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I grew up in Seattle in the Pacific Northwest of the US, and spent my childhood in on and around the water. I have a Bachelors in Environmental Studies from Yale University (on the Long Island Sound, not the most beautiful body of water) and a Masters in Applied Marine Science from the University of Cape Town (surrounded by stunning vibrant incredible ocean!). I’ve been lucky to work on a wide variety of conservation and management projects around the world, including Latin America, Africa, and more recently Oceania and Southeast Asia. As a marine scientist, I'm passionate about all things fisheries, except actually doing the fishing (which I am very bad at). I’m also one of the few surfers who wants to see more sharks in the water. My research straddles the marine conservation and fisheries management fields, including work with fisher behaviour and bycatch reduction (see here for some featured projects), fishing impacts on threatened marine species, and seafood trade dynamics. Ultimately, my interest is improving the environmental and socioeconomic sustainability of fishing and seafood in Australia and globally.

Here at UQ I am a member of the UQ Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science and the Ocean Conservation Team led by A/Prof Carissa Klein.

Working in theoretical atomic physics and particle astrophysics. My research focusses on high-precision atomic structure calculations, and how atomic processes can be used for testing fundamental theories, probing for physics beyond the standard model, and searching for dark matter. This is complimentary to the high-energy tests performed at CERN. Some research highlights include: searching for variations in the fundamental constants near the super-massive black hole at the centre of our galaxy [1]; using decades of archived atomic clock data from the GPS satellites to search for signatures of dark matter [2]; performing high-precision calculations of symmetry violations in atoms, allowing the most precise low-energy test of the standard model to date [3-5]; and proposing and quantifying novel experimental signatures of dark matter that exploit atomic (rather than the typical nuclear) phenomena, opening the door to a wide range of previously “invisible” models [6-9].

1. A. Hees, T. Do, B. M. Roberts, A. M. Ghez, S. Nishiyama, R. O. Bentley, A. K. Gautam, S. Jia, T. Kara, J. R. Lu, H. Saida, S. Sakai, M. Takahashi, and Y. Takamori, Search for a Variation of the Fine Structure Constant around the Supermassive Black Hole in Our Galactic Center, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 081101 (2020).
2. B. M. Roberts, G. Blewitt, C. Dailey, M. Murphy, M. Pospelov, A. Rollings, J. Sherman, W. Williams, and A. Derevianko, Search for Domain Wall Dark Matter with Atomic Clocks on Board Global Positioning System Satellites, Nature Comm. 8, 1195 (2017).
3. V. A. Dzuba, J. C. Berengut, V. V. Flambaum, and B. M. Roberts, Revisiting Parity Nonconservation in Cesium, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 203003 (2012).
4. B. M. Roberts and J. S. M. Ginges, Nuclear Magnetic Moments of Francium-207–213 from Precision Hyperfine Comparisons, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 063002 (2020).
5. G. Sanamyan, B. M. Roberts, and J. S. M. Ginges, Empirical Determination of the Bohr-Weisskopf Effect in Cesium and Improved Tests of Precision Atomic Theory in Searches for New Physics, Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 053001 (2023).
6. B. M. Roberts, Y. V. Stadnik, V. A. Dzuba, V. V. Flambaum, N. Leefer, and D. Budker, Limiting P-Odd Interactions of Cosmic Fields with Electrons, Protons, and Neutrons, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 081601 (2014).
7. B. M. Roberts, V. V. Flambaum, and G. F. Gribakin, Ionization of Atoms by Slow Heavy Particles, Including Dark Matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 023201 (2016).
8. B. M. Roberts et al., Search for Transient Variations of the Fine Structure Constant and Dark Matter Using Fiber-Linked Optical Atomic Clocks, New J. Phys. 22, 093010 (2020).
9. E. Savalle, A. Hees, F. Frank, E. Cantin, P.-E. Pottie, B. M. Roberts, L. Cros, B. T. McAllister, and P. Wolf, Searching for Dark Matter with an Optical Cavity and an Unequal-Delay Interferometer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 051301 (2021).

Laura Roberts received her PhD in Philosophy from The University of Queensland, Australia, where she currently teaches Gender Studies and Philosophy. Although she now resides in Australia, Laura was born and raised in South Africa and began her undergraduate studies in Drama and Philosophy at The University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. Her research interests emerge from the field of post-colonial/decolonial theory and feminist philosophy, particularly the work of Luce Irigaray and Gayatri Spivak. Laura has recently published her monograph, Luce Irigaray and Politics, with Edinburgh University Press (2019), in which she explores the question of the political in Luce Irigaray’s philosophy of sexuate difference. Her new research question(s), evolving out of her work in this book and time spent in Barcelona, explore the links between feminist theory and the feminisation of politics in the new international municipalist movement, with a particular focus on the strategies and policies of Barcelona en Comú. Laura is co-director of The Irigaray Circle (irigaray.org) and is a founding member of the community-based Queensland School of Continental Philosophy (https://www.qldscp.org) that seeks to bring philosophical and political conversations back into the wider community.

Michael (Mike) Roberts is a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics and Director of the Therapeutics Research Centre in the Diamantina Institute at The University of Queensland, which is based in the Translational Research Institute adjacent to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Qld, Australia. He is also Professor of Therapeutics & Pharmaceutical Science at the University of South Australia with laboratories in the Basil Hetzel Institute at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia.

Matthew J. Roberts, BSc, MBBS, PhD, FRACS (Urol)

• Consultant Urologist, Royal Brisbane and Women’s (RBWH), Surgical Treatment and Rehabilitation Service (STARS), Queensland Health
• Clinician Research Fellow, Metro North Hospital and Health Service
• Group Leader & Associate Professor, The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research

Matthew is a medical graduate of The University of Queensland and completed Urology specialty training in Queensland and New South Wales. He completed his PhD under the supervision of Professor “Frank” Gardiner investigating new biomarkers for the early detection and characterization of prostate cancer.

Matthew is a surgeon-scientist, working clinically as a urologist and robotic surgeon at RBWH & STARS with academic appointment as Clinician Research Fellow at Metro North Health (Qld) and Associate Professor at UQCCR. His clinical and research interests are in Urologic cancers (e.g. prostate cancer), focusing on novel imaging and biomarkers, clinical trials, urological infections and innovation in urology. He has authored over 140 peer reviewed manuscripts in international journals and presented research at more than 20 international urology and clinical cancer meetings. He is a member of the EAU Prostate Cancer Guidelines Committee, Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry (PCOR)-Queensland Steering Committee, Editorial Board of the BJU International, as well as Co-Convenor of the ANZUP 2024 ASM.

Dr Leah Roberts is a bacterial bioinformatician currently working on clinically important bacterial pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. She uses whole genome sequencing to investigate mobile genetic elements, such as plasmids, that can transfer horizontally between bacteria thereby spreading resistance within a bacterial population. Her research is focused on developing bioinformatic tools and studying the epidemiology of bacteria commonly associated with Hospital Acquired Infections.

After obtaining her PhD from the University of Queensland in 2019 she moved to the United Kingdom to undertake a Biomedical Fellowship with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute and the University of Cambridge. In 2023 she returned to Australia with a lecturer position at the Queensland University of Technology. In the same year she was awarded an NHMRC EL1 Investigator Fellowship and has since moved to the UQ Centre for Clinical Research on the Herston campus. She collaborates with a number of public health providers including Pathology Queensland and Forensic Scientific Services.

Professor Jason Roberts is Director of the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR), an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership Fellow L2 at The University of Queensland. He is also a Consultant Clinical Pharmacist at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and Interim Director of the Herston Infectious Diseases Institute (HeIDI). He is Director of the NHMRC-funded Centre for Research Excellence RESPOND which is based at UQCCR. He is a clinician-scientist with a strong interest in research and his principal research theme is optimization of antimicrobial dosing in the critically ill. Prof Roberts has authored over 650 published papers and book chapters on this topic, has been awarded over $55 million in grants and has supervised >20 PhD students to completion.

Prof Roberts was recognised as Australia’s leading researcher in two separate categories, Critical Care and Communicable Diseases, by the Australian’s 2019 Research Magazine.

He has been invited to present his results at major international conferences in critical care, infectious diseases, pharmacy, nephrology, transplant and safety. He has served on the Critical Review Panel for ATS/IDSA Guidelines of HAP, HCAP and VAP and the Australian Therapeutic Guidelines - Antibiotic and the 2021 Surviving Sepsis Guidelines. He is the Past Chair of the Working Group for Antimicrobial Use in ICU for the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine and an Executive Member of the PK/PD Group (EPASG) within the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID).

He is Section Editor for the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents and an Associate Editor of the Journal or Pharmacy Practice and Research, the journal for the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia and an Associate Editor for Pharmacotherapy and Aanesthesiology Pain and Critical Care Medicine journal. He has convened >50 seminars/conferences including being co-convenor for Medicines Management 2013, The National Conference for Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia.

He also engages with Industry to perform studies that develop optimised antibiotic dosing regimens that maximise antibiotic efficacy for testing in clinical trials or for use in special patient populations (e.g. critically ill, pneumonia, dialysis).

I am a teaching focussed academic in the School of Mathematics and Physics. I have a PhD in applied statistics and love mathematical programming in R, python and Matlab.

I am particularly interested in understanding the ways in which first year university students seek help outside of their shceduled classes and the role that university first year learning centres can play in helping students succeed.

Dr Hannah Robinson is an Industry Research Fellow within the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at The University of Queensland. In this role, Hannah spends half of her time as a researcher focused on advanced crop genomics and associated technologies and the other half within InterGrain, a private plant breeding company, as their genomic scientist. Prior to this, Hannah led the early generation barley breeding program at InterGrain. Her research interests are motivated by industry impact with the overarching aim of increasing genetic gain for the Australian agricultural industry through novel insights into the genetic basis of quantitative traits and the development of new breeding technologies. Hannah is passionate about teaching and mentoring along with sharing her industry experience and currently works with 11 students and early career researchers.

Follow Dr Hannah Robinson on Twitter: @HannahMRobin

Dr Mark Robinson is a Principal Research Fellow in the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. Mark is a public health and evaluation specialist and has led the development of evaluation frameworks with varied partners across a range of topics. He recently led the development of a detailed Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Framework for Health and Wellbeing Queensland (HWQld) and currently leads the strategic evaluation of a suite of six preventive health programs funded by HWQld. Mark also played a major role in the development of Queensland Health’s Cancer Strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People and recently led a detailed review of data, policies, and evidence relevant to men’s health on behalf of the Commonwealth Government Department of Health and Aged Care.

Prior to joining ISSR, Mark successfully led a range of research and evaluation projects to better understand population health and health inequalities at NHS Health Scotland, a national public health agency in Scotland. He led and contributed to numerous studies as part of the evaluation of the Scottish Government’s national alcohol strategy, including an evaluation of the impact of minimum unit pricing on alcohol consumption and related harms. These studies have received widespread media coverage and the outputs and findings have been used to inform national policy and legislation in Scotland and beyond. In Scotland, Mark also successfully delivered a large program of research to estimate the impact of a wide range of interventions on population health and health inequality outcomes using epidemiological modelling and visualisation.

His PhD was completed at the University of Bath and investigated behavioural risk factors for training injuries among British Army infantry recruits.

Dr Karl Robinson joined QAAFI’s Centre for Horticultural Science (frm. Centre for Plant Sciences) in 2012 as a molecular biologist specialising in RNAi applications against animal and plant viruses. Karl received his doctoral degree from The University of Queensland, School of Veterinary Science in 2009 and was awarded the 2009 UQ Deans Award. Karl has held postdoctoral research positions within Queensland Government/The University of Queensland - Agricultural Biotechnology Centre and the Viral Pathogenesis and Vaccine Group at the Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Organisation, The University of Saskatchewan, Canada, before joining The Mitter Group. In 2017, Dr Robinson was awarded the Queensland State Government - Advance Queensland Reseach Fellowship to conduct research into alternative insect and virus control methods using RNAi and nanotechnology. Currently, a senior research fellow, supported by Grains Research Development Corporation and Horticulture Innovation Australia, Karl is leading research into spray-on RNAi applications for viruses and insects in high value grain and horticultural crops. Karl supervises several higher degree research students and delivers the plant virology lectures of the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences 3rd year virology course at UQ.

Professor Gail Robinson holds a joint Queensland Brain Institute and the School of Psychology appointment. She has been a clinical neuropsychologist and researcher for ~25 years in Australia and in London (UK), where she spent 14 years at the dynamic and historic National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London. In 2010, she transitioned from a clinical role to an academic position at The University of Queensland where was Director of the Clinical Neuropsychology Doctoral programme (2010-2018), taking up this lead role again in 2023. Her clinical research is focused on both theoretical questions about brain-behaviour relationships like the crucial mechanisms for the executive control of language, and clinical questions regarding cognitive assessment and management of various pathologies including neurodegenerative disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders, brain tumours and stroke. Professor Robinson has attracted internal and national funding; she Leads the Neuropsychology Core of a large-scale longitudinal and multidisciplinary NHMRC Dementia Team Research grant (Prospective Imaging Study of Ageing: Genes, Brain and Behaviour - PISA). She was the recipient of an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) in 2012 and a NHMRC Boosting Dementia Research Leadership Fellowship in 2018 in which she has been focused on early neurocognitive diagnostic indicators for dementia.

Conjoint Professor Paul Robinson is the Deputy Director of the Children’s Health Environment Program within the Child Health Research Centre (CHRC), and Senior Staff Specialist in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at the Queensland Children’s Hospital. His research program performs translational research outlining the role of peripheral airway function tests in early lung disease detection and ongoing monitoring of established disease.

He has led the development and standardisation of novel measures of lung function across the entire age range from infancy onwards, facilitating the development of commercial equipment available for widespread use. His research focuses on defining the clinical utility of two specific peripheral airway function tests (Multiple breath washout, MBW, and oscillometry) in important obstructive lung diseases (e.g., asthma, cystic fibrosis, and post bone marrow transplant pulmonary graft vs host disease) and in understanding the impacts of environmental exposures. Structure-function relationships have been explored using state-of-the-art imaging techniques, with the aim of also developing new strategies to reduce any radiation exposure associated with these to advance incorporation into clinical care (e.g., ultra-low dose CT).

These novel lung function tools not only in the hospital setting but also in the school and home setting, enabling the successful development of a parent-supervised remote monitoring strategy for asthma which has been shown to reflect clinically meaningful outcomes missed by conventional approaches. In collaboration with industry, this strategy is now being employed in a series of research projects.

Involvement in longitudinal birth cohorts has outlined the early lung function trajectories in health, and the identification of risk factors affecting normal lung development and contributing to the early development of asthma. Studies investigating environmental health have highlighted the adverse effects of ultrafine particle air pollution.

Professor Robinson’s standing as an international expert, both in terms of clinical and research experience, has led to broader leadership roles across national and international levels.

Dr Melanie Robitaille is a Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher working with the Calcium Signalling in Therapeutics Team (CaSTT) in the School of Pharmacy. This team specializes in the development and application of novel methodologies and cellular assays in drug discovery, including the use of genetically encoded indicator for high-content imaging in live cells.

Her interests are to elucidate how calcium signals are remodelled in disease states, to identify calcium transporters as new therapeutic targets and to develop molecular and cellular screening tools to be used in drug development programs. She has an established profile in cellular and molecular biology, with high expertise in plasmid cloning, lentiviral transduction and the use of CRISPR/Cas9 to modulate gene expression.

Louisa is a hydrogeologist with twenty years of experience. She has had a diverse career working in research, consulting, and government. Louisa’s main areas of expertise include hydrogeological investigations, impact assessment, groundwater resource management, and contaminated land management. She has worked across a range of sectors including mining, energy, transport, and agriculture and her experience includes developing water resources legislation and policy and leading complex groundwater and surface water investigations for project approvals, operations, and compliance.

Louisa is currently working as a Senior Research Fellow (Hydrogeology) at the Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry (CWiMI). The role involves leading the hydrogeological research, training, and consulting services that CWiMI provide to the minerals industry in Australia and globally and working with a team of water resource management specialists to contribute to a range of inter-discplinary projects. She has recently completed a project for The Australian National University developing draft National Guidelines for Groundwater Monitoring in Australia.