Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Higher Degree by Research Scholar
School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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Paul Treschman is an Associate Lecturer in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences (HMNS). He is currently undertaking his PhD at the University of Queensland (UQ).
His research interests are in formative assessment and feedback in the Physical Education setting. This includes investigating the influence of teachers’ behavaiours on students' motivation, learning and performance.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Affiliate of Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation
Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Affiliate of Queensland Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation and Research Centre
Queensland Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation and Research Centre
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Affiliate of Child Health Research Centre
Child Health Research Centre
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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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.
Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Affiliate of Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Science
Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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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).
Affiliate of Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research (CIPHeR)
Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Professor
School of Biomedical Sciences
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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Professor Kylie Tucker leads a positive research environment, where exceptional basic science and clinical researchers come together to advance knowledge about muscles and movement control. Her work has transformed our understanding of how pain impacts movement; showcased methods for estimating muscle forces; and advanced the assessment of childhood movement control and adolescent skeletal maturity. Recently, Kylie has drawn on her fundamental science knowledge to propose a shift in our understanding of the potential drivers of scoliosis progression. Approximately one child in every Australian classroom, and 3-7% world-wide, will develop adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. There is no known cause, nor strong evidence to determine when or where to target non-invasive treatment. Each year in Queensland >200 adolescents have up to 12 vertebrae fused as conservative treatment has not stopped their curve progression. Her group have identified unique, targetable muscle features, that can be non-invasively detected early in curve progression.
In parallel to her research, Kylie teaches about muscles and movement control across 10 UQ programs, where class size ranges from 70-1400 students. She is the Director of Teaching and Learning for the School of Biomedical Science (2024- ), where she influences teaching outcomes across numerous disciplines. Kylie co-facilitates UQ’s flagship Career Progression for Women program (2024- ), and intentionally fosters a supportive academic culture, empowering academics in their pursuit of excellence, across all her roles. She is also the President of the International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology (ISEK); a global organization composed of 375 members in health-related and basic science fields with a common desire to study human movement and the neuromuscular system. Kylie has contributed to the leadership of this society since 2018.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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Karen Tuesley is an early career researcher and Lecturer in epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of Queensland. Karen’s research focuses on women’s health and cancer epidemiology using large longitudinal datasets. Her PhD research used large-scale data to explore the associations between the use of chronic disease medications and the risk of ovarian cancer. She also researches long-term health outcomes for women after gynaecological surgery. Karen works with large observational studies with longitudinal data and is experienced with different analytic techniques and methods including emulated trials and Mendelian randomisation.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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Karnaker's research interests are natural products, peptide-based drug discovery and development, formulation chemistry and non-viral gene delivery system. Karnaker co-inventor and developed a novel, bioresponsive disulphide-linker technology, which has been used for non-viral vectors, peptide-therapeutics for pain and cancer treatment. Karnaker is also keen interest for topical, mucosal drug delivery using a range of dendrimer, nano and microbubbles, lipid and polymer-based nanoparticle systems in conjugation with both biological and physical stimuli-responsiveness.
Karnaker received a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from The University Queensland under the supervision of Dr Harendra Parekh and Dr Defang Ouyang. Prior to PhD, he completed a Master degree in Pharmaceutical Analysis and Quality assurance (India). Also worked as analytical research and development chemist for one year in a Pharma company. Since 2016, he his working with Dr Parekh team on a range of Industry-funded research projects and his role involves from ideation, research plan, execution, product delivery to industry partners on major platforms such as peptide-based therapeutics, gene therapy and sol-gel technology.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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Dr Turpin’s research centres on the clinical/professional reasoning of occupational therapists across the spectrum of experience from new graduates to experts, as well as the subjective experiences of people with disabilities. She specialises in the use of qualitative research methods and uses a variety of qualitative research methods in her own research, as well advising others on these research methods. Dr Turpin has written books and book chapters on occupational therapy models of practice, evidence-based practice, and clinical reasoning, as well as publications on various aspects of people's experience. Dr Turpin has been a teaching and research academic at The University of Queensland for more than 30 years. The connection between theory and practice is central to her research and teaching. As occupational therapists attend to both thinking and experience, they need to use rigorous thinking and a deep understanding of human experience in their practice.
Affiliate of Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation
Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Professor
School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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Available for supervision
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Professor Sean Tweedy leads the Para Sport and Adapted Physical Activity Research Group in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, University of Queensland. Through his applied research program he aims to generate the knowledge required to empower people with disabilities to pursue self-directed goals through safe, effective engagement in sport and physical activity. Sean’s research addresses three main areas of need:
People with disabilities are among the most inactive people in society and consequently have a disproportionately high incidence of preventable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes mellitus. Sean’s research program aims to develop evaluate and translate evidence-based methods for increasing physically active behaviour among community dwelling adults with disabilities.
Para athletes have impairments which adversely affect sports performance, but the extent to which performance is affected varies greatly with some athletes having impairments that cause severe disadvantage in sport and others that cause relatively minor disadvantage. To ensure that competition is fair and that athletes who succeed are not simply those that have less severe impairments, Para athletes compete in classes, each comprising athletes who have impairments that cause a similar amount of disadvantage in sport. Methods for allocating class are not well established and Sean is Principal Investigator for the International Paralympic Committee’s Classification Research and Development Centre (physical impairments) which aims to develop best practice and evidence-based methods for allocating athletes to classes;
In Australia, the right of people with disability to participate in sport and recreation is protected but only if the accommodations they require - equipment and/or expertise - are deemed to be "reasonable”. Unfortunately people with severe disabilities and high support needs often require equipment and/or expertise which cannot reasonably be expected of community sport and recreation providers. Sean’s research program aims to develop, evaluate and translate methods for safe, effective engagement in physically demanding, competitive sport for people with severe disabilities and high support needs. ParaSTART is his flagship program in this area - https://habs.uq.edu.au/parastart
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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Zephanie is a Senior Research Fellow and occupational therapist based at the Child Health Research Centre, and a member of the management team of the Centre for Children’s Burns and Trauma Research, Brisbane. She has a clinical background specialising in paediatrics and burn care. She has worked clinically and in management positions at Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, in private practice and in research capacity building positions in hospitals and health services.
Since 2013 Zephanie’s research has focussed on developing and validating patient-reported outcome measures, as well as using these measures therapeutically for clinical decision making. She led the development of four versions of the Brisbane Burn Scar Impact Profile which have been translated into Czech and are undergoing cross-cultural validation for Brazilian Portuguese. She has a vision of providing all children and their caregivers with an opportunity to communicate their needs and priorities during treatment in a paediatric hospital or health service.
Her current program of work includes collaborative work with children, their caregivers and health professionals to co-design and test the effectiveness and implementation of technology-based interventions in clinical settings to improve quality of life. These interventions include a web-based intervention for paediatric health professionals to support the psychosocial health of families with a child who has experienced physical trauma, and an electronic intervention for children with skin conditions and their caregivers that provides feedback about the patient's health-related quality of life to health professionals. Zephanie also has a continued interest in investigating the effectiveness and implementation of novel interventions to prevent or improve the impact of skin conditions in children and their families. This includes the use of ablative fractional CO2 laser, medical needling, pressure garment and silicone therapy, medical hypnosis and interventions to promote adherence and reduce the burden of treatment.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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Dr. Susannah Tye joined the Queensland Brain Institute in 2017 and has established a research program within the Asia Pacific Centre for Neuromodulation (QLD, Australia). Before returning to Australia, Dr. Tye directed the Translational Neuroscience Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic (2012-2017). While there she led efforts to develop brain stimulation devices (for rodents and humans) that can quantify neural activity and neurotransmitter dynamics in the living brain. This body of work now forms the basis of the neuropsychiatric arm of the Mayo Clinic’s Deep Brain Stimulation Consortium. Her specific research expertise are in utilising voltammetric (electrochemical) recording techniques to monitor rapid, synaptic neurotransmission in the living brain.
Dr. Tye has over ten years of experience studying neuromodulation in preclinical rodent models and human patients. Her long-term goal is to bridge preclinical and clinical studies to maximise translational impact, specifically in terms of improving patient outcomes for those with severe refractory psychiatric illness. Towards this end, she maintains many international collaborations with both clinical and basic science researchers. Dr. Tye also has a longstanding interest in mentoring young scientists to help them expand their skills in preclinical and basic science research and achieve a successful research career.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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Children deserve the best of our healthcare. As Professor and Chair in Paediatric Nursing, conjoint between the University of Queensland (UQ) and Children’s Health Queensland, Amanda is working to optimise health service delivery for children in hospital, so they are able to receive the treatment they need, without complications. She also aims to improve the capacity, capability and excellence of consumer-focussed, powerful research across paediatric healthcare.
At UQ, Amanda leads the Paediatric Nursing and Patient Safety research group, which is based across the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work and the Children's Health Research Centre.
Amanda is also co-Chair of the Children's Inpatient Research Colloraborative of Australia and New Zealand (CIRCAN), which facilitates hospital-based paediatric research studies across metropolitan, regional and rural hospitals in Australasia. She is also Director of Child UnLimited, an Australian network of researchers, clinicians, advocates and families with a shared vision: to improve the clinical care and quality of life of children, adolescents and young adults living with a chronic illness or disability.
Affiliate of Centre for Digital Cultures & Societies
Centre for Digital Cultures & Societies
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Senior Lecturer
School of Social Science
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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Mair Underwood is an anthropologist in the School of Social Science who specialises in bodies. In particular she explores how body modifications (such as tattoo or bodybuilding) are used to create, reflect and disrupt social boundaries such as those of gender and class. She is especially interested in the social lives of image and performance enhancing drugs: how they acquire meaning through social interactions and how they alter social interactions.
She also has an interest in assessment practice and has conducted research into assessment techniques that promote student engagement and academic integrity and compiled them into a searchable database called the UQ Assessment Ideas Factory
Mair is passionate about community engagement and engages with the community through her YouTube profile and podcasts such as this one with VPA Australia https://www.vpa.com.au/podcast
Mair Underwood coordinates two courses:
SOSC2190 Human Bodies, Culture and Society
SOCY1060 Gender, Sexuality and Society: An Introduction
Affiliate of Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research (CIPHeR)
Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Emeritus Professor
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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I am a Professor Emeritus in Sports Physiotherapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences where I am the Director of the Master of Physiotherapy (Musculoskeletal and Sports Physiotherapy Majors) and co-Director of the Sports Injury Rehabilitation and Prevention for Health Research unit. My research is mainly focussed on non-surgical management of persistent musculoskeletal problems like tendon related pain/disability (tendinopathy) and knee cap pain (patellofemoral pain). I also delve into the underlying mechanisms of these conditions and other common sporting injuries (e.g., ankle sprains) – a leading cause of ankle osteoarthritis.
Since gaining my PhD in 2000, I have been awarded over $30million in competitive research funding as a chief investigator to study these conditions – 5 NHMRC project grants, 2 NHMRC CRE, 2 NHMRC program grants, 2 NHMRC MRFF grants and an ARC Linkage grant. I have also conducted over half a million dollars of commercially sponsored research.
I have authored 2 books, 26 book chapters and over 382 peer reviewed publications (h-index 68). My top tendinopathy papers are cited over 10 times more than average for the field – most are published in the top sports/general medicine and physiotherapy journals . I have 2 highly cited papers – in the top 1% of the academic field of Clinical Medicine 2022. I have presented my work world wide in over 300 workshops, seminars and keynote presentations.
I enjoy my role in mentoring early/mid career academics and supervising researh higher degree students – having supervised 40 PhD and 2 MPhil candidates to completion. In this capacity I lead the physiotherapy research higher degree seminar series where our students engage in presenting their work and hearing from top international researchers on a range of relevant topics. One reason why my work was recently recognised by the school award for research mentoring.
Affiliate of Future Autonomous Systems and Technologies
Future Autonomous Systems and Technologies
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Affiliate of Queensland Brain Institute
Queensland Brain Institute
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Lecturer
School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
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Dr T. Thang Vo-Doan is a Lecturer of the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at the University of Queensland. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Biology I, University of Freiburg, Germany (2019-2023). He was also a Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore (2016-2018). He was awarded his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU in 2016. He received his M.Eng. degree in Manufacturing Engineering and B.Eng. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam in 2010 and 2008 respectively. He was awarded the prestigious Human Frontier Science Program Cross-disciplinary Fellowship (2019-2022).
He directs the UQ Biorobotics lab after joining in the University of Queensland. Current research activities of the lab focus on insect-machine hybrid robots, bio-inspired robotics, insect structures and functions, biomechanics, fast lock-on tracking, and brain imaging in untethered insects.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Honorary Senior Fellow
Frazer Institute
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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BSc, MBBS, MPH, PhD, FRACGP, FACD
Dr Lena von Schuckmann is a clinician researcher, with dual medical specialist training in dermatology and general practice. Her research is focused on skin cancer prevention, early detection, and optimising skin cancer treatment. She is passionate about improving the cancer journey for patients.
She works as a consultant dermatologist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Sunshine Coast University Hospital and private clinics in Spring Hill and the Samford Valley.
Affiliate of Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research (CIPHeR)
Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Lecturer in Physiotherapy
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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Dr Viana Vuvan is a titled Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist and Lecturer in Physiotherapy at The University of Queensland. Viana has a strong clinical background in musculoskeletal physiotherapy, with experience in managing a wide range of musculoskeletal and sports-related injuries. Viana has a special interest in the management of upper limb musculoskeletal disorders and enjoys sharing her experience with students in the undergraduate and postgraduate physiotherapy programs. Viana is an active member of the Sports Injury Rehabilitation and Prevention for Health (SIRPH) research unit and the Neck and Head Research Unit (NAHRU) at the University of Queensland.
Viana’s research is focused on improving the management of persistent musculoskeletal pain conditions, such as tendinopathies, and better understanding the mechanisms underlying their chronicity. Viana’s PhD research focused on lateral elbow tendinopathy and explored the factors contributing to pain, disability and chronicity within this group. Additionally, Viana has explored similar mechanisms in other tendinopathies, including Achilles, patellar tendinopathy, plantar fasciopathy, as well as in whiplash associated disorders. She has shared her research at numerous state-wide, national and international conferences, and has been awarded for her presentations at several conferences.
Dr David Wadley's research interests are in: Philosophy of Planning and Development, Industrial and Retail Planning, Economic Geography and Futurology.
David Wadley received his PhD from the Australian National University in 1975.
His current research projects are in the fields of:
Visual Impact Assessment in Planning
Effectiveness, Efficiency and Equity in Retail Planning
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
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Dr Jacqueline Walker joined the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences in November 2015 and is working as a Senior Lecturer. She completed her doctoral degree in paediatric nutrition at The University of Queensland in March 2013, focusing on energy balance and body composition in children with cerebral palsy. Prior to this, she completed her undergraduate studies in exercise science and nutrition and dietetics at The University of Sydney. Jacqueline has worked as a dietitian for a number of years in acute hospital settings, community clinical settings and private practice, specialising in paediatric dietetics.