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Stephen is a physiologist with expertise in endocrinology and student learning. In laboratory research Stephen investigates the hormonal control of metabolism, growth, appetite, and reproduction - unravelling how hormones regulate physiological mechanisms in healthy individuals versus the dysfunction that occurs in disease states. Stephen also has a scholarly interest in self-regulation of learning and metacognition.

Stephen has taught physiology at UQ to about 40,000 students in biomedical science, animal and veterinary sciences, health science, exercise science, human movement and nutrition science, dentistry, pharmacy, speech pathology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and medical doctor programs. He has been the recipient of numerous teaching excellence awards, including a national ALTC Citation for Outstaning Contribution to Student Learning in 2009.

From 2019 to 2024 Stephen was Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Biomedical Sciences, and during his tenure received a UQ commendation for Service Excellence for leading his School's teaching response to the COVID pandemic, and was recognised as Academic Leader of the Year in 2020 within the UQ Faculty of Medicine.

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.

Kieren McCosker has expertise in tropical beef production. Kieren completed an Agriculture Science - Animal Science degree (University of Queensland) and later a PhD (School of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland) deteriming the factors associated with reproductive performance in northern Australia beef cows, otherwise known as the Cash Cow project while working in the Agriculture Division of the Northern Territory Government's Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade. In 2021, Kieren commenced working with the Centre of Animal Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture, Food and Innovation and comes with approximately 20 years of experience investigating production issues across many facets of the northern beef production system and south-east Asia. Some of his current projects examine the impact of shade and paddock infrastructure on calf mortality, and utilising remote technologies to remotely detect key production events, such as calving and associated maternal behaviours.

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.