Find an expert

Professor Jonathan C. Aitchison School of the Environment, University of Queensland

Jonathan Aitchison is a Professor in the School of the Environment (SENV) at the University of Queensland (UQ), where he leads research at the intersection of plate tectonics, paleontology, and sedimentary geology. Originally from New Zealand, he grew up on an active plate boundary, an environment that inspired his lifelong fascination with the processes that shape Earth’s dynamic crust.

Professor Aitchison earned his BSc (Hons) and MSc in geology from the University of Otago, including early fieldwork in Antarctica, before moving to Japan as a Monbusho Scholar at Niigata University. He later completed his PhD at the University of New England (Australia), where he reconstructed the tectonic evolution of the New England Orogen using radiolarian microfossils to date marine successions and constrain major tectonic events. This expertise led to his role as a micropaleontologist on Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 126, investigating intra-oceanic island arc development in the Izu–Bonin–Mariana system.

After completing a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) postdoctoral fellowship at Kochi University, Aitchison joined the University of Sydney in the early 1990s, before moving to the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 1995. At HKU, he established and led the Tibet Research Group, pioneering studies of the India–Asia collision system—research he has pursued for more than three decades. He served as Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at HKU from 2003 to 2009.

In 2011, Aitchison returned to Australia as the Edgeworth David Chair of Geology and Head of the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. In 2015 he shifted to Brisbane to take up Headship of the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management at UQ. He oversaw the merger that created the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, leading this school from 2017 to 2021.

His research continues to span multiple frontiers in Earth Science. He maintains active programs in micropaleontology and tectonics, including the evolution of Early Paleozoic radiolarians and the application of synchrotron microCT imaging to microfossils. His long-standing work on the India–Asia collision integrates field studies in northwestern and northeastern India with broader models of Himalayan–Tibetan orogenesis. He also investigates the Paleozoic tectonics of eastern Gondwana.

Recent projects highlight the breadth of his interests: a groundbreaking study of organic carbon recycling that uncovered “bio-diamonds” in ophiolites of the southwest Pacific, and a collaboration with colleagues at the University of Tokyo examining accreted cherts as potential reservoirs of rare earth elements.

Professor Aitchison’s career reflects a commitment to integrating paleontological detail with large-scale tectonic processes, offering new insights into both Earth’s past and its critical resources for the future.

Lee Aitken is an Associate Professor at the TC Beirne Faculty of Law, The University of Queensland and studied at ANU, Oxford and Columbia. He has previously taught at law schools in Canada, Hong Kong, and Australia as well as practising extensively as a solicitor and barrister. While at the Sydney Bar from 1994 to 2005 he specialized in property, banking, insolvency, and general commercial disputes. He appeared in several leading cases in the High Court of Australia including Reid v Howard (1995) 184 CLR, Garcia v National Australia Bank (1998) 194 CLR 395, Tanwar Enterprises Pty Ltd v Cauchi (2003) 217 CLR 315, and Palgo Holdings Pty Ltd v Gowans (2005) 221 CLR 249.

Professor Elizabeth Aitken (Liz) obtained her BSc Hons in Agricultural Science (Crop Science) from Edinburgh University where she specialised in Plant Pathology. She then went on to undertake her PhD studies at Aberdeen University in conjunction with the UK Forestry Commission on a study of dieback on Scots pine trees. This was followed with postdoctoral studies at Birmingham University and the Sainsbury Lab, aiming to identify a rust resistance gene by transposon tagging. In 1993 she moved to Australia and joined UQ as an academic staff member.

Much of Liz’s research at UQ has focused on diseases of tropical crops in particular banana, ginger, cotton and sunflower. Research topics have included the genetics of plant-pathogen interactions, molecular aspects of pathogenicity and disease diagnostics. This research has been undertaken with strong collaborations with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and with CSIRO. Research topics have included the genetics of plant-pathogen interactions, molecular aspects of pathogenicity and disease diagnostics. This work has assisted in the identification of disease incursions in particular in banana and of cryptic plant pathogen species of Pythium in ginger and Phomopsis in sunflower. One current research focus includes identification of resistance to Fusarium wilt in diploid banana lines for potential deployment against TR4 in commercial banana cultivars; this has received funding from BMGF in collaboration with the International Institute of Topical Agriculture in Africa as well as from Hort Innovation Australia. Other studies include analysis of putative pathogenicity genes including Six genes in Fusarium oxysporum affecting banana, strawberry and ginger and in collaboration with colleagues at CSIRO studies on Fusarium spp on wheat particularly with regard to influence of environmental factors related to climate change.

Since commencing at UQ in 1993, Liz has supervised numerous postgraduate and honours students and participated in undergraduate teaching at all levels in plant science and in particular in plant pathology and fungal biology. She has also taken on various roles and committee membership in postgraduate student mentoring, research integrity and biosafety.

Dr Natsuko Akagawa is academically trained across the humanities, social sciences, education, and management, holding a PhD and a Master’s in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, a Master of Business Administration, a Graduate Diploma of Education, a Diploma of Portuguese Language and Culture (Universidade de Lisboa), and a Bachelor of Arts.

Dr Akagawa is an internationally recognised scholar in heritage, museum, and Asian studies, whose work has been pioneering in the establishment of intangible (living) cultural heritage as a field of international scholarship and in analytically linking heritage and cultural diplomacy. Her research examines how heritage is contested, negotiated, and mobilised across local, national, and global contexts, particularly within colonial, post‑colonial, and transnational settings. Her scholarship is grounded in a comparative East–West perspective, informed by sustained engagement with Asian, European, and global heritage contexts.

She has published extensively with leading international presses and journals and is widely cited for her foundational contributions to intangible cultural heritage, including influential work on authenticity, embodiment, cultural diplomacy and the politics of heritage practice and governance. Her research bridges theory and practice and has shaped heritage policy, museum practice, and international heritage discourse, particularly in relation to Japan and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam), while contributing more broadly to global heritage debates.

In addition to her academic career, Dr Akagawa is deeply engaged with heritage practice. She is an accomplished practitioner of Japanese intangible cultural traditions, including tea ceremony, flower arrangement, traditional martial arts (aikijujutsu), traditional textile dyeing and ceramics, as well as Western classical singing. This practice‑based experience provides an embodied perspective that informs her scholarship on living heritage, authenticity, and the transmission of cultural knowledge.

Research Interests: Intangible (living) heritage | Religion, beliefs, ritual, and heritage | Culinary heritage | Difficult and contested heritage: trauma, emotion, and affect | Borders, space, and migration: transnational communities, memory, displacement, violence | Cultural diplomacy and heritage | Interpretation and representation of heritage through film, text, and narrative | Museums, affect, interpretation, sensory, visual experience and health | Heritage, emotion, and cultural tourism | Digital heritage | Colonial, postcolonial, and decolonial heritage: politics, power, and communities | Historic urban and cultural landscapes: identity, memory, and place | Heritage policy and practice in Japan, Asia and Europe.

She is a member of The University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Panel for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Research

Dr Akagawa’s scholarship on intangible heritage spans foundational, theoretical, and applied dimensions of the field. She is co‑editor of Intangible Heritage (Routledge, 2009), a pioneering volume internationally recognised as one of the earliest and most influential comprehensive works on the subject and widely used as prescribed reading globally.

She is also the author of Heritage Conservation in Japan’s Cultural Diplomacy: Heritage, National Identity and National Interest (Routledge, 2014/2015), a seminal work that established a pioneering analytical nexus between heritage conservation, cultural diplomacy, and national identity. The book includes a critical examination of how Japan’s diplomatic deployment of heritage influenced global heritage policy and practice and has become a key reference across heritage studies, Asian studies, and international relations.

This body of work is further extended through her co‑edited volume Safeguarding Intangible Heritage (Routledge, 2019), which critically examines the politics and practices of safeguarding living heritage. Across this scholarship, she has traced the development of intangible heritage as both a conceptual framework and a field of practice, with particular attention to the influence of Japanese heritage practice in recognising the importance of embodied skill and practice in relation to material or tangible heritage. More broadly, her research examines how heritage assembles histories, memories, and identities, and how it is articulated through policy, practice, and cultural imaginaries at local, national, and global levels.

Dr Akagawa was an Associate Investigator in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, where her work contributed a comparative perspective that extended engagement with emotional histories beyond Europe. Her research in this area examines how emotions mediated cultural encounters between East and West at both personal and political levels in the early modern period, and how these encounters shaped perceptions and performances of heritage through both tangible and intangible elements such as meanings, memories, and identity.

She has held prestigious international research fellowships that reflect the global scope of her scholarship. She was a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden University (Netherlands), supported through a competitive EU‑funded fellowship, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the East‑West Centre and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (United States), supported through United States Federal Government funding. These appointments supported internationally collaborative research and contributed to sustained scholarly networks across Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and North America.

International Standing and Global Influence

Dr Akagawa provides international scholarly leadership through senior editorial and publishing roles in high‑impact international scholarship. She is Series Editor for Routledge Research on Museums and Heritage in Asia and serves on the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Heritage Studies (a leading, peer‑reviewed international journal in heritage studies) and the Journal of the History of Museums (the only international, peer‑reviewed journal devoted exclusively to the history of museums). Through these roles, she contributes to the development of international research agendas, scholarly standards, and sustained global dialogue in heritage and museum studies.

Her standing in the field is further reflected in her extensive peer‑review service for leading international journals, including the International Journal of Heritage Studies, International Journal of Cultural Property, Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, Journal of Cultural Geography, SOJOURN (Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia), Japanese Studies, Asia Pacific Journal of Arts and Cultural Management, Nordic Journal of Human Rights, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Journal of the Institute of Conservation, Museum Management and Curatorship, and Political Psychology, among others. She is also a Designated Book Reviewer for Anthropos, an international anthropology journal founded in 1903 in Germany.

Dr Akagawa’s international standing is reinforced by her professional appointments and engagement with global heritage governance. She is an Expert Member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and a Member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), and previously served as Vice President of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage and Vernacular Architecture. Through these roles, she contributes to international heritage policy development, expert consultation, and professional practice.

She is also a member of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies, an Eminent Member of Digital Communication for the Past Wrongs and Future Choices Project, and a member of Nikkei Australia.

She is regularly invited to deliver keynote, opening, and plenary addresses at major international conferences, museums, and professional forums, reflecting her role in shaping contemporary discussion in heritage research and practice and in connecting scholarship with community, policy, and professional contexts.

Selected Keynote

• Invited Keynote Speaker, Intangible Cultural Heritage and its Impact on Contemporary Heritage Practice, NSW History Symposium, Museums of History NSW, Sydney, Australia.
• Invited Keynote Speaker, Decay without Mourning: Future Thinking Heritage Practices, Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation, Stellenbosch University, South Africa (collaboration with Riksbankens Jubileumsfond; hosted by KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, Stockholm; partners include the Africa Open Institute, Stellenbosch University, and the University of São Paulo).
• Invited Speaker, Value and Contemporary Problems in Conservation and Reuse, Conservation and Reuse, School of Architecture, Architectural Association, London, UK.
• Invited Keynote Speaker, In Tangible? Living Heritage and Museums, Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Berlin, Germany.
• Invited Keynote Speaker, International Conference on Conservation of Architectural Heritage, online
• Invited Keynote Speaker, Heritage Symposium: Expanding Heritage – The Future of Our Past, National Trust of Australia (Queensland), Brisbane, Australia.
• Invited Speaker, BrisAsia Symposium – Belonging, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane City Council, Brisbane, Australia, Cultural Diplomacy in the 21st Century: Cultivating the Seeds of Belonging.
• Invited Distinguished Guest Public Lecture, International Studies Distinguished Guest Forum, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan.
• Invited Distinguished Guest Public Lecture and Masterclass, Intangible Heritage: Beyond Convention, Taiwan National University of the Arts, Taiwan.
• Invited Keynote Speaker, European Cultural Forum, European Network of National Cultural Institutes (EUNIC) and Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa), Milan, Italy, Intangible Cultural Heritage at the Crossroads: Vanishing Existence or Protective Measures in Good Time?
• Invited Public Lecture, Language and Identity.Waseda University, Japan.
• Invited Lecture, Heritage and Embodiment: Japan’s Influence on Global Heritage Discourse.Department of Japanese Literature, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar, Indonesia.
• Invited Lecture, Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage, The University of Melbourne, Australia, Japan, World Heritage, National Interest and Cultural Diplomacy.
• Invited Seminar and Workshop, Urban Heritage and Indonesian Heritage Systems.Faculty of Urban and Environmental Studies, Soegijapranata Catholic University, Semarang, Indonesia.
• Invited Keynote Speaker, Protecting the Weak: Entangled Processes of Framing, Mobilization and Institutionalisation in East Asia, Goethe‑Universität Frankfurt am Main (with the Institute for Social Research), Frankfurt, Germany, Local, National and International Factors in the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Japan.

Research Translation, Public Engagement, and Societal Contribution

Dr Akagawa’s work contributes to international academic debate while also engaging wider public and professional audiences. She regularly communicates research‑based knowledge through media, cultural institutions, and public forums, supporting a broader understanding of heritage, culture, and living traditions. Through interviews, documentaries, invited public lectures, and collaboration with cultural organisations, she translates complex research into accessible and informed discussion, extending the reach of her scholarship beyond academia.

Selected Media and Public Engagement

• Australian Financial Review: interview and expert commentary: News "The big sting: how a mythical bee halted a gold mine", 13 December 2024
• Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC News: national television interview,"Japan is serious about its unique Christmas traditions", 25 December 2024
• ABC Radio National (Soul Search): Interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio National, Soul Search, "Exploring religion in Japan", aired online 2024.
• Queensland Department of Education: Invited to deliver three seminars on Japanese History, Japanese Education, and the Japanese tea ceremony. 2024
• Contact, Culinary heritage: Cookbook from 1747, Interviewd and featured in “We tried a 275-year-old dumpling recipe!” The University of Queensland.
• Building Icons 4-part documentary series: ternational broadcast (Channel 9 / global distribution): Interviewed and featured in international documentary program: Episode on Castles, palaces and parliaments and temples, churches and sacred sites: From the producer: “You shared some truly wonderful moments that were invaluable to the stories, and I'd like to thank you personally for persevering on the shoot day. Your insights and contributions have been pivotal in shaping the narrative and ensuring that the series stays true to its vision." The documentary inspires and ignites appreciation for the cultural, historical, and architectural significance of iconic structures. It celebrates innovation and explores the genius behind landmarks that define their era, culture, or nation, revealing the remarkable stories that shaped them.
• The New York Times: interviewed and expert commentary on heritage: El Dorado Carousel, Interviewed by The New York Times, 2020. (NY Times)
• HASS COVID 19 Forum: What can the humanities tell us about COVID-19?,‘Heritage and Pandemics: Impact on Living Heritage’, The University of Queensland.

Education and Community Leadership

Dr Akagawa contributes to education and community leadership through engagement with scholarly associations and education governance. She is a Founding Member and Queensland Representative of the Australian Network for Japanese as a Community Language, supporting national coordination and advocacy for Japanese language education and community‑based language maintenance.

She also served as a Senior External Assessment Panel Member for the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, contributing to state‑level assessment, curriculum evaluation, and standards setting.

I am a Pacific Fijian academic, researcher and community leader providing senior leadership in community‑engaged research and teaching across Australian and international higher education. My work sits at the intersection of Indigenous knowledge systems, health equity and public policy, driving system‑level change through culturally grounded scholarship.

I lead and shape programs that embed Indigenous methodologies, community participatory action research and social justice principles into policy‑relevant research, professional education and practice. Through long‑term, co‑designed partnerships, I advance culturally safe solutions that address the social, cultural, environmental and political determinants of health affecting Māori and Pasifika, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) and First Nations communities nationally and internationally.

My strength‑based research program focuses on health equity and the burden of chronic conditions, with a strong emphasis on research translation, policy development and advocacy impact. My work informs health systems, service design and decision‑making at local, national and international levels, contributing to improved and more equitable health outcomes—particularly for First Nations including Māori and Pasifika and CALD communities in Australia and globally.

Dr Md. Ali Akber is a researcher in agribusiness, rural development and economics whose work focuses on making agrifood systems more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive in the face of climate change, market transformation, and environmental pressure. As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Queensland, he has built an interdisciplinary research profile spanning sustainable agriculture, food systems transformation, and spatial analysis, with a particular focus on smallholder production systems and value chain development in the Asia-Pacific region. His work covers climate-smart agriculture, sustainable rice and aquaculture systems, peri-urban food systems, and land-use change, with strong regional engagement across Australia and South and Southeast Asia. He has also contributed to the design and delivery of international capacity-building and professional development programs that support leadership, value chain development, and inclusive agrifood systems transformation.

Dr Saeed Akhlaghpour is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at UQ Business School. Prior to joining the University of Queensland in 2015, he held academic positions at Middlesex University London, UK, and McGill University, Canada, where he also obtained his PhD in Management.

Saeed’s research has been published in leading academic outlets, including the American Journal of Sociology, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Information & Management, Information and Organization, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, International Journal of Medical Informatics, International Journal of Information Management, Journal of Business Research, and the Best Paper Proceedings of the Academy of Management. His articles have been cited in EU policy documents and featured in media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, BBC World News, ABC News, and The Australian. He has received several research and impact awards from the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada and the Australasian chapter of the Association for Information Systems (AIS).

His research interests include:

• Effective and responsible implementation and governance of AI

• Data protection, privacy, and cybersecurity, particularly organisational responses to data breaches and the management of personal health information (PHI)

• Digital health and the transformation of healthcare services

Saeed is Co-Lead of the Future of Health research theme at the Centre for Business and Economics of Health (CBEH). He has been a Chief Investigator in an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded Linkage Project studying Digital Hospital implementation in Queensland hospitals and health services. He received the UQ Business School Cross-Disciplinary Research Award.

He is Senior Editor of Information and Organization, Past Section Editor of the Australasian Journal of Information Systems, Associate Editor of the Asia Pacific Journal of Information Systems (APJIS), and an Editorial Board member of the International Journal of Medical Informatics. He is Chair-Elect of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (SIG ADIT), and co-chairs tracks at international conferences, including the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), and Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS).

Saeed is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He teaches Information Systems, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and digital strategy and governance in the Master of Business Analytics, Master of Commerce, MBA, and Executive Education programs. He has previously taught MBA and undergraduate business courses in Brisbane, London, Montreal, and Tehran.

My research team in crop protection is studying the biology, epidemiology and ecology of economically significant diseases and insect pests. The overarching objective of the research is to facilitate innovative and sustainable management of crop pests (insects and diseases) using disruptive new tools that can be incorporated with the less harmful existing control options in diverse farming systems.

Lisa Akison is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS) at the University of Queensland. She has conducted research using rodent models for over 30 years and has been a reproductive biologist since 2005. She completed her PhD (2013) and early Post-doctoral training at the Robinson Institute, University of Adelaide, where she examined the molecular regulation of ovulation and oviductal function. Following her move to UQ in 2015, her research focussed on the developmental origins of health and disease, where she examined developmental programming of various organs and physiological processes. In particular, she has examined the impact of prenatal alcohol exposure, examining impacts on the embryo, fetus and adult offspring. She is also interested in the role that the placenta plays in mediating these effects.

Lisa received training in systematic review and meta-analysis methodology in 2016 and has since published systematic reviews on diverse topics in child and infant health. She now teaches critical appraisal of clinical studies and systematic review methodology to 3rd year biomedical science students, as well as endocrinology, physiology and histology. She has research interests in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and is a current member of the Biomedical Education Research Group at SBMS.

Dr Saleha Akter is a food and nutrition scientist with expertise in food chemistry, nutritional biochemistry, and functional foods. She has been working with plant-based foods and Australian native crops for more than fifteen years, specialising in understanding how food composition, quality, and safety influence nutrition and human health.

With a background in analytical chemistry and cell-based assays, her expertise lies in assessing the nutrient and bioactive content of foods, evaluating post-harvest and supply chain impacts on food quality, and modelling bioavailability and safety using in vitro digestion and mammalian cell culture systems.

Akter has a strong interest in exploring the health-promoting properties of bioactive compounds, particularly in underutilised and native plant species, and in translating these findings into functional food applications. She also works at the interface of food science and policy, ensuring that research outcomes support innovation, regulation, and public health.

Dr Mobashwer Alam is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Horticultural Science, a theme leader of Predictive Agriculture for Improved Productivity and Value, an Advance Queensland Industry Fellow, and the team leader of the National Passionfruit Breeding and Evaluation Program (PF22000) at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, UQ. He is currently based at Maroochy Research Station, Nambour, QLD 4560, Sunshine Coast. He has more than twenty years of research and teaching experience in the public and private industries and in universities in Australia and Bangladesh. Dr Alam has experience in multi-disciplinary research, including plant breeding, quantitative genetics, genomics, plant physiology, and crop modelling. Before joining at QAAFI, Dr Alam had been working as a Senior Plant Breeder (Grain Sorghum) at Nuseed Pty Ltd. He achieved his PhD in plant molecular genetics through the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences of the University of Queensland. Before coming in Australia in 2008, Dr Alam had been working as a lecturer and assistant professor of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding at Patuakhali Science and Technology University in Bangladesh. Throughout his academic and research career, he worked on multiple crops, including Macadamia, Passionfruit, Stone Fruits, Sorghum, Sugarcane, Lablab Bean, Tomato, Okra, and Ash Gourd. He is interested in developing rapid breeding tools and utilizing plant genomics in horticultural crop improvement.

Dr. Simon Albert has a background in the fields of natural resource management, water quality, marine ecology and climate change. For the past 15 years he has worked at the intersection of these fields in both Australia and Melanesia providing a gradient of social-political-ecological factors. Through this foundation of land-sea connectivity Dr. Albert has developed integrated monitoring approaches that capture temporally and spatially relevant water quality trends. Dr. Albert has worked on a range of resource projects across Melanesia in both a research and consulting capacity. Over the past 10 years of working closely with communities, government and industry, Dr. Albert has established strong networks and is a highly skilled communicator of environmental monitoring and research.