Associate Professor of Health Behavior & Health Education, University of Michigan Dr. Heinze, Ph.D., is an educational psychologist and Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. His research investigates how schools influence disparities in violence and other risk outcomes from an ecological perspective that includes individual, interpersonal, and contextual influences on development. He is particularly interested in structural features of school context and policy that perpetuate inequity in violence and firearm outcomes, but also how these institutions can serve as a setting for intervention.
Senior Research Fellow, Indigenous Knowledges, Deakin University Joshua Waters is a First Nations K/Gamilaroi man, PhD student and Senior Research Fellow with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University. His work explores the critical role of Indigenous Knowledges in global higher education and institutional contexts. Joshua is also a core member of Deakin University's Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Lab and a Director of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Collective (IKSC) where he supports a number of regional, national and international partnerships and research projects aimed at utilising Indigenous knowledges and complexity for global systems innovation and change.
Lecturer in Computer and Information Sciences, University of Strathclyde My primary research focus revolves around the domains of security and privacy. Specifically, I delve into AI security, IoT and smart home security, risk management, identity management, digital forensics, and usable security. I collaborate with experts across different disciplines. Prior to embarking on my academic journey, I honed my expertise as an IT security specialist.
Professor of Microbiology, University of Galway Jim O'Gara completed his PhD in the laboratory of L. Kieran Dunican at the University of Galway investigating the genetic basis of tryptophan overproduction in Corynebacterium glutamicum. During his first postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Medical School Houston in Samuel Kaplan's laboratory he discovered a novel relationship between the activity of electron transport chain redox carriers and transcriptional regulation of photosynthesis gene expression, and a new mechanism of resistance to the heavy metal tellurite in Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Returning to Ireland in 1997 for a postdoctoral fellowship at Trinity College Dublin in the laboratory of Charles J. Dorman, he revealed how fimB promoter-driven transcription across the fim switch impacts phase variable expression of type 1 fimbriae in E. coli. Jim was appointed to a lectureship in microbiology at RCSI in 1999 and established an independent research programme investigating virulence and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) mechanisms in staphylococci, including MRSA. In 2005, he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Microbiology at University College Dublin, and returned to his alma mater as Professor of Infectious Disease Microbiology in 2012. Prof O'Gara's research group are focused on the identification and characterisation of new drug targets, from which new therapeutic interventions can be developed for the improved treatment of AMR and chronic infections. Notable scientific contributions from his group include i) the first description of the major transcriptional regulator of staphylococcal biofilm production (IcaR), ii) the identification of novel biofilm mechanisms mediated by 1. the fibronectin binding proteins, 2. the major autolysin and 3. coagulase in S. aureus, iii) elucidating the relationship between methicillin resistance, biofilm and virulence in S. aureus, iv) new therapeutic approaches to the treatment of chronic MRSA infections, including beta-lactam/nucleoside combinations, and (v) the discovery of new drug targets to increase the effectiveness of beta-lactams against MRSA (including alanine transport systems and succinyl-CoA synthetase-controlled regulation of lysine succinylation in the proteome). Prof O'Gara was awarded a DSc from the National University of Ireland in 2018, and was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA) in 2022.
Professor of Dinosaur Paleontology, University of the Witwatersrand I am the Professor of Comparative Palaeobiology at the University of the Witwatersrand, and my area of expertise is dinosaurian evolution. I've worked in China, Mongolia, South Africa and the USA collecting new dinosaur fossils. My current fieldwork is in the South African Karoo basin, where my students, collaborators, and I have been working on figuring out the age and distribution of the dinosaurs that used to live there.
PhD Candidate in Criminology, Deakin University Jessica Woolley is a PhD Candidate, Research Assistant and Sessional Tutor in Criminology at Deakin University. Jess’ PhD examines how the Victorian justice system responds to technology-facilitated domestic violence through family violence intervention orders. Jess has completed her Bachelor of Arts (Hons) at Deakin University in 2021, and Bachelor of Arts/Laws (Hons) at Monash University in 2020. In 2022, Jess was a recipient of the Research Student Award issued by the International Society for the Study of Rural Crime.
