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Mary is a musician and researcher in the psychology of music, which involves applying psychological science theory and methods to study human thought, feeling and behaviour in relation to music. Her research conjoins art and science, using neurophysiological, behavioural, quantitative and qualitative techniques, to gain insights into how humans generate and audiences respond to music, and the impact this can have on individuals and groups. Mary's interdisciplinary research includes work in music perception and cognition, human action and interaction through music performance, audience engagement and development, music in the early childhood period, and promoting individual and community wellbeing through active participation in music performance. As a percussionist, Mary has performed with orchestras such as the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and has performed nationally and internationally as a chamber and solo musician.

Stephan Brouwer (ORCiD: 0000-0002-9777-2992) is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Queensland. With expertise in bacterial pathogenesis, encompassing both Gram-negative and Gram-positive human pathogens, his research explores the interaction between infectious disease agents and the human host. Much of his work focuses on understanding and preventing disease caused by the human pathogen Group A Streptococcus (GAS; Streptococcus pyogenes). He is at the forefront of the global effort to characterise a scarlet fever outbreak which began in North Asia in 2011, and his current research themes centre around the emergence of new hypervirulent GAS lineages that pose a major public health threat. Stephan utilises modern molecular technologies to study host-pathogen interactions and identify the genetic requirements for GAS to cause disease, with the aim to pursue the development of life-saving therapeutic and preventative advances. He has published his findings in Top Tier journals and helped to establish a sentinel hospital surveillance system in Australia to monitor the importation of GAS isolates causing epidemic scarlet fever.

Stephan completed his PhD in 2015 at one of Germany’s most respected research institutes, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), where he conducted research on post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms in the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. He then moved to Australia to join the group of Prof. Mark Walker at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, where he is working eversince.

I'm a senior lecturer in marketing at the UQ Business School. My expertise lies in the domain of digital marketing strategy. Study after study suggests that firms and marketers are having difficulty “becoming digital”. I spend my days investigating the nature of the challenge and determining what leading marketing organisations can do to rapidly increase their digital sophistication. Consumers are inundated with meaningless messages and making your brand stand out – in any language, or on any device, is a major challenge. As Australia’s first PhD in digital marketing, I have a long-game perspective on digital transformation. The majority of my research examines how brands can engage with their markets in more meaningful ways. Transferring your business to digital is easy but being human is not. I therefore specialise in studying how consumers respond best to digital communications, with a particular interest in issues of data retention and and privacy. My background is in telecommunications and I have consulted with several firms and government bodies in the areas of digital marketing strategy. I have taught extensively at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. If you’re interested in learning more about the kind of work I do or if you’d like to explore how we might be able to work together, please reach out to me via the contact details listed here.

Melissa is no longer active in research, and so is unable to supervise new students.

BIOGRAPHY

Melissa Brown completed her PhD at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne in 1993, on the structure and regulation of genes encoding colony-stimulating factor receptors in human leukaemia.

She then undertook postdoctoral training at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK) in London, funded firstly by an EMBO and then by an ICRF postdoctoral fellowship, working on the isolation and characterization of the first breast cancer susceptibility gene, BRCA1.

She joined The University of Queensland in 2000 as a Lecturer and is now a Professor and Executive Dean. In 2005 she undertook a six-month sabbatical at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at The University of Oxford.

The focus of Melissa’s research is cancer genetics, in particular understanding the transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of breast cancer genes and the impact of genetic variants on cancer risk and progression.

Dr Bena Brown is a clinician/researcher who brings her passion for caring for people with cancer and their families to her current role in the FNCWR team, where her focus is on delivering projects that optimise survivorship and cancer health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These projects include implementing novel models of care such as navigation and health behaviour intervention, optimising communication and access to services through the development and evaluation of culturally responsive resources.

Bena has more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, has presented at multiple national and international conferences, and has been awarded over $3.6 million in research grants.

She is also an Advanced Speech Pathologist (Cancer Care) at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital and provides RHD supervision for higher-degree students in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences in UQ's Health and Behavioural Sciences Faculty. Bena is a member of the Human Research and Ethics Committees at Metro South Health and serves on State-wide committees for the Queensland Collaborative for Cancer Survivorship and the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia (COSA) Patient-Reported Outcome Working Group.

Outside her research and clinical career, Bena is mum to two boisterous boys, a keen yogi, and passionate student and board member at Vulcana Circus.

Deborah Brown is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project. She is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and past President of the Australasian Association of Philosophy. Her research interests include philosophy of mind, with a particular focus on philosophical perspectives on pain, the history of philosophy, and applications of critical thinking in education and leadership development programs. Together with neuroscientist, Professor Brian Key, she helped establish UQ's first Neurophilosophy Lab and is on the steering committee for the Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research (CIPHeR), the largest consortium of pain health researchers in Australasia.

Riley is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Technology-enabled rehabilitation team at RECOVER Research Injury Centre. Riley joined RECOVER in May 2024.

Riley received his PhD from The University of Queensland in January 2024. His PhD project investigated the feasibility, effectiveness and uptake of digital health physical activity/exercise interventions in for patients living with complex chronic diseases.

Riley's research interests include assessing the influence of digital health exercise interventions for improving exercise adherence and clinical outcomes in chronic disease (sustainable exercise practice), and optimising monitoring tools for exercise interventions.

Professor Brown's research interests focus on physical activity and the prevention and management of chronic illness at a population level. To date, much of her research has been in the areas of obesity and the health and well being of Australian women.

Professor Wendy Brown joined the UQ School of Human Movement Studies in 2000 as the first professor in physical activity and health. Her educational qualifications are in human biology and physiology, exercise physiology, and health and physical education. She has had a diverse career path, working in both secondary and tertiary education, as well as public and private health promotion. Prior to her move to Queensland, she was the Director of the Research Institute for Gender and Health at the University of Newcastle, where she was a founding investigator and manager of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health. This project has been tracking the health of over 40,000 women for ten years. She was also a Chief Investigator on the "10,000 Steps Rockhampton" project which aimed to increase the physical activity levels of a community of approximately 60,000 people. In addition to her teaching and research commitments, she devotes considerable time to professional and policy development through her work with government departments, the National Heart Foundation, and Sports Medicine Australia. In the last five years, she has contributed to research grants with a value of more than $26,000,000, published more than 120 articles in national and international journals, and written numerous research reports.

Dr Aimee Brownbill is an ARC Early Career Industry Fellow with the Centre for Digital Cultures and Societies and the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education.

Aimee has a PhD in Medicine (Public Health) and has contributed to collaborative applied research informing public health policy for several years. A key focus of her work to-date has been on the commercial determinants of health, particularly the influence of marketing practices on health and wellbeing.

Aimee is currently leading a program of work on digital marketing by harmful industries such as alcohol, gambling and highly processed unhealthy foods, exploring potential avenues for regulation in this space. She has been awarded an ARC Early Career Industry Fellowship to further explore this topic. The project will offer researchers, civil society and government with new methods to examine and monitor digital marketing practices and inform the development of consumer protection measures in the digital era.

Dr. Alex Bruce came to the T.C Beirne School of Law at The University of Queensland from the Australian National University College of Law where he taught full-time between 2004-2020. Before then, Alex worked as a Senior Lawyer with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission managing all aspects of investigation, litigation and case-management in Competition and Consumer Law.

Alex teaches and researches in Competition Law, Consumer Protection Law and Animal Law in Australia, Oxford and Spain and his PhD in law from the Australian National University explored the intersection of Competition & Consumer Law and Philosophies of Animal Ethics. He has written leading texts in all three legal disciplines which are currently prescribed at over 25 Universities across Australia. He has also completed a DPhil in Comparative Theology at the University of Oxford where his thesis explored the relationship between Identity, Contemplation and Spiritual Progression in Patristic Christian Theology and Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy. Alex has twice been conferred the ANU Vice Chancellor’s Award and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Alex is a fully ordained monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition having taken his Bhiksụ (Gelong) vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He has been a monk for 20 years and is a regular speaker at international comparative religion conferences including with the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue at the Vatican. Alex also researches and works in the areas of Buddhist Philosophy, Christian Theology, Comparative Ethical Theory (particularly Aristotelian Virtue Ethics), Ancient History & Classics and works with Attic Greek and Classical Tibetan Languages.

Professor Michael Brünig is the Head of School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at The University of Queensland (UQ), a role he took over in 2016 but with an interruption from 2019-2021 to lead UQ’s Business School.

Prof Brünig is a strategic thinker, an innovation expert, and an experienced change manager with international experience from Europe, the United States, and Australia. He is passionate about building strong performing teams and has experience in bringing large projects with substantial funding to fruition, igniting entrepreneurial spirit in students and staff, and driving impact from research through partnering, commercialisation and spin-off companies.

Before joining UQ, Prof Brünig worked with the CSIRO. As an executive manager with the organisation, he led an initiative to establish a $140m National Research Flagship on Digital Productivity and later guided the business through a merger to create Data61, a national research powerhouse focusing on data innovation. Professor Brünig started his career in research and development in the automotive industry in Germany and Silicon Valley in the United States after completing his PhD at RWTH Aachen, Germany.

Prof Brünig is a sought-after expert with respect to research translation. He sits on multiple boards as non-executive director, is technical advisor to start-up companies in Australia and is frequently consulted as a subject matter expert. Within UQ, Prof Brünig has helped to create UQ Ventures and UQ Innovate, units that foster entrepreneurship among students and academics and provide the creative environment to be successful.

Under Prof Brünig’s leadership, UQ started multiple significant initiatives, including UQ Cyber, the National Industry 4.0 Energy Testlab, the AI Initiative and with partners the QLD Government AI Hub. He is also highly influential in shaping UQ’s curriculum. He initiated the Bachelor of Computer Science, the Master of Cyber Security that is modelled using the US National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education framework and UQ’s first full online Master of Business Analytics. He also was a key contributor to creating the Graduate Certificate in Clinical Informatics and Digital Health.

Darryn Bryant's research interests are in combinatorics, specifically in graph theory and design theory.

He received his PhD from The University of Queensland in 1993. His current research projects concern fundamental open problems on graph decompositions and a new design theory-based approach to signal sampling via compressed sensing.

Andrea Bubenik is an expert in Renaissance and Baroque Art, and the continued reception of early modern visual culture. She is an Associate Professor in Art History in the School of Communication and Arts, and was the Director of the UQ Node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions between 2019-2022. Her research interests include early modern printmaking, links between art and science, court cultures and collecting, and histories of reception for both iconic and lesser known works of art.

Her books include The Persistence of Melancholia in Art and Culture (edited, 2019), Perspectives on the Art of Wenceslaus Hollar (co-edited with Anne Thackray, 2016), and Reframing Albrecht Dürer: The Appropriation of Art, 1528-1700 (2013), which was awarded the AAANZ best book prize (2014). Andrea’s forthcoming monograph, Living Pictures: The Renaissance Artist-Scientist explores the afterlives of the animal, plant, and rock studies by Albrecht Dürer and Leonardo da Vinci, and is supported by a grant from AIAH/AAANZ.

Andrea's international profile includes visiting fellowships at the Warburg Institute in London, the Central Institute of Art History (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte) in Munich, the Institute of Art History (Ustav Dějin Umění) in Prague, and the Huntington Library in LA. Andrea is a strong advocate for collaboration with arts and culture institutions and the translation of academic research into more public platforms. She curated two major exhibitions at the UQ Art Museum: Ecstasy: Baroque and Beyond (2017), and Five Centuries of Melancholia (2014), both accompanied by exhibition catalogues. She also delivers an annual public art history course at QAGOMA (Queensland Gallery of Art), and has given public lectures at galleries in Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, and the UK.

As an experienced teacher and supervisor, with more than twenty successful supervisions at the Honours, MPhil and PhD levels, Andrea is especially proud of her students’ successes. She supervises local, national, and international internship placements in art galleries and museums, and developed an undergraduate study abroad option for UQ students, ‘Art and Architecture in Venice’ which takes place on site in Venice, Italy. She welcomes expressions of interest from prospective HDR students.