Randal retired from legal practice in 2016 but remains active in his committee memberships of the Queensland Law Society and the Law Council of Australia. He chairs the Queensland Law Society Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism Financing Working Group, is a member of the Queensland Law Society Banking and Financial Services Committee, and is a member of Law Council of Australia's Anti-Money Laundering Committee.
Randal is a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and is a contributing author to its publications, as well as a regular facilitator and lecturer for a number of its governance risk and compliance related forums and activities.
Randal chairs the University of Queensland’s (UQ) Law School Pro Bono Centre, is a regular lecturer for the Law School, an Adjunct Professor of the University of Queensland’s schools of business and law, and is convenor of UQ Law’s Adjunct and Honorary Professors.
Until his retirement, Randal was the lead partner of Clayton Utz’s National Governance and Compliance division. In this role he advised extensively in the public, private and NFP sectors on governance, legal risk and compliance issues including the establishment and enhancement of compliance management systems (particularly those focussing on competition, fair trading, financial services reform, anti-money laundering, privacy, retail credit and related issues).
Randal is the co-author of the Standards Australia official guide on AS3806 (the Australian Standard on Compliance Programs), the consulting editor of the looseleaf services “Australian Legal Compliance” (CCH), the co-author of the compliance chapters in the leading CCH texts “The Essential Guide to Financial Services Reform” and “The Essential Guide to Australian Anti-Money Laundering Reforms” and was the Law Council of Australia’s nominee to the technical drafting committee that developed an International Compliance Standard for the International Standards Organisation (AS/ISO 19600 : 2015).
Affiliate Associate Professor of School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability
School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability
Faculty of Science
Associate Professor in Env Science
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision
Paul Dennis leads an exciting research group that applies cutting-edge technologies to understand the roles of microorganisms and their responses to environmental change.
He is also a passionate educator and public speaker who advocates for the importance of biological diversity and evidence-based environmental awareness. He has talked about his research on ABC Radio and a range of other media outlets.
His teaching covers aspects of ecology, microbiology, plant and soil science, and climatology. He considers these topics to be of fundamental importance for the development of more sustainable societies and takes pride in helping others to obtain the knowledge and skills they need to build a better future.
Paul's research has taken him to Antarctica, the Amazon Rainforest, high mountains and oceans. The approaches used in his lab draw on a wide range of expertise in molecular biology, ecology, statistics, computer science, advanced imaging and soil science. He applies these skills to a wide-range of topics and systems including plant-microbe interactions, Antarctic marine and terrestrial ecology, biogeography, pollution and human health.
Affiliate of ARC COE for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science
ARC COE for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science
Institute for Molecular Bioscience
Senior Lecturer
School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
I was awarded my PhD in Computational Biophysics from the University of Western Australia (2012) for my work on combining molecular modelling and simulation approaches with fluorescence spectroscopy experiments to study mechanosensitive ion channels.
Following this, I carried out Postdoctoral work at the University of Queensland and Curtin University, funded by Early Career Fellowships from the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Australian National Health and Research Council (NHMRC). In 2019, I joined UTS under a UTS Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and started my independent research group. In 2021, I returned to the University of Queensland as a Senior Lecturer.
Apart from my research, I am a passionate advocate for mental health in academia and
supporting PhD students. My teaching and supervision are guided by encouraging students to become 'critical thinkers'. I practice mindful leadership and aim to integrate kindness and gratitude into how I lead my research team.
Justice Derrington graduated from The University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Arts in 1984 and a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) in 1986. He was called to the Bar in 1986. Having graduated first in his year in Law, His Honour was awarded the Sir Robert Menzies Scholarship in Law in 1987. At that time the Menzies’ Scholarship in Law had not previously been awarded to a student from Queensland. In the period from 1987 to 1989 he read for the degree of Bachelor of Civil Laws at Worcester College, Oxford.
While at the Bar, his Honour was a co-convenor of the Commercial Law Sub-committee of the Queensland Bar Association, a member of the Professional Conduct Committee of the Bar Association and a member of the Commercial Litigation Accreditation Committee of the Queensland Law Society. From 2009 till his appointment, his Honour was also the editor of the Queensland Law Reports as well as the editor of the Queensland Law Reporter. He has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland since 2005 where he has lectured in various courses including commercial law, insurance law, trusts, pleadings and legal practice, leadership and the law, and resources law.
His Honour was sworn in as a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia on 29 March 2017.
Justice Sarah Derrington is Chair of the Admiralty Rules Committee and has been a member since 2006, and, in 2024, was appointed Chair of the United Nations Coordination Committee for Australia (UNCCA). She is Past President of the Maritime Law Association of Australian and New Zealand (MLAANZ) and, from 2012-2017 served on the Board of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). From 2012-223 Justice Sarah Derrington was a member of the Council of the Australian Maritime College (AMC), and from 2015-2024 served as a member of the Council of the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM). She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law in 2009, of the Nautical Institute in 2013, and of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018. From 9 January 2018 to 9 January 2023, she was President of the Australian Law Reform Commission. Justice Sarah Derrington was made an Honorary Bencher of Gray’s Inn in 2021 and, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Justice Sarah Derrington was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia on 10 January 2018.
Justice Sarah Derrington pursued dual careers at the Bar and in the Academy, being appointed Professor of Admiralty Law in 2008. Immediately prior to her appointment to the Court, she served as Dean of Law at the University of Queensland. She is the author (with James M Turner QC of the English Bar) of The Law and Practice of Admiralty Matters, now in its second edition (OUP, 2016) and (with Dr Michael White OAM QC) of Australian Maritime Law (4th edn, Federation Press, 2020).
She was educated at The University of Queensland, from where she holds a BA (in French and German), an LLB (Hons), an LLM, and a PhD in the field of marine insurance law. She was admitted to the Bar in Queensland in 1990 and as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of the ACT.
My main research focus has been applying venom peptide pharmacology to pain pathway characterisation. This approach has led to the identification of novel pain mechanisms underlying the development of chemotherapy-induced pain, ciguatera, and burn-induced pain. In an addition, I have identified and characterised over 20 novel bioactive peptides, which includes a novel class of Nav1.7 inhibitors that is currently undergoing pre-clinical development as analgesics, and a novel class of stinging nettle toxins that act on a previously unidentified Nav1.7 interacting protein named TMEM233.
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr. Debashish Dev is an applied social researcher whose work spans energy transitions, agricultural development, and communication for social change. His research explores how policy, technology, and knowledge systems are received, contested, or reshaped through social systems, particularly when transitions are complex, uneven, or resisted. He is particularly interested in how learning from implementation challenges, social risk, and overlooked or discontinued ideas can inform more inclusive, adaptive, and context-aware planning.
At the University of Queensland’s Gas and Energy Transition Research Centre, Dr. Dev contributes to research on local benefit-sharing, public discourses on energy policies, social risk assessments, and community engagement strategies in key energy transition regions. He also works on participatory approaches to community-based monitoring and social impact assessment in strategic regional development.
His academic background bridges development sociology, agricultural extension, and communication studies. He has designed and taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in research methods, data and society, and communication for social change, including COMU2030: Communication Research Methods, COMU1130: Data & Society, HHSS6000: Research Design, and COMU7102: Communication for Social Change—Foundations at UQ. He has also contributed to course development at QUT (QUT You 003: Real Action for Real Change), creating content on systemic responses to global challenges, including food security, public health, and environmental risk.
Before his work in Australia, Dr. Dev taught and researched at Bangladesh Agricultural University and FAO Bangladesh, focusing on agricultural extension, climate change adaptation, and technology transfer.
Pratap is an IP Strategist and Patent researcher. He has expertise in dealing with Intellectual Property issues in relation to emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3D bioprinting and synthetic biology. He is currently a Postdoctoral fellow at TC Bernie School of Law, University of Queensland, Australia. Pratap pursued his PhD from the Centre for Law and Genetics, University of Tasmania, Australia where his research was focused on "Patenting issues related to Bioprinted tissues and Bioinks." In 2018, he was invited by Govt. of Japan to assist the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) in harmonizing Japanese Patent Law in relation to AI. In 2017, he completed his Master of Law (LLM) in Intellectual Property from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva and the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. He is the recipient of the prestigious International Fellowship offered by WIPO. He holds a Master's degree in Genomics from the Central University of Kerala, India and a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology, Microbiology, and Chemistry from Acharya Nagarjuna University, India. Pratap also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Patent informatics from the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) at the CSIR Unit of Research and Development of Information Products (URDIP), India and worked as a Patent researcher in the same.
He is a Barrister of the High Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Queensland.
A Rhodes Scholar, John has degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Queensland, and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Law from Magdalen College, Oxford University.
After an appointment as Lecturer in Law at Keble College Oxford University, John returned to Australia to work as a lawyer in a variety of contexts.
He has worked as a Defence Force Magistrate, a Barrister, as a consultant to a multi-national law firm, a Law Reform Commissioner for Queensland, a legal member of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal, the legal member of the Health Quality and Complaints Commission and a member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
He currently serves as a member of the Administrative Review Tribunal.
John is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He serves as Deputy Chair of the Board of Aged and Disabilty Advocacy Australia.
He also serves on the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Review Committee of the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, and the Military Superannuation and Benefits Scheme Review Committee of the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation.
John has previously served on the Specialist Accreditation Board of the Queensland Law Society. Prior to working on the Board, John was a Member of the Personal Injuries Specialist Accredition Committee of the Queensland Law Society.
John has held academic appointments at Universities in Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
In addition to teaching and research positions, John has worked as Deputy Dean, Head of School and Associate Vice Chancellor.
His work in tort law and medical law is internationally recognised.
John's research has been supported by over a million dollars in research grants.
John's work has been cited by the High Court and by Law Reform Commissions in Australia and abroad.
He is an Honorary Fellow of the Australasian College of Legal Medicine.
John was jointly awarded the Oscar Rivers Schmalzbach Prize by the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences.
John has served with the Australian Defence Force in the Army (infantry) and in the Air Force.
He has seen active service in Iraq, and twice in Afghanistan.
John was awarded the Bronze Star by the United States of America.
School of Political Science and International Studies
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Research Expertise
International relations theory
History of political thought
History of international thought
History of the states-system
Humanitarianism and intervention
Richard Devetak is Professor of the History of International Thought and was Head of the School of Political Science and International Studies from 2013 to 2018. He has published on the history of international thought, contemporary theoretical debates in international relations, humanitarian intervention, the ‘war on terror’, and globalisation’s implications for justice and the state, as well as on foreign policy, refugees, and national identity in the Australian context. His major contribution has been in the area of international relations theory, more specifically in the exposition and analysis of Frankfurt School Critical Theory and post-structuralism, and in international intellectual history.
His most recent publication is a volume edited with Tim Dunne, Rise of the International: International Relations meets History (Oxford University Press, 2024). This volume brings together scholars of International Relations and History to capture the emergence and development of the thought, the relations, and the systems that we call international. He recently published a monograph titled Critical International Theory: An Intellectual History (Oxford University Press, 2018). His writings in these areas have been published in leading International Relations journals including International Affairs, Millennium and Review of International Studies. His current research interests include: the history of international thought and the history of the states-system in early modern Europe and beyond. He has held Visiting Fellowships at the Department of International Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (2003), the Department of Politics, Institutions and History at University of Bologna (2008), and at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute, Florence (2012).
From 2020-2023 he was part of the Review of International Studies editorial team, led by Dr Martin Coward (Manchester). He is also working on a large multi-million dollar collaborative project, led by Prof. Halvard Leira (NUPI) and funded by the Research Council of Norway, on A Conceptual History of International Relations.
He has also made a major contribution to two popular international relations textbooks. He is the lead editor of An Introduction to International Relations: fourth edition (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2022) with co-editor Daniel McCarthy; and co-editor with Jacqui True of Theories of International Relations: sixth edition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr Brooke Devlin is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian (AdvAPD), Advanced Sports Dietitian (AdvSD) and a Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, University of Queensland. Dr Devlin holds qualifications in exercise science (BExSci), nutrition and dietetics (MNutrDiet) and completed a PhD in Sports Nutrition at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Her current research interests include diet and exercise interventions to optimise blood glucose control and metabolic health including chrono-nutrition and time-restricted eating. In addition to this, Dr Devlin continues to have an interest and ongoing research in sports nutrition, focusing on nutrition knowledge and dietary behaviours of athletes.
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr Pragya Dhakal Poudel is a plant geneticist specialising in the integration of quantitative genetics, physiology, and genomics to address key challenges in horticultural tree crops. Her research focuses on industry-relevant traits in macadamia and passionfruit, combining large-scale field trials with advanced analytical approaches to uncover the genetic, molecular, and physiological mechanisms underpinning these traits.
Her work in macadamia rootstocks has focused on supporting the development of high-density orchard systems and underpinning the mechanisms of rootstock-mediated vigour control, with the goal of applying this knowledge to future rootstock breeding strategies. By investigating physiological traits such as stomatal density, stomatal area, and aquaporin gene expression, Dr Poudel has provided new insights into the regulation of vigour in macadamia. She employs genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and genomic prediction (GP) to accelerate breeding progress. These approaches create opportunities to shorten selection cycles, improve prediction accuracy, and support the development of new cultivars for the industry.
In addition to field- and genetics-based approaches, her research also targets the molecular basis of trait regulation, including gene expression analysis, hormonal quantification, and RNA sequencing, to underpin trait genetics and link molecular signatures with phenotypic outcomes.
Dr Poudel works closely with the Australian macadamia and passionfruit breeding programs and contributes to the Genetics for Next Generation Orchards project, ensuring her research addresses both scientific and industry priorities. Her long-term goal is to advance genomics-assisted breeding strategies that enhance the sustainability, efficiency, and productivity of horticultural crops.
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr Tracey DiSipio is a teaching and research academic and cancer epidemiologist in the School of Public Health. Her program of research is broadly focused on women’s cancers and health equity by conducting epidemiological research and behavioural interventions that address survivorship issues. Her research has a strong emphasis on under-researched groups including women diagnosed with rare gynaecological cancers and advanced disease.