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Professor Sean Tweedy leads the Para Sport and Adapted Physical Activity Research Group in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, University of Queensland. Through his applied research program he aims to generate the knowledge required to empower people with disabilities to pursue self-directed goals through safe, effective engagement in sport and physical activity. Sean’s research addresses three main areas of need:

• People with disabilities are among the most inactive people in society and consequently have a disproportionately high incidence of preventable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes mellitus. Sean’s research program aims to develop evaluate and translate evidence-based methods for increasing physically active behaviour among community dwelling adults with disabilities.
• Para athletes have impairments which adversely affect sports performance, but the extent to which performance is affected varies greatly with some athletes having impairments that cause severe disadvantage in sport and others that cause relatively minor disadvantage. To ensure that competition is fair and that athletes who succeed are not simply those that have less severe impairments, Para athletes compete in classes, each comprising athletes who have impairments that cause a similar amount of disadvantage in sport. Methods for allocating class are not well established and Sean is Principal Investigator for the International Paralympic Committee’s Classification Research and Development Centre (physical impairments) which aims to develop best practice and evidence-based methods for allocating athletes to classes;
• In Australia, the right of people with disability to participate in sport and recreation is protected but only if the accommodations they require - equipment and/or expertise - are deemed to be "reasonable”. Unfortunately people with severe disabilities and high support needs often require equipment and/or expertise which cannot reasonably be expected of community sport and recreation providers. Sean’s research program aims to develop, evaluate and translate methods for safe, effective engagement in physically demanding, competitive sport for people with severe disabilities and high support needs. ParaSTART is his flagship program in this area - https://habs.uq.edu.au/parastart

Alice is a multidisciplinary Research Fellow in Professor Catherine Lovelock's Lab who models flows through wetland areas to identify opportunities to improve hydrological connectivity of sites including mangroves, saltmarsh and seagrass by restoring tidal flows. Her research interests include identifying and predicting hydrological restoration opportunities for coastal ecosystems and utilising coastal and marine ecosystems as nature-based solutions for coastal protection.

She completed her PhD (2021) in Environmental Engineering at the University of Queensland, combining the fields of Marine Ecology and Coastal Engineering. Her PhD investigated how interactions between and variability within physical conditions and seagrass characteristics affect each of the three mechanisms; 1) wave attenuation, 2) sediment stabilisation, and 3) sediment accretion, and highlight the implications for coastal protection by seagrass.

Prior to academia, Alice worked as a consultant drainage and coastal engineer for small and large-scale infrastructure projects. Alice is an Engineers Australia Chartered Environmental Engineer and Civil Engineer and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Alice is currently the Chair of the Early- to Mid-Career Research Committee for the Centre for Marine Science.

Zephanie is a Senior Research Fellow and occupational therapist based at the Child Health Research Centre, and a member of the management team of the Centre for Children’s Burns and Trauma Research, Brisbane. She has a clinical background specialising in paediatrics and burn care. She has worked clinically and in management positions at Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, in private practice and in research capacity building positions in hospitals and health services.

Since 2013 Zephanie’s research has focussed on developing and validating patient-reported outcome measures, as well as using these measures therapeutically for clinical decision making. She led the development of four versions of the Brisbane Burn Scar Impact Profile which have been translated into Czech and are undergoing cross-cultural validation for Brazilian Portuguese. She has a vision of providing all children and their caregivers with an opportunity to communicate their needs and priorities during treatment in a paediatric hospital or health service.

Her current program of work includes collaborative work with children, their caregivers and health professionals to co-design and test the effectiveness and implementation of technology-based interventions in clinical settings to improve quality of life. These interventions include a web-based intervention for paediatric health professionals to support the psychosocial health of families with a child who has experienced physical trauma, and an electronic intervention for children with skin conditions and their caregivers that provides feedback about the patient's health-related quality of life to health professionals. Zephanie also has a continued interest in investigating the effectiveness and implementation of novel interventions to prevent or improve the impact of skin conditions in children and their families. This includes the use of ablative fractional CO2 laser, medical needling, pressure garment and silicone therapy, medical hypnosis and interventions to promote adherence and reduce the burden of treatment.

Dr. Susannah Tye joined the Queensland Brain Institute in 2017 and has established a research program within the Asia Pacific Centre for Neuromodulation (QLD, Australia). Before returning to Australia, Dr. Tye directed the Translational Neuroscience Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic (2012-2017). While there she led efforts to develop brain stimulation devices (for rodents and humans) that can quantify neural activity and neurotransmitter dynamics in the living brain. This body of work now forms the basis of the neuropsychiatric arm of the Mayo Clinic’s Deep Brain Stimulation Consortium. Her specific research expertise are in utilising voltammetric (electrochemical) recording techniques to monitor rapid, synaptic neurotransmission in the living brain.

Dr. Tye has over ten years of experience studying neuromodulation in preclinical rodent models and human patients. Her long-term goal is to bridge preclinical and clinical studies to maximise translational impact, specifically in terms of improving patient outcomes for those with severe refractory psychiatric illness. Towards this end, she maintains many international collaborations with both clinical and basic science researchers. Dr. Tye also has a longstanding interest in mentoring young scientists to help them expand their skills in preclinical and basic science research and achieve a successful research career.

I am a volcano scientist with a passion for understanding how magmatic systems work. I develop high-resolution geochemical techniques to interrogate magmatic crystals and their carrier melts, providing a better understanding of past eruptions as a key for future activity. My team aims to constrain the drivers of volcanic eruptions and the processes leading to the accumulation of metals that are critical for the energy transition.

I joined UQ as a Lecturer in July 2016, after holding a postdoctoral fellowship at Trinity College Dublin. I undertook my postgraduate research in Spain and The Netherlands (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and received my PhD from the University of Zaragoza in December 2013. I was born and raised by the sea, in San Sebastián, and I am fortunate to study a wide range of active and past volcanic systems in different tectonic settings around the world.

Dr Akiko Uchiyama specialises in translation studies and her research interests include postcolonial translation theory, gender in translation, girls’ fiction in translation and the history of translation in Japan. She is the Convenor of the Master of Arts in Japanese Interpreting and Translation (MAJIT) program, and is accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters as a professional translator.

Dr. Main Uddin is currently working as a postdoctoral research fellow (honorary) at the School of the Environment, The University of Queensland, specialising in mangrove ecosystem restoration and blue carbon science. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Queensland, Australia, with the Dean's Award for his outstanding Ph.D. thesis, where his research focused on mangrove forest establishment through afforestation/restoration programmes and their role in climate change mitigation. He also achieved a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Sustainable Environmental Management from the UK through the Commonwealth Scholarship Programme. He achieved a 04-year professional B.Sc. (Hons) and a 01-year MSc in Forestry degree from the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Dr. Main Uddin has held an academic and research-focused faculty position at the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh (https://cu.ac.bd/public_profile/index.php?ein=5140), where he had served for more than 12 years. He also has several years of experience as an environment officer/consultant in overseas government and non-government sectors, working particularly on conducting Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), Environmental Management Plans (EMPs), environmental reporting, and environmental compliance. He has authored and co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed articles and has delivered more than 20 lectures, talks, and interviews to Bangladesh, UK, Australia, and international audiences. His primary research interests are in forest restoration, mangrove restoration, blue carbon ecosystem conservation, biodiversity conservation, environmental management, and compliance.

Children deserve the best of our healthcare. As Professor and Chair in Paediatric Nursing, conjoint between the University of Queensland (UQ) and Children’s Health Queensland, Amanda is working to optimise health service delivery for children in hospital, so they are able to receive the treatment they need, without complications. She also aims to improve the capacity, capability and excellence of consumer-focussed, powerful research across paediatric healthcare.

At UQ, Amanda leads the Paediatric Nursing and Patient Safety research group, which is based across the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work and the Children's Health Research Centre.

Amanda is also co-Chair of the Children's Inpatient Research Colloraborative of Australia and New Zealand (CIRCAN), which facilitates hospital-based paediatric research studies across metropolitan, regional and rural hospitals in Australasia. She is also Director of Child UnLimited, an Australian network of researchers, clinicians, advocates and families with a shared vision: to improve the clinical care and quality of life of children, adolescents and young adults living with a chronic illness or disability.

With >35 years of experience, more than 100 publications on the subject, Jim has built a reputation in petroleum hydrogeology, unconventional hydrocarbons and carbon storage research. He is currently President of Petroleum Hydrogeology International and is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland. He is Science Leader Storage for ANLEC R&D, Chair of the Geotechnical Reference Group for the CTSCo Surat CCS Project and sits on the Science Advisory Committee for the Peter Cook Centre for CCS Research. Previously, Jim was Professorial Chair of Petroleum Hydrodynamics at the University of Queensland with the Centre for Coal Seam Gas. He was General Manager Science for ANLEC R&D with an annual research budget of ~$18 million AUS applied to more than 50 active research projects supporting Australia’s CCS demonstration. He was CSIRO Theme Leader for the Unconventional Petroleum and Geothermal Energy R&D program with more than 50 Full Time Equivalents and an annual budget of ~$16 million/yr AUS. He sat on the Sustainable Energy for the Square Kilometre Array geothermal project control group, the Australian Mirror Committee of ISO for Carbon Capture and Storage and he managed the hydrodynamics and geochemistry discipline group within the Australian Cooperative Research Centre on CO2 (CO2CRC). Recently, Jim’s research has focused on petroleum hydrodynamics of faulted strata and the incorporation of hydrodynamics into seals analysis (both top and fault seal). His research has varied application to conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons, geothermal energy, mining and carbon storage. Jim has an interest in measurement, monitoring and verification (MM&V) systems for assessing reservoir and seal performance. He gained practical field experience on the design and implementation of MM&V strategies for SECARB Cranfield, Otway, Frio and In Salah carbon storage projects. Jim has advised the Canadian, New Zealand, Victorian and West Australian governments and Chevron on carbon storage projects and research programs. Jim has had media training whilst at the University of Queensland and CSIRO, he has experience with community engagement, senate estimates inquiries, and he has worked extensively with executive management teams and Boards of Directors. He has >2100 citations, an h-index of 24 and an i10-index of 51 on Google Scholar.

Jim Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jim-underschultz/86/737/553

Jim ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jim_Underschultz

Mair Underwood is an anthropologist in the School of Social Science who specialises in bodies. In particular she explores how body modifications (such as tattoo or bodybuilding) are used to create, reflect and disrupt social boundaries such as those of gender and class. She is especially interested in the social lives of image and performance enhancing drugs: how they acquire meaning through social interactions and how they alter social interactions.

She also has an interest in assessment practice and has conducted research into assessment techniques that promote student engagement and academic integrity and compiled them into a searchable database called the UQ Assessment Ideas Factory

Mair is passionate about community engagement and engages with the community through her YouTube profile and podcasts such as this one with VPA Australia https://www.vpa.com.au/podcast

Mair Underwood coordinates two courses:

SOSC2190 Human Bodies, Culture and Society

SOCY1060 Gender, Sexuality and Society: An Introduction

Owen Ung is a breast and endocrine surgeon, Director of the Metro North Comprehensive Breast Cancer Institute (CBCI) and Program lead for the Breast Reconstruction at the Herston Biofabrication Institute (HBI). He is a committed clinician, researcher and educator.

Affiliations:

Professor of Surgery, University of Queensland

Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH)

Surgical Treatment and Rehabilitation Service (STARS)

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Professional representations:

Vice President Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS).

President of Breast Surgery International (BSI), and executive member of the International Surgical Society (ISS).

Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD).

Director Medical Insurance Group Australia (MIGA)

Drector Specialist Services Medical Group

Owen has obtained extensive administrative and management experience through his various clinical leadership roles and representations at numerous state, national and international levels. He has over 90 peer reviewed publications and is a lead investigator for a number of significant trials of international significance.

Corinne seeks to understand the organizing practices and processes that gradually and invisibly create risks that can worsen over time to become catastrophic. These ‘insidious risks’ were the focus of Corinne’s PhD in the UQ Business School where she identified three ways, on a spectrum of ways these risks are managed: blinkered, law-abiding and attentive. With more than 30 years’ experience in the mining sector, government, consulting and research, Corinne built upon her earth sciences background in mine rehabilitation and closure to become a qualitative researcher through her PhD. This provided a new lens and insights on how organisations manage elongated insidious risks, not only for mine affected water and land disturbance in mining but also during the progressive failure of the insurance market for extreme weather, in her postdoctoral research. In a voluntary capacity Corinne formed and led an ISO standards working group to finalise ISO 24419 Managing Mining Legacies in 2023 providing the first international standard on this topic together with case studies and a bibliography. She represents AusIMM in her standards work. Since 2019 Corinne has been a Board Member of the Victorian Government’s Mine Land Rehabilitation Authority providing oversight for three brown coal mine closures in the Latrobe Valley. Prior to her PhD Corinne developed the field of research in managing abandoned/legacy mines in the Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, SMI following her Churchill Fellowship research in 2009.

John Upham is a clinical scientist and physician with longstanding research interests in the immunological basis of asthma and chronic lung disease, the role of dendritic cells in allergy and virus infections of the lung, and the development of novel approaches to severe asthma treatment.

John is highly influential in his field, with > 195 publications, > 5,400 citations and an H index of 46. Since 2009, he has 112 publications (1st/senior author on 45%) with a Field-Weighted Citation Impact of 2.03. Moreover, 21.5% of publications are in the top 10% of most-cited publications worldwide (field-weighted). His publications have been cited in >20 different subject areas, demonstrating translation to fields other than Medicine. His research has international reach with citations in 80 countries (Scopus Dec 2018).

In the last 10 years, he has secured over $24 million in research funding. John has been awarded 8 NHMRC Project grants (4 as CIA in the last 5 years), 2 NHMRC CRE (“Closing the gap in Indigenous Lung Health” and “Severe Asthma”), and 1 NHMRC Development Grant. He currently holds NHMRC grants of $7.5 million, including $2.96 million as CIA. John was regularly an invited (9x), plenary (3x) and Chair (9x) at national and international conferences in the last 5 years. In recognition of his international standing and influence in the field, he was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (2004) and the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (2015).

Bikesh Raj Upreti is a Lecturer in the Department of Business Information Systems at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane, Australia. He completed his doctoral degree from Aalto University School of Business, Helsinki. His doctoral dissertation, " Untangling the Application of Text-mining Methods in Information Systems Domain", focused on developing applications to uncover insights from the large-scale text data. After graduating, he continued as a postdoctoral researcher and visiting scholar at the Department of Information Service Management, Aalto Business school, before joining the University of Queensland.

Bikesh's research interests are in the areas of applied computational methods and quantitative inquiry of inter-disciplinary phenomena. He has applied advanced machine learning, deep learning and other analytical tools for large-scale behavioural and predictive analytics set in Information systems, marketing, finance, and political discourses. His work has been published in several journals (European Journal of Information systems, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Travel Research, Electronic Markets) and peer-reviewed conference proceedings (ICIS, HICSS, and Bled).

His work has won the inaugural edition of the Paper-at-hon competition at ICIS 2017, the Best paper award at the Bled conference 2019, and the nomination for the best paper award at HICSS 2020. He also actively serves as a reviewer for the journals such as (European Journal of Information systems, Decision Sciences, Internet research and Information & Management, and International Journal of Information Management) and conferences (ICIS, ECIS, HICSS, AMCIS, PACIS).

Associate Professor Mark Utting's research interests include software verification, model-based testing, theorem proving and automated reasoning, programming language design and implementation. He received his PhD from UNSW on the semantics of object-oriented languages, and since then has worked as an academic at several Queensland universities, as well as Waikato University in NZ and the University of Franche-Comte in France. He is passionate about designing and engineering good software that solves real-world problems, has extensive experience with managing software development projects and teams both in academia and industry, and has worked in industry, developing next generation genomics software and manufacturing software. He is author of the book ‘Practical Model-Based Testing: A Tools Approach’, as well as more than 80 publications on model-based testing, software verification, and language design and implementation. His current research focus is on using software verification to give strong guarantees about the correctness of compilers, correctness of blockchain smart contracts, freedom from information leaks of ARM64 binary programs, and the correctness of AI-generated code.