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I am a palaeo-ichnologist and evolutionary biologist specialising in dinosaur footprints and fossil trackways, using digital and quantitative methods to reconstruct how extinct animals moved, behaved, and interacted with their environments.

My research focuses on extracting biological and behavioural information from footprints and trackways, particularly where body fossils are rare or absent. I develop and apply digital workflows that combine photogrammetry, spatial measurements, and custom analytical tools to study dinosaur locomotion, group behaviour, and palaeoecology in a reproducible and scalable way. A strong emphasis of my work is the use of remote and non-destructive methods that allow high-quality scientific analysis in regional, industrial, and operational settings.

I work extensively with industry partners to support rapid documentation and preservation of fossil footprints exposed during active operations. I also collaborate closely with regional communities and citizen scientists, recognising their essential role in discovering, recording, and safeguarding Australia’s trace fossil heritage.

My research has received sustained national recognition. I was listed as a Lead Researcher in Australia in the Palaeontology category by The Australian Research Magazine in 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026. My work spans major Australian and international tracksites and is strongly oriented toward public engagement, heritage protection, and translating scientific research beyond academia.

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.

Dr 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 in Information Systems, 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.

I completed a PhD in Economics in 2016 at the University in Bristol, followed by a two year post-doc at Toulouse School of Economics. I joined the University of Queensland in 2017.

My primary field is applied microeconometrics. I have particular interests in networks, spillover/peer effects, high-dimensional econometrics and the economics of illicit drugs.

Tanya is a certified practising speech-language pathologist who has a particular clinical and research interest in both paediatric and adult language. She has experience in conducting mixed-methods studies.

Tanya’s research interests include exploring family-centred models of care and client outcomes using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework when working with young children who are ‘late talkers’ or who have a developmental language delay/disorder and their families.

Tanya is also passionate about the provision of accessible health information to adults who have aphasia post-stroke and to their family members. Tanya undertook her doctoral research within the Communication Disability Centre (CDC) at The University of Queensland. She is particularly interested in patient education and ensuring people with aphasia, their family, and friends receive appropriate health information and access to services across the continuum of care.

Gideon Rosenbaum's research interests are in the fields of structural geology and tectonics. He is particularly interested in the geodynamics of convergent plate margins.

BSc, Hebrew University, 1997; MSc, Hebrew University, 1999; PhD, Monash University, 2004.

Dr Rosengren is an Associate Professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland. He completed his PhD, which focused on structure-activity relationships of antimicrobial peptides, under the supervision of Professor David Craik at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, UQ, in 2003. After two years of post-doctoral work at IMB he moved to Sweden in 2005 to take up a position as Assistant Professor at Linnaeus University, Kalmar. During 2008-2009 he held a joint appointment between Linnaeus University and Uppsala University. In 2009 he was awarded the Swedish “Docent” title before returning to University of Queensland as a Senior Research Officer, funded by an NHMRC Career Development Award and an ARC Future Fellowship. Dr Rosengren’s research focuses on structure activity relationships of bioactive peptides, in particular peptide hormones and the use of NMR spectroscopy in the design of novel peptide drug leads.

Professor Linda Rosenman has had a distinguished academic leadership, research and teaching career in Australia and the USA. She has a PhD in Economics and Social Work from Washington University St Louis with extensive experience in research, both in the United States and Australia.Her research focuses on the social and economic aspects of aging. Current research is on intergenerational family relationships revealed through wills and will contestation. Previous research has included projects on womens’ retirement planning, financial abuse and mismanagement of assets of older people living in the community and in care facilities and baby boomer financial planning . She has researched, published and presented widely on economic security, superannuation and ageing, financial abuse and aged care and on intergenerational commitments with a particular focus upon older women. She has successfully supervised many higher degree students at UQ, CDU and in the USA.

She is currently an Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland , an Honorary Professor at Victoria University and a Professorial Research Fellow at Charles Darwin University Northern Territory. Prior academic appointments include Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and Provost at Victoria University Melbourne, Professor, Executive Dean, President of Academic Board and Head of School at The University of Queensland, and Professorial Research Leader at Charles Darwin University.

Dr David Ross, CPEng, RPEQ, MAICD, APEC Engineer, IntPE(Aus), is a recognised information security expert, a director on the boards of Australian proprietary and public companies, a Founding Director and current Chair of the Cloud Security Alliance Australia, a past Chair of Standards Australia’s IT-038 Committee for Cloud Computing and Distributed Platforms, has represented Australia as Australia’s Head of Delegation to numerous international ISO/IEC standards development plenaries over the past ten years, and is a co-editor of the ISO/IEC Standard 27071:2023 “Cybersecurity — Security recommendations for establishing trusted connections between devices and services”.

David is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng), Registered both nationally (NER) and in Queensland (RPEQ), with degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Class I Honours in the field of Computer Science, and a PhD in Information Security.

David is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional (GICSP), SABSA Chartered Practitioner in Architectural Design (SCPA) and has also been a Payment Card Industry Qualified Security Assessor (PCI QSA) for ten years previously.

He is currently an Associate Professor with the University of Queensland’s UQ Cyber group and has previously worked as a cyber security consultant in critical infrastructure, heavy industry, utilities, finance and commercial sectors.

David has worked in the computer industry for 30 years and specifically in cyber security for over 20 years. He has particular expertise in Autonomous Vehicle Communications Security, Industrial Automation and Control System (IACS) Security, Cloud Computing Security, Wireless Network Security, the Payment Card Industry, and Public Key Infrastructures.

His consulting roles typically involve security infrastructure development and review, including co-operative and autonomous vehicles communications, enterprise architecture and industrial control systems for the resources and government sectors, as well as consulting in specialist areas of government and enterprise PKI, IoT and IACS.

David is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Chartered Member of Engineers Australia (EA), an Honorary Life Member of the Australian Information Security Association (AISA) and a Member of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), as well as leading the Cloud Security Alliance Australia (CSA-AU).

Dr Ben Ross is a chemist with interests in medicinal chemistry, computer-aided drug design, virtual screening, synthetic chemistry, enzyme inhibitors, ion channel modulators, antivirals, amyloid diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer.

Follow Dr Ben Ross and his team on Twitter: @RossChemLab ||| Google Scholar: Benjamin P. Ross ||| ResearcherID: A-9573-2012 ||| ORCID: 0000-0002-1899-8484 ||| Scopus Author ID:7401608823 ||| Group Web Page: www.drbenross.com

Research Interests

The main focus of Dr Ben Ross's research is the application of computer-aided drug design and synthetic chemistry to create new drug candidates for cancer, viral infections, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. His team's novel molecules are evaluated using a variety of biochemical, biophysical, and cell-based screening assays, as well as animal models of disease, both within their lab and in partnership with local and international collaborators. Consideration of drug-likeness is an integral part of the design process, since good ADMET properties are crucial for their molecules to reach the clinic.

Biography

Ben Ross graduated with a First-Class Honours Degree in Chemistry (1999) and then moved to the UQ School of Pharmacy where he gained a Doctorate in the field of Medicinal Chemistry (2004). He worked in the School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Dr Ross McGeary for two years (2004-2006) during which he completed the synthesis of a variety of biologically useful molecules. In June 2006 Ben was appointed to a Lectureship within the UQ School of Pharmacy. In the first half of 2012 he was a Guest Researcher in the Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Lund University, Sweden. In 2013 Ben was promoted to Senior Lecturer at UQ. A general theme of his research is medicinal chemistry, specifically the application of synthetic chemistry and molecular modeling to discover novel molecules with application as drugs or tools for research. Ben's team has published extensively in journals having a moderate-to-high impact factor in their specialised area of research (e.g. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Nanoscale, Food Chemistry).

Selected Primary Research Articles

Bifunctional Succinylated ε-Polylysine Coated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for pH-Responsive and Intracellular Drug Delivery Targeting the Colon. C.T.H. Nguyen, R.I. Webb, L.K. Lambert, E. Strounina, E.C. Lee, M.-O. Parat, M.A. McGuckin, A. Popat, P.J. Cabot, B.P. Ross*. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2017, 9, 9470-9483. doi:10.1021/acsami.7b00411 (2016 JIF 7.5, Quartile 1)

Discovery and Structure-Activity Relationships of a Highly Selective Butyrylcholinesterase Inhibitor by Structure-Based Virtual Screening. S.N. Dighe, G.S. Deora, E. De la Mora, F. Nachon, S. Chan, M.-O. Parat, X. Brazzolotto*, B.P. Ross*. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2016, 59, 7683-7689. doi:10.1021/acs.jmedchem.6b00356 (Featured on the front cover of the journal: http://pubs.acs.org/toc/jmcmar/59/16) (2016 JIF 6.3, Quartile 1)

GAG mimetic functionalised solid and mesoporous silica nanoparticles as viral entry inhibitors of herpes simplex type 1 and type 2 viruses. E.C. Lee, N. Davis-Poynter*, C.T.H. Nguyen, A.A. Peters, G.R. Monteith, E. Strouina, A. Popat*, B.P. Ross*. Nanoscale 2016, 8, 16192-16196. doi:10.1039/C6NR03878F (2016 JIF 7.4, Quartile 1)

Metal chelation, radical scavenging and inhibition of Aβ42 fibrillation by food constituents in relation to Alzheimer’s disease. S. Chan, S. Kantham, V.M. Rao, M.K. Palanivelu, H.L. Pham, P.N. Shaw, R.P. McGeary, B.P. Ross*. Food Chemistry 2016, 199, 185-194. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2015.11.118 (2016 JIF 4.5, Quartile 1)

"Click" Assembly of Glycoclusters and Discovery of a Trehalose Analogue that Retards Aβ40 Aggregation and Inhibits Aβ40-induced Neurotoxicity. H. Rajaram, M.K. Palanivelu, T.V. Arumugam, V.M. Rao, P.N. Shaw, R.P. McGeary, B.P. Ross*. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2014, 24, 4523-4528. doi:10.1016/j.bmcl.2014.07.077 (2014 JIF 2.4, Quartile 3)

Enzyme-Responsive Controlled Release of Covalently Bound Prodrug from Functional Mesoporous Silica Nanospheres. A. Popat, B.P. Ross, J.Liu, S. Jambhrunkar, F. Kleitz*, S.Z. Qiao*. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2012, 51, 12486-12489. doi:10.1002/anie.201206416 (2010 JIF 13.7, Quartile 1)

PhD vacancies - PhD opportunities

Australian and international students with backgrounds in chemistry, biochemistry, and pharmacy are encouraged to contact Dr Ben Ross to discuss possible Honours or PhD projects and scholarships.

Sources of funding include: UQ Scholarships; NHMRC Postgraduate Scholarships; Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships; Malaysia Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) Scholarships; Ministry of Education Saudi Arabia; and the China Scholarship Council (CSC), as well as many other funding schemes. Contact Dr Ben Ross via email to discuss the best strategy to obtain a scholarship.

Teaching and Service Activities

Dr Ben Ross is the Research Higher Degrees Coordinator for the School of Pharmacy, and an Academic Advisor for Year 2 of the BPharm(Hons) program. He also coordinates and teaches within the following undergraduate BPharm(Hons) courses:

PHRM2021 Dosage Form Design A1;

PHRM2022 Dosage Form Design A2;

PHRM2040 Drug Discovery A1;

PHRM2041 Drug Discovery A2 - Course Coordinator;

PHRM3021 Dosage Form Design B1.

Charles Ross (Vaxxas) is the Head of Clinical Operations and Supply.

Charles has over 20 years’ experience in the manufacture of sterile pharmaceutical products. He has worked as a project manager at CSL both in Melbourne and Switzerland where he managed the development of a novel aseptic manufacturing process. Following his work at CSL, Charles worked as a GMP consultant specialising in sterile facility design, commissioning and validation before taking on the role as General Manager of a Contract Manufacturing Organisation.

Dr Megan Ross (she/her) is a Specialist Research Physiotherapist and Senior Research Fellow at RECOVER Injury Research Centre, The University of Queensland. She is part of a research team, led by Professor Trevor Russell, which focuses on developing more effective and efficient health services supported by technology innovation. Megan’s current research projects include exploring consumer perspectives of the telerehabilitation service delivery model, factors that influence the uptake and utilisation of telerehabilitation, and exploring the acceptability and usability of digital health innovations. Megan has a broad range of research skills that span both quantitative and qualitative methods and co-design approaches, including systematic reviews, cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs and data analysis, discrete choice experiments, interviews and focus group discussions and thematic analysis.

Dr Ross received a Bachelor of Physiotherapy (with First Class Honours) in 2012 and a PhD in Physiotherapy in 2020 from The University of Queensland. Megan is the inaugural Chair of the Australian Physiotherapy Association’s LGBTQIA+ Advisory Committee, is Deputy Chair of the Australian Physiotherapy Associations’ National Advisory Committee and sits on the Queensland Gender Affirming Network Steering Committee. Dr Ross leads a program of research in the area of LGBTQIA+ experiences of, and access to healthcare with a focus on physiotherapy and allied health. Megan is passionate about ensuring safe and affirming access to healthcare for people with diverse gender identities, sexual orientations and sex characteristics and has received over $1M AUD in funding, including a CIA MRFF grant to co-design, implement and evaluate an LGBTQIA+ affirming model of primary care. The overarching objective of Dr Ross’s work is to improve access to, provision of, and experiences with health care and ultimately contribute to improved health and wellbeing for the LGBTQIA+ communities.