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Stefan has a long-standing interest in trying to understand cellular processes at a detailed molecular level. He did his Master in Biochemistry in a Structural Biology lab, investigating the structure and function of the intracellular innate immune sensors AIM2 and STING. Following a short period at the Biozentrum in Basel (Switzerland), Stefan joined the Molecular Immunology lab of S. Monticelli at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (Bellinzona, Switzerland) to conduct a PhD. After a deep dive into transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in T cells during his PhD, Stefan joined the Inflammasome Lab in 2019 as a Postdoctoral Research Officer and was awarded an ARC DECRA fellowship starting in 2022. His research is focused on the multi-step mechanism of inflammasome activation and its regulation on a molecular level

Maureen Engel is a Lecturer in Digital Culture in the School of Communication and Arts. She was formerly Associate Professor of Digital Humanities at the University of Alberta, Canada. At Alberta, she served as Director of Digital Humanities (2011-13; 2015-2019), and Director of the Canadian Institute for Research Computing in Arts (2011-2019). Formally trained as a textual scholar, her background is in cultural studies, queer theory, and feminist theory. She brings these methods/orientations to her research on digital culture, with a particular interest in locative media, XR, and gaming. She is the author of the game Go Queer, a ludic locative media experience of queer history.

I am broadly interested in the evolutionary biology of sexual processes, parasitism, and the interplay between these phenomena. Most of my work involves mathematical models, but I also do experimental and field work. Currently, my research focuses on the following topics:

• Reproductive parasites. These parasites, which include the famous bacterium Wolbachia, infect many insect species and manipulate the reproduction of their hosts in fascinating ways.
• Recombination in bacteria. Bacteria reproduce clonally, but many still exchange genes with other bacteria, for example through plasmids or the uptake of free DNA from the environment. I'm especially interested in how recombination can affect the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
• Host-parasite coevolution. Hosts and parasites interact in an antagonistic manner, which may produce interesting coevolutionary dynamics. I am also scrutinizing the Red Queen hypothesis, which posits that host-parasite coevolution can produce selection for recombination and sexual reproduction.
• Parthenogenesis in animals. Although most animals reproduce sexually, some species have given up sex and consist of asexually reproducing females only. I am interested in the factors that enhance or inhibit the evolution of such parthenogenetic species and on their long-term evolutionary fate.

http://engelstaedterlab.org/

Renee is an honorary research fellow at the University of Queensland, having completed her PhD in Philosophy and received a Dean’s Award for Outstanding Research Higher Degree Theses in 2016. Renee specialises in the philosophy of emotion, the self and agency, using the work of Spinoza to inform contemporary debates in these areas. Originally a scientist, Renee also draws on her background to engage with recent developments in neuroscience and psychology that are relevant to her research.

Renee has enjoyed teaching Philosophy in a variety of courses, and received a Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Award for Tutors in 2016. She has experience in the areas of Early Modern philosophy, epistemology, 20th century French philosophy, feminist philosophy, the philosophy of science and scientific ethics. Renee is especially passionate about communicating big ideas in a clear, accessible way.

Renee has authored and co-authored numerous journal articles, and served as a co-editor for a special edition of the Australasian Philosophical Review entitled “Spinoza Today”. She is currently working on a monograph, which uses the work of Spinoza to address the pervasive and ongoing effects of mind/body dualism on our current understanding of the self, emotion and agency.

Craig Engstrom has completed BHMS (Ed) (Hon) undergraduate and honours degrees at The University of Queensland, a MSc degree at Queen's University, Canada and a PhD at The University of Queensland. He is Program Coordinator of the Postgraduate Masters of Sports Medicine.

Associate Professor Holly Erskine leads the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Epidemiology and Services (CAPES) research stream at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor with the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland and is an affiliate Assistant Professor with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.

Holly completed her PhD in 2016, examining the global epidemiology of ADHD and conduct disorder as well as the long-term outcomes associated with these disorders, and was awarded the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Higher Degree Theses. For several years, she was responsible for the epidemiological modelling and burden estimation of child and adolescent mental disorders in the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) and co-led a programme of work which directly led to the inclusion of bullying victimisation as a risk factor for major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders in GBD. She was awarded an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship in 2018 and was recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2022.

Currently, Holly is the Principal Investigator of the National Adolescent Mental Health Surveys (NAMHS), which involves nationally-representative surveys of the prevalence of adolescent mental disorders in Kenya, Indonesia, and Vietnam. She is also a chief investigator on the Australian Child Maltreatment Study and the Centre for Research Excellence in Adolescent Health Metrics.

Dr Roberto H. Esposto is a Senior Lecturer in the Spanish and Latin American Studies program in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland.

Roberto’s research output focuses on Argentinean and Latin American literature. His work also centres on Latin American thought, with a particular attention to decolonial thinking. His research publications deal with questions of Argentinean and Latin American cultural identity and intellectual history and problematizes the ways in which Latin American intellectuals grapple, from a situated perspective, with a colonial legacy that underpins Western modernity today.

Due to Roberto’s significant contribution to the study of 20th century Argentinean literature, in 2015 he was nominated Corresponding Fellow of the Argentinean Academy of Letters. Roberto is the first Australian Hispanist to be awarded such an honour by an academy of the Spanish language, of which there are twenty-four around the world.

He is an internationally recognized expert on the Argentine novelist and diplomat Abel Posse (1934-2023). Roberto has also published on the -Argentine philosopher Günther Rodolfo Kusch (1922-1979). Kusch is a philosophical anthropologist who made a significant contribution to the articulation of Argentinean and Latin American philosophy, harnessed from indigenous and popular thinking, which has influenced a broad set of disciplines, including metaphysics and theology, art and literary studies, and decolonial thought.

More recently Roberto has contributed to make better known the poetry of the Argentinean Hugo Caamaño (1923-2015), by leading an edited publication in collaboration with numbered members of the academy and published by the Argentinean Academy of Letters, titled Hugo Caamaño, poeta de mundo propio.

Roberto engages regularly with Latin America, by participating in conferences in Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

Since 2003, Roberto has made a significant contribution to fostering the learning and use of Spanish in the international community, by writing the popular, high impact, bestselling Lonely Planet Latin American Spanish Phrasebook and Dictionary, which has seen many editions, including the 10th which appeared in September 2023. This publication has also been translated into French and Italian.

Research interests

• 20th Century Argentinean literature and the historical novel; Latin American literature; Latin American intellectual tradition and decolonial thought

Professor Joan Esterle is the Chair of the Vale-UQ Coal Geoscience Program. Her research interests are varied but focussed on how geological history impacts on coal measures behaviour during mining, processing and utilisation. She also develops 3D models for the distribution of sedimentary strata that can be used to predict geohazards in coal mines or reservoir behaviour in conventional and non conventional gas resources, and for geosequestration. In addition to working with Vale and other industry partners, she conducts multi-client studies through the Australian Coal Research Program (ACARP), The Australian National Low Emissions Coal Research (ANLECRD), and the UQ Centre for Coal Seam Gas (CCSG).

She received her PhD from The University of Kentucky, USA, in 1990. She worked for 17 years with CSIRO, followed by GeoGAS-Runge Group before joining the UQ full time in 2010. Current projects include:

• CCSG Surat Geological Framework and Faults and Fractures
• ACARP Rangal Supermodel-Bowen Basin and Cenozoic Fault Reactivation
• ANLEC Outcrop Analogue Modelling for CO2 Sequestration

Carlos is an Anthropologist who specialises in inclusive and culturally responsive community engagement and community development practices. His work has a broad focus on stakeholder relations, capacity building, and program management for communities with historic disadvantages on decision-making processes, including CALD communities and people living with disabilities. Carlos's professional trajectory includes applied ethnographic research and project and engagement development across diverse sectors, including tertiary education, NGOs, and Local and State government agencies in Australia and Colombia.

I am an entomologist with a research interest focused on studying host-pathogen interactions and discovering insect-specific viruses. I have investigated gene expression and the role of small non-coding RNAs in various host-pathogen models, particularly in crucial agricultural pests and medically significant vectors like the Aedes aegypti, responsible for transmitting dengue and Zika viruses. My previous project, aimed at exploring the function of Oryctes rhinoceros nudivirus in the biological control of the coconut rhinoceros beetle in the Pacific Islands, has substantially enhanced our comprehension of this invasive pest within the framework of an offshore biosecurity strategy. By establishing industry partnerships and securing funding to improve the Australian sugar industry, one of Australia's largest agricultural sectors, I have been able to focus on entomopathogenic viruses that affect root-feeding pests in sugarcane.