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Professor Soyer is an academic dermatologist with over 30 years experience in the field. He was appointed as the inaugural Chair in Dermatology by The University of Queensland (UQ) in 2007 and was Director of the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) Dermatology Department from 2008-2023. His clinical background drives a strong focus on translational skin cancer research.

Professor Soyer is internationally recognised in the field of dermatology with particular expertise in the areas of preventative dermatooncology, dermatopathology and dermatologic imaging (dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy). Within the dermatology discipline he is a pioneer and world leader in the field of dermoscopy of pigmented skin lesions, a non-invasive diagnostic method. He has led the development of the morphologic classification system currently used worldwide.

His main research focus is skin cancer (both melanoma and keratinocyte skin cancer), with a particular interest in technological innovations and their ability to impact early detection strategies and expand the concept and applications of teledermatology and teledermoscopy. A $9.9M infrastructure grant awarded in 2018 by the Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) has enabled establishment of the collaborative Australian Centre of Excellence in Melanoma Imaging and Diagnosis (ACEMID); installing 15 3D total body imaging systems, linked by a research network, across Australia’s east cost to facilitate research in the early detection of melanoma. ACRF ACEMID is currently conducting Australia’s largest melanoma cohort study targeting 15,000 participants, with the multi-modal research data being collected and stored in a national research repository. This unprecedented data resource will allow many unanswered research questions in the field to be addressed and will facilitate advancements in artificial intelligence, resulting in the development of reliable, evidence-based solutions to transform melanoma early detection.

Professor Soyer has an extensive publication record with over 680 publications to date, with more than 700 citations per year (in the last 5 years) and an h-index of 96 (Google Scholar). His textbook entitled "Dermoscopy - The Essentials 3rd Edition", co-authored with G Argenziano, R Hofmann-Wellenhof and I Zalaudek is considered a world-leading textbook in the field.

Professor Soyer has been awarded two competitive fellowships while at UQ: a Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Next Generation Clinical Researchers Program Practitioner Fellowship (2018-2022) and an NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship (2012-2016). The NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship was acknowledged in the NHMRC ‘10 of the Best NHMRC research projects 2016’ publication. He has also been awarded 1 NHMRC European Union Collaborative Research Grant (CIA), 1 NHMRC Synergy Grant (CIC), 1 NHMRC Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Grant (CIC), 1 MRFF Targeted Health System and Community Organisation Research Grant (CIC), 3 NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence Grants (CIA, CIB, CIE), 4 NHMRC Project Grants (CIA, CIA, CIB, CID), 2 NHMRC Partnership Grants (CIA, CIB), 2 ARC Discovery Project Grants (CIB, CID), and a Queensland Genomic Health Alliance (QGHA) Demonstration Project Grant (CIA), with many additional projects funded through other competitive, industry and philanthropic funding sources. In total, through his involvement as an investigator, he has achieved over $43M in research funding for UQ since 2014.

Beth Spacey is a Lecturer in Medieval History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry. Beth is a historian specialising in the religious cultures of Europe and the broader Mediterranean region. Her expertise lies in the history of the crusades and the Latin East, and she has broader research interests in medieval ideas about the supernatural, violence, gender, landscapes, and colonialism. She has published on the medieval Latin Christian historiography of the crusades, especially on ideas of the miraculous and masculinities, and is currently conducting research into attitudes towards nature and God's Creation in crusade texts. Her first book, The Miraculous and the Writing of Crusade Narrative, was published in March 2020 by Boydell and Brewer and was released in paperback in 2023.

Emeritus Professor Peter Spearritt is the co-editor of five major public websites, Queensland Places (over 1100 places, with their history and economy), Queensland Speaks (interviews with key government ministers and public servants), the Queensland Historical Atlas and Text Queensland, a resource for studying the state. He is also the co-editor of Victorian Places, a project with Monash University, detailing over 1500 settlements in Victoria.

A Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, his research interests include coastal urbanisation and conservation, housing and the developer-led apartment boom, green space provision in urban areas and the use and abuse of water in our cities.

Paul is a leading scholar in strategy and qualitative research. His research reflects his passion to identify the relevance of theory in practice, and how practice can inform theory. He has been part of and leading several research teams, in the context of entrepreneurship, health, reinsurance, telecommunication and the petrochemical industry.

His research is at the forefront of theory development, in particular strategy-as-practice and advances qualitative research methodology. His work appeared in a number of top-tier journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science and Organisation Studies amongst others.

Paul’s work has made an impact to practice and academe. Based on a global ethnography of reinsurance trading, his book ‘Making a market for acts of God’ has been highly influential leading to contributions in the Financial Times, The Economist, ABC News - The Business and Actuaries Digital amongst others. He has been invited to contribute to webinars and several professional development workshops for instance on process research methods and on career advice for doctoral students and early career researchers. Recently, one of his published manuscripts received the Emerald Citation Award recognising the impact of his work. His work has also received several prestigious distinctions including best paper awards from the leading professional associations in business and management, the Academy of Management and the European Group of Organisation Studies.

His experience and drive to explore the relation of theory and practice is reflected in his approach to teaching. Currently, Paul delivers and oversees the strategy course in the Master of Business. Paul also delivers a popular strategy capstone course into the Medical Leadership Program.

Paul actively supervises Master thesis and doctoral students, whose work has received several awards, including the prestigious Carolyn Dexter award (awarded by the Academy of Management).

Paul has been very engaged shaping the academic profession of strategy scholarship. Currently, serves as Chair of the Strategizing, Activities and Practices (SAP) interest group in the term 2017-2018. SAP is a rapidly growing interest group within the Academy of Management, a global association. To foster debates in the academic community, Paul has organised numerous workshops and convened streams at several national and international conferences.

Paul serves as Senior Editor at Organization Studies, a leading journal included in the Financial Times 45 list. He is also an invited member of the editorial board serving Long Range Planning, a leading strategy journal, and Organizational Research Methods, the leading journal advancing innovation in research methods.

Dr Leigh Sperka is a Lecturer in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences. She graduated with First Class Honours from the Bachelor of Health, Sport and Physical Education in 2013 and completed her Doctor of Philosophy in 2018.

Her research focuses on the outsourcing of education. This includes investigating decision-making around the practice, how outsourcing impacts curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, and student perspectives of outsourced lessons.

In her teaching, she emphasises the importance of creating an inclusive environment in Health and Physical Education that allows all students to participate and experience success. Students are at the centre of her teaching. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has been awarded:

• U21 Health Sciences Teaching Excellence Award (2021)
• UQ Commendation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2020)
• Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences Awards for Teaching Excellence (2020)

I am a professional geologist with over 30 years of technical and managerial experience, working for large organisations such as Vale and BHP Billiton, participating and managing complex projects in South America, Australia, and West Africa. Skilled in leading technical services and geological exploration for underground and open pit mines, my career experience includes exploration, mine geology and resource estimations of multiple commodities, geometallurgical studies, mine-to-mill reconciliations, project management and project evaluation.

I have a profound interest in earth sciences and mining. The development and training of junior professionals and geoscientists was one of my passions in the industry. Both interests led me to recently join the academia. My research interests are in the areas of economic geology, exploration geochemistry, geometallurgy and ore body modelling.

Dr Jean Spinks is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Business and Economics of Health, the University of Queensland. She is trained as a health economist, pharmacist and a health systems researcher and has extensive experience across the three disciplines. Her main research focus is applying economic principles to achieve better population health outcomes from medicines use in primary care. She is currently co-leading an MRFF funded project “Activating pharmacists to reduce medication related problems: The ACTMed stepped wedge randomised controlled trial” which is being undertaken with partner organisations including the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Brisbane South PHN, NACCHO, the Australian Digital Health Agency, The Pharmacy Guild of Australia and MedAdvisor. Other projects include the development, implementation and evaluation of an Indigenous Medication Review Service (IMeRSe, with partners NACCHO and Pharmacy Guild of Australia), the Urinary Tract Infection Pharmacy Pilot – Queensland (UTIPP-Q), innovative pharmacist workforce models of care, and consumer preferences for medication services. She has also published in the areas of medicines pricing, complementary medicine use and the disposal of unwanted medicines. Prior to beginning her PhD, Jean evaluated submissions from pharmaceutical companies seeking PBS listing of their medicines, under a research contract between Monash University and the Australian Department of Health and Ageing.

Jean has worked in community and hospital pharmacy in Australia and internationally in the Asia-Pacific region, including in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Tonga. She has post-graduate qualifications in public health, has undertaken the two-year Victorian Public Health Training Scheme, and has a PhD in Health Economics from Monash University.

Associate Professor Spurling works at The University of Queensland General Practice Clinical Unit (0.4 FTE) and at the Southern Queensland Centre of Excellence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care (Inala COE – 0.6 FTE). He has research interests in social determinants of health and access to primary health care, especially where his research skills can be of service to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. His other research interests are quality use of medicines and respiratory infections, with particular methodological interests in systematic reviews and mixed-methods research in general practice. His most recent research interest concerns access to opioid dependence treatment in general practice.

He completed medical training at the University of Queensland, did his junior doctor years in regional Queensland and completed a Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in London in 1998. In 2001, he spent 12 months working on a project in Central America with Médecins Sans Frontières. He completed general practice specialty training with the RACGP in 2004, which included an academic registrar term. In 2004, he was fortunate to meet Professor Noel Hayman, one of Queensland’s first Aboriginal medical graduates and Clinical Director of the Inala COE, who offered him a GP position in 2004. He has shared his full-time work as a GP academic at the Inala COE and UQ GPCU ever since.

Associate Professor Spurling has developed clinical interests in serving the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in Inala, serving Spanish-speaking refugees, diabetic retinopathy, and, most recently, addiction medicine. He has been mentoring GP registrars and medical students at the Inala COE since 2004. As a member of the UQ GPCU academic staff, he regularly takes tutorial groups and lectures in cardiovascular medicine, respiratory infections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and social determinants of health for medical students doing their general practice rotation.

Associate Professor Spurling supervises five postgraduate students (PhD students). He has been awarded over A$18M in research grants and has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers.

I am a post doctoral researcher at the Dementia & Neuro Mental Health Research Unit (DNMHRU), University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR). I have a background in health services research including healthcare, implementation and evaluation utilising co-design and qualitative methods in Australia. For my PhD on early detection of bowel disease in community pharmacy, I was a recipient of fellowship from Jodi Lee Foundation. My research interests seeks to enhance the mental health, emotional well-being, quality of life, and care experiences of older Australians affected by progressive neurological conditions—such as dementia and Parkinson’s disease—as well as their family care partners, through the development of innovative and high-quality research approaches.My co-design research aims to actively involve consumers/stakeholders for developing study methods and implementation strategies for research projects in residential aged care, cognition in people living with Parkinson's and development of technology platform for use by clinical stakeholders and people with Parkinson's.

I am the co-ordinator of the Community and Consumer Involvement group for the Dementia & Neuro Mental Health Research Unit. I am also a member of UQCCR Consumer and Community Involvement (CCI) Sub-Committee and Australian Association of Gerontology group.

Christine graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree (honours class 1) from the University of Queensland in 1996.

She registered as a pharmacist in Australia in 1997 and in the United Kingdom in 2003 and has worked at the Redlands, Princess Alexandra and Wesley Hospitals in Brisbane and the Western Infirmary in Glasgow. In 2002 she was awarded a PhD from the University of Queensland, with a thesis focusing on improving usage of the immunosuppressant agent tacrolimus in solid organ transplant recipients.

In 2004 she was the recipient of a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Neil Hamilton Fairley fellowship. This award enabled her to training overseas in the field of Pharmacometrics within the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) and the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences at Uppsala University (Sweden).

On her return to Brisbane, Christine was the recipient of a Lions Medical Research Fellowship and was the chief investigator on a three year NHMRC Project Grant. She has also been a team member on an Amgen-Transplant Society of Australia and New Zealand Research Grant and a Cellcept Australia Research Grant. Over her research career Christine has attracted grants and awards totaling more than 2 million AUD from various funding agencies.

Research Interests

Christine has a wide range of interests in the fields of Quality Use of Medicine and Pharmacometrics. Her work to date has primarily been directed towards optimising usage of immunosuppressant drugs in solid organ transplant recipients and antibiotics in patients with life-threatening infections.

Christine has published over 75 peer reviewed papers and 90 conference abstracts on these topics. Her publications have been cited on more than 3200 occasions, with twelve cited more than 50 times.

Christine has successfully supervised to completion fourteen higher research degree students and enjoys helping students meet their career goals.

Christine’s current projects include:

• Individualising immunosuppressant therapy in autoimmune disease to improve patient outcomes
• Comparing the efficacy and safety of continuous versus intermittent administration of beta-lactams in critically ill patients
• Examining the relationship between immunosuppression and non-melanoma skin cancer in renal transplant recipients
• Improving individualisation of immunosuppressant therapy in adult kidney transplant recipients
• Improving gentamycin dosing in paediatric oncology patients
• Examining tobramycin monitoring in cystic fibrosis patients in Australia and the United Kingdom
• Investigating the relationship between prednisolone exposure and drug-related toxicity in paediatric and adult kidney transplant recipients
• Comparing different therapeutic drug monitoring methods for dosage adjustment of once daily intravenous tobramycin treatment in children with cystic fibrosis

Projects currently available for interested research higher degree students include:

• Dose optimisation of busulfan in paediatric bone marrow transplant recipients
• Investigating the relationship between immunosupressant exposure and drug-related toxicity in transplant recipients
• Examining Bayesian forecasting methods to predict immunosuppressant exposure
• Examining the international use of immunosuppressant and anti-rheumatic drugs
• Examining the influence of plasma exchange on immunosuppressant drug exposure

Christine invites potential honours and post-graduate students to contact her via email to discuss research opportunities.

Teaching interests

Co-ordinates:

• PHRM3052- Biological Fate of Drugs

Teaches in:

• PHRM3052- Biological Fate of Drugs
• PHRM3011- Quality Use of Medicines

Professor Stace completed his PhD at the Cavendish Lab, University of Cambridge in the UK on quantum computing, followed by postdoctoral research at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, also at Cambridge, and Queens' College, Cambridge. Since 2006, he has held various ARC research fellowships, most recently a Future Fellowship (2015-2019).

His research topics include device physics for quantum computing solid-state and atomic systems, quantum error correction, and quantum measurement and precision sensing.

Professor Stace is the Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Engineered Quantum Systems (equs.org).