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BSc, MBBS, MPH, PhD, FRACGP, FACD

Dr Lena von Schuckmann is a clinician researcher, with dual medical specialist training in dermatology and general practice. Her research is focused on skin cancer prevention, early detection, and optimising skin cancer treatment. She is passionate about improving the cancer journey for patients.

She works as a consultant dermatologist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Sunshine Coast University Hospital and private clinics in Spring Hill and the Samford Valley.

Dr Thea Voogt is an Associate Professor in the School of Law and the Director of Business Law.

She specialises in income tax law, agriculture tax policy tools, the impact of climate change on the financial fortitude of farming families, corporate governance and business structures.

Thea leverages her significant business experience in senior executive roles and her background as a chartered accountant in industry projects. She holds a Doctorate in Financial Management and Master of International Commercial Law (UQ).

Thea is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an award-winning law teacher. She is the 2017 recipient of the prestigious UQ Business, Economics & Law Faculty Teaching Award and a joint recipient of the 2022 Business, Economics & Law Faculty Award for Excellence in Citizenship (Innovation). She also received the 2017 Inspired Me to Learn Award for Teaching Excellence in an undergraduate compulsory course, and the 2016 Award for Teaching Excellence in an undergraduate compulsory course from the UQ School of Law.

Thea is an academic member of the UQ Law School Pro Bono Centre and a member of the Pro Bono Centre Regional Rural Remote Steering Committee. She is also an independent member of the Management Committees of Rural Financial Counselling Services North Queensland and Farm Business Planning North Queensland.

Prior to joining UQ, Thea was the CEO (Principal Officer) of the superannuation funds of the University of Johannesburg, a Professor in Accounting and managed large tenders for this institution. Over the course of her career in South Africa, she was closely involved with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants as sought-after speaker, researcher and umpire for the national qualifying exams for chartered accountants. Thea also held a Ministerial appointment to the Board of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).

Dr Kai Voss-Fels is a Senior Research Fellow within the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at The University of Queensland focussing on quantitative genetics and plant breeding. Before joining UQ in 2017, Kai has worked as Research Associate at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology and as PhD student and then Postdoc at the Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany, where he completed his PhD in 2016 with highest distinction (summa cum laude, JLU best dissertation award).

Kai is interested in developing and implementing new genomics-assisted breeding approaches to improve yield, quality and resistances in major crops, such as wheat, barley, sugarcane, rapeseed and chickpea. A particular focus of his research involves the integration of quantitative genetics, genomics and computational approaches to develop new crop improvement strategies. He is particularly interested in new genomic prediction approaches, e.g. involving artificial intelligence and computer simulation, that could help to accelerate the rate of genetic gain. This also includes the study of GxE interaction and non-additive genetic effects, which represent a key challenge for crop genetic improvement programs.

Kai has won several prestigious awards, e.g. the Kurt von Rümker Price 2017 and the 2019 Barley Incentive Award by the Australian Barley Technical Symposium committee. He has published his research outcomes in high impact peer-reviewed journals, such as Nature Plants and Trends in Plant Science, and he works closely with leading national and international partners across the public and private sectors.

The Vukovic laboratory investigates how brain function is sculpted and influenced by the immune system. Specifically, we examine the role of brain’s main resident immune cell population (i.e. microglia), as well as various peripheral immune cells, on learning and memory in mice. We are interested in defining the contribution of immune cells to such higher cognitive tasks, including for neuroinflammatory conditions where learning and memory deficits can occur, e.g. following traumatic brain injury, cancer treatment, and ageing. We have established an array of genetic and pharmacological tools alongside robust behavioural assays to directly probe the function of these immune cells in both the healthy and diseased brain. The ultimate goal of our work is to link cellular and molecular events to altered behaviour, and to harness the brain’s intrinsic regenerative potential for stimulating optimal cognitive function.

A neuroimmunologist, Dr Vukovic received her PhD in 2008 from The University of Western Australia after working on the repair of injured nerve cell connections. She joined QBI in 2009 to work in Professor Perry Bartlett’s laboratory as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, before being awarded a Queensland Government Smart Futures Fellowship to continue her research into the importance of adult neurogenesis for behaviour and how microglia influence this process in ageing. Dr Vukovic demonstrated that microglia can exert a dual and opposing influence over adult neurogenesis (the birth of new neurons) in the hippocampus under different physiological conditions, namely exercise and ageing, and that signalling through the chemokine receptor, CX3CR1, critically contributes towards this (Vukovic et al., 2012, J Neurosci). Dr Vukovic also generated novel evidence that ongoing neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus is critical for new learning but does not play a role in memory recall (Vukovic et al., 2013, J Neurosci).

Dr Vukovic was awarded an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (2015-2018) and was jointly appointed as a group leader by the UQ School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS) and QBI in 2015. She heads the Neuroimmunology and Cognition team investigating the interactions between the brain and the immune system in health and disease.

Currently, the group is working on three main projects:

1. Identification of microglia-derived molecules that support neuronal survival and stimulate neural stem/progenitor cell expansion
2. Characterisation of immune cell contribution to changes in neuronal connectivity
3. Immune cell responses to cancer treatment, and their effect on learning and memory

Dr Viana Vuvan is a titled Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist and Lecturer in Physiotherapy at The University of Queensland. Viana has a strong clinical background in musculoskeletal physiotherapy, with experience in managing a wide range of musculoskeletal and sports-related injuries. Viana has a special interest in the management of upper limb musculoskeletal disorders and enjoys sharing her experience with students in the undergraduate and postgraduate physiotherapy programs. Viana is an active member of the Sports Injury Rehabilitation and Prevention for Health (SIRPH) research unit and the Neck and Head Research Unit (NAHRU) at the University of Queensland.

Viana’s research is focused on improving the management of persistent musculoskeletal pain conditions, such as tendinopathies, and better understanding the mechanisms underlying their chronicity. Viana’s PhD research focused on lateral elbow tendinopathy and explored the factors contributing to pain, disability and chronicity within this group. Additionally, Viana has explored similar mechanisms in other tendinopathies, including Achilles, patellar tendinopathy, plantar fasciopathy, as well as in whiplash associated disorders. She has shared her research at numerous state-wide, national and international conferences, and has been awarded for her presentations at several conferences.

Dr. Dhaval Vyas is a Senior Lecturer in the Human-Centred Computing discipline - a former ARC DECRA Fellow (2018-2022) and. He is a part of the Compassion Lab research group. His research spans the areas of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). In particular, he focuses on designing IT tools to support health and wellbeing of under-resourced communities. He has worked in academia and industry for over 15 years. He received a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from University of Twente, the Netherlands; a master’s degree in Computer Science from Lancaster University, UK; and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Gujarat University, India.

Dr Waak is one of the few paediatric specialists internationally with fellowships in paediatrics, neurology and paediatric intensive care/retrieval medicine. She is an academic intensivist, neurologist, clinical trialist, and specialist in EEG monitoring in children and adolescence.

Since arriving in Brisbane in 2012 she has led significant improvements in the care of critically ill children. She has performed audits and guideline developments and research and implemented an EEG pathway and first in Australia paediatric code stroke process.

She is investigating the impact of an interdisciplinary educational program for paediatric neurocritical care and is an inaugural faculty member and author of the national education and training course in neurocritical care (Paediatric Neuro-critical Care: beyond BASIC), the first paediatric course of its kind.

The focus of her research are improvements in management of acute neurological disease and quality improvement in PICU. She is part of the paediatric critical care research group at the centre for children’s health research, which has the highest number of peer-reviewed studies published in the field of paediatric critical care in Australia, and a strong track record with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

She is CI on projects investigating the impact of EEG monitoring and early seizure management on children with acute ischemic stroke, connectivity indices during childhood stroke recovery using HD-EEG, feasibility and impact of quantitative EEG on subclinical seizure recognition and management in children in ICU and the impact of a code stroke on timeliness of recognition, management and outcomes in acute ischemic stroke in children.

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 is an Industry Professor within 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 with the 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 (recent works in Journal of Business Ethics and Nature Climate Change). Belinda has been the lead author on several industry reports including the recent examination of the climate performance of the Australian superannuation sector, the perception of future fuels (hydrogen) by the Australian public and the impact of the energy transition in 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, articles by AFR, Courier Mail and Nine News.

Through her career Belinda has worked extensively within industry, consulting and academia. These positions include within major energy providers Tarong Energy (now Stanwell) and Energex Retail, Australian leading consulting 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 has expert advisor roles for the SBTi (Power Sector) and Australian Standards (GHG 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