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Damon Thomas is a senior lecturer in literacy education. His current research interests include theories of writing, writing development, pedagogy, and assessment, systemic functional linguistics, argumentation, standardised assessment, and classical rhetoric. Damon's research has made important contributions in the following areas:

• Understanding the complexities of student writing development
• Exploring writing instruction in situ
• Unpacking and critiquing the results of Australia's only large-scale test: the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy.

Damon completed his PhD at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) in 2015. He began lecturing at UTAS in 2014 and was promoted to senior lecturer in 2019. He took up a senior lecturer position at the University of Queensland (UQ) in 2021. Before starting his academic career, Damon taught as a primary school teacher in Tasmania after completing a Bachelor of Education degree with First Class Honours.

Damon was part of a team of Chief Investigators from the University of Tasmania, Deakin University, and La Trobe University that secured a successful ARC Linkage Project in 2015 in partnership with Anglicare Tasmania (LP150100558). The project investigated conditions that improved learning and wellbeing outcomes in regional, low-SES schools in Tasmania and Victoria. Damon oversaw the literacy component across school sites and conducted in-depth case studies in Tasmanian primary and high schools.

Damon is currently a Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery Project investigating talk for learning in early years mathematics classrooms. Damon's main role is to employ several linguistic frameworks to understand the complexities of student dialogue and features of productive talk.

Damon is a member of several professional organisations including the Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association (ASFLA), the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia (PETAA), and the Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA). Damon also translates literacy research for practising teachers via his blog: Read Write Think Learn

Dr Hayley Thomas is a General Practitioner who works clinically on the north side of Brisbane, and academically as a clinical senior lecturer with the General Practice Clinical Unit. She is currently the academic co-coordinator for the General Practice course in the MD program. Hayley's research interests include whole person care and the GP-Patient relationship.

Professor Thomas’ research is focused on the study of the biology and clinical use of human dendritic cells in autoimmune disease. It has explored basic mechanisms of immunity and dendritic cell function in autoimmune disease.

Professor Thomas is a graduate of the University of Western Australia. She received her MBBS in 1984, and then trained in Perth as a rheumatologist. She commenced a research fellowship with Peter Lipsky at Southwestern Medical Center, University of Texas in 1990, where she first identified and characterised human circulating dendritic cell precursors. She is now Professor of Rheumatology at The University of Queensland's Frazer Institute, Translational Research Institute, consultant Rheumatologist at Princess Alexandra Hospital and fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. In 2020 she was awarded Member of the Order of Australia. She has founded two spin-off companies Dendright (2006-2021), and Liperate in 2022.

Her research seeks to understand autoimmune disease and restoration of immune tolerance. Through this work, she developed dendritic cell-based citrullinated antigen-specific immunotherapy in the first proof-of-concept trial in Rheumatoid Arthritis. She then developed a liposome immunotherapy that targets dendritic cells to induce antigen-specific tolerance, opening new opportunities for the control and prevention of autoimmune disease. Dendright progressed a liposome-based tolerance strategy for rheumatoid arthritis to a phase I trial, and Liperate is planning to open a trial of a liposome-based tolerance strategy for type 1 diabetes in 2024. She has contributed major insights into immune tolerance mechanisms and interaction between microbiome and the immune system to trigger or control spondyloarthropathy.

Professor Kevin Thomas is Director of the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS). Kevin is an environmental health scientist with a particular interest in understanding the environmental exposures associated with contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) with the goal of protecting environmental and human health. Kevin also leads the Minderoo Centre- Plastics and Human Health at UQ and is Deputy-Director of the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Hyphenated Analytical Separation Technologies (HyTech).

His current research is focused on understanding human exposure to plastics pollution and developing mass spectrometric analytical methods for characterizing plastics and other CECs, assessing community-wide health status through analysing wastewater (wastewater-based epidemiology) and establishing alternative approaches to exposure monitoring, for example explanted silicone prostheses and wristbands.

Author of over 300 peer-reviewed papers and Associate Editor for the journal Science of the Total Environment, Kevin is a strong collaborative researcher having founded the international SCORE network on sewer biomarker analysis for community health assessment (see www.score-network.eu) and together with colleagues has recently launched InSpectra- A platform for identifying emerging chemical threats.

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.

Emma is a Research Fellow, NHMRC Emerging Leader and prior Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow within the Centre for Online Health (Centre for Health Services Research) at the University of Queensland. She provides input into a range of telehealth projects across the centre. She has a particular interest in using telehealth within the care and management of people with cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases to enhance self-management and reduce barriers to access. Underpinning her work more broadly is an interest in scaling-up effective interventions, monitoring the quality of their delivery and ensuring equitable provision of health services.

Emma completed her PhD (2019) at the University of Melbourne in the School of Population and Global Health as an NHMRC Postgraduate Scholar. Her thesis aimed to understand how the evidence-practice gap in cardiac rehabilitation can be reduced in Australian through enhanced monitoring and evaluation. Emma has also worked across various other research groups including at the University of Oxford at a WHO Collaborating Centre focused on population approaches for non-communicable disease prevention, the Non-Communicable Disease Unit at the University of Melbourne, and a Centre of Research Excellence in Aphasia Rehabilitation (University of Queensland). She has also worked for the Heart Foundation as an academic advisor and also a senior project manager.

Emma has a strong interest in implementation science and sits on the Editorial Board for the journal Implementation Science Communications. She is also part of the Emerging Leaders Committee for the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance (ACvA), and a committee member of the Australian Cardiovascular health and Rehabilitation Association (QLD branch).

Dr George Thomas is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland’s Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation and a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. His work focuses on understanding children’s engagement with digital technologies and how this shapes their health, wellbeing, and development.

George has over 15 years of experience in public health and behavioural sciences, with expertise spanning:

• Digital health and healthy screen use in childhood

• Health behaviour change and family-based interventions

• Translation of research into community programs

He began his career with a UK government taskforce on weight management, delivering healthy lifestyle programs for school children and families. Since then, his research has focused on bridging science and practice, ensuring evidence informs policy and community action.

George is also committed to education and mentorship. He has taught research methods and public health to undergraduate students in paramedicine and sport and exercise sciences, consistently receiving excellent feedback, and has supervised more than 30 student research projects.

A passionate advocate for promoting healthy behaviours, George works to create practical solutions that support families, schools, and communities.

Professor Rachel Thomson is a Head of the Greenslopes Clinical Unit, Thoracic Physician and clinical researcher working at Greenslopes Private Hospital.

She has an international reputation in the area of Pulmonary Nontuberculous mycobacterial disease. She has published widely in the area and is regularly invited to speak at international and national meetings.https://medical-school.uq.edu.au/research/ntm-research-group

Her current research focuses on immunological and environmental aspects of susceptibility to NTM infection, characteristics of the lung and gut microbiome in NTM, and improving treatment outcomes.

In a clinical capacity, Professor Thomson is able to offer patients expert management of their disease at Pulmedica, Greenslopes Private Hospital, at public clinics at The Prince Charles Hospital and the MetroSouth Clinical TB service of the Princess Alexandra Hospital and via telehealth for patients across Australia. Patients can also access novel treatments through clinical trials in both the private and public sector.

Prof Thomson also has a special interest in respiratory problems of the elite athlete. This includes asthma management, vocal cord dysfunction, and the requirements of national and international doping organisations for asthma medications.

BSc in Biology (1988) Umea University, Sweden

PhD in Molecular Biology (1994), Umea University, Sweden. Supervisor: Thomas Edlund

Postdoc, Molecular Neurobiology (1994-1999) Salk Institute, La Jolla, USA. Mentor: John B. Thomas

Assistant Professor (1999-2004), Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

Professor of Developmental Biology (2004-2019), Linkoping University, Sweden

Professor of Developmental Biology (2019-), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2013-)

Member of ARC Collegeof Experts (2025-2027)

Simone Thornton is a lecturer in philosophy in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry at the University of Wollongong, where she teaches environmental philosophy, global ethics and the meaning of life and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. Her research interests intersect social, political, environmental and educational philosophy with a focus on developing eco-rationality through education. Simone is a founding member of the Australian Philosophy Research Group along with Mary Graham, Gilbert Burgh and Michelle Boulous Walker.

Karen Thorpe is Australian Research Council, Laureate Professor and Group Leader in Child Development, Education and Care at the Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland. Her research is grounded in the understanding that early learning experiences shape brain development and are critical in establishing trajectories of health, social inclusion and learning across the lifespan. A particular focus of her work is early care and education environments including parenting, parent work, quality of care and education, and the early years workforce.

Karen leads a multi-disciplinary team of developmental scientists undertaking large scale longitudinal studies with embedded studies to explicate mechanisms that enable or limit children’s life chances. She was Foundation Psychologist on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children at the University of Bristol, UK; led the evaluation of the Preparing School Trial for Queensland Government; led the Queensland team of the E4Kids study of quality in Australian Early Education and Care and a recent data linkage project with Queensland Government to track participants through their school journey. In partnership with Queensland Government, Goodstart Early Learning and the Creche and Kindergarten Association she led a large population study of the Australian ECEC workforce (ARC Linkage). Her current research, as a chief investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families across the life course, and through an ARC Laureate fellowship, is to examine barriers to providing high quality early learning services in developmentally vulnerable communities.

In 2013 and again in 2019 Karen was named by the Australian Financial Review as among Australia's 100 Women of Influence for the impacts of her research on educational and family policy. In 2020 she was recognised by Australian Government, Advance Global Awards for her international contribution to education. Karen chairs the Australian Early Years Reference Council for Evidence for Learning, Australia whose remit is to build a strong evidence-base in early childhood education and care with focus on translation into policy and practice. She is also director on the board of the Australian Research Council for Children and Youth and advisor to the national board of Beyond Blue – Be You.

Jacob is an Honorary Research Fellow within the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Queensland and is looking to recruit prospective honours and RHD students interested in studying the neurophysiology of human movement. Potential students can send him an email (j.thorstensen@uq.edu.au) to chat about projects on offer, or to suggest an idea for a project.

Jacob’s PhD was in human neurophysiology (Griffith University, Australia), where he studied how endogenously released neuromodulators (e.g., monoamines such as serotonin and dopamine) control the excitability of cortico-motoneuronal pathways and muscle activation in healthy human subjects. Jacob also has postdoctoral training in clinical neuroscience (The University of Queensland, Australia), where he further developed his expertise in neuromodulation by investigating the use of non-invasive neurostimulation techniques (e.g., repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, rTMS) as a clinical intervention after nervous system injury.

Overall, Jacob’s research involves direct electrophysiological data collection from awake human participants, and his work spans across basic and clinical neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, and exercise science. He has a strong background in mechanistic human neurophysiology experiments, and extensive experience with non-invasive brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerve stimulation techniques that quantify or modulate the output of the human nervous system and muscles.