Find an expert

Javad Pool is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Queensland. He completed his PhD in Business Information Systems at UQ Business School in 2022, with a focus on data privacy and the effective use of information systems, specifically in the digital health context. By employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, Javad has conducted studies in a wide range of organizational and technological contexts, including healthcare, artificial intelligence, digital health, and social media. His work includes the development of inductive and theory-driven models, contributing to the existing body of knowledge on the effective use of information systems and health informatics research. Passionate about collaboration, Javad seeks to engage with diverse stakeholders, encompassing multidisciplinary researchers, industry professionals, and government partners, to advance research on information resilience and data protection practices. His research endeavors to better understand and address socio-technical challenges within information systems use, including data governance, privacy risks, cybersecurity, data breaches, data protection, misinformation, and responsible use of data.

Prof Portmann is the UQ-Cisco Chair of Network Security at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at The University of Queensland (UQ).

He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich in 2003. His research interests include Computer Networks, Cybersecurity, IoT (Internet of Things) and applied AI.

Dr Josephine Previte’s research focuses on issues related to the use of qualitative and digital methodologies in marketing and health service research, gender and embodiment issues in social marketing practice and social technology influences on consumer behaviour.

She has worked on a broad range of social marketing projects including alcohol consumption, breastfeeding, breastscreening, blood donation and new technology use to deliver social marketing services. Her research interests in social marketing, technology and consumption contexts has led to publications in academic journals, book chapters and conference papers, and delivered findings to invited speaking engagements.

Dr David Pullar's research interests are in: Geographical Information Science (Spatial analysis, Spatial modelling languages and frameworks, 3D visualisation, Environmental database applications) and Landscape Modelling (Catchment hydrology, Landuse change, Landscape dynamics).

David Pullar received his PhD from the University of Maine in 1994. His current research projects are in the fields of:

Incorporating Level Set Methods in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for Land-Surface Process ModellingUsing Spatial Simulation to Create a Process Classification of Provincial BioregionsEnvironmental Database Management and IntegrationHis collaborators include:Coastal CRCIntelligent Real-time Imaging and Sensing (IRIS)The Ecology CentreHigh Performance Computing, VisAC Lab

Dr. Markus Rambach's research interests are in the field of quantum optics, especially on single photon sources to create photonic qubits and qudits.

Markus was born and raised in a small alpine town in Austria, before doing his BSc and MSc at the University of Innsbruck (Austria). He did his undergrad in Physics, before completing an MSc in experimental quantum physics in the prestigious group of Pro. Rainer Blatt. Here, is where he met a young renegade Brit who had just completed his PhD in the research group of Prof. Andrew White at the University of Queensland. Inspired by the stories, Markus decided to have a look for himself and moved to Brisbane, where he completed his PhD with Andrew in 2017. After a short intermezzo for a Postdoc in Scotland, he moved back to Brisbane 2019 and has been a research fellow at UQ ever since. Markus' research interests are in the weird but beautiful world of quantum physics, where he is investigating ways to make the upcoming quantum internet a reality. Over the years he has worked with verious single photon platforms and used them for quantum information experiments. Recently he changed gear and is now investigating the infinitely-sized space of higher-dimensional quantum systems, so-called qudits.

Markus enjoys community engagement, be it as chair of the SMP Early and Mid-Career Academics Committee or as a member of the EQUS Public Engagement Committee. He particular likes the sparks in people's eyes when they start to understand a concept or idea.

I am a postdoc at the Computational Imaging Group, led by Steffen Bollmann. I recently finished my Ph.D. in Computational Imaging at UQ. Specifically, my Ph.D. work involved predicting the functional organization of the human visual cortex from underlying anatomy using geometric deep learning. To tackle this and other research questions, I am leveraging my interdisciplinary background in Biophysics (Bachelor's degree; University of Sao Paulo, Brazil), Neuroscience (Master's degree; Federal University of ABC, Brazil), and now the intersection of AI and imaging. I am interested in (geometric) deep learning, vision, neuroscience, and explainable and fair AI research.

Marten Risius is Senior Lecturer in Business Information Systems at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane, Australia. He graduated in psychology summa cum laude from the University of Osnabrueck, Germany and was the first psychologist to graduate from the House of Finance at the Goethe University Frankfurt, where he received his PhD in Information Systems summa cum laude. Afterwards, he worked as postdoctorate at the University of Mannheim, Germany, where he managed the research alliance "ForDigital" between the University of Mannheim and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Subsequently, he worked as an assistant professor (tenure-track) at Clemson University, SC, USA prior to joining UQ. Marten is also a research fellow at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin, Germany.

His research interests are in the areas of social media and blockchain technologies. He applies business analytics to solve managerial and societal issues (e.g., centralization, echo-chambers, fake news). His articles have been published in several journals (e.g., SMJ, JSIS, JIT, I&M, MISQE, BISE, CAIS) and peer-reviewed conference proceedings (ICIS, ECIS, AMCIS, PACIS).

His dissertation thesis was recognized as the best publication in the entire field of Business Administration from a young researcher in Germany, Austria and Switzerland by the VHB (German Academic Association for Business Research), received the TARGION award for the best practice-oriented research on strategic information management, was honored as the best dissertation from the Frankfurt Chamber of Commcerce, and was a finalist for the Schmalenbach-Award.

He serves as Associate Editor at ICIS, ECIS and WI, as Session Chair at PACIS, and as reviewer for various international journals (e.g., ISR, JAIS, JSIS, ISJ, DSJ, BISE, ISeB, Electronic Markets, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice) and conferences (e.g., ICIS, ECIS, HICSS, AMCIS, PACIS, WI, MKWI). In his free time he serves as member of the young jury for the DVPT Start-Up Future Awards.

I'm an immersive technology researcher developing novel approaches to 3D experiences and research from the perspective of a multimedia creative artist. With a diverse foundation in music production, composition, audio engineering, and game development, I spearhead initiatives that harness creative works for positive societal and environmental impact.

Current projects include:

• Algorithm validation and procedure generation for LiDAR scanning techniques to enable more accurate biodiversity and biomass calculations,
• Prototyping first-person 360 camera technologies and co-producing 360VR simulations for domestic and family violence prevention and education, and
• Investigating AI NPC interactions within immersive simulations to develop interpersonal capabilities within complex situations.

Research interest: Monitoring ecosystem health of coral reefs and seagrass habitats, integrating field and remote sensing image datasets, and the developing applied cost-effective mapping and monitoring approaches. Developed approaches have been adopted as standard practice globally, making a difference in conservation of these valuable habitats. The long term monitoring studies at Heron and Moreton Bay formed the basis for the development of mapping and monitoring over time and space at local to global scale. See here major research impact

Major projects:

• Long term monitoring of benthic composition at Heron Reef (2002-ongoing).
• Long term monitoring of seagrass composition and abundance in Moreton bay Marine Park (2000-ongoing).
• Smart Sat CRC Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Seagrass and Coral Reefs 2023-2027.
• Developement of Underwater Field Spectrometry and Benthic Photo Collection and Analysis
• 3D GBR Habitat Mapping Project 2015 - ongoing:
• Global habitat mapping project 2019-2023 Allen Coral Atlas .

Current position: Associate Professior in Marine Remote Sensing leading the Marine Ecosystem Monitoring Lab. . Academic Director Heron Island Research Station and affiliated researchers with Centre for Marine Science and Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science

Capacity Building and Citizen Science: Capacity: under/post graduate courses; Msc/PhD supervision, workshops/courses; Remote Sensing Educational Toolkit, and online courses (e.g. TNC).Strong supporter of citizen science based projects, as trainer, organiser and advisor for Reef Check Australia, CoralWatch, Great Reef Census and UniDive.

Shahrzad Roohy Gohar is a full-time Lecturer in the Business Information Systems (BIS) discipline, with a background in Information Systems research and practice. She has completed her PhD (currently under examination) in BIS, a Master’s degree in Information Technology, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Software Technology.

Shahrzad's research expertise spans Environmental Sustainability and Information Systems, Business Process Management (BPM), and the Cognitive Effectiveness of Visual Notations. Her PhD research interests focus on measuring and communicating Environmental Performance Indicators (EPI) in business processes and designing intelligent Information Systems to manage the environmental impact of organisations. Methodologically, she applies Design Science (DS) approaches, case studies, experiments, and interviews in her research.

She has recently initiated a research project to explore the effectiveness of mental healthcare management in Australia, identifying key sociotechnical challenges, gaps, and opportunities from the perspective of mental health practitioners. This research aims to develop a theoretical framework for designing effective digital interventions seeking to improve continuity of care, integrated patient data, and enhance service quality in public and private mental healthcare sectors.

As an educator, Shahrzad has extensive experience teaching Information Systems (IS) fundamentals, Business Process Management (BPM) and improvement, as well as IS analysis and design at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She integrates insights from her research and industry experience into her curriculum, ensuring that students gain both theoretical knowledge and practical skills.

Shahrzad is actively engaged in academic service and leadership. In the past, she has served as an Executive Officer (Funding Chair) for the Association for Information Systems Women's Network (AISWN) and has been recognised with a leadership award from the Association for Information Systems (AIS). She is a registered peer reviewer for multiple journals and conferences, including the Australasian Journal of Information Systems (AJIS), Communications of the Association for Information Systems (CAIS), and Business Information Systems Engineering (BISE). She has also contributed to academic recruitment selection panels and previously served as a student representative for UQ’s Service Innovation Alliance.

I am a Cosmologist studying the properties of the Universe on the largest scales.

By mapping the positions of millions of galaxies, I investigate the unknown physics of the dark energy which drives the evolution of the Universe today, and the physics just after the Big Bang, when the ripples which grew under gravity to become galaxies were created.

I am actively participating in the key experiments designed to understand dark energy and gravity. I am co-chair of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) lensing working group, and an active member of the Vera Rubin Observatory (LSST) and the Dark Energy Survey (DES). In the past, I had led science with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, one of the major quests of contemporary physics that has spurred advancement in answering a range of fundamental questions about the origins of the universe.

I am passionate about communicating top-level research ideas to audiences outside our immediate academic sub-community. I have experience on a variety of media, including radio, public talks and lectures to local schools, science festivals and amateur astronomy groups, outreach activities at Stargazing Live events, as well as through written pieces.

I am an advocate for making STEM field accessible to everyone. During my career, I took part into different initiatives aiming to reduce structural barriers faced by different minorities in academia and inspire the next generation of STEM careers. I am part of the Women in Science Association with the aim to foster a community for young women in STEM, within and beyond the academic community. I worked and volunteered at N.G.O. centres, in Italy and Australia supporting young students to overcome educational inequality caused by poverty and other conditions.

Since 2021 I am on the Early Career Chapter committee for the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) to promote and assist the career development of early and mid-career researchers in the Australian astronomy community. I am also part of the Wellbeing ambassador program at University of Queensland, to promote and assist the career development of early and mid-career researchers in the Australian astronomy community.

Dr Nikodem Rybak is a researcher specialising in advanced machine learning techniques that drive data-informed decision-making in complex and dynamic systems. His work spans multiple domains, including sustainable resource management, critical infrastructure resilience, and health, safety, and environmental risk assessment.

Dr Rybak's background combines expertise in developing transparent machine learning approaches with a strong focus on interpretability, enabling stakeholders to understand and trust the insights generated. His work leverages cutting-edge natural language processing methods to transform vast amounts of textual data into clear, actionable information. This approach fosters evidence-based strategies and supports effective governance, policy development, and organisational leadership.

Over the past decade, Dr Rybak has collaborated with industry partners, government agencies, and interdisciplinary research teams to address pressing challenges such as decarbonisation, resource allocation, and operational risk mitigation. By integrating robust predictive analytics, complex systems modelling, and innovative data visualisations, his research enables the uncovering of patterns, improvement of forecasting accuracy, and support of the sustainability of diverse systems.

Dr Rybak's work ultimately aims to empower decision-makers with tools that offer transparency, foster trust, and encourage responsible innovation. Through research on refinement of algorithms, methods, and applications, he strives to ensure that artificial intelligence serves as a reliable catalyst for positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes.

Shazia Sadiq FTSE is a Professor of Computer Science at the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland. Her research focusses on responsible data management and aims to reduce the socio-technical barriers to data driven transformation, by assisting organisations to create, protect and sustain agile data pipelines. Her work has contributed to advancing knowledge on data quality management, scalable data curation and cleaning, and bias mitigation for advanced opaque analytical models and techniques, and process improvements for data-driven organisations. She is part of the Data Science discipline that has received the highest ranking for excellence in research for Australia in every round of ERA. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed publications and attracted over $10million in research funding from the Australian Research Council, industry and various national and international funding bodies. Shazia has been a devoted lecturer for two decades, and an advocate of learning analytics and AI in Education for improving personalized learning and equitable graduate outcomes. In 2012, she received an institutional award for teaching excellence and in 2016 she spearheaded the highly successful Master of Data Science program at UQ, that is helping overcome skill shortages in Queensland for qualified data scientists. Shazia is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, immediate past chair of the National Committee on Information and Communication Sciences at the Australian Academy of Science 2019-2023, a member of The Australian Research Council College of Experts 2018-2021, and Centre Director for the ARC Industry Transformation Training Centre on Information Resilience 2020-2025.

I am a Research Scientist. With over 15 years of experience, I have developed advanced skills in data analytics, machine learning, mathematical modeling, and research & development. I am Research Fellow at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, specializing in applying data science and wearable devices to solve problems in health, biomechanics, and sports. In my role, I leverage wearables to study human movement and physiology, providing actionable insights that drive innovation and improve health outcomes. My work involves collaborating with interdisciplinary teams to integrate data-driven solutions that enhance performance and well-being.

Dr Jodi Saunus is a senior fellow who specialises in translational research on metastatic breast cancer. Based at Brisbane’s Translational Research Institute, she was recruited by Mater Research in 2022 to help facilitate patient-focused research at the interface of biomedical R&D and clinical practice.

Dr Saunus has an honours degree in biochemistry and biomedical science, a PhD in breast cancer molecular genetics, and broad post-doctoral experience in immunology, molecular cell biology, pathology informatics, and early-phase investigator-initiated clinical trials. Her current portfolio focuses finding new ways to improve the clinical management of aggressive breast cancer, with a focus on triple-negative breast cancer, and the prevention and treatment of brain metastases. This work spans across multiple disciplines and capabilities, and broadly involves:

• Molecular profiling of patient-donated blood and tumour tissue samples to identify features that can predict treatment response, or represent previously uncharacterised therapeutic targets.
• Using experimental models of breast cancer metastasis to learn about the molecular mechanisms exploited by cancer cells to survive and grow in brain tissue.
• Developing innovative treatment strategies that work differently to conventional cancer drugs, including alpha-particle endoradiotherapy and in-situ vaccination.

With an outstanding network of collaborators from academia and clinical practice, she has secured more than $6M to fund this work and has a track record of publishing in prominent biomedical research journals (e.g., Cancer Research, Nature, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications and The Journal of Pathology).

Peripherally, Jodi is a strong proponent of biospecimen banking, and clinician and consumer engagement in translational research.

Jessica is a paediatric critical care nurse and researcher with more than 15 years of clinical experience and expertise. Her research themes to date have focused on ventilation strategies to reduce ventilator associated pneumonia and interventions to improve the safety and quality of care related to invasive medical devices. Jessica's developing research themes focus on enhancing health service surveillance using electronic health information in two major spheres: hospital-level surveillance for hospital-acquired complications and unit level surveillance for vascular access device complications and ventilator associated events. She is particularly interested in advances in infectious disease surveillance and tracking, using a combination of mature platforms and new electronic platforms. Jessica has experience leading international consensus studies using Delphi methods and is interested in clinical trials which embed hybrid strategies to enable the rapid and sustainable translation of research findings upon study completion. Jessica is passionate about growing clinician researchers and nurses’ capacity to lead and undertake research which contributes to practice change and better outcomes in our vulnerable patient groups including paediatrics and minority groups.

Professor Gemma Sharp Gemma leads the Body Image & Eating Disorders Research Program at the School of Psychology at The University of Queensland. She also holds an adjunct position at Monash University where she and her research program were based from 2018 to 2024.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology (University of Adelaide), Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Microbiology and Immunology (University of Adelaide), a Masters degree in Oncology (University of Cambridge), a Diploma in Languages in Japanese (University of Adelaide), a Graduate Diploma in Psychology (University of Adelaide), a Bachelor of Behavioural Sciences Honours degree in Psychology (Flinders University) and a PhD in Clinical Psychology (Flinders University). Her research career in both Medical Science and Mental Health has seen her study and work in Australia, Japan and the UK.

Professor Sharp was awarded a PhD from Flinders University in Adelaide in 2017 which investigated the psychological predictors and outcomes of female genital body image concerns and cosmetic genital surgery. She worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate and Academic at Curtin University in Perth and extended this genital self-image research to other genders. She continues this genital self-image research program across the gender spectrum.

Professor Sharp then commenced an NHMRC Early Career Research Fellowship at Monash University (2018-2022) and more recently an NHMRC Emerging Leadership 2 Fellowship at Monash University (2023-2024) and The University of Queensland (2024-2027). See full grant/project listing here.

Professor Sharp and the program she heads investigate the factors leading to body image concerns, eating disorders and related issues and novel therapeutic interventions to address these concerns, including digital technologies such as chatbots like JEM(TM) and mobile apps. She has led collaborative technical and commercial projects with national eating disorder support organisations across the globe (e.g., JEM(TM) in North America with NEDIC). She also led the development of a world-first online educational resource to explain the intersection of eating disorders and menopause.

Professor Sharp is the lead of the international Consortium for Research in Eating Disorders (CoRe-ED) which brings together all key voices in eating disorder and related research on a global scale to improve eating disorder and related care. The consortium was officially launched on 25th September 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. The University of Queensland is a key partner of CoRe-ED. Everyone is welcome to join CoRe-ED free of charge by registering here to access to the already extensive network and resources on offer.

Professor Sharp's research has received extensive coverage on mainstream media and she makes very regular appearances on television, radio and in print. She was named one of ABC Radio National's Top 5 Under 40 Scientists and also was invited to deliver a TED talk in Brisbane. See full media listing here.

Professor Sharp has already received more than 80 award/honours in her tertiary career (see full listing here). Most recently, she won the Association for Psychological Science Janet Taylor Spence Award (2025), Australian Psychological Society's College of Clinical Psychologists Ian M Campbell Memorial Prize (2024), Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS) Mentee Honour (2024), an international finalist for the Robert Greenblatt International Menopause Society Award (2024), Australian Psychological Society Media Award for Public Engagement with Psychological Science (2023), Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research (2022), Rising Star for the Association for Psychological Science (2021), two time national finalist for the Bupa Health Foundation Emerging Researcher Award (2021, 2019), Flinders Universiry Early Career Alumni Awardee (2021), one of The Educator's Rising Stars (2020), Australian Psychological Society Early Career Researcher Awardee (2020), and a national finalist for a Eureka Prize (2020).

In addition, Professor Sharp is a registered clinical psychologist and has had clinical experience in the public and private sectors in Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and now Brisbane. She has and continues to lead her own private practice since 2019. She is a Credentialed Eating Disorder Clinician (CEDC) and a Board Approved Supervisor with the Psychology Board of Australia.

Professor Sharp and her research played key roles in the the National and Victorian State Eating Disorder strategies (2023/2024). Furthermore, she was the lead expert for the national clinical practice guidelines for the psychological evaluation of patients undergoing cosmetic procedures in 2018 and 2023. She launched a health professional online short course addressing psychological assessments for cosmetic patients in 2024. Please email Professor Sharp for more details about this course.