I am a Research Fellow at the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, with an interdisciplinary background spanning molecular biology, philosophy of science, and the study of scientific practices. My research focuses on unraveling the complex dynamics of power, ethics, and knowledge production within scientific institutions.
With a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Science from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), my doctoral thesis, "Biobanks in Mexico: Aspects of the Economy of Scientific Capital," explored the intricate relationships between biological sample management, scientific capital, and the broader scientific landscape.
Currently, I am engaged in research projects associated with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology, investigating the intricacies of authorship, recognition, and credit distribution within cross-disciplinary scientific collaborations.
My research employs qualitative methods such as ethnography, participant observation and interviews to shed light on the interplay of scientific practices, intellectual property, and the sociological dimensions of research. I have contributed to the field through publications in journals and edited volumes, as well as presentations at international conferences.
Throughout my career, I have held various roles, including managing a molecular diagnostic service, conducting research and development in the private sector, and teaching at the university level.
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
Availability:
Available for supervision
My research is focused on exploring the functioning of agricultural systems. My projects are often carried out in multidisciplinary teams and with the participation of multiple stakeholders e.g. farmers, private consultants, agribusinesses, policy. My aims are to understand how people make decisions and act, how those decisions can be informed, and how the final actions affect the performance of crops, animals, farm businesses, the broader environment and the social and food systems. I also provide science leadership to a multidisciplinary team of crop physiologists, agronomists, modellers and socio-economists i.e. QAAFI Farming Systems Research Group. The key mission of this group is to identify pathways for the sustainable intensification of agriculture in Australia and in low-income countries.
Affiliate of Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Faculty of Science
Associate Professor
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Research interest: Monitoring ecosystem health of coral reefs and seagrass habitats, integrating field and remote sensing image datasets, and the developing applied cost-effective mapping and monitoring approaches. Developed approaches have been adopted as standard practice globally, making a difference in conservation of these valuable habitats. The long term monitoring studies at Heron and Moreton Bay formed the basis for the development of mapping and monitoring over time and space at local to global scale. See here major research impact
Major projects:
Long term monitoring of benthic composition at Heron Reef (2002-ongoing).
Long term monitoring of seagrass composition and abundance in Moreton bay Marine Park (2000-ongoing).
Smart Sat CRC Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Seagrass and Coral Reefs 2023-2027.
Developement of Underwater Field Spectrometry and Benthic Photo Collection and Analysis
3D GBR Habitat Mapping Project 2015 - ongoing:
Global habitat mapping project 2019-2023 Allen Coral Atlas .
Current position: Associate Professior in Marine Remote Sensing leading the Marine Ecosystem Monitoring Lab. . Academic Director Heron Island Research Station and affiliated researchers with Centre for Marine Science and Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Capacity Building and Citizen Science: Capacity: under/post graduate courses; Msc/PhD supervision, workshops/courses; Remote Sensing Educational Toolkit, and online courses (e.g. TNC).Strong supporter of citizen science based projects, as trainer, organiser and advisor for Reef Check Australia, CoralWatch, Great Reef Census and UniDive.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr Roets is a consultant anaesthetist (Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH)), intraoperative cell salvage (ICS) and equipment expert within Metro North Hospital and Health Services (MNHHS), co-author of the National Australian Guidance documents for the Provision of ICS with the National Blood Authority (NBA) and the BloodSafe eLearning ICS module (2020) in Australia. As senior lecturer (academic title holder (ATH)) with the University of Queensland she supports students, registrars, and other staff members participating in research projects and education relevant to ICS, blood transfusion and the development and implementation of equipment in Anaesthesia. She holds qualifications in four countries and has developed valuable international collaborations. During her master’s degree in clinical research administration with Walden University (Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America (USA), 2011) she wrote her thesis on the development of equipment in anaesthesia. Within her PhD with the University of Queensland (conferred 27-8-2024), Dr Roets endeavoured to provide scientific evidence (related to identified knowledge gaps) and to encourage the development of ICS to protect national and international blood product supply, and to reduce adverse patient outcomes and related costs.
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Associate Professor
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Not available for supervision
Media expert
Sonia Roitman is an urban sociologist and planner by training. Her contributions to the field of development planning and urban sociology include influential research on urban inequalities and how they manifest in cities. Her research interests include housing and poverty alleviation policies; the role of grassroots organisations in urban planning; disaster planning and informal practices; and, gated communities, segregation and planning instruments in Global South cities. Her main research locations are Indonesia, Samoa, Uganda, Argentina and Australia. Her most recent book is: Roitman, S. and Rukmana, D. (Eds), 2023, Routledge Handbook of Urban Indonesia, Routledge, New York and London.
Teaching responsibilities
PLAN1101 Teamwork and negotiation for planners (Course coordinator and lecturer - 2021 and 2022)
PLAN3005/7121 Community planning and participation (Course coordinator and lecturer - 2019 to date)
PLAN3200/7200 Understanding development complexities: Indonesia fieldtrip course (Course coordinator and lecturer - 2015 to date)
PLAN4001/7120 Planning theory (Guest lecturer 2014-2019)
Sol's research interests include: (Critical) Discourse Analysis, Trauma and Memory Studies, Perceived Discrimination, Critical Translation Studies, Decolonial Thought.
Sol is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Languages and Cultures, University of Queensland in Australia. She teaches language, literature, and cultural studies courses. Sol’s research interests include memory and trauma studies, everyday discourses of discrimination, and Decolonial Thought. Sol has over 50 publications, including four books, one co-edited book, and five books as a translator. Her work has appeared in journals such as Social Semiotics, Critical Discourse Studies, Memory Studies, Journal of Pragmatics, Languages in Contrast, Babel, Delaware Review of Latin American Studies, and JILAR among others. Her co-authored historical Graphic Memoir Historias Clandestinas (2014) had a second edition in 2023 and is currently being made into a film. The English version of the graphic novel was published in 2023 in the U.S.
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
Availability:
Available for supervision
A/Prof Barbara Rolfe is a Group Leader at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. A/Prof Rolfe is an immunologist and cell biologist, whose major research interests are the role of the innate immune system in cancer, the identification of novel therapeutic strategies for cancer, and nanomaterial safety. Her research has led to the identification of a previously unknown mechanism by which dysregulation of the immune system contributes to cancer development and growth, and provided information regarding the immune response to nanomaterials and the influence of physicochemical characteristics on biodistribution and cellular uptake. A/Prof Rolfe has used mouse models and small peptide agonists and antagonists to investigate the role of the innate immune system in tumour development and growth. This research demonstrated for the first time an important role for complement proteins in promoting tumour growth via regulation of immunosuppressive innate immune cells. Ongoing research is aimed focussed on gaining a better understanding of the role of complement proteins in tumour growth, developing novel immunotherapeutic strategies for cancer and investigating the application of nanomaterials for targeted delivery of anti-cancer drugs.
Affiliate of ARC COE for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS)
ARC COE for Engineered Quantum Systems
Faculty of Science
Associate Professor
School of Mathematics and Physics
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Dr Jacqui Romero is an expert in experimental quantum information. Her research is focused on using higher-dimensional systems for exploring curious quantum physics phenomena and developing future quantum technologies. She is the group leader of the research team Qudits@UQ, there's more information on her group's webpage.
Jacqui was born and bred in Manila, Philippines. Hearing her high school physics teacher complain about quantum physics, she became curious and googled "quantum physics"—she has been hooked ever since. She holds BS Applied Physics magna cum laude and MS Physics degrees from the University of the Philippines. She finished her PhD at the University of Glasgow (in sunny Scotland!) where she was a researcher for seven years. In 2015, she moved to Brisbane to join the Quantum Technology group at the University of Queensland. In 2016 she took up an ARC DECRA fellowship with the same group. In 2019, she took up a Westpac Research Fellowship and formed her own team, Qudits@UQ. Jacqui is recognised for moving the shape of photons to mainstream quantum information. She has received several prestigious national and international awards which include: a L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women In Science award in 2017 (one of four in Australia), the Ruby Payne-Scott Medal of the Australian Institute of Physics for excellence in early-career research in 2018, and a L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women In Science International Rising Talent Award in 2019 (one of fifteen awards globally).
She is currently an associate professor and Westpac Research Fellow. She is also a chief investigator at the Centre of Excellence For Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS).
Outside work, she is a busy mum to three lovely boys, and an occasional painter. She also loves sharing her research to the wider community, example here.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Honorary Associate Professor
Mater Research Institute-UQ
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Prof Katharina Ronacher obtained an MSc degree in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Vienna (Austria). Thereafter, she was awarded a prestigious fellowship from the Austrian Ministry of Science and Technology to complete a PhD at the University of Cape Town (South Africa). She completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Stellenbosch University, where she was subsequently offered a faculty position. Prof Ronacher was Senior Scientist on several large clinical research trials funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the European Union and the US National Institutes of Health with focus on identification of biomarkers for tuberculosis (TB) treatment response. In parallel, she established her independent research group investigating how endocrine factors impact immune responses to TB, for which she received uninterrupted funding from national and international funding bodies since 2008. In 2015, she was awarded a NIH R01 grant for her ground-breaking research into the underlying immunological and metabolic mechanisms of increased susceptibility of diabetes patients to TB. With this grant she has lead the international ALERT Consortium with clinical field sites in South Africa and at the Texas/Mexico border.
She relocated to Brisbane in 2017, where she now heads the Infection, Immunity and Metabolism group at the Mater Research Institute – University of Queensland, but continues to collaborate with clinicians and researchers in South Africa, the USA and Europe and holds an affiliate appointment as Professor Extraordinary at Stellenbosch University.
Prof Ronacher's current research investigates the underlying immunological mechanisms contributing to more severe bacterial and viral respiratory infections in obesity and diabetes. Her research provides critical insights into the role of cholesterol and its derivatives in regulation of inflammation in the lung and how this knowledge can be exploided for novel therapeutic approaches to treat respiratory infections.
Shahrzad Roohy Gohar is a full-time Lecturer in the Business Information Systems (BIS) discipline, with a background in Information Systems research and practice. She has completed her PhD (currently under examination) in BIS, a Master’s degree in Information Technology, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Software Technology.
Shahrzad's research expertise spans Environmental Sustainability and Information Systems, Business Process Management (BPM), and the Cognitive Effectiveness of Visual Notations. Her PhD research interests focus on measuring and communicating Environmental Performance Indicators (EPI) in business processes and designing intelligent Information Systems to manage the environmental impact of organisations. Methodologically, she applies Design Science (DS) approaches, case studies, experiments, and interviews in her research.
She has recently initiated a research project to explore the effectiveness of mental healthcare management in Australia, identifying key sociotechnical challenges, gaps, and opportunities from the perspective of mental health practitioners. This research aims to develop a theoretical framework for designing effective digital interventions seeking to improve continuity of care, integrated patient data, and enhance service quality in public and private mental healthcare sectors.
As an educator, Shahrzad has extensive experience teaching Information Systems (IS) fundamentals, Business Process Management (BPM) and improvement, as well as IS analysis and design at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She integrates insights from her research and industry experience into her curriculum, ensuring that students gain both theoretical knowledge and practical skills.
Shahrzad is actively engaged in academic service and leadership. In the past, she has served as an Executive Officer (Funding Chair) for the Association for Information Systems Women's Network (AISWN) and has been recognised with a leadership award from the Association for Information Systems (AIS). She is a registered peer reviewer for multiple journals and conferences, including the Australasian Journal of Information Systems (AJIS), Communications of the Association for Information Systems (CAIS), and Business Information Systems Engineering (BISE). She has also contributed to academic recruitment selection panels and previously served as a student representative for UQ’s Service Innovation Alliance.
