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Dr Jodi Saunus is a senior fellow who specialises in translational research on metastatic breast cancer. Based at Brisbane’s Translational Research Institute, she was recruited by Mater Research in 2022 to help facilitate patient-focused research at the interface of biomedical R&D and clinical practice.

Dr Saunus has an honours degree in biochemistry and biomedical science, a PhD in breast cancer molecular genetics, and broad post-doctoral experience in immunology, molecular cell biology, pathology informatics, and early-phase investigator-initiated clinical trials. Her current portfolio focuses finding new ways to improve the clinical management of aggressive breast cancer, with a focus on triple-negative breast cancer, and the prevention and treatment of brain metastases. This work spans across multiple disciplines and capabilities, and broadly involves:

• Molecular profiling of patient-donated blood and tumour tissue samples to identify features that can predict treatment response, or represent previously uncharacterised therapeutic targets.
• Using experimental models of breast cancer metastasis to learn about the molecular mechanisms exploited by cancer cells to survive and grow in brain tissue.
• Developing innovative treatment strategies that work differently to conventional cancer drugs, including alpha-particle endoradiotherapy and in-situ vaccination.

With an outstanding network of collaborators from academia and clinical practice, she has secured more than $6M to fund this work and has a track record of publishing in prominent biomedical research journals (e.g., Cancer Research, Nature, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications and The Journal of Pathology).

Peripherally, Jodi is a strong proponent of biospecimen banking, and clinician and consumer engagement in translational research.

Katerina is a geologist with a specialization in hyperspectral data analysis as applied to mineral identification and interpretation, with big data integration. She has 15 years of hands-on experience working on both ground-breaking research and commercial activities for greenfield, brownfield and mining projects of various scales around the world. While with Corescan, she pioneered innovation in hyperspectral data acquisition, interpretation, and presentation. She developed and interpreted the results of complex algorithms associated with various mineral hyperspectral signatures. As part of her work, she contributed to geochemical and geotechnical research as applied to hydrothermal mineral alteration patterns associated with several world-class deposits, deposit delineation initiatives, new exploration projects, as well as geoenvironmental studies of acid-rock drainage and mining waste characterization. In her earlier roles, as an exploration geologist, she worked on uranium deposits in Canada, the USA, and Australia, with a focus on the system controls and definition of hydrothermal alteration mineral zonation and spatial patterns. Currently, Katerina is collaborating on several long-term projects with different challenges related to geological and mining industries at the W.H. Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre, SMI including critical minerals research, mineral and textural characterization as applied to mine waste and tailings, as well as development of educational material and short-course delivery. Specific areas of research and interest include:

• Hydrothermal alteration mineralogy and its characterization using high-resolution hyperspectral data in combination with other micro-analytical techniques
• Remote sensing techniques and data interpretation
• Detailed investigation of a variety of geological environments and mineral deposit settings including epithermal, unconformity-associated uranium, orogenic gold, porphyry, skarn, as well as IOCG
• Minerals and mineral groups, their chemical composition and variations, recognizing hydrothermal alteration patterns and identifying vectors to mineralization
• Establishment of new mineralogical and hyperspectral reflectance tools for drill core characterization for various mining applications

Melanie Saward is a proud Bigambul and Wakka Wakka woman. She is a lecturer of Australian Studies in the School of Communication and Arts and has recently (July 2024) been appointed as the coordinator of BlackWords. Her research looks at Indigeneity in romantic comedy fiction with a focus on diversity, intersectionality, and the Australian publishing industry.

Melanie is a writer and editor. Her debut fiction book, Burn, was published in 2023 with Affirm press and her first romantic comedy novel, Love Unleashed, was published in August 2024.

Dr Anne Sawyer is a molecular plant biologist passionate about the development of plant-based solutions to global problems. Her current research focus is the development of RNA sprays to protect plants from fungal pathogens. Dr Sawyer completed her PhD at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland on gene expression in microalgae. Following this, she carried out postdoctoral research at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany on microalgal hydrogen production. Dr Sawyer then returned to Australia to study RNA interference in plants and plant pathogenic fungi. Dr Sawyer has research experience in the fields of biotechnology, molecular biology, microalgal biology, synthetic biology, biochemistry and structural biology.

Professor Nerina Scarinci is the Head of School, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at The University of Queensland. Her main research focus is on the implementation and evaluation of patient- and family-centred care for adults and children with communication disability. Professor Scarinci has clinical and research expertise in the development, implementation, and evaluation of alternative models of allied health service delivery, including group interventions, eHealth, and communication partner training. Professor Scarinci has over 20 years clinical and research experience, with expertise in co-design, patient- and family-centred care, and the evaluation and management of communication disability.

University Profile: Professor Nerina Scarinci is a Professor in Speech Pathology and Director of Higher Degree Reserach Students in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences.

Teaching Themes: Professional Practice and Communication Skills, Children with Special Needs in Communication, Paediatric Speech Pathology, Hearing Impairment, Service Delivery, Professional Issues and Ethics

Research interests: Paediatric and Adult Hearing Impairment, Communication Disability, International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), Third-Party Disability, Family-Centred Care, Early Intervention, Co-Design

Publications: 107 scholarly works, including 86 peer-reviewed journal articles, 10 invited editorials, 2 books, and 9 book chapters. Impact: 1690 citations, H-index = 23, average citations per paper = 21.13, field weighted citation impact = 2.5 (Scopus, August 2022).

Grant funding: Professor Scarinci has attained >$10.2 Million in grant funding, with >$4.12 Million as Chief Investigator and >$6.1 Million as Associate Investigator or Program Lead.

Reviewer: International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology; International Journal of Audiology; Ear & Hearing; Speech, Language and Hearing; Disability & Rehabilitation; Child Language Teaching & Therapy, American Journal of Audiology; BMC Geriatrics; Clinical Interventions in Aging.

Editorial Boards: Associate Editor for International Journal of Audiology; Editorial Consultant for International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

Professional Memberships: Speech Pathology Australia; The Hanen Centre; Ida Institute.

Broad remote sensing skills across terrestrial and aquatic environments. Working to democratise spatial data access and use. Happiest when producing and delivering automated, operational and validated national and global scale products that can be used by scientists, policy and the public.

Professor Mark Schembri is a prominent microbiologist with experience in combating the global health crisis presented by multi-drug resistant pathogens. Professor Schembri’s expertise on the virulence of bacterial pathogens and his innovative analysis of biofilm formation aims to improve the outcomes of the >400 million individuals that suffer from urinary tract infections each year across the globe.

Through the application of genetic, genomic and functional studies on uropathogenic E. coli, Professor Schembri has identified targets to reduce the virulence of this pathogen, and will pursue the development of life-saving therapeutic and preventative advances with the assistance of NHMRC, MRFF and ARC grants. Professor Schembri has tracked the rapid emergence and global spread of a virulent, drug-resistant E. coli clone and used genome sequencing to understand its evolution and virulence.

Links: Professor Schembri collaborates with national and international research leaders, including in Denmark, where he was a lecturer. Professor Schembri has strong links with other international experts in his field, including at the Pasteur Institute and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge. His research collaborations also span lead groups at UQ and other top Australian institutes, including Griffith and La Trobe Universities.

Membership, Funding and patents: Since 2014, Professor Schembri has been awarded over $15 million in funding from competitive national research funding bodies. He holds provisional patents for the development of novel therapeutic agents and vaccine antigens. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and is regularly invited to speak at international conferences in his field.

Awards and Communication: Professor Schembri was the recipient of the Frank Fenner Award (2010) and the ASM BacPath Oration Award (2019) for his outstanding original research contribution to the study of Infectious Disease. He was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2011-2015) a National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellow (2016-2020). Professor Schembri is the author of >240 peer-reviewed research manuscripts. He is President of the Australian Society for Microbiology (2022-2026).

I obtained a Diploma in Chemistry from the University of Bern in Switzerland in 1992. Upon receiving the award of an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) I joined The University of Queensland (UQ) in 1993 to carry out research towards a PhD in Biochemistry(supervisors: Assoc. Profs. Peter Nixon and Ron Duggleby). I graduated in 1997 and continued postdoctoral research at UQ under the guidance of Profs John de Jersey, Susan Hamilton and Graeme Hanson. During this period, I was awarded Fellowships from both the Wellcome Trust and UQ. In 2000 I spent several months in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, collaborating with Prof. Geoff Sykes, and later that year I commenced a Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Chemistry Department at Stanford University (advisor: Prof. Edward Solomon). In 2003 I was appointed to a Lectureship in (Bio)Physical Chemistry at UQ. In 2006 I was promoted to Senior Lecturer. Following the award of a UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award (in 2007) I was promoted to Associate Professor (in 2008), and between 2011 and 2013 I was also on a fractional professorial appointment (50%) at Maynooth University, Ireland. From 2013 to 2017 I held a Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council, and during this period I was promoted to Full Professor at UQ (2015). I also hold affiliate professorships in the Sustainable Minerals Institute and the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, both located at UQ.

I have successfully focused my research on the investigation of enzyme-catalysed reactions, their optimisation for applications in biotechnology and the synthesis of small molecules that mimic their structure and catalytic function (i.e. biomimetics). I advanced understanding of the contribution of metals to enzyme-catalysed reactions and employed state-of-the-art technologies (e.g. cryo-EM, ancestral gene reconstruction) to develop enzyme inhibitors as leads for novel biocides (herbicides, fungicides, antibacterial compounds) and engineer enzymes with enhanced catalytic properties for industrial applications in the advanced manufacturing sector (i.e. cell-free enzyme cascades, next-gen fertilisers). My work into enzyme mechanisms, regulation and engineering received international acclaim evidenced by invitations to provide plenary and keynote lectures and review articles in prestigious journals. I have published over 250 peer-reviewed articles, including over 40 papers in the ACS staple (J. Am. Chem. Soc, ACS Catalysis, ACS Sus. Chem. Eng., Inorg. Chem, Chem. Rev., Acc. Chem. Rev.) as well as landmark studies in Nature, Nature Catalysis, Nature Communications and Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA). For my leadership in enzymology I was awarded a Future Fellowship by the Australian Research Council, a Foundation Research Excellence Award by UQ and, most recently, the prestigious role as Ambassador for the Technical University of Munich (TUM), an honour bestowed upon me also for my leading role in building an extensive network of collaborations between UQ and TUM in the areas of bioengineering and bioeconomy. The network has since evolved into the Global Bioeconomy Alliance.

Roman Scheurer is a senior researcher in the field of mental health services research and evaluation. He is an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland, based at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research.

Roman holds qualifications in psychiatric and general nursing, education, applied research and epidemiology. He has over 30 years experiences in the mental health field, including clinical, and senior management. His academic and research career encompasses, qualitative and quantitative research, systematic literature reviews, evaluation and policy analyses, spatial and thematic mapping, and health economic modelling with large population-level, time series data.

Roman currently works collaboratively with the Principal Researchers on a range of research projects, including the Analysis and Reporting Component of the Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network (AMHOCN), towards the various objectives of the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection.

Jim Schirmer is an Lecturer in the Master of Counselling Program, and has taught into that program in a variety of roles since 2012. He specialises in teaching and supervising ethics and professional practice, counselling theories, family therapy, and practitioner-research, and is active in scholarship of teaching in this area. His background is in the humanities - specifically philosophy, ethics and theology - and maintains an interest in exploring the integration of these intellectual traditions within the theory and practice of psychotherapy. His doctoral research follows this trend in exploring ways to identify and develop virtues, strengths and values in the character of the counsellor which have potential to enhance the outcome of psychotherapy. He brings close to 20 years’ experience in the human services field, specialising in working with adolescents and with refugee survivors of trauma, and maintains close connections to the field of professional practice.

Andreas Schloenhardt is Professor of Criminal Law in the School of Law at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia and Honorary Professor for Foreign and International Criminal Law in the Faculty of Law, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at the University of Vienna, Austria. P

Professor Schloenhardt is the convenor of the Transnational Organised Crime programme (https://toc.jura.uni-koeln.de/), a research and learning network with academic staff and students from the University of Vienna (Austria), the University of Zurich (Switzerland), the University of Cologne (Germany), the University of Ferrara (Italy), and the University of Queensland (Australia). Professor Schloenhardt holds a PhD in Law from The University of Adelaide. Prior to his position at The University of Queensland, he was a lecturer at The University of Adelaide Law School.

Professor Schloenhardt’s principal areas of research include criminal law, organised crime, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in persons, wildlife trafficking, narco-trafficking, terrorism, criminology, and immigration and refugee law. He is the author of many books and journal articles and his work is frequently cited by other scholars, in government reports, and judicial decisions, including the High Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Austria.

Professor Schloenhardt has held adjunct appointments and visiting professorships at the University of Zurich, the University of St Gallen, the University of Ferrara, Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law , The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California. In 2011-2012, Professor Schloenhardt was a recipient of a Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.

Professor Schloenhardt is a member of the Austrian Society of Criminal Law and Criminology and he has worked extensively with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Council of Europe, the Global Initiative against Transnational Crime, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and a range of law enforcement agencies in Australia and Asia.

Susanne leads a vibrant team researching natural ecosystems and agroecosystems focussed on plants, microbes and soil. This aims to advance the circular nutrient economy, the restoration of degraded soils and landscapes, and the sustainable use of Australia's flora in research that is led by Indigenous experts and communities.

Funded PhD and MPhil positions are available in the (i) Bushfood project and the (ii) Next-generation fertilisers project and soil ameliorants project. Honours and Masters projects are available in all active projects. Please register your interest emailing Susanne.Schmidt@uq.edu.au

Active projects:

• Climate smart agriculture: quantifying the benefits of cultural burning in QLD grazing lands (led by Firesticks Alliance, funded by the AustDAF)
• A Deadly Solution: Traditional Knowledge and Western Science for an Indigenous-led Bushfood Industry (ARC Discovery-Indigenous)
• Realising Smart Compost Formulations (End Food Waste CRC)
• Next-generation fertilisers and soil ameliorants (ARC Industry Transformation Training Centre 'Transforming Biosolids')

Completed recent projects

• Environmentally responsive bio-composite fertilisers
• Ecofriendly fertilisers for sustainable farming
• Effective microbial biostimulants in horticulture
• New technologies and management: transforming nitrogen use efficiency in cane production
• Recycled phosphorus from waste streams as efficient sources for agriculture
• License to farm - nitrogen use efficiency in sugarcane production
• Developing sugarcane-legume companion cropping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Spinifex desert grass - ecophysiology and nano-cellulose production for novel biomaterials
• The role of soil microbes to restore soil carbon in tropical reforestation
• Soil carbon sequestration in the Cooloola biosphere chronosequence
• Advancing Livestock Waste as Low Emission-High Efficiency Fertilizers
• Ecogenomic profiling of Queensland sugarcane soils