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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).

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.

Wenqiang is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Responsibility in Mining (CERM), Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland. His research focuses on the hydrogeochemistry and hydrogeology of mine waste, particularly acid and neutral metalliferous drainage (AMD/NMD). He has led projects for BHP/BMA on spoil and tailings management and contributed to projects with CRC TiME and RTCM Trailblazer on long-term monitoring of mine waste behaviour, mine closure and rehabilitation. He completed his PhD at The University of Queensland, focusing on desiccation of tailings and salt migration in cover systems. His expertise includes hydro-geochemical and geotechnical characterisation of mine waste, multi-scale kinetic test design, soil cover system monitoring and performance assessment, environmental risk assessment of mine waste, as well as numerical modelling of water, solute, and heat transport in unsaturated soil.

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.

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.

• 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 12 research grants (> 4 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 ARC DP to develop nanoparticle with ultra-high MRI signal for sensor applications, 1 UQ ECR grant, 1 NSFC grant, and another 3 grants from universities.

Research Output: Dr Zhang has published about 200 research papers since his first publication in 2010 (~110 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 more than 11,000 citations with an H-index of 60. He has 9 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, 7/85 in Biochemical Research), 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 >40 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 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 by Stanford/Elsevier World’s Top 2% Scientist Ranking, and top 0.5% of all scholars worldwide for excellence in research productivity, impact and quality by ScholarGPS Ranking (ranked #183 Globally in Biomedical Engineering). He has delivered 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 5 "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 10 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 UQ are recognised by twice nominations of "Dean’s Commendation for Excellent Teaching Awards" in semesters 1 and 2 in 2022 by the students.

I am currently working on a project investigating intensive hard-rock preconditioning for underground mining, specifically focusing on how hydraulic fracturing and confined blasting support the block caving method.

My research journey began with coal seam gas transport and expanded into proppant transport in hydraulic fractures, leading to my current focus on rock mass preconditioning. With an academic and research background spanning mining, geotechnical, and petroleum engineering, I am passionate about leveraging numerical modeling and emerging AI methods to tackle complex engineering challenges in reservoir simulation, multiphase and granular flow, and rock fragmentation.

I am a senior bioinformatician at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, with over 20 years of experience in next-generation sequencing (NGS) data analysis. My career began with the greenfield development of three major NGS platforms: 454, Illumina, and SOLiD. This early experience laid the foundation for my extensive expertise in bioinformatic analysis across a wide range of NGS data types.

While bioinformaticians are often positioned in service-oriented roles, my work has consistently extended beyond service delivery. For example, as the leader of the bioinformatics core facility at the Queensland Brain Institute from 2012 to 2022, my primary responsibilities included providing bioinformatics support, but I also actively contributed to project design, supervised PhD and Master’s students, and maintained a strong research profile.

To date, I have authored 45 peer-reviewed publications, with more than one-third as first, co-first, or last author. According to SciVal, over 57.8% of my publications rank in the top 10% most cited in their respective fields. My research spans the development of novel bioinformatics tools, such as the TRIAGE R package for regulatory analysis of both bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data (Briefings in Bioinformatics, 2025), as well as studies in single-cell transcriptomics (Nature Communications, 2025; Developmental Cell, 2024), lncRNA analysis (Molecular Psychiatry, 2024; Nature Communications, 2023), integrative analysis of ATAC-seq and lncRNA data (Cell Reports, 2022), de novo transcriptome assembly (Development, 2022), noncanonical Z-DNA structure analysis (Nature Neuroscience, 2020), m6dA DNA modification analysis (Nature Neuroscience, 2019), whole-exome sequencing analysis (Genome Medicine, 2017), and cross-ethnic meta-analysis (Nature Communications, 2017), reflecting a broad and sustained contribution across multiple areas of genomics and computational biology.

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 Clean Energy, AI, and Climate Change, with groundbreaking studies on wave-structure interactions -- showcased by his multiple publications in Journal of Fluid Mechanics and 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.

Dr Weiming Zhao is an ARC DECRA Fellow (2026 - 2029) in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland. His research sits at the intersection of robotics, human behaviour, and infrastructure, focusing on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and the interactions between Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) and human drivers in mixed traffic. Using control theory and machine learning, including Model Predictive Control and Mathematica-based modelling, he develops trajectory planning solutions for CAVs at intersections and highway merging areas, aiming to improve safety, efficiency, and energy use in both urban and highway settings.

Dr Zhao completed his PhD at the University of Leeds, followed by a postdoctoral position at Aalto University. He joined UQ as a postdoc in 2022, before commencing his DECRA fellowship in 2026. His current DECRA project, Make Automated Vehicles Personalised and Socialised, investigates how control methods for automated vehicles can align with human driver behaviour to build trust.