Find an expert

Tianze is a Research Fellow and an emerging leader in the field of youth substance use, at the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research (NCYSUR), School of Psychology, The University of Queensland.

Her expertise is in youth vaping, emerging nicotine products and the influence of digital platforms on health. She leads 2 major research programs focused on monitoring emerging nicotine trends (NHMRC Ideas) and developing vaping prevention approaches for young people (NHMRC MRFF).

Tianze is ranked among the top 1% of e-cigarette researchers worldwide and has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications (15 first/senior, 18 second author), with 90% in Q1 journals (e.g., JAMA Pediatrics, Addiction). Her work has informed reports, recommendations, and policy discussions by the WHO, UNESCO, Australian governments, and parliamentary inquiries. Her expertise has led to invitations from Queensland schools to deliver vaping prevention presentations to over 8,000 students, partnerships with community organisations for co-designing vaping prevention materials and live interviews on ABC radio and international shows like the Mike Hosking Breakfast Show.

She works with an exceptionally talented team of researchers from various disciplines and is always keen to work with motivated students and collaborators who share her passions.

Dr Meng-Wong Taing (Wong) is a registered pharmacist and qualified biostatistician. He graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (with Honours Class 1) in 2002, Graduate Certificate in Technology Innovation Management in 2012, PhD in Pharmacy in 2013. After completion of his PhD he worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Translation Research Institute (TRI) investigating novel drug candidates for the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity. In 2014, Wong joined the School of Pharmacy as a Lecturer and was awarded the Dean’s commendation for Research Higher Degree Excellence. He demonstrates a strong commitment to applying advanced statistical methods to health research. With broad expertise in quantitative analysis, he has made significant contributions across diverse disciplines including cell biology, social science, and medical research - leading and supporting collaborative projects that address complex health challenges. His work consistently promotes research transparency, methodological rigour, and interdisciplinary innovation.

Dr Caley Tapp is a Research Fellow in Substance Use and Mental Health with the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland.

Caley holds qualifications in psychology and epidemiology. She has a PhD in social psychology and completed a post doctoral fellowship on an ARC funded project examining a disease avoidance basis for stigmatisation.

In her previous role with the Analysis and Reporting component of the Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network she was involved in a range of projects designed to improve the measurement of patient- and service-level outcomes in Australia’s specialised public sector mental health services. She has experience in conducting systematic literature reviews, as well as conducting experimental, quasi-experimental and qualitative studies.

Caley is available to supervise honours, Masters and HDR students on a variety of topics; please get in touch to discuss.

Dr Jenna L. Taylor obtained her PhD in Exercise Physiology from The University of Queensland in 2019 as an NHMRC postgraduate research scholar. She then completed a 3-year postdoctoral research fellowship in the United States at The Mayo Clinic with the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine. She is now a Lecturer in Clinical Exercise Physiology with the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at UQ and heads up the Physiology and Ultrasound Laboratory for Science and Exercise (PULSE). Her interest in cardiovascular disease stems from her clinical experience as an exercise physiologist and dietitian working in a hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation program. Broadly, her research interests involve the effect of exercise training and intensity on improving cardiovascular and brain health, in the settings of healthy ageing and risk reduction for cardiovascular disease and vascular dementia. She is currently the PI on an NIH-funded Clinical Trial (1R21AG073726) investigating the influence of exercise training and intensity on cognitive function and cerebral blood flow regulation in patients with cardiovascular disease.

Dr Yonas Tefera is a Research Fellow in psychiatric epidemiology at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR), University of Queensland. He specialises in leveraging epidemiological methods and conducting advanced analyses of large-scale population-level administrative datasets related to hospital admissions and primary care. As an epidemiologist, his expertise spans pharmacoepidemiology and health services research. In his current work, he leads linked data analysis of health service data, including hospital, emergency department, community mental health services, and public dental care for people living with mental illness. In addition to health service use, his linked data alnalyses include outcomes for individuals engaged with mental health tribunals and placed on treatment orders. Dr Tefera's interests encompass psychiatric epidemiology, psychopharmacology, pharmacoepidemiology, and the use of advanced statistical and machine learning approaches to understand and enhance care for individuals living with mental illness or substance use problems.

He completed his PhD at Monash University in late 2025, focusing on opioid and psychotropic medicine use among injured Australian workers with back and neck musculoskeletal disorders. His work examined high-risk medicine use patterns, such as initiation, persistence, and co-prescribing of opioids and psychotropics, as well as their impacts on work-related outcomes in this population. His research has improved the understanding of value-based healthcare in Australian workers' compensation schemes. Dr Tefera possesses substantial expertise in diverse clinical research methodologies, robust evidence synthesis, and quantitative data analysis, including causal inference techniques. His experience includes survey-based studies, analysis of multinational surveys, international aggregate datasets, and linked administrative and claims data, as well as injury compensation datasets.

Before undertaking his PhD, Dr Tefera trained as a clinical pharmacist and worked as a lecturer, clinical preceptor, and mentor at the University of Gondar in Ethiopia, teaching courses such as pharmacotherapy, drug informatics, evidence-based medicine, and pharmacoepidemiology. He earned a Master of Public Health with distinction from the University of Manchester and a Master of Science in Clinical Pharmacy from the University of Gondar. His academic excellence has been recognised with several honours, including the Outstanding Student Cup Award from the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Association and the first-place award for achieving the highest score in his graduating class at the University of Gondar. Additionally, he has received multiple travel grants to present his research at national and international conferences, such as the International Pharmaceutical Federation's World Pharmaceutical Congress and the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology's Asian Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology.

Professor Susan Tett is a registered pharmacist with research interests in Quality Use of Medicines (improving how medicines are used) and clinical pharmacokinetics (optimising medicine doses)

Sue completed her PhD in 1988. Since this time she has been in research positions and in academia at Sydney University, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney and at the University of Queensland. She has over 150 peer reviewed research publications and over 200 conference presentations and is on Editorial Board of Clinical Pharmacokinetics. Sue was Head of the School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland 1996-2004 and Deputy Executive Dean & Associate Dean Research for the Faculty of Health Sciences 2006-2010, including periods as Acting Executive Dean.

Susan Tett has been a member of many Australian national and State advisory committees, including Pharmaceutical Health and Rational use of Medicines Committee 1996-2004, Pharmaceutical Sub-Committee of the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee 1995-2004, Pharmaceutical Industry Working Group 2003-10 , Pharmaceutical Partnerships Program Committee of the Industry Research & Development Board 2003-09, and has participated in NHMRC Project Grant Review Panels and Fellowships Panels. She was also Councillor for the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (Queensland Branch) and was the Australian Pharmacist of the Year in 1999, for her contributions to pharmacy education and research.

Sue’s research interests are directed towards optimising the clinical use of medications. General areas of research include quality use of medicines, clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Sue supervises a number of postgraduate students and is actively involved in innovation in the pharmacy profession, pushing the professional boundaries. She is committed to enhancing the role of the health care team in optimising consumer health outcomes.

Dr George Thomas is a Research Fellow in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at The University of Queensland and a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. His research focuses on children’s digital technology use, family digital routines, healthy screen use, and child health and wellbeing.

George leads an integrated program of research focused on understanding and improving how families manage children’s screen use. His work spans digital health, behavioural science, public health, and research translation through partnerships with government and industry.

His research has informed international policy and guidelines, including reports from UNESCO and the World Health Organization, and contributes to global initiatives such as the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance.

George is also committed to education and mentorship, having supervised more than 40 student research projects across psychology, dietetics, and exercise science, and supporting students to work on real-world policy and community initiatives.

Professor Kevin Thomas is an internationally recognised environmental health scientist whose research over three decades has focused on a fundamental challenge: how can we identify, measure and understand the environmental exposures that matter for human and ecosystem health?

His research has pioneered new approaches to measuring environmental exposure, from environmental contaminants and complex mixtures to wastewater-based epidemiology, plastics and human health. He pioneered wastewater-based epidemiology as a population-level approach to monitoring community health and behaviour, and has advanced the measurement of micro- and nanoplastics, plastic-associated chemicals, PFAS and other contaminants of emerging concern.

A central focus of his research is making previously invisible exposures measurable. He combines high-resolution mass spectrometry, non-target analysis and advanced approaches to chemical and polymer characterisation to identify and quantify known and previously unrecognised exposures across environmental, population and human matrices.

His current research focuses on the human chemical and particulate exposome—integrating measurements of chemicals, plastics and other environmental stressors with exposure and health data to understand how complex mixtures of environmental exposures affect human health.

Professor Thomas is Director of the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) at The University of Queensland and Director of the Minderoo Centre for Plastics and Human Health. He is also Deputy Director and Queensland Node Leader of the ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Hyphenated Analytical Separation Technologies (HyTech), and is affiliated with the ARC Training Centre for Bioplastics and Biocomposites and the Centre for Marine Science.

His research programme spans four interconnected areas:

Plastics and human health. Developing analytical approaches to identify and quantify micro- and nanoplastics and associated chemicals in environmental and human matrices, and to understand human exposure and potential health effects.

Emerging contaminants and exposomics. Developing high-resolution mass spectrometric and non-target approaches to identify known and previously unknown chemical exposures, including PFAS and other persistent and mobile contaminants.

Wastewater-based epidemiology. Using wastewater as a population-level biological sample to monitor community health, drug and tobacco use, emerging chemical threats and other indicators of population behaviour and health.

Antimicrobial resistance and environmental health. Identifying chemical and biological drivers of antimicrobial resistance in environmental mixtures, and developing approaches to understand their sources, exposure pathways and risks.

Professor Thomas has authored more than 400 pper-reviewed publications and has supervised researchers across environmental chemistry, analytical science, wastewater epidemiology, plastics and human exposure. His research brings together analytical science, environmental health and population-level measurement, with extensive collaboration across government, industry and international research organisations.

Across his research, a consistent focus has been making previously invisible environmental exposures measurable. This has taken his work from known contaminants to complex mixtures, population-level measurements and, increasingly, the chemical and particulate exposome of humans.

Professor Rachel Thomson is a Head of the Greenslopes Clinical Unit, Thoracic Physician and clinical researcher working at Greenslopes Private Hospital.

She has an international reputation in the area of Pulmonary Nontuberculous mycobacterial disease. She has published widely in the area and is regularly invited to speak at international and national meetings.https://medical-school.uq.edu.au/research/ntm-research-group

Her current research focuses on immunological and environmental aspects of susceptibility to NTM infection, characteristics of the lung and gut microbiome in NTM, and improving treatment outcomes.

In a clinical capacity, Professor Thomson is able to offer patients expert management of their disease at Pulmedica, Greenslopes Private Hospital, at public clinics at The Prince Charles Hospital and the MetroSouth Clinical TB service of the Princess Alexandra Hospital and via telehealth for patients across Australia. Patients can also access novel treatments through clinical trials in both the private and public sector.

Prof Thomson also has a special interest in respiratory problems of the elite athlete. This includes asthma management, vocal cord dysfunction, and the requirements of national and international doping organisations for asthma medications.

Karen Thorpe is Australian Research Council, Laureate Professor and Group Leader in Child Development, Education and Care at the Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland. Her research is grounded in the understanding that early learning experiences shape brain development and are critical in establishing trajectories of health, social inclusion and learning across the lifespan. A particular focus of her work is early care and education environments including parenting, parent work, quality of care and education, and the early years workforce.

Karen leads a multi-disciplinary team of developmental scientists undertaking large scale longitudinal studies with embedded studies to explicate mechanisms that enable or limit children’s life chances. She was Foundation Psychologist on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children at the University of Bristol, UK; led the evaluation of the Preparing School Trial for Queensland Government; led the Queensland team of the E4Kids study of quality in Australian Early Education and Care and a recent data linkage project with Queensland Government to track participants through their school journey. In partnership with Queensland Government, Goodstart Early Learning and the Creche and Kindergarten Association she led a large population study of the Australian ECEC workforce (ARC Linkage). Her current research, as a chief investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families across the life course, and through an ARC Laureate fellowship, is to examine barriers to providing high quality early learning services in developmentally vulnerable communities.

In 2013 and again in 2019 Karen was named by the Australian Financial Review as among Australia's 100 Women of Influence for the impacts of her research on educational and family policy. In 2020 she was recognised by Australian Government, Advance Global Awards for her international contribution to education. Karen chairs the Australian Early Years Reference Council for Evidence for Learning, Australia whose remit is to build a strong evidence-base in early childhood education and care with focus on translation into policy and practice. She is also director on the board of the Australian Research Council for Children and Youth and advisor to the national board of Beyond Blue – Be You.

A/Prof Leigh Tooth is a Principal Research Fellow who specialises in research on maternal and child health and general women's health, in particular on women carers, health inequalities and the socio-economic determinants of health, quality of life and comorbidity.

A/Prof Leigh Tooth is currently Principal Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). She chairs the Data Access Committee of the ALSWH. She is CI on the NHMRC funded Centre for Research Excellence on Women and Non-communicable Disease (CRE WaND): Prevention and Detection (2019–2024). She was CI on the NHMRC funded Mothers and their Children’s Health Study (MatCH) (2014-2018). MatCH is investigating the relationship between mothers’ health history, since 1996, and the family environment to children’s health and development outcomes, including health service utilisation. She is also leading a program of research into health inequalities and the socio-economic determinants of health, and women carers. Her other current research interests are quality of life and comorbidity. Her previous research experiences include a NHMRC Public Health Fellowship (1999-2003), during which she investigated the short and long term functional and community outcomes of people following stroke, and being a NHMRC Fellow with the Longitudinal Studies Unit in the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland researching statistical methodology and teaching into the epidemiology program. She has a PhD and first class honours degree in Occupational Therapy from the University of Queensland.

Marion has several years teaching and learning and leadership experience in the higher education sector. She is also a Board Director for Metro South Hospital and Health Services and Chairs the Metro South Safety & Quality committee. She is also a Council member of a local school. Marion completed a Bachelor of Nursing (Hons) in Sydney and then worked across NSW, Vic and QLD with experience in critical care and acute medical surgical areas, specialising in cardiology and emergency nursing. She completed a Master of Nursing in Women’s Health through QUT and a PhD at Griffith University. Marion has broad experience is leading curriculum design, implementation and review and has been involved in numerous research projects around students’ experiences of university and supporting and assessing students’ learning. Her research interests include nurse education, the student experience of university, assessment of learning, supporting casual academic staff and clinical decision making in practice. Marion also supervises several PhD students across a range of interests and research methodologies.

Julia is a Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Queensland. She has been researching whiplash and neck pain since 2000 and in 2004 completed her PhD focusing on the necks influence on sensorimotor control. She has continued her research in this area in idiopathic neck pain, headache, the elderly and post concussion. She has over 100 publications in this area, written several book chapters and is one of the authors of the book “Management of neck disorders- an evidenced based approach”. Julia works part-time as a physiotherapist in a private practice managing patients such as those with, whiplash, cervicogenic dizziness and post concussion syndrome and been involved as a clinician on several whiplash RCTs. Julia is also an assessor at the Whiplash Physical Diagnostic Clinic. Julia has been an invited speaker at many national and international conferences and workshops in the area of neck pain, whiplash, concussion and dizziness.

Dr Paul Treschman is a Lecturer in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences (HMNS). He is also the Deputy Director of Teaching and Learning in HMNS. He completed his PhD at the University of Queensland (UQ).

Paul’s research interests are in creating supportive and challenging learning environments, with a specific interest in formative assessment and feedback processes in general education and health and physical education settings. Paul’s teaching, research and service are all focused on dialogic processes to enhance learning and relational outcomes.

Dr. Stewart Trost is a Professor in the School of Human Movement Studies Department at The University of Queensland. Trost received his PhD in Exercise Physiology from the University of South Carolina, Colombia SC, USA. Trost leads the Children’s Physical Activity Research Group (CPARG) at the QLD Centre of Children’s Health Research. CPARG is dedicated to expanding the body of knowledge on physical activity and its promotion in children and adolescents. An overarching aim of CPARG is to enhance the health of young people by generating the knowledge needed to design and implement effective programs to increase physical activity in children with typical development and those with chronic and complex health conditions. His research interests include device-based assessment of physical activity and sedentary behavior, early life prevention of childhood obesity and chronic disease, therapeutic exercise programs for children with chronic health conditions, and the relationships between physical activity and other health behaviors.

Dr Mike Trott is a Research Fellow with the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR), The University of Queensland, where he serves as Section Head of Epidemiology and Biostatistics within the Physical and Mental Health Research Group. He specialises in lifestyle psychiatry, clinical trials, and psychiatric epidemiology, with a particular focus on addressing the physical health inequities faced by people with schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses.

His current research program addresses three major themes:

• Physical activity and sedentary behaviour – understanding their impact on mental and physical health and developing interventions, including the effectiveness of movement breaks to reduce sedentary time and cardiometabolic risk in people with schizophrenia, and the risk profiles of different types of sedentary behaviours.
• Clinical trials – leading the methodological and statistical aspects of a national platform of several schizophrenia clinical trials to find strategies to improve mental and physical health in this population
• Pharmacoepidemiology - using statewide and national linked data to determine the comparative effectiveness of clozapine augmentation strategies for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, as well as examining the mortality gap in several mental illness vs the general population.

Dr Ben Tscharke is an analytical chemist with a keen interest in quantifying analytes in environmental samples. Ben is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland research institute, Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), joining in February 2017 after graduating his PhD from the University of South Australia the previous year. His key focus at QAEHS involves the wastewater based epidemiological approach to determine community consumption and exposure to a range of illicit drugs, pharmaceuticals and personal care products. He leads the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission's National Wastewater Drug Monitoring program at UQ, which collaborates with the University of South Australia (https://www.acic.gov.au/publications/intelligence-products/national-wastewater-drug-monitoring-program-report).

Professor Kylie Tucker is Deputy Head of School in the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Queensland and leads the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences People Portfolio. She is passionate about creating environments where academics can thrive, grow and make meaningful contributions throughout their careers.

Kylie's work sits at the intersection of academic leadership, career development, promotion readiness and professional identity. Through leadership programs, workshops and facilitated peer learning, she creates psychologically safe spaces where academics can reflect on their careers, identify their strengths and values, craft coherent professional narratives, and build meaningful networks that support their future growth. Her emerging platform, Academic Identity and Impact, is founded on the belief that academics must first understand their identity before they can fully understand and articulate their impact.

Alongside these leadership activities, Kylie leads a positive and collaborative research environment that brings together fundamental scientists and clinical researchers to advance knowledge of human movement, rehabilitation and musculoskeletal health. Her research has transformed understanding of how pain influences movement, advanced approaches to estimating muscle forces, and improved assessment of childhood movement control and adolescent skeletal maturity.

More recently, Kylie has drawn on her expertise in movement science to investigate the mechanisms underlying adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Affecting approximately one child in every Australian classroom, scoliosis remains a condition with no known cause and limited evidence to guide non-invasive intervention. Her research group has identified novel, targetable muscle characteristics that can be detected early in curve progression, creating new opportunities to improve treatment and reduce the need for spinal fusion surgery.

Kylie remains deeply committed to teaching and educational leadership, having taught muscles and movement control across multiple UQ programs to cohorts ranging from small specialist classes to more than 1,400 students. Within the School of Biomedical Sciences she has served as Deputy Director of Teaching and Learning (2018–2020), inaugural Chair of the REMEDE Committee (2021–2023), Director of Teaching and Learning (2024–2025), and Deputy Head of School (2026–present).

Kylie also co-facilitates UQ's flagship Career Progression for Women program and is committed to helping academics develop confidence, clarity and connection in their careers. Across all her leadership roles, she is known for fostering supportive academic cultures that empower individuals to understand their strengths, articulate the value they bring, and maximise their impact.

Internationally, Kylie is now Past-President of the International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology (ISEK) (2026–2028), a global organisation dedicated to advancing the study of human movement and the neuromuscular system. She has contributed to the leadership of the Society since 2018.