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Associate Professor Christopher Maher is a tertiary-referral Urogynaecologist at the Wesley & Mater Private Hospitals and Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital and active researcher and teacher at the University of Queensland. His long-term commitment to research and evidence based medicine has been rewarded with over 100 peer-review publications and many presentations at National and International conferences. He is the past president of the Queensland CFA (Continence Foundation of Australia), former Secretary of AGES, Chairman of IUGA Scientific Committee, Chair of Urogynaecology committee RANZCOG and is currently lead author of the Cochrane Review and International Collaboration on Incontinence on the surgical management of prolapse. Associate Professor Christopher Maher is the current Chairman of the Urogynaecological Society of Australia.

Professor Stephen Mahler is a Senior Group Leader at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and Director of the Australian Research Council Training Centre for Biopharmaceutical Innovation (CBI), University of Queensland. Professor Mahler is a biotechnologist with a focus on R&D of recombinant-DNA derived protein biopharmaceuticals, drug delivery systems and nanomedicines. Professor Mahler has a record of translational research success and engages extensively with industry associated with the biomedical sciences both nationally and internationally.

Research within CBI covers three thematic research areas; discovery of new biopharmaceuticals, engineering cells for production of protein-based biopharmaceuticals and advanced manufacturing for industrial production. A current research interest is at the interface of the life sciences and materials science, using a synthetic biology approach for creating novel therapeutic entities as well as new systems for drug delivery.

Professor Mahler has a strong interest in education and training and was formerly Head of the Chemical and Biological Engineering Plan at the University of Queensland (2010-2016). Other educational initiatives include development of Masters Programs and a Continuing Professional Development program in the area of biopharmaceuticals. The CPD program is available to stakeholders in the industry, both in Australia and internationally.

Joemer’s main research area is on adolescent health epidemiology and program evaluation.

Joemer focuses on pragmatic approaches in epidemiology to identify social determinants and mental health risks in adolescents including young mothers. Apart from applications of modelling techniques on cross-sectional and panel data, he has expertise in conducting evidence synthesis including meta-analytic methodologies.

Joemer also has an extensive experience in monitoring and evaluation of health and social programs. He previously worked as a research fellow and health systems consultant in government agencies and international NGOs focused on adolescent health and reproductive health services at local and national contexts. Now, he is involved with evaluation of programs targeting young people with complex mental health issues and those who are victims of domestic and family violence.

Joemer has strong research interests on contextualizing adolescent reproductive health through mental health risks, and mental health integration in primary care in low resource settings.

Professor Graham Martin OAM, MD, FRANZCP, DPM works as a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with skills in individual and family therapy. His research interests have been in Early Intervention and Promotion of Mental Health with special reference to prevention of suicide in young people and non-suicidal self-injury.

Professor Martin was Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at The University of Queensland, and Clinical Director of RCH Health Service District Child and Youth Mental Health Service (CYMHS) (2001-2014). He now works part time in private practice, but continues to supervise students and publish regarding his research interests.

From 1986 to 2001 he was Clinical Director of Southern Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in Adelaide, and is a clinician, researcher, writer and commentator. Thirty years of clinical immersion in direct clinician work, supervision, systemic practice, and child psychiatry and family therapy teaching, underpins development of preventive programs in mental illness, and programs for promotion of mental health in families, communities, schools, the defence force cadets and other systems.

Graham has been dedicated to suicide prevention since 1987, and is a member of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and the International Association for Suicide Research. He was a member of the Advisory Council Australian National Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy and Evaluation Working Group (1994-99), the writing team for the Australian Suicide Prevention Strategy (2000, 2007), the National Advisory Council for Suicide Prevention (2003-8), and was a National Advisor on Suicide Prevention to the Australian Government (2009-2012). Graham is Director of the Centre for Suicide Prevention Studies in Young People at UQ (http://www.suicidepreventionstudies.org/index.html).

Graham was Suicide Prevention Australia (SPA) chairman (1995-2001), convening 6 national suicide prevention conferences, led the team developing the first Media and Suicide Resource Kit (‘Achieving the Balance’, 1998), became a Life Member of SPA (2004), was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (2006), a ‘Jackstar’ award for 10 years contribution to Inspire Foundation’s ‘ReachOut’ program (2007), the 2008 SPA ‘Lifetime Contribution to Suicide Prevention Research’ award, and the Rowe-Zonta International Prize 2010. Graham was Catholic Education Queensland Travelling Scholar (2008-9). In 2014, Professor Martin was awarded the SPA ‘Lifetime Contribution to Suicide Prevention’ award, and in 2015 was awarded a Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Citation for his contributions to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Graham was an originator of the Australian Network for Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention program (Auseinet, 1997-2009), and Director until 2001. He is Editor in Chief for the online journal AMH (Advances in Mental Health, 2009 to date), formerly the Australian eJournal for the Advancement of Mental Health (1999-2009). Graham chaired the Queensland Mental Health Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention committee, and was a board member for Mates in Construction, an industry leader in suicide prevention for the construction industry.

Graham is one of the editors of “Mental Health Promotion and Young People: Concepts and Challenges” (2001, McGraw Hill, Sydney), published in English, Italian and Korean. He is the author of "Taking Charge: A journey of recovery" (2013); "Sensual Haiku" a book of poetry for lovers (2013), and "Essays on Prevention in Mental Health" (2014), and is currently writing a biopic: "The Making of a Child Psychiatrist" (in draft, 2015).

The main focus of Graham’s work is the area of self-injury in young people, with clinical, community, therapy and research programs. His team has recently completed the largest ever, national survey of self-injury for the Department of Health and Ageing (The Australian National Epidemiological Survey of Self-Injury).

In his spare time he trained for 20 years in Karate, and was a Nidan black belt, and Sensei, with Hoshindo Karate International (from 2003-2009).

Barbara’s research uses social psychological theory to solve real social problems. Over 19 years she has collaborated with a range of industry partners (e.g., Australian Red Cross Lifeblood; state police agencies) to design and evaluate theory-based solutions to problems as diverse as how to minimise bias in investigating allegations of sexual assault to how to maximise blood donor appointment attendance. She has over 100 peer reviewed publications including many focused on gender, prejudice, discrimination, and SoHO donor recruitment and retention that have been published in Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Psychology of Women Quarterly, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Law & Human Behavior, Transfusion, Transfusion Medicine Reviews and and other journals.

Dr Mostafa Kamal Masud is a CCQ Next Generation Cancer Research Fellow at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanotechnology (AIBN), the University of Queensland (UQ). In 2020, he received his PhD in Medical Biotechnology Diagnostics and Nanobiotechnology from AIBN, UQ. He received his MS and B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh. After completing his PhD, he was awarded a prestigious JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship (success rate >10%) from Japan and served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Japan's National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS).He recently been awarded a highly prestigious ARC DECRA fellowship for the period 2024-2026 and a QLD Cancer Council fellowship for the period 2024–2028. His research focuses on the development of novel nanostructures and nanodiagnostic technologies to address critical issues in medical diagnosis. As an early career researcher, he has an excellent track record with more than 60 peer-reviewed publications in prestigious and high-impact journals in the area that achieve <2800 citations with an h-index of 29 (Scholar google link: https://bit.ly/2Vtv67l). He has developed new classes of superparamagnetic nanostructures and fabricated novel biosensors for the detection of disease-specific biomolecular targets e.g., for miRNA, DNA, exosome and protein biomarker detection that have proven to be easy and effective, allowing for rapid diagnosis with minimal equipment. He made a major contribution to nanotechnology integrated-analytical and diagnostic fields by providing analytical and technological input as well as developing key collaborations with clinicians and biologists for translational research. His strategy is to create nano-architecture point-of-care diagnostic technology for early diagnosis of cancer that could hopefully lead to a healthy and happier life for humans.

Professor Jason Mattingley was appointed as Foundation Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Queensland in January 2007, a joint appointment between the Queensland Brain Institute and the School of Psychology.

He completed a Bachelor of Science Degree with Honours at Monash University (1988), a Master of Science Degree in Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Melbourne (1990), and a PhD in Psychology at Monash University (1995). In 1994 he was awarded an NHMRC Neil Hamilton Fairley Post-Doctoral Fellowship, which he took to the University of Cambridge. Here he worked jointly with Professor Jon Driver in the Department of Experimental Psychology and Professor Ian Robertson at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. While in Cambridge he was elected a Fellow of King’s College.

Upon returning to Australia Professor Mattingley was appointed as Senior Research Fellow (later Principal Research Fellow) at the University of Melbourne, where he was Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory within the School of Behavioural Science (2000 – 2006).

Professor Mattingley has won numerous accolades for his research, including an Australian Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council (2012), the Distinguished Contribution to Psychological Science Award from the Australian Psychological Society (2012), and the Monash University Distinguished Alumni Award (Faculty of Biomedical and Psychological Sciences, 2016).

He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2007, and a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science in 2016.

Dr Hannah Mayr is an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian and works as Principal Research Fellow for the Nutrition and Dietetics Department at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane. She collaborates with diverse teams of allied health and medical clinicians, clinician researchers, academics and consumers.

Dr Mayr has expertise in cardiometabolic disease prevention and management and her work has a focus on evidence-based healthy dietary patterns. In this area her interests and experience include dietary intake assessment and intervention design; randomised controlled and feasibility trials; telehealth and mhealth; qualitative interviews; implementation science and consumer engagement.

Dr Mayr received the Dietitians Australia Early Career Researcher Award in 2018 for her PhD work investigating a Mediterranean diet intervention in people with coronary artery disease and its impact on the Dietary Inflammatory Index. She has recently led a project focused on translating a Mediterranean-style, heart healthy diet approach into routine care for people with type 2 diabetes or heart disease. Dr Mayr has also collaborated on projects focused on improving outcomes for people with kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, liver transplant, and fatty liver disease through nutrition assessment or intervention.

Dr Mayr is an experienced university Lecturer and research supervisor in dietetics practice and research and is committed to research capacity building of dietitians and allied health professionals.

Tomomi is an early career researcher who has a strong interest in parental health and wellbeing in the context of disability. She has worked in mental health practice before changing the direction of her career to the tertiary education sector. As she worked with people who were mothers in clinical context, she became interested in the power of mothering role and occupation. This interest has led her to complete her PhD study to investigate family routine management and its everyday impact on mothers of autistic children. With her PhD, she compared the experiences of mothers of autistic children using their household status (i.e., single versus couple) as well as region of residence (i.e., major city versus regional areas) to highlight the similarities and differences between these groups. Tomomi is also interested in mental health among international students, especially those students who come from non-Western cultural background. She has presented her research both at national and international conferences.

Professor Craig A McBride PhD, FRACS, FACS is a full-time Senior Staff Specialist Paediatric Surgeon at Children's Health Queensland. He is also an educator, a researcher, and a father to two boys. In addition to his public work, he has a private practice at www.betterkids.com.au.

Professor McBride is originally from Aotearoa/New Zealand and worked in three of the four Paediatric Surgical units in that country, before moving to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne for the final two years of his surgical training. Following Fellowship in 2007, he moved to Brisbane and has been here ever since.

He has specialised interest and expertise in thoracic, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, burns and trauma. He is also a member of both the Children's Health Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee and the Clinical Ethics Response Group at Queensland Children's Hospital, as well as being involved in the Queenslannd Children's Critical Incident Panel and the Clinical Incident Subcommittee of the Queensland Paediatric Quality Council.

Craig has published research in many areas related to children's health.

Dr. Emily McCann is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Dementia & Neuro Mental Health Research Unit at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research. She is currently working on the development of a Parkinson's Disease specific cognitive toolkit to harmonise cognitive assessment and understand the development of dementia.

She completed her PhD in 2024 at the Cognitive Neurology (Nestor) lab at the Queensland Brain Institute. During her PhD, she investigated the nature and timing of visuoperceptual impairments across a range of neurodegenerative diseases.

Alexandra is jointly-appointed as Professor of Clinical Nursing, University of Queensland and Mater Health Services. She has practised extensively in acute cancer care, including chemotherapy administration, in rural and metropolitan settings. Her PhD investigated sociocultural issues related to breast cancer and while she mostly now undertakes intervention research, she maintains an interest in the sociological as well as clinical aspects of cancer care. Sandie’s current funded research has two streams. The first stream focuses upon issues related to the long term outcomes of cancer treatments, using mixed methods. The second stream concentrates on collaborative interventions to assess and manage the toxicities of acute cancer treatments.

Neurologist

Dr McCombe graduated in Medicine from UQ and completed a Science degree for medical students. She then trained as a neurologist in Sydney, at Prince Henry and Prince of Wales Hospitals. She obtained a PhD from the University of Sydney. She obtained experience in Neurophysiology in Cleveland and then returned to UQ as a post-doctoral fellow. She worked for some years as a research fellow in Neuroimmunology and was an NHMRc SRF. Later she resumed clinical practice as a neurologist, and contimued her research as an NHMRC Practitioner Fellow. She is currentlyProfessor and Head of the Royal Brisbane Clinical school in the School of Medicine and Co-head of the Brain and Mental Health Theme at the UQ Centre for Clinical Research.

Lisa McDaid is Director of the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) and Professor of Social Sciences and Health at The University of Queensland. Lisa has an international reputation grounded in knowledge exchange and partnership. Her research has made significant contributions to identifying solutions to health inequalities among the most disadvantaged and marginalised in our society. Lisa is experienced in how to engage communities at high risk of poor health and wellbeing in health improvement research and in developing new methods of co-production for intervention development.

Lisa is a Social Scientist and obtained her PhD in Medical Sociology from the University of Glasgow in 2007. She has been Chief-Investigator on research grants c.AU$100M and has authored over 100 publications. Lisa is also an Associate Director of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, a consortium research centre based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.