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Professor in Clinical Psychology at UQ and affiliate Professor at Nottingham Trent University (UK). Her research focuses on social (non-medical) interventions for mental health such as music, arts and nature based programs.

• Course Convenor:

PSYC7291 Cognitive Behaviour Therapies for Adults

PSYC3102 Psychopathology

• Journals:

Associate Editor, Psychology of Music

• Professional Roles:

Cuture and the Arts on Prescription lead, Australian Social Prescribing Institute for Research and Education (ASPIRE)

Member, Arts Health Network QLD (AHNQ) committee.

Professor Annette Dobson's research interests are in: Biostatistics (generalised linear modelling, clinical biostatistics, statistical methods relevant to longitudinal studies), and Epidemiology (tobacco control, cardiovascular disease, women's health).

Teaching Themes: Clinical Audiology, Rehabilitative Audiology, Paediatric Audiology.

Research interests: Paediatric Audiology, Hearing Screening, Animal-Assisted Services.

Publications: 130+ peer-reviewed journal articles, 3 edited books, 12 book chapters, 80+ conference abstracts.

Editorial Boards: People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice (PAIJ); Animals

Reviewer: International Journal of Audiology; European Journal of Neurology; International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology; Journal of the American Academy of Audiology; BMC Health Services Research Journal; Journal of Hearing Science; Audiology Research; Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research; Ear & Hearing; Pediatrics - The Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics; Journal of Educational, Pediatric, and (Re)habilitational Audiology; American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities; International Archives of Otorhinolaryngology.

Professional Memberships: Audiological Australia; Animals & Society Institute; UQ Partnership in Animal Wellbeing (UQ PAW); Human-Animal Interaction Section 13 Division 17 of the American Psychological Association.

Originally from Ireland, Rebecca Dunlop completed her BSc (Honours) degree in Environmental Biology followed by her PhD in fish neuroethology, both from The Queen’s University of Belfast. She migrated Australia in 2004 to undertake a post-doc in humpback whale social communication at UQ where the research resulted in a number of highly cited papers, solidifying her international reputation as a leader and expert in large whale communication and social behaviour. She then began lecturing in the School of Veterinary Science in 2010, mainly in animal physiology and moved to the School of Biological Sciences in 2021 to take up a lecturing position in animal behaviour and physiology.

Research

Rebecca'a research interests are in animal physiology, behaviour, and communication. She mainly works on humpback whales, though has worked on bottlenose dolphins, beaked whales, pilot whales, and false killer whales. Her lab focuses on four main research areas: cetacean acoustic communication, hearing, and behaviour; the effects of noise on humpback communication, behaviour, and physiology; humpback whale social behaviour; and endocrine physiology in cetaceans. Her past and current PhD students and honours students all work within these core research areas.

She is, or has been, a P.I in several large collaborative projects aimed at determining the effects of noise on large whale behaviour and hearing in large whales. Understanding underwater noise impacts on marine mammals is a scientific area that is growing due to interest from the Navy, Oil and Gas companies, the vessel industry and from other ocean stakeholders such as whale watching companies.

Her work on social behaviour and reproductive behaviour uses a combination of behavioural and physiological indicators of reproductive status as well as stress and she currently has an endocrinology lab based at Moreton Bay Research Station. She also collaborates with researchers within the school of veterinary science to develop projects on large whale health and disease.

Dr Rachel Elphinston is a Senior Research Fellow at Recover Injury Research Centre at The University of Queensland and clinical psychologist with more than a decade of industry-related experience. Her research interests focus on the psychological risk factors for pain and disability following injury, integrated pain treatments, pain medicines use, and the influence of social media. She has designed and implemented research projects examining factors associated with perceived injustice following road traffic crashes, psychosocial factors associated with prescription opioid use in individuals with chronic pain, the effectiveness of brief psychological risk-targeted telehealth interventions, and the role of social media messaging in policy implementation following the up-scheduling of codeine. She has received industry funding to co-design, develop and test feasibility of a psychological brief intervention to reduce risk of prescription opioid-related harm in patients with chronic pain. Dr Elphinston has a current appointment with Addiction and Mental Health Services in Metro South Health and has experience in working in multidisciplinary clinical and research teams to translate research into practice and design and implement new models of care. She also has experience in delivering education and training to a wide range of health professionals and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Prof Darryl Eyles is the head of the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research Developmental Neurobiology laboratory. One of Darryl’s research directions is focused on how known risk-factors for schizophrenia change the way the brain develops. His group have established the biological plausibility of various epidemiological risk factors for this disease including developmental vitamin D deficiency, prenatal hypoxia and maternal immune activation. Strikingly all these exposures affect the early development and later differentiation of early dopamine neurons. A second major focus is on understanding the effects of increased dopamine release in selective circuits and how this may be causal in schizophrenia. A third major interest is in factors such as the gut microbiome, and how increased testosterone contribute to altered brain function related to autism.

Dr Jon Fanning is a dedicated clinician with 15 years’ experience in clinical medicine including specialist training in Anaesthesia, Intensive care, and Neurology. Passionate about advancing clinical research and advocating for clinician-researchers, Jon balances research leadership, teaching and mentoring alongside his own research and active medical practice. Jon’s career includes a diverse research portfolio with a strong focus on harm minimisation (especially neurological injury) in operative and critical care settings. He has undertaken dedicated training in clinical trials (University of Oxford Clinical Trials Unit, UK), and in epidemiology (Harvard University, USA). In 2022 Jon undertook a Visiting Fulbright Scholarship in Cardiac intensive care and ECMO (Cardiovascular Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Johns Hopkins Medicine, USA).

To facilitate innovative discovery and advances in the fields of perioperative medicine, clinical trials, and ECMO, Jon invests considerable effort in building research capacity through collaboration with national and international research institutions. Valuing the diverse perspectives of multidisciplinary colleagues at all stages of their career, Jon recruits and supervises senior scientists, clinician-researchers and top PhD and MPhil students and looks to repay the generosity he has received from supervisors and mentors.

Additionally, Jon fosters research networks and ensures research integrity through leadership positions such as current positions as co-chair of the Queensland Cardiovascular Research Network; and as Expert Panel Member and writing committee representative for Therapeutic Guidelines.

Dr Fleming is an occupational therapist and researcher in the field of brain injury rehabilitation. Her PhD completed in 1996 was on the topic of the development of self-awareness following traumatic brain injury. She has continued to pursue collaborative research on role of metacognitive factors in brain injury rehabilitation. Other research interests include prospective memory assessment and rehabilitation, community integration and the transition from hospital to the community, and psychosocial adjustment and outcomes following acquired brain injury, as well as lifetime care and support for people with complex neurological disability. She is Professor of Occupational Therapy at The University of Queensland, and is a Fellow of the Occupational Therapy Australia Research Academy, member of the American Occupational Therapy Research Academy, a Fellow of the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment, and Co-Editor of Brain Impairment.

Kwun is a Thoracic and Sleep Physician at The Prince Charles Hospital and University of Queensland Thoracic Research Centre (UQTRC). His research interests are focussed on making and translating research discoveries to improving outcomes and the health of people who are affected by lung disease particularly lung cancer screening/early detection and biomarkers. The UQTRC is also passionate at enabling productive collaborations to maximise research impact and scale with contributions to The Cancer Genome Atlas Project, Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG), IASLC Lung Cancer Staging Project and others.

Dr Cathy Franklin is Director of the Queensland Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability and Autism Health. As a psychiatrist and researcher, she has spent two decades improving health and mental health outcomes for people with intellectual disability and those on the autism spectrum through clinical care, service innovation, education and applied research.

Cathy is recognised as an Australian expert in her field, serving on the RANZCP Committee for the Section of Psychiatry of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, and the Executive Committee of the Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine.

As an ardent advocate, Dr Franklin’s submission to the Queensland Parliament Mental Health Select Committee in 2022 helped raise the profile of this area of need. The Committee subsequently made a recommendation that was accepted, leading to a Queensland Government $51.5M investment over four years to establish a Centre of Excellence and 12 intellectual and developmental disability mental health teams statewide.

Cathy's research centres on improving health outcomes for people with intellectual disability and those on the autism spectrum. She has expertise in Down syndrome and is an international expert in Down syndrome regression disorder.

Cathy has successfully led successful applications to secure over $11M in competitive research and project funding in the last seven years. She also led her centre's partnership in the University of New South Wales consortium that secured $23.9M (2022-2026) to establish the National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health.

Key projects Dr Franklin has led include the co-designed EASY Health project ($3.2M 2020-2026), which introduced Australia's first online education for mainstream clinicians featuring actors with disabilities. Now available across Queensland Health and mandated in national Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, this education is transforming clinician perspectives and improving equitable access to healthcare.

Cathy is also Chief Investigator on the Bridge to Better Health project, a $1.4M NHMRC-funded initiative building primary care nurses' capacity to deliver healthcare and improve outcomes for people with intellectual disability.

Cathy helped establish the Down Syndrome Medical Interest Group-Australia and co-chairs the Regression and Mental Health workgroup of the Down Syndrome Medical Interest Group-USA. She leads her centre's contribution to the international Down syndrome consortium led by Massachusetts General Hospital.

In 2020 she was awarded the Mater Research Sister Regis Dunne award for Outstanding Contribution to research relative to opportunity and in 2025, the Women in Technology "Lifting Communities" award.

Professor Ian Frazer is a clinician scientist, trained as a clinical immunologist in Scotland. As a professor at the University of Queensland, he leads a research group working at TRI in Brisbane, Australia on the immunobiology of epithelial cancers. He is recognised as co-inventor of the technology enabling the HPV vaccines, currently used worldwide to help prevent cervical cancer. He heads a biotechnology company, Jingang Medicine (Aus) Pty Ltd, working on new vaccine technologies, and is a board member of several companies and not for profit organisations. He was the inaugural president of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, and a member of the Australian National Science and Technology Council. He chairs the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board of the Medical Research Future Fund.

He was recognised as Australian of the Year in 2006. He was recipient of the Prime Ministers Prize for Science, and of the Balzan Prize, in 2008, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2012. He was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2013.

Maher Gandhi received his medical degree in the UK in 1989, and then trained as a haematologist, including a Fellowship in malignant haematology at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto. He was awarded a PhD in immunology at Cambridge University under Patrick Sissons. He moved to Brisbane and from 2003-2024 worked as a Senior Staff Specialist (Pre-Eminent Status) in the Haematology / Oncology Department of the Princess Alexandra Hospital. He leads his own laboratory group and has established an international reputation studying the tumour immune microenvironment in lymphoma and its manipulation, with continuous NHMRC/MRFF funding since 2005. He was Chair of Laboratory Sciences for the Australasian Leukaemia and Lymphoma Group between 2010-2016, won the prestigious Australian Society of Medical Research Clinical Research Award in 2010 and in 2012 took up the inaugural John McCaffrey Cancer Council of Queensland / Office of Health and Medical Research Clinical Research Fellowship. Between 2011-2014 he was privileged to serve as Chair of the Metro South Human Research Ethics Committee. In 2013 he was appointed Professor of Experimental Haematology, University of Queensland, based at the Translational Research Institute, in 2014 became the inaugural Leukaemia Foundation Chair of Blood Cancer Research at the University of Queensland Frazer Institute, and was appointed Cancer Program Head in 2016. In 2018 he became Executive Director and Director of Clinical Research at Mater Research. He also continues to head the Blood Cancer Research Group, which is based in Mater Research. In 2025 to current, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Translational Research Institute and its manufacturing branch TM@TRI, to serve Queenslanders by transforming health through collaborative research.

Dr Elise Gane graduated with a Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours Class I) and a University Medal for academic achievement from The University of Queensland in 2008. She worked as a physiotherapist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (2009-2013), a quaternary public hospital, treating complex patients across the continuum of care from Intensive Care and post-surgical wards to inpatient rehabilitation and outpatient services. In 2014, Elise commenced her PhD with The University of Queensland, focussed on measuring the musculoskeletal side effects at the neck and shoulder that result from neck dissection surgery for head and neck cancer. Following the awarding of her PhD in early 2018, Elise was employed as a post doctoral researcher at the RECOVER Injury Research Centre (UQ) exploring return to work and social roles after road traffic crash. Since January 2019, Elise has fulfilled the role of Physiotherapy Conjoint Research Fellow between the School of Health and Rehabiltiation Sciences (UQ) and the Princess Alexandra Hospital Physiotherapy Department. In this role, Elise mentors physiotherapists in health service-based research (both qualitative and quantitative) whilst also pursuing her own research interests, including a telehealth cancer exercise program. She teaches a research course in systematic review methodology to students in the Physiotherapy Graduate Entry Masters program.

Elise's areas of research interest include codesign, implementation science, allied health led-models of care, oncology rehabiltiation, lymphoedema, chronic disease, physical activity (particularly in rehabilitation settings, chronic disease, or the workplace), and musculoskeletal health.

Professor Coral Gartner is an international expert in tobacco control policy and the world's leading expert on electronic nicotine delivery systems (or e-cigarettes). She is the Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame (Tobacco Endgame CRE), an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, and the Chair of the Interdisciplinary Tobacco Endgame Research Network, the country lead Investigator for Australia with the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project), and a Co-Investigator with the SewAUs Wastewater Epidemiology Project. She is currently the Director of Research at the University of Queensland's School of Public Health, the Regional Editor for Australasia for the BMJ journal, Tobacco Control, after serving as a senior editor from 2012-2018. She is the immediate Past President of the Oceania Chapter of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT-O).

She leads a multidisciplinary research team of international experts (located in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, England, and the Netherlands) to develop the evidence base for tobacco endgame strategies and to identify the most promising policies that could end the cigarette epidemic in Australia, and beyond. Her research program includes consideration of how these policies could be implemented, while mitigating potential unintended impacts and increasing equity. Her research methods span cohort studies, clinical trials, policy analyses, simulation modelling and mixed methods research.

Professor Gartner joined the University of Queensland in 2006. With undergraduate qualifications in environmental health and a PhD in environmental epidemiology, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship on tobacco control policy and held a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (2014-2018). In 2019, she led the development of UQ’s flagship cross-faculty postgraduate programs in Environmental Health Sciences.

Professor Gartner has published over 300 academic works, including journal articles, book chapters, and submissions to government inquiries, and has served as an expert witness to a number of government inquiries and consultations. She has also authored articles on tobacco control topics for The Conversation.

Professor Kristen Gibbons is Group Lead of the Children’s Intensive Care Research Program at the Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Co-Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Paediatric Study Group (ANZICS PSG).

Professor Gibbons holds qualifications in mathematics, information technology, biostatistics, and research communication, and completed her PhD in Biostatistics at UQ. Her career has been dedicated to transforming outcomes for critically ill children through the design and delivery of large-scale international clinical trials and the development of innovative digital platforms to support high-quality research.

She has been instrumental in leading landmark studies, including the NITRIC trial, the largest trial ever undertaken in paediatric congenital heart disease surgery. This trial demonstrated no benefit of using nitric oxide during cardiopulmonary bypass, changing clinical practice internationally and influencing guidance from the American Academy of Paediatrics. Alongside this, Professor Gibbons has pioneered a comprehensive clinical trials digital platform now used across more than 20 projects and 10,000 patient records worldwide.

Professor Gibbons’ research spans clinical trial methodologies, epidemiology, machine learning, prediction modelling, and bioethics, with a strong commitment to improving consent practices in paediatric and adult intensive care research. Her leadership has attracted over $22 million in competitive grant funding, including major NHMRC and MRFF awards, and her contributions have been recognised with the UQ Faculty of Medicine Leader of the Future Award (2023) and the Child Health Research Centre Collaborator of the Year Award (2024).

She is also deeply invested in training and mentoring the next generation of clinician-researchers and data scientists, supervising PhD, Masters, and biostatistics students.

Wendy Goodwin is a clinical veterinary anaesthetist and academic at the School of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland since 2010. She received her veterinary degree and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Queensland, with her doctoral research focused on 'Studies of Alfaxalone in Horses'. Wendy is a registered specialist veterinary anaesthetist and Fellow of the Australian & New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists in Veterinary Anaesthesia and Critical Care, and additionally holds Membership in Equine Medicine.

Wendy is internationally recognized for her expertise with the anaesthetic molecule alfaxalone in various formulations across multiple species. Her doctoral research established foundational knowledge on alfaxalone use in horses, and she has continued to advance the understanding of this important anaesthetic agent through her ongoing research. This expertise encompasses both traditional and novel alfaxalone formulations, dosing strategies, and applications across species ranging from companion animals to large animals and laboratory species.

Beyond her alfaxalone expertise, Wendy is passionate about veterinary anaesthesia and analgesia, having dedicated the majority of her professional career to pursuing excellence in this field. Her clinical anaesthetic experience has covered a wide range of species including horses, small animal companion animals, farm animals, avian and exotic animals and animals used in scientific research. Her research portfolio spans veterinary anaesthetic safety culture, innovative pain management and total intravenous anaesthesia techniques, critical care, traumatic haemorrhage and injury, and translational large animal models for medical research.

Beyond traditional anaesthetic research, Wendy examines leadership and workplace culture in veterinary practice, investigating how leadership styles impact error disclosure and safety climate. She continues to publish in peer-reviewed journals and present at international conferences, demonstrating her ongoing commitment to advancing veterinary anaesthesia and improving both clinical outcomes and professional wellbeing.

Dr. Richard Gordon leads a multi-disciplinary, industry-partnered research program in Translational Neuroscience which integrates immunology, drug development, pharmacology, metabolomics and microbial metagenomics. His group aims to understand and therapeutically target key pathological mechanisms which drive the onset and progression of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Their work combines target validation studies in human patients with mechanistic insights from disease models to develop and test novel therapeutic strategies that can be translated towards clinical trials.

Key research themes within this program include:

• Understanding how chronic immune and inflammasome activation contribute to neurodegeneration in the CNS
• The role of gut dysbiosis and gastrointestinal dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease pathophysiology
• Therapeutic targeting of the gut-brain axis for neuroprotection
• Drug discovery, development and repositioning for novel therapeutic targets
• Discovery and validation of clinical biomarkers for PD and ALS
• Clinical trials for disease-modifying therapeutic strategies