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Sebastian Kaempf is an Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies at the School of Political Science and International Studies. He is also the Director of the Rotary Peace Centre at UQ.

His expertise lies at the intersection between International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies, with specialization in the areas of international security, ethics and the laws of war, and information technology relating to global politics and violent conflict. Specifically, his research focuses on two areas:

The first concerns the relationship between ethics and the laws of war in the context of the transformation of violent conflict. Here, he is interested in the ways in which historic and contemporary wars - waged under conditions of asymmetry - have impacted on the relationship between the norms of casualty-aversion and civilian protection.

The second area focuses on the role a transforming global media landscape is playing in violent conflicts. Here, his research focuses on how historic and current conflicts are being waged in and through media and information technology, with a particular emphasis on the geopolitics of cyberspace, embedded news reporting, mass surveillance and big data mining, non-state armed groups, and the influence of the Pentagon and CIA in the entertainment sector.

Dr Kaempf received his PhD at the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University (UK). He holds a BSc and MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

He won the ISA Deborah Gerner Award for Teaching Innovation in 2020. In 2013, he won an Australian national award for teaching excellence (AAUT); in 2012, he won UQ and Faculty awards for teaching excellence. He is also the producer (with UQx and edX.com) and convenor of 'MediaWarX', one of UQ's Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): https://www.edx.org/course/global-media-war-technology-uqx-mediawarx-0

He was a visiting fellow/researcher at UGA in Athens, Georgia, Sao Paulo State University, Humboldt University in Berlin, Sciences Po Lyon, the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, The University of Sydney,and Brown University in Providence, US.

Together with his colleague A/Prof Al Stark, he hosts the podcast 'Higher Ed Heroes': https://www.buzzsprout.com/813707

And he is the co-producer of the award-winning film documentary 'Theatres of War: How the CIA and Pentagon took Hollywood': https://go.mediaed.org/theaters-of-war

He is a member of the editorial team of the journal 'Review of International Studies'.

I am a computational biologist with a centre-wide research role in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture, based here at UQ. I spend my time researching new computational techniques for predicting complex quantitative traits by integrating multiple layers of 'omics data (amongst dozens of other things!).

Areas of interest:

• Machine Learning, AI and high performance computing to learn and exploit functional connectivity in biological data
• Gene Expressions networks
• Multiplex networks, information propagation and perturbation
• Genomic Prediction

My goal is to aid crop and forestry breeders in selecting parental lines more accurately, which gives us a pathway to improving certain plant species. I also spend time developing new data analysis techniques that are being applied to human disease and conditions such as Autism and substance addiction.

David completed his PhD at Australian National University in 2017, focusing on the genome-wide basis of foliar terpene variation in Eucalyptus. He then undertook a postdoc at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a US Dept of Energy lab with a focus on big data. After a stint as a staff scientist at Oak Ridge, David arrived at the Centre of Excellence in 2023 in the role of a Senior Research Fellow.

Professor Sandra Kaji-O'Grady is an architectural educator, academic leader and researcher with a PhD in Philosophy from Monash University (2001) and professional architectural qualifications and experience. She led the design and delivering of a new progressive design education while Head of School at UTS (2005-2009) and in September 2013 commenced as Head of School and Dean of Architecture at the University of Queensland. She is committed to critical approaches to design learning and to preparing students for a radically volatile professional future.

Sandra's research is in the architectural humanties and seeks to understand the political and philosophical contexts for contemporary architecture. She has recently completed a project with Chris L. Smith on the architectural expression of contemporary science and its ideologies in laboratory buildings. This research was supported by the Australian Research Council, through the Discovery Grant ‘From Alchemist’s Den to Science City: Architecture and the Expression of Experimental Science’. Laboratory Lifestyles, the first of two major book outcomes from the study, examines the history, ambitions and and effects of the addition of gymnasia, cafes, and social spaces to scientific esearch campuses and will published by MIT Press in 2018. Life science laboratories also incorporate Animal Houses and our consideration of these has led to a new research project, in its early stages. This research will explore the ways in which buildings designed to house animals evidence and determine the relationships we have with non-human animals. Previous work has been published in leading journals including the Journal of Architecture, The Journal of Architectural Education, Architecture &, and le Journal Spéciale’Z. She has presented invited lectures and peer-reviewed conference papers in the USA, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Finland, Amsterdam, France, Belgium, Germany, England and Scotland, where she was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Edinburgh (2012). Her own artwork investigating serial systems using pianola rolls and commercial paint samples has been exhibited in Singapore and Australia.

Sandra has been a member of the College of Experts of the Australian Research Council (2010-2011) and has reviewed submissions for several scholarly journals and sits on the editorial boards of Architecture and Culture, Studies in Material Thinking, Ardeth, and Architecture Theory Review. She is a reviewer for DrawingOn Journal and regularly contributes as a critic to Architecture Australia, Architecture Review Australia, Monument and Artichoke. Actively engaged with the architectural profession, she has written over fifty reviews for the design press and co-directed the AIA National Conference in 2013.

Dr Aleksandr Kakinen is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow (EL1) at AIBN, UQ. His research investigates how protein aggregation, inflammation, and infection contribute to neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

His work focuses on amyloid proteins — misfolded proteins that assemble into toxic aggregates in the brain — and how these assemblies interact with inflammatory and microbial factors to influence disease progression. He combines approaches from biophysics, structural biology, molecular neuroscience, neuroinflammation, and nanomedicine to understand disease mechanisms and identify new therapeutic opportunities.

Dr Kakinen’s research program includes:

• amyloid aggregation and cross-seeding mechanisms
• infection- and inflammation-driven neurodegeneration
• structural and biological diversity of amyloid assemblies
• neuroinflammatory responses in neuronal and microglial models
• brain-targeted delivery of neuroprotective molecules and peptides

He has authored over 65 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, including Nature Communications, Advanced Science, ACS Nano, and Chemical Reviews. His current work aims to link fundamental mechanisms of protein aggregation with translational strategies for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Kenan Kalaycı is an experimental economist whose research focus is on behavioural economics and industrial organization. Kenan received his PhD in Economics from Tilburg University and is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Queensland. Kenan has been an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Fellow between 2016-208 and a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford in 2017-2018. Kenan's main research has been in the growing field of behavioural industrial organization, which is the study of markets incorporating insights from psychology and other related disciplines. Kenan has been one of the pioneers in the empirical study of this field, developing experimental methodology to study issues of spurious product differentiation and price discrimination in markets. His research has been published in the International Journal of Industrial Organisation, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation, and Experimental Economics.

I grew up in Iran and moved to Canada for the end of high school. I did my undergraduate studies at the University of Waterloo and PhD at the University of Chicago with Vladimir Drinfeld. Afterwards, I did postdocs at the University of British Columbia in Vancovuer and the Max Planck Instittue for Mathematics at Bonn. I moved to UQ in 2013 to take up a lectureship.

My research area is known as the Langlands Program, sometimes described as a Grand Unified Theory of Mathematics. Initiated by the Canadian mathematician Robert Langlands in the 1960s, this program seeks to establish deep connections between seemingly unrelated areas of mathematics, offering a powerful framework for understanding complex equations through their symmetries.

Dr Marjolein Kammers is a research psychologist, with a background spanning both fundamental cognitive neuroscience and clinical translational research. She is also an AHPRA-registered psychologist and actively works with clients in clinical practice.

Her research spans four distinct research lines, applying both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Her PhD and postdoctoral research (completed in part at UCL in London) was in the field of cognitive neuroscience: understanding the interactions between neural body representations and pain. Using a range of bodily illusions, such as the now well-known Rubber Hand Illusion, she investigated how bodily experiences interact with basic sensory processing and physiological responses.

More recently, she led the clinical translation project M-HELP: Mental Health and Early Loss of Pregnancy. This project aimed to improve the mental health care provided to women and partners who experience early pregnancy loss (i.e. miscarriage). The project developed and delivered Australia's first evidence-based, empirically-tested intervention program, and Dr Kammers went on to show that it significantly improves both the mental health outcomes of bereaved parents as well as the confidence and competence of healthcare providers.

In a third research line, she works together with the UQ Parenting and Family Support Centre to investigate parent identity -- the way in which someone identifies with their parenting role and/or defines themselves as a parent, including how important this role is to them, and how it influences their values and beliefs.

In her final research line, Dr Kammers investigates ways to support individuals and families with neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD and ASD. Combining her clinical experience as a registered psychologist with her research background, she investigates how best to provide post-diagnosis support.

Dr Kaneti focuses on the design of novel nanoporous carbon and inorganic materials with controlled structural parameters (size, shape, and porosity) to optimize their functional performance toward energy storage and conversion, sensing, and bio-related applications. In particular, he is interested in the rational design and construction of metal-organic frameworks and mesoporous materials and has demonstrated the novel self-assembly of inorganic 1D nanomaterials into 2D sheet-like structures using template-assisted approaches for renewable energy conversion applications. Finally, he has conducted several theoretical studies using density functional theory simulations to understand the adsorption of gas molecules on various crystal facets of metal oxides.

Dr Yusuf Valentino Kaneti received his PhD degree from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. After that, he joined the Monash University/University of new South Wales as a part-time postdoctoral fellow with the Laboratory of Simulation and Modeling of Particulate Systems (SIMPAS). In December 2015, he was awarded the Endeavour Australia Fellowship and participated in a 4-month research exchange at the Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University (China) between February-July 2016 and worked on the development of anode materials for sodium-ion batteries using metal-organic framework-derived composites. In September 2016, he joined the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), specifically at the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) as a Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellow. His JSPS research focuses on the fabrication of metal-organic frameworks and mesoporous materials for energy and environmental applications. In October 2018, Dr Kaneti was awarded the MANA Research Fellowship and worked at the Nanotubes group in NIMS with research projects focusing on the self-assembly of 1D nanomaterials into 2D nanostructures and vice versa for energy storage and conversion applications. Currently, he is working as an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellow at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland.

Dr Kaneti has published 1 book chapter and 137 peer-reviewed journal articles (~60% as first and/or corresponding author). These include publications in leading Materials Science and Chemistry journals, such as Chem. Rev., Chem. Soc. Rev., Adv. Mater., ACS Nano, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Matter, Mater. Horiz., and Small. These papers have attracted >12,000 citations with h-index of 58 (Google Scholar as of Dec. 2023). His work is well regarded in the field, as it is cited at rate of 3.94 times above the average for articles in the same field (SciVal, Dec. 2023). Currently, Dr Kaneti has 20 ESI Highly Cited Papers (Top 1% most cited papers worldwide) according to Web of Science (Dec. 2023). He has obtained several competitive grants from a range of research funding schemes, securing ~8M AUD in the last five years, including three ARC (3 LPs and 1 ARC Industry Hub) and one JST-ERATO grants as Chief Investigator [CI], one Advance Queensland as sole CI and two Australia-Japan Foundation Grants (funded by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade). Furthermore, he has also secured two competitive UQ research grants/awards, including one UQ Global Seed Funding and UQ Grand Agriculture Seed Funding, both as the lead CI. His standing in the field of functional nanomaterials is further evidenced by his recognition as a 2023 Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (Cross-Field, Thompson Reuters) and inclusion in Top 2% most cited scientists in a single year (2019-2022) across all fields by Stanford University (USA). Currently. Dr Kaneti is serving as the Youth Editorial Board Member for Nano-Micro Letters (Springer), Editorial Advisory Board Member for Langmuir (ACS) and Editorial Board member for three MDPI journals (Batteries, Crystals, and Gases) and an Associate Editor for Frontiers of Materials (Carbon-Based Materials).

Dr Kaneti has previously collaborated with several international companies. He has worked with NBC Meshtec Inc. (Japan) to develop mesoporous iron oxide catalysts for room-temperature carbon monoxide oxidation. He has also collaborated with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to develop mesoporous alumina and alumina-titania composite adsorbents toward medical radioisotope production. Furthermore, he has work with Sensync Inc. (Indonesia) to develop metal oxide-based sensors using biomass precursors for the detection of toxic gases and to understand the underlying sensing mechanisms of these sensors toward such gases. Currently, Dr Kaneti is collaborating with AI Fluidics. Pty Ltd. (Australia) to develop point-of-care diagnostics device incorporating microfluidics and electrochemical biosensors for the detection of coronavirus RNA.

Dr. Yunqing Kang received his Ph.D. from Waseda University, Japan, in 2022. Following his graduation, he has held research positions at several prestigious institutions, including the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) and Nagoya University, where he has been actively engaged in cutting-edge academic research. Currently, Dr. Kang is a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow in the Yamauchi Research Group at the AIBN. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of advanced nanostructured metallic materials to address critical challenges in energy conversion and environmental sustainability. By pioneering bottom-up self-assembly strategies, Dr. Kang precisely engineers the atomic-scale disorder in porous metals, enabling the creation of high-performance catalysts essential for the global energy transition.

Dr Kang's core expertise encompasses mesoporous metals, amorphous and high-entropy alloys, and disordered metallic architectures, with specific applications in electrocatalysis for water splitting and plastic upcycling. With over 50 publications in prestigious journals including Nature, Science Advances, and Angewandte Chemie, Dr. Kang is dedicated to advancing the fundamental understanding of material science to facilitate industrial innovation.

Dr. Edmund W. Kanmiki is a public health researcher with expertise spanning population health, epidemiology and health economics. He is passionate about achieving health equity, particularly for vulnerable populations. Dr. Kanmiki’s research focuses on social determinants of health, reproductive, maternal, and child health (RMCH), community-based healthcare interventions, healthcare financing, Indigenous health, non-communicable diseases and related areas. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with economics, a master’s degree and PhD in public health. Edmund’s doctoral thesis at the University of Queensland aimed at improving equity in maternal and child health in rural communities using community-based primary healthcare strategies.

At UQ Poche Centre, Edmund is a member of the Implementing Life Course Interventions research team led by NHMRC Leadership Fellow, Mamun Abdullah. He is a co-investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence for children and families over the Life Course project titled “Preventing and managing diabetes among Indigenous women and youth”. He is also a research coordinator for the “Exposure to Trihalomethanes in Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes in Queensland Study”.

Prior to joining the University of Queensland, Dr. Kanmiki held research roles at the University of Ghana and the Navrongo Health Research Centre and provided consultancy services to some national and multinational institutions. He is a recipient of the Mastercard Scholarship, Elsevier Atlas award and early carrier research grant award from the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (RSTMH). His research and peer-reviewed publications have informed health policy and programs. Dr. Kanmiki has presented his research at several esteemed conferences. His research has also garnered media attention in prominent outlets including The Conversation in Australia, Health and Medicine in Canada, and Health and Wellness in the United Kingdom.

Associate Professor Kappler (ORCiD: 0000-0002-2642-1319) is Group Leader in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at UQ, and Chair of the Metals in Biology group. She held an ARC Australian Fellowship (2008-12) and has proven expertise in managing research projects funded by ARC & NHMRC project grants (>$2.5 million) as well as funding from other agencies. A/Prof. Kappler has > 20 years experience in bacterial physiology and the investigation of enzyme function and metabolic pathways in a wide variety of bacteria, with a particular focus on bacterial sulfur metabolism. Over the past ~10 years she has developed an extensive program of research on the physiology and pathogenesis of the human respiratory pathogen Haemophilus influenzae. Her laboratory is investigating the role of H. influenzae metabolism for host-pathogen interactions, as well as molecular defences against antimicrobials produced by the human immune system (publications: Front. Microbiol., 2015, 2016, 2021, Res. Microbiol. 2018, Adv. Microb. Physiol. 2019, 2xACS Infect. Dis. 2020) Her research has contributed to the development of a novel model of H. influenzae infection that is based on primary human nasal cells differentiated at Air-Liquid Interface.

A/ Prof. Kappler is regularly invited to present her work at international conferences (GRCs, MoTec, EMBO Microbial Sulfur Metabolism, Biometals), and has extensive expertise in the successful supervision of research students and has graduated 10 PhD, 24 Masters and 28 Honors students. She has been the Chair of the UQ Institutional Biosafety Subcommittee (2018-2021), and is the current Chair of the Australian Society for Microbiology (ASM) Queensland branch committee and a member of the ASM national council.