Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)

BA (Hons) AdMU; MBA ESCP Europe; PhD Sydney; GradCertEdStudies Sydney; GradDipTrainHRM Leicester

Sandra Alday is an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Business School. Extending her experience in international strategy and organisation development consulting, her scholarly research explores the nature of risk, how it is perceived and communicated, and how it is managed. She also investigates the impact of risk management approaches on equity and sustainability particularly in Southeast Asian contexts. Because pathways to sustainable futures require different ways of thinking and doing, she further examines how learning experiences can transform the way people and organisations think about risk and sustainability. 

Sandra is Deputy Director (Partnerships) of the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (SSEAC) at the University of Sydney and Program Director of the Master of Management and Master of Management (CEMS) programs at the University of Sydney Business School. She is Vice President of the Academy of International Business Sustainability Interest Group (AIB SIG), Past President of the Society for Risk Analysis-Australia and New Zealand (SRA-ANZ), and Past Councillor of the international Society for Risk Analysis (SRA). She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Management Education (JME) and a member of the Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS) Oceania Committee. Committed to excellence and innovation in higher education, Sandra is a recipient of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.

Tiho Ancev is a Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics. He holds degrees from Saints Cyril and Methodius University (Bachelor), University of Iceland (Master) and Oklahoma State University (PhD). His main research areas are agricultural, environmental, natural resource and energy economics. Tiho’s main contributions have been in water economics and policy, economics of energy, economics of air pollution and climate change policies, and economics of precision agriculture and agricultural input use. He has published widely on these topics in top international peer reviewed journals. Tiho has led and contributed to national and international research projects in these research areas. He is currently the Managing Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

Stephen Bartlett is an advocate and leader of the burgeoning quantum technology ecosystem, in Sydney and globally. A theoretical quantum physicist and Professor in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney, he leads a team pursuing both fundamental and applied research in the design of quantum computers. 

Stephen is Director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute, the Director of the Australian Research Council Training Centre for Future Leaders in Quantum Computing (FLiQC), and led the establishment of the national growth centre for quantum industry, Quantum Australia. He is the inaugural Lead Editor of the premier international research journal PRX Quantum.

He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Australian Institute of Physics, and the Royal Society of NSW.

Stephen completed his Ph.D. in mathematical physics at the University of Toronto in 2000. Moving to Australia, he directed his research to the theory of quantum computing, first as a Macquarie University Research Fellow and then as an ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. Since 2005, he has led a research program in theoretical quantum physics at University of Sydney, with interests spanning quantum computing, quantum measurement and control, quantum many-body systems, and the foundations of quantum theory.

Tom Bishop is the Academic Director of the Sydney Informatics Hub which is a Core Research Facility at the University of Sydney. He is a Professor in the School of Life & Environmental Science where his research interests are in modelling and predicting the variation of environmental properties in space and time with an emphasis on applying this to the domains of soil, agriculture and hydrology. His main teaching is related to applied statistics, environmental science and GIS. He is an Associate Editor for the European Journal of Soil Science and Soil Research and on the Editorial Board of Geoderma and Pedosphere. Prior to starting work at the University of Sydney in 2007 he held postdoctoral positions at the University of Florida in the USA, Rothamsted Research in the United Kingdom and the University of New South Wales. He completed his PhD in Precision Agriculture in 2002 at the University of Sydney.

Filip is Academic Director of Sydney Microscopy & Microanalysis, Co-Director of the Australian Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis and Sydney Node Director of Microscopy Australia all based at The University of Sydney. He also holds an academic position as Professor of Structural Cell Biology within the Molecular Biomedicine Research Theme in the School of Medical Sciences. His direct research interests cover the areas of structural cell biology, cancer biology, vascular biology, chemical biology and nanobiotechnology. He has 35 years of research experience as a cell biologist and histologist, specialising in the application and development of correlative microscopy methods and associated biomolecular labelling techniques to unravel structure-function relationships that cannot be addressed through conventional microscopy approaches. Through the use of these innovative approaches to bio-imaging, Filip has contributed significantly to the understanding of cancer cell motility and tumour drug-resistance, and unlocked various aspects of transendothelial transport mechanisms in liver, colon, kidney and pancreas.

B.Met.Eng. 1998, UNSW; PhD, 2002, UNSW

Professor Julie Cairney studied Materials Science and Engineering at UNSW under a scholarship from Pasminco Limited (a former mining company based in Broken Hill). In 2002, she was awarded a PhD (Physical Metallurgy) also from UNSW. The next few years were spent working as a researcher at the University of Birmingham, UK and the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart, Germany, before returning to Australia.

She is currently working as a Professor in the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research – Enterprise and Engagement). A highly influential figure in the Australian research sector, she serves on the boards of Cicada Innovations, Uniseed, and Kinoxis Therapeutics and CAD Frontiers. She was previously on the ARC College of Experts and the New Zealand Marsden Fund. Professor Cairney has also worked as the Director of the Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis and the CEO of Microscopy Australia, a national facility that is supported by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.

PhD

Professor Fernando Calamante is the Director of Sydney Imaging, the biomedical imaging Core Research Facility at the University of Sydney. He is Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering. He is also Director of the University of Sydney node of the NCRIS-funded National Imaging Facility.

After he finished his BSc degree in Physics (with Honours) in Argentina, he went to study Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in the UK as a Chevening Scholar (The British Council), where he later carried out his PhD at University College London, and was subsequently appointed Lecturer in Biophysics (2000). He relocated to Australia in 2005, where he spent 12 years at The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health and the University of Melbourne. Fernando joined the University of Sydney in 2018.

His main areas of research are the development of novel methods for Diffusion MRI, Perfusion MRI and brain connectivity, and their applications to neurology and neuroscience. He has gained international recognition for this work and his MRI methods have been adopted by many labs. For example, his MRtrix software for Diffusion MRI analysis is widely used worldwide and is one of the most popular tools in the field.

His research funding totals ~$50M, including multiple ARC and NHMRC Project Grants and Fellowships, 2 NHMRC Program Grants, 2 MRFF grants, and industrial funding.

Fernando has been elected to several leadership positions within the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, including as its 2021-2022 President.

BA (Magna Cum Laude) Skidmore College (USA), PhD UNSW

Christopher Coady is an historical musicologist and jazz specialist. He is the author of John Lewis and the Challenge of “Real” Black Music (University of Michigan Press, 2016) and a range of articles on historic and contemporary jazz practice, music research training, and transnational music histories. His sole authored and co-authored work has appeared in the British Journal of Music Education, American Music, Jazz and Culture, the Musical Quarterly, and other leading scholarly outlets. He is currently Lead Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council Discovery Project "Sounding solidarity, sovereignty and citizenship in post-war music exchange." Coady is particularly interested in the ways in which musicians conceptualize their artistic approaches and frequently supervises postgraduate students engaged in practice-based/practice-led research projects. He is the Associate Dean (Research Education) for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Chair of the Higher Degree by Research Examinations Subcommittee.

Victoria is the recently appointed inaugural Exective Director of the Sydney Biomedical Accelerator, a visionary partnership between the University of Sydney, Sydney Local Health District and the NSW Government that brings together clinicians, researchers, academics and industry to solve some of the world’s most complex health challenges.

Victoria completed a BSc (Hons) in 1999 followed by a PhD on the Ultrastructure of the Ageing Liver, graduating from the University of Sydney in 2003. She was awarded a Healthy Ageing Postdoctoral Fellowship and travelled to the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD USA to complete postdoctoral studies. Victoria now leads a multidisciplinary research team that is focussed on understanding the biology of the liver relating to ageing and disease and translating this knowledge to develop targetted nanomedicines for the treatment and prevention of these diseases.

You can read about our company EndoAxiom that is leading the development of our nanomedicines for use in people. Our lead product is oral insulin for the treatment of diabetes (https://www.endoaxiom.com/)

Victoria was the Foundational Associate Dean for Research Education (2018-2023) in the Faculty of Medicine and Health.

Ben Colagiuri is Professor of Psychology and Co-Director, Discovery and Translation, at the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney. He received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Sydney in 2010. His research examines how expectations, information, and social context shape health outcomes, with a particular focus on placebo and nocebo effects.

Ben has developed novel experimental models to investigate placebo and nocebo mechanisms across pain, sleep, nausea, and related conditions. His current research explores how knowledge of placebo and nocebo effects can be used ethically to improve patient outcomes, reduce treatment-related harms, and inform clinical communication.

He has secured more than $7 million in competitive research funding, incluidng ARC Future Fellowship, published more than 100 scientific papers, and received national and international recognition for his work. His awards include the International Association for the Study of Pain Patrick D. Wall Young Investigator Prize, the Australian Psychological Society Media Award for Public Engagement, and the International Society of Behavioural Medicine Early Career Award.

Ben previously served as Head of the School of Psychology and as a member of the Academic Board. He is also President of the International Society for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies.

Deanna is the Director of the University of Sydney’s Net Zero Institute (NZI), where she leads multidisciplinary efforts to accelerate Australia’s transition to low  and zero emissions technologies. She is also a Professor of Chemistry in the School of Chemical & Bimolecular Engineering. The NZI brings together more than 280 researchers to deliver practical climate solutions in collaboration with industry, government and communities. Its Industry and Scientific Advisory Boards span 10 countries.
 
A chemist by training, Deanna and her team are recognised for scientific contributions to advanced functional materials known as Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), with applications in direct air capture and next generation clean energy systems. Her career spans more than 20 years across Australia and the United States and has been supported by fellowships including Australian Research Council Future and QEII Fellowships, a L’Oréal UNESCO Australia For Women in Science Fellowship, an American Australian Dow Chemical Company Fellowship and a Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellowship.
 
Before stepping into her current role, she held several positions at the University of Sydney and completed postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. She holds a BSc (Hons) and PhD from James Cook University. Deanna is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Since 2011, Deanna has successfully supervised to graduation 19 PhD students, 3 Masters students, and 29 Honours students including jointly supervised students.

A breif biography including recognitions received is provided below.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

BSc (Hons I & UMedal), James Cook University, 2001

PhD, James Cook University, 2006

Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular Electronics Group, University of Sydney, 2006

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California at Berkeley, 2007-2009

Dow Chemical Company Fellow, American-Australian Association, 2007

Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellow, 2007-2009

University of Sydney Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2010

L’Oréal-UNESCO Australia for Women in Science Fellow, 2010

Australian Research Council QEII Fellow, 2010-2016

Sydney Research Accelerator (SOAR) Fellow, 2017-2018

Associate Professor, 2017

Deputy Head of School, Chemistry, 2017-2018

Australian Research Council Future Fellow, 2018-2022

Professor, 2021

Director, Net Zero Institute, 2024

Graduate, Australian Institute of Company Directors, 2025

AWARDS & HONOURS

- 2025-2026, The Australian Research Magazine, Top Researcher in the field of Inorganic Chemistry
- 2023-2024, Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Australasian Lectureship
- 2017, Australian Academy of Science Le Févre Medal, In recognition of outstanding research in chemistry by researchers up to 10 years post-PhD - for research conducted mainly in Australia
- 2017, Fellow, Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI)
- 2017, RACI Alan Sargeson Lectureship, Recognising significant and innovative contributions to the field by researchers within 10 years of the award of their PhD
- 2015, RSC ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship, One of two awarded internationally in 2015 by the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) to recognise an emerging scientist in the early stages of their independent academic career
- 2014, RACI Rennie Memorial Medal, For research published over the past 8 years that has contributed most towards the development of a branch of chemical science
- 2012, Distinguished Lectureship Award, The Chemical Society of Japan
- 2011, NSW Young Tall Poppy Science Award, Australian Institute of Political Science
- 2010, Outstanding Early Career Alumni Award, James Cook University, One of five awarded for the past 10 years during the 40th Anniversary celebrations of James Cook University
- 2007-9, Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellowship, One of 6 awarded internationally
- 2008, DOW Chemical Company Fellow, American-Australian Association
- 2007, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Prize for Young Chemists, One of 5 awarded world-wide for the most outstanding PhD theses in the chemical sciences
- 2006, Winner of ‘Fresh Science’, Selected from early-career scientists Australia-wide for the best presentation of their research to the general public
- 2006, RACI Cornforth Medal, For the most outstanding PhD thesis submitted in a branch of chemistry in Australia
- 2006, Medal of Excellence for a Doctoral Research Thesis, James Cook University

FAA, FTSE, FOSA, FIEEE, FSPIE, FAIP, FRSN

Benjamin Eggleton is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Sydney, where he leads the University’s research operations division with responsibility for driving research income, operational excellence and regulatory compliance. His remit spans research strategy, funding and pipeline development, research performance, and key post-award functions including contract management, clinical trials, research integrity and ethics, foreign interference and national security. Through this role, he works closely with senior leadership to strengthen institutional capability, performance, impact and reputation.

Eggleton is Professor in the School of Physics, leading an experimental photonics group. As Chief Investigator, he has secured over $60M in competitive research funding. He is a founding Co-Director of the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN), leads the Jericho Smart Sensing Laboratory (JSSL) sponsored by the Royal Australian Air Force, and is a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Optical Microcombs for Breakthrough Science (COMBS).

From 2018 to 2022, Eggleton served as Director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute. He previously founded and directed the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) from 2003 to 2017, and the Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS) from 2009 to 2018. He is a recipient of multiple Australian Research Council Fellowships, including Laureate Fellow and two Federation Fellowships and numerous awards, including the Malcolm McIntosh, Pawsey Medal, Walter Boas Medal, Adolph Lomb Medal and ICO Prize.

Eggleton received his PhD in Physics from the University of Sydney before joining Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, in 1996 as a postdoctoral researcher. He later became Technical Manager of the Fiber Gratings Group, and subsequently Research Director for the Specialty Photonics Business Division and Director of Photonic Devices Research.

He has published over 540 journal articles, including in Nature Photonics, Nature Communications and Optica and has over 30,000 citations (h-index 90, WoS) and 50,000 citations (h-index 121, google scholar)

Eggleton is a Fellow of Optica, IEEE Photonics, SPIE, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), and the Australian Academy of Science (AAS). He has served the international optics community: as President of Australian Optical Society (2008–2010), IEEE Photonics Board of Governors (2015–2017), General Chair of CLEO (2019), Editor-in-Chief of Optics Communications (2007–2015), and Editor-in-Chief of APL Photonics (2015–2025).

PhD MIPH FRACP MBBS BSc(Med) GAICD FAHMS

Professor Greg Fox is the Director of the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, a pan-University centre that supports multidisciplinary research in Southeast Asia. He is a respiratory physician at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and an epidemiologist and clinical trialist committed to using research to improve health care among disadvantaged populations. Greg is also a Research Leader at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

He leads a research group in the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre that focuses on detection, treatment and prevention of tuberculosis (TB), a lung infection that kills over one million people each year. Greg's ongoing research ranges from community-wide cluster randomised trials and clinical trials to meta-analysis and evidence-base policy development. Much of his research is undertaken in resource-limited settings, particularly Vietnam.

Professor Fox is a NHMRC Leadership Fellow. He lived in Vietnam for four years, during which time he established a major randomised controlled trial of household screening for tuberculosis. He leads ongoing NHMRC-supported trials relating to tuberculosis and lung disease in Vietnam. Among these, the VQUIN MDR Trial is a clinical trial evaluating therapy to prevent tuberculosis among the family members of patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Vietnam.

He leads the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence into tuberculosis, is co-director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Tuberculosis at the University, a member of the Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute ( Sydney ID) , a member of the US CDC Tuberculosis Trials Consortium network and leads a protocol-specific site for the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG).

Professor Fox completed a PhD at Sydney University which focused on environmental and genetic determinants of tuberculosis in resource-limited settings. He subsequently completed a post-doctoral fellowship at McGill University in Canada focusing on multi-drug resistant (MDR)-TB and clinical trials. He remains actively involved in research collaborations with Vietnam, Canada and the US. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Graeme Gill joined the Department in 1981 and was appointed to the Chair in 1990. He has been a member of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia since 1994, and has held a variety of positions in the University, including Acting Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research), Deputy Chair of the Academic Board, Chair of the Academic Forum, Associate Dean in the Faculty of Economics, and Head of the School of Economics and Political Science. He has been an ARC Australian Professorial Fellow and a member of the ARC College of Experts. He is also President of the International Council for Central and East European Studies.

He has held visiting positions in Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Washington, Moscow, St Petersburg and Florence, and is currently on a number of editorial boards. His main research interests lie in Russian and Soviet politics, but he has also published books on various aspects of democratisation and on the origins and development of the state.

David S G Goodman is Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, where he is also Emeritus Professor of Chinese Politics. He has worked in universities in Australia, China and the UK since 1971. In 2013/14 he established the Department of China Studies at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China, where he also later served as Vice President for Academic Affairs. In Australia he previously worked at both the University of Technology Sydney; where he established the International Studies Program and later became DVC International; and the University of Sydney where he was part of the team that originally established the China Studies Centre. Prof Goodman is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

In addition to his role as Director of the China Studies Centre, Prof Goodman is general editor of three leading publication series on contemporary China: China in Transition with Routledge UK; the Handbooks of Research in China with Edward Elgar UK; and Studies on Local China with Routledge UK.

Prof Goodman's professional expertise is in social and political change in China, and international education. He has worked on projects with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the US State Department, as well as with commercial clients.

Prof Goodman's research focus is on provincial and local development in China, class and social inequality in China, and the history of the Communist Party of China. He has written twenty books and published reports, and edited thirty-two volumes, as well as publishing articles in peer-reviewed academic journals.

Prof Goodman was educated at the University of Manchester, UK (Politics and Modern History) Peking University (Economics) and the London School of Oriental and African Studies (Chinese language and Chinese Politics).

Kate is a Professor of Practice and Academic Director of the Sydney Policy Lab, a multidisciplinary initiative of the University of Sydney. She is an Honorary Associate at the Sydney Law School. Her work broadly asks how policy can be developed for the common good. In particular, she is interested in how universities can be understood as a community of communities that actively conciliates estranged interests and knowledges. Her work is rooted in the connections between political economy, political anthropology, democratic participation, and deliberation. With the Sydney Policy Lab, she researches how the practices of politics and community-building affect policymaking. This research gives emphasis to human dignity, relationships, trust, communities and institutions.

Kate leads the partnership with SEED Futures on a National Primary Preventative Framework and with the Centre for Mental Health Research in Action (CAMHRA) at SOAS at the University of London. She is co-lead of the Campus Collaboration project, the Universities, Responsibilities and Natural Disasters project with the Sydney Environment Institute, and the Housing Distress project with CAMHRA. Along with Professor Ian Hickie at the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney, she founded the Beyond the Bell project, rethinking the after-school hours landscape in Australia. She collaborates closely with Professor Brendan McCormack, Academic Chair of the CARE program at the Sydney Policy Lab, championing Australia's relational economy. She is co-convenor of the Adaptive policy systems node and co-convenor of the Community of Practice on Universities and Communities.

Prior to joining the University of Sydney in 2022, Kate was the Head of Policy & Design at the Paul Ramsay Foundation, working with communities in Australia to secure thriving futures.

From 2015 to 2020, Kate was CEO of Anglican Deaconess Ministries, a 130-year-old Christian women's foundation, where she worked to reimagine the vision of the organisation and re-establish their work in public and practical engagement.

In government, Kate was an adviser to former Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Working with the Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff, she worked across the policy portfolios and on caucus management. She had also previously served former Deputy Prime Minister Gillard in the portfolio of social inclusion. Prior to joining the Office of the Prime Minister, she was Director of Strategic Communications and Global Affairs at the Australian Consulate-General in New York.

Kate is a graduate of the University of Sydney and a NSW Rhodes scholar. She holds a D.Phil in Politics and an M.Phil in Development Studies (International Development, with Distinction) from the University of Oxford. She was awarded the Eugene Havas memorial prize for first place in the M.Phil in Development Studies. During her postgraduate studies, Kate was Research Officer at the Global Economic Governance Programme at Oxford, member of the Global Health Governance team, and an Advisor to Richard Curtis on issues in international development. She was awarded a Fleet Fellowship by Magdalen College Oxford to attend Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs.

Kate serves on the Board of World Vision Australia and on the Board's People, Culture and Governance Committee. She has been elected to serve as Director on the Board of World Vision International. She serves on the Advisory Council of SEED Futures.

Kate has published an edited volume on Making Global Institutions Work, articles, policy reports, working papers and submissions to government. Kate has been a reviewer for the British Medical Journal (BMJ). She has written for The Guardian Australia, ABC Religion & Ethics, TechCrunch, Pro Bono Australia and The Conversation. She has been Executive Producer of a documentary in East Timor and she regularly speaks to the news media including the BBC, Bloomberg, and ABC.

BSci (Hons I) 2007, UON; PhD (Chemistry) 2016, UON

Dr Holmes is one of Australia's leading specialists in developing atom probe tomography for studying the atomic-scale structure of biological materials and medical devices. Over her career she has focused on materials engineering and advanced microscopy development for electronics (Advanced Energy Materials 2023, Nanoscale 2023, ACS Nano 2021, Nano Energy 2016) and medical device applications (Acta Biomaterialia 2023). Her work has involved accessing international synchrotron facilities to measure the precise nanostructure of functional materials using X-ray microscopy beamlines.

Dr Holmes holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Newcastle (2016), and is an Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) PhD scholar. Following her PhD she held post-doc positions at Karlstad University (Sweden) and the University of Newcastle (Australia). In these positions she led research projects in nanostructuring materials for eco-friendly coated solar cells (Karlstad University) and developing nanostructured thin-film devices for electronic biosensors and solar cells (University of Newcastle). The research developing electronic biosensor medical device technologies was predominantly industry and venture capital funded through PepsiCo and GBS Inc (The iQ Group Global). In 2020, Dr Holmes joined the University of Sydney as a Microscopy Australia Research Fellow, extending her research on structure-function relationships in nanostructured materials utilising the advanced atom probe tomography suite. Shortly after joining the University of Sydney she became the key nanomaterials expert in a CI team receiving an NHMRC grant to develop nanoengineered bioelectronic systems for neural interfacing. In 2022, Dr Holmes completed an invited International Fellowship at the University of Tokyo - Institute of Industrial Science, Laboratory for Integrated Micro-Mechatronic Systems (LIMMS). LIMMS is a CNRS International Research Laboratory, jointly operated by France (CNRS, Institute for Sciences of Engineering and Systems), and Japan (University of Tokyo, Institute of Industrial Science).

Dr Holmes has published 57 internationally-peer-reviewed journal articles and secured over $5M in competitive grant funding (as lead, co- and partner CI) since completing her PhD. Dr Holmes has supervised 6 postgraduate students to completion, including 2 PhD candidates. Dr Holmes has built a career in materials engineering, a key component of her research involves accessing X-ray microscopy and tomography beamlines at synchrotron facilities around the world. She has conducted synchrotron experiments at the listed international facilities following successful beamtime proposals: 1) Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA (as lead and co-CI); 2) Swiss Light Source, Villigen, Switzerland (as lead and co-CI); 3) MAX IV, Lund, Sweden (as co-CI); 4) Australian Synchrotron, Melbourne, Australia (as co-CI), securing ongoing ANSTO grants to fund these endeavours. 

In 2024 Dr Holmes was awarded the University of Sydney Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence as a Sydney Leader for her contribution to the training of ECRs in STEMM through the ECWW workshop series (Early Career Women in STEMM Committee - Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Medicine and Health).

X/Twitter: @DrNatalieHolmes

Sergio Leon-Saval is a Professor at the School of Physics in the University of Sydney and Associate Head School Strategic Partnerships and External Engagements. He was awarded his PhD by the University of Bath, UK, in 2006. In 2007, he joined the University of Sydney where he is now Director of the Sydney Astrophotonics Instrumentation Laboratory (SAIL), and Director of the Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS), and Associate Academic Director of the Research and Prototyping Foundry. Prof Leon-Saval has more than 16 years of experience in the research area of photonics. He has made breakthrough contributions in the field of specialty optical fibres, astrophotonics and optical instrumentation systems. He has published over 90 international refereed journals and more than 220 conference papers since 2004 with over 10000 citations, and a h-index of 49. Prof Leon-Saval has been a member of technical program and management committees on more than 14 international conferences. He is a Fellow of Optica, and Council Member of the Australian and New Zealand Optical Society (ANZOS). He was the 2019 recipient of the ANZOS John Love Award, that recognizes innovations and technical advances in the field of optics.

• BSc, University of Melbourne (1992-1994)
• BSc (Hons 1), Australian National University (1995)
• PhD, Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University (1996-1999)
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, USA (1999-2001)
• Physicist, Diffraction Group, Institut Laue-Langevin, France (2001-2004)
• Lecturer, School of Chemistry, University of Sydney (2004-2007)
• Senior Lecturer, School of Chemistry, University of Sydney (2008-2011)
• Associate Professor, School of Chemistry, University of Sydney (2012-2017)
• Professor of Solid-state Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Sydney (2018-)

Dr David Martinez-Martin is a physicist and innovator who has created multiple patented technologies that are already in commercialisation. David is Deputy Director of Sydney Microscopy & Microanalysis, Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Sydney, and former co-chair of the sensors and diagnostics cluster of the Nanohealth Network. He has established and leads the Strategic Research Partnership with Bruker (world leading company in instrumentation and diagnostic solutions), creating a nanomedicine facility that is the first of its kind in Australia. David was also co-founder and co-convenor of the Sydney Innovation Program, which brought together students from across the University to identify, understand and explore innovative solutions at the nexus between law, science, and technology. His research spans from surface and materials science to finding new biomarkers for health and disease, and cell physiology, which in many cases requires him to develop his own instrumentation. He is an expert in nanotechnology, single molecule and cellular biophysics, and scanning probe microscopies.

David is the principal inventor of a patented technology known as inertial picobalance, which is used to study the mass regulation of a single or multiple cells in real time. Understanding how cells regulate their mass has enormous potential to transform the way we diagnose, monitor and treat conditions such as cancer, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and ageing. David is also principal inventor of other significant patented technologies which have been internationally licensed to leading nanotech companies.

In 2012 David was awarded the very competitive and prestigious international long-term EMBO fellowship (European Molecular Biology Organization) and moved to ETH Zürich (Switzerland) where he pioneered studies about the real-time dynamics of cell mass in mammalian and yeast cells, and the effect of viral infections in a cell’s mass dynamics. There he also developed a single-cell viral infection method and invented the inertial picobalance among other technologies. He remained until he commenced his position at the University of Sydney in 2019.

David completed a BSc/MSc in Physics from the University of Valladolid, where he was awarded the University Medal (Extraordinary Award of Degree) for an outstanding sustained academic record over the five-year degree. He also holds a PhD in physics (Summa Cum Laude) from the Autonomous University of Madrid, which was awarded in 2011. His PhD research was distinguished with the prestigious national research award in experimental and technological sciences from the Spanish Royal Academy of Doctors.

David’s research achievements and efforts to promote the development of effective innovation ecosystems have been honoured by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO, 2022), the Spanish Professional Association of Physicists’ Excellence Award (2016), the Alberto Elzaburu Foundation’s Innovation Award (2018), and the University of Sydney’s Research Accelerator (SOAR) prize (2020), among other honours.

Steven Meikle is Professor of Medical Imaging Physics and Head of the Imaging Physics Laboratory at the Brain and Mind Centre. He is also Deputy Director (Preclinical) of Sydney Imaging, the university's core research facility for biomedical imaging, and Deputy Director of the University of Sydney node of the National Imaging Facility. He received his Bachelor of Applied Physics degree (Hons 1, University Medal) from the University of Technology, Sydney in 1988 and his Ph.D. degree from the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales in 1995. He was a medical physicist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney (1987-2004), a visiting research associate at the Division of Nuclear Medicine and Biophysics, UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles (1991-2) and a post doctoral research scientist at the MRC Cyclotron Unit, Hammersmith Hospital in London (1995-6) before joining the University of Sydney in 2004. Steven is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics, a Senior Member of the IEEE and an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Medical Radiation Physics at the University of Wollongong. He is past President of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society and serves on the Executive Editorial Board of the journal Physics in Medicine and Biology.

Diplôme d'ingénieur (eq.BE), 1999, ISITEM (France); Master, 2002, Drexel University (USA); Ph.D., 2005, Drexel University (USA)

Professor Gwénaëlle Proust was an undergraduate in La Rochelle and Nantes in France where she received an Engineering Degree in Materials in 1999. She then moved to Philadelphia in the USA to attend grad school at Drexel University in the department of Materials Science and Engineering. In 2002, she obtained a Masters degree by completing a thesis about adhesion between aluminum surfaces and polyurethane films. In 2002, Associate Professor Proust joined Dr. Surya Kalidindi's group to work on his microstructure sensitive design project. She had a side project in collaboration with Dr. Roger Doherty and Dr. Surya Kalidindi on characterization of aluminum, copper and titanium elastic and plastic anisotropy using nanoindentation and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD). She obtained her PhD degree in April 2005.