at that school.

Dr. Peters has wide-ranging clinical and research expertise and has published more than 200 manuscripts related to endodontic technology and biology. He has authored two books and contributed to several leading textbooks in dentistry; he also is an associate editor for the International Endodontic Journal as well as the Australian Endodontic Journal, an academic editor for PLOS One and serves on the review panel of multiple other journals. Among others awards, Dr Peters has received the Hans Genet Award of the European Society of Endodontology and more recently the Louis I. Grossman Award of the American Association of Endodontists. He is a Diplomate of the ABE, a member of OKU and a Fellow of the International and American Colleges of Dentistry.

Senior Staff Specialist Anaesthetist at the Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.

Maree's program of research centres on older people experiencing disadvantage. Underpinning her research is the recognition of the rights of older people to participate in healthy ageing, and as such be housed well with access to community aged care services. Her work incorporates a number of themes but the central aim is to use research to improve the delivery of health and welfare services in the context of elder abuse, housing, homelessness with particular emphasis on the intersection of the policy areas of housing, health and income security necessary for ensuring wellbeing as people as they age. The results from her research have implications for how we think about older people without access to their rights, and living in poverty and at risk of homelessness with restricted access to community aged care and support.

Professor Pettit leads the Bones and Immunology Research Group at Mater Research Institute-UQ and is Director of Biomedical Research for Mater Research. Professor Pettit has led multidisciplinary research discovering intersecting biological mechanisms across the fields of immunology, rheumatology, cancer biology, haematology and bone biology. Professor Pettit is currently a UQ Amplify recipient associated with an ARC Future Fellowship, 2017-2020 and CIA on an NHMRC Ideas Grant, 2022-25. Major contributions led by Professor Pettit include the paradigm shifting discovery of a novel population of resident macrophages, osteal macrophages (osteomacs), and their role in promoting bone formation and bone regeneration after injury. Her team have published over 17 manuscripts based on this original discovery (with over 1700 citations) including translation of this basic research discovery toward eluciating novel disease mechanism from cancer bone metastasis to osteoporosis. This also led to the novel discovery of bone marrow resident macrophage contributions to supporting blood stem cells niches and the key role that these cells play in protecting this vital niche from cancer therapies. Bone marrow and specifically haematopoietic stem cell damage is one of the most serious and life-threatening side effects of cancer therapies. Here discoveries are cited in over 117 patent documents and she is currently collaborating with a major pharmaceutical partner.

Professor Pettit's leadership and achievements have been recognised through multiple awards including the 2019 UQ Faculty of Medicine Leader of the Year (Academic), Women in Technology 2018 Life Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award and becoming a Fellow of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research. Professor Pettit has been invited to give numerous presentations at national and international conferences including Seoul Symposium on Bone Health, Asia-Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology Congress and a prestigious American Society of Bone and Mineral Research Meet-the-Professor session. Professor Pettit is and Associate Editor for the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, is an past Council member for the Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society, and chairs or serves on numerous committees including the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. PhD candidates under Professor Pettit's supervision have all been supported by scholarships (including 2 x NHMRC), received numerous local and national awards (e.g. Dr Alexander, ASMR QLD Premier Postgraduate Award, 2011 and Dr Lena Batoon won the UQ Faculty of Medicine Graduate of the Year Award, 2021), all had high quality first author publications at completion and 2 received UQ Dean’s Commendations.

I got my BSc degree from the University of Natural Sciences in Vietnam. I spent the next two years working on characterisation of multi-drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis with Dr Maxine Caws at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I went to the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge, UK to do my PhD in Prof. John Wain lab where I studied molecular mechanisms affecting the stability of IncHI1 multidrug resistant plasmids in Salmonella Typhi. I then moved to Australia to join the group of Prof. Mark Schembri at the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland. I am now working on identifying novel virulent factors in uropathogenic E. coli, especially in the newly emerged but globally spread ST131 clone, using high-throughput transposon mutagenesis and next-gen sequencing. I also maintain my interest in plasmid biology and have started projects to study multidrug resistant plasmids carrying blaCTX-M-15 or blaNDM-1 resistant genes.

Professor Phillips has a range of research interests in the historical and contemporary dimensions of sport. He has written on the historical and contemporary aspects of sport and war, sport and gender, sports' coaching, golf, rugby league, rugby union, sport structures as well as the ontological, epistemological and methodological aspects of sport history.

With these interests in mind, Professor Phillips has received external funding from the Australian Research Council, Australian Sports Commission, the Australian Coaching Council, the Australian War Memorial, as well as internal funding from the Universities of Canberra, South Australia and Queensland. He was commissioned by the Women and Sport Unit at the Australian Sports Commission to write An Illusory Image: A Report on the Media Coverage and Portrayal of Women's Sport in Australia 1996, has written a history of coaching in Australia entitled From Sidelines to Centre Field for the Australian Coaching Council, and is currently writing the centennial history of swimming in Australia for the National Sporting Organisation, Australian Swimming. In addition, Professor Phillips has been contracted to edit a book on the ontological, epistemological and methodological dimensions of sport history that draws on the collective experience of twelve of the leading sport historians around the world.

Professor Phillips has been an associate editor and book reviews editor for the Journal of Football Studies and is also on the executive committee of the Australian Society for Sport Historians and is the book reviews editor for the national journal, Sporting Traditions.

Background

Murray Phillips is a senior lecturer in the School of Human Movement Studies. He joined the School in 2000 from the University of South Australia (1998-2000) and also from the University of Canberra (1990-1997). He gained his PhD in the field of Sport History in 1992 from the University of Queensland. Professor Phillips teaches in the socio-cultural dimensions of sport and physical activities.

Stuart is a scientist, educator, and leader who builds and applies methods to measure and understand how our environments are changing at multiple scales (www.eorc.org.au ). He works across collaborative, multi-disciplinary teams and organisations to deliver quality science that draws upon field-work, satellite-image data, and modelling, through: founding directorships of Australia national earth observation coordination body (www.eoa.org.au) and collaborative research infrastructure (www.tern.org.au ) and a world-leading research to operational program that supports government environmental monitoring (www.jrsrp.org.au ); and program leadership of industry-driven research (www.smartsatcrc.com ). Stuart’s work provides solutions to support sustainable development and resource use for all levels of government, various industries, and communities.

Dr. Dung Phung has a background in medicine and public health. He has experienced diverse roles in clinical practices, health policy and management, and research and teaching in epidemiology, research methods, and environmental health.

Dr. Phung’s research now focuses on the adverse health effects of occupational and environmental pollution, climate change, and health interventions. He has developed research expertise and skills in epidemiologic methods, systematic review and meta-analysis, health risk assessment, needs assessment, and policy evaluation. He has recently conducted a series of studies on the health effects of extreme weather events and adaptation interventions to reduce climate-sensitive health risks. He has a special interest in translating complex scientific evidence into health policy and practices.

Dr. Phung has been awarded several research, fellowship, and global partnership grants totaling> $20 million as a chief/associate investigator (approx. $8.5 million as the principal investigator). He has published over 130 peer-reviewed publications in highly reputable journals and has disseminated research findings at national and international scientific conferences. He has supervised 20 PhD students to conduct research projects on a wide range of public health topics worldwide.

Dr Giovanni Pietrogrande obtained his PhD from the University of Newcastle. Here he explored how different brain processes are affected by the activation of microglia, the immune cells resident within our brain. In particular his work shows that microglia mediated inflammation has a pivotal role in neuronal loss following brain ischemic injury. He has developed an entirely new method to recreate the human brain in vitro using organoid technology and is utilizing these advanced organoids to gain novel insights into the pathophysiology of neuroinflammatory diseases.

In late 2019 he joined the Stem Cell Engineering lab at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Queensland. Now he uses and improves cutting-edge techniques for CRISPR-Cas9 mediated gene editing to modify the genome of induced pluripotent stem cells and generate brain and spinal cord organoids to model neurological diseases and evaluate potential treatments.

Dr. Pietrogrande has also established collaborations with biotechs and startups, employing genetic engineering to modify cells for product development and organoid-based compound screening. Additionally, he provides consultancy services for Stemcore and Phenomics Australia, both UQ-based facilities, driving advancements in stem cell research.

Amanda Pigott (BOccThy, PhD) is an occupational therapist with over 25 years’ experience in oedema and lymphoedema management. Amanda has a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy and a PhD obtained studying the side effects of cancer treatment. Amanda is passionate about improving oedema management. To progress this passion, she works as a specialist clinician, is a key researcher in the field of lymphoedema and delivers education through training and conference presentations.

• As a clinician, Amanda works in the public sector as a clinical specialist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital cancer-related lymphoedema clinic.
• As a researcher, Amanda holds a position as an honorary research fellow at the University of Queensland. She has been involved in research projects securing over $650, 000 in research funding through competitive grants. As a researcher, Amanda ranks in the top 2.5% of published authors worldwide on lymphoedema (May 2024; expertscape.com)
• As an educator, Amanda has been trainign occupational therapists in oedema management since for 15 years. She has provided training to public and private organisations. Her training is regularly delivered via Occupational Therapy Australia. Amanda also delivers lectures and tutorials to undergraduate Occupational Therapy students addressing the occupational therapy role in cancer care, palliative care and management of complex conditions.

Amanda was awarded the Contribution to Lymphology Research award from the Australasian Lymphology Association in recognition of conducting, publishing and presenting lymphoedema related research to promote or support evidence based practice in the prevention, detection, diagnosis and management of lymphoedema. She was awarded the Dr Dorothea Sandars and Irene Lee Churchill Fellowship to study techniques in head and neck lymphoedema assessment and treatment methods.

Amanda is an active member of the Australasian Lymphology Association through her roles on the research committee and conference scientific committees.

Ilje Pikaar received his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science (2004) and Master of Science in Environmental Technology (2006) from the Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He received his PhD degree in Environmental Engineering in 2012 from The University of Queensland, Australia.

Ilje Pikaar expertise involve the areas of environmental electrochemistry, the global nitrogen cycle, sewer corrosion, next generation sludge management, metal recovery, integrated urban water management and resource recovery with a special focus on nitrogen recovery and production of microbial proteins. Central theme in his international oriented research approach is to conduct high-quality research and extrapolate fundamental knowledge and scientific discoveries to real life applications and development of innovative technologies.

In the past 8 years, Ilje Pikaar has obtained signification funding, including 7 ARC projects as chief investigator. He also played an important role in the development in the CRC Blue Economy, a 10-year AUS$50 million dollar project (https://blueeconomycrc.com.au/). Equally important, his work on integrated urban water management led to a first author publication in the prestigious journal Science. In 2018, his work on the re-engineering the global nitrogen cycle was awarded the prize of best feature article of 2017 in the esteemed journal Environmental Science and Technology. He has also published in other prestigious journals such as Nature Food and The Lancet Planetary Health. Overall, he has published over 40 peer reviewed articles with an average impact factor of his publications of 8.51, which is quite uniquely considering his field of research.

From 2015 to 2019, Ilje Pikaar was the secretary of the International Water Association (IWA) Cluster of Resource Recovery from Water. As the secretary of the cluster for resource recovery from water of the IWA, Ilje Pikaar has been very active in organizing international conferences and workshops and other IWA related activities. Since 2019 he is the co-chair of the cluster. He was the co-chair of the 3rd IWA Resource Recovery from Water Conference in Venice (8-12 September 2019).

Since January 2018, Ilje Pikaar is board member of the International Waste Working Group (IWWG). The IWWG is the leading organisation in the field of solid waste management globally. Since September 2018 joined the editorial board of Waste Management, the leading scientific journal dedicated to solid waste management, as Associate Editor, handling over 100 manuscripts annually. In 2020, he was the handling guest editor of a special edition on 'Resource Recovery from Water' in Water Research. Moreover, in October 2020 he joined the Early Career Editorial Advisory Board of Environmental Science and Technology. Lastly, Dr. Pikaar has signed a book contract with the IWA publishing for the development of a graduate entry masters textbook on Resource Recovery from Water. The expected publication date of this book will be mid 2021. Finally, he is a managing program committee member for the bi-annual Resource Recovery from Water conferences of the International Water Association.