Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Clinical Associate Professor
School of Dentistry
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Dr Sobia Zafar is a specialist paediatric dentist, clinical senior lecturer and the discipline lead in paediatric dentistry at The University of Queensland. She also holds an affiliated position of Senior Research Fellow at the Child Health Research Centre. She is the current president of the Australia and New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry (ANZSPD) Qld section and the councillor for the International Association of Dental Research (IADR) ANZ for Brisbane section.
Sobia completed her DClinDent and PhD from the University of Otago, New Zealand. Her research and clinical interests are in dental education, digital dentistry, and children's oral health, including those with special needs. She is frequently an invited speaker nationally and internationally on these subjects. Sobia has over 100 publications, comprising full journal papers, a book chapter and published abstracts, in national and international high-quality peer-reviewed journals. Sobia has successfully supervised 40 Honours research students, five HDR (PhD and MPhil) and two DClinDent students to completion. Sobia was the winner of the "Best Research Supervisor Award" for Higher Degree Research students in 2022 and also in 2023.
She is a passionate teacher involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching at UQ and in the wider dental profession in Australia and overseas. She has also conducted multiple hands-on courses locally and overseas for the Australian Dental Association Qld branch. Sobia has received numerous teaching awards and fellowships in recognition of her contributions, including from UQ the HABS Commendation for Substantive Contributions to Student Learning (2020), HABS Programs that Enhance Learning (APEL) Commendation (2021), HABS Commendation for Substantive Contributions to Student Learning Award (2022), and a UQ Teaching Excellence Award for APEL Commendation (2022). In 2022, she gained a Fellowship from the Faculty of Dental Trainers of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh, UK, as peer recognition for her accomplishments in dental education. She has recently received the Excellence in Health Professional Education Award from the Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE) and Flinders University (2023).
Sobia is a highly recognised and respected community leader. Sobia is involved with various dental charities, including the Australian Dental Health Foundation, the Esesson Foundation, and the Turbans4Australia, to provide emergency and essential dental care to underprivileged children (refugees, asylum seekers, those with special needs, and from disadvantaged communities) in the Brisbane and Gold Coast regions. Her efforts as a community leader and leading health professional have been recognised with awards within UQ (the 2022 LeadHers Rise Community Award) and at the national level (the 2022 Appreciation Award from Turbans4Australia). As recognition from her dental peers, she was granted a Fellowship of the Pierre Fauchard Academy.
Core Member of Centre for Community Health and Wellbeing
Centre for Community Health and Wellbeing
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Affiliate of Centre for Digital Cultures & Societies
Centre for Digital Cultures & Societies
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Affiliate of Social Identity and Groups Network (SIGN) Research Centre
Social Identity and Groups Network
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Associate Professor
School of Social Science
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Availability:
Not available for supervision
Media expert
Dr Renee Zahnow is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Science at the University of Queensland. Her research focuses on place-based patterns of crime and victimisation; she is particularly interested in understanding the link between the regularities of daily human mobility, social and behavioural norms and the propensity for crime and deviance. She has published in various journals, including Criminology, Urban Studies, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Environment and Behavior and Crime and Delinquency.
Dr Zahnow has worked across a range of research projects including program evaluations and random-control trials. She has spatial and longitudinal modelling expertise and experience in working with police, ambulance and hospital data. She has established working ties with industry partners and international colleagues. Renee has expert knowledge in areas of environmental and urban criminology, social norms and collective social processes, youth and deviance and substance use.
Affiliate of ARC COE for Children and Families Over the Lifecourse
ARC COE for Children and Families Over the Lifecourse
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Senior Research Fellow
Institute for Social Science Research
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Tomasz Zając is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) at the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Deputy Lead of the Opportunities research program at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (the Life Course Centre). Tomasz holds an MA and PhD in Sociology from the University of Warsaw, Poland. Before joining ISSR, he was an Assistant Professor in Sociology at the University of Warsaw and a Researcher at the National Processing Institute (OPI) in Warsaw, where he developed the Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA) on behalf of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. He was also a visiting scholar at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley and The Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences (BAGSS), University of Bamberg, Germany.
Tomasz's research interests include social stratification and inequality, migration, gender, and life-course research, especially individual educational trajectories and their links with labour market outcomes. He specialises in quantitative methods, particularly in using population-wide linked administrative data.
Moreover, he has been involved in developing research infrastructure. He currently leads two activity streams with the Social Science Research Infrastructure Network supported by the Australian Research Data Commons.
I am an insect ecologist by "bent" and my students and I work on various applied and basic research areas. We generally take an individuals-process based approach to the study of insect abundance and distribution. We use various "model" systems to ask questions ranging from the effect of host chemistry on oviposition behaviour and early stage caterpillar survival, to the effects of learning on oviposition behaviour at a landscape level and the effects of climate on insect abundance. I prefer to work on Butterfly-plant interactions, particularly Monarchs and milkweeds.
A substantial amount of our applied research has been on the ecology and biology of Helicoverpa spp, the major pest of Australian field crops, and more recently Diamondback moth, a key pest of horticulture.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Associate Lecturer
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Angelique Zamora is an Associate Lecturer and an Undergraduate Course Coordinator for clinical courses in the Bachelor of Nursing Program. Angelique joined the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work (SNMSW) in 2015. She has received the 2020 Elsevier Emerging Leader in Nursing and Midwifery Education High Commendation Award and the SNMSW 2016 Innovation in Teaching and Learning Award.
Angelique obtained her nursing qualifications in both The Philippines and Australia. She is currently a Registered Nurse under the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. She has clinical experience in General Medical & Surgical, Community, Gerontological, Maternal & Child, Intensive Care, Intraoperative Nursing, and Gerontological Nursing. She also has several years of experience in clinical teaching in nursing both in Australia and overseas. Angelique’s research interests and background include Nursing Education, Interprofessional Care and Dementia Care.
Currently, Angelique is undertaking her PhD studies on the oral health of older people living in residential aged care facilities, with the UQ School of Dentistry.
Jonah is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at UQ Business School. His research focuses on understanding the systems and interdependencies between support for entrepreneurial activity, social innovation, and social change, asking broadly “how do societies support the organization of entrepreneurship and in turn ensure its positive impact on society?” onah's research includes longitudinal qualitative studies in the contexts of entrepreneurial ecosystems and the governance of entrepreneurial finance, and practice-based studies around entrepreneurial decision making. His most recent work understanding the potential of a responsible entrepreneurship ideology has been published in Academy of Management Review.
Prior to joining UQ, Jonah completed his PhD in Management Studies at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Jonah also holds a Master of Philosophy in Innovation, Strategy and Organisation from the University of Cambridge and undergraduate degrees in Economics (Hons) and Applied Mathematics from the University of Calgary. Jonah has industry experience in financial services as a Product Manager, where he managed technologies for international money movement and personal financial wellness.
Fire Laboratory Manager and Senior Research Technologist
School of Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Sergio Zarate joined the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland in 2016 and currently serves as the Fire Laboratory Manager. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with a specialization in fire dynamics. Sergio has extensive experience in projects involving fluid mechanics, combustion, and fire dynamics.
He possesses comprehensive expertise in fire science, including heat-transfer analytical methods, experimental techniques, and the design and operation of apparatus to evaluate the burning behavior of various materials. His research interests include:
Fire safety engineering
Development of innovative combustion-based technologies
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Saeid Zare is an expert in troubleshooting and optimizing mineral processing plants. He is currently a research officer of the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Center (JKMRC) at the University of Queensland's Sustainable Minerals Institute.
He graduated as a top student with Bachelor’s and Master's degrees in mining engineering-mineral processing from Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran. His Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis projects were on flotation and comminution, in Sarcheshme Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex, and in the Gol-E-Gohar iron ore company, the largest mines in the Middle East, respectively. He was also chosen as elite member by Iran's National Elites Foundation in 2019 and 2023. Over the past nine years, he has successfully contributed to numerous funded industrial projects focused on troubleshooting, optimization and designing, mostly in comminution, separation and dewatering fields at the mineral processing plants in more than eight of the largest Mining and Industrial Companies in Iran, which helped him to apply his knowledge in real industrial settings.
Saeid is currently a researcher at the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Center (JKMRC), working within the Advanced Process Prediction and Control group. His research focuses on the optimization of mineral processing techniques to enhance operational efficiency and sustainability.
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr. Norhasnida Zawawi is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), University of Queensland, Australia, where she contributed to the discovery of trehalulose, a rare low-GI sugar in stingless bee honey. She is currently Head of the Halal Science Laboratory at the Halal Products Research Institute and Senior Lecturer at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), leading the Halal Healthcare and Wellness Research Programme.
She has played key roles in developing honey standards, including contributions to the FSANZ-approved native bee honey standard (2024), and previously served with the Department of Standards Malaysia and Apimondia Asia. Dr. Zawawi is an Editorial Board Member of the Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science and a reviewer for high-impact journals such as Food Chemistry and Journal of Apicultural Research.
With over RM 1 million in research funding, 46 Scopus-indexed publications, and an H-index of 20, her work bridges food science, halal innovation, and bee product research.
Dr. Zawawi’s future research is centred on advancing functional foods and halal-certified bioactive products, with a strong emphasis on native bee honey and plant-based milk alternatives. Her goals include:
Exploring bioactive compounds and unique compositions of stingless bee honey, plant seed beverages, and other alternative foods to enhance human health.
Integrating omics technologies to identify molecular markers of efficacy and quality in halal-certified functional foods.
Promoting sustainable innovation in the halal wellness industry through translational research and commercialisation pathways.
Expanding global collaborations to support cross-disciplinary research in food science, nutrition, and halal product development.
These goals reflect her commitment to bridging traditional knowledge with cutting-edge science, enhancing public health, and supporting the growth of the native bee honey and halal food industries worldwide.
Dr Jian Zeng is a statistical geneticist and NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at the University of Queensland (UQ). He received his PhD in animal breeding and genetics at Iowa State University and joined the Program in Complex Trait Genomics (PCTG) at UQ in 2016. His research focuses on the development and application of innovative statistical methods for estimating the genetic architecture and evolutionary signals in complex traits, identifying genetic variants, genes and other molecular intermediates associated with phenotype variation, and predicting trait phenotypes using genome sequence data. In 2019, he was awarded an NHMRC Investigator Emerging Leadership Grant to develop statistical methods and software tools for best predict an individual’s disease risk using genomic and omics data. He was an invited speaker at the prestigious Gordon Research Conference in 2019.
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Affiliate of Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation
Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr. Xiangkang Zeng is a UQ Amplify Lecturer/ARC DECRA Research Fellow at the UQ Dow Centre within the School of Chemical Engineering at The University of Queensland. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Monash University, Australia, in 2017. Prior to that, he pursued his studies at Jiangnan University in China, attaining a Master's Degree in Fermentation Engineering in 2012 and a Bachelor's Degree in Biological Engineering in 2010. Following his doctoral studies, Dr. Zeng conducted postdoctoral research training at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) from 2017 to 2018. Subsequently, he held the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Monash University, Australia, from November 2018 to July 2022.
Dr. Zeng's current research endeavors center around the development of functional materials for energy and environmental application via redox catalysis. As a testament to his contributions, Xiangkang has authored over 50 papers in prestigious journals, including Advanced Materials, Advanced Energy Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, ACS Catalysis, Angewandte Chemie, Applied Catalysis B, Water Research, and Green Chemistry. In addition to his research, Xiangkang has a strong interest in university teaching. He has served as a Lecturer or Associate Lecturer for courses including Bioprocess Engineering (BIOE4020), Process Principles (CHEE2001), Research Thesis (CHEE7381), and Thermodynamics: Energy and the Environment (ENGG1500).
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Dr Cheng Zhang is an innovative Research Fellow supported by both ARC and NHMRC. He has an outstanding track record in the fields of fluoropolymers, polymer chemistry and materials science. He has made significant contributions to these fields of research through innovative chemistry to build precise fluoropolymer structures and subsequent molecular-level characterisation to understand the structure-property relationship for specific applications including from energy materials e.g. solid electrolytes, sorbent materials for environmental PFAS remediation, to functional biomaterials e.g. imaging and therapeutic agents. Please read more here at the Zhang Group.