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Associate Professor Wuethrich is an NHMRC Emerging Leader fellow and ARC DECRA awardee at the Centre for Personalised Nanomedicine, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland (UQ). He obtained his PhD from the University of Tasmania in 2016 after completing a Master’s degree in Switzerland. His research expertise lies in liquid biopsy, nanotechnology, and diagnostics. He held positions in international pharmaceutical companies and became lead inventor on a European patent. He has actively engaged with national and international companies to translate diagnostic nanotechnologies. Since 2017 he has provided continuous research mentoring to the group and has supervised >30 postgraduate and graduate students in nanotechnological strategies to detect cancer and other diseases.

Associate Professor Stephanie Wyeth is a academic within the Urban Planning Program, and Director of Engagement for the School of Architecture, Design and Planning.

Stephanie is an experienced urban and social planning practitioner with significant research, project and leadership experience in the public and private sectors. She joined The University of Queensland in 2019 following several years as a Director with a multidisciplinary planning and design firm, where she led projects focussed on complex social, urban planning and development issues. Her motivation for joining academia is a belief that a values-led and practice intensive university experience is critical if the next generation of urban planning professionals are to be equipped with the skills, knowledge and mindsets to lead, sustained positive change in our cities, towns and communities.

As a pracademic, Stephanie seeks to bridge the theory – practice divide, by promoting the exchange of knowledge, ideas and capabilities across university, industry and community. She regularly facilitates and brokers opportunities for the university’s world-leading researchers to share their expertise with government and community for projects with a strong public interest focus. Stephanie is regularly invited to join advisory forums and judging panels, and to speak at industry and community events.

Between 2016 – 2022 Stephanie served as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the South Bank Corporation. In 2020 she was appointed a Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia for services to the profession. Her most recent panel appointments include Logan Urban Design Awards, Lord Mayor’s Business Awards (Brisbane), and an advisory committee for a national design project.

Memberships

• Planning Institute of Australia
• Committee for Brisbane

Teaching Responsibilities

PLAN1000 The Planning Challenge (Course Coordinator and Lecturer – 2019 to date)

PLAN1100 Foundational Ideas in Planning (Course Coordinator and Lecturer – 2019 to 2024)

PLAN4001/PLAN7120 Citymaking: Theory and Practice (Course Coordinator and Lecturer – 2020-2022)

PLAN4100 Advanced Planning Practice (Course Coordinator and Lecturer – 2021 to date)

PLAN4130 | PLAN7130 Planning Industry Placements (Course Coordinator and Lecturer – 2019 to February 2025 (Semesters 1, 2 and Summer)

ADPS3300 | ADPS7300 Industry Placement (Course Coordinator and Lecturer - 2025 to date)

ENVM3103 Regulatory Frameworks for Environmental Management and Planning (Guest lecturer 2021-2023)

Various guest lectures providing insights into urban planning, employability and professional practice.

Student supervision for PHD, Honours and research projects

Awards

2025 Industry Engagement Award - Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology

2025 Research Award - Citizen Science - Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology

2022 Teaching Award - Planning Program, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences

2022 Staff Award, Organisation of Planning Students

Service and Engagement

Director of Engagement – School of Architecture, Design and Planning (2023 to date)

Academic Advisor for Bachelor of Urban Planning / Regional and Town Planning (2021 to date)

Deputy Director of Engagement - School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (2022 – 2023)

Co-founder and Director of UQ City Impact Lab (2021 to date)

Research Affiliate – UQ Sustainable Infrastructure Research Hub (since 2022)

Member - UQ Community Engagement Community of Practice – Leadership Group (since 2023)

Planning Institute of Australia (Qld) - Fellow

Hons K. Wyn joined the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland in mid-2016 as an Occupational Trainee in the Fire Safety Research Group. He commenced his PhD mid-2017 on smouldering combustion and its potential as a renewable energy production process by generating value-added productions alongside the treatment of organic wastes. Upon the completion of the PhD, Hons continued as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Fire Safety Research Group in mid-2023. Hons currently supports consultancy projects, lab-related activities, teaching, and supervision.

I received my B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Central South University (China) in July 2012 and July 2015, respectively. In December 2019, I completed my Ph.D. in Materials Engineering, specialising in Energy Materials, at the University of Wollongong (Australia). Since July 2020, I have been conducting postdoctoral research at The University of Queensland.

I have extensive research experience in the development of battery electrode materials, electrolyte materials, and reaction characterisation for lithium-ion, sodium-ion, and solid-state lithium/sodium metal batteries. My expertise encompasses materials design, synthesis, characterisation, and electrochemical analysis.

My current research focuses on: (1) developing low-cost and functional electrode materials for high-energy-density rechargeable batteries; (2) employing in situ and operando techniques to investigate electrode and electrode/electrolyte interface reactions in batteries; (3) designing and optimising solid polymer electrolytes; and (4) advancing solid-state metal battery technologies.

Yuwei Xiang holds a bachelor's degree in Food Science and Technology (2019) from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST, China). She earned her PhD in Food Microbiology (2024) from the University of Queensland (Australia). After completing her PhD, she pursued an academic career as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Prof. Mark Turner. Her research specializes in lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and their applications in food fermentation and biotechnology, with a focus on exploring the genetic mechanisms of LAB to enhance osmoresistance, particularly under high c-di-AMP conditions.

Research Areas

• Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB): I study the roles of LAB in food fermentation, with a focus on their genetic and metabolic responses to environmental stresses.
• Osmoresistance and c-di-AMP Pathways: My research investigates the genetic regulation of osmoresistance in LAB, aiming to improve their robustness in industrial fermentation processes.
• Current Projects
• Investigating LAB from plant-based sources for potential applications in food fermentation and innovative food ingredients production.

• Keywords: Lactic acid bacteria, food fermentation, osmoresistance, c-di-AMP, gene regulation, biotechnology.

My research has centred on elucidating the neural mechanisms underlying complex sensorimotor functions and motor learning through an interdisciplinary blend of cutting‐edge neuroscience and advanced computational methods. Early in my career, I pioneered the use of intraoperative microelectrode recording and stimulation to map the basal ganglia and thalamus, enabling precise modulation of motor functions via deep brain stimulation. Driven by my research interests, I embarked on a PhD journey in Prof. Tim Murphy’s lab at the University of British Columbia (UBC) where I was honoured with the Scholarships from the International Alliance of Translational Neuroscience. Prof Tim Murphy’s lab develops cutting-edge neurophysiological techniques to probe the complex information flow in the brain during sensorimotor processing. I co-led the development of intact skull chronic windows for mesoscopic wide‐field imaging in awake mice, a now widely adopted technique described in Silasi, Xiao et al., 2016 (co-first author, 241 citations). I also pioneered methodologies for mapping functional connectivity between cortical mesoscopic networks and subcortical single spiking neurons (Xiao et al., 2017. 151 citations). My research integrates artificial intelligence and computer vision to automate the exploratory analysis of the rich neural and behavioural video datasets. I have combined chronic, simultaneous wide‐field imaging, multi‐site electrophysiology using the Mesotrode (Xiao et al., 2023), and advanced machine learning tools (e.g., MesoNet, Xiao et al., 2021, Nat. Commun.) to capture and quantify large‐scale neuronal spatiotemporal patterns associated with a specific motor act, such as self-initiated running, reaching and orofacial movements. I also co-developed a 3D virtual mouse model that translates 2D behavioural videos into a 3D model space, enabling more detailed analysis of mouse behaviours, and established a standardised behavioural framework to disentangle movement dynamics from unrelated factors. This work was featured on the cover of Nature Methods (Bolaños, Xiao et al., 2021. co-first author). I contributed to the development of real-time systems for selectively tracking mouse body movements. This work paves the way for advanced "closed loop" brain-computer interfaces, facilitating understanding of the neural basis of behavioural control (Forys, Xiao et al., 2018, 2020. co-first author). My recent work in the Balbi lab at the University of Queensland on continuous auditory feedback demonstrates that real-time, movement-coded auditory cues can significantly accelerate fine motor skill learning in mice (Xiao and Balbi, eNeuro), exemplifying how augmented sensory input can promote motor performance. Similarly, my contributions to real-time EEG-based asynchronous error prediction in human–robot interaction using machine learning (Xiao et al., under revision) and the development of MesoGAN—a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) framework that generates realistic behavioural videos from neural decoding of wide-field cortical calcium dynamics (Xiao et al., under revision)— highlighting my commitment to bridging neuroscience with adaptive robotics and AI.

Dr Zixi Xie is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering and leads a subgroup within the Functional Materials Engineering (FME) Lab. She earned her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Sydney, where she focused on metal-organic frameworks and stimuli-responsive materials, investigating properties of magnetism, negative thermal expansion, and negative linear compressibility.

Her current research explores a wide range of advanced materials, including amorphous and glassy functional membrane materials, light-emitting materials, and piezoelectric materials. These materials are being developed for diverse applications such as gas separation, energy storage, next-generation light-emitting devices, and sensors. Her work aims to combine fundamental material design with application-driven innovation. She was awarded the AINSE Early Career Researcher Grant in recognition of her promising research contributions.

Dr Xie is also actively engaged in research translation and commercialisation. Her innovative work on flexible thin-film lighting devices has received Pathfinder funding from UniQuest to support R&D, raise technology readiness levels (TRL), and advance the commercialisation of next-generation LED technologies. She participated in CSIRO’s ON Prime program to build industry connections and explore market pathways.