Urska Arnautovska is an early career clinical academic, working as a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, Faculty of Medicine and as a general psychologist in private practice. Following her professional training in Slovenia, she focused her research on suicide which led her to receiving an appointment at the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention (AISRAP), a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Suicide Prevention and, since 2008, a National Centre of Excellence in Suicide Prevention. In addition to her research work, she acted as a research coordinator of the Life Promotion Clinic and was involved in the management and analysis of clinical data pertaining to the patients of the clinic, which presented with complex mental health problems and suicidal thoughts and behaviour. Her subsequent research remained focused on mental health, and in more recent years, become dedicated to improving health outcomes in people with severe mental illness. Her PhD, for which she received a competitive Griffith University International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (2012-2016), investigated the motivational processes underlying physical activity in older adults and was awarded the Australian Psychology Society (APS) Award for Excellent Higher Degree Thesis in Health Psychology. She has 48 peer-reviewed publications and has over $8.5 million in competitive research funding, with leading (CIA) roles on projects related to digital health interventions for people living with schizophrenia.
Tim Barlott is an Associate Lecturer in Occupational Therapy (School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences), PhD candidate in Sociology (School of Social Sciences), and Co-Director of the SocioHealthLab. Tim has a background as a community practitioner, educator, and community-based participatory researcher in Canada, Australia, and internationally.
Drawing from (critical) social theory and postmodern philosphy, Tim's research interrogates the socio-political aspects of everyday life and social inequities, and pursues affirmative/disruptive/transformative possibilities. Tim's research primarily uses the work of postmodern philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Their work provides a useful set of theoretical tools for conceptualising social inequities, analysing the dynamic relations of complex social formations, and pursuing transformational change. Using a Deleuzio-Guattarian conceptual framework, Tim's PhD research explores the transformative potential of freely-given relationships for people diagnosed with a severe mental illness.
Current Research Projects:
Cartographies of freely-given relationships in mental health (PhD project)
Ethical tensions in occupational therapy practice that attends to social inequities
Theorising the creativity and social production of occupation
Social connectedness and ICT use by people with intellectual/learning disabilities
Dr Kath Benfer is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre, The University of Queensland. Her Post-Doctoral work focuses on community-based early detection and intervention for infants at high risk of cerebral palsy in low-resource countries (India and Bangladesh). She was awarded the prestigious Endeavour Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship through the Australian Commonwealth Government to conduct the study. Kath’s PhD explored oropharyngeal dysphagia, gross motor function, growth and nutrition in preschool children with cerebral palsy, in both Australia and Bangladesh. Her work arising from her doctoral studies has been published in 10 peer-reviewed publications and presented widely at international conferences. Dr Benfer has over 12 years of experience as a speech pathologist within paediatric disability, with community-based child and family support services. Kath also has an interest in cross-cultural issues in child health, having worked in Bangladesh for over 2 years both as an AusAid volunteer teaching on the country’s first Bachelor of Speech Therapy degree, as well as conducting research in this context. She has completed her Master of Public Health at La Trobe University in Melbourne within the research and international health streams.
Dr. Manuela Besomi is a Research Fellow within the NHMRC Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Spinal Pain, Injury & Health and the Sports Injury Rehabilitation and Prevention for Health (SIRPH) Research Unit at The University of Queensland. She also holds an honorary position in the Physiotherapy Department at Universidad del Desarrollo (Chile), where she leads a clinical team focused on running injury management and prevention research. Manuela obtained her master's degree in Clinical Epidemiology from Universidad de La Frontera, Chile, in 2016, followed by a Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland in 2021. As a passionate physiotherapist and early career researcher, she brings expertise in epidemiology, musculoskeletal rehabilitation, and sports science, particularly in the context of running. Her research spans fundamental and applied areas, from leveraging innovative technologies to investigate tissue mechanics to enhancing care management through implementation research.
Manuela is currently the Project Coordinator of an NIH-funded research project, the largest human project at UQ across 8 universities and 5 hospitals in 3 countries, examining the bio-psycho-social mechanisms underlying low back pain flares. She is also the Research Coordinator for the Consensus for Experimental Design in Electromyography (CEDE) project, supported and endorsed by the International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology (ISEK). In recognition of her contributions, she was honoured with the prestigious 2022 Carlo J. DeLuca Award.
Beyond her research endeavours, Manuela is dedicated to translating knowledge into practice and actively engages with the community. She is a speaker and collaborator at The Running Clinic and a co-founder of the SeRUN® project (@serun.chile), both initiatives aimed at bridging the gap between research and clinical practice. She is passionate about promoting STEM for young girls—having collaborated in the evaluation of a nationwide program to boost girls' engagement in STEM, BRInC. Currently, she is part of the research team and mentor for the 2024 BRInC version. More information about BRInC can be found at https://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/faculties/health/brinc.
Dr. Besomi remains committed to advancing knowledge and making a positive impact in the fields of physiotherapy, rehabilitation and sports science.
Dr. Brownsett is a Speech Pathologist and neuroscientist. Trained initially in the UK as a Speech and Language Therapist, she advanced her expertise with a PhD in Clinical Neuroscience from Imperial College, London. Her doctoral research, employing functional brain imaging (fMRI), provided critical insights into the interaction between domain-general and language-specific brain networks, particularly in healthy older adults and individuals recovering from post-stroke aphasia. At the Queensland Aphasia Research Centre, she leads the ‘Imaging Predictors’ and ‘Aphasia TechHub’ groups, pushing the boundaries of research on neural markers and the use of technology in communication.
Dr. Brownsett's research interests are broad and impactful. She investigates the progression and extent of language difficulties in patients with brain injuries beyond stroke, including those with epilepsy and brain cancer. She explores the interplay between general cognitive brain networks and task-specific networks, seeking to understand and enhance recovery mechanisms. Her work also focuses on identifying neurobiological predictors of aphasia recovery, the effects of premorbid brain health on post-stroke language recovery, and the reorganization of language networks following neurosurgery.
Pioneering the integration of technology into therapy, Dr. Brownsett co-developed an innovative therapy application as part of the Listen-In trial, utilizing gamification to enhance engagement in high-dose aphasia therapy. She now leads the Aphasia Tech Hub, which supports individuals with aphasia to use and access technology. Her team, including those with lived experience of aphasia, adapts and creates communication-accessible guidance for using technology and provides tailored consultations to improve technology access.
Dr. Brownsett's dedication to involving people with aphasia in her research has earned her numerous accolades, including the National Health and Medical Research Council Consumer Engagement Award and the UK Stroke Forum Conference's Patient, Carer, and Public Involvement Winner award. She is a key member of the Living Stroke Guidelines initiative, ensuring clinical management of stroke is informed by the latest evidence. Through her innovative research and commitment to inclusive practices, Dr. Brownsett continues to contriute to advancing the field of aphasia recovery and neuroscience.
Dr Nathalia Costa is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland's cLinical TRials cApability (ULTRA), located within the Centre for Clinical Research in Herston. Her career goal is to enhance the evidence base from clinical trials and deepen the understanding of healthcare issues through qualitative and mixed methods, with a focus on theoretically grounded, critical, reflexive and collaborative approaches. She is passionate about bringing different types of knowledge and stakeholders together to generate perspectives that create change and make research, practice and education more inclusive and nuanced. She advocates for pluralist inquiries and believes research should go beyond the dualism “quantitative/qualitative” to achieve the intersubjective understandings needed for impactful collective action. Her methodological expertise includes:
Systematic, scoping and rapid reviews
A range of qualitative methods and methodologies including but not limited to interviews, ethnography, Delphi studies, surveys, focus groups, document and policy analysis, thematic analysis, content analysis, and discourse analysis
Embedding qualitative research in feasibility trials to inform large-scale clinical trials
Conducting qualitative research to inform the development of implementation strategies
Use of systems-thinking frameworks to identify opportunities for interdisciplinary and intersectoral action to target health problems
Applying social theory to deepen understanding of healthcare and health more broadly
Participatory and collaborative research with key stakeholders (e.g., patients, clinicians, academics, policymakers)
Her publications (45+) span a diverse range of themes, including musculoskeletal conditions, pain, policy, sociology and culturally responsive care. She has also taught across a range of disciplines, including research methods, musculoskeletal physiotherapy, sociology applied to health, fundamentals of physiotherapy, fundamentals of health care, health policy, health economics and health systems finance.
Her research focuses on aspects of low back pain - from exploring ways to navigate uncertainty in low back pain care to identifying avenues to improve it within the Australian healthcare system. She is currently investigating how to optimise recruitment within the FORENSIC trial, which aims to evaluate if lumbar fusion surgery is more beneficial than continuing with best conservative care for patients with persistent severe low back pain who have already undergone non-surgical treatment.
Alongside collaborators, Nathalia has garnered grants (AUD$6M) and awards, including an international award for one of her PhD studies, awarded by the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine – the 2021 ISSLS Prize for Lumbar Spine Research (Clinical Science). She has made >35 presentations at national and international conferences, including presentations as an invited speaker at international conferences (e.g., World Physiotherapy Congress). Prior to her current appointment, she was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (UQ - 2021), a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the Sydney School of Public Health (The University of Sydney, 2021-2022), and a Lecturer in Physiotherapy at the Sydney School of Health Sciences (The University of Sydney, 2023). Nathalia serves as an Associate Editor for Qualitative Health Research and the Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation.
Centre for Research on Exercise, Physical Activity and Health
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences
Professor
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
My research concerns i) understanding causes and impacts of hearing impairment, particularly in the context of multimorbidity in older age, ii) prevention and treatment of hearing impairment, and iii) hearing service development and evaluation. My research involves epidemiological modelling with population data sets, clinical trials and hearing health policy. I have authored over130 publications in peer reviewed journals and books, and I frequently present invited and keynote addresses at international conferences. I have received the British Society of Audiology’s TS Littler prize for services to audiology and a prestigious US-UK Fulbright award.
I have been awarded 10 grants as principal investigator in the last 5 years totalling >AUD$14.5 million from competitive sources including the NHMRC, the NIHR, the Alzheimer’s Society UK, the European Commission, industry and charity funders. This funding includes an EU Horizon 2020 grant of €6.2 million (as joint PI for “Ears, Eyes and Mind: The “SENSE-Cog Project” to improve mental well-being for elderly Europeans with sensory impairment”), and two NHMRC Medical Research Future Fund awards ($1.2 million as CI for “SENSEcog aged care: Hearing and vision support to improve quality of life for people living with dementia in residential aged care”; AUD$1.3 million for "Home hearing and vision care to improve quality of life for people with dementia and carers"; and an AUD$0.9 million NHMRC targetted hearing research award (as CI for "Improving access to the hearing services program for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds"). I have strong links with hearing industry partners and have received research funding (total >AUD$500,000) from major hearing aid companies Starkey, Oticon, Phonak and the hearing industry research consortium. I have a position at the University of Manchester with on-going involvement (as CI and co-I) in projects funded by the NIHR, the ESRC, the Alzheimer’s Society and the RNID.
Dr Katrina Dunn is the Director of Allied Health at Redcliffe Hospital, Metro North Health. She holds an Honorary Research Fellow appointment with The University of Queensland's School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and an Adjunct Lecturer position with the University of Southern Queensland's School of Health and Medical Sciences. Katrina’s doctoral studies investigated dysphagia following non-traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage. Katrina’s research interests are diverse across neurogenic swallowing and communication impairments, as well as optimising health service delivery.
Dr Kathryn Fortnum is a Research Fellow at the Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation, a collaboration between the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland, and Health and Wellbeing Queensland. Her research speciality is on the role of physical activity in the management of chronic health conditions. Dr Fortnum is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist and has a particular interest in children and youth, and mental health. Dr Fortnum has worked clinically in inpatient and community settings for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service WA, and supported children impacted by neurological disorders including spina bifida and cerebral palsy to engage in community-based physical programs.
Nadine is a physiotherapist, NHMRC Leadership Fellow (leadership level 2) focused on musculoskeletal pain and orthopaedic research, particularly clinical trials, and Academic Director of the University of Queensland's Clinical Trials Centre. Nadine is also the program lead for the Health Research Accelerator (HERA 2) program focused on innovation in clinical trials (ULTRA - UQ's Clinical Trial Capability). She is passionate about supporting multidisciplinary groups to work together, with critical mass, to design, conduct, analyse and translate the results of high quality clinical trials, in ways that improve patient and service outcomes.
Nadine is a lifetime Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy in the UK, and has held previous National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator awards and is the only physiotherapist to have held an NIHR Research Professorship in the UK. Having moved to Australia in January 2021, she was the inaugural Director of the STARS Research and Education Alliance between the University of Queensland and Metro North Health in Queensland (STARS is the Surgical, Treatment and Rehabilitation Service, the newest public hospital in Brisbane). Nadine is part of the STARS Alliance multidisciplinary team including conjoint appointments between the University and hospital, across the disciplines of physiotherapy, nursing, occupational therapy, psychology, consumer involvement in research, interdisciplinary collaborative practice in education and practice, and research management.
Nadine's research focuses on musculoskeletal pain, including low back pain, osteoarthritis and shoulder problems, and she has a particular interest in developing, testing and implementing treatments and health services. She has led or collaborated on more than 31 randomised trials, attracting over $145 million in research funding from, for example, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Versus Arthritis, and the Medical Research Council in the UK, PCORI in the USA and the NHMRC and MRFF in Australia. Current examples include international collaborative RCTs funded through the NIHR-NHMRC collaborative trial scheme focused on comparative effectiveness of surgery and conservative care for persistent, severe low back pain and comparative effectiveness of different approaches to shoulder joint replacement for patients with shoulder osteoarthritis. She has supervised 15 PhD students to completion, and 19 Masters research project students (nearly all were healthcare professionals), with 5 PhDs currently in progress in the UK, Europe and Australia. Nadine has led or contributed to over 311 peer reviewed publications, including the Lancet Series on Low Back Pain in 2018.
Examples of recognition as a national and international leader in the field include:
2024-2029 NHMRC Investigator Grant, Leadership level 2, supporting a program of research focused on new musculoskeletal RCTs and sharing existing RCT data to answer further research questions
2023 Stanley Paris Visiting Fellowship award, University of Otago, New Zealand, supporting visiting fellowship in March 2024
2022 Chief Executive's Award for Research, Metro North Health and Hospital Service Research Excellence Award
2020 Senior Investigator award from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in the UK, awarded to the top 200 clinical researchers in the country.
2019 PEDro recognition for the UK FASHIoN trial - chosen by a panel of international trialists as one of the five most important physiotherapy trials published in 2014-2019. Announced on 4 November 2019.
2019 Invited member of the International Research Strategy Advisory Committee for the Health Research Board’s (Ireland) new five year research strategy development. September-October 2019
2018 Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship 2019, University of Melbourne, Australia. February-March 2019
Carl (Saibai Koedal) is a PhD Candidate studying the epidemiology of rheumatic heart disease in Queensland using linked hospital and administrative data. Currently, Carl holds an academic appointment (Lecturer, Physiotherapy) in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, the University of Queensland, and maintains a clinical role as a Staff Physiotherapist at The Prince Charles Hospital. Alongside research, Carl is also working to strengthen relationships between remote Torres Strait Islander communities and UQ to explore opportunities for education, student clinical placement and research partnerships.
Louise Hickson, AM, is Professor of Audiology and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at The University of Queensland. Professor Hickson has published over 280 research articles, books and book chapters with her main focus on the effects of hearing loss on people's everyday lives and the development of strategies and interventions that improve the uptake and outcomes of hearing rehabilitation. Her most recent book published in 2019 is "Patient and Family-Centered Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology: A Practical Guide for Students". Professor Hickson is President of the International Society or Audiology and a Fellow and Past President of Audiology Australia. She has received numerous awards recognising her contributions to audiology, including the international research award from the American Academy of Audiology, The University of Queensland Leadership Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Hearing Australia. In 2021 Professor Hickson was Australia's Leading Researcher in the field of Audiology and Speech and Language Pathology and in 2022 became a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to tertiary education and audiology associations. She is a sought after speaker and regularly presents at conferences and meetings around the world. She also provides advice to hearing rehabilitation service providers both in Australia and overseas and is committed to improving services for people with hearing difficulties.
Jess has worked as a paediatric occupational therapist in private practice since graduating from her undergraduate degree. She gained additional training in animal-assisted therapy (canine and equine) in 2015 and became interested in the role animals could play in facilitating client motivation and engagement within therapy sessions. This interest led Jess to complete her PhD exploring the efficacy of canine-assisted occupational therapy with autistic children. Since completing her PhD Jess has continued her research into the impact of human-animal interaction to human and animal health and wellbeing resulting in a number of publications. In line with this research Jess is also the Co-director of The University of Queensland Animal-Assisted intervention Alliance, and the Community Engagement Manager for Animal Therapies Ltd. Jess is also qualified as a personal trainer and has clinical and research experience working to support people with disability engage in physical activity. Jess is a current researcher and coach within the UQ ParaSTART Program.
Centre for Research on Exercise, Physical Activity and Health
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences
Affiliate of Parenting and Family S
Parenting and Family Support Centre
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences
Associate Professor in Audiology
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
I am the Founder and Director of the Hearing Research Unit for Children, leading three research teams investigating (1) middle ear assessments in neonates and infants, (2) hearing screening and diagnostic assessment of school-aged children, and (3) assessment of auditory function of adults and children using electrophysiologic measures including otoacoustic emissions, auditory brainstem response, steady-state evoked potentials, wideband absorbance and wideband tympanometry. My special interest in technological advances and my mission to improve hearing health services through the use of cutting-edge technologies have inspired me to become a world leader in detecting ear diseases in newborns, infants and children. As a world leader in the field of tympanometry and advanced middle ear assessments for children, I have been invited to present on the use of wideband tympanometry with infants and children at international seminars and institutions.
As of July 2024, I have a career total of 249 publications - consisting of 1 book, 4 book chapters, 2 chapters in the Encyclopedia of Human Communication Sciences and Disorders, 132 peer-reviewed journal papers and 110 conference abstracts. Internationally, I am ranked as the most productive author in the world in the field of Tympanometry (a test of middle ear function) and advanced middle ear assessments for all years (1994-2024) and for the last 5 years (Web of Science, February 2024). My work has been cited in 25 different subject categories including Medicine, Health Professions, Neuroscience, Physics, Astronomy, Engineering and Computer Science (Scopus, February 2024). Furthermore, my work has been widely cited internationally by authors in 83 countries ranging from the United States to Europe, Asia and the Middle East (Scopus, February 2024).
Mark Liu is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow focusing on the potential for clinical trials to affect change on a larger, longer-term scale. He was the interning early-career researcher for a multidisciplinary patient safety trial conducted at eight hospitals across Sydney, Melbourne and regional New South Wales. His doctoral research program involved physical activity for cancer patients, with an emphasis on creating long-term behaviour change for underserved groups.
Methodological expertise:
Implementing trials in real-world contexts
Behaviour change theory
Consumer involvement
Leveraging routinely collected healthcare data for research
Other areas of interest: supportive care for people with cancer, inequities in healthcare
Jayishni Maharaj is a research fellow in the School of Human Movements and Nutrition Sciences and Centre of Children’s Research. Jayishni’s research is at the intersection of biomechanics, rehabilitative and computer sciences, focusing on exploring the relationship between structure, function and injury in the foot. In her current capacity as a research-focused fellow in the Neuromechanics lab Jayishni integrates biplanar X-ray radiography, modelling and simulation techniques to validate musculoskeletal foot models. At the Children’s Research Centre, Jayishni explores the effects of Botox on the structure and development of muscles in kids with Cerebral Palsy.
Dr Marie-Pier McSween is a Canada trained speech-language pathologist who completed her PhD at The University of Queensland. Her research interests include language neuroscience, neuroimaging, aphasia rehabilitation, adjunct therapies and implementation science.
Dr McSween’s research focuses on understanding the acute effects of exercise, the benefits of white noise, and the influence of Levodopa on new word learning in healthy adults and to develop new approaches to optimise interventions with patients presenting with language impairments following an acquired brain injury (e.g., stroke).
A second focus of Dr McSween’s research is aphasia recovery and aphasia rehabilitation and the implementation of comprehensive post-stroke aphasia therapy programs, leading to enhanced outcomes for patients, significant others, clinicians, and health services.
