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BIO:

Noun (n): I am a Professor in polymer processing in Chemical Engineering, a chief investigator in Advanced Materials Processing and Manufacturing (AMPAM) centre, a chief investigator/director of external links of the ARC industrial transformation training centre (ITTC) in bioplastics and biocomposites, a chief investigator in food and beverage accellerator (FaBA).and a chief investigator in the solving plastic waste cooperative research centre (spwCRC).

Verb (v): I work at the translational research interface between universities and industry. Specifically my research involves rheology, processing and product design of bio-based materials, polymers and nanocomposite materials. I lead translational research projects in biopolymers and biofluid platforms for agrifood, biomedical and high-value manufacturing sectors which attract government and industry funding; and produce patents, licences. industrial know-how as well as fundamental papers.

History (h): I have worked in industry (SRI international, Sola Optical, Moldflow), have worked in five cooperative research centres (CRCs -Food Packaging, Sugar Innovation, Polymers, Fighting Food Waste, Solving Plastic Waste), have acquired and managed continuous government and industry research projects since 1994, was heavily involved in the spinoff of Plantic Technologies from the CRC food packaging in 2002 (and ongoing research support with them until 2016), and was involved in the research that led to the TenasiTech (TPU nanocomposite) spinoff from UQ in 2007.I am a fellow of the institute of chemical engineers (IChemE) and a fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI). I am on the editorial board of the Plastics, Rubbers and Composites, Starch, the Journal of Renewable Materials, Green Materials and Functional Composite Materials-Springer-Nature. I have experience on the boards of the UQ Dow Centre, the UQ RTA Centre, and the UQ-HBIS Sustainable Steel Innovation Centre. I won IChemE Shedden Uhde Award and Prize for excellence in Chemical Engineering (2004), the CRC Sugar innovation award (2008), the CRCPolymers Chairman’s award for research and commercialisation (2011), and have received the CRC Association Technology Transfer Award, twice, in 2002 and 2015.

Research:

Current projects are focused on developing new sustainable and bio-based polymers and biochemicals from formulation through to degradation/disposal, understanding processing of nanostructured polymers, developing smarter biopolymers and materials for biomedical, drug delivery, food and high value applications, understanding rheology and processing of a range of polymer, foods and liquids and is involved in new initiatives in circular plastics.

Teaching and Learning:

My teaching has spanned Introduction to Engineering Design, Engineering Thermodynamics, Polymer Engineering, Process Economics, Research Thesis and Engineering Management. I am developing new courses in Sustainability and the Circular Economy. My overall teaching goal is to be a relevant, well organised, enthusiastic and empathetic enabler of learning using multiple teaching and learning modes, and be highly connected to current industrial practices and cutting edge research.

International links

I have been a visiting or invited professor at ENSICAEN-University, Caen, Normandy, University of Nottingham, Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Strasbourg and Institut national des sciences appliquées (INSA) de Lyon in France. I have strong international collaborations with the US Department of Agriculture, Albany, USA; Colorado School of Mines, USA; AnoxKaldnes, Sweden; University of Bradford, University of Warwick, University of Nottingham, University of Sheffield, UK, SCION, NZ; Michigan State University, USA, and many Australian universities.

Dr Anthony Halog: Expert in Circular Economy, Life Cycle Thinking, and Sustainable Systems Engineering

Dr Anthony Halog leads interdisciplinary research on circular economy transitions, life cycle assessment, and AI-enabled sustainable systems at The University of Queensland. With a mission to co-design decarbonised and circular solutions for complex global challenges, his work advances the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and supports UQ’s strategic priorities of research translation, education transformation, and community enrichment.

His research spans bioeconomy, green hydrogen, waste-to-energy, and climate policy systems, with over 130 scholarly outputs and fellowships from OECD, DAAD, JSPS, and NREL. He actively secures research funding, supervises HDR and EMCR researchers, and partners with industry, government, and international universities to foster innovation and impact.

Dr Halog teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programs on sustainable consumption, industrial ecology, and life cycle thinking. His teaching is informed by real-world research and student-centred pedagogies, with consistently strong SECaT feedback. He mentors diverse cohorts and champions experiential, inclusive, and future-focused education.

He serves on international panels and university committees, contributing to UQ’s mission through leadership, policy advice, and community engagement. Dr Halog exemplifies UQ’s values of excellence, sustainability, and global citizenship.

Keywords: Circular Economy, Life Cycle Assessment, Green Hydrogen, Sustainable Systems, AI for Sustainability, Industrial Ecology, ESG, Bioeconomy, Systems Thinking, Net Zero

Graeme is a Professor in Crop Science at the Centre for Crop Science in the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), which is a research institute of The University of Queensland, Australia.

Graeme conducts research on the physiology and genetics of complex adaptive traits in field crops with a focus on water productivity in cereals. His research underpins the development of mathematical models of crop growth, development and yield that enable simulation of consequences of genetic and management manipulation of crops in specific target environments.

His research approach provides unique opportunities to:

· Aid crop management and design for enhanced production in water-limited environments

· Enhance the utility of molecular breeding for drought adaptation, and

· Identify avenues to cope with climate risks in field crop production.

He is a Fellow of the Australian Agriculture Institute and was awarded the Australian Medal for Agricultural Science in 2013 and Farrer Memorial Medal in 2012.

I undertake multi-disciplinary collaborative research developing mathematical, computational and visualisation approaches and techniques that facilitate the research and education in animal and plant systems.

My major research theme is development of mathematical, computer graphics and simulation approaches and techniques that facilitate the study of genetics, physiology, morphogenesis and ecology at the scale of cells, individual plants and insects and their components. These developments in computational biology are being used to increase our understanding of the dynamics of morphogenesis, and as a tool in applied research and education.

Associate Professor Craig Hardner holds a bachelor in Forest Science awarded by the University of Melbourne, and BSc (Hons) and PhD from the University of Tasmania. Prior to his PhD, A/Prof Hardner worked as a Research Fellow at Swedish Agricultural University 1988-1990 supporting willow breeding for energy production. Between 1996-2007, A/Prof Hardner lead the CSIRO macadamia breeding program. A/Prof Hardner joined the University of Queensland in 2007 and commenced a joint appointment with Queensland Government as a research fellow in horticulture breeding and genetics. He has an extensive collaboration network in horticulture breeding and conservation including domestic and international organisations and Universities.

A/Prof Hardner was lead author on a 128 page review of macadamia genetics and domestication published in 2009 and is curator of macadamia cultivar descriptions for HortScience. He was awarded a Churchill fellowship in 2012 to travel to Hawaii to trace the domestication pathway of macadamia.

How do we feed the world, adapt to and mitigate climate change, and conserve biodiversity? My research addresses these critical questions by quantifying the trade-offs between agricultural production, climate change, and biodiversity in tropical agricultural landscapes. A key focus of my work is agroforestry—the strategic integration of trees into cultivated lands. While agroforests are not a one-size-fits-all solution, my research shows that agroforestry, when informed by a quantitative understanding of these trade-offs, can improve biodiversity and climate outcomes without compromising agricultural productivity.

Through fieldwork and conservation planning, and in collaboration with my wonderful colleagues at the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science (CBCS), I aim to understand how agricultural landscapes can be optimized across large geographic areas, to best meet conflicting goals and improve biodiversity outcomes. The goal of this work is to improve sustainability outcomes across West Africa, where tropical forests have been rapidly converted in order to produce 60% of the world’s cocoa.

Kathleen Herbohn is a Professor in financial accounting. She has a PhD from the University of Adelaide concerned with full cost environmental accounting by organisations managing multiple purpose natural resources. Kathleen's research is concerned with corporate social responsibility for issues such as climate change and tax transparency with a focus on how public data can be used in debt and equity markets to inform stakeholders about organisational performance. Her other research interests include the role of financial accounting in informing capital markets in areas of ambiguity (e.g. impairment, business and operating risk, biological assets) and the accounting profession.

Kathleen's publications have appeared in various journal including Accounting, Organizations and Society, The Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, The Journal of Business Ethics, Accounting and Finance Journal, The British Accounting Review, Accounting Research Journal and The Australian Accounting Review. She is also a co-author on the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth editions of the Issues in Financial Accounting textbook and an editor of a book published by Edward Elgar (Cheltenham, UK) on Sustainable Small-Scale Forestry: Socio-Economic Analysis.

Kathleen is currently a member of the Academic Advisory Panel of the Australian Accounting Standards Board and an Associate Editor of the Australian Accounting Review.

Professor Lee Hickey is a plant breeder and crop geneticist within the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at The University of Queensland, Australia. He is an ARC Future Fellow and Director of the ARC Training Centre in Predictive Breeding. His own research group specialises in plant breeding innovation to support development of more productive food crops, such as wheat, barley and chickpea. He has a strong interest in the integration of breeding technologies, such as genomic prediction, AI, speed breeding and genome editing. His advice for speed breeding crops is sought internationally and the technology is now adopted by plant breeding programs worldwide, which is fast-tracking development of improved crop varieties for farmers. His research outcomes have featured in >90 refereed publications, including articles in high profile journals Nature Plants, Nature Protocols and Nature Biotechnology. Lee is a prolific science communicator and his research outcomes have appeared in mainstream media such as BBC World News, National Geographic, and the New York Times. He is passionate about training the next generation of plant breeders and currently mentors 18 PhD students, while 20 of his previous graduates now work for leading plant breeding companies and high-profile research institutes around the globe.

Check out the Hickey Lab website here

Follow Professor Lee Hickey on X: @DrHikov

Research interests

• Speed breeding techniques to reduce the length of breeding cycles
• Understanding the genetics of physiological traits that support yield in different environments
• Integrating breeding technologies to accelerate genetic gain in breeding programs
• Innovative genomic selection methodologies
• Identifying novel sources of disease resistance

Jess has worked as a paediatric occupational therapist in private practice since graduating from her undergraduate degree. She gained additional training in animal-assisted therapy (canine and equine) in 2015 and became interested in the role animals could play in facilitating client motivation and engagement within therapy sessions. This interest led Jess to complete her PhD exploring the efficacy of canine-assisted occupational therapy with autistic children. Since completing her PhD Jess has continued her research into the impact of human-animal interaction to human and animal health and wellbeing resulting in a number of publications. In line with this research Jess is also the Co-director of The University of Queensland Animal-Assisted intervention Alliance, and the Community Engagement Manager for Animal Therapies Ltd. Jess is also qualified as a personal trainer and has clinical and research experience working to support people with disability engage in physical activity. Jess is a current researcher and coach within the UQ ParaSTART Program.

Key member of Services and Supply Networks Research Club

Nature-based rehabilitation science and technology, with a focus on ecological engineering of mine wastes (e.g., AMD-waste rocks, tailings (coal tailings, magnetite tailings, bauxite residues (or red mud), Cu/Pb-Zn tailings)) into earth materials (e.g., soil, engineered rocks) and resilient landforms for cost-effective sustainable rehabilitation at mine waste landscapes.

Professor Huang is a full professor and the group leader of Ecological Engineering in Mining, in the Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland. Since 2010, Prof Huang has pioneered new concepts and technological framework to manage and rehabilitate mine wastes (e.g., tailings, acidic and metalliferous waste rocks), through putting pedogenesis in engineering nutshell, i.e., eco-engineering of pedogenesis in mine wastes. He is leading an industry-enaged and interdisciplinary research group that is partnered with leading mining companies and empowered by multidisciplinary knowledge and skills on: environmental molecular microbiology, environmental mineralogy, soil science, native plant rhizosphere (micro)biology, soil-plant relations, and bio-chemical engineering of environmental materials (e.g., functional carbon and mineral absorbents, environmental geopolymers).

He is highly experienced in industry-partnered research and translation of knowledge into field-based technologies for tackling large environmental challenges in the mining industry, for example, technologies for tackling global tailings problem. Since 2010, he has led many large and industry-partnered research projects attracting about $21M funding. The research aims to deliver transformative knowledge and practices (i.e., technologies/methdologies) in the rehabilitation of mine wastes (e.g., tailings, mineral residues, spoils, waste rocks) and mined landscapes for non-polluting and ecologically and financially sustainable outcomes. Prof Huang has successfully demonstrated innovative methodology and technology to achieve nature-based outcomes in treating and rehabilitating tailings and waste rocks. Prof Huang’s research program was featured in Rio Tinto’s media releases as one of the four most successful global R&D partnerships in 2024. Prof Huang led the development of the first field-feasible technology to treat and dealkalize alkaline bauxite residues for sustainable rehabilitation. His industry-partnered research was recognised in 2019 UQ’s Partners in Research Excellence Award (Resilient Environments) (Rio Tinto and QAL). Prof Huang is also developing new knowledge and technologies for achieving non-polluting and ecologically sustainable rehabilitation of, for example, coal mine spoils and tailings, Fe-ore tailings, bauxite tailings (from mining bauxite), and Cu/Pb-Zn tailings.

Membership of Board, Committee and Society

Professional associations and societies

2010 – Present Australian Soil Science Society.

2023 – Present AuSIMM

2015 – Present American Society of Mining and Reclamation (ASMR)

Editorial boards/services

2025 - present: Member of Editorial Board, Energy & Environment Nexus

2022 – present: Associate editor (Soil), Reclamation Sciences

Awards & Patent

2019 UQ’s Partners in Research Excellence Award (Resilient Environments) (Rio Tinto and QAL)

2017 SMI-Industry Engagement Award, University of Queensland

2015 SMI-Inaugural Bright Research Ideas Forum Award, University of Queensland

2014 SMI-RHD Supervision Award, University of Queensland

2015 Foliar fertilizer US 20150266786. In. (Google Patents). Huang L, Nguyen AV, Rudolph V, Xu G (equal contribution)

Nick is interested in fostering efficient, environmentally friendly animal production enterprises. He uses the data and capabilities provided by modern 'omics technologies to help improve breeding decisions and to inform other types of 'on farm' intervention.

Nick has a parallel interest in the development, physiology, metabolism and conservation of native Australian species, particularly frogs and butterflies.

A metabolic biochemist by training Nick has research expertise in a) the handling and biological interpretation of large, complex data sets b) molecular technologies c) mitochondrial physiology and d) metabolic flux.

Before taking his current position as a Teaching and Research academic in the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability (AGFS) Nick worked for the CSIRO in a research intensive multi-disciplinary Systems Biology group.

While employed with the CSIRO he helped develop and apply bioinformatic methods that used metabolite, protein, RNA and DNA biotech to understand, model and predict phenotypes of commercial importance in cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens.

A research highlight from this time was the co-invention of a universal method for inferring causal molecules from genome-wide gene expression data (Hudson et al 2009. PLoS Comp Biol e1000382). This method has been applied across a diverse range of model systems including human kidney cancer (Al-Lamki et al 2020. Biology doi: 10.3390/biology9040074) and commercial traits in various agricultural species (e.g. Bottje et al 2017. BMC Syst Biol doi: 10.1186/s12918-017-0396-2).

Other notable publications have explored:

• How and why we appreciate music (Hudson 2011. BMC Res Notes doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-4-9)
• What we can learn from student evaluations of University lecturers (Reverter et al 2020. Cogent Education doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2020.1771830)
• The functional basis of hibernation (Hudson et al 2024. J Comp Biochem Physiol doi: 10.1016/j.cbpb.2024.110952 )
• Mitochondrial systems biology (e.g. Alexandre et al 2025. Biol Open doi: 10.1242/bio.061630 and Ingham et al 2014. BMC Syst Biol doi: 10.1186/1752-0509-8-10)
• A new translatable method in population genetics (Hudson et al 2014 BMC Bioinformatics doi: 10.1186/1471-2105-15-66)
• A contribution to the debate on the safety of encoding-based Covid vaccines (Parry et al 2023. Biomedicines doi: 10.3390/biomedicines11082287)
• And the physiological and molecular basis of two of the most enigmatic, complex traits in animal production science - beef marbling (Hudson et al 2020 BMC Genomics doi: 10.1186/s12864-020-6505-4) and feed conversion efficiency (Hudson 2009. J Anim Phys Nutr doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0396.2007.00791.x).

Following an undergraduate degree in Animal Biology at the University of St.Andrews, Nick was awarded his PhD through what was then the Zoology department of the University of Queensland, after travelling from England on a Britain-Australia Society funded Northcote Scholarship.

Nick enjoys teaching various aspects of biochemistry and molecular biology to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. He highlights the main biochemical themes using the comparative method with particular emphasis placed on wildlife and production species. The importance of these various themes is illustrated through applied examples taken from agriculture, sports science, biomedicine and other areas of human endeavour.

Dr Mark Jackson is a senior researcher at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), where his research focuses on developing innovative approaches to sustainable crop protection. His early postdoctoral studies at the Institute for Molecular Biosciences (IMB-UQ) were split between the development of plant produced peptides as ecofriendly insecticides, and utilising plants as biofactories for recombinant products of value. At QAFFI Dr Jackson works closely with the sugar, citrus and vegetable industries on projects that aim to develop biological solutions to pest and diseases. A rewarding aspect of his career has been in training of research higher degree students.

After graduating from the University of Queensland in 2002, I worked as a veterinarian in a mixed animal practice in Victoria, as a small animal intern in Brisbane (BVSC), and as a Veterinary Associate in England before moving to Pennsylvania for five years to complete a Haematology and Transfusion fellowship, veterinary clinical pathology residency, and then lectureship. I passed my Memberships in Internal Medicine in 2006, completed my Haematology and Transfusion Fellowship in 2007, and my Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (Clinical Pathology) in 2010.

In 2011, I returned to Australia and worked as a specialist veterinary clinical pathologist for IDEXX in Sydney for almost four years then moved to an academic role as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide before coming home to Queensland when I was recently accepted as a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pathology here at the University of Queensland.

I am passionate about veterinary student education and hope to help UQ students to understand the importance and excitement of clinical pathology in veterinary medicine today. Although I enjoy all aspects of clinical pathology, I have specific diagnostic and research interests in haematology, transfusion medicine, immunohaematology, and oncology. I also love collaborative research with a clinical focus in any species so if people are looking for clinical pathology expertise as part of a project then please feel free to contact me.

A/Prof Stephen Johnston is a Reader in Reproduction (40% Teaching; 40% Research and 20% Service) in the School of Environment at the University of Queensland, where he teaches animal reproduction and captive husbandry to Bachelor of Wildlife Science and Science undergraduate and postgraduate students. He is current program coordinator for the Bachelor of Wildlife Science Program. He is also a research affiliate in the School of Veterinary Science. Stephen was trained as a zoologist and specialises in the area of reproductive biology in a broad diversity of species ranging from prawns to tigers but with a major focus on Australian mammals. A/Prof Johnston has published 300 scientific works in basic and applied science disciplines including reproductive anatomy, physiology and behaviour. He was the first person in the world to produce a pouch young following artificial insemination in a marsupial, a task that he and his colleagues have now carried out successfully in the koala, a total of 34 times. Stephen is also a specialist in the cryopreservation of marsupial spermatozoa and in the assessment of sperm DNA fragmentation, including human and domestic animal spermatozoa. A/Prof Johnston’s recent research interests and grant success include studies aimed at a better understanding of the effect of chlamydia on male koala reproduction, heat stress in koalas, sociobiology of koalas, genetic and reproductive management of koalas, wombat captive reproduction, echidna captive breeding, crocodile artificial insemination and prawn aquaculture. He is a Fellow of the Society for Reproductive Biology (2019)