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I have a multidisciplinary background in chemical and civil engineering, chemistry and materials science. Currently, I am the UQ leader of the National Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life, based at USC. I apply my expertise to understand the effects of fungal decay and moisture intrusion in timber connections, as well as the improvement of the fire performance of timber. I supervise 6 PhD students.

I have over 10 years of research and work experience in the field of mining land rehabilitation, acquiring a total of>3.5 million in fund support from the Australian government, research council and mining companies. My extensive experience in industrial engagement, field trial design and application also increased my growth as the leader in sustainable mining waste management.

I am an Advanced Queensland research fellow in the leading global research group of Ecological Engineering of Mine Wastes at the Sustainable Mineral Institute (SMI). My research interest is investigating important molecular and cellular processes in eukaryotes that first arose in bacteria and archaea, and microbial metabolic activities control numerous geochemical cycles in soil formation for sustainable mineral waste management. I have intensive work experience on multiple representative mining wastes, including Cu-Au, Pb-Zn, Iron ore, Uranium mine waste rock and bauxite tailings and residues.

My research strength lies in my multidisciplinary work and research program spans the interface between environmental microbiology, geochemistry, and plants. My expertise includes 1) mineral characterization, 2) soil and rhizosphere element cycling, 3) next-generation sequencing and online-controlled bioreactor techniques. Through the integrated application of environmental 'omics approaches, stable isotope analysis and imaging would give new insights into the fundamental element cycling processes of mined land mining wastes, and upon which I could develop novel biotechnology and methodology to prime sustainable mined land management and bioinoculum product with the field validated designated performance.

I have a keen interest in the evolutionary relationships that underpin symbioses, particularly those involved in plant disease. There are countless examples of how diseases have impacted different crops throughout history, and this is an ongoing issue that deleteriously impacts food security. My research involves developing a better understanding of the epidemiology of plant diseases and pests, and delivering improved diagnostics and field management. Working with collaborators and international experts, my work involves research on a broad range of plants that are affected by bacteria, fungi, oomycetes, viruses, nematodes and arthropod pests. I have a strong interest in the biotic factors that govern soil health and the methods by which we can promote the development of beneficial microbial communities.

The study of insect abundance and distribution.

I am an insect ecologist by "bent" and my students and I work on various applied and basic research areas. We generally take an individuals-process based approach to the study of insect abundance and distribution. We use various "model" systems to ask questions ranging from the effect of host chemistry on oviposition behaviour and early stage caterpillar survival, to the effects of learning on oviposition behaviour at a landscape level and the effects of climate on insect abundance. I prefer to work on Butterfly-plant interactions, particularly Monarchs and milkweeds.

A substantial amount of our applied research has been on the ecology and biology of Helicoverpa spp, the major pest of Australian field crops, and more recently Diamondback moth, a key pest of horticulture.

Dr Jian Zeng is a statistical geneticist, NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow and Group Leader at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland. His research uses large-scale genomic data to understand the genetic basis of complex traits and diseases, improve polygenic risk prediction, and identify the genes, cell types and biological processes through which genetic risk acts.

His group develops statistical methods and software tools across four interconnected areas:

• genetic architecture and evolutionary signatures of complex traits;
• polygenic prediction within and across diverse populations;
• fine-mapping of causal genetic variants and genes;
• integration of human genetics with functional and single-cell genomics.

This work addresses major challenges in statistical genetics and precision medicine, including the analysis of whole-genome sequencing data, the reduced accuracy of genetic prediction in underrepresented populations, and the biological interpretation of disease-associated variants. His methods are translated into accessible software used by researchers internationally and are applied to psychiatric, neurological, metabolic and other complex diseases.

Dr Zeng received the IMB Impact Award for Enabling Technology and Method Development in 2021 and the UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award in 2025.

I am a senior bioinformatician at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, with over 20 years of experience in next-generation sequencing (NGS) data analysis. My career began with the greenfield development of three major NGS platforms: 454, Illumina, and SOLiD. This early experience laid the foundation for my extensive expertise in bioinformatic analysis across a wide range of NGS data types.

While bioinformaticians are often positioned in service-oriented roles, my work has consistently extended beyond service delivery. For example, as the leader of the bioinformatics core facility at the Queensland Brain Institute from 2012 to 2022, my primary responsibilities included providing bioinformatics support, but I also actively contributed to project design, supervised PhD and Master’s students, and maintained a strong research profile.

To date, I have authored 45 peer-reviewed publications, with more than one-third as first, co-first, or last author. According to SciVal, over 57.8% of my publications rank in the top 10% most cited in their respective fields. My research spans the development of novel bioinformatics tools, such as the TRIAGE R package for regulatory analysis of both bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data (Briefings in Bioinformatics, 2025), as well as studies in single-cell transcriptomics (Nature Communications, 2025; Developmental Cell, 2024), lncRNA analysis (Molecular Psychiatry, 2024; Nature Communications, 2023), integrative analysis of ATAC-seq and lncRNA data (Cell Reports, 2022), de novo transcriptome assembly (Development, 2022), noncanonical Z-DNA structure analysis (Nature Neuroscience, 2020), m6dA DNA modification analysis (Nature Neuroscience, 2019), whole-exome sequencing analysis (Genome Medicine, 2017), and cross-ethnic meta-analysis (Nature Communications, 2017), reflecting a broad and sustained contribution across multiple areas of genomics and computational biology.

The aim of Allie's research is to improve soil health for sustainable agricultural production and environmental protection. Her research spans the areas of plant-soil-microbe interactions, soil microbiology, nutrients cycling and the recylcing of organic wastes, currently focusing on (i) the development of advanced and novel methodologies for investigation of plant-soil-microbe interactions; (ii) dynamics of nutrients (N, P, K) and carbon in soils including greenhouse gas emissions; and (iii) soil carbon sequestration and persistence.

Rebeka R. Zsoldos is an animal biomechanist who graduated at the Animal Science Faculty of the University of Kaposvar/Hungary (2008). In Vienna/Austria, she then completed her PhD on the biomechanics of the equine cervical vertebral column at the Movement Science Group at the Veterinary University (2011), followed by her own collaborative research project titled “Generic Motion Models based on Quadrupedal Data” at the University of Natural Resources together with the Veterinary University and the University of Bonn/Germany (Multimedia, Simulation and Virtual Reality Group). During this time, she taught Animal Biomechanics to undergraduate and graduate students. Having completed the project, she continued work with her collaborators at the University of Bonn in Germany. After that she worked on a mathematical approach to the elastic behaviour and shape of the equine spine as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Computational Sciences Group, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Professor Steven Zuryn is a molecular geneticist within the Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland. After training as a PhD in genetics, he undertook postdoctoral reseach at the Institut Génétique Biologie Moléculaire Cellulaire (IGBMC) in Strasbourg, France. He now leads an international and diverse team of postdoctoral, PhD, Honours, and undergraduate investigators studying epigenetics and mitochondrial biology. His laboratory’s work focuses on the role and impact of mitochondrial dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases and is particularly fascinated with mutations that accumulate within the mitochondria’s own genome during ageing. His research has been published in the high profile journals Science, Nature Cell Biology, and Cell Metabolism and has appeared in multiple mainstream media outlets. For his research, he has received multiple international prizes and fellowships (including an ARC Future Fellowship) and is generously supported as a fellow of the Stafford Fox Research Foundation. Steven is passionate about communicating the critical importance of fundamental scientific research as a long-term human endeavour.

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