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Scott Beatson is an Associate Professor and NHMRC Career Development Fellow at The University of Queensland (UQ). He specializes in bacterial pathogenomics: using whole-genome sequencing to investigate transmission, pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Recent work from his group includes genomic analyses of pandrug resistant enterobacteriaceae and the multidrug resistant Escherichia coli ST131 pandemic clone. He was awarded a PhD from UQ for his work in bacterial pathogenesis in 2002 and developed his career in bacterial genomics in the United Kingdom with the support of fellowships from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 (University of Oxford) and the UK Medical Research Council (University of Birmingham). Since returning to Australia he has held fellowships from both the NHMRC and ARC and has led a successful research group in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at UQ since 2008. He is also a member of the Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre and the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics. In 2016 he received the Frank Fenner Award from the Australian Society for Microbiology in recognition of his contribution to microbiology research in Australia.

Gabrielle Belz originally trained in veterinary medicine and surgery and received her PhD in understanding the organisation of lymphatics and lymphoid tissues at The University of Queensland. After a short stint in Canada to work on B cells, she moved to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital to work with Peter Doherty supported by an NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship. Here she established a number of systems that now allow tracking of virus-specific T cells and established the paradigm changing notion that CD4 T cell help was required for generating antiviral responses. She returned to The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and uncovered the identity of the key dendritic cells necessary for initiating antiviral infections. Subsequently she was awarded the Burnet Prize and NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship. Her research contributions have been recognized by a number of awards including a Wellcome Trust Overseas Fellowship, HHMI international fellowship, ARC Future fellowship, Doctor of Veterinary Science and the Gottschalk Medal (Australian Academy of Science). Her laboratory focuses on deciphering the key cellular and transcriptional signals of protective immunity particularly by T cells and in understanding how innate immune cells develop and make novel contributions to mucosal immune defence.

Dr. Bialasiewicz worked at the Royal Children's Hospital and the Children's Health Queensland HHS for over 18 years conducting translational research and clinical support centering on infectious disease (primarily viral and bacterial) molecular diagnostics, general microbiology and molecular epidemiology. In 2019, he became a group leader at The University of Queensland's Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, expanding on a growing interest in the microbial ecology of the human body, it's role in health and disease, and ways to manipulated to achieve desirable outcomes. One Health microbial ecology, where human health is interconnected with the health of animals (both livestock and wildlife), and the broader environment is also an area of active interest. His background in virology has influenced the work he does, meaning a key focus of his microbial ecology works centres around the interactions between all types of microorgansims (bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi, and micro-eukaryotes).

Ongoing work includes:

- Leveraging of emerging technologies to explore the hidden microbial diversity and their interactions in the human body.

- Using the technology to develop microbial (e.g. phage)-based treatments or preventatives to complex diseases (e.g. Otitis Media, Chronic Rhinosinusitis, GvHD).

- Understanding the genetics of antibiotic resistance spread.

Dr. Laura Grogan is a qualified veterinarian, Senior Lecturer in Wildlife Science, Chair of the Wildlife Disease Association Australasian section, and Leader of the Biodiversity Health Research Team (https://www.biodiversity-health.org/) - a collaborative multiple-university research group focused on finding sustainable solutions for the most challenging threatening processes currently affecting biodiversity.

Dr. Grogan has a background in research on wildlife diseases, ecology and conservation. She's particularly interested in investigating the dynamics, relative importance, and impacts of infectious diseases among other threats affecting wildlife across both individual and population scales, to improve conservation management. While she works across taxa and methodological approaches, her main study system currently involves the devastating amphibian fungal skin disease, chytridiomycosis, where at the individual scale she focuses on the pathogenesis and amphibian immune response to the disease, untangling the roles of resistance and tolerance in defense against infection. At the population and landscape scale she explores mechanisms underlying persistence in the face of endemic infection, focused on the endangered Fleay's barred frog. She also studies population and infection dynamics of chlamydiosis in koala using a mathematical modelling approach, exploring the relative benefits of different management approaches. In addition to working on amphibian and koala diseases, Laura is a keen birdwatcher and wildlife photographer, and supervises projects in other wildlife-related fields.

You can find out more about her research team here: www.biodiversity-health.org. Dr. Grogan has been awarded around $1.3 million in research funding since 2018. In late 2019 she was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA; DE200100490), worth $426,742. This project, titled "Understanding infection tolerance to improve management of wildlife disease", commenced in late 2020. Dr. Grogan was identified as one of the four top-ranked science DECRA awardees by the Australian Academy of Science’s 2020 J G Russell Award, and was also recipient of the highest award of the Wildlife Disease Association Australasia Section with their 2019 Barry L Munday Recognition Award.

PhD and Honours projects are now available in the following areas (plus many more areas - please get in touch if you have an idea):

• Can frogs be ‘vaccinated’ by antifungal treatment of active infections to develop protective immunity to the devastating chytrid fungus? (Principal Supervisor)
• Establishing the conservation status of south-east Queensland’s amphibians - occupancy surveys and species distribution models (Principal Supervisor)
• Tadpoles as a reservoir of the lethal frog chytrid fungal disease – measuring sublethal effects on growth, time to metamorphosis and ability to forage (mouthpart loss) (Principal Supervisor)
• Impacts of chytrid fungus on the survival of juvenile endangered Fleay’s barred frogs, Mixophyes fleayi, and importance for population recruitment (Principal Supervisor)
• Measuring the infection resistance versus tolerance of barred frogs to the devastating chytrid fungal disease to improve management outcomes (Principal Supervisor)
• Mapping the impacts of fire-fighting chemicals on endangered frog habitats (Co-Supervisor)
• Bowra birds: what do long-term monitoring data reveal about bird communities in the semi-arid region? (Co-Supervisor)
• Impacts of fire-fighting chemicals on endangered frogs: Implications for conservation and management (Co-Supervisor)

CURRENT POSITIONS

· Senior Staff Specialist (Public Health Medicine), Queensland Health

· Principal Research Fellow, Centre for Clinical Research - University of Queensland

· Adjunct Professor, Griffith University Medical School

RECENT POSITIONS

· General Practitioner, Indooroopilly General Practice

· Senior Staff Specialist (Public Health Medicine), Metro South, Metro North, Central Queensland, and West Moreton Public Health Units (January 2021 to July 2022)

· Director, Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability (to January 2021)

· Senior Medical Officer, Mater Intellectual Disability and Autism Service (to November 2020)

· General Practitioner, Cornwall Street Medical Centre (to November 2020)

Introduction

I am a public health physician, zoologist, epidemiologist, and general practitioner. I commenced my clinical career in Far North Queensland in the early 1990s. I gained experience in Indigenous health, remote health, obstetrics and other areas of medicine. I also completed my specialist training in Public Health Medicine in Cairns in the early 2000s. From 2002 to 2008 I combined clinical work in adult developmental disability medicine at Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability Medicine (QCIDD) with general practice and travel medicine. While working as Senior Fellow at The National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH), Australian National University (ANU) I managed patients at Interchange General Practice, a clinic specialising in the health of people who use drugs, refugee health, and blood-borne viruses, among other areas. Until the end of 2020 I consulted clinically at the Mater Intellectual Disability and Autism Service and in general practice. I practiced at Indooroopilly General Practice until October 2022.

I've maintained a strong interest in the biological world since my first degree in zoology and via study of vector associations of Ross River virus during my PhD. The biological factors involved in the transmission of arboviruses has remained a particular interest, especially for Ross River virus and dengue. In the case of the former I have published a highly cited review detailing vector associations and reservoir hosts (Harley, Sleigh and Ritchie, Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 2001) and original research on vector associations in Far North Queensland (Harley et al., American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2001). More recently I have published on rainfall cut-points for outbreak prediction in the Northern Territory (Jacups et al., Journal of Medical Entomology, 2011), and modelling incorporating vegetation and macropod populations (Ng et al., Vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, 2014). I have published modelled projections for populations of Aedes aegypti, the vector of dengue, with climate change (Williams et al., Parasites and Vectors, 2014).

My research scope is broad. My four most highly cited publications (one with over 400 and one over 300 citations, Google Scholar) span arbovirology (Harley, Sleigh and Ritchie, Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 2001), psychiatry (Tyrer et al, Lancet, 2008), disability (Palmer and Harley, Health Policy and Planning, 2011) and climate change and health (Butler and Harley, Postgraduate Medical Journal, 2010).

Qualifications

I hold general and specialist registration as a medical practitioner. I am a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine (Royal Australasian College of Physicians) and the Australian College of Tropical Medicine.

I have a PhD in Tropical Health from the University of Queensland and a Master of Medical Science in Clinical Epidemiology from The University of Newcastle. I have a first class honours degree in zoology from the University of Queensland.

Advocacy, lobbying and consultancies

I've contributed actively to my college, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), and faculty, The Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine. I have joined working parties on Indigenous health, the health of disabled people (deputy chair), and most recently climate change and health. The work on the second and third working parties resulted in production of RACP position papers. In 2016 I represented the college in meetings with parliamentarians in Canberra on climate change and health. I'm currently a member of college reference groups on the NDIS and on global heating and health.

I represented the Royal Australasian College of Physicians at roundtable meetings on the health of people with intellectual disability, the first on 2 August 2019 (see Microsoft Word - D19-1158817 Roundtable on the Health of People with Intellectual Disability - Summary and Recommendations(2)). The roundtable was convened by the former Commonwealth Minister for Health, Mr Greg Hunt. Subsequent to the roundtable Minister Hunt released a National Roadmap for Improving Health Services for People with Intellectual Disability (see https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/national-roadmap-for-improving-the-health-of-people-with-intellectual-disability).

The Roadmap includes a wide range of measures including short-term measures focused on:

· Programs in Primary Health Networks (PHNs) to improve the capacity and skills of GPs and other primary health services to meet the needs of people with intellectual disability. This will initially be in four PHN lead sites with a view to national rollout after four years.

· Better use of existing Medicare items, including those for annual health assessments of people with intellectual disability.

· Better coordination between the health sector and other sectors such as disability and education.

· Support for people with intellectual disability and their families so that they can make informed decisions about health care and navigate the health care system.

The former LNP Government also committed $19.3 million in initial funding for the first actions in the Roadmap, including:

· $6.6 million to develop a Primary Care Enhancement Program for People with Intellectual Disability

· $6.7 million to improve implementation of annual health assessments for people with intellectual disability

· $4.7 million for curriculum development in intellectual disability health

· $1.4 million to scope and co-design a National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health

A report from the Roundtable and the outline of the proposed national Roadmap at https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/national-roadmap-for-improving-the-health-of-Australians-with-intellectual-disability and the Roadmap itself is abvailable at National Roadmap for Improving the Health of people with Intellectual Disability. The RACGP overview of the budget also lists a commitment for intellectual disability (RACGP | Overview of the Federal Budget 2021-22 (Health) | May 2021). I’ve been invited by the Commonwealth Department of Health to support the scoping and co‑design of models for a national centre of excellence in intellectual disability health (‘national centre’) and have been nominated by my college, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), to represent the college through the process.

I've held various consultancies and panel memberships, including with AusAid and WHO.

Supervision

In my time working at The Australian National University (2008-2016) five honours students completed projects under my supervision. All obtained first class degrees. My first student, Melanie Bannister-Tyrrell was awarded a university medal, published her honours research (Bannister-Tyrrell et al., American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2013), and is now a Senior Epidemiology Consultant to AusVet. Other students completed projects on tuberculosis management in the Torres Strait (Ellen Hart), tuberculosis diagnosis in Thailand (Eileen Baker), hypertension among Thai caregivers (Laura Saville), and mapping of renal disease risk in South Australia (Scott Pearce). I also supervised Ritwika Vinayagam's honours project at the University of Queensland, on diabetes and autism, in 2020.

Current PhD Supervision

· Semira Hailu - The burden of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis in Africa (UQ, associate advisor)

· Wei Qian - Ross River virus in Queensland (UQ, associate advisor)

· Tam Tranh - Road trauma in Vietnam (ANU, associate advisor)

· Cynthia Parayiwa - “Birth outcomes following maternal exposure to severe tropical cyclones in Queensland, Australia” (ANU, associate advisor)

Current Masters Supervision

· Suhasini Sumithra - Modelling Ross River virus in NSW (MPhil, ANU)

Completed PhDs

· Menghuan Song - Psychotropic prescribing to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (UQ, principal advisor)

· Sifat Sharmin - Dengue and climate in Bangladesh (ANU, Chair of Panel)

· Ray Lovett - Screening for drug and alcohol use in Indigenous community controlled health organisations (ANU, Chair of Panel)

· Philipa Dossetor - Children's health in Fitzroy Crossing, WA, with a focus on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (ANU, Chair of Panel initially, then panel member)

· Kerri Viney - Tuberculosis in the South Pacific (ANU, Panel member)

· Lachlan McIver - Climate change and health in the South Pacific (ANU, Panel member, Chair of Panel for completion of PhD)

· Kazi Rahman - Visceral Leishmaniasis in Bangladesh (ANU, Panel member)

· Yani Sun - Tuberculosis in Henan Province, China (ANU, Panel member, awarded ANU "Top Supervisor" award)

· Vicky Ng - Modelling of Ross River virus in NSW (ANU, Panel member)

· Michael Palmer - Disability in rural Vietnam (ANU, Panel member)

Completed Masters

· Tran Tuan Anh Le - Health of Australian adolescents with intellectual disability (MPhil, UQ)

· Alexandra Marmor - MPhil (App Epi; ANU)

· Anna Gibbs - Gram negative sepsis in Queensland children (MPH, UNSW)

Research

I was chief investigator on two NHMRC project grants worth over $2 million while with the ANU. I was CIA for one of these grants, to research weather and dengue virus epidemiology in Far North Queensland. The second grant funded the Thai Health-Risk transition project, a longitudinal study of the health of Thai people living throughout the country. Both projects have produced important publications in my areas of interest including dengue and climate (e.g. Williams et al., Epidemiology and Infection, 2016; Viennet et al., Parasites and Vectors, 2014), disability and health (Yiengprugsawan et al., Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 2010), and the health of carers (Yiengprugsawan et al., BMC Public Health, 2012). Fruitful collaborations have arisen from both grants including co-supervision of my PhD student Sifat Sharmin with my NHMRC-funded post-doctoral researcher Elvina Viennet and honours student projects related to the Thai study (Eileen Baker and Laura Saville). Before commencing at ANU I gained research funding from The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Rotary, The University of Queensland, and James Cook University.

Major themes in my research are infectious diseases epidemiology, environment and health, and the health of disabled people.

In the first of these I have focussed on arboviruses, particularly Ross River and dengue viruses, but have also published on Chikungunya, Zika, Adenovirus, tuberculosis, and invasive meningococcal disease. Since the publication of my highly cited and wide ranging review on the first of these (Harley, Sleigh and Ritchie, Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 2001; 346 citations, Google Scholar, 16/1/2019) I have remained an authority on this virus. I am first author on the chapter on Ross River virus in the authoritative textbook Hunter's Tropical Medicine and Emerging Infectious Diseases (Harley and Suhrbier, Hunter's Tropical Medicine, 2019). I have also published on vector associations (Harley et al., American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2001), clinical manifestations (Harley et al., Medical Journal of Australia, 2002), and behavioural risks (Harley et al., International Journal of Epidemiology, 2005). More recently I have published on environmental determinants of risk (Jacups et al., Journal of Medical Entomology, 2011; Ng et al., Vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, 2014). I also have a major interest in dengue and have published on the epidemiology of this important virus in Australia (e.g. Viennet et al., PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2016; Williams et al., Epidemiology and Infection, 2016) and Bangladesh (Sharmin et al., Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2015; PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2015; Statistical Methods in Medical Research, 2016). I have also published on the epidemiology of tuberculosis in China (e.g. Sun et al., PLoS One, 2017) and the Pacific (e.g. Viney et al., Tropical Medicine and International Health, 2015).

I have a particular focus on environment and infectious diseases (see dengue research in paragraph above; Harley et al., Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 2011; Harley et al., Infectious diseases: a geographic guide, 2010). I was an invited speaker on climate change and infectious diseases at the International Congress on Infectious Diseases in Hyderabad, India, during March 2016. I also co-authored, with Colin Butler, a conceptual paper on levels of impact from climate change on health (Butler and Harley, Postgraduate Medical Journal, 2010), and have written on the education of medical students on climate change and health (Green et al., Australian Family Physician, 2009) and impacts of climate change on immune function (Swaminathan et al., Children, 2014). I was invited to, and chaired the Infectious disease ecology and epidemiology stream, for the 2014 Theo Murphy High Flyers think tank, convened by the Australian Academy of Science, on Climate Change Challenges to Health.

When working at QCIDD ealier I led the Australian arm for an international multi-centre RCT on antipsychotic medication for aggressive behaviour in adults with developmental disabilities (Tyrer et al., Lancet, 2008; cited 365 times, Google Scholar, 19/8/2021). I have also researched the economic impact of disability in Vietnam (Palmer et al., International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 2011) and the asssociations of hearing impairment in Thailand (Yiengprugsawan et al., Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 2010) and co-authored an international review on models and measurement of disability (Palmer and Harley, Health Policy and Planning, 2011).

Editing and reviewing

I am a section editor for PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. I guest edited, with Shamshad Karatela, a special edition of The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health entitled "Environmental and Social Influences on Cognitive Development and Function" (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/cognitive_development). Journals I have reviewed for include Lancet Infectious Diseases, BMC Infectious Diseases, Science, The Medical Journal of Australia, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, and Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities.

Teaching

I taught epidemiology and evidence based medicine to medical students at The University of Queensland and ANU from 2002 to 2016. I was invited annually from 2012 to 2015 to teach epidemiology and outbreak control at Institut Pasteur and The Oxford University Clinical Research in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I was a foundation member of the teaching team for the ANU Master of Public Health (MPH) core subject, Fundamentals of Epidemiology, and have also instructed students on global health and climate change and health in the ANU MPH. In addition I've provided clinical teaching for ANU medical students in general practice and do so currently for third year UQ medicine students rotating to Cornwall Street Medical Centre in their general practice rotation.

I have contributed to building capacity internationally through strong engagement in supervision and teaching. I have supervised students from China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. I have also taught epidemiology and outbreak control to many students from low income countries in South East Asia as an invited instructor with Institut Pasteur and Oxford University in Ho Chi Minh City annually from 2012 to 2015.

Research Interests

· Infectious disease epidemiology

· Adult developmental disability medicine

· Indigenous health

· Public Health Medicine

Qualifications

· Bachelor of Science, The University of Queensland

· BSc (Hons I Zoology), The University of Queensland

· Bachelor of Medicine and Bachlor of Surgery, The University of Queensland

· FAFPHM, RACP

· PhD, The University of Queensland

A/Prof Sumaira Hasnain graduated with her PhD in December 2010 from The University of Manchester and is an Associate Professor at Mater Research with a team of eight researchers. A/Prof Hasnain was the first globally to demonstrate that immunity can modulate protein production in secretory cells in infection and chronic diseases. Her long-term vision has been to characterise these novel immune factors and manipulate them therapeutically using pre-clinical models of immune-driven pathologies.

A/Prof Hasnain holds a patent for targeted immunotherapy in metabolic disease which has led to the formation of a spin-off company, Jetra Therapeutics and venture capitalist funding. She has a rapid upward trajectory in research, evident by extensive body of high-quality publications including in Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Oncogene and Gastroenterology. She has been awarded more than $9 million in competitive funding and recently gained the National Health and Medical Research Council L1 Investigator Grant. A/Prof Hasnain has won 21 awards to date, including the Commercialisation award from The University of Queensland in 2022 and the Gastroenterological Society for Australasia; Lawrie Powell Award in 2023.

Paul specialises in Assessment and Management of Risk and Impact of Socio-Environmental determinants on the Wellbeing of our younger generations across their life span.

His overall vision is about how we use Environmental Health Intelligence to improve decision-making towards delivering more efficient Environmental Health Practices, Services and Solutions for local and regional communities in remote and disadvantaged socio-economic settings.

Within the complex interdisciplinary domains that hold the socio-environmental determinants of wellbeing, Paul’s operational research focuses on how / what interventions would best support communities to prevent, mitigate and adapt to EH risk and impact in rapidly changing environments and climate.

Prof Tim Mahony joined QAAFI’s Centre for Animal Science in October 2010, after 15 years of conducting research projects with the Queensland Government. He obtained his PhD from James Cook University in the area of molecular microbiology. During 2001 and 2002, Prof Mahony was a visiting professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

Research interests

Dr Mahony’s research interests are in the area of molecular virology revolving around improving viral disease control in production animals such as cattle and poultry. His group is characterising the molecular interactions between invading pathogens and the subsequent host responses with the goal of developing new vaccines and diagnostic technologies. A key component of this work includes improving the basic understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underpin and drive viral virulence and evolution. Next-generation sequencing has been used to sequence the genomes of herpesviruses and adenoviruses from a variety of species including, cattle, chickens, marsupials, horses, and crocodiles. Prof Mahony’s team is also investigating the role of virally encoded microRNAs in virulence, replication, and disease development. His group was one of the first in the world to apply bacterial artificial chromosome infectious clone technology for the efficient manipulation of herpesviruses that have large DNA genomes. These strategies are also being exploited to understand viral gene function and the development of vaccines.

Currently, Prof Mahony is researching risk factors that protect and predispose feedlot cattle to developing bovine respiratory disease (BRD). He is also leading the development of new vaccines for BRD and cattle tick infestations. Prof Mahony has also led the development of new vaccine delivery technologies for the poultry industry targeting the application of in ovo strategies. Prof Mahony research into improving animal health is increasing industry productivity, food safety, and consumer confidence in food products and he is keen to explore collaborations with other scientists in this area.

Prof Mahony has a strong interest to work with post-graduate students and has supervised a number of post-graduate students from Australia and overseas. These projects have covered research areas in molecular virology, animal health, vaccine development, and pathogen-host interactions.

Karnaker's research interests are natural products, peptide-based drug discovery and development, formulation chemistry and non-viral gene delivery system. Karnaker co-inventor and developed a novel, bioresponsive disulphide-linker technology, which has been used for non-viral vectors, peptide-therapeutics for pain and cancer treatment. Karnaker is also keen interest for topical, mucosal drug delivery using a range of dendrimer, nano and microbubbles, lipid and polymer-based nanoparticle systems in conjugation with both biological and physical stimuli-responsiveness.

Karnaker received a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from The University Queensland under the supervision of Dr Harendra Parekh and Dr Defang Ouyang. Prior to PhD, he completed a Master degree in Pharmaceutical Analysis and Quality assurance (India). Also worked as analytical research and development chemist for one year in a Pharma company. Since 2016, he his working with Dr Parekh team on a range of Industry-funded research projects and his role involves from ideation, research plan, execution, product delivery to industry partners on major platforms such as peptide-based therapeutics, gene therapy and sol-gel technology.

I have a keen interest in the evolutionary relationships that underpin symbioses, particularly those involved in plant disease. There are countless examples of how diseases have impacted on different crops throughout history, and this is an ongoing issue that deleteriously impacts food security. My research involves developing a better understanding of the epidemiology of plant diseases and pests, and delivering improved diagnostics and field management. Working with collaborators and international experts, my work involves research on a broad range of plants that are affected by bacteria, fungi, oomycetes and viruses. I have a strong interest in the biotic factors that govern soil health and the methods by which we can promote the development of beneficial microbial communities.