Jon Adams is an Adjunct Professor in Public Health at UTS. Jon's core position is Chair Professor of Primary Health Care Science, Dept of Rehabilitation Science, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), Hong Kong (July 2026 - ongoing). Please see Jon's PolyU website profile for up-to-date achievements, awards and outputs Chair Prof Jon Adams PolyU Scholars Hub profile

Jon's research program spans over 30 years across a vast range of health and health care topics, including: primary health care; traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM); community-based care and self-care for those with a range of chronic illnesses (especially cardiovascular disease, stroke, affective disorders and dementia); practices, behaviours and initiatives to promote, facilitate and improve quality of life, wellbeing and prevention; healthy ageing; women's health; rural and remote health issues; cancer and palliative care; healthy cities and urban design; indigenous health; and the health of priority and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations, amongst others.

As Adjunct Professor, Jon provides ongoing collaboration input and expertise in both methodology and substantive health research topics with UTS colleagues on several research publications, projects and other research activities. Jon also continues to provide supervisory input for PhD students at UTS. 

David Bedford is a Professor at UTS Business School in the Accounting Discipline. David is internationally recognized as a leading researcher in the field of management accounting and control. His research focuses on the design of performance measurement systems in firms pursuing different types of innovation, how combinations of management controls are designed to align to strategic objectives, the use of management controls in supporting organizational sustainability, and the role of accounting in deliverying public healthcare. 

David has published his research in leading academic journals, including Accounting Organizations and Society, Management Accounting Research, and Journal of Management Accounting Research. David is an Associate Editor at the British Accounting Review and Journal of Management Control, and is an editorial board member of Accounting, Organizations and Society, Management Accounting Research, and European Accounting Review.

David is actively engaged with practice, having experience in collaborative projects with a range of government, industry, professional, and social enterprises, including ANZ, Telstra, Acciona, CPA Australia, NSW Health, the Independent Health Pricing Authority (IHPA), and the Cleaning Accountability Framework (CAF). He is an invited speaker at academic and industry conferences and is highly regarded in delivering tailored executive education and specialist training, covering topics such as performance management, data literacy, data informed decision-making, and cost management.

Dr Nimish Biloria occupies the position of Professor of Urban Systems and Health at the School of Architecture, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where his research systematically investigates the intersections between spatial configuration, health outcomes, and equity principles, with particular emphasis on how built environment interventions can create transformative change for vulnerable populations experiencing spatial and health inequities. His systems-oriented approach encompasses investigations across multiple spatial scales to establish a comprehensive theoretical and methodological framework for designing healthy, sustainable, and equitable urban environments. Professor Biloria's research methodology recognizes that spatial relationships, accessibility patterns, and the physical design of urban environments fundamentally influence health outcomes for vulnerable populations. His scholarly work demonstrates how spatial justice principles can be systematically integrated within architectural and urban design processes to ensure equitable access to health-promoting environments for vulnerable populations.

With over a decade of distinguished academic leadership at Delft University of Technology's Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, and extensive international research experience spanning Europe, Asia, and Australia, Professor Biloria has developed transdisciplinary methodologies that integrate environmental sensing, computational design, neuroscience, and material science. His approach systematically examines how spatial interventions across multiple scales can reshape the environmental, social, technological, and health systems that determine urban experiences and population well-being, with particular attention to vulnerable populations who face spatial barriers to health equity. Professor Biloria treats the built environment as a complex adaptive system, acknowledging that urban health outcomes emerge from dynamic interactions between individual-level physiological responses, neighborhood-scale environmental exposures, city-wide infrastructure systems, and global climate processes.

Professor Biloria's transdisciplinary spatial research encompasses several interconnected domains:

• Multi-Scale Environmental Health Systems: Implementing integrated environmental sensing and psychophysiological monitoring approaches in the built environment to understand how climate change, urban heat, air quality, thermal comfort, and built environment interact to influence public health, emphasizing the complex interactions between broad urban policies and individual exposures.
• Neuroscience-Informed Urban Design: Using psychophysiological monitoring, environmental sensing, and urban simulations to map urban stressors and their neurobiological effects on residents, examining how noise, visual complexity, green spaces, and urban density impact mental health, guiding design choices to reduce urban stress.
• Adaptive Spatial Infrastructure for Aging Populations: Developing adaptive buildings and resilient urban environments by leveraging computational design, machine learning, and urban analytics to ensure equitable access to healthy environments for vulnerable populations that adapt to demographic changes.
• Climate-Resilient Spatial Design: Advancing bio-based materials, adaptive reuse, and circular design to combat climate change and promote health equity for vulnerable populations. His work creates closed-loop urban systems and green infrastructure that cut embodied carbon and develop climate-adaptive spaces, shielding residents from heat, pollution, and health risks.

Professor Biloria views cities as dynamic, interconnected systems where local interventions can generate far-reaching impacts across multiple temporal and geographic scales. His research, backed by the EU, Australian government, industry, and non-profits, underscores its societal importance and interdisciplinary support. As the founder of Springer's S.M.A.R.T. Environments series and the Joint Author of the upcoming Routledge book 'Super Ageing Societies' (2026), he bridges academic knowledge with real-world solutions by partnering with residents, scientists, technology companies, policymakers, health professionals, urban planners, and industry stakeholders to tackle urban health issues. His work demonstrates how exploring the relationships between the built environment and health, spanning from material chemistry to city-wide climate adaptation, can lead to solutions that enhance population health, sustainability, and social justice. Biloria's approach emphasizes understanding and shaping the complex interactions among materials, technology, environment, and health, from molecular to metropolitan scales. He advocates cross-sector collaborations to transform urban systems into integrated networks that support human and planetary wellbeing through evidence-based spatial design, innovative materials, responsive technologies, and equitable governance.

ARC DECRA Research Fellow 2025-7

Theme Lead of the UTS Ageing Research Collaborative (Design and Innovation)

Academic Lead of the UTS Disability Research Network

Phillippa Carnemolla is a Professor in the School of Built Environment within the Faculty of Design Architecture and Building. She is passionate about research that investigates the influence of our built environments on people's independence, autonomy and how care is provided and received. She focuses on promoting community-led research and innovation in housing, workplaces, residential aged care, specialist disability accommodation and inclusive cities across aged care and disability support contexts. 

Phillippa leads work commissioned by the National Disability Insurance Agency, state government agencies and departments across NSW, Tasmania and Victoria, The Big Issue and service providers of disability support and aged care. She has held a number of national board and advisory positions with organisations, including the Centre for Universal Design Australia, the City of Sydney, the Greater Cities Commission and NSW Department of Planning. In recognition of her research excellence in housing and care provision, she is a Uniting Research Fellow, Honorary Associate Professor at Edith Cowan University and a finalist in the AFR Tertiary Education Awards (2022).

International Recognition
Her transdisciplinary research is recognised globally, with many international governments and agencies citing her work as evidence for policy innovation and reform across housing and care. The US Senate has tabled her research as part of a 2022 hearing before the committee on addressing the housing needs of American seniors. The World Health Organisation (UNICEF) cites her investigations into the breadth of health, care and social impacts resulting from inclusive design approaches (2022). The UK Government Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities cites her review on housing and homelessness in their report, testing innovative approaches to improving outcomes for people experiencing homelessness (2023). Closer to home, her research into models of aged care is cited in the 2023 National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines.

Community-led research
Phillippa oversees projects in housing, aged care, and disability, fostering collaborations among a wide array of stakeholders, including Australia’s leading housing and disability support/aged care providers (Uniting, Achieve Australia, and Northcott). She is recognised within academic, industry and community sectors for her exemplary community-centred approach, having led diverse research teams that prioritise the inclusion of people with disability as project leaders, researchers, strategists, and analysts. Her leadership of the ‘My Home My Community project’ was recently referenced in the UTS application to the Australian Elective Carnegie Community Engagement Classification. The case study included in the application highlighted Assoc. Prof Carnemolla’s leadership in designing and delivering engaged research and practice. Of significant value was her ability to guide a diverse team of researchers, including people with intellectual disability. By embedding diversity and inclusion at the heart of the project, the research effectively demonstrated the integration of diverse forms of knowledge – including disciplinary, contextual, and lived experience – to further the field. This contribution, complemented by other institutional examples of engaged scholarship, resulted in UTS being awarded the Classification in 2023. This was a significant achievement, with UTS being one of the only two institutions receiving the Classification nationally.

Specialist Disability Accommodation Research 2023
In 2023 she lead the analysis of exclusive Australian national housing data on the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s (NDIS) Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) housing stock. Bringing together a national team of housing and disability academics and experts, including people with disability, the team developed inclusive data translations for people with sensory disability (blind and visually impaired) and intellectual disability for the state-based data being analysed.

Deborah is an Honorary Associate Professor in Public Health at UTS. 

Deborah has teaching, clinical, research and administrative experience. Deborah's academic qualifications, coupled with nursing experience in metropolitan, rural and remote acute health care settings provide her with research expertise as well as a first-hand understanding of clinical settings. Deborah has had considerable experience with quality improvement projects in both teaching and research roles. Deborah has research experience across a diverse range of areas including investigation of: service provision for young people with mental health and intellectual disabilities; consumer engagement; health services accreditation; medication administration; nursing leadership; quality improvement initiatives in healthcare (e.g. central line bundles, structured handover process, electronic medication management systems); teaching medical students about smoking cessation; and teaching medical students about patient safety. She also has experience as a clinical trials coordinator in a hospital based drug trial. Deborah is an internationally recognised expert on the use of workarounds healthcare. Identification of workarounds is pivotal to illuminating gaps between how work is imagined to be done (work-as-imagined) and how it is actually done (work-as-done). Understanding these gaps is fundamental to effective implementation of strategies to improve quality and safety of service delivery.

In this honorary role, Deborah supports the continuation of active research, supervision and teaching contributions at UTS. This includes supervision of Higher Degree by Research students as a primary and co‑supervisor, remaining as an active Chief Investigator on externally and internally funded UTS research projects, contributing to study design, governance, data interpretation, publications and grant reporting. Deborah also contributes to teaching through guest lectures and research‑informed learning activities as required, particularly in areas of health services management, patient safety, quality improvement, implementation science, Indigenous health, and co‑design.

Dr Barbara Doran specialises in creative intelligence and transdisciplinary practice and is the course director for the UTS Creative Intelligence and Strategic Innovation program. Barbara specialises in identifying creative opportunities that respond to complex challenges and developing innovative strategies that can be put into action. She is an experienced speaker, mentor, educator, project innovator and artist who directs her energies to building our collective capacities to improve how we live.

Her skills are drawn from working across the arts, the tertiary sector and from project experience in the private, public and community sectors which bring together practical, scholarly, imaginative, playful and collaborative outcomes. She has twice won the United Nations Bioethics and Art Award for Photography and displayed her work on both the national and international stage. Barbara's creative works include over 100 projects spanning film productions, exhibitions, performances, earth building and cultural events. As an educator she has delivered over 40 subjects ranging across health psychology and sociology, urban planning, design, the arts and creativity. Barbara has supervised diverse research projects at honours, masters and PhD levels. Her research expands understandings of creativity and its application to challenges in health and planetary wellbeing. Barbara’s work and collaborations are distilled in her book ‘Creative Reboot: Catalysing Creative Intelligence’- a compendium of supporting practices and methods.

Barbara is the lead curator of the SPHERE Knowledge Translation Platform (a leading national healthcare partnership) and advises on numerous innovation projects. Her post at TD School comes after having worked as a Senior Lecturer for Australia’s leading performing arts conservatoire NIDA, National Institute of Dramatic Arts, with prior positions at The University of New South Wales and Western Sydney University.

Barbara's mememberships include:

• Australian Good Design Ambassador
• Arts Health Network NSW/ ACT
• SPHERE Knowledged Translation Platform
• Possibilities Studies Network
• Global Body Mapping Consortium
• RSA

Dr Kamal Dua is an award-winning pharmaceutics and drug delivery researcher who has deep roots in teaching, research and industry spanning three nations and two continents. He holds two doctoral degrees in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Immunology & Microbiology, and has also completed four professional diplomas in the areas of clinical research, product development, drug regulation, and documentation and intellectual property rights.

In his role as an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Health at UTS, Dr Dua alongside teaching in the Pharmacy program, also leads a suite of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) courses where, as a Program Coordinator, his responsibilities include coordinating the academic and research activities for those courses.

Drawing on his experience with various pharmacy schools in Australia and overseas, Dr Dua has blended different modes of innovative teaching with traditional teaching modes to create a flexible, student-centred and engaging approach to pedagogy.

Dr Dua is also an Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta, Canada; Core member, Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), UTS; Adjunct Professor, National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine (NCNM), Southern Cross University, Australia; Adjunct Senior Lecturer, International Medical University and Taylor's University, Malaysia; Adjunct Faculty, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India and Research Associate at the Australia-China Relations Institute (UTS:ACRI). He also held a Conjoint Lecturer position with the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, The University of Newcastle, Australia and Adjunct Fellow, NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Australia.

Dr Dua’s collaborations include working with Dr Michael John Rathbone, former Professor and Dean, School of Pharmacy, at the International Medical University in Malaysia, and founder of ULTI Pharmaceuticals, a veterinary pharmaceutical company based in New Zealand. Kamal is associated as a consultant on quality systems management and GMP for ULTI Pharmaceuticals.

Dr Dua’s academic research has contributed significantly to the field of managing chronic inflammatory diseases, especially airway diseases, using novel nano-carriers to deliver potential therapeutic molecules, including phytoconstituents. His research involves identifying potential key targets regulating the pathophysiology of the disease and formulating them into effective drug delivery systems that could be translated to clinical settings.

Dr Dua has been recognised and named as one of Australia’s Top 250 researchers in 2024, 2025 and 2026 by The Australian's Research Magazine. Dr Dua was ranked #1 in Pharmacology & Pharmacy in 2026 & 2025, and in Toxicology in 2024, respectively, within the research discipline of Health and Medical Sciences, a testament to the excellence of the research undertaken. The award is based on the number of citations for papers published in the top 20 journals in each field over the past five years. Dr Dua has been prolific with his publications to date in top-ranking journals and has built a strong local and international collaboration network as part of that. Moreover, in 2025, Dr Dua was honoured to be selected as a finalist for the New South Wales (NSW) Premier’s Prizes for Science & Engineering in the category of Excellence in Medical Biological Sciences (cell and molecular biology, medical, veterinary, and genetics). This prestigious recognition reflects the significant impact and translational potential of his research in advancing biomedical science within both academic and applied settings.

To date, his research has resulted in more than 190 peer-reviewed publications in various recognised pharmacy and pharmacology journals, with citations exceeding 16,000. He has also presented his research at more than 100 national and international conferences, published more than 70 book chapters, and eleven books on issues ranging from drug delivery and pathophysiological mechanisms underlying respiratory diseases, to cancer.

Dr Dua’s work has been recognised by various awards and fellowships including the Faculty of Health Dean’s Academic Excellence Award for Faculty Engagement (2023, 2019), Excellence Award in Pharmacy (2018), Young Scientist Award (2011), International Association for Dental Research Southeast Asian Division (IADR SEA); Dentsply Student Clinician Program Award (2014); the Educational Workshop Fellowship/Travel award by the World Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases - WSPID (2011 and 2013); and the Sri. K. Sri Harsha Memorial Gold Medal and Rank Certificate (2004).

Associate Professor Amanda French is a teacher and researcher in Orthoptics. She is also Head of Discipline Orthoptics and Course Director for the Master of Orthoptics in the Graduate School of Health at UTS.

Amanda’s research focus is in ophthalmic epidemiology and eye healthcare services, with a specific interest in refractive errors, paediatric eye conditions, vision screening and neuro-ophthalmology, including stroke. Her research in the area of paediatric refractive and visual development based on the population-based series of Sydney Childhood Eye Disease Studies including, the Sydney Myopia Study and longitudinal follow-up Sydney Vascular and Eye Disease Study of school aged children, and the Sydney Paediatric Eye Disease Study of infants and pre-schoolers, is internationally regarded.

Seminal work investigating risk factors for myopia development (short-sightedness) found strong longitudinal evidence that the development of myopia is associated with children spending less time exposed to high light levels in the outdoor environment and disproportionately high time in intense study and near work. These findings led to a series of successful intervention trials, notably in Guangzhou and Taiwan, to increase the amount of time children spend outdoors to prevent the development of myopia. Recommendations to promote increased time spent outdoors to prevent myopia have since been adopted broadly, including by the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Ophthalmology.

Amanda also led the multidisciplinary team at UTS that conducted the 2019 evaluation of the NSW Statewide Eyesight Preschooler Screening (StEPS) Program commissioned by NSW Health. Findings from the evaluation have since informed Vision 2020 for adoption of the “National Framework for Vision Screening for 3.5-5-year-olds” which received in principal support at the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and is strongly being advocated for implementation by the Australian Government.

In addition to her involvement in research, Amanda has extensive experience in higher education teaching, having taught health and orthoptic students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels of study. She had a leading role in the design of the UTS Orthoptics Curriculum and has worked on numerous teaching and learning projects including the UTS Enhancing Courses project. In 2021, she received a Learning & Teaching Award for Individual Teaching (High Commendation).

Amanda is actively involved in the orthoptic profession, as a long term member of the Orthoptics Australia (OA) Board (previously National Council) and the OA NSW Committee where she was Chair between 2018 and 2021. She was OA Vice President from 2020 to 2022 and has been President since 2023.

Professor Nicolas H. Hart, PhD AES CSCS FESSA is an NHMRC Research Fellow in Cancer Survivorship at the INSIGHT Research Institute; Cancer Theme Lead at the Human Performance Research Centre; and Head of Discipline for Clinical Exercise Physiology at the School of Human Performance, Rehabilitation and Population Health within the Faculty of Health at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). His clinical research focuses on improving outcomes for people affected by cancer (i.e., cancer survivors and caregivers), with a sub-specialty in advanced or metastatic cancers, canvassing (1) survivorship and supportive care issues (including exercise, nutrition, psychosocial, and toxicity management), (2) cancer-specific outcomes (including disease biology, disease progression, and overall survival), and (3) model of care development and evaluation (including health services research and implementation science) to inform policy and practice. Recognising his standing in the field, he was named the 2024 NSW Premiers' Outstanding Mid-Career Cancer Researcher, 2024 Vice Chancellors' Award for Research Excellence in Leadership and Development, 2025 Deans' Award for Research Excellence (Research Leader), and independently ranked as a World Top 2% Scientist by Elsevier and Standford. He is the Editor-in-Chief for the Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology, and holds Professorial titles at Flinders University, Edith Cowan University, Queensland University of Technology, and University of Notre Dame Australia.

Professor Hart has received >$26 million AUD research income as chief investigator to undertake research improving outcomes for people with advanced or metastatic cancer. This includes two prestigious fellowships from the National Health and Medical Research Council (2023-2027) to improve outcomes for people with bone metastases; and the Cancer Council of Western Australia (2018-2020) to investigate approaches to delay disease progression and extend overall survival in advanced cancer patients through exercise medicine; chief investigator (CIH) for 1 NHMRC project grant, CID and CIE for 4 x MRFF grants; and chief investigator (Co-PI) for several national and international multicentre randomised controlled trials. He has published >240 peer-reviewed research articles (including as senior author in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians - top ranked journal in oncology) and 4 book chapters (including European Society of Medical Oncology Handbook of Supportive and Palliative Care), and presented >150 items of work at national and international conferences. Professor Hart has supervised 23 PhD students (13 completed; 10 ongoing), 1 MSc by Research (1 completed), and 2 Honours (2 completed; 1 with 1st Class Honours) students. He has also mentored or supervised 14 postdoctoral fellows (8 previous; 6 current; including 1 Chancellors' Research Fellow) across exercise medicine; cancer survivorship; and health services research fields; and a further 13 international fellowship holders (5 previous; 8 current).

Professor Hart is the inaugural Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) Survivorship Fellow who led the development of international (MASCC-ASCO) survivorship care standards, practice recommendations, and research priorities for people affected by advanced or metastatic cancer; MASCC Founding Chair of Exercise Oncology; and current MASCC Chair of Fatigue. He sits on several national committees within Exercise and Sport Science Australia including the Standards Council; Chair of the Survivorship Executive Committee of Clinical Oncology Society of Australia; Scientific Committee of the Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical (PC4) Trials Group; Co-Chair of PC4 Survivorship; Chair of Fatigue for the Cancer Symptom Trials (CST) group; and international committees including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)'s Survivorship Guidelines Advisory Group and MASCC Disparities Committee. He is the only Australian member of the international Survivorship Research in Prostate Cancer (SuRECaP) group; 1 of 3 Australian members of the International Bone Metastases and Exercise Working Group (IBMEWG) who developed the worlds’ first clinical exercise guidelines for people with bone metastases; 1 of 2 Australian members on the World Health Organisation (WHO) Cancer Development Group, who created a Package of Interventions for Rehabilitation in Cancer Survivors worldwide. He currently sits on another two WHO Technical Working Groups to establish (1) WHO Quality Standards for Rehabilitation; and (2) WHO Costing Tools for Breast Cancer Rehabilitation for global implementation to the Health Ministries of all WHO Member States.

Dr Mike Kendig is an ARC DECRA Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Science, UTS. He is interested in the relationship between the foods we eat and cognitive function. His research investigates the effects of diets high in fat and sugar on the brain and behaviour in rodent models and human studies.

After graduating with Honours in Psychology from the University of Sydney, Mike completed a Master of Science in 2013. He was then awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award and a University of Sydney Alumni top-up scholarship to undertake a PhD in Psychology. After completing his PhD, Mike moved to the School of Medical Sciences at UNSW Sydney to take up a Research Associate role funded by an NHMRC project grant. In 2022 he was awarded a UTS Chancellor's Research Fellowship to start a new research program on diet and cognition in the Faculty of Science at UTS.

Mike has received over $1.4M in research funding since PhD award, supporting research examining how the gut microbiota regulate the effects of diet on cognition (ARC Discovery Project, CIA); how diet moderates the response to food cue exposure (ARC DECRA fellowship, 2023-2026); long-term effects of binge eating in adolescence (BBRF, 2022) and on the “3Rs” principles in animal research (reduce, refine, re-use; 2021-2022).

Mike has been an invited speaker nationally at conferences and symposiums. In 2022 he received the prestigious “Young Investigator Award” from the Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society. He has also won multiple awards from the University of Sydney and UNSW Sydney in recognition of his research, including the 2021 Prize for Best Research Paper in Basic Science from the Faculty of Medicine and Health at UNSW Sydney.

Passionate about his work (and food), Mike’s ultimate aim is to better understand how the foods we eat affect our body and brain.

Prof. Ian Kneebone has worked with older and younger people in rehabilitation for over 30 years. He has published extensively in the field of neuro-rehabilitation in high impact journals such as American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair. He is currently Professor and Head of Discipline (Clinical Psychology) at the Graduate School of Health at the University of Technology Sydney. Prof. Kneebone has published papers detailing studies enrolling over 500 participants however consistent with his clinical interests he has also published N =1 case studies to illuminate the microprocess of interventions for people with neuro-disabilities. Prof. Kneebone's research interests lie in stroke, particularly post stroke depression and anxiety, multiple sclerosis, neurorehabilitation evaluation, intellectual disability and clinical psychology and older people. Research funding, principally category 1, exceeds $19M.

Prof. Kneebone is passionate about clinical work with older people and people with disabilities, dedicated to bridging research to clinical practice and committed to the development of clinical psychology.

Professor Sarath Kodagoda is a visionary robotics/mechatronics leader with over 25 years’ experience spanning industry and academia. As the inaugural Director of the UTS Robotics Institute, he leads a team of 70+ researchers advancing human centric robotic and physical AI solutions, and has secured more than $20 million in competitive R&D funding.

Sarath has built and sustained deep, long-term industry partnerships, including a 15-year collaboration with Sydney Water and engaged with over 60 industry partners to explore cutting-edge robotics and AI solutions to real-world challenges. His innovations have earned nine major national and international awards, over 200 peer-reviewed publications, and deployment of operational robotic systems in critical infrastructure sectors.

A dedicated educator, Sarath has been instrumental in developing UTS’s mechatronics/robotics courses, integrating research-inspired and active learning concepts into the curriculum, and designing and implementing the University’s innovative Robotic Remote Lab teaching facilities. His teaching excellence has been recognised with three major awards, including the prestigious UTS Medal for Teaching & Research Integration (2018) and a 2015 Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the Australian Government’s Office for Learning and Teaching.

Recognised for his thought leadership, Sarath has shaped national robotics roadmaps, served as NSSN Ambassador, and held senior governance roles (president, vice president and secretory spanning over 6 years) in the Australian Robotics & Automation Association (ARAA). A regular keynote speaker, media contributor, and panelist including at SxSW Sydney, he is a passionate advocate for building Australia’s robotics capability and global competitiveness.

Christine Lai is the Research Networks Coordinator at UTS, where she specialises in the strategic coordination and management of the university’s diverse research networks.  Her role involves coordinating networks at various stages of development, facilitating collaboration among academic and external stakeholders, and supporting initiatives that enhance research visibility, engagement, and impact. She facilitates collaboration among academic and external stakeholders, enhances visibility through digital platforms, and supports the planning and delivery of events, reports, and engagement activities. Her role is positioned at the intersection of research strategy and administrative coordination, enabling cross-institutional and interdisciplinary research initiatives to thrive.

She is committed to fostering inclusive, impactful research communities that contribute to the university’s broader research objectives and societal engagement.  Through her work, Christine supports the translation of academic insights into real-world applications, fostering connections that extend beyond the university and contribute to public benefit and policy development.

A/Prof Christy Jie Liang leads Data Visualisation Research Lab in Visualisation Institute at the University of Technology, Sydney, whose research interests focus on Data visualisation and Visual Analytics. She was awarded the University Medal with First Class Honours from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She was a recipient of Capital Markets CRC Honours scholarship and Australian Postgraduate Awards and graduated with a Doctorate in Data Visual Analytics from UTS. She had global appointments, including IBM in strategic data analysis and Peking University in visual analytics research. She has coordinated several core subjects for Bachelor of Information Technology, Bachelor of Computer Science with honours, Master of interaction and Master of Business Analytics. She recently develops a number of new enterprise learning courses, including short courses, micro-credentials in data visualisation education, and online programs.

Christy has actively researched Information Visualisation and Visual Analytics Science Technology and developed many novel visualisations and visual analysis techniques. She has contributed substantially to the fundamental research in hierarchical visualisation and interactive visualisation research process. She owns five intellectual properties. She has published over eighty papers at top venues in the data visualisation field, including IEEEInfovis, TVCG, VAST PacificVis etc. Her research has been widely applied to the domains, including finance, food safety, bio-medical, smart city, and social media. She has led as chief investigators in several multi, and trans-disciplinarily collaborations with the Australian government, domestic and international industry and academic partners. She has consulted for and undertaken a range of Industry projects and secured significant research funding from ICT Industry.

She has served as the associate editor for JVLC, Journal Visual Informatics, the guest editor for Multimedia Tools and Applications and as the reviewer for various conferences and Journals. She has served as program committee, local organiser, the chair of the session, program and publicity on a range of international conference program committees and organised a range of seminars, workshops, summits and conferences etc. She serves on the advisory board for the Australian Computer Society, Peking University Medical Visualization Centre, and the organisation committee of Web Data Visualisation Standardization for W3C. She has served as the key academic consultant for UTS Brand Visualizer with UTS Marketing Unit and Business intelligence on UTS new marketing design and strategy. Currently, she is serving on the Technical Advisory board for the Australian Computer Society and UTS Faculty Diversity and quality Committee. UTS’s culture in equity and diversity has always encouraged Christy to advance her career in technology and transfer her experience as an early-career female researcher to inspire women into STEM and contribute to the future of UTS and Australia.

Distinguished Professor Chin-Teng Lin is a leading researcher in artificial intelligence (AI) and brain computer interfaces (BCI), developing systems of brain information processing and communication with machines.

Lin studies the brain and behaviours, the physiological changes that occur when human cognitive functions are working, and ways to combine human physiological information with artificial intelligence to develop monitoring and feedback systems.

He wants to improve the flow of information from humans to robots, so humans can make better decisions and respond to complex, stressful situations, and so that robots can better understand the status and intention of humans to augment human-machine cooperation. This is an emerging trend identified in the fifth Industrial Revolution to deliver a common good for humanity.

Lin was the inventor of fuzzy neural networks (FNN) in 1992, introducing neural-network learning into fuzzy systems and incorporating human-like reasoning into neural networks. Since then, there have been about 500,000 articles about FNN published online.

Lin has since developed a series of FNN models with various learning capabilities suitable for different learning environments, as well as targets on multi-agent reinforcement learning for multi-drone coordination and cybersecurity.

Lin joined UTS in 2016 as Co-Director of the Australian AI Institute (AAII) to advance AI and BCI.

A highly published researcher in the fields of machine-intelligent systems and brain computer interface, Lin is also the founding director of the Computational Intelligence and Brain Computer Interface Lab at the Australian AI Institute, at UTS. The Lab is developing mobile sensing technology to measure brain activity using non-invasive methods, to assess human cognitive states.

Lin led a large-scale 10-year project ($10 million) on Cognition and Neuroergonomics (2010-20) with the US Army Research Lab. The project explored advanced BCI technologies by studying the effects of vehicle motion and cognitive fatigue, and developing wearable EEG devices.

Since joined UTS in 2016, Prof Lin had been granted 5 ARC Discovery projects, 2 NHRMC projects, 1 CRC-P project, and 2 Defence innovation Hub projects. He has also attracted quite a lot of industry funding.

In 2020, a team of researchers led by Lin, embarked on a two-year, $1.2 million project with the Department of Defence to examine how cutting-edge technologies could use brainwaves to command and control autonomous vehicles, integrating cognition neuroscience and device engineering to develop wearable technology. The success of this project led to the next phase of 2.5 years, $3.8 million project in 2023 to mature the developed technology in the previous phase.

Lin was Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems (2011-16) and is on the board of governors of several IEEE societies.

He was elevated to be an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to biologically-inspired information systems in 2005, and was elevated to International Fuzzy Systems Association (IFSA) Fellow in 2012. In 2017, he received the IEEE Fuzzy Pioneer Award.

With a BS degree from the NCTU, Taiwan (1986) and Masters (1989) and PhD (1992) in electrical engineering from Purdue University in the US, Lin also holds academic positions at the University of California and University of Nottingham.

Dr Jim Macnamara AM is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) after retiring from a full-time role as Distinguished Professor of Communication. He is a multi award-winning communication consultant, evaluator, and trainer and a widely published author. Prior to spending 18 years as a professor at UTS, he had a 30-year career in professional communication practice spanning journalism, public relations, marketing, and media research. 

Dr Macnamara is internationally recognised for his research into evaluation of public communication including government, corporate, marketing, and organizational communication and for his pioneering research to improve organizational listening.

He led evaluation of the World Health Organization’s communication globally during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2023) and has served as an adviser on evaluation to the UK Government Communication Service (GCS), The European Commission Directorate-General for Communication (DG COM), the OECD Open Government, Civic Space, and Public Communication unit, and the New South Wales Government, as well as multinational corporations and non-government organizations.

His work on organizational listening has led to invitations to present in the UK House of Commons, the UK Cabinet Office, the OECD Open Government Unit in Paris, to Church Communications Officers in Rome, to CEO Summits, and at numerous conferences globally.

He is the author of 21 books and more than 100 academic journal articles and book chapters. His recent influential books include:

Concise Introduction to Organizational Listening: Making Communication Meaningful (Edward Elgar, 2026)

Public Communication and Public Policy: Reviving Democracy by Recalibrating Public Communication (John Wiley& Sons, 2026)

Organizational Listening II: Expanding the Concept, Theory, and Practice (Peter Lang, 2024)

Evaluating Public Communication: Exploring New Models, Standards, and Best Practice (Routledge, 2018).

Jim was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2026 for "significant service to tertiary education, to communication research, and to public relations". He has also received numerous industry and professional awards.

Immediately prior to taking up a senior academic position, Jim founded and was CEO of CARMA International (Asia Pacific) for 11 years (1995–2006), part of the leading global computer aided research and media analysis company. Prior to that, he was a founder and CEO of a leading public relations and marketing communication agency for 10 years with clients including Microsoft, Dell Computer, Vodafone, and Singapore Airlines after working in several in-house communication roles and spending the early part of his career in journalism.

Jim holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism, media studies, and literary studies, a Graduate Certificate in Writing; a Master of Arts by Research in media studies, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in media research.

Professor Jane Maguire was awarded a PhD in Public Health and Medicine in 2010 from the University of Newcastle, Australia. She is the immediate outgoing Deputy Head of School (Research) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. A registered nurse since 1983, Professor Maguire had 20 years’ clinical experience as a paediatric nurse before entering academia with a PhD examining  the influences of genetic variants on stroke risk and stroke outcome. Data from that PhD is still informing research generated by the International Stroke Genetics Consortium, an organisation which she has been an active steering committee member and past Chair, for over 12 years, with over 130 joint publications. Professor Maguire has been awarded over $3 million in grants and has an h-index of 38 and has published over 160 peer reviewed research papers in high impact journals, including Nature Genetics, Stroke, Neurology Genetics, and Radiology. She reviews articles for more than a dozen journals and 5 book Chapter publications. Professor Maguire has multiple global researcher partners in the USA, Europe, Asia and the UK.

Visible and Active International Research profile: 

Prof Maguire is a global leader in stroke genetics research through her ongoing role as tri-leader of GISCOME- the Genetics in stroke functional outcome project. This project is part of a program of outcome research that is a collaborative, pan university global partnership of stroke genetics researchers that has produced over 120 publications. The Genetics of Stroke Functional Outcome (GISCOME) network is tri-led by Prof Christina Jern, Prof Arne Lindgren and Prof Jane Maguire. The aim of this network, established in 2012 was to investigate the genetic influences on stroke outcomes, with a focus on functional ability. In phase 1, the GISCOME investigators established the world’s first genome wide association (GWA) genetic dataset for functional outcome of ischemic stroke and reported the first GWAs significant variant for this phenotype. In 2025, Phase-2 is nearing completion and has identified over 20,000 retrospective cases with the aim to meta-analyse and replicate the phase 1 result. This is an ongoing collaboration, and all are welcome to join this group however the GISCOME project is nearing completion and will now be situated in the Global Alliance of Acute and Long Term outcomes.

In addition, Prof Maguire leads a program of research in Genomic Education for Nurses and is a member of the International Society of Nurses in Genetics International Society of Nurses in Genetics (ISONG) - Home and Global Genomics Nurses Alliance Home. She currently supervises three HDR students within this Genomics program.

“Research is something that’s difficult but generating new knowledge creates amazing possibilities and our stroke genetic research is really making a difference,” she said.

Jane has extensive expertise in a range of epidemiological population level designs and other qualitative and quantitative methods, including but not limited to case-control, genome wide association studies, longitudinal studies, mixed-methods, and analytical and descriptive survey development. Jane has experience in biostatistical methods, regression and meta-analysis, narrative, scoping and JBI and Cochrane systematic reviews, and has employed various qualitative designs, including narrative inquiry, ethnography and phenomenological approaches.

I am a proud Wiradjuri yinaa (woman) originally from Trangie, NSW, now living and working between rural/regional and urban NSW. In 23/24 I completed a Harkness Fellowship program with the Commonwealth Fund in the US.  During that time, I conducted internationally comparative research where I examined Rural and Remote workforce development and the participation of First Nation Peoples in the health workforce with a particular focus on the profession of pharmacy. I was named as the PSA Australian Pharmacist of the Year in 2022. In the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours List I was awarded the Medal (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for "significant service to Indigenous Mental Health, and to tertiary education". I have been honoured to serve as the inaugural Deputy National Rural Health Commissioner for Allied Health and First Nations Health a role which I held from 2021 until stepping down in June of 2025. In 2019 I was honoured to be named as the NSW Aboriginal Woman of the year. I am a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity (Atlantic Institute), Senior Harkness Fellow as well as being a Senior Fellow with Advance HE. I am a founding member of Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) and was a board member of IAHA from 2009-2017 (and chairperson from 2010-2016). I joined UTS in Oct 2022 with over 25 years of experience in the Higher Education Sector and over 35 years in the health sector.

Dr. Katie Page is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where she has been making impactful contributions for the past six years. With a robust academic foundation in psychological science, she earned a first-class honours degree in psychology and was awarded the University Medal from the University of Queensland, where she also completed her PhD in Psychology with a focus on medical ethical decision making.

Dr. Page’s expertise spans a diverse range of fields, including psychological science, public health, ethics, and implementation science. Her work uniquely blends rigorous qualitative and quantitative methodological skills, enabling her to evaluate complex health interventions and assess their impact on quality of life and cost-effectiveness. This broad methodological toolkit is complemented by her deep understanding of teaching pedagogy, which she has applied throughout her extensive teaching career in both the UK and Australia.

At CHERE, Dr. Page has led and contributed to multiple high-impact projects. Her recent randomised controlled trial for the Victorian Government evaluated the health and energy benefits of upgrading homes for older and vulnerable populations, directly translating research into real-world policy. Her previous roles have included evaluating the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the Australian National Hand Hygiene Initiative and investigating antibiotic use in primary care as part of the CRE-RHAI initiative. Moreover, as a Chief Investigator on the NHMRC REACH partnership grant, she explored innovative approaches to hospital cleaning practices.

Dr. Page’s commitment to improving public health is further evidenced by her involvement in willingness-to-pay studies and her dedication to advancing evidence-based decision making in healthcare. In every project, she emphasizes her adaptable, value-adding approach, driven by a genuine passion for work that produces demonstrable benefits to people’s lives.

Dr Wenbo Peng is a medically trained epidemiologist in the Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney. Her work focuses on improving chronic disease care and health service delivery, particularly in diabetes management.

Dr Peng has expertise in implementation research, evaluation, epidemiologic study design, large-scale data analysis, and data linkage. Her research focuses on translating evidence into practical and scalable approaches to improve healthcare delivery, workforce capability, consumer communication, and real-world implementation. She has contributed to national diabetes evaluation projects and is currently involved in projects focused on diabetes workforce development, culturally responsive diabetes education, and mentorship models for rural and remote health professionals.

Professor Emma Power is a speech pathologist and academic at the University of Technology Sydney.  She has worked in the area of communication disability following acquired brain injury (ABI) for over 28 years in a variety of clinical and academic positions.

“I was very interested in the brain – what happened when things went awry like a stroke, and how it affected someone’s ability to communicate. Communication is such an integral part of everything we do,” Emma said.

Emma started her clinical career working with people with neurological conditions - such as stroke, traumatic brain injury and progressive conditions like dementia and Huntington’s Disease. She then became involved in acquired brain injury research. Her particular interest is in implementation research.

“We have all this great research but on the ground, clinicians are really pushed for time and it’s so challenging to get research into practice,” she said. “How do we get every person getting the best possible evidence-informed care?”

For Emma, all her work is ultimately about the well-being of her clients, their family and supporters and the success of the clincians that work with them, even her award-winning teaching.

“I enjoy the challenge of seeing students grapple with information and remind them that they are crucial for the future of the profession. But the other stakeholders of my teaching are also people with communication impairments and clinicians. I am teaching for and with them too". 

Emma said "It’s about the learning and translation beyond a week in class for students, for the wider benefit of our clients and health services - that's the ultimate end goal”.

“Translating knowledge and concepts into clinical best practice or enabling students to do that is all part of the same picture. This knowledge includes emerging evidence and technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI)”. 
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Emma has over 160 peer reviewed publications and has been awarded $33.4+ million grant funding from sources such as MRFF, NHMRC, iCare, and the Stroke Foundation. 

Emma has supervised over 70 research students over her career, with 24 higher degree research students and 29 first class Hons students (two University Medals) to completion. Currently she supervises 8 HDR students in areas such as ABI, sexuality, digital health, co-design and implementation science.

Emma has led research on the development of post-stroke aphasia best practice guidelines and the development of the Australian Aphasia Rehabilitation pathway. She has also developed efficacious face to face and online training programs for communication partners of people with TBI, (TBI Express, TBI Connect, Social Brain Toolkit), dementia (Dementia Connect) as well as aphasia. She is recognised internationally and nationally for her research in acquired communication disorders and implementation science. Emma believes it is critical to work with people with lived experience, clinicians and health services / organisations to co-design meaningful research and teaching that has impact.

Emma has won awards for excellence in implementation science and Vice Chancellor Learning & Teaching Awards for her curriculum development and teaching in neurogenic communication impairments (USYD) and Interprofessional Learning Introductory modules (UTS). Emma and her team were awarded an Australian Award for University Teching (AAUT) Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning for a School-wide interdisciplinary interprofessional learning curriculum in allied health. 

Emma disseminates her learnings to a wide variety of audiences with 31 international and 80 national invited keynotes presentations/workshops on aphasia, congitive-communication disorders, accessbility, codesign, implementation and digital health. Emma has pioneered dissemination of clinically relevant knowledge on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in over 30 seminars and workshop nationally and internationally in the last 3 years. She also contributed to the Speech Pathology Australia position statement in thical use of AI. 

In 2023, Emma was awarded Fellow of Speech Pathology Australia in recognition of her long-standing excellence and wide-ranging achievements and contribution to the profession. Emma is also an elected Board Director of Speech Pathology Australia and current Chair and president of the association. 

Emma completed a 6-year term on the Stroke Foundation Research Advisory Committee and is a current member of the Stroke Foundation Living guideline working party (aphasia, cognitive communication disorder, and carer training).