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I was awarded my PhD in biomedical engineeering in January 2011; and since then I have been employed at the University of Queensland as a lecturer in Electrical & Biomedical Engineering a within the school of IT and Electrical Engineering. I am trained as a biomedical engineer, and my overarching interest is the development of novel medical diagnostic tools and therapies with the goal improving the health outcomes of people in Australia and globally. My current research is focussed on the application of electronic instrumentation, mathematical modelling and signal's processing to pediatric and adult respiratroy and sleep medicine medicine, and I regard my research strength to be the ability to bridge the gap between clinical physiology and biomedical engineering. In particular:

• The development of novel instrumentation and mathematical modelling to better understand the physiology underlying disease; and
• The application of engineering and mathematics to translate recent advances in the understanding of physiology to the clinical environment

My current research themes include:

• Quantifying ("phenoyping") the contribution of ventilatory control "loop gain" to obstructive sleep apnoea in the clinical environment
• Development of novel instrumentation to quantify head and torso posuture during sleep, and it's influence on obstructive sleep apnoea severity
• Developing novel actigraphy systems (using high temporal resolution accelerometry) to quantify sleep disturbance in children
• Quantifying cardio-respiratory stability in pre-term neonates

I'm currently the Discipline Leader for Imaging Sensing and Biomedical Engineering within the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).

Professor Susan Tett is a registered pharmacist with research interests in Quality Use of Medicines (improving how medicines are used) and clinical pharmacokinetics (optimising medicine doses)

Sue completed her PhD in 1988. Since this time she has been in research positions and in academia at Sydney University, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney and at the University of Queensland. She has over 150 peer reviewed research publications and over 200 conference presentations and is on Editorial Board of Clinical Pharmacokinetics. Sue was Head of the School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland 1996-2004 and Deputy Executive Dean & Associate Dean Research for the Faculty of Health Sciences 2006-2010, including periods as Acting Executive Dean.

Susan Tett has been a member of many Australian national and State advisory committees, including Pharmaceutical Health and Rational use of Medicines Committee 1996-2004, Pharmaceutical Sub-Committee of the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee 1995-2004, Pharmaceutical Industry Working Group 2003-10 , Pharmaceutical Partnerships Program Committee of the Industry Research & Development Board 2003-09, and has participated in NHMRC Project Grant Review Panels and Fellowships Panels. She was also Councillor for the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (Queensland Branch) and was the Australian Pharmacist of the Year in 1999, for her contributions to pharmacy education and research.

Sue’s research interests are directed towards optimising the clinical use of medications. General areas of research include quality use of medicines, clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Sue supervises a number of postgraduate students and is actively involved in innovation in the pharmacy profession, pushing the professional boundaries. She is committed to enhancing the role of the health care team in optimising consumer health outcomes.

Valerio's current research is focused on coastal conservation and restoration. His work supports the Nature Repair Market (NRM) established by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment, and Water (DCCEEW) and encompasses facilitating expert collaboration, developing best-practice guidelines for biodiversity assessment, and informing evidence-based policy for coastal restoration. He is also involved in the development of methods to assess biodiversity gains through time on oyster reef restoration projects using environmental DNA.

Originally from Ticino, an Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, Valerio had formerly a background in neuroengineering and molecular biology. He completed his BSc in Biology at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland, and his MSc in Biology (with a focus on neuroscience) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), Switzerland. Despite growing up in the middle of the Alps, he has always had a fascination with marine life, which brought him to the University of Queensland to undertake his Master’s thesis as part of the Sensory Neurobiology group, studying the visual system of surgeonfish. Valerio completed his PhD as part of the Marine Sensory Ecology Lab at the University of Queensland, where he researched the development of colour vision and colouration in a coral reef fish family, applying cutting-edge technology such as CRISPR-Cas9 and single cell RNA sequencing, while also using behaviour paradigms, calibrated photography, phylogenetic comparative methods and bioinformatics.

Dr Phong Thai is an ARC Mid-Career Industry Fellow. Phong joined Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) in 2018 after his Vice Chancellor Senior Research Fellowship at the International Laboratory of Air Quality and Health at Queensland University of Technology. His research focus at QAEHS involves the expansion of wastewater-based epidemiological approach to estimate community consumption and exposure to a range of licit and illicit substances including tobacco and alcohol, pharmaceuticals and as well as the monitoring of community infection to Covid-19 during the last pandemic. He is a member of the team who manage the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program.

Phong is also working on projects monitoring occurence, fate and transport of environmental pollutants in different matrices. He has lso far ed or contributed to several exciting projects totalling > A$ 15 millions.

JT or JAGADISH THAKER (PhD, 2011) is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland and Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Communication. He is an affiliate researcher with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. His research examines ways to understand and enhance public, business, and policy engagement with climate change and public health.

Dr. Thaker is the Associate Editor of the 3 Volumes of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication (2018), Oxford University Press, Co-Editor of International Trends in Environmental Communication (2021), Routledge, and Author of Corporate Communication on Climate Change: Villains, Victims, and White Knights (2025), Routledge.

Dr. JT Thaker has received over $1.01 million in funding as a PI or a Co-PI from the government (MBIE, National Science Challenges) and other private organisations.

His research was covered by over 1000 media outlets, including The Guardian, The New York Times, Reuters, CNN, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New Zealand Herald, and The Hindu. He has appeared several times on national TV and radio stations. His research was featured by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

He has won several awards, including the three Top Faculty Paper Awards (2022, 2023 and 2026) in Environmental Communication from the International Communication Association, 2022 Golden Anniversary Monograph Award from the National Communication Association, 2021 Outstanding PhD Aulmus from the George Mason University’s Department of Communication, Massey Business School’s Excellence in Research award, and the Top 40 under 40 inspiring teachers award from The Indian Express, a leading newspaper in India. His co-edited book, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication, was a finalist in the Association of American Publishers’ 2019 PROSE Award.

He has served as an expert reviewer or jury for the National Geographic Society, Canada Research Coordinating Committee (CRCC), European Science Foundation, and Health Research Council New Zealand, among other funding agencies.

Nanotechnology revolutionizes the trends in biomedical applications. In particular, nanomaterial-based cancer treatment and immunotherapy are hot topics of interest. By paying attention to the molecular-level details of cancer as well as the changes in the tumor microenvironment, novel nanoparticles can be designed (for example: for in-situ capture of generated tumour associated antigens (TAA) and for the regulation of macrophage phenotypes) for treating cancer. Oral delivery of nanotherapeutics and nanovaccine is another topic of broad interest that can maximize patient comfort, reduce medical expenses and reduce complications in administration. In this regard, nanomaterials can be carefully designed to overcome the challenges in the oral delivery of drugs, adjuvants, and genetic materials. Cutting-edge nanotechnology and nanochemistry are combined to develop silica-based delivery systems for cancer vaccines or cancer treatment.

Shevanuja Theivendran finished her bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Mississippi, USA, with 3 years of research experience in synthesizing and characterizing Gold Nanomaterials. During her bachelor's degree, she got a wonderful opportunity to associate with a world-leading expert in the field of crystallization, Prof. Allan Myerson from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA, as a research intern. She was also awarded Taylor Medal in 2016, the university's highest academic award which is awarded as a recognition for her meritorious studies. Thereafter, she got admitted to the Ph.D. program at UQ with the prestigious RTP scholarship in 2018. Shevanuja did her Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Chengzhong Yu, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), focusing on the design of nanoparticles for the capture and delivery of in-situ generated tumour associated antigens (TAA) and the regulation of tumor microenvironment for cancer immunotherapy. She is currently working as a post-doctoral research fellow at AIBN, the University of Queensland. Her current research focuses on the development of nanomaterial-based oral DNA vaccine in collaboration with N4 Pharma and the development of novel nanoplatforms for the regulation of tumor microenvironment by targeting different components of cancer and its microenvironment for cancer treatment.

Dr Hannah Thomas is a Research Fellow and Clinical Psychologist at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research and has academic affiliations with both The University of Queensland and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. She completed a PhD on adolescent bullying and cyberbullying, which was recognised by the Australian Psychological Society as the best original contribution to knowledge. As a psychologist she has experience in the delivery of evidence-based treatments for mental health and social difficulties with children and adolescents and their families. Dr Thomas developed and validated the Bullying and Cyberbullying Scale for Adolescents [BCS-A] and co-led the work to have bullying victimisation included as a risk factor for mental disorders in the Global Burden of Disease Study. She is also a co-investigator on the Australian Child Maltreatment Prevalence Study, which is the most comprehensive study the prevalence, health, and economic burden of child maltreatment in Australia. Her ongoing research is focused on the prevention of adverse childhood experiences and mental illness in the population.

Dr Natalie Thomas is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Science Research. Natalie's background is in criminology, and her work focuses broadly on the intersections of health and justice and the application of social science research methods to program evaluation. She completed her PhD through the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University. Her research interests include alcohol and other drug regulation and policy, criminal justice policy and programs, qualitative and mixed methods research, program evaluation and evidence reviews.