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Tolera Keno is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Sorghum Genetics at The University of Queensland, based at the Hermitage Reseach Facility. His work focuses on improving seed producibility of female lines in sorghum hybrid production by investigating genetic and environmental factors limiting female seed yield in commercial hybrid seed production. He integrates large volumes of phenotypic, environmental, and genomic data to improve seed producibility of female sorghum lines. Before joining UQ, he dedicated over 10 years working as maize breeder at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), where he served as leader of the Ethiopian National Maize Research Program from 2014 to 2016.

Tolera's research interests include enhancing crop genetics for tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses and employing advanced statistical & quantitative methodologies in crop improvement, aiming to accelerate the rate of genetic gain in breeding programs.

Associate Professor Damon Kent is an expert in the development and processing of metallic biomaterials, light structural metals and metallic composites. He applies advanced characterisation to study the links between structure and processing with the aim to control properties and performance.

Steven is a water leader with senior experience in research, industry, and government, developed through roles with The University of Queensland, CSIRO, Brisbane Water, Sydney Water, and private consulting. He has worked with urban water, wastewater, stormwater, and related energy and greenhouse gas issues since 1990. His work addresses urban water security, water-energy nexus, and circular economy . He creates collaborations, tools, models and knowledge to address all flows of water – and related energy - into, out of, and within cities. This enables evaluation and management of key concepts such as: (i) net zero carbon water cycle, (ii) hybrid, decentralised and integrated systems performance, and (iii) sustainable urban design and planning.

Steven’s work is enhancing performance benchmarking of cities, shaping development, guiding policy and infrastructure investment locally and internationally. He has secured and delivered over $8m funding for his research since 2005, most since 2013. This includes multiple international and national projects for the Asian Development Bank, Water Research Foundation (USA), and CRC Water Sensitive Cities.

He has authored over 60 Scopus-listed articles in high-quality journals, 20 books or major CRC public reports, 10 book chapters and over 67 conference articles (over 200 total articles). Steven is a long-term and regular funded plenary and invited keynote presenter to peak international forums including: World Water Forum, World Water Congress, World Water Week and Singapore International Water Week. Steven’s strong multi-disciplinary work spans environmental, chemical and civil engineering, natural resources management, and urban planning and design. He has developed urban metabolism theory, including its links to integrated water management and industrial ecology.

2025-Present Director, ARC Training Centre for Climate-Resilient Water.

2024-Present Deputy Director (ACWEB) – engagement.

2019-Present Executive member, Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology (ACWEB), The University of Queensland (UQ) Research Committee co-rep, Faculty of Engineering Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT), UQ.

2016-Present Project Leader, CRC for Water Sensitive Cities.

2012-Present Research Group Leader, Water Energy Carbon, UQ.

2017-2023 Australian Research Council Discovery Fellowship (DECRA) and Amplify Fellow.

2013-2016 Australian Research Council (Postdoctoral Fellowship Industry).

2011-2013 Fulbright Scholar.

My research focuses on reef recovery following disturbances, looking at the interplay between biological, ecological and physical drivers of recovery. After diving in the Galapagos, my interest in the marine environment was piqued, and I began a PhD in reef recovery dynamics in 2016, receiving my doctarate in 2021. My work is interdisplinary, incorporating aspects of marine geology and hydrodynamics to the core focus of marine ecology. I have investigated how coral recruitment is affected by material legacies (rubble) on coral reefs, how these legacies are affected by the physical environment (mobilisation thesholds) and how marine invertebrates consolidate this material, contributing to reef recovery. My research focuses largely on natural recovery potential, but I also investigate the efficacy of reef restoration techniques in the marine environment, such as mesh netting and metal structures, and where they can speed recovery. My work has spanned multiple regions, including the Maldives, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Coral Triangle.

I am interested in ion channels in health and disease. Improved technologies for genetic screening is revealing an expanding catalogue of genetic variants to ion channels that give rise neurological disorders, such as epilespy syndromes, autism spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental disorders. My main research focus is on neurotransmitter-activated receptor ion channels that are found at neuronal synapses. These include GABA-A, glycine and glutamate (NMDA) receptors. I also work on other ion channesl such as voltage-gated sodium channels and synaptic receptors expressed in invertebrate nervous systems.

I am an expert at recording single ion channel, synaptic and conventional whole-cell currents for functional and pharmacological analyisis.

I collaborate with biophysicists, molecular biologists, geneticists, electrophysiologists and clinicians that specialise in genetic neurological disorders. I have active projects in collaboration with research groups in Australia, USA and Europe.

The aim of my research is to determine the underlying molecular interractions that occur between pathogens and their host and to use this information to develop novel avenues for therapeutic intervention.

Dr Kerr received his PhD from The University of Queensland in 2006, working with Associate Professor Rohan D. Teasdale on membrane trafficking. In 2011 he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship to extend his skills into the host-pathogen arena at the Max-Planck Institute for Infection Biology. In 2013 he was awarded an ARC DECRA fellowship to return to the UQ Institute for Molecular Bioscience where he is working with Rohan again to exmaine how pathogens exploit mammalian endocytic pathways during infection.

Cognitive and decision-making problems associated with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia are considered the largest burden for these individuals. They also predict poor functional outcomes, such as maintaining work, social networks, and independent living. I am particularly interested in the relationship between decision-making problems and psychotic symptoms in these disorders; will improving decision-making also reduce psychotic symptoms? To that end, I focus on decision-making tasks that are reliant on brain areas and networks that are implicated in psychosis.

My work aims to understand how corticostriatal circuitry drives decision-making processes, and how this is altered in those with schizophrenia and psychosis. I have taken advantage of my collaborations with basic scientists and clinical researchers with a broad range of expertise to establish a cross-species program of research focussed on decision-making. My research is guided by two fundamental questions:

1. Do decision-making problems in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders contribute to psychotic symptoms?
2. How can we leverage the mechanistic tools available in rodent neuroscience to identify causative common substrates underlying decision-making problems (and by proxy psychotic symptoms)?

Dr Keshvari is a postdoctoral research officer at Mater Research Institute-UQ. Her main research interest is to investigate the role of macrophages in metabolic disorders including acute and chronic liver diseases, obesity and type 2 diabetes. She was awarded her PhD titled “characterisation of two receptors for adiponectin” in 2016 and received the “2016 Dean’s Award for Outstanding Higher Degree by Research Theses”. She is the recipient of Australian Liver Foundation fellowship and is an NHMRC Emerging Leader Investigator. Her current project is focused on the beneficial effect of macrophage colony stimulating factor on resolving liver fibrosis and promoting liver regeneration and the role of macrophages on metabolic regulation in fat and endocrine system including pancreas.

Dr Charlotte Kessler is a transdisciplinary Design Researcher and Lecturer in Design. She sees design as a powerful change-making tool relevant to addressing complex issues, and applicable across a variety of contexts.

Charlotte holds a Bachelor & Master in Product & Service Design (ENSAAMA & Ecole Boulle, France), a Master in Design Futures (Griffith University), and a PHD (Queensland University of Technology) completed in 2022. Her thesis, Developing curricula that equip designers with capabilities to enact sustainable futures: A matter of ethos, draws from the voices of academics and graduate designers from four sustainability-focused design programs internationally to propose theoretical guidelines supporting design educators to develop, enable and sustain design programs that are responsive to a rapidly changing world, in turn equipping design graduates with relevant capabilities to create change towards sustainable futures.

Charlotte has worked on a range of sustainability-focused design and design research projects internationally. Her research is situated at the nexus between design, education, and sustainability. She believes that design education has an important role to play in situating design as key, change-making practice, in the context of sustainability transitions. She is interested in research that informs academics as they develop and implement sustainability-centred curricula and pedagogies, and that supports sustainability transitions in design practice. Charlotte has recently become involved in a research project on climate literacy in architecture in partnership with the Australian Institute of Architects, and the Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia.

Charlotte is currently working as Lecturer in Design in the School of Architecture, Design, and Planning at The University of Queensland. Previously, she was the Program Convenor for Design and Educational Design Lead at Griffith College, where she coordinated the accreditation and curriculum development processes for the new design program. Charlotte has developed and coordinated sustainability-focused higher education courses in the design field across multiple universities. She has taught in award winning courses including Impact Lab 3 Studio - Planet (QUT) awarded Vice Chancellor Award for Excellence and Wharton - QS (London) Re-Imagine Education Award for Design for Transformative learning through transdisciplinary collaborations, along with the Spatial History Unit awarded QUT Faculty of Creative Industries Teaching Award for Teaching Innovation and Excellence. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). She specialises in developing sustainability-centred Higher Education curricula and professional development resources for academic staff.

Sarangan is a Psychiatrist at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research at The University of Queensland. He completed his MBBS at James Cook University, where he was also awarded a Master of Public Health. He is currently working towards a PhD focussing on veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder at The University of Queensland.

Dr Cathy Keys completed her doctoral studies in the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre in 1999. Her doctoral thesis ‘The Architectural Implications of Warlpiri jilimi’ was concerned with the People Environment relations of Aboriginal women living in Central Australia. She is committed to exploring the social and cultural properties of architectural space. Cathy has taught in Aboriginal Environments and architectural research and design making subjects in the School of Architecture, The University of Queensland.

Hadis is a materials researcher in the School of Mechanical & Mining Engineering and in the Centre for Advanced Materials Processing and Manufacturing (AMPAM) at the University of Queensland. She received her Ph.D. from the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute at the University of Wollongong for her research on the development of nano-filled bio-thermoplastics as print media for 3D additive fabrication.

Hadis has an interest in a wide range of materials research activities, including additive manufacturing, nanocomposites, polymer processing, thermal conductivity, tribological properties, and electrochemical corrosion. Recently, she has worked on a technology development project focused on advancing flexible printed zinc-ion batteries, supporting innovation in next-generation flexible devices.