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Ray is currently Professor of Well Engineering & Production Technology in the School of Chemical Engineering and Energi Simulation Co-chair in the Centre for Natural Gas. There he is researching projects related to low permeability, unconventional reservoirs (i.e., tight gas, coal seam gas, shale gas reservoir). In addition, he is an instructor and course coordinator in several courses in the ME Petroleum Engineering program at the University of Queensland.

Outside of teaching and research, Prof Johnson is the Principal at Unconventional Reservoir Solutions, a provider of reservoir engineering, stimulation consulting, and training services to the petroleum and mining industry, focusing on unconventional resources such as gas or oil from coal, shale, or naturally fractured reservoirs.

From 2014 to 2020 Ray was an Adjunct Associate Professor at the ASP, University of Adelaide.

Dr Melanie Johnston is a consultant psychiatrist with a special interest in treating people with intellectual disability and autistic people. Melanie practices at the Queensland Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability and Autism Health (QCEIDAH), as a clinician, researcher, and medical educator. Melanie coordinates QCEIDAH's Down Syndrome clinic, the first dedicated clinic for adults and adolescents with Down Syndrome in Australia.

Melanie's research has focussed on healthcare accessibility, and the identification and treatment of catatonia and regression in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilitie. She has presented at national and international conferences on this topic.

Melanie supervises psychiatry registrars and medical students conducting research in the field of intellectual and developmental disability. She is a lecturer for the RANZCP Queensland formal education course, and the Royal Australian College of Physicians (paediatrics) Young Adult advanced training education course.

Melanie sits on several executive committees including the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists' (RANZCP) binational Section for the Psychiatry of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, the Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine, and the Down Syndrome Medical Interest Group, Australia.

Anna Johnston is Professor in English Literature in the School of Communication and Arts, and was Deputy Director of UQ's Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, 2018-20. Anna worked at the University of Tasmania, where she was Director of the Centre for Colonialism and Its Aftermath (2013-16) and an Australian Research Council Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellow (2007-14). In 2014-15, Anna was Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at the University of Tokyo.

In 2020, Anna completed her ARC Future Fellowship: “The Laboratory of Modernity: Knowledge Formation and the Australian Settler Colonies (1788-1900).” This major project traced how knowledge created in the early Australian colonies was circulated by print culture through imperial networks. From 2016-2020, Anna was also a member of the multi-institutional ARC grant “Intimacy and violence in Anglo Pacific Rim settler colonial societies, 1830-1930” (University of Newcastle), in which she focused on evangelical missionaries and colonial settlers who studied Indigenous languages in Australia and the Pacific. For a recent overview of this project, see UQ’s HASS Researchers.

With Sandra Philips, Anna leads UQ's Australian Studies Research Node at UQ (2020-).

Anna has published widely in the field of colonial and postcolonial studies, focussing on literary and cultural history: her new monograph The Antipodean Laboratory: Making Colonial Knowledge, 1770-1870 will be published in October 2023 (CUP). An edited collection with Em. Professor Elizabeth Webby (Sydney University) Eliza Hamilton Dunlop: Writing from the Colonial Frontier (Sydney University Press 2021) was published in the Sydney Studies in Australian Literature series. She has particular interests in settler colonialism, travel writing, and missionary writing and empire.

Anna is an experienced Masters and PhD supervisor, with 23 HDR completions. She is available to supervise topics on Australian literature (past and present), colonial and postcolonial world literature and cultural history, and travel writing, life writing, and print culture and book history studies. You can read about Anna's award-winning students here, including:

• Samantha Schraag, George Essex Evans Honours Scholarship, 2020
• Phoebe King, Alfred Midgely Postgraduate Scholarship, 2020
• Melissa Thorne, Sydney Review of Books Emerging Critic Fellowship, 2019

From 2023, Anna is the Director of Indigenous Engagement for the School of Communication and Arts. She is also the 2022 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow at the State Libary of Quensland.

Associate Professor Jane Johnston’s research extends across critical public relations, communication and justice, and media diversity and change. She has published widely about the interface between courts and the media, most recently examining how social media has impacted on communication practice in this space. Her most recent research investigates critical intersections in public relations, with publications including Public Relations and the Public Interest (Routledge 2016) and a chapter in Critical Perspectives in Public Relations (Routledge 2016). She is the author/(co)editor of two successful public relations books which have both been published in multiple editions: Public Relations: Theory and Practice (co-edited first with Clara Zawawi, then Mark Sheehan); and Media Relations: Issues and Strategies. Johnston sits on several journal editorial boards and is a regular contributor to the news media.

Other External Grants:

Jury Duty Public Awareness Campaign, (2015), Commissioned by the Queensland Department of Justice and Queensland Courts, January 2015-June 2015. ($31,000).

Social media and Juries, (2013), Report commissioned by the Victorian Attorney General on behalf of the Standing Council on Law and Justice, by Johnston, J., Keyzer, P., Holland, G. Pearson, M., Wallace, A. & Rodrick, S. ($20,000).

Other Books (edited):

Johnston, J. & Zawawi, C. (eds.) (three editions 2000, 2004, 2009), Public Relations: Theory and Practice, Allen & Unwin, Sydney

Johnston, J. & Sheehan, M. (eds.) (2014) Public Relations: Theory and Practice, Allen & Unwin, Sydney

A/Prof Stephen Johnston is a Reader in Reproduction (40% Teaching; 40% Research and 20% Service) in the School of Environment at the University of Queensland, where he teaches animal reproduction and captive husbandry to Bachelor of Wildlife Science and Science undergraduate and postgraduate students. He is current program coordinator for the Bachelor of Wildlife Science Program. He is also a research affiliate in the School of Veterinary Science. Stephen was trained as a zoologist and specialises in the area of reproductive biology in a broad diversity of species ranging from prawns to tigers but with a major focus on Australian mammals. A/Prof Johnston has published 300 scientific works in basic and applied science disciplines including reproductive anatomy, physiology and behaviour. He was the first person in the world to produce a pouch young following artificial insemination in a marsupial, a task that he and his colleagues have now carried out successfully in the koala, a total of 34 times. Stephen is also a specialist in the cryopreservation of marsupial spermatozoa and in the assessment of sperm DNA fragmentation, including human and domestic animal spermatozoa. A/Prof Johnston’s recent research interests and grant success include studies aimed at a better understanding of the effect of chlamydia on male koala reproduction, heat stress in koalas, sociobiology of koalas, genetic and reproductive management of koalas, wombat captive reproduction, echidna captive breeding, crocodile artificial insemination and prawn aquaculture. He is a Fellow of the Society for Reproductive Biology (2019)

Melissa Johnston is a Lecturer in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland where she works in the areas of political economy and security. Melissa was awarded a Discovery Early Career Research Award (2022-2025) for her project on Brideprice, Conflict and Violence Against Women in Southeast Asia.

Melissa has two main research areas. The first area examines the pivotal role of misogyny and violence against women in the political economy of violent extremism, populism and Islamist and right wing politics,looking at the empirical and analytical links between violence against women and violent extremism in Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Libya. Findings show that support for violence against women and misogyny is the best predictor of an individual's support for violent extremism - a finding cited several times by the UN Secretary General in 2019 and 2020. This empirical work has been extended theoretically in the 2024 piece analysing the centrality of patriarchy to international order in the article "Morbid symptoms: a feminist dialectics of global patriarchy in crisis", co-authered with Sara Meger (University of Melbourne).

The second area is the political economy of post-conflict rebuilding. Her doctoral dissertation (winner of the 2019 Australian Political Studies Association thesis prize) and OUP monograph "Rebuilding Patriarchy" (winner of the 2024 BISA IPEG book prize), applies a feminist political economy approach to account for the uneven outcomes gender programming by international development agencies. It argues the outcomes of international interventions on gender responsive budgeting, laws against domestic violence and microfinance are shaped by power relations between men and women in a setting of elite dominance. In the Timor-Leste case specifically, the political economy of kinship—as manifested in brideprice or traditional dispute resolution—has been as crucial to class formation as it has in perpetuating gender injustices. A journal article from this work "Frontier Finance" was the winner of the 2021 Australian International Political Economy Network best journal article prize.

Previously, Melissa has worked for the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) on Asia-Pacific development, and for Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE) on European Union programs to protect women from severe intimate partner violence.

Associate Professor Kelly Johnstone is a certified occupational hygienist (COH) and occupational health and safety (OHS) generalist with a focus on the protection of worker health. She is the Director of the Master of Occupational Hygiene in the School of the Environment, Faculty of Science, UQ. Kelly has experience in various industries, including education, the energy and resource sectors, construction, transport, and agriculture. She plays an active role in the Australian Institute of Health and Safety (AIHS) and the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists (AIOH). Kelly is currently Chair of the Rural Industry Sector Standing Committee for Workplace Health and Safety Queensland.

Kelly's research interests focus on occupational health hazards including evaluating worker exposures to pesticides, respirable crystalline silica dust, and other hazardous chemicals. She has previously worked on applied and academic projects in indoor air quality, exposure to waste anaesthetic gases, thermal risk assessment, dust characterisation, and a range of OHS management-related projects.

Prior to his current position, A/Prof Johnstone served as deputy director of the Centre for Marine Studies at the University of Queensland for 5 years, as well as the Assessment and Monitoring theme leader in the Coastal CRC, and as a member of the scientific advisory committee for CRC Reef. He has a long professional history in coastal nutrient and ecosystem function research, as well as in the communication of science to the community, government, and private sector bodies. In addition, A/Prof Johnstone has a longstanding international reputation in his field, having spent approximately 20 years undertaking CZM research and project management in over 13 countries on behalf of government and international donor agencies including IOC-UNESCO, Sida, and the World Bank.

Within Australia, A/Prof Johnstone’s work is focussed on the understanding of benthic habitats, with an emphasis on nutrient processes and dynamics in coastal ecosystems. This includes aspects such as the influence of land-based inputs on coastal ecosystem function and its influence on specific outcomes such as toxic algal blooms.

Global health researcher and practitioner specialising in HIV, STIs, sexual and reproductive health, humanitarian emergencies and health equity for conflict affected, marginalised populations and First Nations communities. My work bridges academic research and frontline health and wellbeing action.

Key areas of expertise include:

• Human rights approaches
• Disaster preparedness and response
• Policy for migrants, refugees and host communities
• Humanitarian–development–peace nexus
• Community-led monitoring and participatory research methods
• Capacity strengthening and experiential learning

I hold a PhD in HIV and Resilience among Young People (James Cook University), a Master of Arts with Distinction in Participatory Social Development (University of Reading) and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Applied Social Studies (Coventry University).

I spent 14 years as Senior Humanitarian and Security Advisor at UNAIDS, leading evidence-based programming and strategic information in fragile and conflict-affected states. Prior roles with UNICEF, UNDP, UNHCR, and leading NGOs provided operational grounding across Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, Kenya, the Horn of Africa, the Caribbean, South-east Asia, Eastern and Western Europe.

Work experience also includes Cohort Mentor for PhD students at JCU, Senior Policy Advisor at CQU developing a university-wide Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan and Senior Research Fellow at UQ Poche Centre. I have worked in the private sector as an international consultant and manage a study abroad programme linked with Kenyan universities.

Malcolm Jones (BSc Hons PhD Qld) is Professor of Parasitology in the School of Veterinary Sciences. His research interest lie in the biology and control of helminth parasites of humans. His major research interests lie in investigations of shistosomiasis, food-borne trematodiases and echinococcosis.

Human schistosomes are a major scourge of tropical and developing nations. Currently, over 260 million people are infected with schistosomes, and the diseases caused by these parasites lead to chronic morbidity and death. Professor Jones investigates novel control stratgies for schistosomiasis, including vaccines, parasite biology and host interactions and better diagnostic methods.

Professor Jones is a former Deputy Editor of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases and is currently Editor-in-Chief of One Health. He is President-elect of the International Federation for Tropical Medicine.

Operations Manager - National Biologics Facility

Deputy Director - ARC Training Centre for Biopharmaceutical Innovation

Research Areas: Discovery and engineering of antibodies for diagnostic or therapeutic uses

BScApp (Biotech) Honours Class I (1998) The University of Queensland

PhD (2008) The University of Queensland

Natalie is an applied anthropologist that is dedicated to advancing the role of social science in natural resource management and agriculture within interdisciplinary teams. Her research interests involve understanding how people perceive and interact with environmental systems.

Natalie has established a strong track record in applying cognitive constructs, including mental models and values, to explore how people make sense of and relate to their environment. She has an interest in designing and implementing participatory processes to support decision-making.

She is currently leading the social component of an Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research project in Fiji which aims to develop a value chain for converting senile coconut trees into engineered wood products. This will reduce reliance on native forest harvesting, provide new income opportunities for landholders and make more productive use of agricultural landscapes.

Natalie has conducted applied social science research within a number of interdisciplinary teams involving governments, research organisations, non-governmental organisations and Indigenous groups. She has published more than 25 academic papers and book chapters.

Natalie is a Senior Lecturer within the School of the Environment. Prior to taking up her position at UQ, Natalie was a Researcher at the Australian National University working in the Resource Management of the Asia Pacific Program. This involved working as a social scientist in an international collaboration with CIRAD – Agricultural Research for Development, to evaluate 34 participatory modelling projects globally. She has undertaken consultancies with various natural resource management groups within Australia, including Healthy Land and Water and Seqwater.

Classes taught within the School of the Enviroment:

- Regulatory Frameworks for Environmental Management and Planning

- Cultural Heritage Management

- Australian Studies

I am an Associate Professor of Management at UQ Business School with expertise in human resource management, specialising in talent management, global mobility, and the future of work. My research explores how organisations can build sustainable, inclusive, and future-ready workforces that address skills shortages and strengthen leadership capability.

A key focus of my work is workforce transformation, examining how digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping jobs, skills, and careers. I am particularly interested in the digital transformation of HRM, the rise of talent marketplaces, and the emergence of skills-based and algorithmic approaches to talent management. This research provides insights into how organisations can balance innovation, ethics, and inclusion in the evolving world of work.

My work has been published in leading international journals, including Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Journal, Human Resource Management Review, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, International Business Review, Journal of Vocational Behavior, MIT Sloan Management Review, and the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Through collaborations with industry, government, and international research partners, my research delivers evidence-based insights to help organisations and policymakers navigate ongoing workforce and technological transformation.

Prof. David Jordan is a sorghum breeder and geneticist with more than 20 years experience working in both the public and private sector.

For the last decade he has led the public sorghum pre-breeding program in Australia which is a partnership between the University of Queensland (UQ), The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) and the Grains research and Develop Corporation (GRDC). This is a long running and successful research effort with a reputation for integrating across disciplines and linking research efforts from the strategic to the applied. Breeding lines from this program are widely used commercially in Australia and internationally with 100% of the commercial sorghum grown in Australia having genetics from the program. At the same time the research group continues to produce research papers at the forefront of sorghum research.

In recent years he had led projects focused on improving the lives of resource poor farmers in Africa that rely on sorghum.

Ree's research focuses on organisational outliers (exceptions to the norm) and headliners (sources of disproportionate influence), exploring the people, communities, behaviours, decisions, and emerging technologies that challenge prevailing assumptions and exert influence beyond what might ordinarily be expected.

Her research encompasses workplace mavericks, beneficial non-conformity and positive deviance; Indigenous leadership and resilient communities; high-impact leadership behaviours, both constructive and destructive; and judgement and decision-making in complex and extreme contexts, including the interaction of heuristics and agentic/generative AI.

Collectively, this work seeks to understand how exceptional forms of influence can drive innovation, resilience, adaptation, disruption, and change.

Drawing on more than 20 years of professional experience in leadership and organisational change, Ree combines rigorous scholarship with practical application. Her research is characterised by strong engagement with industry, government, Indigenous communities, and not-for-profit organisations, ensuring that academic insights are translated into meaningful outcomes for organisations and communities.