Find an expert

Marina Fortes has a degree in Veterinary Medicine (2004) and a Master of Science in Animal Reproduction (2007) from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She completed her PhD in genetics, in 2012 at The University of Queensland (UQ). For her PhD Marina had international scholarships from UQ and the Beef CRC. Her PhD received the Dean's commendation award. After that, Marina worked as a post-doc at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI). In August 2014, Marina joined the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB) as an academic and established the Livestock Genomics Group. As a researcher, Marina is interested in genetics and genomics, sustainable livestock production, and reproductive biology. Ongoing collaborations link her group to a rich research environment, both domestic and international, which contributes to sustainable livestock industries. Meat and Livestock Australia has provided ongoing support to the projects led by her group. For her work on the genomics of cow fertility, Marina received an Advanced Queensland Fellowship (2018-2021). Marina teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including the Livestock Biotechnology course (BIOT7038) within the Master of Biotechnology program. The Women in Science podcast - https://soundcloud.com/womeninscience - was produced by Marina Fortes, Marloes Dekker, and Kirsty Short.

Dr Kathryn Fortnum is a Research Fellow at the Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation, a collaboration between the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland, and Health and Wellbeing Queensland. Her research speciality is on the role of physical activity in the management of chronic health conditions. Dr Fortnum is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist and has a particular interest in children and youth, and mental health. Dr Fortnum has worked clinically in inpatient and community settings for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service WA, and supported children impacted by neurological disorders including spina bifida and cerebral palsy to engage in community-based physical programs.

I completed my PhD, supervised by Dr. Jan Engelstaedter, investigating host shift dynamics of parasites within a host clade. In this project I am was interested in understanding the long-term dynamics and consequences of host-shift dynamics, while taking into account the evolutionary relationships between host species. I was interested in identifying predictable patterns in the distribution of pathogens using statistical and mathematical modeling.

Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher working at the University of Queensland under Dr. Christine Beveridge. I will be creating computational models of plant hormone signalling in order to make predictions on the phenotypic outcomes of plant species.

Dr. Forutan is an internationally recognized Researcher. Her research area includes understanding the bovine genome and epigenome, discovering causative mutation underlying economic important traits such as fertility, understanding the way genes turn on and off, investigating different methodologies to improve the accuracy of genomic prediction, and optimizing methods for predicting genetic diversity and inbreeding. Her future research career vision is to make a significant contribution to creating new knowledge in the field of quantitative genetics that can help to improve efficiency and resilience in Livestock.

Fellow of the Academy of Social Science in Australia, Life member of Clare Hall College, Cambridge, Past President of the International J.A. Schumpeter Society. Current research interests include: the diffusion of innovations with special reference to the emergence of low carbon emission power generation technologies; modelling evolutionary economic growth with special reference to the role of energy; modelling the impact of climate change on the economy with a specific focus on the power generation sector; modelling the macro-economy as a complex adaptive system; applying self-organisation theory to statistical and economic modelling in the presence of structural change; the re-design of national power grids to accommodate renewable energy generation. He currently serves on the following editorial boards: Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Review of Political Economy, Journal of Bio-economics, Journal of Institutional Economics and, previously, the Scottish Journal of Political Economy and Economic Analysis and Policy. He is Director of the Energy Economics and Management Group at UQ and Focal Leader, Renewable Energy at the Global Change Institute. Previously, he was: Head of the School of Economics at UQ (1999-2008); Deputy Director of the ARC Centre for Complex Systems (2006-2008); Member of the Social, Behavioural and Economic Panel, ARC College of Experts (2005-2007); Member of the Expert Panel appointed by the Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation, Senator Kim Carr, to review the National Innovation System (2008).

Professor Emerita Foster retired from the role of Mayne Professor and Director of the Academy for Medical Education and Director of Teaching and Learning in the Medical School on 30th April 2023. She led the major curriculum change to the UQ MD Program, MD Design which welcomed its first students in 2023. Kirsty has a national and international reputation in medical education leadership and in global health (especially in the area of maternal and child health and primary care). After graduating in Medicine from Edinburgh University she undertook specialist training in General Practice and gained membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners UK by examination. She has a strong clinical background with twenty years’ experience in the Scottish National Health Service as a principal in general practice and partner in a large academic group practice in one of Edinburgh’s most socially deprived areas. Since coming to Australia in 1998 she has focussed on health professional education and research firstly as a postgraduate medical educator with Central Sydney Area Health Service and then as an academic at the University of Sydney. Kirsty has led many educational initiatives in diverse settings such as the Balkans, Timor Leste, China, Ghana, Indonesia, India, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam. She is recognised as an expert on education in the tertiary and continuing professional education sectors with particular strength and experience in integrated curriculum design and development, interactive teaching methods and faculty development. She worked in global health for more than a decade and held academic leadership roles at the University of Sydney including as Sub Dean Education at Northern Clinical School from 2008 - 2019, Associate Dean International and Head of the Office for Global Health for 5 years 2014-2018. She was appointed to the position of Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Sydney in August 2018. Kirsty was adn Australian Office of Learning and Teaching citation for outstanding contributions to student learning in 2012 and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2019 for Services to medical education and community health. She first joined UQ in March 2019 as Director of the Office of Medical Education and MD Program Convener. Kirsty is an Honorary Professor at Hanoi Medical University, Vietnam. She continues to provide mentorshp in medical education leadership and remains active in medical education research and research supervision, in accreditation activities with the Australian Medical Council and is sought after as a keynote speaker.

Nadine is a physiotherapist, NHMRC Leadership Fellow (leadership level 2) focused on musculoskeletal pain and orthopaedic research, particularly clinical trials, and Academic Director of the University of Queensland's Clinical Trials Centre. Nadine is also the program lead for the Health Research Accelerator (HERA 2) program focused on innovation in clinical trials (ULTRA - UQ's Clinical Trial Capability) and a theme lead for clinical trials in the Centre of Innovation in Pain and Health Research (CIPHeR) at UQ. She is passionate about supporting multidisciplinary groups to work together, with critical mass, to design, conduct, analyse and translate the results of high quality clinical trials, in ways that improve patient and service outcomes.

Nadine is a lifetime Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy in the UK, and has held previous National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator awards and is the only physiotherapist to have held an NIHR Research Professorship in the UK. Having moved to Australia in January 2021, she was the inaugural Director of the STARS Research and Education Alliance between the University of Queensland and Metro North Health in Queensland (STARS is the Surgical, Treatment and Rehabilitation Service, the newest public hospital in Brisbane). Nadine is part of the STARS Alliance multidisciplinary team including conjoint appointments between the University and hospital, across the disciplines of physiotherapy, nursing, occupational therapy, psychology, consumer involvement in research, interdisciplinary collaborative practice in education and practice, and research management.

Nadine's research focuses on musculoskeletal pain, including low back pain, osteoarthritis and shoulder problems, and she has a particular interest in developing, testing and implementing treatments and health services. She has led or collaborated on more than 31 randomised trials, attracting over $145 million in research funding from, for example, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Versus Arthritis, and the Medical Research Council in the UK, PCORI in the USA and the NHMRC and MRFF in Australia. Current examples include international collaborative RCTs funded through the NIHR-NHMRC collaborative trial scheme focused on comparative effectiveness of surgery and conservative care for persistent, severe low back pain and comparative effectiveness of different approaches to shoulder joint replacement for patients with shoulder osteoarthritis. She has supervised 15 PhD students to completion, and 19 Masters research project students (nearly all were healthcare professionals), with 5 PhDs currently in progress in the UK, Europe and Australia. Nadine has led or contributed to over 311 peer reviewed publications, including the Lancet Series on Low Back Pain in 2018.

Examples of recognition as a national and international leader in the field include:

2024 - Elected to the Board of Directors, Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA)

2024-2029 - NHMRC Investigator Grant, Leadership level 2, supporting a program of research focused on new musculoskeletal RCTs and sharing existing RCT data to answer further research questions

2023 - Stanley Paris Visiting Fellowship award, University of Otago, New Zealand, supporting visiting fellowship in March 2024

2022 - Chief Executive's Award for Research, Metro North Health and Hospital Service Research Excellence Award

2020 - Senior Investigator award from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in the UK, awarded to the top 200 clinical researchers in the country

2019 - PEDro recognition for the UK FASHIoN trial - chosen by a panel of international trialists as one of the five most important physiotherapy trials published in 2014-2019.

2019 - Invited member of the International Research Strategy Advisory Committee for the Health Research Board’s (Ireland) new five year research strategy development

2018 - Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship 2019, University of Melbourne, Australia. February-March 2019

Professor Richard Fotheringham’s research interests include Australian drama, Australian performing arts policy, English Renaissance staging, textual criticism, and Australian stage comedy.

His current research includes editing early Australian plays, Australian stage comedy 1915-1930, and staging Shakespeare in Australia.

Professor Fotheringham is the author of:

• Sport in Australian Drama, Cambridge University Press.
• In Search of Steele Rudd, Uni. of Queensland Press.
• Articles on Australian drama, performing arts policy, Renaissance staging, and theory of editing.

Editor of:

• Australian Plays for the Colonial Stage 1834-1899 (Australian Academy of the Humanities, 2006).
• Community Theatre in Australia, Methuen, 1987, Currency 1992.
• Dampier and Walch's stage version of Robbery Under Arms.

After completing an honours year in genetics in the lab of Professor Paul Ebert (The University of Queensland), Dr Fotheringham obtained a research assistant position in the field of diabetes, sparking a passionate interest in diabetes and diabetes complications, particularly diabetic nephropathy. This led her to undertake and complete a PhD, examining the influence of dietary factors, in particularly advanced glycation end products and macronutrients on renal function in diabetes and aging. Since completing her PhD in 2020, Dr Amelia Fotheringham has worked as a Research Officer in the Glycation and Diabetes Complications Laboratory at Mater Research-UQ. Here she has undertaken projects examining novel treatments for mitochondrial dysfunction in diabetic nephropathy and targeting the AGE-RAGE pathway for type 1 diabetes prevention.

Dr James Fowler joined the UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health in 2024. James’ work focuses on using mixed-methodologies and community-based participatory research to address the needs of priority groups across health promotion and health service contexts. Much of James’ work focuses on the LGBTQIA+ community. This includes coordinating the 'Blak and Proud' project at UQ Poche, which focuses on working alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTQIASGBB+ peoples to develop the 'BLAK PRIDE' Model of Care. James other work explores the design and evaluation of mental health promotion programs, the role of technology in health and wellbeing, gender-affirming health services, and projects focused more broadly on wellbeing and sexual and reproductive health. In 2022, James was awarded the UQ Ally Award in recognition of his work creating a safer UQ for LGTBQIA+ people. James is currently a member of the Queensland Government’s advisory panel on LGBTQIA+ issues and helping to develop Queensland’s LGBTQIA+ strategy. Prior to this role, James worked for Lady Gaga on her Born This Way Foundation Youth Advisory Board.

Dr Cassandra France has a PhD in brand strategy and is a Lecturer at UQ in the Marketing Discipline.

After gaining industry experience working in brand strategy, advertising and marketing, Cassandra's research approach bridges theory and practice to better understand how transformative branding can be executed by brand managers to benefit both the brand, the consumer and society. Cassandra is interested in customer-brand relationships, as well as the role of brands in contributing to society. Recent work is focused on brand purpose, with upcoming work looking at corporate social activism and non-profit brand vulnerability. Her leading research explores how customer perceptions of value can be influenced by their own active behaviour. Specifically, how the act of co-creating the brand (by development, feedback, advocacy and helping) and engaging with the brand may impact the perceptions of value. Her work appears in the Journal of Product & Brand Management, Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Marketing Management, among others.

Cassandra is also a dedicated educator, previously Program Leading the Master of Business at University of Queensland and receiving numerous awards for excellence in teaching, including the 2024 Australian Awards for University Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, the 2023 UQ Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, the 2022 BEL Award for Excellence in Student Learning and the 2021 UQ Business School Excellence Award for Student Engagement.

Cassandra has completed training in Supervising Doctoral Studies, Contemporary Expectations in HDR Supervision, Supervising Indigenous HDR candidates, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Core Cultural Learning and Mental Health First Aid.

Carl (Saibai Koedal) is a PhD Candidate studying the epidemiology of rheumatic heart disease in Queensland using linked hospital and administrative data. Currently, Carl holds an academic appointment (Lecturer, Physiotherapy) in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, the University of Queensland, and maintains a clinical role as a Staff Physiotherapist at The Prince Charles Hospital. Alongside research, Carl is also working to strengthen relationships between remote Torres Strait Islander communities and UQ to explore opportunities for education, student clinical placement and research partnerships.

Dr Anna Francis is a paediatric nephrologist and clinician researcher at Queensland Children’s Hospital, Australia. She completed her PhD in 2019 at the University of Sydney on “Long-Term Outcomes of Chronic Kidney Disease in Childhood and Adolescence”. She has a Masters in Clinical Epidemiology. In 2017, Dr Francis was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, travelling to Germany, England and Harvard to explore transition programs to adult care for young kidney transplant recipients. In 2019, she was appointed as an Editorial Fellow to Kidney International. In 2020, Dr Francis was accepted into the inaugural International Society of Nephrology “Emerging Leaders” programme. Dr Francis became an associate editor for Kidney International Reports in 2021.

Her key research interests are the life course impact of childhood CKD and optimising outcomes in paediatric kidney transplantation.