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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.

I completed my PhD in 2013 and I am currently a Senior Research Fellow and the Managing Director of the Soils of Science (S4S) Program at the University of Queensland. I am recognised as an emerging leader in antibiotic biodiscovery research. I have multidisciplinary research skills and expertise spanning the fields of organic chemistry and microbiology. I have made a significant contribution to the field of microbial biodiscovery employing high-throughput, high efficiency, natural product discovery to explore the chemical and biological properties of natural products produced by Australian marine and terrestrial microbes. I have identified and evaluated >40 new drugs targeting infectious diseases that attracted >$3M in research funding. I have led multi-year projects with industry, targeting animal health (ELANCO) and crop (NEXGEN Plants) and microbial chemical diversity (Microbial Screening Technologies; BioAustralis). I am a co-inventor on a UQ pending patent application documenting a new soil microbiome-inspired crop protection agent. This invention has attracted industry investment (NEXGEN Plants), to establish its potential, ahead of licensing and commercialisation. Therefore, I have co-led a project with industrial partner NEXGEN Plants, to investigate a new natural product that activates innate plant immunity defences against significant pathogens (patent pending). Since 2015, I have established the antibiotic biodiscovery capability at IMB targeting multidrug resistant (MDR) human pathogens and developed new approaches that have had significant knowledge impact in the antibiotic development and host defence research areas directed to combat MDR pathogens. This has resulted in the establishment of the Biodiscovery@UQ facility, a university-wide networking initiative designed to support excellence in biodiscovery research across UQ. I have secured funding from UQ to develop a new antitubercular drug lead (CIA), an ARC Linkage grant (LP19, CIB) to develop new anthelmintics and a grant from the University de La Frontera (collaborator), Chile to discover new antibiotics from Antarctic microbes, Marine CRC fund (CIA) to map the chemical diversity in Australian marine microbes and ARC LIEF grant. I co-led THE FIRST citizen science initiative, S4S, including developing the APP, website and running regional public workshops, with the aim of increasing public awareness about the role of soil microbes in antibiotic discovery. This initiative has attracted ~$1M in institutional and philanthropic support.

Dr Md Arifuzzaman Khan is a public health researcher and epidemiologist with over 15 years of experience focusing on disease prevention through immunisation and health promotion. His expertise spans infectious disease epidemiology, impact evaluation (including vaccines and health promotion), and advanced data analysis. He currently works as an Advanced Epidemiologist at the Wide Bay Public Health Unit, Queensland Health, and holds an Honorary Senior Lecturer appointment at UQ's School of Public Health.

His PhD research, which evaluated the “10,000 Lives” smoking cessation initiative in Central Queensland, demonstrated that leveraging local knowledge and champions is crucial for designing and effectively implementing health promotion programs. Building on this, Dr Khan is keen to explore how harnessing local knowledge can increase the uptake of immunisation and health promotion programs, particularly in regional, rural and marginalised populations.

Before relocating to Australia, Dr Khan spent over eight years at the internationally renowned public health institute (icddr,b) based in Bangladesh, where his work on large-scale vaccine studies significantly influenced global immunisation policies. His research has contributed to World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for cholera and typhoid vaccines. Dr Khan has authored over 48 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals, including The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine.

I am a designer / technology researcher / illustrator / (reluctant) academic / (recovering) marketer — with over a decade of experience working across emerging technologies, telecommunications, consumer goods, and design consulting sectors. I am interested in the human and social aspects of designing technology, in collaboration with users. I enjoy working on human-computer interaction projects, developing participatory design tools and methods, design fictions, and using speculative approaches in my work.

Prof. M. Adil Khan, has been working as an adjunct staff at the School of Social Sciences, since 2010. Prior to taking up the adjinct position at the School, he worked as Chief of Socio-Economic Governance and Management Branch of the Division for Public Administration and Development Management, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), New York. Prof. Khan retired from the United Nations in 2008.

Prof. Khan possesses more than 35 years of working experience in international development - his varied job experiences in 'development' include but not limited to public policy manager the planning ministry of Bangladesh (1973-1988), consultancies for international aid agencies such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations (1988-1994), research director on sustainable development at the University of Queensland (1994-1997), senior development advisor of UN in Myanmar and Sri Lanka (1997-2002) and senior policy manager at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations HQs.His core expertise includes but not limited to public policy, pro-poor development and participatory governance.

In recent times Professor Khan was engaged by (i) AusAid as Course Director of Enhancing Policy Making Capacity Building in Ministries of Women Affairs (2012) and (ii) by the Department of Foreign Affairs and TRade, Australia the course on International Development Policy for Australian and foreign diplomats (2016)

Prof Khan has been a guest lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School (2006), University of Pennsylvania (2007), and University of Ottawa (2012). He also served as a visiting professor at the Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea where he introduced and taught the graduate certificate course on "Global Governance and national challenges: a UN perspective".

Prof. Khan has published extensively on issues of poverty, climate change, governance, corruption, monitoring and evaluation etc. He is also the Principal Author of the 2008 United Nations World Public Sector Report, “People matter: civic engagement in public governance” and the founder Editor-in-chief and currently a editorial board member of the international journal, Sustainable Development, Wiley. He is also the editorial board member of the New York based journal, South Asia Journal

For his unique management initiatives at the United Nations, Prof Khan was awarded the UN Manager of the Year Award in 2005 and for his pioneering work on participatory governance a Plaque of Recognition by the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration in New York, in 2008.

Prof. Khan has a Master degree in Economics, a Master degree in Social Planning and Development and a PhD in Political Economy

Prof Khan is married to Yasmin and they have no children. His hobbies include cooking, reading, writing and music.

Asad is a methodology expert with over 25 years of research experience in behavioural epidemiology, public health, mental wellbeing, and intervention research. He has established a vibrant multidisciplinary research team with global experts to strengthen his program of research spanning active lifestyles and health equity.

Asad’s research involves epidemiological modelling of large multi-country data to examine the role of physical activity, screen time, social media, and sleep on mental health and wellbeing, especially in children and adolescents. He is also interested in identifying emerging challenges in equitable healthcare access for people with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds including immigrants.

His exceptional publication record includes over 230 articles in high-impact journals [e.g., Lancet Child & Adolescent Health (top in Pediatrics), and British Journal of Sports Medicine (top in Sport Sciences)]. He has attained >AU$13.0 million in competitive research grant funding as a Chief Investigator with >AU$10.0 million from 10 NHMRC/MRFF grants.

Asad has an outstanding track-record of supervision with completion of 16 PhD/MPhil student projects and is currently supervising 15 PhD/MPhil students. He has collaboration with leading universities, renowned organizations and industry partners across Australia and globally, and empowered over 20 early- and mid-career researchers from the Indo-Pacific region to conduct ethical and high-quality research.