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Dr Chenming Zhang is a specialist in monitoring and modelling hydrological processes in coastal/terrestrial groundwater systems and tailings storage facilities, in particular the evaporation induced mass and heat transport in soil/tailings, hydrogeochemical dynamics in aquifer systems and wast rock dumps. He has been developing IoT-based geotechnical and environmental instruments to monitor continuously and in real-time the weather, soil and water conditions.

Dr. Zhen Zhang specializes in developing advanced nanotechnology platforms for diagnosing cancers and other pathologies through liquid biopsy. Her research integrates expertise in nanotechnology, bioengineering, and analytical chemistry to create innovative solutions for early detection and disease monitoring. By leveraging cutting-edge techniques such as microfluidics and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), Dr. Zhang's work aims to enhance the sensitivity and specificity of liquid biopsy methods. Her multidisciplinary approach focuses on translating these technologies into clinical applications, advancing precision medicine for cancer and other complex diseases.

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.

Biography:

Dr. Xueqin Zhang is currently a Research Fellow, and an ARC DECRA Fellow at Australian Centre of Water and Environmental Biotechnology (ACWEB, formerly AWMC), and School of Chemical Engineering. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2021 at Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC) and then worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at ACWEB till November 2023. His research focuses on the physiology and ecology of novel microorganisms in biogeochemical cycling, bioelectrochemistry in carbon (methane) cycles and environmental bioremediation, and greenhouse gas (bio)conversion for value-adding applications. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles in top-tier journals including Nature Microbiology, Nature Communications, Environmental Science and Technology and Water Research. He acted as a Guest Editor of two journals and has been invited as a reviewer for over 10 journals. He serves on the editorial board of Frontiers of Environmental Science Engineering.

Teaching and Learning:

• Lecturer in Advanced Wastewater and Biosolids Treatment (WATR6103)
• Supervisor in Thesis project (CHEE7382)

• 2023-now Joint Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences, The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (CNFS, QAAFI)
• 2022-now Senior Research Fellow, AIBN, The University of Queensland
• 2020-now NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, AIBN, The University of Queensland
• 2017-2019 ARC DECRA Fellow, AIBN, The University of Queensland
• 2016-2017 Research Associate, AIBN, The University of Queensland
• 2013-2015 Macquarie University Research Fellow (MQRF), Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Science (CBMS), Macquarie University
• 2012-2013 Postdoc Research Fellow, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University
• July 2012 PhD, Analytical Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology (DLUT), China

Research Team: Dr Zhang is now leading more than 15 researchers, working on the development of responsive molecules/nanomaterials for biosensing and imaging, early disease detection and treatment, food/agricultural/environmental applications. He has collaborations with scientist in Chemistry, Materials Science, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Food and Agriculture Science, and Biophotonics from Australia, US, UK, Sweden, India, Russia and China.

Research Support: Since 2011, Dr Zhang has attracted 11 research grants (> 3 million) as chief investigator (lead CI and/or co-CI). These grants include 3 Fellowship (NHMRC Emerging Leadership, ARC DECRA and MQRF to develop responsive probes for redox biomarkers detection within body), 1 NHMRC Project grant in redox quantification in liver cancer chemotherapy, 1 UQ ECR grant, 1 NSFC grant, and another 3 grants from universities.

Research Output: Dr Zhang has published more than 180 research papers since his first publication in 2010 (>95 papers published as first and/or corresponding author), and 1 patent. He frequently publishes in a number of premier journals, such as Nature Photonics, Nature Plants, Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), Angewandte Chemie, Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Society Reviews, and Accounts of Chemical Research. These publications have received >9,000 citations with an H-index of 55. He has 8 Highly Cited Papers (7 in the ESI field of Chemistry-Analytical) and 3 Hot Articles.

Service: Dr Zhang is an Editor of TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry (Elsevier, 1/106 in Analytical Chemistry) and Methods (Elsevier), and Editorial Board Member of several international high impact journals, such as Chemistry-An Asian Journal (Wiley), Aggregate (Wiley), Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis (Elsevier), Green Analytical Chemistry (Elsevier). He is a referee of ~80 international journals (2nd most contributions of all UQ researchers, with >20 awards from RSC and Elsevier journals), and grant assessor for more than 10 country and regions, such as Australia, UK, Europe, Netherland, New Zealand.

Award: Dr Zhang's national and international standing in the fields of chemistry (analytical and inorganic) and functional nanomaterials is evidenced by the awards of ACS Rising Star in Measurement Science, NJC Emerging Investigator, Biosensors Young Investigator Award, IAAM Scientist Medal, Vebleo Fellow, IAAM Fellow, ARC DECRA, NHMRC EL Fellow, MQRF, and more than 20 TOP Outstanding Reviewer awards from RSC and Elsevier. He has been a World's Top 2% Scientist in Chemistry (Analytical) and Nanoscience & Nanotechnology since 2022. He has delivered about 40 invited presentations and keynotes.

Teaching and Supervision: Dr Zhang has a strong commitment to training students. His students have received several awards, such as 4 "Dean’s Commendation for Outstanding Academic Performance", 1 "Dean’s Award for Excellence in Higher Degree Research", 1 "Dean's Award for Outstanding HDR Theses", ANFF-Q students award, 3MT Runner-UP and People's Choice. He has supervised 6 PhD and >20 Masters to completion. He is now co-coordinating and lecturing the MSE PP ENGY7112/7115/7114/7215 in School of Chem. Eng., EAIT. His teaching contributions in Faculty of Science, UQ are recognised by two nominations of "Dean’s Commendation for Excellent Teaching Awards" in semesters 1 and 2 in 2022.

Jing Zhang is an agricultural economist with a diverse range of expertise in agricultural policy, natural resource management, farming systems, and international trade. She brings advanced skills in statistical, market, and policy analysis, alongside extensive experience and strong networks in the Chinese agricultural sector. Her work spans multidisciplinary projects across Australia, China, Indonesia, and Mongolia, engaging government, industry, and academic partners.

Prof. Xiwang Zhang is the Endowed Dow Chair in Sustainable Engineering Innovation at the University of Queensland, Director of UQ Dow Centre, and Director of ARC Centre of Excellence for Electrochemical Transformation of Carbon Dioxide (GetCO2). He was the Founding Director of ARC Industry Transformation Research Hub for Energy-efficient Separation (EESep) and the Deputy Director of Monash Centre for Membrane Innovation (MCMI) at Monash University before he moved to UQ in early 2022. Prof. Zhang has more than 15 years of R&D experience in both academia and industry with demonstrated achievements in technology development and translation. His research focuses on membrane and advanced oxidation technologies for energy-efficient separation, resource recovery, green chemical synthesis, carbon dioxide conversion and renewable energy generation. Prof. Zhang was the recipient of the prestigious ARC Australian Research Fellowship, Future Fellowship and Monash Larkins Fellowship. In 2024, he was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).

A/Prof Yao-Zhong Zhang's research interests are in: Algebraic structures, quantum (super)integrable systems, (quasi-)exactly solvable models, supersymmetry, and conformal field theory.

Yao-Zhong Zhang received his PhD from Northwest University, China, in 1988 under the supervision of Prof Bo-Yu Hou. He spent 12 years in Europe, Japan and Australia as Postdoctoral/Research Fellow, before becoming in 2001 a permament staff member as a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics of the University of Queensland. Since 2006, he has been Reader/Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Queensland.

Professor Mingxing Zhang’s research interests are in the additive manufactruring of metals and MAX phase mateirals, high entropy alloys, new alloy design through machine learning and application of crystallography to engineering materials, surface engineering of metals, and grain refinement for cast metals.

Prof Zhang is a world leader in the area of crystallography of phase transformations and its applications in engineering materials, and is recognised as one of the top researchers in the areas of phase transformations, grain refinement for cast metals, additive manufacturing of metals, and surface engineering.

Prof Zhang obtained his Bachelor of Engineering from the Inner Mongolian University of Science and Technology and Master of Engineering from Northwestern Polytechnical University, China. In 1997 he was awarded his PhD degree by The University of Queensland. His research expertise and interests include crystallography of phase transformations, grain refinement and alloy development of aluminum and magnesium alloys, surface modification and coatings, bainitic transformation and bainitic steels.

Prof Zhang’s research hopes are to apply his fundamental research results to develop new generation metallic materials and to improve the current materials processing techniques. His research outcomes will also offer materials scientists a totally new way to undertake surface treatment for metallic materials, therefore to significantly improve the surface durability of this type of materials. For example, the recently developed new packed powder diffusion coating technique for titanium alloys will enable the replacement of the highly costive superalloys with Ti alloys. The research also hopes to enhance Australia’s competitive ability in international markets in light metals and contribute significantly to material science with the study of the mechanism of phase transformations in solids.

I am a Research Fellow in Bioinformatics, holding a joint position with QBI the Bredy group (50%) and IMB the Palpant group (50%). With over 15 years of experience in the bioinformatics/NGS field, my journey began with the greenfield development of three NGS platforms: 454, Illumina, and SOLiD. This experience has equipped me with extensive expertise in bioinformatic analysis, particularly in analyzing a variety of NGS data types. As the leader of the bioinformatics core facility at QBI from 2012 to 2022, my role was primarily focused on providing bioinformatics services. However, I have also been actively engaged in custom programming and analysis for numerous projects, allowing me to make significant intellectual contributions and deepen my involvement in research studies. Despite the typical service-oriented position of bioinformaticians, my publication record is notable, featuring over 40 peer-reviewed publications, with me serving as the first, co-first, or last author on 16 of them. Since 2019, my work has garnered 1,525 citations (as per Google Scholar, as of 12 Jan 2024), with 41.2% of my publications ranking in the top 10% of journals based on the CiteScore Percentile Source from SciVal. My contributions to bioinformatics are showcased in prestigious journals, with notable examples including lncRNA capture sequencing and ATAC-seq data analysis (Nature Communications, 2023) and (Cell Reports, 2022), de novo transcriptome assembly (Development, 2022), noncanonical structure Z-DNA analysis (Nature Neuroscience, 2020), DNA modification m6dA data analysis (Nature Neuroscience, 2019), whole-exome sequencing data analysis (Genome Medicine, 2017), and cross-ethnic meta-analysis (Nature Communications, 2017).

Wenhua Zhao is an Associate Professor at The University of Queensland and a globally recognized expert in offshore hydrodynamics and renewable energy technologies.

He is the recipient of the prestigious ARC Future Fellowship (2024-2028) and DECRA Fellowship (2019-2022), with over 110 publications and six awards influencing both industry and academia. He has helped secure over AUD30 million research funding from both Australian Research Council and industry, contributing to transformative engineering practices in renewable energy sectors and oil & gas industry.

His research focuses on wave-structure interactions, spanning groundbreaking fundamental studies -- showcased by his multiple publications in Journal of Fluid Mechanics -- to industry-focused applications, a rare integration of theoretical research with practical implementation. He pioneers innovations in floating wind energy, floating solar, offshore aquaculture, and green hydrogen, leveraging artificial intelligence to transform offshore renewable energies.

Wenhua has been a Deputy Editor for Ocean Engineering (No. 1 in marine engineering, ISI web), Associate Editor for the renowned ASME's Journal of OMAE, and editorial board member for the Q1 journal Applied Ocean Research. His teaching, particularly the "Design of Offshore Energy Systems" course, has prepared hundreds of students for impactful careers in coastal and ocean engineering.

Jia is a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Chemical Engineering (since 2024). She leads research projects that involve developing characterization methods and models for food and beverages, utilizing chemical engineering principles to optimize food processing and consumption. She specializes in designing and applying methods to support the development of innovative food composites, gels, and suspensions using plant-based ingredients. Her work includes leveraging structural analysis, rheology, colloid and interfacial science, sensory evaluation, digestion studies, and biochemistry to create functional and sustainable food products.