Dr Stefanie Plage is a Research Fellow with the Life Course Centre at the School of Social Science at UQ. Her expertise is in qualitative research methods, including longitudinal and visual methods. Her research interests span the sociology of emotions, disadvantage and health and illness. Stefanie has taught introductory and advanced courses in sociology and medical sociology, research design and qualitative inquiry, including the use of software for qualitative research (i.e. NVivo). Her work is multi-disciplinary. She completed her PhD at the Centre for Social Research in Health at The University of New South Wales. In her study she employed a mix of longitudinal qualitative interviews and visual elicitation methods to explore the lived experience of people with cancer. Currently, her research seeks to understand and improve the interactions of families experiencing social disadvantage with the social and health care systems.
I am an educator with over 20 years of teaching experience. I have taught in Queensland primary and high schools, academic English programs and federally-funded adult migrant English teaching programs.
My research explores professional learning and classroom-based research,with a particular focus on pronunciation teaching and literacy development.
I teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses in in the areas of Arts, languages and primary literacy education. I also teach courses in professional learning and teacher development, TESOL and research methods.
As a researcher and teacher educator, I believe my strengths lie in my ability to draw on a broad range of teaching experiences across different sectors of education, and in my ability to network and collaborate effectively with academics nationally and internationally.
Prof. Nicola M. Pless is an expert in Sustainability, Leadership, Leadership Development & Executive Education and a pioneer and thought leader in responsible leadership. She is listed in the Stanford University Ranking of Top 2% of World Scientists and has been recognized for outstanding performance internationally by TOP-ScholarGPS (lifetime) listed among the top 0.5% of all scholars worldwide, in leadership ranked #135 globally and #10 in Australia; in ethics ranked #58 globally and #3 in Australia.
She is a Chaired Professor of Management at the University of South Australia / Adelaide Univeristy, Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland and served on the faculties of INSEAD, EASDE and University of St. Gallen. She also held honorary positions at EBS University in Germany and at the University of Antwerp. She serves as an Advisor to the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (partnership of EFMD, AACSB and UNGC). She sits on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Perspectices and Academy of Management Collections (2023 AOM Best Reviewer Award). In additiion, she has substantial executive experience in board functions and as former Vice President International Leadership Development working for a global Fortune 100 companies in Switzerland. She also served at the World Bank Group in Washington DC.
She has published several books and over 90 academic papers, among them 18 articles classified as A/A* on the Australian ABDC-list, 15 articles on the FT50 list. Her research on responsible leadership, sustainability, global governance, ethics, diversity & inclusion, and neuroscience appeared in leading academic journals (e.g., Academy of Management Learning & Education, Academy of Management Perspectives, Human Resource Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Management Studies, Organizational Research Methods), received numerous awards (among them four Academy of Management Awards), and has been featured in the media (e.g., BBC, Boston Globe, Business Week, CEO Magazine, EL PAIS, Fortune, Psychology Today). She has mentored numerous PhD students and early career researchers to success. Her teaching was honoured with the Aspen Institute’s Faculty Pioneer Award. She is a certified executive coach by INSEAD and IECL, and a Fellow of the Institute of Coaching at McClean Hospital / Harvard Medical School Affiliate.
Her mission is to contribute through research, teaching and collaboration to the development of responsible global leaders.
Maak, T., M., Pless, N.M., Orlitzky, M., & Sandhu, S. (Eds.) (2023). The Routledge Companion to Corporate Social Responsibility. New York and London: Routledge.
Pless, N.M. & Maak, T. (Eds.; 2nd revised edition) (2022). Responsible Leadership. London, New York: Routledge.
Articles
Javed, M.**, Pless, N. Waldman, A. E., et al. (2024). What, When, and How of Responsible Leadership: Taking Stock of Eighteen Years of Research and Future Agenda. Journal of Management Studies. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.13157 [FT50/BW20 list; ABDC: A*; 2022: 5y IF: 10,5]
Yildiz, M.*, Pless N. M., Ceyhan, S. & Hallak, R. (2023). Responsible Leadership and Innovation during COVID-19: Evidence from the Australian Tourism and Hospitatlity Sector, Sustainability, 15(6), 1-22. [Q1 journal]
Pless, N. M., Sengupta, A.**, Wheeler, M., & Maak, T. (2022). Responsible Leadership and the reflective CEO: Resolving stakeholder conflict by imagining what could be done. Journal of Business Ethics, 180(1), 313-337. [FT50/BW20 list; ABDC: A, 5y IF: 8,086]
Wang, D.*, Waldman, Balthazard, P. A., Stikic, M., Pless, N. M., Maak, T., Berka, C. & Richardson, T. (2021). Applying Neuroscience to Emergent Processes in Teams. Organizational Research Methods. 24(3), 595-615. [ABDC list: A*, JCR 12/194 in Management, 18/226 Psychology, IF 2020: 5-year IF 9,289] *PhD at project start. **Early Career Researcher
AWARDS
2023 Academy of Management Best Reviewer Award 2023 Academy of Management Award Finalist, Honour by the League of Leadership (Division: MED, Management Education) 2022 Academy of Management Best Paper Award (Division: NEU, Neuroscience) 2011 Academy of Management Best Paper Award (Division: MED, Management Education) 2010 Academy of Management Caroly Dexter Finalist Award (all Academy of Management Award)
Aspen Institute, Aspen Faculty Pioneer Award Winner for Teaching Innovation & Excellence, NYC
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Nina Pocuca is a Research Fellow in the School of Psychology, The University of Queensland. Nina works on the Meaningful Outcomes in Substance use Treatments Centre of Research Excellence, which aims to implement routine outcome measures and feedback (ROMF) in the alcohol and other drug (AOD) sector to increase its capacity to deliver evidence-based and cost-effective care.
Nina completed her PhD with the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research at Queensland University of Technology (2019), where her research examined the interplay between personality and peer norms, on alcohol use in young people. Following her PhD, Nina completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California San Diego (UCSD; 2019-2020) and the University of Montreal (2020-2022). Nina's postdoctoral research at UCSD focused on the association between substance use and cognitive function, while her Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)-funded postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Montreal used 25+ years of longitudinal data to examine factors associated with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.
Nina's interests lie in examining factors associated with co-occurring mental health and substance use, understanding the association between substance use and cognitive function, and translating research findings stemming from these areas into practice.
Current projects include:
Projects as part of the Meaningful Outcomes in Substance use Treatments Centre of Research Excellence
Co-design and acceptability testing of a drug checking/ pill testing brief intervention
Using longitudinal birth cohort data to examine the link between alcohol, cannabis and polysubstance use, and cognitive development in youth (collaboration with researchers at the University of Montreal)
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Associate Professor In Education
School of Education
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Dr Shiralee Poed is an Associate Professor within the School of Education at the University of Queensland. Her career spans more than 30 years, and includes working as a teacher and leader in Australian state, Catholic and independent primary, secondary and special schools. She was awarded the 2023 International Positive Behaviour Leadership Award for her extensive leadership of Positive Behaviour for Learning in Australia, and internationally.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Dr Eugene Poh is a Research Fellow in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Science. He holds a PhD in Sensorimotor Neuroscience from the University of Queensland, with a multi-disciplinary background in physical education, exercise and sports science, cognitive science and neurophysiology. Prior to joining the University of Queensland, he pursued postdoctoral studies in the Department of Psychology at Princeton University and was a lecturer in motor control and learning in the Department of Health Sciences at Macquarie University. Dr Poh's research is dedicated to advancing our understanding of human motor control and learning through innovative research projects. He integrates research expertise in motor psychophysics, computational modelling, non-invasive brain stimulation and neuropsychological techniques to reveal fundamental principles of how the brain learns new motor skills and represents what it learns.
Annie Pohlman is an Associate Professor in Indonesian Studies at The School of Languages and Cultures, St Lucia campus, UQ. Her research interests include Indonesian history and politics, comparative genocide studies, torture, gendered experiences of violence, and testimony studies. She also works with human rights NGOs in Indonesia on the documentation of human rights abuses.
Affiliate of Centre of Architecture, Theory, Culture, and History
Centre of Architecture, Theory, Criticism and History
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Associate Professor, Urban Planning
School of Architecture, Design and Planning
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
I am an Associate Professor of urban planning. Since joining the University of Queensland in 2015, my research has focused on the built environment triad: urban design, transport, and housing - in both the Global North and South. I approach my work from a feminist perspective, considering the role of gender in the city.
My personal and academic journey has been international in nature. I am a native of Albania. Over the years I have held guest teaching and/or research positions in Austria (UWien), Canada (UBC), Chile (PUC), Italy (IUAV), the Netherlands (UvA), Oman (GUTech), and Vietnam (UTC), and I have provided consultancy services to various United Nations agencies including the UNDP, UNESCAP, and UN Habitat. I speak Italian, Spanish, and French in addition to English and Albanian.
My latest books are Trophy Cities: A Feminist Perspective on New Capitals (Edward Elgar, 2021), Alternative Planning History and Theory (Routledge, 2023), Planning as Political Theatre: Chronicle of Two Megaprojects Foretold (Routledge, 2025), and Early Planning Utopias: A Feminist Critique (Anthem Press, 2025). For five consecutive years (2021-2025), I have been included in the 'Stanford/Elsevier World’s Top 2% Researchers' list, and have ranked among the top-ten 'urban and regional planning' researchers in Australia. Alongside my academic research, I also publish broadly in non-academic outlets and regularly give interviews on national and international media. My articles in The Conversation have reached more than 600,000 readers. Prior to joining academia, I worked in urban design and planning in California. My research has been funded by domestic and international granting bodies, including the Australian Research Council. I have attracted more than $1 millon in grant funding.
My funded projects are listed below. For a full list of my publications, click the 'Works' tab, which displays results live from UQ eSpace, or visit my external profiles listed on the left panel.
Qualifications
Postdoctoral Residency, Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft, the Netherlands. 2012-2014.
PhD in Urban Planning, Polytechnic University of Tirana, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tirana, Albania. 2007-2010.
Visiting PhD student, University of California at Los Angeles, Luskin School of Public Affairs, Los Angeles, Ca, USA. 2009.
Master in Urban Planning, University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning, Cincinnati, Oh, USA. Full scholarship award. 2003-2005.
Visiting Master student, Catholic University of Leuven, Faculty of Architecture (St Lucas), Brussels, Belgium. Recipient of US government FIPSE grant. 2004.
Professional Degree in Architecture, Polytechnic University of Tirana, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tirana, Albania. 1998-2003.
Affiliate of Centre for Extracellular Vesicle Nanomedicine
Centre for Extracellular Vesicle Nanomedicine
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Research Fellow
Queensland Brain Institute
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr Juan Carlos Polanco leads a research team on "Extracellular Vesicles and Neurodegenerative Disorders" at the Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research (CJCADR), part of the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at the University of Queensland (UQ). He holds an MSc in Biochemistry from the National University of Colombia and a PhD in Molecular Bioscience from UQ. During his PhD, Dr Polanco made significant contributions to understanding how SOX genes are involved in XX disorders of sex development. He furthered his expertise during a postdoctoral fellowship at CSIRO, developing assays to detect unstable human-induced pluripotent stem cells prone to tumorigenesis.
In 2013, Dr Polanco joined Prof. Jürgen Götz's lab at CJCADR, where he began pioneering work on small extracellular vesicles, known as exosomes. His highly cited 2016 paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry was the first to demonstrate that exosomes encapsulate 'Tau seeds' capable of inducing Tau aggregation in recipient cells. He also showed that exosomes can propagate between interconnected neurons and that some exosomes internalised by neurons are re-released by hijacking endogenous secretory endosomes, thereby increasing their pathogenicity (Acta Neuropathologica Communications, 2018). Since 2019, Dr Polanco has secured NHMRC grants and leads a research team within Prof. Götz's larger laboratory at CJCADR.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Affiliate of Queensland Digital Health Centre
Queensland Digital Health Centre
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Deputy Director, QDHeC
Centre for Health Services Research
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Jason D. Pole is the Deputy Director of the Queensland Digital Health Centre (QDHeC) and a Professor in the Centre for Health Services Research (CHSR) within the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences. Jason provides research leadership for QDHeC and manages his own research program that utilises clinical and surveillance data linked with real-world administrative data to answer health questions in several areas.
Jason has a background in epidemiology, health services research and digital health with an emphasis in the use of real-world data and complex survey instruments.
Currently, Jason has research interests in the areas of digital health applications to improve system performance including patient safety, health care utilization among childhood cancer survivors, the effects of childhood cancer treatment specifically on the development of second cancers and education achievement and has interests in the financial impact of a childhood cancer diagnosis on the family and the long-term financial health of the survivor. More recently, Jason has developed an interest in adolescent and young adult oncology (AYA) survivors and the specific long-term needs of this unique cancer population.
Jason maintains appointments as an Associate Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and an Adjunct Scientist with the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute and an Adjunct Senior Scientist with ICES, Toronto.
Emeritus Professor Phil Pollett has research interests in Markov process theory, and mathematical modelling in population biology, ecology, epidemiology, seismology, chemical kinetics and telecommunications.
He holds an honours degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Adelaide and a PhD degree in Applied Probability from the University of Cambridge. He joined the then Department of Mathematics in 1987 as Senior Lecturer, having previously held positions at the University of Adelaide, Murdoch University and University College of Cardiff. He was promoted to Reader in 1993 and to Professor in 2004.
His research is recognized internationally for significant contributions to Markov process theory, and mathematical modelling. This research has been supported by 12 ARC Large/Discovery/Linkage grants. He was a Chief Investigator (2014-2021) within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistics Frontiers (ACEMS), and was a Chief Investigator (2002-2014) within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems (MASCOS). In 1993, he was awarded the Moran Medal by the Australian Academy of Science for distinguished research in Applied Probability.
Phil Pollett has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society, Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability, Stochastic Models, and The Annals of Applied Probability, and has served on the organizing committees of several major international conferences. He devised the Probability Web, recognized as the main Web resource for probabilists throughout the world, and one of the first academic web sites. He has a strong record of innovation in undergraduate teaching, and has guided the development of many postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows through supervision and collaboration.
Nicolas Pontes is an Award-winning academic who brings his prior industry experience in roles such as marketing research coordinator, marketing manager, and marketing consultant to his teaching and research practices. Dr Pontes has had the role of Program Coordinator for Advertising and IMC majors at both Undergraduate and Post-Graduate levels and he is the Founder and Academic Advisor at Newish Communications Inc., the first student-run communications agency in Australia. His research interests are in the area of consumer decision-making and information processing with a particular interest in online consumer behaviour, social media engagement, price and promotion advertising, and branding. His research has been published in the European Journal of Marketing, Psychology & Marketing, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Journal of Product & Brand Management, and Journal of Brand Management. His work has also been presented at international advertising and marketing conferences such as Association for Consumer Research [North America], American Marketing Association, and American Academic of Advertising.
Research Supervision I am not accepting new HDR (Mphil or PhD) students.
Affiliate of ARC Training Centre for Environmental and Agricultural Solutions to Antimicrobial Resis
ARC Training Centre for Environmental and Agricultural Solutions to Antimicrobia
Institute for Molecular Bioscience
Affiliate of Centre for Extracellular Vesicle Nanomedicine
Centre for Extracellular Vesicle Nanomedicine
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Professor
School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Research Interests
Advanced Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine 1.Advanced drug delivery methods (controlled release dosage forms such as tablets, granules and microspheres) 2. Biomaterials as next generation adjuvant for vaccine delivery 3. Surface modified nanomaterials (Silica, Polymer, Liposomes) 4. Programmable nanoparticales for oral drug delivery and targeting 5. Translocation of nanoparticles after oral drug delivery (In-vitro and In-vivo)
Qualifications
Master of Pharmaceutical Science, Gujarat University
Affiliate of ARC Training Centre for Bioplastics and Biocomposites
ARC Training Centre for Bioplastics and Biocomposites
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Centre Manager – ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Bioplastics and Biocomposites
School of Chemical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Not available for supervision
I have a strong interest in applied research, using information to improve policy. I have a broad interest in applying population genetics to the management of wild populations, particularly through a better understanding of dispersal.
Affiliate of Research Centre in Creative Arts and Human Flourishing
Research Centre in Creative Arts and Human Flourishing
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Honorary Associate Professor
School of Mathematics and Physics
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Not available for supervision
Media expert
I research extrasolar planets - planets around other stars - and focus on developing and applying new data science approaches for detecting and characterizing them. I have taken nearly every approach to exoplanet and stellar observation, including transits, radial velocities, direct imaging, and asteroseismology.
As an ARC DECRA Fellow I'm mainly working on exoplanet direct imaging with the James Webb Space Telescope, and especially how we can use differentiable & probabilistic programming to enhance data analysis to detect faint objects in noisy data. I also work on radio astronomy to study planets' magnetic interactions with their host stars, and using radiocarbon in tree rings as a tracer of long term solar activity.
I grew up in Sydney, New South Wales, and studied for my Honours and Masters at the University of Sydney. I studied abroad at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 2017 I completed my DPhil in Astrophysics at Balliol College, Oxford. From 2017-20 was a NASA Sagan Fellow at the NYU Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics and Center for Data Science. I'm now a Lecturer in Astrophysics and DECRA Fellow at the University of Queensland.
I'm into open source, open science, and climate action. I was a member of the winning Balliol College team in the 2016-17 series of University Challenge on BBC2, with the wonderful Joey Goldman, Freddy Potts, and Jacob Lloyd. Sometimes I write: see my latest piece in The Monthly, about the possible discovery of phosphine on Venus.