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Jonathan is a Professorial Research Fellow in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES) at The University of Queensland. Originally from New Zealand, he grew up on an active plate boundary where the rocks and types of landscapes he studies are generated. After graduating with a BSc Hons and MSc at the University of Otago and a stint in Antarctica, he studied in Japan as a Monbusho Schol at Niigata University. Following that he came to Australia where he undertook PhD studies at UNE focussing on the tectonic evolution of the New England orogen using radiolarian microfossils to determine the ages of marine rocks and constrain the timing of tectonic events. On completion of his PhD, he participated in the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Expedition 126 to the Izu-Bonin-Marianas system as a micropaleontologist to investigate intra-oceanic island arc development. He then returned to Japan to take up a JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) postdoctoral fellowship at Kochi University examining radiolarians in subduction complex rocks on the island of Shikoku. After spending five years during the early 1990s at the Department of Geology and Geophysics of the University of Sydney, he moved to the University of Hong Kong in 1995. At HKU he led the HKU Tibet Research Group and has now worked for over two decades on the India-Asia collision system. Most of his work involves using microfossils to constraint the ages of different rocks and thereby deduce the timing of tectonic events. We was Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at HKU from 2003-2009. In 2011, he returned to Australia and the University of Sydney after accepting the Edgeworth David Chair of Geology. Professor Aitchison commenced with UQ as Head of the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management in February 2015 until the end of 2016 when this school was merged with Earth Sciences to become the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He was busy with duties and responsibilities as head of this very large school from 2017 through 2021. Now free to get on with his research, Jonathan maintains active programs in both micropaleontology and tectonics including: Early Paleozoic radiolarian evolution and development of microCT imaging techniques for microfossils, the India-Asia collision system, tectonics of eastern Gondwana, as well as paleobiogeography in Galapagos and the Indian Ocean. He has recently commenced an exciting investigation into deep recycling of organic carbon and the possibility that 'biodiamond's might occur in ophiolites of the SW Pacific region.

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.

Natsuko Akagawa has a PhD and Masters in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Master of Business Administration, Graduate Diploma of Education, Diploma of Portuguese Language and Culture and Bachelor of Arts. She has published widely internationally and is recognised expert in Heritage, Museum and Asian studies. She is also an accomplished master of the Japanese arts of tea ceremony, flower arrangement, traditional martial arts (aikijujutsu) and studied traditional fabric dying techniques in Japan.

She is the Member of International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), Expert Member of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage (Former Vice President), Expert Member of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee of Vernacular Architecture, Australia ICOMOS National Scientific Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage (NSC-ICH), Member of International Council of Museums (ICOM), Member of International Committee of Memorial Museums in remembrance of the victims of Public Crimes (IC-MEMO)and a member of Association of Critical Heritage Studies. She is also a member of Japanese Studies Association of Australia (JSAA) and a founding member of Australian Network for Japanese as Community Language and represetative for the State of Queensland.

She is also the Series Editor for Routledge Research on Museums and Heritage in Asia (Routledge) and the Member of the Editorial Board for International Journal of Heritage Studies (peer-reviewed leading international journal on heritage studies) and History of Museum Journal (the only international, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the history of museums).

Natsuko’s research focuses on heritage as it applies to people, communities, nations and global interactions. She is looking at how ‘heritage’ is contested and negotiated on national, international, multicultural and colonial and post-colonial context. It is interested in the way heritage assembles histories, memories and identities and is articulated in policies, practices and imaginaries.

Her book, Heritage conservation in Japan’s cultural diplomacy: Heritage, national identity and national interest (Routledge Contemporary Japanese Series 2014), which establishes a pioneering theoretical nexus between the politics of cultural diplomacy, heritage conservation, and national identity and interest, has become a focus for scholars in a range of disciplines

Natsuko is a co-editor of Intangible Heritage (Routledge 2009), internationally regarded as one of the first comprehensive texts on this topic and used widely as a prescribed reading material globaly. Her new book Safeguarding Intangible Heritage (Routledge 2019) with her co-editor will add another dimension to international heritage discourse. In her research in this area, she has been tracing the recent development of the concept of intangible heritage in heritage discourse and practice. In particular, this has examined the influence of Japanese heritage practice in recognising the importance of embodied skill in relation to material or tangible heritage. More generally she is interested in how this new understanding of heritage has influenced community practice, national policy-making and global heritage discourse.

She was also Associate Investigator ARC centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. Her particular interest in relation to the history of emotions involves the way emotions mediated the cultural encounter of East and West at both personal and political levels in the early modern period. She is interested in the way such encounters played a role in shaping perceptions and the performance of heritage in both East and West, through engagement with both tangible and intangible elements such as meanings, memories and identity.

Other areas of her current research and publications have involved specific studies on the nature of colonial and post-colonial practice of heritage in several East and Southeast Asian nations, and the political use of heritage in framing contemporary national identities in the region, with particular reference to Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Following an earlier article related to Japan’s occupation of Indonesia between 1942 and 1945, Natsuko is researching the legacy of Japanese naval administration in East Indonesia as part of a co-authored book on the history of Central Sulawesi (Indonesia). She is also developing these various studies for a book on Japan’s civil and cultural administration of Indonesia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific and its legacies.

Research interests also include:

- Cultural diplomacy and heritage

- Intangible heritage - living heritage

- Culinary heritage

- Religion and heritage

- Borders and space: heritage, memory and migration (Transnational community and heritage: displacement, violence, trauma, identity, memory)

- Difficult heritage: trauma, emotion and heritage

- Heritage and Emotion / Heritage and Cultural Tourism

- Museum and affect

- Digital heritage

- Development of heritage policy and practice in Japan and Asia

- Colonial/Postcolonial/Decolonial heritage: politics and communities

- Historic urban/cultural landscape: identity, memory and heritage

Professional engagement

Expert Member of International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)

Expert Member of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage (Former Vice President)

Expert Member of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee of Vernacular Architecture

Australia ICOMOS National Scientific Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage (Coordinating Group)

Member of International Council of Museums (ICOM)

Member of International Committee of Memorial Museums in remembrance of the victims of Public Crimes (IC-MEMO)

Research Fellow at the International Institute of Asian Studies with Leiden University (Netherlands) (EU funded)

Visiting research fellow at the East West Centre and University of Hawaii, Manoa (United States Federal Government funded)

Australian Network for Japanese as Community Language (Founding Member and Representative for Queensland)

QLD Senior External Assessment Panel member for the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority

Associate Investigator for Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions

Series General Editor: Routledge Research on Museums and Heritage in Asia (Routledge)

Editorial Board member: International Journal of Heritage Studies (peer-reviewed leading international journal on heritage studies) and History of Museum Journal (the only international, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the history of museums).

Reviewer: International Journal of Heritage Studies, 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, Political Psychology. etc.

Designated Book reviewer: Anthropos (International Journal anthropology founded in 1903 in Germany)

Keynotes/Interviews/Invited Seminars/Featured

Akagawa, N. 2024Interviewed by Australian Broadcast Corporation - ABC News "Japan is serious about its unique Christmas traditions", 25 December 2024.

Akagawa, N. 2024 Interviewed by Australian Financial Review - News "The big sting: how a mythical bee halted a gold mine", 13 December 2024

Akagawa, N. 2024 Invited Guest Speaker for Queensland Department of Education - Three seminars: Japanese History, Japanese Education and Japanese tea ceremony. 5 December 2024.

Akagawa, N, 2024 Interviewed by Australian Broadcast Corporation – Radio National, Soul Search, "Exploring religion in Japan" aired and online July 2024.

Akagawa, N. 2024 Invited Speaker, at In-Tangible? Living Heritage and Museums // Unfassbar? Immaterielles Kulturerbe und Museen, Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Berlin, Germany

Akagawa, N. 2024. Interviewed and featured in international documentary program, Building Icons Series, globally distributed March 2024. (Premiered on Channel 9)

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.

Akagawa, N. 2023. Culinary heritage: Cookbook from 1747, featured in “We tried a 275-year-old dumpling recipe!” in Contact, 30 March 2023.

Akagawa, N. 2021 Keynote speaker, International Conference Conservation of Architectural Heritage, 8-9 February 2021

Akagawa, N. 2020. El Dorado Carousel, Interviewed by The New York Times, 2020. (NY times)

Akagawa, N. 2020. ‘Heritage and Pandemics: Impact on Living Heritage’, HASS COVID 19 Forum: What can the humanities tell us about COVID-19?, The University of Queensland, 24 July 2020. Virtual.

Akagawa, N. 2019, Invited Speaker, ‘Feeling the intangible: decolonising discourse and practice’, Heritage Symposium Expanding Heritage: The Future of our Past, National Trust of Australia (Queensland), Howard Smith Wharves, Rivershed West, Friday 11th October 2019.

Akagawa, N. 2019. Invited Speaker, 'Cultural Diplomacy in the 21st Century: cultivating the seeds of belonging', in BrisAsia Symposium 2019 – Belonging, QPAC, Brisbane City Council, 1 March, 2019.

Akagawa, N. 2018. ‘Current issues in heritage discourse’, International Studies Distinguished Guest Special Forum public lecture, Kwanseigakuin University, Japan. 21 December 2018.

Akagawa, N. 2018. ‘Intangible heritage: beyond convention,’ Distinguished Guest Public Lecture and Master class, Taiwan National University of Arts, Taiwan, 7- 12 December 2018.

Akagawa, N. 2018. ‘Digital heritage,’ Distinguished Guest Public Lecture, Taiwan National University of Arts, Taiwan, Taiwan, 7- 12 December 2018.

Akagawa, N. 2017. ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage on the Crossroads: Vanishing Existence or Protective Measures in Good Time?’ Keynote address to the European Cultural Forum 2017 to mark the start of the European Year of Cultural Heritage (2018) organised by EUNIC (European Network of National Cultural Institutes) and ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen/Institute for International Cultural Relations) in Milan, Italy, 7 - 8 December 2017.

Akagawa, N. 2017 ‘Language and Identity’, Invited Public Lecture, Waseda University, Japan, 20 January 2017.

Akagawa, N. 2015 ‘Heritage and Embodiment: Japan’s influence on global heritage discourse’, Department of Japanese Literature, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar, Indonesia, 22 December, 2015.

Akagawa, N. 2015 ‘Japan, Word Heritage, National Interest and Cultural Diplomacy’, Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage, University of Melbourne, The University of Melbourne, 2 September, 2015.

Akagawa, N. 2015 ‘Urban Heritage, Indonesian heritage systems; Seminar and workshop’, Soegijapranata Catholic University, Semarang, Indonesia, Faculty of Urban and Environmental Studies. 4-6th February 2015.

Akagawa, N. 2015 ‘Local, National and International Factors in the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Japan’, Protecting the Weak: Entangled processes of framing, mobilization and institutionalization in East Asia, Frankfurt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, and jointly organized with the Institute für Sozialforschung (Institute for Social Research, IfS), 22- 26 January 2015.

Akagawa, N. 2014 ‘Contemporary issues in heritage discourse’, Seminar and workshop (hosted by Taipei National University of the Arts, Graduate Institute of Architecture and Cultural Heritage). 13-17 December 2014.

Akagawa, N. 2014 ‘Heritage Conservation and Cultural Diplomacy’, Asian Studies Seminar Series at Asian Studies, The University of Western Australia, 28 March, 2014.

Akagawa, N. 2012 ‘Heritage Conservation and Japan’s soft power, Asian Institute -Sidney Myer Asia Centre, University of Melbourne. 18 May, 2012.

Dr Akbar is a Pacific Fijian academic and researcher with extensive experience in community development research and teaching and has contributed to the Australian and International higher education sectors. Dr Akbar’s teaching and research are shaping how Indigenous knowledge is used to address the health inequities and social determinants of health of First Nations Peoples, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Māori & Pasifika (collective term for Pacific diaspora in Australia) communities through co-designed solutions with the communities, and integrating community participatory action research and Indigenous perspectives and knowledge systems with social justice principles to promote equitable health and wellbeing. Heena's research addresses the social, cultural and economic burden of chronic conditions through a strength-based approach and impacts policy development that translates to better health outcomes for First Nations peoples, particularly Māori & Pasifika peoples in Australia and Internationally.

Dr Akber has about ten years of interdisciplinary research experience. His research activities are focused on sustainable agricultural development in rural areas. Akber has worked on various research projects in South and Southeast Asia which are more specifically related to improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. At present, he is working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences of the University of Queensland.

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 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. Previously, he has taught courses to MBA and undergraduate business students in Brisbane, London, Montreal, and Tehran.

Saeed’s research has been published in top-tier academic outlets, including the American Journal of Sociology, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, 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 Academy of Management. His articles are cited in the EU policy documents and have received 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:

• Data protection, privacy, and cybersecurity (particularly, organisational response to data breaches, and managing personal health information (PHI))
• Digital health and transformation of healthcare services
• Diffusion, adoption, and governance of digital innovations (particularly, Enterprise Generative AI)

Saeed 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 Cross-Disciplinary Research Award in 2021. He is a founding member of the Future of Health and Trust, Ethics, and Governance Alliance research hubs.

He is a Guest Editor of Information and Organization, Section Editor of the Australasian Journal of Information Systems, Associate Editor of the Asia Pacific Journal of Information Systems (APJIS), and Editorial Board member of the International Journal of Medical Informatics. He chairs the annual DIGIT Workshop of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (SIG ADIT) and co-chairs the Digital Health Care track at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS). He has co-chaired tracks at the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) and the Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS).

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 Samir Alahmad is an early career plant breeder, geneticist and plant physiologist within the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at the University of Queensland. He graduated with a PhD degree in 2019 from the University of Queensland. His main focus is dissecting the genetics of complex traits that contribute to enhanced yield. In particular, his research is focused on better understanding the genetics of drought adaptive traits such as root system architecture and canopy development. He worked on two GRDC-funded projects that aimed to develop elite durum and bread wheat varieties with optimal root system architecture for improved yield. Dr Alahmad also focuses on integrating breeding technologies and high throughput UAV remote sensing technologies to better understand crop response to drought stress. His primary focus is to understand how spectral reflectance indices can be used to speed up the development of new resilient varieties with enhanced genetic gain. Dr Alahmad's interests are quantitative genetics, population genetics, genomic selection, machine learning, and UAV phenotyping.

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.

Andrea is a Post Doctoral Fellow in Digital Cultures and Societies at the University of Queensland . She got her PhD at USC Annenberg, and is originally from Colombia. Broadly, her research interests lie at the intersection of media and Science and Technology Studies.She studies mobilities; cultures of transnational, remote work; on-demand workers and freelancers; feminized maintenance of workspaces; media tales of tech; civic social media in Latin America.

Her research can be found in New Media and Society, the International Journal of Communication, Mass Communication & Society, and in the edited volume Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination: A Casebook. She has also conducted research with the IDRC and USAID in projects about the "future of work" in the "Global South".

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.