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Dr. Hanh Dao is a nurse academic with experience in clinical practice, university teaching, and health research across diverse cultures and contexts. Her research areas include outcome measurement, primary care and aged care services, health promotion, and workforce management. Dr. Dao has obtained a full scholarship for her Master degree and a prestigious post-graduate research award for her PhD. She has also secured multiple writing and travel awards, which enabled her to disseminate her research at national and international conferences and publish her research in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Dao led a multi-disciplinary health research team and secured a UQ Global Strategy and Partnerships Seed Funding to foster international nursing research collaborations with multiple universities and healthcare organisations. In 2024, she received the CHSR early career researcher award and was nominated for the FOM Rising Star of the Year Award.

Dr. Sébastien Darchen holds a PhD in Urban Studies obtained in 2008 at Institut de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS-Urbanisation) in Montreal, Canada.

His main research area is about the political economy of the built environment. He studies the strategies of urban stakeholders (Developers, City Planners, Urban Designers) involved in the provision of the built environment especially in urban regeneration contexts He is also interested in cultural planning and in developing practical solutions to sustain creativity in cities and create great places in cities (place-making).

Topics: Urban regeneration; Land-use planning; Political economy of the built environment; Cultural history of cities; Place-making

Professor Dargusch is currently the Interim Executive Dean of UQ's Engineering, Architecture and Information Technolgy Faculty. He was previously the Associate Dean (Research) and is the Chief Technology Officer of the Defence Materials Technology Centre (DMTC). He was the Director and lead CI of the ARC Research Hub for Advanced Manufacturing of Medical Devices, and a CI in the ARC Research Hub for Transforming Australia’s Manufacturing Industry through High-Value Additive Manufacturing. He has mentored individuals across academia and industry, supervising over 40 postgraduate projects to completion. His former PhD students now hold senior industry roles, and others have become successful academics, including ARC DECRA and Future Fellows and Professors.

Prof. Dargusch completed his PhD in 1998 and in the same year he published his first journal paper which ahs been cited more than 1300 times. He has a strong background in working on industry-outcome focussed research. After completing his PhD, he worked in manufacturing and product development in industry before moving being appointed as Program Manager for both the Aerospace and Industry Best Practice Program Manager with the CAST CRC. During his time as program manager the best practice program received a number of awards from the Cooperative Research Centres Association for delivering industry outcomes.

Professor Dargusch is recognised as an international expert in materials and manufacturing with over 20 years of research leadership. He is currently Editor of Progress in Materials Science (I.F. 33.6) with two recent Science papers. He was also the lead CI and Director of the very successful ARC Research Hub for Advanced Manufacturing of Medical Devices. He received a 2020 Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning at the Australian Awards for University Teaching, and he is currently the Associate Dean (Research) of UQ's EAIT Faculty.

The impact of Professor Dargusch’s work and contribution to the field of advanced manufacturing has been recognised with the Thatcher Brothers Prize from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in the UK, The Anders Gustaf Ekberg Prize in 2019, the Technology Award from The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society in 2017, and two papers published in Science and leading manufacturing journals (Int J Mach Tools Manuf (2009) 49, 561-568 and Int J Mach Tools Manuf (2011) 51, 500-511), Additive Manufacturing (Addit Manuf (2022) 59, 103176 and Addit Manuf (2022) 55, 102887); Acta Biomaterialia and Electochemica Acta. He currently has 12 Highly Cited Papers, including one first-author paper in Advanced Science (Adv Sci (2020) 7:18, 2001362) and a corresponding author paper published in Advanced Materials (Impact Factor 32.09) (Adv Mat (2022) 34:41, 2204508), a paper in Progress in Materials Science (Impact Factor 48.16) (Prog Mater Sci (2021) 121, 100840). One of his highly cited papers is the second most cited article in Acta Materialia (Acta Mater (2019) 168, 261-274) published in that year. His high quality work in additive manufacturing has also been published in Nature Communications (Nat Comm (2022) 13:1, 4660) and as corresponding author of a highly cited article published in Science. The impact of his work in advanced manufacturing was recognised by the Star Award from the Cooperative Research Association in 2010 and the “Aerospace Australia Industry SME Innovation Award” in 2010.

CI Dargusch has more than 400 publications with a total citation count of 31384 and h-index of 89 (Google Scholar 7/2025). He has been recognised as one of Elsevier World’s Top 2% Scientists in 2020, 2023, and 2024. His publications have a Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) of 2.32 (SciVal, 11/2024). He has 12 Highly Cited Papers (papers in the top 1% citation percentile worldwide) (WoS 11/2024). 33% of his publications are in the top 10% citation percentile worldwide, and 55.7% of his publications are in the top 10% journals.

He consistently publishes in high-quality journals in fields directly relevant to the field of this application including Materials Science, Manufacturing, and Energy Materials. He has 50 high-quality publications in the field of metal additive manufacturing alone including 1 in Science (IF=47.73), 1 in Nature Communications (IF=14.7), and 10 in Additive Manufacturing (IF=10.3). He also has a strong track record in energy materials including another article published in Science, 2 in Energy and Environmental Science (IF=32.4), 4 in Advanced Materials (IF=27.4), 2 in Advanced Energy Materials (IF=27.8), 5 Nano Energy (IF=16.8), 1 in Progress in Materials Science (IF=33.6), and 1 in Advanced Science (IF=15.1). His strong background in all three fields provide a solid foundation for this project. Other prestigious journals where he has published include Adv Funct Mater, Acta Mater, Acta Biomater, Biomaterials, Int J Mach Tools Manuf, and Scr Mater.

Prof Dargusch has been successful in obtaining over $10 million in competitive and industry grant funding since 2018 and an additional $2.95 million through the Queensland Government’s Innovation Projects Fund since 2006. He is also a chief investigator on 6 x ARC LPs, 3 x ARC DPs, 2 x ARC ITRH and 7 x ARC LIEF grants and lead investigator on 1 DEST (now DIISR) International Science Linkages Program – Australia-China Special Fund Grant. He was awarded a Smart Future Fund RPP grant of $405,000 as lead investigator for a project focussed on the “Development of Next Generation Endovascular Grafts”(2012-2015). Most recently Professor Dargusch was successful as a CI on a $ 50 Million MRFF Artificial Heart Frontiers Program grant. He has a wide range of industry funded research projects with partners such as Cook Medical, Stryker, Airbus, Boeing and Baosteel.

Prof Dargusch’s ability to transfer research outcomes to industry is provided by the case study on titanium technology submitted by Prof Dargusch as lead investigator to the Excellence in Innovation for Australia trial in 2012. The submission was rated A for outstanding impacts in terms of reach and significance.

Prof. Dargusch’s primary research interests are associated with addressing the major technical challenges facing Australian metal manufacturers in order to assist them to participate more effectively in global supply chains and the development of improved medical devices. His aim is to use his research to impact the ability of Australian companies, to develop and integrate advanced manufacturing technologies particularly in the production of high value components for Aircraft, Maritime and Medical Device applications.

Dr Darsy Darssan is an Accredited Professional Statistician® (PStat®) and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA). He obtained three degrees in Statistics at mathematical sciences schools of three different universities: a Bachelor of Science with Honours in 2005 at University of Jaffna, a Master of Applied Science in 2008 at RMIT University and a Doctor of Philosophy in 2014 at Queensland University of Technology.

While doing his two years full time traditional face-to-face master degree, Darsy worked as a part-time Statistician at Australian Council for Educational Research for a year.

Between the two bouts of postgraduate studies, Darsy worked for two years: as a Statistician at the University of New South Wales for a year and another year as an Associate Research Fellow in Applied Statistics at the University of Wollongong.

While doing the highest degree in Statistics Darsy worked as a sessional academic, contributed to teaching introductory statistics to various cohorts of first-year undergraduate students. Upon completion of the doctoral degree, Darsy moved to the University of Liverpool in the UK to do his Postdoctoral research in Biostatistics. Darsy returned home in late 2015 and worked as a Biostatistician at The University of Queensland for three years before taking the current position.

Career Statistician:

As a career statistician, Darsy is interested in developing or extending statistical methodologies to solve problems that arise in real-world data analysis and data collection in Biomedical research.

Service Statistician:

Darsy has experience working as a service statistician. He mainly worked on clinical trials where he was involved in study designs, randomisation, protocols development, statistical analysis plans, final statistical reports. He actively participated in data safety monitoring boards. Darsy provided statistical service to Biologists, Rheumatologists, Ophthalmologists, Nephrologist, Endocrinologist and Health Service Researchers.

Teaching @ UQ:

Post-graduate teaching

Introduction to Biostatistics (PUBH7630)

Under-graduate teaching

Health Data Analysis (PUBH2007)

Robert Davidson is Senior Lecturer in Composition at the University of Queensland. After studying composition with Terry Riley, he formed his quintet Topology, resident at the Brisbane Powerhouse, with whom he regularly tours internationally in venues including New York's Lincoln Center and London's Barbican, and works with a wide range of collaborators such as the Brodsky Quartet, Kate Miller-Heidke, Megan Washington, Katie Noonan, TaikOz and Trichotomy. His music is focused on stylistic pluralism, intersections between music and language, and improvisation. His research focuses on modelling musical intelligence, qualitative studies of creativity and collaboration, music's relationship with language, and practice-based research.

Dr Alan Davidson is a solicitor and barrister of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and of the High Court of Australia. He practiced law for more than a decade before moving into academia full time. He was engaged as an Assistant Professor at Bond University, lecturer at Queensland University of Technology including acting Head of School, and Associate Dean at James Cook University before commencing at the University of Queensland in 1997.

Since 2011 Dr Davidson has participated in UNCITRAL Working Group IV in Vienna and New York biannually, and in 2014 was invited to join its Panel of Experts to assist with the future directions of the Working Group.He is a Director and Fellow of UNCCA (UNCITRAL National Coordination Committee Australia) and is its Education Director arranging for students nationally to attend Working Group sessions (64 students to date). Dr Davidson's PhD is in the field of international banking law, specifically Letters of Credit Transactions. He is a Fellow of the Institute of International Banking Law and Practice and a member of the Asia Advisory Council and the Council of International Standby Practices of the Institute. He regularly speaks at the conferences for the Institute in Hong Kong, Singapore and New York. He presents courses at the TC Beirne School of Law in International Trade Law, International Trade Finance Law, Banking Law and Electronic Commerce Law. He has been a visiting academic in the USA, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and China.

His book Social Media and Electronic Commerce Law has been published in 2 editions by Cambridge University Press. He has also published The Internet for Lawyers and The Internet for Accountants and numerous interactive computer based workbooks and teaching manuals. He was joint author of two editions of the monograph Company Meetings. His publications have appeared in the Australian Law Journal, the Journal of International Banking and Finance Law, the Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education and the International Trade Law Annual. For nine years he authored over 100 articles for Queensland Law Society Journal, Proctor on CyberLaw.

Dr Sara Davies (née Herke) received her PhD in mathematics in 2014. She has also published under the names Sarada Herke and Sara Herke.

Eminent Staff Specialist in Neonatology (Consultant Neonatologist) - Grantley Stable Neonatal Unit, Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital

Associate Professor of Neonatology - Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Queensland

Mark Davies is a medical graduate of the University of Queensland (MB,BS 1985). He trained in Paediatrics at the Royal Children's Hospital (Brisbane), with time at the Worcester Royal Infirmary, Doncaster Royal Infirmary and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children (Glasgow) in the UK.

Mark sub-specialised in Neonatology training at the Royal Women's Hospital (Brisbane), the Rosie Maternity Hospital (Cambridge) and the Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital. His advanced training was conducted under the supervision of the Neonatal-Perinatal Specialist Advisory Committee of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) and he became a Fellow of the RACP in 1997. He completed a two year fellowship training programme in Neonatology and Neonatal Ultrasound at the Royal Women's Hospital (Melbourne) in January 1999.

In July 2000, Mark was appointed to the joint position of Staff Neonatologist at the Royal Women's Hospital, Brisbane and Senior Lecturer in Neonatology at the University of Queensland. He is now an Eminent Staff Specialist in Neonatology and an Associate Professor of Neonatology.

Mark Davies’ research focused on neonatal ventilation. He did his PhD studies on partial liquid ventilation. He supervises projects in neonatology and neonatal intensive care.

Mark prepares and maintains a number of Cochrane systematic reviews in neonatology and intensive care. From 2002 to 2006 he served on the Cochrane Collaboration Steering Group, and was Co-Chair of the steering group from 2005 to 2006. He was a Director of The Cochrane Collaboration Trading Company from 2013 to 2017.

Adjunct Professor Iyla Davies OAM was admitted as a lawyer and practiced in family law and personal injuries before becoming a law academic for 23 years specialising in mediation and dispute resolution.

She is currently a Non-Executive Director of Metro South Hospital and Health Service, UQ Residences Ltd and Chair of the All Hallows’ School Board. She also serves as a member of the ProBono Fundraising Committee of the UQ Law School.

She has held the roles of Assistant Dean (International, Commercial and Community Engagement) QUT and Head of College of the Women’s College UQ.

She has also been a Director of the Legal Aid Board Queensland, member of the Specialist Accreditation Board Queensland Law Society and National and Queensland President of Relationships Australia and National President of University Colleges Australia.

She was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to education and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a member of Women Chiefs of Enterprises International.

Professor Tamara Davis is an astrophysicist who studies the elusive “dark energy” that’s accelerating the universe. She completed her PhD in 2004 at the University of New South Wales on theoretical cosmology and black holes, then worked on supernova cosmology in two postdoctoral fellowships, the first at the Australian National University (collaborating with Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) and the second at the University of Copenhagen. In 2008 she moved to Queensland to join the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey team working on mapping the galaxies in the Universe. She led the Dark Theme within the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics, is now leading the OzDES survey -- working with the international Dark Energy Survey, and working with working with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument project. As of 2024 she is Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery.

Her accolades include the Astronomical Society of Australia's Louise Webster Medal for early career research impact, the L'Oréal Women in Science Fellowship for Australia, the Australian Institute of Physics Women in Physics Lectureship, the Australian Academy of Science’s Nancy Millis Medal for outstanding female leadership in science, an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, the Astronomical Society of Australia's Ellery Lectureship, and a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

William Davis studied biology at Vanderbilt University and obtained his medical doctor at Lousiana State University New Orleans. He completed post graduate training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at Ochsner Medical Center and the University of Michigan. While a rheumatology fellow at the University of Michigan, he was actively involved in T Cell immunology research in the lab of Dr David Fox. In 1991 he joined Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans as a staff physician and teaching faculty member. At Ochsner his clinical research interests have included functional status in systemic lupus, emerging drug therapies for rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and psoriatic arthritis. Recent translational research has included the role of T follicular helper cells in rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, and the role of nutrition in systemic lupus.

My research concerns i) understanding causes and impacts of hearing impairment, particularly in the context of multimorbidity in older age, ii) prevention and treatment of hearing impairment, and iii) hearing service development and evaluation. My research involves epidemiological modelling with population data sets, clinical trials and hearing health policy. I have authored over130 publications in peer reviewed journals and books, and I frequently present invited and keynote addresses at international conferences. I have received the British Society of Audiology’s TS Littler prize for services to audiology and a prestigious US-UK Fulbright award.

I have been awarded 10 grants as principal investigator in the last 5 years totalling >AUD$14.5 million from competitive sources including the NHMRC, the NIHR, the Alzheimer’s Society UK, the European Commission, industry and charity funders. This funding includes an EU Horizon 2020 grant of €6.2 million (as joint PI for “Ears, Eyes and Mind: The “SENSE-Cog Project” to improve mental well-being for elderly Europeans with sensory impairment”), and two NHMRC Medical Research Future Fund awards ($1.2 million as CI for “SENSEcog aged care: Hearing and vision support to improve quality of life for people living with dementia in residential aged care”; AUD$1.3 million for "Home hearing and vision care to improve quality of life for people with dementia and carers"; and an AUD$0.9 million NHMRC targetted hearing research award (as CI for "Improving access to the hearing services program for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds"). I have strong links with hearing industry partners and have received research funding (total >AUD$500,000) from major hearing aid companies Starkey, Oticon, Phonak and the hearing industry research consortium. I have a position at the University of Manchester with on-going involvement (as CI and co-I) in projects funded by the NIHR, the ESRC, the Alzheimer’s Society and the RNID.

Grant has degrees in both Chemistry and Earth Sciences and is presently focused on assessing the environmental impact of fluid-rock interactions on groundwater chemistry. This entails a variety of rock characterisation techniques (elemental, mineralogical, petrophysical), benchtop sequential extraction experiments, and pressure vessel experiments that mimic in-situ conditions deep underground, with data then fed into geochemical modelling software. The analytical equipment that Grant has operated to achieve his research outcomes includes ICP-MS, ICP-OES, SEM-EDS, Microprobe, XRF, Synchrotron XFM beamline, Petrographic Microscopes (both scanning and standard), Gas Permeameter, Helium Pycnometer, Pressure Vessels, etc. Grant also has an active interest in the geological storage of carbon dioxide, both via injection into deep geological formations and direct atmospheric capture facilitated by rock weathering to form stable carbonate rocks (mineral trapping of CO2). In the past, Grant has studied natural carbonate mineralisation (both veins and cement) throughout the Great Artesian Basin, to explore the variety of natural conditions that promote the transformation of CO2 into minerals. Early in his research career, Grant participated in paleo-climate research projects that involved botanically describing and assessing the cell morphology of fossil woods, coal petrography, studying coral cores, and picking foraminifera recovered from the sea floor.

Having worked in architecture and design since 1978, I have experience in a diverse range of building types and project roles. Having led design teams on education facilities, master plans and residential, commercial and aged care projects, I enjoy working in collaboration with clients, contractors and colleagues to optimise project outcomes.

As an Industry Fellow at The University of Queensland I am enjoying the challenge of distilling 45 years of architectural practice into useful lessons, and honoured to share them with the Master of Architecture students.

The courses prepare students for registration by the Board of Architects Qld, the practice of architecture, and running successful a business. As ever my work is underpinned by my belief in the capacity of architecture and design to inspire people and improve lives.

Associate Professor Paul Dawson is the Mater Research Head of Education, MRI-UQ Director of Higher Degree Research, and a Mater Foundation Principal Research Fellow. Paul leads the Neurodevelopmental Research Group at Mater, which is focussed on cerebral palsy in preterm infants, non-syndromic intellectual disability and autism.

Paul’s research group collaborates very closely with neonatologists, maternal fetal medicine specialists, obstetricians, bioinformaticians and biochemical pathologists at Mater to investigate clinical, biochemical and genetic markers that predict adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. In particular, his research is focussed on the role of nutrient sulphate in brain development. Paul through his work has brought many collaborative groups together. Some of his notable collaborations are with the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH), UQ Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR), the University of Sydney and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance.

With over 80 research publications, Paul notes a career highlight as being one of the key investigators, and Autism Biobank member, in the Autism Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) which was awarded $31 million from the Australian government.

Paul is heavily involved in national and international peer review and is a strong advocate for health and medical research with executive roles (Past-President 2012, Chair Advisory Committee) for the Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR).

‘My career in medical research happened for many reasons, including my interest and passion for understanding the genetics of disorders that impact on people’s health and well-being. In my early days, I was fortunate to work with a group of like-minded biomedical and clinician scientists which kicked off many discoveries in neurodevelopment, as well as the opportunity to develop and investigate pre-clinical models with the aim of implementing research outcomes to improve healthcare. Working at Mater provides a fantastic opportunity to investigate new approaches for reducing the risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm infants. I look forward to the coming years when the benefits of our Mater-led research will be realised and proven around the globe. It’s a privilege to contribute to Australian health and medical research.’

I am an endorsed Clinical and Health Psychologist, and my main area of research interest is in optimising non-pharmacological treatment options for chronic pain. My program of research is primarily focused on implementing randomised controlled trials designed to evaluate the efficacy and mechanisms of cognitive-behavioural and mindfulness-based interventions for heterogeneous chronic pain conditions. My concurrent line of research aims to further our understanding of the experience of chronic pain via converging methodologies (including experimental pain paradigms and electroencephalogram), as well as advance our capacity to accurately assess its multidimensional nature. I have led the development, application, and evaluation of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for chronic pain, and I disseminated this treatment approach for research and clinical use via my sole-authored book, published by Wiley in 2017. My US-based collaborators and I have a number of on-going NIH and foundation funded treatment trials underway at the University of Washington, Seattle. I am also an Affiliate Associate Professor at the University of Washington.

As of 2021, I was elected the inaugural Chairperson of the Australian SHAPE Futures EMCR Network, which is in development with the support of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Australian Academy of the Social Sciences. The purpose of the Network is to ensure SHAPE disciplines (Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and Environment) thrive and excel in Australia, by fostering an inclusive and diverse community that supports, empowers and promotes early and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) in Australia, within and beyond academia.