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Dr Elham Assadi Soumeh is a senior lecturer in Animal Science and Production within the School of Agriculture and Food Science. Her background is in monogastric animal nutrition -poultry and swine. Her PhD research was about branched-chain amino acids requirements and metabolism in pig post weaning and characterization of metabolic profile of high performing pigs when were fed with optimum dietary branched-chain amino acid levels. After conducting her PhD in Aarhus University in Denmark and prior to joining UQ, Dr Soumeh worked as a senior scientist in animal feed industry (Cargill BV, Netherlands) for 2 years, where she managed different customer-focused research portfolios within the area of monogastric animal nutrition and production e.g. nutrient requirements and metabolism, gut health, nutritional strategies and management. Dr Soumeh has completed a BSc in Animal Science, MSc in Animal Nutrition and a PhD in Animal Nutrition and Physiology. The scientific outcomes have been published in high-impact journals and/or presented in conferences and symposiums around the world.

As a Senior Lecturer in Animal Science and Production, my research focuses on nutrition and gut microbiology. I completed my Ph.D. through the University of Sydney investigating the effects of various feed additives on performance, and meat quality of sheep. I then went on to complete a Post-doctoral Fellowship in Canada (The University of Alberta), investigating the effects of weaning age and strategy on the development of the ruminal microbiome in dairy calves. Developing this research theme, I was awarded a highly prestigious Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship for a 2-year project in France, to investigate the effects of additives on gut microbiome establishment and programming for lifelong effects in dairy calves to reduce methane emissions. In October 2017, I began my current position as a teaching and research academic at The University of Queensland focusing on feed efficiency, and environmentally sustainable ruminant production systems with a focus on manipulating the rumen for reduced methane emissions and enhanced production. I bring a multidisciplinary approach to my research to examine the effects of nutrition and age on microbiology, production performance and meat quality of an animal.

Dr Luis Silva is an Associate Professor at QAAFI, University of Queensland, leading research in ruminant nutrition. Luis comes from a coffee and dairy farm and brings perspective from another major producer of beef, Brazil, where he had a previous appointment at the University of Sao Paulo. With large international experience, Luis has spent a sabbatical year at AgriBio, Melbourne, and has completed his PhD at Michigan State University, working with the nutritional/physiological modulation of ruminant development. Luis has considerable research linking cattle nutrition with physiological mechanisms and genomic tools and has coordinated several research projects investigating mechanisms to improve the efficiency of tropical cattle production. His work is published in 51 peer-reviewed scientific articles and several book chapters. Luis has also acted as the main advisor for 7 PhD students and 16 Master students.

Professor Eugeni Roura is a nutritionist by background with specific research interests in digestive physiology and chemosensory science. He joined the University of Queensland (UQ) in 2010 as a member of the Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences, where he leads a research team active in the interface between basic and translational research aiming at industrial and societal applications. The main research interests include gut nutrient sensing mechanisms and appetite modulation (including taste and smell) relevant to humans, pigs and poultry. Recently, the research focus has evolved to include transgenerational nutrition studies including foetal development in pigs and “in ovo” applications in chickens. In 2011 he joined the UQ School of Biomedical Sciences as an Affiliated Lecturer.

Professor Roura graduated with a Veterinary Science degree from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) before pursuing post-graduate studies in Nutrition at the University of California (UC Davis). After finishing a Post-Doctoral position at UC Davis, he started a sixteen-year industry career working for the feed and food industries in R&D and market-focused technical services, culminating as Group Deputy R&D Director of Lucta S.A.

He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and he has been invited as keynote speaker to ca 50 scientific meetings. He is currently serving as a member of the National Committee for Nutrition of the Australian Academy of Sciences, International Steering Committee of the Digestive Physiology of pigs, R&D and Education Committee of the Australasian Pork Research Institute Ltd., expert evaluator of 1 international and 2 national research grant programs, and as Editorial Board of two scientific journals ("Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology" and "Animals"). Main past positions include President of the Austral-Asian Chemosensory Society, Vice-Chairperson of the Board Specialty Committee of Mongolian Medicine, Standards Australia FT-022 Committee “Sensory Analysis of Food”, Master of Dietetics Studies Engagement Committee (UQ), AgriFutures Chicken Meat Advisory Panel, and the European Feed Additive Federation (FEFANA) amongst others. In addition, Professor Eugeni Roura has been involved in several national and international conference organizing committees including acting as leading co-Chair of the Digestive Physiology of Pigs 2018.