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Harendra's research interests span pharmaceutical medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutics as applied to innovative formulation & device co-development, and advanced non-viral, bioresponsive drug/gene delivery system design, synthesis and evaluation. His team at the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences have been instrumental in developing highly innovative and versatile platform delivery systems: for direct, nose-to-brain delivery of therapeutics with their Sol-Gel platform; a US-patented bioresponsive linker technology for stabilisation of peptide therapeutics in their natural conformation, transforming endogenous molecules into safe & effective medicines; engineering bioresponsive lipid nanoparticles (bLNPs) with tissue targeting and a unique gene 'catch-&-release' feature; micro- & nanobubble formulations, which when used in-conjuction with ultrasound, pave the way for improved rates of 'on-demand' drug delivery and release in target tissue e.g. for ocular indications. Harendra actively engages with pharma industry executives, and investors, globally, to showcase his array of disruptive platforms designed with clinical translation front and centre of all research endeavours.

BScPharm(Hon I), PhD (Nottingham)

Harendra completed his BSc in pharmacy (UK) and registered as a Pharmacist in 1998. He went onto undertake his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Nottingham in the same year. Under the supervision of Dr B. Kellam and Dr. S. R. Chhabra he investigated the development of novel linkers for solid phase peptide and glycopeptide synthesis. Harendra was awarded his PhD in 2002, and after a short time working in community pharmacy in the UK relocated to Australia and took up a position as research officer in the School of Chemistry at UQ. He continues to be a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of GB and is also registered with the AHPRA (pharmacist) in QLD.

Dr Parekh was appointed to a teaching and research role in the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2005. He is Scientific Founder & Chief Research Officer of two start-up companies that hold his platform technologies at their core (www.preveceutical.com; www.biogenetherapeutics.com). He also holds an adjunct-Faculty position at Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal University (India).

I am an Associate Professor and Organisational Psychologist at UQ's School of Psychology. I research, supervise, teach, and consult on a broad range of work and organisational topics. Through my research, I aim to help organisations and their employees devise new strategies for balancing and realising the dual concerns of feeling well and performing well. To this end, I have researched employee stress, well-being, motivation, and performance in a range of high-performance settings (e.g., small business owners, professional musicians, elite athletes, and safety critical work in healthcare and transport industries). I also supplement this field research with a program of basic research in my laboratory using work simulation paradigms.

Some of my specific research topics include: how workers manage their energy during work; how workers recover from work stress in off-the-job time; how jobs and careers can be designed to maximise well-being, motivation, and performance; and I also explore the 'hidden costs' of performance management systems. Beyond these core areas, I have also contributed to other topics through theoretical (i.e., self-determination theory) and methodological (i.e., physiology, experience sampling, work simulation) expertise in academic, industry, and student-based collaborations. For example, in areas like supervisor support, diversity and inclusion, employee voice, employee green behaviour, compassion science, and social identity.

Passionate about doing practically-relevant research, though my consulting and advisory work I have helped both public and private organisations tackle issues with selection and recruitment, training and development, career management, work design, culture change, and operational safety. I also regularly engage with the media on topics related to my expertise and my research and/or commentary has been featured in outlets like TIME Magazine, Harvard Business Review, HR Magazine, and ABC’s popular podcast This Working Life.

I currently serve on the Editorial Boards for the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology and the European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology.

My research interests cover a number of areas within history and philosophy of science and medicine, moral psychology, bioethics and medical ethics, health law, and medical education, with particular interests in philosophy of psychiatry, end-of-life care and decisions, reproductive medicine, medical professionalism, research ethics, evidence-based medicine and complementary medicine.

Areas of particular interest include:

• Conceptual research in bioethical methodology, particularly principlism and global bioethics
• Ethical aspects of the doctor-patient relationship
• End-of-life issues including euthanasia, mandatory psychiatric review of requests for assisted death, psychiatric medicalisation, withdrawal of treatment, causation of death, competence determination, end-of-life policy-making
• Reproductive issues including prenatal testing, posthumous conception and embryo research
• Human research ethics
• Changes in medical negligence and tort law
• Evidence-based medicine: implications for medical ethics and relations to clinical judgement
• Complementary and alternative medicine: scientific and ethical status, regulation, negligence, integration with orthodox medicine
• Education in medical ethics, medical and health law, professionalism, medical humanities
• Assessment of personal and professional behaviour of medical students
• Statutory regulation of clinical competence and professional conduct

Rachel Parker's research field is technology innovation systems and she has a discipline background in policy, governance and strategy.

Rachel has twenty years experience in higher education research leadership as Director Higher Degree Research Studies (UQ, 2003-2006), Associate Dean Research (QUT, 2009-2018), Dean Research Development (QUT 2014-2015), Director Centre for METS Business Innovation (QUT, 2017-2020) and most recently as Executive Director, Research Translation and Impact (UQ, 2022-2023). She has worked closely with State and Federal governments as an advisor on technology and innovation policy, research impact and university-industry research collaboration.

Rachel's research focuses on the business and social dimensions of uptake and diffusion of science and engineering research across the economy and the creation of new economic opportunities from new technologies. She was formerly Leader of the Industry Translation Capability and Chief Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, prior to taking up her current role. She was the inaugural Director Centre for Mining Equipment Technology and Services (METS) Business Innovation (QUT 2017-2020), funded by Queensland Government, Mining 3 and with major projects funded by CRCOre. She has led large-scale multi-disciplinary partnerships including ARC, CRC and commercial research. She has been a Lead Chief Investigator on three ARC Discovery Projects and a Chief Investigator on four ARC Linkage Projects and the Centre of Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation.

Rachel was a member of the social sciences panel of the ARC Research Engagement and Impact assessment exercise, she was an invited expert witness before the Senate Economic References Committee inquiry into Australia’s innovation system, she was a member of the economic impact panel of the ATN/GO8 research impact assessment trial. Rachel has worked as an advisor on knowledge transfer activities for several public organisations and her leadership roles have involved the development of impact pathways including the coordination, design and delivery of collaborations with industry and government to maximise industry awareness of emerging industrial opportunities as well as the barriers and drivers of technology adoption and industry development.

Her publications appear in leading international journals in the field including Economic Geography, Sociology, Regional Studies, Industrial and Corporate Change, Environment and Planning A, Organization Studies, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Work, Employment and Society. In addition to academic publications, her research on industrial innovation has been published in the Australia Higher Education Supplement and The Conversation. In 2005, Rachel received the UQ Vice Chancellor Foundation Research Excellence Award.

An accomplished executive leader and proud Waluwarra Wangkayujuru Wangkaymunha woman raised on Kalkadoon Country, Thelma brings 25 years of experience in education, employment and training, along with a strong local knowledge and understanding of State and National priorities. Furthermore, Thelma has undertaken consulting work with the Government and NGOs and has been serving on several State and Territory committees.

Thelma has held several key leadership positions including Colleges Principal, Head of School, Edmund Rice Flexible Learning Centre; Senior Lecturer, Australian Catholic University; Senior Education Officer, at Townsville Catholic Education Office and Director at Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE Townsville. Thelma is also widely considered a subject matter expert in the planning and execution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs and has led truth-telling initiatives for over 10,000 participants. Thelma has been awarded the title of Woman of the Year (1998 & 2000), Female of the Year (2003) and NAIDOC Women of the Year (2004) and is enthusiastic about pursuing continuous learning and professional development by currently studying for a Doctor in Philosophy in Cultural Humanity.

Thelma’s aspirations to make a meaningful contribution to her cultural heritage will be key to continuing our work in building a strong sense of belonging and inclusivity that works respectfully with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, staff and communities in teaching, learning, research and collaboration. Thelma is currently the Chairperson of Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA), where she has been instrumental in driving innovative education programs focused on First Nations perspectives and engagement that empower disadvantaged young people and young people in remote communities to pursue education.

Patrick Parkinson is an Emeritus Professor at the TC Beirne School of Law. Professor Parkinson was Dean of Law at the TC Beirne School of Law from 2018 - 2021. Professor Parkinson is a specialist in family law, child protection, law and religion and the law of equity and trusts. His books include Australian Family Law in Context (8th ed, 2023), Tradition and Change in Australian Law (5th ed, 2013), Family Law and the Indissolubility of Parenthood (2011), The Voice of a Child in Family Law Disputes (with Judy Cashmore, 2008), Child Sexual Abuse and the Churches (2nd ed, 2003) and Principles of Equity (editor, 2nd ed., 2003). Professor Parkinson served from 2004-2007 as Chairperson of the Family Law Council, an advisory body to the federal Attorney- General, and also chaired a review of the Child Support Scheme in 2004-05 which led to the enactment of major changes to the Child Support Scheme. He was President of the International Society of Family Law from 2011-14. Professor Parkinson is also well-known for his community work concerning child protection. He has been a member of the NSW Child Protection Council, and was Chairperson of a major review of the state law concerning child protection which led to the enactment of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998. He also works with churches on child protection and religious freedom issues.

Joni is an applied anthropologist whose work examines the social impacts of resource extraction. Her research focuses on Aboriginal employment and enterprise development in the resources sector, gender, agreement outcomes between Aboriginal communities and resource companies, governance, and post-mining land use. More recently, Joni has contributed to a socio-spatial analysis of Australia’s critical minerals resources and their policy implications for communities, as well as an innovative project co-designing Indigenous wellbeing metrics in mining regions.

Dr Peter Parry is a child & adolescent psychiatrist working in private practice at Northside Child & Youth Psychiatry. He is affiliated as an associate professor with the University of Queensland and as a visiting senior lecturer with Flinders University in South Australia.

He graduated from Adelaide University in 1983, worked as a medical officer in the Royal Australian Navy, then general practice and palliative care until he commenced psychiatry training in 1990. He has worked as a consultant child & adolescent psychiatrist in both community and inpatient child and adolescent psychiatry services in South Australia, Wales (UK) and Queensland. He was the inpatient service medical unit head at the Adelaide Women's & Children's Hospital 2000-2003 and medical director of CYMHS Campus Services at the Queensland Children's Hospital 2014-2016. He has since worked in community CYMHS and more recently in private practice and locum work.

His research interests are the topics of psychiatric nosology, developmental psychology, Pharma-Medicine conflict of interest issues, child, adolescent & family mental health assessment, adolescent depression syndromes, and lifestyle factors in mental health, and he has published and taught on these topics. In 2021 he completed a doctoral thesis that combined several of these interests, titled: 'Paediatric bipolar disorder': Why did it occur, iatrogenic consequences, and implications for medical ethics and psychiatric nosology.

He is on the editorial board of the Carlat Child Psychiatry Report and is an associate editor with Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

I am a molecular virologist and ARC DECRA Fellow at the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, where I am Deputy Team Leader of the Infection and Immunity theme. My research focuses on RNA virus evolution, host immunity, and RNA technologies for vaccines and therapeutics, linking four connected themes:

• Virus discovery and evolution: identifying and characterising novel viruses across diverse hosts using metatranscriptomics, phylogenetics, and comparative genomics, with particular focus on orthoflaviviruses and orthomyxoviruses
• Host–virus interactions: understanding how innate immune and RNAi pathways shape infection outcomes in mammalian and arthropod systems
• Reverse genetics: developing CPER-based systems, reporter viruses, and replicons for mechanistic virology and rapid hypothesis testing
• RNA platforms: engineering self-amplifying RNA to tune stability, expression, and immune sensing for vaccines and therapeutics

I completed my PhD (2016–2021) at UQ's School of Biological Sciences under Prof. Sassan Asgari, where I characterised the virome of Aedes mosquitoes and their interactions with the endosymbiont Wolbachia. In 2021, I joined Prof. Alexander Khromykh's RNA Virology Laboratory at SCMB. There, I contributed to the development of the SARS-CoV-2 CPER reverse-genetics system and have worked routinely with PC3 pathogens, including West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, and SARS-CoV-2. In 2026, I commenced an ARC DECRA Fellowship to investigate how modified nucleotides shape RNA structure, immune sensing, and function in next-generation RNA technologies. My current work is funded by the ARC and NHMRC.

I provide bioinformatics and phylogenetics support within UQ and internationally, and welcome collaborations involving small RNA analysis, virus discovery and metatranscriptomics.

I served on the organising committee of MicroSeq (2023–2025), an Australasian conference promoting microbial sequencing research by early-career researchers. I am the Communications Officer for ASM Queensland (2024–) and an incoming Committee of Management member for the Australasian Virology Society (2026–).

Cameron is an Australian Research Council Industry Fellow in partnership with Micah Projects.

Cameron’s research spans three linked areas of society. The first theme examines social problems. Cameron is interested in how social problems are framed, experienced, and contribute to the alienation of people affected and social dislocation. Cameron’s second theme of enquiry engages the myriad things society does about social problems. He is interested in the link between the framing and experience of social problems and the funded and practice solutions delivered. This includes both formal human services and voluntary and ground up community actions. The third theme of Cameron’s research seeks to uncover and extend empirical, theoretical, and ethical ideas for what a society that ends and prevents social problems would look like. This body of work is interested in not only how competing ideas for social cohesion can co-exist, but also how people holding competing ideas can come together to progress social cohesion through a diversity of disagreement.

In his first book, The Homeless Person in Contemporary Society, Cameron sought to highlight how the representation of people who are homeless as distinct informs a policy and practice agenda that he characterised as a poverty of ambition. Cameron's second book with Andrew Clarke and Francisco (Paco) Perales, Charity and Poverty in Advanced Welfare States, takes on the question how can we be just by soothing the consequences of poverty without addressing the causes of poverty.

Cameron's most recent book published by Polity Press, Homelessness, demonstrates that homelessness is a punishing, predictable, yet solvable social problem.https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=9781509554492

Professor Riitta Partanen is the Interim Dean of the Medical School, commencing in this role in January 2026.

For the preceding five years Prof Partanen was the Director of the Rural Clinical School based at the Hervey Bay Regional Clinical Unit. The Rural Clinical School (RCS) includes four Regional Clinical Units based in Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Rockhampton and Toowoomba and the Rural and Remote Medicine Clinical Unit which includes over 50 communities across the southern half of Queensland. Additionally, the RCS has three Regional Training Hubs (RTH). They are the Central Queensland, Wide Bay and Southern Queensland RTHs. Prof Partanen contributed significantly to the establishment of the Central Queensland - Wide Bay Regional Medical Pathway and the Darling Downs - South West Medical Pathway enabling students to study medicine in its entirity in regional and rural Queensland.

Prof Partanen is a specialist GP and continues to be clinically active having already served the community of Maryborough, Qld since 1994.

As the inaugural Head of the Hervey Bay Regional Clinical Unit (HBRCU), she has been involved with UQ Rural Clinical School since 2005. Since then, her roles have also included: the Co-Director of Learning for the RCS, GP Academic Lead for HBRCU, Acting Head of the UQRCS, and the Academic Lead for Phase 2 (Years 3 &4) of the UQ Medical Program. She handed over the reins of the Head of the HBRCU in 2020 after 15 years, when she commenced as the Director, RCS.

Previously Prof Partanen has served as Board member and Chair of the Wide Bay Division of General Practice, member of RACGP Rural Medical Education Committee and is currently member of the RACGP Doctors for Women in Rural Medicine Committee and the Rural Doctor's Australia Association's Female Doctors Group. Prof Partanen is the Chair of the national FRAME (Federation of Rural Australian Medical Educators) Policy Group. Previously she was the FRAME co-delegate for the National Rural Health Alliance. She interested in contributing to policy development and innovations in medical education and training pathways so that rural communities have equitable access to health care, close to home at the time they need it.

Her research interests include rural medical workforce, rural medical education, rural training pathways and General Practice issues such as depression and liver disease. She is currently a PhD candidate exploring geographical narcissism during medical education and training and its impact on rural medical practice decisions.

Our research focuses on understanding how cells work and what goes wrong in disease. We are studying the role of cellular organelles in defence against pathogens, the molecular changes underlying muscle disease, and optimising methods to deliver therapeutics to specific cell types in whole animals.

Professor Robert Parton is an ARC Laureate Fellow, a group leader in the IMB Centre for Cell Biology of Chronic Disease, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and an Associate Member of EMBO.