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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.

Belinda Wade holds the Chair in Climate Action and Ethical Transitions at 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 work with the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) examining organisational behaviour in response to mandatory climate reporting; the Future Fuels CRC (hydrogen adoption and biomethane); the Queensland Decarbonisation Hub (net zero roadmap 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 with recent articles appearing in the Journal of Business Ethics, California Management Review, and Nature Climate Change. Belinda has authored several industry reports including an examination of the climate performance of the Australian superannuation sector, policy pathways to advance Australia's biomethane sector, public perceptions of future fuels (hydrogen), and the impact of the energy transition on 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 and articles by the AFR, Courier Mail and Nine News.

Throughout her career Belinda has worked extensively across industry, consulting, and academia. These positions include roles within major energy providers Tarong Energy (now Stanwell) and Energex Retail, senior consulting roles within the Australian 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 Net Zero Roadmap theme lead for the Queensland Decarbonisation Hub. Belinda also holds expert advisor roles for the SBTi (Power Sector) and the ISO aligned Australian Standards committee for greenhouse gas measurement and accounting.

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.

Monique Waite is a Lecturer in Speech Pathology in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Immediately prior to this appointment she held a Research Fellowship in the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), an internationally unique consortium of 21 research, clinical and industry organisations investigating impacts, conducting world leading research in hearing healthcare. Her current research involves the use of telehelath in improving access and outcomes of individuals with hearing loss and their families. Monique is a qualified speech pathologist and a pioneer in research in the application of telepractice in paediatric speech pathology- having completed the first PhD in this field in 2010. Her thesis involved the validation of an Internet-based multimedia videoconferencing system for the assessment of the speech, language, and literacy of children aged 4-8 years and a proof of concept of an upgraded telehealth system for the treatment of children with literacy disorder using the Phonological Awareness for Literacy (PAL) Program.

Since being awarded her thesis, Monique has worked in teaching and research positions focusing on innovation in clinical practice and student education in the allied health professions. This includes the Simulated Telemedicine Environment Project for Students (STEPS; Griffith University), a large scale multidisciplinary study funded by the Australian Department of Health, which involved the delivery of novel simulated learning activities to students across the disciplines of dietetics, exercise physiology, nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy and speech pathology.

Scott grew up on a mixed farming property in western Queensland, has an undergraduate degree in Asian studies and a PhD in agricultural economics.

Scott worked for the Economist Intelligence Unit in Beijing, graduated from the Nanjing-Hopkins Centre for Advanced Chinese and American Studies and is fluent in Chinese. In China he has: collaborated with 20 research and government organisations; conducted fieldwork at country level and below for at least 30 months; and provided technical assistance in trade negotiations.

He has written eight books on China, two of which were translated into Chinese, and he has published in leading China studies journals, includingThe China Journal and China Quarterly. His research in recent years was on China's trade barriers on Australian exports, and China's economic growth model and implications for trade relations. Scott has been invited to deliver talks on China for a wide range of Australian government and non-govenment agencies, including training for DFAT's China Literacy program.

For more information see the website of the China Agricultural Economics Group

At UQ Scott has conducted 25 agricultural development projects in China, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. He led multi-country and multi-stakeholder projects funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the Partnership for Australia-Indonesia Research (PAIR) and the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations (NFARCR).

He coordinated the courses AGRC7520 "International Agricultural Development in Asia", AGRC7127 "Agricultural and Resource Policy" and ECON3820 "Understanding China"

In 2024 Scott joined the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, as an economist in the Trade and Gobal Change program

Dr Adam Walker received his BSc(Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Tasmania, and PhD in Neuroscience from the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of motor neuron disease (MND). He undertook a postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Virginia Lee at the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania (2011-2015), developing new transgenic TDP-43 mouse models of disease. Dr Walker was previously an NHMRC CJ Martin Overseas Biomedical Research Fellow and was awarded an NHMRC RD Wright Career Development Fellowship (2018-2022), to continue his research on neurodegenerative diseases. His research has been supported by fellowships and project grants from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian National Foundation for Medical Research and Innovation, Dementia Australia, Motor Neuron Disease Research Institute of Australia, MonSTaR Foundation and the Cure for MND Foundation.

My research interests are centred around the structure and function of venom and silk polypeptides produced by arthropods, and their use in biotechnology and medicine. I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in the King laboratory in the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, the University of Queensland, Australia. Currently, I am investigating the composition, function and evolution of neglected insect venoms produced by assassin bugs (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) and nettle caterpillars (Lepidoptera: Limacodidae).

Associate Professor Tara Walker is a Senior Research Associate at the Queensland Brain Institute. Associate Professor Walker's group is investigating the mechanisms governing the lifelong production of neurons in the adult brain (adult neurogenesis). Tara studied Biotechnology as an undergraduate at the Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Australia), before carrying out her PhD in the field of Plant Biotechnology. In 2003 she made the transition to neuroscience, joining the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) and the group of Professor Perry Bartlett. Here she became interested in the field of adult hippocampal neurogenesis, particularly in its activity-dependent regulation. In 2010, she joined the group of Professor Gerd Kempermann at the Center for Regenerative Therapies in Dresden, Germany, where she was awarded a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship in 2011. In July 2018 she returned to QBI to lead a research group investigating how lifestyle interventions such as exercise and diet affect brain health in ageing and neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr Jacqueline Walker joined the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences in November 2015 and is working as a Senior Lecturer. She completed her doctoral degree in paediatric nutrition at The University of Queensland in March 2013, focusing on energy balance and body composition in children with cerebral palsy. Prior to this, she completed her undergraduate studies in exercise science and nutrition and dietetics at The University of Sydney. Jacqueline has worked as a dietitian for a number of years in acute hospital settings, community clinical settings and private practice, specialising in paediatric dietetics.

Associate Professor Chris Wall is the Director of Orthopaedics at Toowoomba Hospital. He is the Orthopaedic Co-Chair for the Australian and New Zealand Hip Fracture Registry (ANZHFR) and an Assistant Deputy Registry Clinical Director for the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry (AOANJRR). Associate Professor Wall's research interests include hip and knee replacement and orthopaedic trauma care.

I am a research leader who believes the best science is built with the people it is designed to serve. As a two-time NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow and Certified Practising Speech Pathologist, I lead a transdisciplinary team of more than 20 researchers at the University of Queensland. We work in partnership with consumers, clinicians, communities, government, and industry to co-produce interventions, technologies, systems, and standards that drive real change and serve the public good.

My research themes include: (a) Design and implementation of a national audit system to drive quality improvement in post-stroke aphasia services; (b) Development and implementation of methodological standards to improve aphasia research quality and reduce research wastage; (c) Development of technology-enhanced interventions to support self-management, promote equitable access to information and services, and empower people with communication support needs; (d) Development of fit-for-purpose training and resources for aged care workers to help older Australians have better conversations about aged care.

I lead the Living Experience (Lex) Lab, the Qualitative Collective, and the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Communication Research and Engagement Theme (CommRET). I am a UQ Research Integrity Advisor.

Dr Michael Waller: is a biostatistician working on the Australian Longitudinal Study of Womens Health (ALSWH). He has previous experience working on cancer screening, and military health studies. His current research focus is using linked data sources to assess dementia rates and risk factors.

Ann is a Senior Lecturer within the Marketing Discipline in the UQ Business School. Previously a Senior Project Manager at a global market research firm, Ann has worked with clients in a range of industries, including Financial Services, Automotive and Aged Care.

Ann writes on a variety of topics: consumer decision making; brand signalling and portfolio strategy; and marketing education. Her interdisciplinary research has been published in leading journals such as Decision and Journal of Travel Research, and presented globally at ISMS Marketing Science and International Choice Modelling conferences.

Ann is a passionate educator in the area of research methods and statistics. She motivates students by placing their learning in context, as well as drawing links between what they learn as business students and what they will do as business graduates. As an education-focused academic, Ann has expertise in curriculum development, student learning outcomes, pedagogy, and engaging with students as partners in learning.