Research Scientist, Field Ecology, CSIRO Eric is a field biologist studying a wide range of terrestrial fauna, including flying-foxes, koalas, snakes and the effects of differing land management activities (e.g. grazing, clearing, weeds, fire, feral species) on vertebrate fauna. He maintains the Black-throated Finch database on behalf of the Black-throated Finch Recovery Team. He is also the author of Field Guide to the Frogs of Queensland.
Career Development Fellow in Engineering, University of Oxford Emma completed her BSc in mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012. She then worked as a research assistant for a year at the University of Edinburgh's Institute for Energy Systems, where she was introduced to wave energy. Emma completed her PhD at MIT in 2020, and her thesis, supervised by Professor Dick Yue, was titled ‘Optimization of the geometry of axisymmetric point absorber wave energy converters.’ She then held a part-time postdoctoral position at MIT with Professor Yue for a year. She then completed a postdoctoral research fellowship from 2021-2023 at the University of Plymouth, working with Professor Deborah Greaves and Dr Martyn Hann, expanding her expertise to floating offshore wind turbines and physical modelling at one of the global hubs for offshore renewable energy research. From 2018-2022, in addition to her PhD and postdoctoral research, Emma competed as professional cyclist. In October 2023 she started as a Career Development Fellow in Engineering at St Peter's College, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on fluid mechanics and its application to offshore renewable energy (ORE). Her main area of interest is around the hydrodynamics of wave-structure interaction, particular for floating bodies, and its impact on the performance of devices--principally floating offshore wind turbines and wave energy converters.
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of Dayton Esther Brownsmith is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Dayton, having received her doctorate from Brandeis University and conducted postdoctoral research at M.F. Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society. She is author of Gendered Violence in Biblical Narrative: The Devouring Metaphor, winner of an AJS Jordan Schnitzer First Book Publication Award, which is forthcoming in Routledge’s series “The Ancient Word.” She is editor-in-chief of the forthcoming Unruly Books: Rethinking Ancient and Academic Imaginations of Religious Texts, a collected volume emerging from the “Books Known Only by Title” international project. She is now working on a monograph on the book of Esther that reads it in the light of fan fiction studies, queer theory and affect theory. Dr. Brownsmith’s research focuses especially on the stories of the Hebrew Bible and the cultural and literary norms that make them so resonant. In addition to her work on metaphor theory and gender, she conducts research on archives, archival loss and feelings about the past. She has been interviewed by the New York Times for her creation of “cuneiform cookies,” and she maintains an interest in the creative juxtaposition between ancient texts and “women’s arts” like crochet, cross-stitch and baking.
Associate Professor of Surgery, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Dr. Hofmeister is a Pennsylvania native who has lived in Southern California since 1997, thanks to a 31-year career in the U.S Navy. The daughter of a registered nurse and a nurse anesthetist, Dr. Hofmeister set her sights on becoming a doctor during high school, and was one of a select few officers allowed to pursue a medical degree upon her graduation with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1989. She received her Doctorate of Medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 1993, and completed an Internal Medicine internship at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. She then moved to Pensacola, Florida, where she received her Flight Surgery gold wings from the Naval Aerospace Medicine Institute, and then served as a flight surgeon on Marine Corps Base Hawaii for two years. Her grandmother’s blindness from severe glaucoma and macular degeneration inspired her to seek a career in ophthalmology. She completed her ophthalmology residency training at Naval Medical Center San Diego, where she was among the Navy’s first surgeons trained to perform PRK and LASIK. She then pursued fellowship training in Cornea, External Disease, and Refractive Surgery at the prestigious Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. Following fellowship training, she returned to Naval Medical Center San Diego, where she served as faculty until 2021. While on faculty, she deployed many times, including humanitarian missions on the hospital ship USNS Mercy, and a deployment to a combat zone in Afghanistan as the Deputy Command Surgeon of the Combined Security Transition Command in 2009. She has served in many leadership roles, including Ophthalmology Residency Program Director, Refractive Surgery Center Director, Ophthalmology Department Chairman, and the Navy’s Refractive Surgery Advisor from 2010 until 2020. Dr. Hofmeister’s clinical interests as a Cornea Specialist include the treatment of dry eyes, viral and bacterial eye infections, and keratoconus. She performs cataract surgery, corneal crosslinking, full-thickness and partial-thickness (DSAEK, DMEK) corneal transplants. As a refractive surgeon, she has performed over 9,000 PRK, LASIK, and SMILE procedures, and is experienced with implantable collamer lens (ICL) surgery and refractive lens exchange. She is also one of the leading teachers of refractive surgery in the United States, having trained over 60 residents and fellows from three residency programs in her 21 years as a Navy Ophthalmologist. An avid researcher, Dr. Hofmeister was an investigator on many studies of refractive surgery, with a focus on best practices, new technologies, and the safety of refractive surgery in patients with physically demanding jobs or austere work environments. She was the principal investigator on the landmark Patient-reported Outcomes with LASIK (PROWL) study, conducted with the FDA to assess patients’ satisfaction with LASIK. Dr. Hofmeister is board-certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology, and is a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society, the Society of Military Ophthalmologists, and the American Society of Ocular Trauma. She is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences, and while in the Navy, held Adjunct Faculty Positions at the University of California San Diego, and Loma Linda University. Some of her most gratifying moments have occurred during humanitarian surgical missions to Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Philippines, and Honduras, where she performed manual small-incision cataract surgery, allowing patients formerly blind from cataracts to see their loved ones again. A highlight was her volunteer mission to Honduras, where her daughter provided Spanish translation with the surgical technicians in the operating room. An accomplished vocalist and pianist, Dr. Hofmeister has performed with many amateur groups, and provides weekly music at her church. She loves hiking and travelling with her husband, who is also a physician.
Research Fellow at Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University Dr Emma McNicol is a Research Fellow at Monash University's Sustainable Development Institute. Emma is an expert in feminist theory and has published widely on male violence, intersectionality and Simone de Beauvoir's work. Emma's current research project, National Indigenous Disaster Resilience, champions First Nations leadership in the face of natural hazards intensified by climate crisis.
Professorial fellow, Murdoch University Dr Ed Barrett-Lennard is a Professorial Fellow at Murdoch University and a Senior Principal Soil Scientist at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development in Western Australia. He works in projects funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Vietnam. Ed works in the disciplines of agronomy, soil science and plant physiology. For 40 years, his research has focused on the growth of crops and pastures in saline and waterlogged environments, and on the adoption of saline agricultural principles by farmers and extension workers. He is an author of 80 scientific papers and 6 books.
