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Biography:

Tom Rufford is an Associate Professor in the UQ School of Chemical Engineering and chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Green Electrochemical Transformation of CO2 (GETCO2). Tom completed his BE and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering at the University of Queensland in 2000 and 2009, respectively. Tom’s PhD thesis investigated the use of porous carbon materials derived from waste coffee grounds for energy storage via hydrogen or supercapacitors on board electric vehicles. From 2001 to 2005 he worked as a process engineer and technologist on the crude distillation columns, naptha reformers and hydrogen purification plant at Shell’s Geelong Oil Refinery. From 2010 to late 2012, Tom was a research fellow at the University of Western Australia working on natural gas processing and LNG production research projects with the UWA’s Chevron Chair in Gas Process Engineering, Prof. Eric May. He returned to UQ as a teaching and research academic in December 2012.

Dr Rufford is a chartered member of the IChemE and Engineers Australia (chemical engineering).

Dr Rufford has published more than 80 scientific papers in international journals and an edited book on carbon materials. He has been a visiting researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Japan, and an Endeavour Research Fellow visiting the Institute of Metals Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenyang, China.

Research:

Associate Professor Rufford conducts research on gas processing and purification for cleaner energy production and utilization. His research interests include electrochemical processes including energy storage and CO2 reduction, natural gas process engineering, porous carbons, and solid-fluid interactions in coal seam gas reservoirs. Current and recent projects include studies on electrochemical CO2 reduction, development of gas diffusion electrode materials, helium recovery and nitrogen rejection from natural gas, low permeability coals, and the capture of methane emissions from liquefied natural gas (LNG) production plants.

Teaching and Learning:

Tom teaches into the BE and BE/ME chemical engineering programs at UQ. He's taught core chemical engineering courses such as heat and mass transfer, unit operations, and the capstone design project courses CHEE4001 and CHEE7103. In 2024 he is teaching into CHEE3004 Unit Operations in Semester 1 and CHEE7103 BE/ME Design Project in Semester 2.

I am a Cosmologist studying the properties of the Universe on the largest scales.

By mapping the positions of millions of galaxies, I investigate the unknown physics of the dark energy which drives the evolution of the Universe today, and the physics just after the Big Bang, when the ripples which grew under gravity to become galaxies were created.

I am actively participating in the key experiments designed to understand dark energy and gravity. I am co-chair of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) lensing working group, and an active member of the Vera Rubin Observatory (LSST) and the Dark Energy Survey (DES). In the past, I had led science with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, one of the major quests of contemporary physics that has spurred advancement in answering a range of fundamental questions about the origins of the universe.

I am passionate about communicating top-level research ideas to audiences outside our immediate academic sub-community. I have experience on a variety of media, including radio, public talks and lectures to local schools, science festivals and amateur astronomy groups, outreach activities at Stargazing Live events, as well as through written pieces.

I am an advocate for making STEM field accessible to everyone. During my career, I took part into different initiatives aiming to reduce structural barriers faced by different minorities in academia and inspire the next generation of STEM careers. I am part of the Women in Science Association with the aim to foster a community for young women in STEM, within and beyond the academic community. I worked and volunteered at N.G.O. centres, in Italy and Australia supporting young students to overcome educational inequality caused by poverty and other conditions.

Since 2021 I am on the Early Career Chapter committee for the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) to promote and assist the career development of early and mid-career researchers in the Australian astronomy community. I am also part of the Wellbeing ambassador program at University of Queensland, to promote and assist the career development of early and mid-career researchers in the Australian astronomy community.

Dr Lisa Ruhanen (PhD, GCEd, BBusHons) is a Professor in Tourism and the Deputy Head of School (Graduate Education, Tourism and Marketing) with the The University of Queensland Business School. She has undertaken more than 35 academic and consultancy research projects in Australia and overseas in the areas of Indigenous tourism, sustainable tourism and policy, planning and governance. Lisa has more than 150 academic publications and in 2017 she and colleagues co-edited a book on Indigenous Tourism: Cases from Australia and New Zealand.

Lisa jas taught in the areas of sustainable and responsible tourism, ethics, and tourism in developing countries. For more than a decade, she has worked closely with United Nations Tourism on a variety of research projects and undertook a secondment to the organisation's headquarters in Madrid. She is currently an Advisory Board member and auditor for the UN Tourism TedQual accreditation program. Lisa is actively engaged with a range of start-up Indigenous tourism businesses and tourism organisations in Australia using her research expertise to explore visitor demand, market opportunities and product development strategies and has led research and consultancy studies for the Federal and State governments in Australia on Indigenous tourism, including the inaugural ‘Queensland Indigenous Tourism Strategy’. She is currently the co-lead for the First Nations Tourism Research Hub, an initiative of the Queensland First Nations Tourism Council.

I am a molecular biologist/biochemist and HFSP postdoctoral researcher at the School of School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences. My research bridges the fields of functional proteomics and evolutionary biology, with a particular focus on how proteins and their post-translational modifications have evolved to shape and enable the evolution of key animal traits. Using mass spectrometry as my main analytical tool, I study early-branching animals such as sponges, ctenophores, and cnidarians to uncover the post-translational innovations underlying the emergence of multicellularity, the nervous and immune systems, and symbiotic interactions.

My current focus is on the evolution of protein N-glycosylation, a modification central to protein stability, folding, cell-cell and cell-ECM adhesion, recognition and communication, and therefore pivotal to the evolution of animals.

I completed my PhD (2019-2023) at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Heidelberg, Germany in the group of Prof. Detlev Arendt, as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow within the ITN IGNITE network, where I combined functional proteomics with 3D imaging to uncover the molecular basis of coordinated contractions in nerveless sponges. This work revealed an ancient relaxant-inflammatory response underlying sponge deflation (Current Biology, 2024) and, in parallel, developed a protein structure-based framework for cross-phyla protein annotation in poorly annotated non-model species (Genome Biology, 2023).

I routinely work with mass spectrometry-based -omics (proteomics, glycoproteomics, glycomics) in non-model organisms in the Schulz lab. I welcome collaborations involving PTM discovery, glycoproteomics, and protein annotation in non-model species, as well as anyone simply interested in evolution and proteins.

Trevor Russell is a Professor of Physiotherapy and the Director of the RECOVER Injury Research Centre where he leads a stream of research on Technology Enabled Rehabilitation. He is also co-director of both the Centre for Research in Telerehabilitation and the Telerehabilitation Clinic at the University of Queensland. His research focusses on the use of digital technologies for the remote delivery of health services with a particular focus on telerehabilitation technologies. Specifically his research aims to develop innovative computer based hardware and software solutions to enable the provision of rehabilitation services remotely via the Internet; to further the evidence base of technology enabled rehabilitation through controlled clinical trials; to evaluate the treatment efficacy of specific technology enabled interventions; investigate cost-benefit factors related to technology enabled services; and develop best practice guidelines for the implementation of technology enabled services in the rehabilitation sciences. His work is amongst the earliest and most extensive in this field.

Dr Fiona F Russo MBA, PhD, SFHEA is a nationally and internationally recognised researcher in consumer and community engagement in health services, policy, and research. Her work centres on amplifying the lived experience of families—particularly those impacted by disability—to inform and improve health and disability service design and delivery. Dr Russo’s research spans paediatric health, disability services, and public health, with a strong emphasis on co-design and participatory methodologies. Dr Russo has Lived Experience of Disability as the mother of a daughter with complex disability.

Dr Zoe Rutherford is an experienced and successful leader, with an established teaching, research and consultancy track record spanning >17 years. Her professional and academic expertise in translational research stems from her drive for developing new and effective ways of improving people’s health, particularly those who are deemed ‘hard to reach’ and therefore miss out on services. Zoe achieves this through building deep and trusted relationships with stakeholders at all levels to 1) develop improved methodologies for how evidence-based interventions can be implemented in the real-world in a feasible, acceptable, inclusive, and efficacious way; and 2) develop research projects that are co-designed, using frameworks and methods that are valid, reliable, acceptable and feasible in the field.

As the lead of the Mental Health Evaluation Research Stream at the Qld Centre for Mental Health Research, Qld’s premier mental health research organisation, Dr Rutherford supervises a team of 10 evaluation specialists, using mixed methodologies to conduct evaluation research that is informing the way that community and clinically based mental health services support Queenslanders with treating, managing and recovering from mental ill-health. Having secured >$4M in funding to lead several successful statewide, mixed methods evaluations of Queensland community health services, Zoe has fast become Qld Health’s go to person for mental health implementation and evaluation research and expert advice. This has enabled her to secure $1.1M/yr in long-term funding from Qld Health’s Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs Branch to sustain the Mental Health Evaluation Research Stream, with a program of > 7 statewide mental health service evaluations slated for completion over the next 3yrs.

Dr Nikodem Rybak is a researcher specialising in advanced machine learning techniques that drive data-informed decision-making in complex and dynamic systems. His work spans multiple domains, including sustainable resource management, critical infrastructure resilience, and health, safety, and environmental risk assessment.

Dr Rybak's background combines expertise in developing transparent machine learning approaches with a strong focus on interpretability, enabling stakeholders to understand and trust the insights generated. His work leverages cutting-edge natural language processing methods to transform vast amounts of textual data into clear, actionable information. This approach fosters evidence-based strategies and supports effective governance, policy development, and organisational leadership.

Over the past decade, Dr Rybak has collaborated with industry partners, government agencies, and interdisciplinary research teams to address pressing challenges such as decarbonisation, resource allocation, and operational risk mitigation. By integrating robust predictive analytics, complex systems modelling, and innovative data visualisations, his research enables the uncovering of patterns, improvement of forecasting accuracy, and support of the sustainability of diverse systems.

Dr Rybak's work ultimately aims to empower decision-makers with tools that offer transparency, foster trust, and encourage responsible innovation. Through research on refinement of algorithms, methods, and applications, he strives to ensure that artificial intelligence serves as a reliable catalyst for positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes.

Dr. Steven Rynne is an Associate Professor in Sport Pedagogy and Coaching as well as the Director of Engagement and Partnerships with the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at The University of Queensland, Australia. The major theme that runs throughout Steven’s work is learning in sport. Within this broad theme he has worked and conducted research with a variety of peak domestic and international sporting bodies aimed at fostering high performance through learning (e.g. how elite coaches learn their craft) and understanding outcomes for sport participants (e.g. sport for reconciliation). Steven teaches undergraduate and graduate students, is a cycling coach and registered HPE teacher, and has been immersed in junior and community sport settings for more than two decades.

Mahen’s research is focused on the improvement of pigeonpea using various breeding tools to develop photoperiod insensitive, short-duration and high yielding varieties for commercialisation. His current work utilises pedigree breeding, hybridisation techniques, rapid generation advancement using speed breeding facility and potential use of advance breeding techniques such as marker assisted selection and gene editing. Thus, development of climate-resilient varieties with improved seed yield and quality, and resistance to biotic/abiotic stresses remain high priority of his crop improvement project.

Researcher Biography

Changing jobs is never easy and moving from work environments as contrasting as academia and industry represents unique challenges. After completing his undergraduate degree then a Master (MBA), Mahen held senior management positions in corporate entities before returning to academia to start PhD. Although this might not be a conventional route, it has given him a unique experience and opportunity to manage a wide variety of complex and multifaceted research projects and to find practical solutions. He is very passionate in working as a research scientist and wanted to develop this career path further.

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Queensland, Australia

Master of Business Administration, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Agriculture, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Shazia Sadiq FTSE is a Professor of Computer Science at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Queensland. Her research focusses on responsible data management and aims to reduce the socio-technical barriers to data driven transformation, by assisting organisations to create, protect and sustain agile data pipelines. Her work has contributed to advancing knowledge on data quality management, scalable data curation and cleaning, and bias mitigation for opaque analytical models and techniques, and process improvements for data-driven organisations. She is part of the Data Science discipline that has received the highest ranking for excellence in research for Australia in every round of ERA. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed publications and attracted $20million in research funding from the Australian Research Council, industry and various national and international funding bodies. She has recieved numerous research awards including Test-of-Time award for influential work on Business Process Compliance, Best Use of Data award from Queensland Government, Distinguished Researcher Award from Women in Tech, and several best paper awards at international conferences. Shazia has been a devoted lecturer for two decades, and an advocate of learning analytics and AI in Education for improving personalized learning and equitable graduate outcomes. In 2012, she received an institutional award for teaching excellence and in 2016 she spearheaded the highly successful Master of Data Science program at UQ, that is helping overcome skill shortages in Queensland for qualified data scientists. She is currently leading UQ's AI Research Strategy and Capability Development work as the convenor of UQ's AI Research Network that brings together over 100 interdisciplinary researchers. Shazia is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, immediate past chair of the National Committee on Information and Communication Sciences at the Australian Academy of Science 2019-2023, a member of The Australian Research Council College of Experts 2018-2021, and Centre Director for the ARC Industry Transformation Training Centre on Information Resilience 2021-2026.

Rashid Saeed is a Lecturer in Marketing at the UQ Business School, University of Queensland, Australia. He earned his PhD in Marketing from the University of South Australia (UniSA), where he was a finalist for the Higher Degree Researcher Award. He was also runner-up and recipient of the People’s Choice Award at the UniSA 3MT Grand Final, and winner and recipient of the People’s Choice Award at the UniSA Business Unit 3MT Competition.

Rashid has approximately 15 years of teaching experience across Australian and international universities. He has taught a diverse range of marketing and consumer behaviour courses, including Marketing Management, Consumer Behaviour, Strategic Advertising Management, Integrated Marketing Communications, and Market Research. He also teaches Business Analytics, drawing on his strong quantitative background, having specialised in Mathematics and Statistics during his undergraduate studies. His teaching excellence was recognised with a Teaching Commendation Award in the UniSA Staff Excellence Awards 2021 and an Excellence in Teaching Award at the 2025 Marketing Discipline Jacaranda Awards.

His primary research interests include advertising effectiveness, AI in marketing, and virtual influencer marketing, with a particular focus on consumer behaviour. He specialises in experimental research design and systematic literature reviews. His research has been published in reputable journals, including the European Journal of Marketing, Tourism Management, Psychology & Marketing, and the Journal of Business Research. His contributions to research mentoring and the Marketing Discipline were recognised through the Excellence in Mentoring (Supervision/Researcher Development) Award and the Overall Jacaranda Award at the 2025 Marketing Discipline Jacaranda Awards.