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Ji Hyun (Julia) completed her PhD in 2020 at the Dementia & Neuro Mental Health Research Unit at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research and currently working as a postdoctoral research officer. Key areas of her current research focus are developing state-of-the-art neuroimaging analysis techniques related to emotional and cognitive dysfunctions in older persons and those with progressive neurodegenerative disease including Parkinson’s disease and dementia.

Her primary research themes include:

1. Identification of markers and mechanisms of mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease

2. Neuroimaging biomarker and repurposed therapeutic discovery to reduce risk of dementia in Parkinson’s disease

3. Understand the neurobiology of anxiety in ageing and its role in cognition.

Dr Haotian Yang is a postdoctoral research fellow driving the study of tumour self-seeding as part of a joint liver cancer research project of UQ Frazer Institute and Gallipoli Medical Research. He graduated with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Honours Class I) from UQ, focusing on the role of reactive oxygen species during chemotherapy in liver cancer. Dr Yang later completed his PhD at UQ, where he developed the first spontaneous model demonstrating the process of tumour self-seeding and characterised the tumour self-seeded cells responsible for this phenomenon. His current research investigates the biological and clinical significance of tumour self-seeding and aims to identify novel therapeutics that inhibit this process for the treatment of liver cancer.

Dr. Guowei Yang is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Queensland, Australia. His research interests lie in Software Engineering, and its synergy with Machine Learning and Programming Languages, with a focus on improving reliability and security of software and machine learning systems. Prior to joining UQ in 2021, he was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Texas State University, USA. He received his Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin, USA in 2013. To find out more details please check his homepage: https://guoweiyang.github.io.

Multiple scholarships are available! Dr. Guowei Yang is looking for highly motivated students (including PhDs, Masters, undergraduates), and visitors to join his research group. If you are interested and have background in software engineering, programming languages, formal methods, and/or AI, please send an email with your CV to guowei.yang@uq.edu.au. The University of Queensland is ranked in the top 50 globally according to major ranking systems, including QS (40) and U.S. News (41).

Mr. Jindi Yang is a Research Officer at UQ Dow Centre in the School of Chemical Engineering. He completed his PhD in 2025 from The University of Queensland, where he focused on 2D materials based photocatalyst for sustainable hydrogen peroxide production, and energy-efficient 2D nanocomposite membranes for separation processes. Currently, His research focuses on the development of advanced ion-exchange membrane for green chemical synthesis and renewable energy generation.

Dr. Zhe Yang currently is an ARC DECRA fellow (Mentor: Prof. Xiwang Zhang) in the School of Chemical Engineering/Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation at the University of Queensland since Dec 2023. He obtained his PhD degree in Environmental Engineering in 2018 at the University of Hong Kong (PhD supervisor: Prof. Chuyang Tang). He was appointed as Research Assistant/Post-doc Fellow/Research Assistant Professor at HKU from Nov 2018 to Dec 2023. Dr. Yang has more than 10 years of R&D experience in membrane technology in the context of resource recovery, desalination, water reuse, and water/wastewater treatment. To date, he has published over 80 refereed publications, with total citations of over 7,000 and an h-index of 43 based on Web of Science. Most of these papers (90%) are published in Nature indexed/top-tier journals in the field of environmental engineering and membrane technology, including Nature Water, Nature Communications, Nano-Micro Letters, Nano Letters, Chemical Society Reviews, Environmental Science & Technology, Water Research, Journal of Membrane Science, Desalination, etc. He currently serves as the Early Career Editorial Board member of the leading journals in his field (Environmental Science & Technology - IF 10.9, Link & Desalination - IF 8.3, Link).

Featured Honors and Awards:

• 2024 Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (1/1000, Link)
• 2024 Rising Star in Environmental Research (Link)
• The First Prize of the Water 2023 Young Investigator Award (Link and Interview)

Featured Grants (Sole or lead investigator):

• Lead Entrepreneur, Innovative, ultra-efficient device for sustainable electricity harvesting from CO2, (IG240100353), Department of Education, Australia's Economic Accelerator (AEA) – Ignite, AUD454,240). (Link)
• Sole Investigator, Novel interlayered membrane for highly efficient separation processes, Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), (DE230100114), Australian Research Council (ARC), AUD429,554 (11/12/2023-10/12/2026). (Link)

My group studies the role of cadherin cell adhesion molecules in morphogenesis and tumor development. E-cadherin is a key mediator of cell-cell recognition. It participates in tissue patterning and its dysfunction contributes to tumor progression and invasion.

Associate Professor Yap is the group leader for Cadherin cell adhesion molecules, Epithelial morphogenesis & Cell locomotion research at the IMB.

A clinical psychologist trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with many years of clinical experience, with interest in the understanding of psychosomatic relationships as they appear in clinical practice, and with interest in the understanding of the therapeutic relationship as instance of change, particularly in the treatment of children and young people. This translates into an interest in researching the psychotherapy process with a tendency toward the use of qualitative or mixed methods.

I am a Research Fellow in the Institute of Social Science Research at The University of Queensland.

My research interests coalesce around issues of social justice within organisations. I am particularly curious about how the way we perceive others informs our treatment of one and other in the workplace. I spend a lot of my time exploring this idea in the context of leadership. For example, collaborators and I have been working with industry professionals in Australia and North America to understand what organisational structures inhibit minority leaders' (e.g., women, racially diverse) progression and retention. We've also been investigating possible disrupters that may serve to improve minority leaders' chances of success in leadership roles.

I also spend a lot of time on applied research problems through partnering with industry to examine the effectiveness of practical initiatives or policy shifts. Recently, we've been working on understanding the supportive mechanisms that enhance boat safety in Northern Australia, while another partnership has focused on understanding how novel bail support programs can be enhanced to support young people to meet their youth justice orders.

I received my BPsycSc and MPsyOrg from UQ Psychology before completing a PhD in Leadership / Organisational Behaviour at UQ Business School. In 2019 I moved to The University of Illinois for a postdoctoral fellowship before joining the Institute of Social Science Research in 2021.

I am also an Organisational Psychologist and consult with industry on people focused challenges. I partner with business leaders and people managers to develop and implement evidence based actions and strategies.

I work with collaborators in Australia and North America, and I have the good fortune of supporting several RHD candidates at present.

Nan Ye's research interest spans machine learning, statistics and optimization. He has published papers on topics including sequential decision making under uncertainty, weakly supervised learning, probabilistic graphical models, statistical learning theory, in venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, UAI, JAIR, JMLR. He received an IJCAI-JAIR Best Paper Prize in 2022, and a UAI Best Student Paper Award in 2014.

He is a Lecturer in Statistics and Data Science in the School of Mathematics and Physics in University of Queensland. He previously held postdoc positions at QUT and UC Berkeley from 2015 to 2018, and at NUS from 2013 to 2014. He obtained his PhD in Computer Science from NUS, and completed double first-class honors in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, also from NUS.

Please visit his personal webpage for more information: https://yenan.github.io/.

Dr Liu Ye is is a Professor at The University of Queensland (UQ) in the School of Chemical Engineering. Dr Ye’s research is focused on sustainable environmental engineering and is dedicated to finding innovative and practical solutions to tackle challenges in achieving net zero emissions, climate resilience, and sustainability. She is the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) research program leader at UQ urban water engineering. She has an established national and international leadership in the research field of net-zero emissions from urban wastewater systems. Prof Ye has been awarded over AU$10M competitive research funding and has a broad research collaboration within academia and industry. She collaborated extensively with water industry partners (> 15, both Australia and overseas water utilities), Australian state Government, Industry peak bodies (Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA), Water Research Australia (WarterRA)) and Technology companies (e.g., Jacob, Suez, Veolia). She has also received more than eight scientific awards (including Research Innovation Award from Australia Water Association, UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award, etc.), and the EAIT faculty teaching excellence award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and an elected member in the Strategic Council of International Water Association (IWA). She is also a member of the Australia Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) and Engineers Australia (EA). She current servers as the Associate editor of Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology and in the Editorial board of Engineering journal.

Research:

Liu’s research includes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation from biological wastewater treatment processes; sludge minimization and biogas production enhancement; advanced biological nutrient removal (BNR) technology development; on-line process control and optimisation and resource recovery from wastes.

Teaching and Learning:

CHEE2020: Process Equipment and Control (Coordinator and Lecturer);

CHEE2501: Environmental Systems Engineering I: Processes (Lecturer);

CHEE4012: Industrial Wastewater & Solid Waste Management (Lecturer);

CHEE4007/4027 Thesis project;

​Ram Yegappan is an early career researcher at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at The University of Queensland (UQ). They completed their PhD in September 2023, focusing on understanding the science and application of snake venom proteins in wound healing. Ram has authored 8 research articles (4 as first author, 2 as co-first author) and 1 book chapter. These publications not only showcase their contributions to the field but also underscore their proficiency in conducting impactful research that translates into practical applications. In addition, they have also served as peer reviewer for journals and have reviewed over 30 research and review articles. Ram’s track record of honours and awards demonstrate their commitment to academic and research excellence, further enhancing his credibility as an emerging leader in this field.

In their current role, Ram manages multiple projects, conducting experiments at the interface of materials and cells, related to wound healing applications. They collaborate with researchers on project design, protocol preparation, data analysis and validation, statistical analysis and interpretation of findings, grant applications, and publications. Ram brings valuable expertise in the development and evaluation of next-generation biomaterials for wound healing applications, including the development of animal models for wound healing, in vivo evaluations, functional assays, as well as biochemical and histological evaluations. They have generated preliminary data for several grant proposals, and their foundational work formed the basis of two successful grants from the US Department of Defense and a CUREator, progressing the outcomes to preclinical stages.

Dr Loic Yengo is a Professor of Statistical Genomics at The University of Queensland (UQ) and Group Leader of the Statistical Genomics Laboratory within UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience. He was awarded a prestigious Snow Medical Research Fellowship in 2024 to dramatically advance the use of genomics to prevent chronic disease such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer’s, with a particular focus on increasing participation of people with diverse ancestries. After completing a PhD in applied mathematics and statistics at the University of Lille (France) in 2014, he joined UQ in 2016 for postdoctoral training in Quantitative and Statistical Genetics. Loic started his own lab in 2020 to investigate the causes and consequences of genetic variation within and between human populations. His group develops and applies novel statistical methods to analyse large volumes of genomic data. Loic’s research has contributed to improving understanding of the genetic and phenotypic consequences of non-random mating (inbreeding and assortative mating) in human populations and has led to identifying novel genetic variants associated with complex traits and diseases. Loic was named among the top 40 rising stars of research by The Australian newspaper in 2021 and received the UQ Foundation research excellence award the same year. Loic is the 2022 recipient of the Ruth Stephens Gani Medal of the Australian Academy of Science recognizing outstanding contributions to research in human genetics, and was named in Nature Medicine’s 2022 Yearbook among 11 early-career researchers “to watch”.

In 2024, he was the recipient of the American Society of Human Genetics Early Career Award and a Snow Medical Research Foundation Fellowship to accelerate the deployment of genomic risk prediction in the clinic and improve the benefit of genomic medicine in all populations.

I have a multidisciplinary background in chemical and civil engineering, chemistry and materials science. Currently, I am the UQ leader of the National Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life, based at USC. I apply my expertise to understand the effects of fungal decay and moisture intrusion in timber connections, as well as the improvement of the fire performance of timber. I supervise 6 PhD students.

Mehmet Yildirimoglu is a Senior Lecturer of Transport Engineering at the School of Civil Engineering. Mehmet received his B.Sc. degree in civil engineering from the Middle East Technical University (METU) in 2009, M.Sc. degree in civil engineering from the Rutgers University in 2011 and Ph.D. degree in civil engineering from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2015. Prior to joining the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland in 2016, he was a Postdoctoral researcher at EPFL, Switzerland. His research revolves around large-scale traffic modeling, dynamic traffic assignment, data mining techniques and real-time traffic management.

Dr Tesfa Yimer is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland. Tesfa’s PhD was on mental health systems in low resource settings, particularly focusing on depression and alcohol use disorder. His research interest is on addiction and mental health epidemiology.