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Dr Vlado Vivoda is a leading expert in critical minerals, energy security, and the geopolitical dimensions of resource management. His work focuses on the intersection of sustainable energy transitions and strategic mineral supply chains, offering insights into both global policy and industry practices.

With over two decades of experience across academia, research, and consultancy, Dr. Vivoda has contributed significantly to understanding the role of critical minerals in global energy transitions. His research addresses topics such as:

• Geopolitics of critical minerals
• Sustainable mining practices
• Energy policy and security
• Strategic responses to global supply chain vulnerabilities

Dr Vivoda has published extensively in top-tier academic journals, contributed to major international reports, and advised government and private sector organizations on critical minerals and energy strategies. His interdisciplinary approach bridges academia, industry, and policy, making him a trusted advisor in the fields of energy security and sustainable development.

Dr T. Thang Vo-Doan is a Lecturer of the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at the University of Queensland. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Biology I, University of Freiburg, Germany (2019-2023). He was also a Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore (2016-2018). He was awarded his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU in 2016. He received his M.Eng. degree in Manufacturing Engineering and B.Eng. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam in 2010 and 2008 respectively. He was awarded the prestigious Human Frontier Science Program Cross-disciplinary Fellowship (2019-2022).

He directs the UQ Biorobotics lab after joining in the University of Queensland. Current research activities of the lab focus on insect-machine hybrid robots, bio-inspired robotics, insect structures and functions, biomechanics, fast lock-on tracking, and brain imaging in untethered insects.

Overview

Professor Waldemar Vollmer is a microbiologist working on the structure and biogenesis of the bacterial cell wall in various model bacteria and a range of pathogenic and environmental bacteria. He is particularly interested in how bacteria enlarge their cell wall when they grow and divide, and how antibiotics inhibit cell wall synthesis to kill bacteria. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global problem that is predicted to claim 10 million lives annually by the year 2050 if no new antibiotics are developed. Currently the pipeline of antibiotic development is almost empty and mostly limited to slightly modified versions to existing antibiotics. Professor Vollmer addresses the problem of AMR by generating tailored assays for the development of novel antibiotics that target AMR bacteria.

Collaborations: Professor Vollmer collaborates world-wide with more than 50 researchers at top national and international institutions on cell wall topics in over 30 different bacteria. These topics include: structure and composition of the cell wall and its role in maintaining cell morphology; molecular mechanisms of cell envelope biogenesis; role of new cell wall modifying enzymes in the interaction of pathogenic bacteria with components of the immune system; mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and targeting of cell wall biogenesis by new antibiotics.

Funding and Publications: Professor Vollmer has been awarded more than $15 million funding from research councils and charities in Germany, UK, Europe and USA. He has published more than 200 articles in international journals and has been recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher in Microbiology.

Honours and Awards: Professor Vollmer has been elected to Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (2014) and European Academy of Microbiology (2018). He received the annual Academic Distinction Awards from the Vice Chancellor of Newcastle University (2014), has been awarded a Distinguished Scientist Visiting Scholarships at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel, 2012) and a Visiting Professorship at the University of Cagliari (Italy, 2015), and won a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (2014). He has co-organised the 2018 Gordon Conference (GRC) "Bacterial Cell Surfaces" (Mt Snow, USA) and the 2016 EMBO Workshop "Bacterial Cell Division: Orchestrating the Ring Cycle" (Prague, Czech Republic).

Short Biography: Prof Waldemar Vollmer has studied chemistry at the University of Applied Sciences in Reutlingen (Germany) and University of Basel (Switzerland). In 1998 he obtained a PhD degree (Dr.rer.nat.) from the University of Tübingen (Germany) for his work on cell wall synthesis in the model bacterium Escherichia coli undertaken at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology. During his postdoctoral studies at the Rockefeller University (New York, USA) he discovered novel cell wall enzymes that are crucial for the virulence of the pathogenic bacterium Streptococcus pneumoiae. In 2003 he was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Tübingen and moved 2007 to the Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology at Newcastle University (UK), where he worked as Professor of Bacterial Biochemistry on various bacterial cell wall topics in a range of different bacteria. Since April 2023 he is Professorial Research Fellow and Group Leader at the Centre for Superbug Solutions, Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at the University of Queensland.

Frederik is an Associate Professor in Strategy and Entrepreneurship and the Program Leader of the Master of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UQ Business School. His research and teaching focus on how business opportunities emerge and how organizations from early-stage start-ups to mature enterprises can identify and seize such opportunities. A large share of Frederik’s current research investigates specifically how crises and digital technologies create opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation. He works closely with companies from small start-ups to large ASX listed enterprises and has successfully helped many of them with research-based evidence and innovation facilitation.

Prior to joining UQ Business School, Frederik was a Senior Research Fellow at QUT Business School and responsible for managing the collaborative research program with Woolworths Ltd. He received his PhD from City University of Hong Kong for his work on business accelerators and high-tech start-ups. Before joining City University, he was a business intelligence consultant at Hewlett-Packard and a customer relationship management specialist at IBM.

My research can be broadly defined as applied social psychology: the primary focus driving this research program is to test and extend important theories outside the laboratory. For example, an extensive literature in social psychology has demonstrated that stereotype threat, or the concern that one is the target of demeaning stereotypes, can lead to acute performance deficits. Despite the widely demonstrated performance decrements brought about by stereotype threat in the laboratory, there has been debate about the relevance and applicability of stereotype threat in everyday life. My work has examined some of the real world implications of stereotype threat, including what leads to experiences of stereotype threat for women working in male dominated professions, older employees, and men working in female dominated professions (such as child protection) and the consequences when employees experience stereotype threat at work.

I also conduct research on implicit attitudes amongst hard to reach populations, such as people who inject drugs, at-risk youth, and people with mental health problems. Similar to my research on stereotype threat, this research attempts to contribute to the literatures on stigma and implicit attitudes, while also providing empirical evidence of the applicability of implicit attitudes outside of the laboratory.

BSc, MBBS, MPH, PhD, FRACGP, FACD

Dr Lena von Schuckmann is a clinician researcher, with dual medical specialist training in dermatology and general practice. Her research is focused on skin cancer prevention, early detection, and optimising skin cancer treatment. She is passionate about improving the cancer journey for patients.

She works as a consultant dermatologist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Sunshine Coast University Hospital and private clinics in Spring Hill and the Samford Valley.

Dr Thea Voogt is an Associate Professor in the School of Law and the Director of Business Law.

She specialises in income tax law, agriculture tax policy tools, the impact of climate change on the financial fortitude of farming families, corporate governance and business structures.

Thea leverages her significant business experience in senior executive roles and her background as a chartered accountant in industry projects. She holds a Doctorate in Financial Management and Master of International Commercial Law (UQ).

Thea is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an award-winning law teacher. She is the 2017 recipient of the prestigious UQ Business, Economics & Law Faculty Teaching Award. She also received the 2017 Inspired me to learn Award for Teaching Excellence in an undergraduate compulsory course, and the 2016 Award for Teaching Excellence in an undergraduate compulsory course from the UQ School of Law.

Prior to joining UQ, Thea was the CEO (Principal Officer) of the superannuation funds of the University of Johannesburg, a Professor in Accounting and managed large tenders for this institution. Over the course of her career in South Africa, she was closely involved with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants as sought-after speaker, researcher and umpire for the national qualifying exams for chartered accountants. Thea also held a Ministerial appointment to the Board of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).

Dr Kai Voss-Fels is a Senior Research Fellow within the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at The University of Queensland focussing on quantitative genetics and plant breeding. Before joining UQ in 2017, Kai has worked as Research Associate at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology and as PhD student and then Postdoc at the Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany, where he completed his PhD in 2016 with highest distinction (summa cum laude, JLU best dissertation award).

Kai is interested in developing and implementing new genomics-assisted breeding approaches to improve yield, quality and resistances in major crops, such as wheat, barley, sugarcane, rapeseed and chickpea. A particular focus of his research involves the integration of quantitative genetics, genomics and computational approaches to develop new crop improvement strategies. He is particularly interested in new genomic prediction approaches, e.g. involving artificial intelligence and computer simulation, that could help to accelerate the rate of genetic gain. This also includes the study of GxE interaction and non-additive genetic effects, which represent a key challenge for crop genetic improvement programs.

Kai has won several prestigious awards, e.g. the Kurt von Rümker Price 2017 and the 2019 Barley Incentive Award by the Australian Barley Technical Symposium committee. He has published his research outcomes in high impact peer-reviewed journals, such as Nature Plants and Trends in Plant Science, and he works closely with leading national and international partners across the public and private sectors.

The Vukovic laboratory investigates how brain function is sculpted and influenced by the immune system. Specifically, we examine the role of brain’s main resident immune cell population (i.e. microglia), as well as various peripheral immune cells, on learning and memory in mice. We are interested in defining the contribution of immune cells to such higher cognitive tasks, including for neuroinflammatory conditions where learning and memory deficits can occur, e.g. following traumatic brain injury, cancer treatment, and ageing. We have established an array of genetic and pharmacological tools alongside robust behavioural assays to directly probe the function of these immune cells in both the healthy and diseased brain. The ultimate goal of our work is to link cellular and molecular events to altered behaviour, and to harness the brain’s intrinsic regenerative potential for stimulating optimal cognitive function.

A neuroimmunologist, Dr Vukovic received her PhD in 2008 from The University of Western Australia after working on the repair of injured nerve cell connections. She joined QBI in 2009 to work in Professor Perry Bartlett’s laboratory as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, before being awarded a Queensland Government Smart Futures Fellowship to continue her research into the importance of adult neurogenesis for behaviour and how microglia influence this process in ageing. Dr Vukovic demonstrated that microglia can exert a dual and opposing influence over adult neurogenesis (the birth of new neurons) in the hippocampus under different physiological conditions, namely exercise and ageing, and that signalling through the chemokine receptor, CX3CR1, critically contributes towards this (Vukovic et al., 2012, J Neurosci). Dr Vukovic also generated novel evidence that ongoing neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus is critical for new learning but does not play a role in memory recall (Vukovic et al., 2013, J Neurosci).

Dr Vukovic was awarded an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (2015-2018) and was jointly appointed as a group leader by the UQ School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS) and QBI in 2015. She heads the Neuroimmunology and Cognition team investigating the interactions between the brain and the immune system in health and disease.

Currently, the group is working on three main projects:

1. Identification of microglia-derived molecules that support neuronal survival and stimulate neural stem/progenitor cell expansion
2. Characterisation of immune cell contribution to changes in neuronal connectivity
3. Immune cell responses to cancer treatment, and their effect on learning and memory

Dr Viana Vuvan is a titled Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist and Lecturer in Physiotherapy at The University of Queensland. Viana has a strong clinical background in musculoskeletal physiotherapy, with experience in managing a wide range of musculoskeletal and sports-related injuries. Viana has a special interest in the management of upper limb musculoskeletal disorders and enjoys sharing her experience with students in the undergraduate and postgraduate physiotherapy programs. Viana is an active member of the Sports Injury Rehabilitation and Prevention for Health (SIRPH) research unit and the Neck and Head Research Unit (NAHRU) at the University of Queensland.

Viana’s research is focused on improving the management of persistent musculoskeletal pain conditions, such as tendinopathies, and better understanding the mechanisms underlying their chronicity. Viana’s PhD research focused on lateral elbow tendinopathy and explored the factors contributing to pain, disability and chronicity within this group. Additionally, Viana has explored similar mechanisms in other tendinopathies, including Achilles, patellar tendinopathy, plantar fasciopathy, as well as in whiplash associated disorders. She has shared her research at numerous state-wide, national and international conferences, and has been awarded for her presentations at several conferences.

Dr. Dhaval Vyas is a Senior Lecturer in the Human-Centred Computing discipline - a former ARC DECRA Fellow (2018-2022) and. He is a part of the Compassion Lab research group. His research spans the areas of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). In particular, he focuses on designing IT tools to support health and wellbeing of under-resourced communities. He has worked in academia and industry for over 15 years. He received a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from University of Twente, the Netherlands; a master’s degree in Computer Science from Lancaster University, UK; and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Gujarat University, India.

Belinda Wade is an Industry Professor within the University of Queensland Business School.

Belinda's research promotes organisational progress on climate and sustainability issues with a focus on decarbonisation and organisational climate transitions. Her recent research has highlighted decarbonising actions taken within Australian companies and best practices in climate reporting and management. Major project collaborations include with the AASB examining organisational behaviour in response to mandatory climate reporting; the Future Fuels CRC (hydrogen adoption and biomethane); the Queensland Decarbonisation Hub (sector planning); and, Princeton University under the Rapid Switch initiative (decarbonisation).

Driven by corporate challenges Belinda actively publishes industry reports and editorials within popular media to extend the reach of her research in addition to traditional academic publications (recent works in Journal of Business Ethics and Nature Climate Change). Belinda has been the lead author on several industry reports including the recent examination of the climate performance of the Australian superannuation sector, the perception of future fuels (hydrogen) by the Australian public and the impact of the energy transition in rural communities. Editorial articles can be found in Entrepreneur Magazine (online), SmartCompany, and The UK Newspaper. Belinda has been featured in media including ABC Radio National’s Future Tense program, articles by AFR, Courier Mail and Nine News.

Through her career Belinda has worked extensively within industry, consulting and academia. These positions include within major energy providers Tarong Energy (now Stanwell) and Energex Retail, Australian leading consulting firm Aurecon and academic positions with the University of Queensland where she established and led the Business Sustainability Initiative. Belinda is on the steering committee for Net Zero Australia part 2 and is the Sector Planning theme lead for the Queensland Decarbonisation Hub.

1. Professor Wade graduated with BAgrSc (Hons) in Crop Agronomy from the University of Queensland, a PhD in Crop Science from the University of Western Australia, and Research Fellowships to the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in India, and Texas A&M University in the USA. Len was based at Emerald with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries from 1974 to 1993, as Agronomist, then Senior and Principal Agronomist. From 1993 to 2002, Len moved to the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, as Agronomist/Physiologist, Rainfed Consortium Coordinator, and Program Leader for Rainfed-Lowland and Flood-Prone Ecosystem Programs across South and South-East Asia. For five years, Professor Wade was GRDC Chair in Crop Agronomy at the University of Western Australia, before joining Charles Sturt University as Strategic Research Professor in Farming Systems, Crop Physiology and Crop Improvement, from 2007 to 2016. Since July 2016, Len has been Honorary Professor at The University of Queensland in the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, to facilitate his continuing professional engagement via mentoring of younger colleagues, assistance to international projects, publication in international journals, editorial advisory boards of Field Crops Research and Crop and Environment, and consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Len's paper on perennial rice, which was published in Nature Sustainability in November 2022, was identified as Runner-Up for Science Breakthrough of the Year by the journal, Science. Len presented an invited lecture on this work to the American Academy for the Advancement of Science at the Breakthrough of the Year Celebrations in Washington DC in March 2023. Recently, Len has been included in Research.Com's list of best scientists in Plant Science and Agronomy, with world ranking 1554, national ranking 139 and D = 48.

Dr David Wadley's research interests are in: Philosophy of Planning and Development, Industrial and Retail Planning, Economic Geography and Futurology.

David Wadley received his PhD from the Australian National University in 1975.

His current research projects are in the fields of:

• Visual Impact Assessment in Planning
• Effectiveness, Efficiency and Equity in Retail Planning
• Trust in Business
• Social and Work Experience in the Future

Dr David Wainwright is an adjunct research fellow with the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland. Apart from his involvement in research, David also has over 20 years of industry experience as a consulting engineer, focusing on coastal engineering, environmental hydraulics, geomorphology and adaptation to climate change - particularly in the coastal zone.

David’s work typically covers coastal engineering design, coastal geomorphology and land use planning. David is also broadly familiar with key aspects of coastal ecology, local government management, property law and community consultation. His key areas of expertise include risk assessment methods for planning in the face of coastal and flooding hazards and sea level rise, engineering design, numerical modelling, and coastal lagoons. David’s PhD thesis investigated numerical modelling methods to inform management of the entrances to coastal lagoons.

He has been a chartered engineer with Engineers Australia since 2001, with membership in the Civil and Environmental Colleges. David provides regular services to that organisation in interviewing individuals applying for chartered membership and acting as a judge for its biannual Engineering Excellence Awards. David is also a conjoint lecturer with the School of Environmental and Life Sciences at the University of Newcastle. David is a director of Salients Pty Limited, a consulting company he established in 2015.

Professor Brandon Wainwright AM is Co-Director of the Children’s Brain Cancer Centre and leads a laboratory within the UQ Diamantina Institute focused on understanding the genetic pathways behind medulloblastoma, a type of brain tumour that occurs predominantly in children. He is Chair of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Australia, Chair of the Advisory Board of the Robinson Research Institute and Chair of the Board of the South Australian Immunogenomics Cancer Institute (SAIGENCI), and serves on the boards the Australian Genome Research Facility as well as several national and international scientific review committees, including the MRFF Brain Tumour Roadmap Committee.

Professor Wainwright completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at The University of Adelaide, after which he secured a postdoctoral fellowship with St Mary's Hospital at Imperial College London. During his six years at Imperial he worked on the first human genome project and also became a Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellow. He returned to Australia in 1990 to join UQ's Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology (now IMB) and led the Institute for Molecular Biology until 2019.

Professor Wainwright is a geneticist, renowned for discovering the genetic pathway that causes most human cancer. He is skilled in molecular genetics, where he is using genetic approaches to dig through DNA and find the genes that cause disease. He commenced using these skills to locate the cystic fibrosis gene, but it was when isolating a gene responsible for a rare form of brain cancer called Medulloblastoma, that he discovered the role of the ‘Hedgehog Pathway' in common human cancer.