Find an 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.

I am an applied social researcher working on how people, institutions, and decision processes interact in complex and contested settings, including energy, infrastructure, and regional development.

My work examines social risk, cumulative impacts, information quality, trust, and participation, with a focus on how these dynamics shape real-world decision-making, implementation, and institutional credibility.

I use mixed-methods social research to generate practical, decision-relevant insights for organisations working with communities, supporting more adaptive, context-sensitive, and socially robust practice.

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.

Introduction

John Devereux is Professor of Common Law.

He is a Barrister of the High Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Queensland.

A Rhodes Scholar, John was educated at Oxford, Harvard, Melbourne and Queensland.

Work History

Following 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.

John 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 and on the Gregory Terrace Foundation.

John is a member of 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.

Research Interests

John has an active interest in the fields of tort, medical law, criminal law and military law.

His work is internationally recognised.

John's research has been supported by two and a half million dollars in research grants.

His work has been cited by the High Court and by Law Reform Commissions in Australia and abroad.

John is an Honorary Fellow of the Australasian College of Legal Medicine.

He was jointly awarded the Oscar Rivers Schmalzbach Prize by the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Military Service

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.

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).

Dr Brooke Devlin is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian (AdvAPD), Advanced Sports Dietitian (AdvSD), and Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, University of Queensland. She holds qualifications in exercise science (BExSci) and nutrition and dietetics (MNutrDiet) and completed her PhD in Sports Nutrition at La Trobe University, Melbourne.

Dr Devlin’s research focuses on diet and exercise strategies to optimise blood glucose control and metabolic health, including chrono-nutrition and time-restricted eating. She also maintains an active interest in sports nutrition, currently working with the Queensland Academy of Sport on projects investigating energy requirements in elite cyclists, alongside broader research into nutrition knowledge and dietary behaviours of athletes.

She is currently working with a large multidisciplinary team across Australia on the CARE-T2D project, co-developing an innovative telehealth intervention that integrates continuous glucose monitoring into dietetic practice, in collaboration with Abbott Diabetes Care. Dr Devlin also partners with Logan Healthy Living to co-design a culturally appropriate diabetes prevention program for women who have experienced gestational diabetes, with a focus on improving access and outcomes in rural and remote communities. Her research aims to deliver practical, evidence-based solutions that empower individuals and health professionals to improve metabolic health and performance outcomes.

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.

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.

Dr Abbey Diaz is a Faculty of Medicine Research Fellow and epidemiologist in the FNCWR team. Her program of work is broadly concerned with the quality and equity of cancer care pathways, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and for people with, or at risk of, other chronic disease.

Recently, Abbey was part of an investigator team (CID; 2021-2024) awarded a $1 million National Heart Foundation Strategic Grant in Cardio-oncology. Through its work, the team aims to:

• Better understand the risk of adverse cardiovascular events in Australians diagnosed with cancer
• Identify potential high-risk groups and health service gaps
• Understand how cancer treatment decision-making by patients and their health professionals are influenced by their cardiovascular risk.
• Co-design and assess educational resources for patients and health professionals to improve care and outcomes for cancer patients at risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes.

Abbey is also an investigator on an ARC-funded grant to develop a measure supportive care needs of carers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer (CIJ), a World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) funded grant to pilot an intervention to support cancer patients to reduce exposure to behavioural risk factors (CID), and an MRFF grant to co-design and feasibility test a phase III exercise trial for women with metastatic breast cancer (AI). She led the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Better Cardiac Care Linkage Study, commissioned by the Queensland Health department, and was an investigator on a Cancer Australia and Department of Health tender to better understand how information on Indigenous status is collected, recorded, reported at all stages of the National Cervical Screening Program.

Abbey's PhD thesis investigated whether the higher comorbidity among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer was associated with lower cancer survival and supportive care needs. Her thesis was undertaken and completed while she was part of the National Indigenous Cervical Screening Project, with her PhD (Charles Darwin University/Menzies School of Health research) awarded in 2018.

Adriana Díaz (she/her/ella) works at the intersections of language, power, and pedagogy, asking what becomes possible when language education is approached as an unfinished, decolonial, and hopeful practice of becoming otherwise. Born in Argentina and now living and working on the unceded lands of the Turrbal and Jagera Peoples, her work critically examines the colonial, patriarchal, and monolingual structures embedded in curricula and classrooms. In response, she cultivates inclusive, empowering, and critically reflexive pedagogies that honour plurality and relationality.

With over two decades of experience in multilingual and intercultural education, Adriana’s scholarship, teaching, and leadership seek to unsettle dominant paradigms while nurturing more equitable and generative approaches to language learning. Drawing on critical pedagogy, intersectional feminism, and decolonial thought, she traces raciolinguistic and ideological patterns that shape educational practice and works collaboratively to reimagine their possibilities.

Deeply committed to collective transformation, she supports and (un)learns alongside fellow language educators and scholars, co-creating pedagogical approaches that are responsive, dialogic, and grounded in shared responsibility. Her work invites ongoing inquiry into how we teach, learn, and live with language in ways that are just, liberatory, and yet always emergent.