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Dr Emma Thomas is a Senior Research Fellow and NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow in the Centre for Community Health and Wellbeing at The University of Queensland. Her research focuses on helping people with cardiovascular disease and other chronic health conditions live well over the long term.

Emma has particular expertise in the design, implementation, and evaluation of complex health interventions, including community-based cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation, and uses telehealth and other innovative models of care to support care access and equity.

A central theme of her work is understanding how effective interventions can be translated from research into real-world practice at scale. Drawing on implementation science, health services research, and systems approaches, she examines how interventions can be delivered with quality, sustainability, and equity across diverse populations and settings.

The Centre for Community Health and Wellbeing is uniquely embedded within the city of Springfield, Australia's largest master-planned community. Through a place-based “Living Lab” approach, the team works with healthcare providers, community organisations, consumers, government, and industry partners to co-design, test, and scale innovative solutions to complex health challenges.

Emma's vision is to create healthier and more connected communities by developing evidence-based models that harness the strengths of people, places, and local systems to improve health outcomes and reduce inequities in care.

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.

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 an internationally recognised environmental health scientist whose research over three decades has focused on a fundamental challenge: how can we identify, measure and understand the environmental exposures that matter for human and ecosystem health?

His research has pioneered new approaches to measuring environmental exposure, from environmental contaminants and complex mixtures to wastewater-based epidemiology, plastics and human health. He pioneered wastewater-based epidemiology as a population-level approach to monitoring community health and behaviour, and has advanced the measurement of micro- and nanoplastics, plastic-associated chemicals, PFAS and other contaminants of emerging concern.

A central focus of his research is making previously invisible exposures measurable. He combines high-resolution mass spectrometry, non-target analysis and advanced approaches to chemical and polymer characterisation to identify and quantify known and previously unrecognised exposures across environmental, population and human matrices.

His current research focuses on the human chemical and particulate exposome—integrating measurements of chemicals, plastics and other environmental stressors with exposure and health data to understand how complex mixtures of environmental exposures affect human health.

Professor Thomas is Director of the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) at The University of Queensland and Director of the Minderoo Centre for Plastics and Human Health. He is also Deputy Director and Queensland Node Leader of the ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Hyphenated Analytical Separation Technologies (HyTech), and is affiliated with the ARC Training Centre for Bioplastics and Biocomposites and the Centre for Marine Science.

His research programme spans four interconnected areas:

Plastics and human health. Developing analytical approaches to identify and quantify micro- and nanoplastics and associated chemicals in environmental and human matrices, and to understand human exposure and potential health effects.

Emerging contaminants and exposomics. Developing high-resolution mass spectrometric and non-target approaches to identify known and previously unknown chemical exposures, including PFAS and other persistent and mobile contaminants.

Wastewater-based epidemiology. Using wastewater as a population-level biological sample to monitor community health, drug and tobacco use, emerging chemical threats and other indicators of population behaviour and health.

Antimicrobial resistance and environmental health. Identifying chemical and biological drivers of antimicrobial resistance in environmental mixtures, and developing approaches to understand their sources, exposure pathways and risks.

Professor Thomas has authored more than 400 pper-reviewed publications and has supervised researchers across environmental chemistry, analytical science, wastewater epidemiology, plastics and human exposure. His research brings together analytical science, environmental health and population-level measurement, with extensive collaboration across government, industry and international research organisations.

Across his research, a consistent focus has been making previously invisible environmental exposures measurable. This has taken his work from known contaminants to complex mixtures, population-level measurements and, increasingly, the chemical and particulate exposome of humans.

Senior Lecturer Sarah Thomasson is a theatre and performance studies scholar and ARC DECRA fellow specialising in festival studies and digital humanities. Her research in festival studies integrates interdisciplinary research methods to develop new directions for the field. Her first monograph The Festival Cities of Edinburgh and Adelaide (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), brought cultural geography and theatre studies to bear on a comparative study of the relationship between these cities and their flagship festivals. An earlier 2019 article on the Adelaide Fringe for Contemporary Theatre Review won the Marlis Thiersch Prize for Research Excellence from the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (ADSA) in 2020.

Sarah also led, with Dr James Wenley (Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington) a major research project to harmonise the live performing arts databases of AusStage and Theatre Aotearoa. “Building Global Relationships for Live Performing Arts Databases” (Nov 2021–Jan 2025) was funded by a Royal Society of New Zealand Catalyst seeding grant and led to the development of a transnational live performing arts database and the Performing Data in Australasia seminar series with Wenley and Professor Jonathan Bollen (National Taiwan Normal University). This work to showcase how artists use data in creating performance and how performance data is visualised within research has been further developed into Performing Data: Theatre Practice and Research (Bloomsbury, forthcoming) co-written with Wenley, Bollen, and Dr Mara Davis Johnson (University of Wollongong).

Sarah’s current research project, funded by the Australian Research Council, explores the network of international arts festivals in Aotearoa and Australia and how they work collaboratively and/or competitively to support the flow of cultural production around the region and beyond. She also has research interests in contemporary feminist performance practices and performance economies and her creative practice is stage and production management. In June 2026, she produced Don’t Look Now by Angie Farrow and directed by David O’Donnell at BATS Theatre in Te Whanganui-a-tara Wellington.

She is co-chair, with Professor Chris Hay, of the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama, and Performance Studies (ADSA) and an editor for Contemporary Theatre Review.

Dr Kate Thompson is a Gooreng Gooreng and Yuggera woman and a Lecturer in Health and Social Work in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work (NMSW) at the University of Queensland. Her work focuses on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child, youth, and family wellbeing, with expertise in cultural identity, connection, and culturally safe practice across child protection, health, and social service systems.

Kate’s research is grounded in Indigenous knowledges, qualitative methodologies, and co-design. Her PhD (conferred April 2025) examined cultural identity and connection for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out‑of‑home care (OOHC), generating evidence to strengthen the implementation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle. She is currently a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Linkage Project exploring young people’s experiences of self‑placing in OOHC.

Before entering academia, Kate worked in an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community‑controlled organisation as a Foster and Kinship Care Practitioner and later as a Senior Practitioner, providing practice leadership and specialist guidance across OOHC services to support culturally safe, evidence‑informed, and legislatively aligned practice.

Kate co‑coordinates Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, families, and communities, taught to nursing, midwifery, and social work undergraduate and graduate‑entry students. She also coordinates Human Development and Social Work, taught to undergraduate social work and psychology students. Her teaching and leadership focus on embedding cultural safety and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being, and doing across nursing, midwifery, and social work curricula.

Kate actively contributes to curriculum transformation, governance, and community engagement through service roles including:

• Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Behavioural Sciences Indigenising Curriculum Advisory Committee (member)
• School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work Indigenising Curriculum Working Party (co‑chair)
• UQ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Alumni Reference Group
• Australian Association for Adolescent Health (Board Director, 2020–2024), contributing to national conferences, youth‑focused forums, and professional webinars

She has also led the School of NMSW’s engagement with community through organising and facilitating stalls at the Murri School Health Expo for the past two years.

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.

Professor Kris Thurecht is the Institute Director of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at The University of Queensland, where he leads more than 500 researchers and professional staff.

His research is multidisciplinary, working across the boundaries of chemistry and materials, biology, engineering and imaging science, where his team investigates the intricate interplay between structure and function of nanomaterials and how this affects their subsequent interaction with biological entities.

He has a particular focus on utilising advanced molecular imaging as a real time measure of how nanomaterials behave and influence biological systems, using complex multicellular in vitro systems and also in living animals.​ Recently, this has expanded into developing and understanding targeted radiopharmaceuticals for both imaging and therapy, and in this area Professor Thurecht also acts as the Director of the ARC Research Hub for Advanced Manufacture of Targeted Radiopharmaceuticals. By bringing together partners across industry and academia, he has led the development of a targeted alpha therapy research facility at The University of Queensland to explore this emerging class of highly potent radiotherapeutic.

As AIBN’s Institute Director, Professor Thurecht plays a central role in shaping the Institute’s strategic direction, nurturing a culture of innovation, building lasting career frameworks for early and mid-career researchers and supporting researchers to translate science into real-world impacts.

AIBN has a foundation built upon strong industry and government partnerships. Professor Thurecht has helped forge this strategy, with a focus on building collaborations that shape international science agendas, contribute to innovation in science and technology policies and drive industry investment in research and innovation. He has supported international initiatives that bring higher degree research students to UQ as part of multi-institutional programs, building upon the strategic focus of AIBN in national priority areas of health, energy and the bioeconomy.

Using AIBN as a key institutional vehicle for delivering The University of Queensland’s research and innovation objectives, Professor Thurecht has championed the establishment and expansion of strong platform technologies that underpin the innovation landscape at AIBN; accelerating translation, enabling interdisciplinary collaboration and scaling impact for the public good.

In addition to his role at AIBN, Professor Thurecht is an Associate Editor for the American Chemical Society journal, Molecular Pharmaceutics, and is a member of the ARC College of Experts.

Moe Thuzar (MBBS, FRCP UK, FRACP, PhD) is a Senior Endocrinologist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH), the Director of Translational Engagement at the Translational Research Institute (TRI), and a Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane. She is the clinical & research Lead in Adrenal Endocrinology in the Endocrinology Department at the PAH, and has a strong research interest in the Neuroendocrine Regulation of Metabolism and Cardiovascular Health in Humans, particularly the Adrenal Endocrine System and Primary Aldosteronsim.

After completing her specialist training and receiving FRACP (Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians) in early 2014, she undertook her PhD study (2014-2018, UQ) investigating the role of adrenal neuroendocrine system in the regulation of human brown adipose tissue and energy metabolism under the primary supervision of Professor Ken Ho. Moe then joined the Endocrine Hypertension Unit of Professor Michael Stowasser, pursuing further research in Cardiovascular Endocrinology, in particular, elucidating the role of the mineralocorticoid system in the regulation of cardiometabolic health and its interplay with other systems in humans, and investigating optimal diagnostic and management strategies for primary aldosteronism. She joined the Executive Leadership Team of the TRI as the Director of Translational Engagement in 2026, providing strategic leadship for programs fostering partnerships between scientists, clinicians, industry and consumers, and an innovative ecosystem accelerating discoveries into clinical solutions.

Her research has informed a number of National and International Clinical Practice Guidelines including the US Endocrine Society's Guidelines for Diagnosis and Management of Primary Aldosteronism (2025), Lipid Management in Patients with Endocrine Disorders (2020), the Chinese Society of Cardiology/Chinese Medical Association's Joint Guideline for Management of Hypertension (2024), Australian & New Zealand Guideline for Adrenal Venous Sampling in Primary Aldosteronism (2025), the Endocrine Society of Australia/Australian Association of Clinical Biochemist/Royal Australasian College of Pathologists' Joint Guideline for Endocrine Dynamic Testing (2021), QLD Statewide Protocol for Management of Diabetes Ketoacidosis (2014).

She has received numerous awards for her work including US Endocrine Society’s Presidential Awards for Excellence in Cardiovascular Endocrinology Research (2017) and in Adipocyte Biology Research (2017), Early Career Researcher Award from the Australian & New Zealand Obesity Society (2016), Australasian Women in Endocrinology Young Investigator Award (2017), Queensland Health & Medical Research Award (Previously “Premier’s award”, finalist, 2017), Young Investigator Award, International Aldosterone Conference (runner-up, 2019), Endocrine Society of Australia's Paul Lee Award (2023). She is a Principal Investigator (PI) or Chief Investigator (CI) of a number of successful competitive grants, totalling ~4 millions to date, which include Royal Australasian College of Physicians-Australian Diabetes Society Research Establishment Fellowship (2023), MRFF Clinician Researchers Project Grant (CI, 2022-2025), Metro South Research Support Scheme Program Grant (PI, 2021-2023), Diabetes Australia Project Grant (PI, 2019-2021), Metro South Research Support Scheme Early Career Researcher Grant (PI, 2019-2022), Endocrine Society of Australia Postdoctoral Fellowship (2019). She has served as an expert reviewer for Grant review panels including UK Research & Innovation Grants Scheme, NHMRC Project Grants Scheme and for top journals in the field, and held editorial roles for a number of journals including the Frontiers in Endocrinology, Metabolites.