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Overview

My career in medicine commenced at the University of Queensland, graduating in 1993 with MBBS (Hons 1), University Gold Medal, Alexander Bell and Elizabeth Raff Memorial Prize 1988, Ciba-Giegy Prize 1991 and Certificate of Commendation 1992. I have practiced medicine in multiple jurisdictions around the world including St Vincents Hospital Sydney, New South Wales, The Papworth Institute Cambridge UK and finally Brisbane Queensland since 2003. I am Director of The Queensland Lung Transplant Service since September 2007 and Executive Director Heart and Lung Clinical Stream Metro North Hospital and Healthcare Service. I am recognised internationally as a thought leader in lung transplantation and hold pivotal positions with the peak clinical and professional organisation representing the transplant community, the prestigious International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT), a non-profit organisation with over 4700 members. I recently completed a three-year appointment as one of only 11 members of the Board of Directors ISHLT, a position with fiduciary responsibilities and establishing the strategic and governance direction of the Society. I am the only Australian to ever Chair the Standards and Guidelines Committee of ISHLT, a body which directs the publication of consensus documents, clinical practice guidelines, statements on training and ethics, and policy statements for our international audience in heart and lung transplantation, mechanical circulatory support and advanced heart and lung failure. Perhaps most prominently, I am Program Chair for the ISHLT 41st Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) Toronto, Canada April 27-30, 2021 and was Deputy Program Chair for Montreal Canada ASM 2020. I was a leader of the Sydney 2017 bid for ISHLT to hold its 41st Annual Scientific Meeting 2021 in Sydney, the first time ever in Asia Pacific and the southern hemisphere. Due to the COVID 19 Pandemic this venue was changed to Toronto early 2020. I have held executive membership of the ISHLT International Engagement Committee and am subsection leader in clinical transplantation for the Editorial Board of the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. I am one of 6 executive members of the Heart and Lung committee, The Transplantation Society: an organisation with global leadership in the science and clinical practice of solid organ transplantation with historical focus on kidney and liver transplant.

Impact on Policy I have had the opportunity to directly influence policy through membership of several peak bodies. I am a member and former Chair of the Lung Advisory Committee to the National Organ & Tissue Authority (OTA), Canberra. OTA was established in 2009 and operates as an independent statutory agency within the Australian Government Health portfolio. Under my leadership as Chair, I was first author of published guidelines regarding organ sharing arrangements for urgently listed patients across jurisdictions, donor management (role of CT imaging and bronchoscopy) and I am now leading efforts to align the Australian and New Zealand Cardiothoracic Organ Transplant Registry with International databases. I promote orphan lung disease research and awareness through membership on the Rare Lung Diseases National Advisory Committee (previously PIVOT) since 2005 and am a founding member of the Australian Interstitial Lung Disease Registry, ensuring demographic and epidemiological trends in prevalence are captured along with influencing the publication of guidelines on diagnosis and management of IPF. I assisted in the establishment of ARNOLD, National Orphan Lung Diseases Registry launched in 2008. I was the only Thoracic member of the National Blood Authority Immunoglobulin Governance and Blood Star Taskforce leading to a change in policy of how IGG and blood products were prescribed and designing Blood Star, the national online portal of prescribing. I have played a prominent role nationally in ensuring more effective organ matching at time of transplant with membership on the National Organ Matching System Strategic governance committee. This has led to the initiation of virtual cross matching, Eplet identification and listing of recommended recipients across programmes. I was senior author on training guidelines for thoracic medicine published in Respirology 2012.

Clinical expertise, leadership and innovation: I am the longest serving Director of the Queensland Lung Transplant Service with a current tenure of 12.5 years and achieved Pre-Eminent Specialist status MO4-1 in 2015 (the highest possible senior status of a clinician in Queensland Health). Under my leadership we have performed 8 complex triple organ (heart-lung-liver) transplants, the only centre in Asia Pacific to do so, pioneered the Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) program in Queensland now accounting for 26% of all transplants and established Australia’s first ex-vivo organ perfusion program following the awarding of a government grant in 2011, to resuscitate marginal lungs and enhance organ procurement. I co-established the Metro North interventional bronchoscopy service in 2014 to concentrate expertise in airway interventional techniques, a service providing care across Queensland. I co-founded the Queensland interstitial lung disease multi-disciplinary meeting which has adopted a unique telemedicine model allowing centres from Lismore to Cairns to participate – it is the largest in Australia with over 650 presentations since May 2015. I established the lung volume reduction service here at TPCH in 2003, offering hope to patients afflicted with emphysema through novel interventions including endobronchial steam therapy, airway bypass systems and valves along with the conventional surgical approach. I was the primary founder of the Balloon Pulmonary Angioplasty service here in Queensland commencing in 2016 facilitating advanced treatment of patients with inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.

Consumer engagement: I have been able to serve my community through my roles as editor in chief Newsletter Australian IPF Registry, speaker for the Lung Foundation Australia at community events, processional member at the annual Donate Life Service of Remembrance City Hall Brisbane and as Secretary of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Australasian Clinical Trials Network (‘PACT’). PACT was established 18 months ago by a group of interested clinicians to design and deliver high quality trials and studies to provide hope and improved outcomes for people living with pulmonary fibrosis. The networks mission is to link consumers, investigators and industry sponsors to drive innovation in research and enhance survival of this devastating disease.

Industry Engagement: I am a clinical advisor to Avalyn Pharma, a biopharma company based in Seattle USA committed to developing novel therapeutics to patients with IPF including inhaled pirfenidone. I have been an advisor to United Therapeutics Corporation, a biotechnology company headquartered in Maryland USA, with this collaboration leading to a first in human study of a novel stem cell line in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. I am a member of the Data Safety Monitoring Board for a phase 1 study of an amniotic epithelial cell line in the treatment of patients with compensated cirrhosis. I am to be Principal Investigator (PI) on a first in human study of a novel exosome product for patients with IPF – developed by Regenasome, an Australian biotech which has secured $8 million in venture capital. I have been PI on numerous industry sponsored trials including Pirfenidone in IPF, the ASCEND trial published in NEJM and the world’s second highest recruiter, multiple first in human studies including bronchoscopic thermal vapour ablation (Uptake Medical) and the airway bypass system using paclitaxel coated nickel titanium stents (BRONCHUS technologies). I have been PI on over 20 industry sponsored clinical trials.

Evidence of clinical excellence in research

Publications: I have a total of 111 papers consisting of 97 original articles, 6 editorials, 4 letters and 4 book chapters, with 50 since 2012 and 24 manuscripts as first or senior author. Some of my publication highlights, demonstrating my ability to exert influence and foster collaborations with local and international partners and institutions (including UQ) to create, enable and support high impact research that produces evidence based change in health outcomes:

• ‘Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Therapy for Chronic Lung Allograft Dysfunction – Results of a First-in-man Study. Stem Cells Translational Medicine. 2017’ and ‘A Phase 1b Study of Placenta-derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in Patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Respirology 2014’ which established the feasibility and safety of intravenous cell therapy in humans with advanced lung disease. Senior author both publications.
• ‘Association of Minimal Acute Rejection with Obliterative Bronchiolitis in lung transplant recipients. Am J Resp Crit Care Med 2004’. This led to a worldwide change in clinical practice in terms of altering the treatment paradigm of such patients. First author.
• ‘The ASCEND trial – A phase 3 trial of pirfenidone in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. New England Journal of Medicine 2014’. The first clinical trial to ever show benefit in slowing disease progression in IPF and offer hope to patients afflicted with this chronic lung disease. Second highest recruiter in the world, Co-author.
• ‘Excellent clinical outcomes from a national donation-after-determination-of-cardiac-death lung transplant collaborative. Am J Transplant 2012’ was the first major initiative of the Australian Lung Transplant Collaborative, of which I am a key member. This paper set the benchmark for the safety and utility of DCD lung transplantation. The practices pioneered by the Collaborative, and the evidence base established by this publication, have now been adopted around the world, increasing transplantation rates by approximately 20% and saving many lives.

  Research funding support: I have been a Chief and co-Investigator on 24 grants and fellowships administered by UQ and other organisations which now total $10,094,879.90. I currently hold 3 NHMRC project grants (two CIB, 1 CIE) and am a CI on a Centre for Research Excellence, administered by UQ, in redefining antimicrobial use to reduce resistance and prolong the clinical utility of antibiotics (REDUCE). I have been awarded 2 international grants sponsored by pharma in a competitive allocation process totalling over $390,000. I have been successful in being awarded two New Technology Grants from the Queensland Government, introducing and refining lifesaving technology in the field of organ transplantation and Balloon Pulmonary Angioplasty for patients with inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.

  Invited presentations: Since first being invited to speak at an international meeting in 2008, I have now delivered 12 invited talks and chaired 9 sessions at international meetings. I have delivered numerous other talks and chaired many sessions at national meetings.

  Collaborations: I am grateful for the collaborations I have established with researchers in Australia and overseas. Some of my most important collaborations are the following:

  Prof Peter Soyer and Prof Adele Green (UQ & QIMR) Non-melanotic cutaneous malignancy in solid organ transplant recipients, STAR study). Our collaborative has submitted a Health Systems Improvement grant application via Brisbane Diamantina Health Partners to establish a statewide solid organ transplant skin cancer clinic. This innovative model of care will be run as a UQ initiative.

  Prof Rajiv Khanna, QIMR Berghofer, Autologous and allogeneic T cell therapy for drug refractory viral infection.

  Prof Daniel Weiss, University of Vermont, USA, Cell therapy for lung disease.

  Prof Euan Wallace and Dr Rebecca Lim, Monash, Exosome therapy for lung disease.

  Professor Phil Hugenholtz, Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, UQ. Lung microbiome determination.

Editorial and other contributions to respiratory science: I am on the Senior Editorial Board of the Journal for Heart and Lung Transplantation and have completed over 50 editorial reviews since my appointment. I have also reviewed by invitation for Journal of Cystic Fibrosis, Clinical Transplantation, Internal Medicine Journal, Respirology, MJA and AJT. I am an Up To Date peer reviewer from 2015. Recent appointment is section leader on clinical lung transplantation for JHLT.

Evidence of clinical excellence in teaching

Throughout my career I have had a significant clinical teaching load; mentoring and teaching junior doctors and medical students including international students in formal tutorials and ad hoc daily.

Clinical teaching and training: I have been an executive member of the RACP National Examiners Panel from 2007-2013 then the RACP Seniors Examiners Panel from 2014-2020. I am the lead SMO responsible for registrar FRACP clinical exam preparation and conduct public long cases twice a week from March to July each year TPCH. I was an Invigilator for the RACP written examination 2007-2012 and RACP Content Expert for the 2013 exam. I contribute regularly to medical student education (clinical tutorials, term rotations, examination practice). I have been an FRACP supervisor for respiratory advanced trainees continuously since 2003. I was a Lecturer on the topic of Lung Transplantation with the RACP Lecture series from 2003 to 2012.

Mentoring and HDR training: I was Director of Physician/Advanced training RACP from 2003 to 2012 at TPCH, with over 18 trainees under my care at any given time. I am a mentor to the faculty of the Junior Council, ISHLT and present regularly at the ASM on how to advance one’s career in ISHLT and at an institutional level. I have been a mentor and second PhD reader for multiple UQ Confirmation of Candidatures and reader for M Phil.

Policy impact: I have had the opportunity to take a leading role in the delivery of thoracic and transplant medicine education nationally and internationally. I was Special Interest Convenor TSANZ for Interventional Bronchoscopy 2013 to 2017 and SIG convenor for Orphan lung and interstitial diseases from 2009-2012. I have been on the Program Organising Committee for ISHLT in 2015 Nice and 2016 Washington DC including Lung Liaison. These appointments directly determined Symposia and Plenary session content for these global meetings. I have been an Abstract Reviewer for multiple organisations including ISHLT 2006-2018, The Transplantation Society 2018, TSANZ 2009-2017 and the Transplant Society of ANZ 2015-2019. I was an executive member of the ISHLT Education Committee, responsible for scientific content design and delivery across multiple craft groups.

Evidence based medicine: In my specialised field of medicine, evidence from well-designed clinical trials is often lacking yet I have been a strong advocate for the development of high quality clinical guidelines both here in Australia and internationally. As Chair of the Standards and Guidelines Committee for ISHLT (member since 2013) I am responsible for identifying the need to develop new guidelines relevant to the mission of the society and review proposals to ensure high scientific standard is maintained. Under my purview and stewardship, a record number of new applications for guidelines and consensus documents has been submitted in calendar year 2018 – 10 in total. I act as a liaison between the Scientific councils and the proposed authors of documents, the finance Committee, the Executive Director and the Board of Directors ISHLT to encourage submission and facilitate presentation of well-structured proposals. I have been Project Leader on 3 international focused clinical Guideline Development Committees including Antifungal prophylaxis in cardiothoracic transplantation, classification of Airway complications post lung transplant and joint collaboration with the EACTA on the perioperative and ICU management of the lung transplant recipient. Whilst Chair of the TSANZ Lung Advisory Committee I was first author on the lung section of Clinical Guidelines for Organ Transplantation from Deceased Donors version 1.2 2018. Other examples of my activities in this area are my role as a key member of the Australian Lung Transplant Collaborative which generated the evidence base for donation after cardiac death (DCD) lung transplantation. These guidelines and practices have been disseminated through ISHLT and adopted as standard of care around the world.

Supported by over 20 external grants - including an ARC Laureate - I am known for developing insights around three themes: (1) rejection of science and technology, (2) pro-environmental behaviour, and (3) intergroup relations. In each domain I have developed unique models designed to understand the logic behind supposedly “irrational” behaviour, and used them to facilitate attitude and behaviour change. My most recent work focuses on understanding (and reducing) people’s motivations to reject scientific consensus, including the psychology of climate inaction. Matthew is currently leading the Net Zero Observatory at the University of Queensland, a multi-disciplinary group of academics and practitioners who design strategies to accelerate industry action and community support for rapid decarbonisation.

Currently active research interests include assessing and training hazard perception in driving and risk-taking propensity in drivers.

Dr. Hossain is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering (SoMME) and has a joint appointment in the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at The University of Queensland (UQ). He currently leads a medium size research group within the Australian Centre of Materials Nanotectonics where he is the Co-Director. Dr Hossain has extensive expertise in the area of Materials Science and Engineering and one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of applied superconductivity. He has extensive expertise in a research field in which he has 12 years of experience. His research career has strongly supported by a number of awards, including the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from ARC, Strategic Research Fellowship from Australian Academy of Sciences, Priming and Bridging grant award from Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, the Vice-Chancellor’s Emerging Researcher Excellence Award and Vice-Chancellor’s Excellent Industry Partnership Award from University of Wollongong (UOW). His innovative research at the intersection of materials science, magnetism and applied superconductivity has already resulted in the elegant and efficient design of magnetic and superconducting materials for a range of applications including MRI, power cables, fusion magnets and chemical biosensors. He has devised novel strategies based on underlying physics and chemistry to design highly efficient nano-engineered materials and engineering devices which exhibit significantly enhanced superconducting and electromagnetic properties compared to current commercial counterparts.

The existing and new collaboration with leading universities, government organization and industry within Australia and abroad, including UOW, ANSTO, CERN and MIT will strengthen Australia's research profile in the field and the involvement of Dr. Hossain’s long standing industry partner Hyper Tech Reseatch Inc will ensure practical applications in an industry context.

Dr Sepanta Hosseinpour is a Clinical Senior Lecturer and Chief Examiner at the School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland, and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA). He is a specialist endodontist and an Examiner for the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons (RACDS) Primary Examinations.

Sepanta obtained his Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) and Master of Public Health (MPH) in 2017. He completed his PhD at The University of Queensland in 2023, where his research in regenerative dentistry and tissue regeneration was recognised with the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Higher Degree by Research Thesis. He completed three years of accredited specialist training and was awarded the Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (DClinDent) in Endodontics.

Dr Hosseinpour has authored and edited a book on regenerative dentistry and has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He is an active researcher and educator with interests spanning endodontics, regenerative dentistry, biomaterials, and dental education, and regularly delivers invited lectures and presentations at national and international meetings.

Dr Jingwei Hou received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of New South Wales in 2015. He then joined the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology (2015-2017) and University of Cambridge (2017-2019, affiliate of the Trinity College) for this post-doctoral research. In 2019, he returned Australia as an ARC DECRA Fellow at the School of Chemical Engineering, University of Queensland. He was named the ARC Future Fellow in 2021 and then NHMRC Emerging Leadership 2 Fellow and ARC Mid-Career Industry Fellow in 2025. He is currently an Associate Professor and the group leader of the Functional Materials Engineering (FME) Lab, leading a team of enthusiastic and talented researchers in pushing the boundaries of science.

Dr Jingwei Hou has attracted over $9m AUD external research funds as the lead CI or sole CI, and contributed over 40 plenary, keynote and invited talks. So far, he has 1 book chapter and 150+ publications in highly-ranked international peer-reviewed journals (including lead author publications in Science, Nature Communications, CHEM, Cell Report Physical Science, JACS, Angew Chem, Advanced Materials, Journal of Membrane Science, ChemComm etc), which attracted over 11k+ citations and an H index of 63. He is the Membrane Separation Theme Leader of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Green Electrochemical Transformation for Carbon Dioxide (2023-2029). His main research focuses on understanding the physical properties of the microporous materials and translating them into useful devices for membrane separation, optics, energy storage and catalysis.

Biography:

Tony Howes graduated from UQ in 1983 with a degree in chemical engineering, and after 6 months working on a novel fluid bed retort system for oil shale went to Cambridge, UK, where he worked with Malcolm Mackley as his first PhD student on what is now the “Oscillating Baffled Reactor”. His dissertation was awarded the 1988 Danckwerts-Maxwell prize for best thesis in that year. A postdoctoral year at Brown University working on patterns in fluid data sets was followed by 3 ½ years in ICI’s Corporate Colloid Science Group, where he worked on theory and application of a novel atomiser.

Since 1993 Tony has been at The University of Queensland teaching, supervising and doing research. His work (largely in collaboration with Bhesh Bhandari in Food Science) on sticky droplet spray drying has been extensively published and cited – at present Bhandari and Howes papers are in the top-10 most cited in Drying Technology, Journal of Food Engineering and International Journal of Food Properties.

Tony has also worked on a variety of other particle problems, including solid state fermentation, regimes in rotating drums and prilling. Following work on sticky mud particles he was heavily involved in local water quality issues, and sat on the Scientific Expert Panel of the Healthy Waterways Partnership in South East Queensland.

At UQ he co-ordinated an innovative programme where students are placed in industry for a research project, and actively reflect on their learning and interact with UQ staff while in industry. In 2008 he was nominated for a University Teaching Excellence Award for his efforts on this programme.

Research:

My research focus is on spray drying, especially of sticky or potentially sticky foods. With key collaborators (Prof. Bhesh Bhandari, UQ, A.Prof Benu Adhikari University of Ballarat) we have developed rules and understanding of the role of sugars, proteins and other additives on the drying of sugar rich foods, including fruit juices, honey and milk products.

My general interests are in the modelling and physical aspects of these systems.

Teaching and Learning:

Teaching: Engineering Thermodynamics (1st year)

Education Research: The role of Work Integrated Learning in the BE and ME programmes.

Projects:

1. Spray drying at elevated temperatures
2. API crystallisation modelling
3. Role of proteins and additives in food spray drying
4. Morphology development in spray drying

I am a Senior Research Fellow in Cosmology based in the School of Mathematics and Physics. I work on making maps of the positions and motions of millions of galaxies in our Universe to uncover how it has evolved since the Big Bang. Current observations suggest 95% of our Universe consists of ellusive Dark Matter and Dark Energy; we can detect these by the influence they have on the light from galaxies, stars and that permeates the background Universe itself, but they don't emit light themselves and we have no idea yet what they are. My research seeks to uncover these using the largest galaxy surveys in the world.

I have been involved in planning, carrying out, and analysing a large number of these surveys. I currently working groups in the American-led Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) project, the WALLABY survey based in Western Australia, and the 4MOST Hemisphere Survey (4HS) which will be carried out from Chile. Combined, these will produce the most detailed maps of galaxy positions and motions ever created --- over 40,000,000 unique galaxies!

My personal research makes use of state-of-the art computing techniques to simulate the distributions of these galaxies, their properties, and how fast they are moving. I then analyse these distributions using different statistical techniques and compare to the real data. The properties of Dark Matter and Dark Energy and all the other things that make up our Universe can then be extracted by modelling these statistics with theoretical models, or looking for discrepancies between the simulations and the data. My hope is that by doing so, we are currently on the cusp of uncovering something fundamental about how the Universe came to be the way it is today, and what will happen to it in the future.

Academic Background

• Undergraduate: MPhys 1st Class Honours - University of Sussex, 2008-2012
• Postgraduate: PhD - University of Portmouth, 2012-2016
• Research Associate - University of Western Australia, 2015-2019
• Research Fellow in Cosmology - University of Queensland, 2019-

Melanie Hoyle is a Lecturer in Occupational Therapy at The University of Queensland. She completed her PhD is 2022 and Masters in Occupational Therapy Studies in 2004. These degrees were on the back of previously completed studies in science, psychology, health management and health promotion. Melanie has practiced in a broad range of clinical areas, with diverse population groups. She is passionate about partnering with people to support participation in occupations and improve life satisfaction regardless of health condition. Presently her research interests are concentrated on factors that impact on people’s participation in the community and her PhD focused on exploring these influences with people who have experience stroke. She also has research interests in the impact of the NDIS on consumer and clincians experiences in service provision, assistive technology and home-modifications and their influence on participation outcomes, and facilitating leisure opportunities for people with disabilities.

Teresa Hsieh joined the University of Queensland in 2018. Prior to joining UQ, Dr Hsieh was involved teaching, curriculum development and management within the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) and the Skills for Education and Employment (SEE) program. These are federally funded vocational English language training programs for adult (forced) migrants in Australia.

Within her research, Dr Hsieh has developed the conceptual notion of ‘Capital as vocational currency’. This provides a theoretical and practical framework to strengthen English language training programs and employment opportunities for migrants, and potentially international students. This research is underpinned by Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social practice.

Dr Hsieh is now working as an academic within the School of Languages and Cultures. Her research interests include additional language acquisition, and the integration of English language support for international students directly into their degree courses.

Research interests

• Additional language acquisition of international students and forced migrants
• Academic English language support for international students
• Social equity in higher education
• Host language learning as practice (underpinned by notions of Pierre Bourdieu)
• Social identity theory in second language acquisition.