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Dr Peter Jacobson leads the SPMQT Lab at UQ.

For up-to-date information, please see the SPMQT Lab site (https://spmqt.org/).

Dr Peter Jacobson's research interests are: Materials for Quantum Technology, Scanning Probe Microscopy (STM/AFM), and more!

He received his PhD from Tulane University (New Orleans, USA) in 2012. Before coming to UQ in June 2019, he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Stuttgart, Germany) and Uni Graz (Graz, Austria).

Chris is a social scientist specialising in international development. Her research primarily revolves around resilience and adaptation, with a current focus on agriculture policy and implementation. With a wealth of experience from her previous roles in international development and academia, Chris also brings strong expertise in monitoring and evaluation.

She has designed and led both research for development (R4D) and development projects across Cambodia, Vietnam, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Fiji. Her applied research aims to understand the processes and mechanisms of change that bridge policy and action, enhancing food security and sustainability. Currently, Chris is working on projects that emphasise agriculture policy and knowledge brokering for Environmental and Human Health (One Health) in Cambodia, building on her previous work in climate resilience, adaptation, and agrarian change in the region.

My research focuses on fluid flows, in particular turbulent flows. Turbulence is present is many engineering and environmental applications and affects many aspects of our lives. The aim of my research is to better understand turbulence to be able to develop more sustainable engineering solutions and strategies.

Examples include:

• Analysis of atmospheric boundary layer turbulence,
• Investigation of turbulent wind impacts in renewable energy applications, including solar and wind energy,
• Investigation of strategies for reducing the turbulent drag that occurs on aircraft and ships as they move through air or water.

An area of my current research interest is understanding and characterisation of turbulent canopy flows using wind tunnel experiments, field measurements and analytical modelling. Canopy flows exist in agricultural fields, forests, solar arrays and urban environments. My research aims to develop an improved understanding of the turbulent and scalar transport in these environments to inform operational strategies and design considerations in these various environmental, engineering and urban settings.

I joined the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at the University of Queensland as a lecturer in 2024. Prior to that, I held lecturer and postdoctoral positions at the University of Adelaide. In addition to my research and teaching activities, I co-convene the Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society (AFMS) Seminar Series, a fortnightly online seminar featuring Fluid Mechanics research, and I am on the Student/Early Career Researcher sub-committee of the AFMS.

My work is primarily on developing sustainable and integrated management practices for insect pests that infest stored products and processed commodities. I research on variety of themes that involve both fundamentals and applied facets of agricultural entomology and molecular bioscience and, rely on comprehensive knowledge base for resolving complex and practical problems. Key findings of my research are niche oriented and heavily underpinned to industry’s operational logistics. I liase between the institutes and organisations and outreach results to the doorsteps of industry and collaborate with extension professionals and agronomists in the field for maximal adoption, and practice change. As a team, we have gone over national horizons and achieved legacy in assuring food security and market access.

Ankit completed his doctoral studies in Accounting at the Indian School of Business (ISB) and joined UQ Business School as a Lecturer in 2018.

He is mainly interested in capital market research. His current research work focuses on the informativeness of corporate textual disclosures and investors’ behaviour in the secondary market. His work has been published in high-quality journals (ABDC A*), such as the Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, and European Accounting Review. He regularly reviews manuscripts submitted to a number of journals including the Journal of Banking & Finance, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, British Accounting Review, European Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Meditari Accountancy Research, and Pacific-Basin Finance Journal. His research papers have been presented at various national and international conferences including the Accounting & Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) Conferences, the Accounting and Finance Research Forum, the AAA Annual Meeting, the EAA Annual Congress, the European Financial Reporting (EUFIN) Workshop, the International Association for Accounting Education & Research (IAAER) World Congress, the MIT Asia Conference in Accounting, and the Asian Finance Association Conference. He is also a recipient of the best paper awards at the 2022 Accounting & Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) Conference, the 2018 Financial Market and Corporate Governance (FMCG) Conference at La Trobe University, Melbourne and the 2015 IMR Doctoral Conference at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore.

Ankit has over five years of industry experience working with investment banks such as HSBC and Nomura.

Dr Evgueni Jak is Professor in Pyrometallurgy (see UQ U/G Metallurgy program https://my.uq.edu.au/programs-courses/requirements/plan/METAEC2455/2021) at the School of Chemical Engineering. He is co-founder and currently Leader of the Pyrometallurgy Innovation Laboratory (PYROSEARCH-see link https://pyrosearch.chemeng.uq.edu.au/). Pyrosearch currently has major research programs on copper, lead, metal recycling and iron-making thermochemistry supported by major metallurgical companies including Aurubis, Atlantic Copper, Anglo-Americal Pt, BHP (Olympic Dam, Fe ore), Boliden, Codelco, Gohper, Glencore (Kazzinc, GT), Metso, Nyrstar, Penoles, RHI-Magnesita, Rio Tinto (Kennecott Smelter, Fe Ore), SMS, SWERIM, Umicore as well as a number of other direct R&D support projects.

He graduated with Master of Engineering (metallurgy) from St Petersburg Polytechnique University, Russia in 1984, then worked in industry for a large-scale steel casting company progressing from shift engineer to an executive management position. In 1995 he completed a PhD in Pyrometallurgy at The University of Queensland, then worked at the Centre for Research in Computational Thermodynamics (CRCT), Ecole Polytechnic de Montreal, Canada – developers of the computer thermodynamic package FactSage. Dr Jak returned in 1996 to take up research and subsequently academic positions at The University of Queensland.

He is an author of over 450 scientific papers.

He is recipient of

• Prestigious 2002 UQ Foundation Excellence Award,
• Best paper award from Metallurgical Transactions (2004),
• Gold Billiton best paper award from Transactions of IMM C, UK (2008),
• Best paper award from Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly (2009),
• Best paper award from Metallurgical Transactions (2010)
• Editor’s choice award from Journal of Phase Equilibria and Diffusion (2017)
• Best paper award from Metallurgical Transactions (2018)
• TMS Extraction and Processing Science Award (2018)
• Gold Billiton best paper award from Transactions of IMM C, UK (2019).
• Editor’s choice award from Journal of Phase Equilibria and Diffusion for 2019
• TMS Extraction and Processing Science Award (2020)
• Editor’s choice award from Journal of Phase Equilibria and Diffusion for 2020
• Spriggs Phase Equilibria Award from The American Ceramic Society 2025

He has a number of invited, key-note and plenary lectures at leading international conferences. Organiser of major international conferences.

Research interests include

• Pyrometallurgy and high temperature processing,
• Experimental phase equilibria (including development of an original method to measure high-temperature phase equilibria),
• Thermodynamic modelling of slag and other high temperature systems (including co-development of the current key FactSage public oxide thermodynamic database for the Al2O3-CaO-FeO-Fe2O3-SiO2-PbO-ZnO) system,
• Experimental and modelling of viscosities of slags (including development of the original experimental methodology and development of multicomponent slag viscosity models),
• Freeze linings and slag-refractory interactions,
• Modelling of industrial pyrometallurgical processes.

He has been Chief Investigator in a number of successful ARC grants including ARC SPIRT (1998-2000), ARC Large (1999-2001), ARC Large (2000-02), ARC Small (2000), ARC Linkage (2002-06)-the largest in this category in 2002 and the 1st 5-year ARC Linkage ever awarded, ARC Linkage (2005-07), ARC Discovery (2004-06), ARC Linkage (2007-11), ARC Discovery (2008-2010), 2 x ARC Discovery grants (2011-2013), ARC Linkage (2014-2016), ARC Linkage (2015-2018), ARC Linkage (2016-2019), ARC Linkage (2017-2020), ARC Linkage (2018-2023), ARC Linkage (2020-25), ARC LIEF 2022, Trailblazer 2023-2026

In addition to fundamental research Dr Jak has received, and continues to receive, research funding from a wide range of major Australian and international industrial companies including, Anglo American Pt (South Africa); Altonorte, Glencore (Chile); Atlantic Copper, Freeport (Spain); Aurubis (Germany, Bulgaria); Australian Coal Association Research Program (Australia); Baosteel (China); BHP Billiton Fe Ore (Australia); Boliden (Sweden); Britannia Zinc (UK); Coal in Sustainable Development (CCSD-CRC) (Australia); Codelco (Chile); CMSA (Colombia); CYMG (China); Glencore (New Caledonia); Glencore (Switzerland); Glencore Technology (Australia); Glencore Mt Isa Mines (Australia); Glencore Nordenham (Germany); Gohper (USA) Hachinohe (Japan); Kansanshi First Quantum (Zambia); Kazzinc Gelncore (Kazakhstan); Koniambo Nickel, Metaleurop Noyelles Godault (France); Metallo (Belgium); Metso (Finland and Australia); MHD (Germany); MRI (Malaysia); Nippon JLX (Saganoseki, Japan); Ni-West, BHP Billiton (Australia); Nyrstar (Australia, Belgium); Olympic Dam, BHP Billiton (Australia); Pan Pacific (Tamano, Japan); PASAR Glencore (Philippines); Penoles (Mexica); Portovesme (Italy); Queensland Nickel (Australia); RHI-Magnesita, (Austria); Sadbury Ni smelter, Glencore (Canada); SWERIM-LKAB-SSB (Sweden) Samancor Manganese (South Africa); Samancor Chromium (South Africa); Sumitomo (Japan); RioTinto Fe Ore (Australia); RioTinto (Kennecott, USA); Teck Cominco (Canada); TEMCO BHP Billiton (Australia); Umicore (Belgium).

Chris James' research is in the fields of experimental hypersonics, hypersonic aerothermodynamics, and planetary entry. His research combines two important and intertwined parts of these fields: the development and understanding of hypersonic test facilities and the performing and analysing of experiments in them. Chris' 28 journal papers, 2 technical notes, and 59 conference publications cover the design, improvement, and simulation of high enthalpy hypersonic facilities such as expansion tubes and shock tunnels, the application and improvement of physical, optical, and radio-based techniques performed on these facilities, non-equilibrium radiation measurements for entry into many planets in the solar system, re-entry observation measurements, and impulse facility ablation testing.

Chris graduated from Mechanical Engineering at UQ in 2012. Following this, he completed his PhD in the Centre for Hypersonics at the University of Queensland (UQ).

During his PhD he developed very high speed Uranus and Saturn entry conditions which were used to perform the fastest experiments which have ever been performed in an expansion tube, as well as developing expansion tube simulation and analysis codes which are now widely used in the Centre for Hypersonics and around the world. He also enrolled in a cotutelle program with École Centrale Paris in Paris, France, and after being awarded an Eiffel Excellence Scholarship by the French government, he passed a year on exchange in Paris, France. In France, Chris was working on developing the capability to perform radiating simulations to support his experimental work at UQ.

Post PhD he was employed in the Centre for Hypersonics helping to develop the X3R reflected shock tunnel, while also supervising and conducting expansion tube research on the X2 expansion tube at UQ.

In 2020, Chris took on a lecturing position for the year and was awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA early career fellowship to study Mars return conditions with heated test models at UQ from 2021 to 2023. He was the 2020 recipient of the UQ EAIT Faculty Early Career Researcher Award and in 2021 a paper he presented was awarded the 2021 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Ground Test Best Paper Award at the 2021 AIAA SciTech Forum.

in 2020 he participated in the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) led re-entry observation mission of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Hayabusa2 re-entry over Woomera, South Australia and in 2022 he led the UQ contingent on the once again UniSQ led re-entry observation mission of the NASA OSIRIS-REx re-entry in the US.

He is now employed at UQ as a UQ Amplify Senior Lecturer where he continues to perform research in giant planet entry through an ARC Discovery Project which he received with his colleague Professor Richard Morgan and continues to develop and improve UQ's X2 expansion tube.

Chris lectures in the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at UQ. He lectures both hypersonics and space engineering, covering varied topics such as high temperature gas dynamics, hypersonic test facilities, rarefied gas dynamics, orbital mechanics, rocket trajectories, spacecraft design, spacecraft thermal and power management, and planetary entry.

He has written six popular science article for The Conversation with a more than 200,000 combined reads, and has been interviewed for Youtube and radio many times. He has given invited talks at the University of Oxford and the Engineers Australia Continuing Professional Development seminar series.

Dr Azin Janani is a signal processessing and disease classification researcher at the University of Queensland. She received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in biomedical engineering from Amirkabir University (Tehran Poly-Technique), Iran, in 2008 and 2010 respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Flinders University, Australia, in 2019. She joined the Electromagnetic Research Group, The University of Queensland as a Postdoc Fellow in 2019. Her research interests include signal processing, arteficat removl, feature extraxtion, disease classification, electromagnetic imaging, and computer aided diagnosis system development. She has an extended experience in processig diffrent kinds biological and non-biological signals including Electrocardiogram (ECG), Phonocardiogram (PCG), Electroencephalogram (EEG), and electromagnetic signals. Azin enjoys programming and is professional in Python, Matlab, Java, and C .

She was also a recipient of the Australian Endeavour Postgraduate Scholarship, in 2016, for her Ph.D. studies.

Professor Janda is a NHMRC Leadership Fellow (2025-29), and serves UQ as the Director, Centre for Health Services Research, and Professor in Behavioural Science at the Faculty of Faculty of Health, Medicine & Behavioural Sciences.Professor Janda leads the NHMRC Centre for Reserch Excellence in Skin Imaging and Precision Diagnosis (2021-2025) and the NHMRC funded Synergy Roadmap Towards Melanoma Screening (2022-2026). She trained as a health psychologist and is a behavioural scientist with a research background in cancer prevention and quality of life research. Prof Janda has strong clinical collaborations, and a passion for consumer-centered digital interventions that make self-management of health-related issues easier for people. Her work focuses on applied health and clinical research problems, making a difference to cancer prevention, early detection and treatment outcomes.

Previousely, until 2017, she led the Health Determinants and Health Systems Theme at The Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Before her NHMRC Leadership Fellowship, research was funded through an NHMRC Translating Research into Precatice Fewllowhip (2018-2020), NHMRC Career Development Fellowship Level II (2013-2017), NHMRC Career development fellowship I (2009-12) and NHMRC early career fellowship (2004-8). She was a research fellow for the Melanoma Screening trial with the Cancer Council Queensland before joining QUT in 2006.

Course Coordinator and Lecturer in Work Integrated Learning (WIL) and Employability at the University of Queensland Business School, where I lead two key streams of work experience: internships and industry consultancy projects. Through years of involvement in these programs, I've built a network of industry and academic collaborators, shaping students’ WIL experiences into immersive, hands-on learning opportunities that foster both personal discovery and professional growth. My research and teaching interests focus on models for the persuasive articulation of personal value and successfully pitching business solutions. I hold a PhD from the University of Queensland and have published research articles related to this work.

My research interests span a broad range of topics, including biogeographic and macroecological studies, spatial ecology, invasion biology and the integration of these fields. I therefore have a general interest to understand the mechanisms, both biological and anthropogenic, that account for changes in environmental variables and that translate into altered patterns in the distribution of biodiversity. Understanding such patterns at different spatial scales while considering different taxonomic groups is in my opinion an important component of efficient conservation planning. I also have a major interest in topics related to conservation focusing on the identification of bioindicator species that may reflect some measure of the character of the habitat within which they are found. As coordinator of the Masters of Conservation Biology course, I will be responsible for the development and running of the course. I hold an Extra-ordinary Professor position with the University of Pretoria (Dept. Zoology & Entomology).