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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, SDGs and corporate social activism with upcoming work exploring non-profit brand vulnerability. Her work appears in the Journal of Product & Brand Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Marketing Management, among others.

Cassandra is 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 is the HDR Coordinator for the Marketing Discipline and 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 Francia (Saibai Koedal awgadhalayg) is a physiotherapist and population health researcher based at The University of Queensland, currently seconded as an NHMRC Synergy Fellow at the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health. His research focuses on acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD), with a particular emphasis on Indigenous-led, place-based approaches to prevention, early detection, long-term management, and health system reform.

Carl’s research program examines the burden, natural history, and progression of ARF and RHD using large-scale linked administrative and clinical datasets, with the aim of generating evidence that informs policy, improves service delivery, and supports disease elimination strategies. His doctoral research, recently completed and currently under examination, investigated the epidemiology and progression of ARF and RHD in Queensland over two decades, including population-level incidence and prevalence, progression and regression patterns, and inequities in outcomes.

Through his current role on the NHMRC Synergy project iPreventRHD, Carl is working to translate epidemiological evidence into practice by supporting life-course approaches to RHD prevention and care, strengthening primary and preventive care systems, and partnering with communities, clinicians, and policymakers. His work is underpinned by a commitment to Indigenous data sovereignty, community partnership, and research that is responsive to local context and priorities.

Carl maintains active collaborations across clinical, academic, and community settings and has published across epidemiology, public health, and cardiovascular disease prevention. He is particularly interested in research that bridges evidence and implementation, supports culturally safe care, and contributes to equitable health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

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.

• Director, Herston Imaging Research Facility
• Professorial Research Fellow and Senior Group Leader, AIBN
• Nuclear Medicine Specialist, Dept Nuclear Medicine & PET Services, Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital

Ros Francis is an academic Nuclear Medicine specialist who has established an innovative and highly collaborative research career focused on clinical trials, novel radiopharmaceuticals for imaging and therapy, and innovative approaches for quantitative imaging. Her expertise spans diverse fields including oncology, cardiology, neurology and inflammatory diseases, with a focus on research translation. Ros is passionate about nuclear medicine clinical trials and has been integral in the establishment of Australasian Radiopharmaceutical Trials Network (ARTnet), for which she has been Scientific Chair since 2014.

Ros relocated to Brisbane in 2024 from Western Australia and is enjoying new opportunities in Queensland’s vibrant and innovative biodiscovery ecosystem. As Director of Herston Imaging Research Facility and Senior Group Leader AIBN, Ros aims to lead translational research to improve outcomes for patients

Dr Cathy Franklin is Director of the Queensland Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability and Autism Health. As a psychiatrist and researcher, she has spent two decades improving health and mental health outcomes for people with intellectual disability and those on the autism spectrum through clinical care, service innovation, education and applied research.

Cathy is recognised as an Australian expert in her field, serving on the RANZCP Committee for the Section of Psychiatry of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, and the Executive Committee of the Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine.

As an ardent advocate, Dr Franklin’s submission to the Queensland Parliament Mental Health Select Committee in 2022 helped raise the profile of this area of need. The Committee subsequently made a recommendation that was accepted, leading to a Queensland Government $51.5M investment over four years to establish a Centre of Excellence and 12 intellectual and developmental disability mental health teams statewide.

Cathy's research centres on improving health outcomes for people with intellectual disability and those on the autism spectrum. She has expertise in Down syndrome and is an international expert in Down syndrome regression disorder.

Cathy has successfully led successful applications to secure over $11M in competitive research and project funding in the last seven years. She also led her centre's partnership in the University of New South Wales consortium that secured $23.9M (2022-2026) to establish the National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health.

Key projects Dr Franklin has led include the co-designed EASY Health project ($3.2M 2020-2026), which introduced Australia's first online education for mainstream clinicians featuring actors with disabilities. Now available across Queensland Health and mandated in national Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, this education is transforming clinician perspectives and improving equitable access to healthcare.

Cathy is also Chief Investigator on the Bridge to Better Health project, a $1.4M NHMRC-funded initiative building primary care nurses' capacity to deliver healthcare and improve outcomes for people with intellectual disability.

Cathy helped establish the Down Syndrome Medical Interest Group-Australia and co-chairs the Regression and Mental Health workgroup of the Down Syndrome Medical Interest Group-USA. She leads her centre's contribution to the international Down syndrome consortium led by Massachusetts General Hospital.

In 2020 she was awarded the Mater Research Sister Regis Dunne award for Outstanding Contribution to research relative to opportunity and in 2025, the Women in Technology "Lifting Communities" award.

Professor Daniel Franks is Director of the Global Centre for Mineral Security at the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute and is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. Professor Franks is known internationally for his work on the interconnections between minerals, materials and sustainable development, with a particular focus on the role of minerals in poverty reduction. He has introduced a number of key concepts in development studies including ‘mineral poverty’, ‘mineral security,’ and ‘development minerals;’ and has worked with a wide range of public and private sector partners to implement breakthrough sustainability innovations, such as OreSand to drastically reduce mine waste, and ‘social impact management plans,’ a regulatory tool now adopted throughout the world.

He is the author of more than 160 publications, including more than 40 publications for the United Nations. His research has appeared in journals such as Nature Sustainability and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and is available in 11 languages. He is an Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Minerals Policy & Economics, as well as Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal and has field experience at more than 100 mining and energy sites and 40 countries.

Lucy Fraser is a Senior Lecturer in Japanese at the School of Languages and Cultures, St Lucia campus, UQ. Her research interests include depictions of animal-human relationships in fiction, fairy tales and fairy tale retellings in Japanese and English, and ideas of gender--especially the figure of the girl--in contemporary Japanese literature, manga, film, and television. She is also interested in Japan-Australia literary and cultural connections, and editing and translation of literature and literary criticism.

Professor Ian Frazer is a clinician scientist, trained as a clinical immunologist in Scotland. As a professor at the University of Queensland, he leads a research group working at TRI in Brisbane, Australia on the immunobiology of epithelial cancers. He is recognised as co-inventor of the technology enabling the HPV vaccines, currently used worldwide to help prevent cervical cancer. He heads a biotechnology company, Jingang Medicine (Aus) Pty Ltd, working on new vaccine technologies, and is a board member of several companies and not for profit organisations. He was the inaugural president of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, and a member of the Australian National Science and Technology Council. He chairs the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board of the Medical Research Future Fund.

He was recognised as Australian of the Year in 2006. He was recipient of the Prime Ministers Prize for Science, and of the Balzan Prize, in 2008, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2012. He was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2013.

Associate Professor Chris Freeman is a leading pharmacist, educator, and clinician-researcher with national recognition and international impact in Safe and Quality Use of Medicines. He is currently appointed as the inaugural Conjoint Associate Professor of Safe and Effective Medication Research at the University of Queensland and Metro North Health (2021-present), Consultant Pharmacist at Camp Hill Healthcare (2009-present), and Board Director of the Brisbane South PHN (2020-present). A/Prof Freeman has served at the highest professional position within the Australian pharmacy sector, as National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (2018-22).

A/Prof Freeman’s research theme focusses on the Safe and Quality use of Medicines, specifically relating to developing the evidence to support future roles for pharmacists in collaborative healthcare settings, reducing harm from inappropriate medication use, and tailoring therapy through personalised medicine. He has been a productive researcher relative to opportunity, with more than 80 publications, and secured $7Min competitive research grants and fellowships from a range of funders including NHMRC (including the prestigious TRIP Fellowship), MRFF, and HCF Research Foundation.

A/Prof Freeman has been recognised for his contributions to the advancement of patient care, research, and the pharmacy profession through awards such as the PSA’s Young Pharmacist of the Year, the Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacy’s Consultant Pharmacist of the Year, the James Cook University’s Outstanding Early Career Alumni Award, and Fellowships of PSA and the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr Navid Freidoonimehr is a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering within the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at The University of Queensland and an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow. He completed his PhD at the University of Adelaide in 2021. His research spans biofluid mechanics, cardiovascular haemodynamics, and unsteady/pulsatile flow, with an emphasis on translating engineering insight into clinically meaningful cardiovascular diagnostics.

Navid Freidoonimehr’s research sits at the interface of engineering and clinical practice, with a strong focus on coronary artery physiology. His work integrates computational modelling (e.g., CFD and haemodynamic/diagnostic indices) with experimental fluid mechanics (benchtop flow loops, pressure–flow measurements, and flow visualisation) to quantify how lesions and microvascular resistance shape coronary physiology and how these effects can be captured with improved diagnostic approaches.

Alongside his cardiovascular program, Dr Freidoonimehr leads a DECRA project inspired by human heart pulsation that investigates how controlled flow pulsation can reduce energy consumption in pipelines, aiming to develop practical strategies for more efficient fluid transport in engineered systems. Before joining The University of Queensland, he held research and fellowship positions at the University of Adelaide, as a postdoctoral researcher (2021-2024), and Queensland University of Technology, as a Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow (2024-2025).

Yiradhu marang! (Good day!) I’m a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at The University of Queensland, and a proud Wiradyuri man from Wagga Wagga and Brungle. My research background is in cognitive psychology, decision-making, and computational modelling, with my current work focused on the intersection of cognitive science and cybersecurity.