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Associate Professor Srinivas Kondalsamy Chennakesavan is the Head of Research at the University of Queensland’s Rural Clinical School. He also shares an honorary appointment at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. With a background in medicine and public health, his research expertise is in the areas of public health, translational research, rural health and medical epidemiology. He has received competitive grants, $8.1m+ including six major grants from the NHMRC/MRFF and other agencies and actively contributes to NHMRC/MRFF and other international peer review panels for major funding schemes. His expertise in the areas of community-based screening and surveillance programs for chronic diseases in rural and remote Indigenous communities is well known. On invitation, those models of screening and management have been replicated in South Africa and some parts of India (resource-poor and challenging environments). He has unique skills in utilising information technology, clinical medicine and statistics to improve clinical outcomes.

Sunil Lakhani is Executive Director Research and Senior Staff Specialist, Pathology Queensland, and Head of the Molecular Breast Group at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR) at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

Prior to his move to Australia in 2004, he was Professor of Breast Pathology at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK

His current research interests include lobular carcinoma and its variants, normal and stem cells, tumours with a basal phenotype, familial breast cancer and biology and therapeutic development for brain and distant metastases.

He was series editor for the 4th Edition WHO Tumour Classification Books and volume editor for the 4th Ed WHO Classification of Tumours of the Breast (2012). He is currently Standing member of the Board for the 5th Ed WHO Tumour Classification Books. He is also on the editorial board of a number of pathology and experimental research journals.

Prof Colleen Lau - MBBS (UWA), MPHTM (JCU), PhD (UQ), FRACGP, FACTM, FISTM.

Prof Colleen Lau is an NHMRC Fellow and Professorial Research Fellow at the UQ Centre for Clinical Research. Her areas of expertise include emerging infectious diseases, neglected tropical diseases, and clinical travel medicine. Her wide range of research interests include infectious disease epidemiology, spatial epidemiology and disease mapping, infectious disease surveillance and elimination, vaccinations, travel health, environmental health, and digital decision support tools. Professor Lau’s research projects focus on answering practical questions in clinical management of infectious diseases and operational questions on improving strategies to solve public health problems. She leads UQ's HERA program on Operational Research and Decision Support for Infectious Diseases (ODeSI).

Dr. Sherman Leung is the Head of Research Operations at Wesley Research Institute - the research partner of UnitingCare. UnitingCare is the largest private employer in Queensland, encompassing four hospitals (The Wesley Hospital, St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital, Buderim Private Hospital and St. Stephen's Hospital), as well as significant community-based offerings through Lifeline, Blue Care, Family and Disability Services, and ARRCS.

Dr. Leung is a PhD trained scientist, conducting his research training at Mater Research Institute, The University of Queensland, during which his research was published in highly regarded peer-reviewed journals, including in 'Diabetes', receiving the Cover Image, an 'In This Issue' feature, and shared across the Australian-wide 7 Network news.

He has extensive experience in clinical trials, having worked at Microba Life Sciences, an ASX-listed biotechnology start-up, and Nucleus Network, Australia’s largest early phase clinical trial site having overseen the conduct of several high-profile COVID-19 projects including Nuvaxovid by Novavax that has been granted emergency authorisation in 40 countries including by the TGA, EMEA & FDA.

He contributes his spare time to the greater good through numerous initiatives in the industry including being a Board Director of the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA), Editorial Board for 'Trials' – a BMC journal promoting all aspects of trials including methods, processes and non-significant outcomes for transparency in the field – being a former member of the Metro North Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC), and offering regular guest classrooms on clinical trials, informed consent and ethics at The University of Queensland.

A/Prof Janni Leung (PhD) is an NHMRC Development Fellow at National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research (NCYSUR) at The University of Queensland. Their program of research includes investigating the epidemiology of substance use and mental health because they are both major public health issues that commonly occur together. This research program had made paradigm-changing development through 100+ articles, which have recognised impact (15,000+ cites, 30% output in the top 1% citation percentile). Many of their work involves conducting systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and applying statistical models to epidemiological data on addiction and mental health issues to better understand their impacts on populations. Her work is used to inform policies on how to reduce the disease burden caused by addiction and mental health problems in Australia and overseas. Janni is committed to conducting high-quality rigorous research to generate empirical epidemiological evidence to inform decisions to prevent addiction-related harms in the population.

Teaching and supervision: They have qualifications and training in public health, sociology, and psychology. In addition, they have strong research and teaching experience in epidemiology and biostatistics. Janni has worked with a range of students from diverse demographic and cultural backgrounds, including mature-aged students and students with family responsibilities. She currently has a topic available for a self-motivated student interested in addiction research. Janni’s current research focus is on the epidemiology and disease burden associated with mental and substance use disorders across the globe.

Consultation: Janni is available for private consultation and workshop presentations on request for various research methodological and statistical topics, e.g. systematic reviews and meta-analysis, questionnaire and survey designs, cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.

Where can you find Janni: Janni is based at the UQ St Lucia campus with regular visits to the Long Pocket and Herston campuses. You may also catch Janni at the APSAD conference.

Zhiqi Liang is a Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist and Lecturer in Physiotherapy at the University of Queensland. She teaches on the Master of Physiotherapy (Musculoskeletal) Program and maintains a clinical role at the Headache Clinic in the University of Queensland. Her research is on neck pain and headache, especially migraine, exploring mechanisms of neck pain in headache and treatment directions, including patient preferences, for individualised management. In 2024, she was awarded the David Lamb Award by the International Federation of Manual and Musculoskeletal Physical Therapists Incorporated (IFOMPT) for high quality research that has made an impact to musculoskeletal physiotherapy internationally. Zhiqi has been a musculoskeletal physiotherapist for more than 15 years and her clinical expertise is recognised by Fellowship within the Australian College of Physiotherapists, where she has been actively involved as an examiner and facilitator for the Specialisation Training Program and currently serves on the Board of Censors.

Jacki Liddle is a research fellow and occupational therapist researching quality of life, participation and life transitions. She uses innovative technology, along with qualitative and quantitative research methods to investigate the needs and experiences of people living with neurological conditions (dementia, Parkinson's disease, stroke), older people and their caregivers. She has worked with a multi-disciplinary team co-designing technology with people living with dementia and their care partners to support communication. Currently, she is in a conjoint position with Princess Alexandra Hospital, supporting the development, conduct and application of research that improves outcomes for patients.

She has also been involved in developing technology to measure outcomes including lifespace, time use, and activity and role participation to help monitor and improve community outcomes. Dr Liddle's PhD focused on researching the experiences related to retirement from driving for older people, which led to the development of the CarFreeMe program to improve outcomes related to driving cessation. Versions of the program for older drivers, people living with dementia and people with traumatic brain injury have been developed and trialled.

Prof Lipman is Executive Director of the Burns Trauma & Critical Care Research Centre; Professor of Anesthesiology & Critical Care, The University of Queensland and until recently (for 23 years) was Director of Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital; He holds Honorary Professorial appointments at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Unversity of Witwatersrand (South Africa) and Qeensland University of Technology.

He has qualifications in anesthesia and intensive care and has set up and been in charge of a number of Intensive Care and Trauma Units in South Africa before coming to Australia in 1997. he currently manages a large multidisciplinary research team with an output of over 120 peer-reviewed articles per annum. He has supervised dozens of PhD students to completion and is currently supervising 6 PhD, 1 MPhil and 1 MBBS/Hons students. Prof Lipman has been instrumental in developing the anaesthesiology and critical care component of a graduate medical program for Queensland and continues to lecture to medical and postgraduate students.

Prof Lipman is the author of over 550 peer reviewed publications, 30 book chapters and has been invited to deliver over 120 lectures at national and international conferences in many countries across the world. His research interests include all aspects of infection management in intensive care and he has a special interest in the pharmacokinetics of antibiotic dosage, an area in which he received his MD in 2006. His research into antibiotic usage in acute situations has received international recognition and he is regarded as an expert in the field. As such, he and his research team have conducted and presently conduct a number of clinical trials in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Europe and the UK.

Prof Lipman is an Editorial Board member for 10 International Journals, is Section Editor on four Antibiotic related Journals, reviews for 23 journals and is an external reviewer for NHMRC project grants (Local) as well as equivalent for a number overseas countries.

He is Chief Investigator on a 7000 patient International Randomised Controlled Trial comparing bolus dosing versus continuous infusions of meropenem and piperacillin-tazobactam

Dr Liu is a research fellow with more than 15 years of experience in the field of pharmacometrics. She specialises in population pharmacokinetic modelling and provides popPK analysis and dosing simulation support for various projects in Centre of Research Excellence RESPOND

Transporters for Catecholamines and Serotonin. Science Education.

The overall theme of Lesley Lluka's research over 3 decades has been the structure and function of the noradrenaline transporter (NET) and the serotonin transporter (SERT). These transporters are important sites of action of drugs such as antidepressants.

More recently, Lesley Lluka's work has increasingly moved to Science Education, with a focus on areas such as student engagement in practical classes, innovative assessment practices to drive deep learning, and internationalization of the curriculum.

Benignus is a geriatrician who is passionate about working collaboratively within multi-disciplinary teams to deliver exceptional patient-centred care. He currently holds staff specialist appointments at Mater Hospital Brisbane and The Prince Charles Hospital.

He has a strong interest in research and has embarked on a PhD examining frailty and goals of care in patients living with chronic kidney disease. He holds an appointment working as a clinical academic in Professor Hubbard’s team at the University of Queensland’s Centre for Health Services Research with a particular remit to support interdisciplinary education and training about frailty.

Prior to his medical training Benignus worked for KPMG, a professional services firm.

Dr Kristiana Ludlow is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Services Research, Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Behavioural Sciences, the University of Queensland, and an Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University. She completed her Bachelor of Psychology with first class Honours in 2015, her Master of Research in Medicine and Health Sciences in 2017, and her PhD in in Health Innovation in 2020. Dr Ludlow has expertise in co-design, qualitative research and Q methodology. Her research interests include co-designing interventions and digital health tools with end-users, frailty, education, aged care, person-centred care, the role of family caregivers in care, missed care/unfinished care, and care prioritisation. She is passionate about collaborating with consumers, service users and health professionals to improve the delivery of healthcare and mental health services.