Early Career Academic Network

Dr Ariba Abasi is an interdisciplinary researcher working at the intersection of engineering, organisations and social justice. Her research explores how systems of governance, professional practice and organisational processes shape labour rights, social sustainability and ethical decision-making within engineering and global supply chains.

Her work focuses on modern slavery, labour governance and human rights, with particular interests in ethical supply chains, social sustainability and responsible engineering practice. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, she examines how social harms can become embedded within everyday organisational systems and how these systems can be redesigned to promote more equitable and sustainable outcomes. Dr Abasi's research has examined bonded labour, vernacular accounting practices and the enduring influence of colonial legacies on contemporary labour systems. Her work contributes to broader discussions on social responsibility, sustainability and the role of organisations in addressing complex societal challenges.

She is also interested in engineering education and the ways in which systems thinking, human rights and social responsibility can be embedded into curricula and professional practice. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and external engagement, her scholarship seeks to strengthen the societal impact of engineering and contribute to more just and sustainable futures.

Dr Abasi has presented her research internationally and is developing a growing body of scholarship on themes of accounting, modern slavery, social sustainability and labour governance. She is a Lecturer in Engineering Management and Professional Practice in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

Rebecca Addo is a Research Fellow at CHERE (Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation).

Her interest in the field of health economics began when she started working as a hospital nurse in Ghana.

“I realised that there were a lot of things we needed to work with on the ward that we didn’t have resources for,” Dr Addo said.

“There were also conditions that could be prevented before they got to hospital.”

This prompted her to complete her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Ghana, before coming to UTS in 2015 to complete a PhD in health economics.

Her PhD thesis focused on assessing the feasibility of a developing country (Ghana), constrained with human and data resources, to conduct and use Health Technology Assessment (HTA) for health decision making. Her thesis found that it was feasible for Ghana to conduct and use HTA in their health system when the identified barriers and challenges such as limited human and data capacity and lack of knowledge of HTA. The thesis also highlighted that limited data for HTA in Ghana, meant relying on international data in the short to medium term, however, these data need to be transformed to be context-specific before they are suitable for use in an economic evaluation.

Currently, Rebecca’s main research interests include, priority setting in health, HTA, and the application of HTA methods to health care decisions in developing countries and development and measurement of health outcomes.

She has skills in mixed research methods including economic modelling, systematic literature reviews, and stakeholder engagements through qualitative research methods.

In her current position, Rebecca is part of the Economic Evaluation team that critically appraises economic evaluations for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC). Rebecca conducts health technology assessment for the MSAC and other external bodies such as the Singapore Agency for Care Effectiveness. Rebecca also works with the Quality of Life team on the development and psychometric testing of health outcome measures such as EQ-5D-5L and its bolt-on descriptors. Her work in this area involves working with researchers internationally, in the UK and Ghana. In addition to research work, Rebecca teaches health economics subjects offered in the university.

“Companies submit data on a new drug, and we evaluate what has been presented for the Department of Health,” she said.

“We look at the data so see if the drug does what it does, models, the safety and effectiveness of the drug, whether the government should fund it and how much it will cost the government in the first six years.”

Previously, Rebecca has worked as a general nurse and as a lecturer in nursing and public health institutions located in Ghana, and as a tutor in health economics at UTS, Australia. Rebecca also has experience in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students in public health, health economics, and nursing both in Ghana and Australia.

Dr Tamer Al-ghraiybah is a dedicated nurse academic and researcher with expertise in nursing-sensitive indicators, patient safety, quality of care, nursing-sensitive patient outcomes, and healthcare risk management. With a background in clinical and non-clinical management, Tamer brings a strong clinical and research foundation to his work in nursing education and patient safety research.

Currently, Dr Al-ghraiybah is a nurse lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where he plays an integral role in teaching, research, and service. His research focuses on understanding how nursing structures and processes impact patient outcomes, particularly in areas such as, but not limited to, patient mortality, hospital-acquired infections, hospital-acquired pressure injuries, patient falls, medication errors, missed care, and workforce management. His work is guided by the Donabedian model, providing a structured approach to evaluating healthcare quality.

Dr. Al-ghraiybah has a growing international research profile and is preparing to supervise master's students in 2025 through an WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing and Midwifery and Health Development between UTS Faculty of Health and Fiji National University. His commitment to capacity building and researcher development aligns with his passion for strengthening the nursing workforce and advancing healthcare quality through evidence-based practice.

Before transitioning into academia, Dr Al-ghraiybah worked extensively in intensive care units (ICU, CCU, PICU) and in healthcare risk management. This frontline experience informs his research and teaching, ensuring a strong link between clinical realities and academic scholarship.

Through his teaching and research, Dr Al-ghraiybah is committed to improving nursing education, supporting evidence-based policymaking, and enhancing patient safety strategies. He strives to be a transformative educator, an innovative researcher, and a strong advocate for nursing workforce development and healthcare improvement.

Dr Amani Alghalayini is a multidisciplinary researcher with expertise spanning cell biology, molecular biology, biophysics, biotechnology, and sensor development. She is currently based at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where she is leading research focused on identifying and repurposing therapies for ARID1A-mutant ovarian clear cell carcinoma. Her work aims to overcome chemo-resistance and improve outcomes for women affected by this aggressive cancer.

Dr Alghalayini has a strong record of contributing to high-impact translational research through industry-academic collaborations. She played a key role in the development of a rapid point-of-care COVID-19 diagnostic cartridge in partnership with Alcolizer Technology Pty Ltd, driving antibody production, sensor development, and clinical trial implementation. This work gained national attention through media coverage by 7News, UTS News, and the IMCRC.

In collaboration with Surgical Diagnostics Pty Ltd, she contributed to an ion channel switch biosensor project, supporting the development of diagnostic platforms and drug screening tools. She has also contributed to a collaborative project with BOD Sciences investigating the biological role and therapeutic relevance of CLIC proteins.

Her doctoral research, completed at UTS in collaboration with industry, focused on lipid-membrane-coated electrodes and resulted in the development of a novel real-time biosensor for studying membrane disruption by laser-irradiated gold nanoparticles, providing insights into biomedical applications.

Dr Alghalayini continues to apply her broad skill set and collaborative approach to advance precision medicine and therapeutic innovation in cancer research.

Dr. Tanzeela Altaf is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, with a research focus on AI and network communications e.g., programmable data planes, IoT cybersecurity, graph-based machine learning, and data-driven modelling.  She is currently leading the Broadband Technology Insights research team within the Telecommunications Research Unit (TRU) at UTS, where her research explores network performance telemetry and GNN-based anomaly detection in broadband infrastructure.

Dr. Altaf completed her PhD at the University of Technology Sydney in the area of Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity. Her PhD research revolves around designing lightweight and interpretable Graph Neural Network (GNN) architectures for detecting cyber threats in IoT environments. This research resulted in multiple peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals such as Elsevier Computers & Security and Internet of Things, as well as conference presentations at leading venues including IEEE.

Alongside her doctoral research, Dr. Altaf worked as a Research Associate at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where she developed deep learning models for ultrasound image segmentation, supporting advanced clinical diagnostics in perinatal care. She was also selected for the prestigious APR Intern program, completing a placement at a defence company, where she worked on a defence radar dataset. During this internship, she developed anomaly detection models and built interactive dashboards for RF signal analysis. 

Samira Alvandi is an Industrial Engineer with a PhD in Manufacturing Engineering from the University of New South Wales. She brings over a decade of combined industry and academic experience across Australia and internationally. Her research focuses on the development of intelligent, simulation-based decision-support tools that enhance the efficiency, adaptability, and sustainability of manufacturing systems.

Dr. Alvandi’s work integrates simulation–optimisation, operations research, and digital readiness frameworks to support the transition toward Lean 4.0 and data-driven manufacturing. She is particularly interested in bridging the gap between strategic objectives and day-to-day operations, enabling organisations to align performance improvement with environmental and digital transformation goals. 

Samira is also passionate about bridging academia and industry through applied teaching, curriculum development, and educational research focused on simulation-based learning, engineering education games, and project-based learning.

Dr Jessica Appleton is a registered nurse, senior lecturer and early career researcher. Child and family health and well-being have been part of her clinical practice and research since becoming a registered nurse. Jessica has clinical, teaching and research expertise in the child and family health specialty and paediatric nursing specialty. Jessica has research experience in mixed methods research with training and experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. 

Jessica held a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship role with EPOCH-Translate CRE at The University of Sydney and continues as an affiliate with EPOCH-Translate CRE and Honorary Lecturer at The University of Sydney. In this role, Jessica explored how health promotion interventions (which prevent obesity and related chronic diseases) can be implemented into routine early childhood services. Using implementation science frameworks this project will provide an understanding of how interventions achieve adoption and integration in primary health care systems to reach the general and priority populations.

This postdoctoral work built on her PhD work which explored infant formula feeding in the context of rapid weight gain in infancy (a risk factor for later overweight or obesity). Her PhD identified a gap in evidence around knowledge of infant formula feeding particularly the information and advice, or lack thereof, provided by nurses, midwives and other health professionals to parents feeding with infant formula. Her PhD was a mixed methods research design and involved secondary analysis of a longitudinal infant feeding cohort and qualitative interviews with parents about their infant feeding experience. 

Jessica is a coordination committee member for EPOCH-Connect Community of Practice which aims so support research students and EMCRs from diverse disciplines and research institutes to connect and collaborate on activities to improve child health in the early years. https://earlychildhoodobesity.com/about-us/epoch-connection-community-of-practice/

Since her PhD Jessica worked as the Research Manager (2020-2022) at Tresillian Family Care Centres - Australia’s largest early parenting service. She has been and continues to be involved in a number of research projects in the areas of infant health, parenting, parental mental health, child and family health nursing and health service evaluation.

Dr Amara Atif is a Senior Lecturer (equivalent to Associate Professor in North America and European academic systems) in the School of Computer Science within the Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. A teacher at heart, a Learning Sciences researcher by training, and a Responsible AI advocate by passion, she provides leadership in designing intelligent, equitable and evidence-informed learning ecosystems through Human-Centred AI, Learning Analytics and Educational Innovation.

Working at the intersection of research, teaching and technology, Amara provides academic leadership in translating artificial intelligence and learning analytics into scalable educational practice that enhances student engagement, equity and success. Her interdisciplinary research spans Learning Sciences, Human-Centred AI, Human-Computer Interaction, Learning Analytics and Digital Equity, with a focus on designing intelligent educational ecosystems that support learners, educators and institutions. She teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programs, including studio-based learning environments, and is recognised for leading innovative, student-centred approaches to curriculum design and educational practice.

As Co-Director of the iDEAS Research Hub and a full member of the Centre for Research on Education in a Digital Society (CREDS), Amara leads collaborative research that advances technology-enhanced learning and responsible AI in higher education. Her research investigates learner and educator engagement with intelligent learning systems, informing the development of early alert technologies, learning analytics interventions and AI-enabled educational environments that improve student success and institutional decision-making. She also contributes to technology acceptance and information systems adoption, strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration across education and computing.

Amara has established an internationally recognised research profile through publications in leading SJR Q1 journals, including Computers & Education, Journal of Computing in Higher Education and the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. She regularly presents at internationally recognised conferences, including AMCIS, PACIS, ACIS, ASCILITE, AARE, PICMET and IEEE conferences. Beyond publishing, she contributes to advancing her discipline through editorial activities, peer review, technical program committees and special issue leadership.

An Associate Fellow of Advance HE (AFHEA) and a graduate of the UTS Teaching for Learning program, Amara demonstrates leadership in curriculum innovation. She developed the undergraduate Business Intelligence subject at UTS, embedding the Faculty's Indigenous Graduate Attribute through historically and culturally informed Indigenous knowledge systems while aligning curriculum with contemporary industry practice.

Recognised as a UTS Open Education Champion and a Creative Commons Certified educator, Amara provides institutional leadership in advancing open education and equitable access to knowledge. Her Creative Commons certification recognises her expertise in open licensing and open educational practice, complementing her work in developing and sharing Open Educational Resources (OERs) that improve learning opportunities for students and educators nationally and internationally. She is the lead author, editor and project manager of Decoding Data: A Complete Guide to Business Intelligence (UTS ePress, 2026), published through the Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL) OER Collective. The textbook represents a significant contribution to open scholarship by providing freely accessible, high-quality educational resources that support inclusive and sustainable learning.

Leadership and Recognition in Learning and Teaching:
Amara's sustained leadership and impact in learning and teaching have been recognised through multiple awards and recognition. Collectively, these awards acknowledge her contributions to curriculum innovation, learning analytics, open education, AI literacy, student engagement, academic support and educational transformation.

• 2026 Open Education Awards for Excellence (OEGlobal) - Nominee, Individual Award: Advancing Open Data and AI Literacy
• 2025 UTS Vice Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Team Award (Academic Support) - Empowering academics to lead inclusive, data-informed teaching.
• 2024 UTS Vice Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Highly Commended Team Award (Outstanding Contribution to Student Experience) - Fostering students' belonging in multiple disciplines through personalised feedback.

• 2022 UTS Vice Chancellor’s Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning - Recognising effective assessment practices that improve student learning through authentic assessment, meaningful feedback and academic integrity.
• 2021 UTS Vice Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Team Award (Strengthening the UTS Model of Learning) - Transforming learning in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology through studios.
• 2017 Macquarie University Vice Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Team Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning - Innovative learning analytics solution that enhances the learning and teaching student experience.
  
  

These awards demonstrate a sustained record of educational leadership and innovation spanning almost a decade, with impact extending from individual teaching practice to faculty-wide initiatives that strengthen student success and academic capability.

Institutional Leadership and Service (UTS):

Amara demonstrates sustained institutional leadership through strategic academic service, curriculum leadership and initiatives that strengthen learning, teaching and student success across UTS.

She currently serves as Major Coordinator for the Business Information Systems Management (BIS-M) major, providing academic leadership for curriculum quality, program development and the student learning experience. She has also contributed to student mentoring through the UTS Apple Foundation Program and champions equity, diversity and inclusion as an Academic Staff Ambassador for Women in Engineering and IT (WiEIT).

Her institutional leadership includes serving as FEIT First Year Experience (FFYE) Transition Coordinator (2021–2024), where she led initiatives to strengthen transition, engagement and success for first-year students across the Information Technology discipline. She also served on the Education & Students Ecosystems Alignment (E&SEA) Working Group, a strategic Faculty initiative established to shape future models of education delivery within FEIT. Through this work, she contributed to developing principles for equitable teaching workload allocation, clarifying academic leadership roles, strengthening student communication throughout the student lifecycle, and identifying opportunities for cross-school collaboration to enhance educational quality and student success. She has further supported university governance and academic quality through membership of the FEIT Board, School Teaching and Learning Committee, FEIT Academic Integrity Working Group and FEIT Health and Safety Working Group, contributing to strategic decision-making, curriculum enhancement, academic integrity and institutional effectiveness.

Beyond formal leadership roles, Amara actively builds educational capability across UTS through the FEIT Pedagogy Community, Club Studio and the Education Express Blog, where she shares evidence-informed teaching practices, supports academic colleagues and contributes to institutional conversations on educational innovation and digital learning.

National and International Academic Leadership:
Amara provides leadership within the national and international academic community through conference leadership, scholarly service, editorial contributions and professional engagement.

She currently serves as Track Co-Chair for the General Track of the Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), providing academic leadership for one of Australasia's leading Information Systems conferences by overseeing the peer-review process and contributing to the quality and direction of conference scholarship.

Amara also contributes to national sector initiatives that shape the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence in higher education. She is a chief investigator on the Australian Council of Professors and Heads of Information Systems (ACPHIS) Generative AI Policy Review Project, a collaborative initiative that analyses and compares generative AI policies across Australian universities to identify emerging practices and inform future policy development for Information Systems education. This work reflects her commitment to advancing responsible AI governance and evidence-informed educational policy.

Amara actively translates her research beyond academia, contributing to wider policy, sector and public conversations on responsible AI, higher education and emerging technologies. Her research and perspectives have been featured across national and international policy, media and sector platforms, including The Policymaker, The Conversation (Editor’s Choice), Times Higher Education, Campus Review, AARE EduResearch Matters and ABC News. These engagements extend the reach of her research to policy, professional and public audiences.

She is also the Early Career Researchers and Students Chair for the ACM SIGCHI Sydney Chapter, leading initiatives that strengthen the Human-Computer Interaction research community through mentoring, networking and professional development opportunities for emerging researchers.

Amara also provides international editorial leadership through appointments with leading Q1 journals. She serves on the Editorial Board of Springer Nature's Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (SJR: Q1) (2026–present) and as Special Issue Editor for Sustainability (SJR: Q1) (2025-2026), leading the special issue Advancing Sustainable Education Through AI and Technological Breakthroughs, and for Education Sciences (SJR: Q1) (2023), leading the special issue Using Learning Analytics for Personalised, Data-Informed Feedback and Support: Studies of Impact, Challenges, and Future Directions. These editorial roles reflect her expertise in artificial intelligence in education, learning analytics, educational innovation and interdisciplinary scholarship while supporting the dissemination of high-quality international research.

Her standing within the higher education sector is further recognised through invitations to evaluate excellence and innovation. She has served as a Judge for the Australian Education Awards (2022), a Judge for the Reimagine Education Awards (2021), widely regarded as the "Oscars of Education" and an Assessor for the ALTA/ACDICT Grants Scheme (2025). These appointments recognise her expertise in educational innovation, learning technologies and higher education practice while enabling her to influence the advancement of teaching and learning nationally and internationally.

Alongside these formal leadership roles, Amara contributes extensively to the advancement of her discipline through editorial service, peer review for leading journals, conference technical program committees, special issue leadership and collaborative international research networks.

Yenny Bae is a Data Scientist at the Graduate School of Health at University of Technology Sydney. She has expertise in Python programming, deep learning, and computer vision, with a focus on applications in the medical field. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Physics and Statistics from the University of Auckland, completed teacher training, and previously worked as a Physics teacher in New Zealand. She later completed her Master's degree in Science in Analytics at Georgia Institute of Technology. Her current projects involve developing computer vision models for medical applications, including segmentation and classification, for diseases such as glaucoma.

A/Prof Helen Benson is an experienced consultant pharmacist who works as a lecturer in Pharmacy Practice and Therapeutics.

In 2021, she won the UTS Learning and Teaching Award for Individual Teaching and has since been the recipient of a Faculty of Health Teaching and Learning Scholarship, a 2024 Team Teaching award and most recently a 2025 AAUT Team Teaching citation.

“I like sharing my passion for my profession and I hope my students can see how rewarding it is,” Helen said.

“It’s a really valuable job – you make a real difference to people, and you contribute to society.”

Helen’s varied and exciting career has included working in hospital, military and community pharmacy including as a community pharmacy owner from 2010 until 2013.

Helen has a particular interest in medication review and improving quality use of medicines for patients and continues to practice as a consultant pharmacist.

Immediately before arriving at UTS in 2016 as part-time pharmacist teacher, she worked in medication review and improving quality use of medicines for patients.

She continues to practice as a consultant pharmacist and is also involved in several interdisciplinary teaching roles.

Helen teaches
• pharmacology to Master of Clinical Psychology Students in two subjects,
• as part of the Stroke Interprofessional Learning group and
• pharmacology and antimicrobial stewardship for nurse practitioners.
• Across 60 per cent of the UTS Masters of Pharmacy degree

In 2019, with staff from UTS Postgraduate Futures and the WentWest GP Pharmacist Education Program project team, Helen helped design and develop the Graduate Certificate in Advanced Pharmacy Practice which had its first intake of students in 2020.

“I started at UTS as a practitioner teacher and then discovered that I love teaching,” she said.

“Over the last eleven years, I have transitioned from a pharmacist teacher to an accomplished university educator with a passion for providing high quality authentic learning experiences for my students. In 2025 I was thrilled to be recognised as a Senior Fellow of Advanced HE for my leading role in facilitating the teaching of my colleagues."

“I look forward to continuing to grow and improve in the years to come and can’t wait to see where the students I teach take their careers.”

Dr Bahareh Berenjforoush Azar is a Lecturer in the School of Professional Practice & Leadership at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She specialises in energy economics and sustainable policy design, with a focus on energy transition, resource-system optimisation, and consumer-focused approaches to emerging energy technologies. Her work brings together interdisciplinary research and industry experience, connecting rigorous economic analysis with practical policy application.

Bahareh earned her PhD in Energy Economics and Policy from UTS, where her research examined the energy–water–food nexus in the MENA region using systems modelling and economic evaluation. Her academic background reflects a strong interest in integrating economic and institutional perspectives to support evidence-based decision-making in the energy sector.

Before joining UTS, she served as a Senior Consultant at Marsden Jacob Associates, contributing to national energy-market modelling, cost–benefit assessments, regulatory analysis, demand-side management studies, and stakeholder consultation. This experience continues to shape her research and teaching, particularly in translating complex modelling into actionable insights for government and industry partners.

Her current research focuses on energy literacy, AI-enabled consumer tools, equitable energy subsidy reform, and gender diversity in the clean energy workforce. These projects involve collaboration with interdisciplinary teams and industry partners and aim to enhance consumer engagement and social equity within evolving energy systems.

At UTS, Bahareh teaches across economic evaluation, engineering decision-making, and sustainability-focused topics. She designs practice-based learning for large cohorts and mentors students working on applied sustainability and energy policy challenges. Her work reflects a commitment to promoting an equitable, trusted transition to cleaner, more resilient energy systems.

Dr Francesco Bettariga is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Exercise Oncology at the INSIGHT Research Institute at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Exercise Medicine Research Institute (EMRI) at Edith Cowan University (ECU), and an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Molise (Italy). His research focuses on understanding the biological and clinical mechanisms through which exercise influences cancer progression and survivorship outcomes. His work integrates clinical exercise trials with translational approaches to examine how exercise may modulate tumour biology, the tumour microenvironment, and anti-tumour immune responses. A central focus of his research is the development of precise exercise prescription for people living with cancer. By combining mechanistic insights with clinical trials, his work aims to optimise exercise prescription as a therapeutic strategy to improve treatment tolerance, physical function, disease progression, and survival outcomes in people living with cancer.

Dr Bettariga has secured >$401,900 AUD in competitive research funding as a Chief Investigator, including >$109,500 AUD as Chief Investigator-A, across national and international grants focused on exercise oncology and cancer progression. This includes support from organisations such as the Cancer Council Western Australia, the Movember Foundation, the World Cancer Research Fund, and national funding bodies in Europe. He is currently appointed as Chief Investigator A (CI-A) on two clinical trials investigating the cancer-suppressive effects of exercise in people living with cancer. He also contributes as a Co-Investigator on several national and international grants examining the impact of exercise on disease progression and survival outcomes.

Dr Bettariga has authored and co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications in leading international journals in exercise oncology and exercise science, an output achieved within a short period following the completion of his PhD (>600 citations, H-index 13, FWCI 4.11). He has published as first author in several top-ranked journals, including the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Journal of Sport and Health Science, Sports Medicine, and Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, which are currently ranked among the top three journals globally in the Exercise and Rehabilitation category. He has also published as first author in leading oncology journals such as the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, and Journal of Cancer Survivorship. His PhD thesis comprised an extensive body of original research with 12 first-author publications, representing a record number of first-author studies within the doctoral program. He is currently Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Exercise Physiology, a member of the Early Career Committee of the International Society of Exercise Oncology (ISEO), and a Scientific Committee Member for the 2027 ESLO Summit. He also holds roles across international organisations in exercise oncology, including as a Mentor within the Global Mentorship Program of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) and a Committee Member of the Cancer Special Interest Group within the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). In addition, he serves as a grant reviewer for both the UTS Seed Funding Scheme and the Dutch Cancer Society.

Dr Bettariga is actively involved in international scientific dissemination and delivers lectures at undergraduate and postgraduate level at university. He regularly delivers national and international workshops, professional training programs, and invited lectures on exercise oncology across academic, clinical, and professional settings, with over 30 invited presentations delivered to date. These include educational programs organised

by Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA), the European School of Lifestyle Oncology (ESLO), TrustMe-Ed, and the International Maitland Teachers Association (IMTA) as well as workshops delivered within hospitals, private clinics, and professional development courses aimed at improving the implementation of exercise medicine for people living with cancer. He has presented his research at more than 10 international conferences as an invited and keynote speaker and has delivered Lectio Magistralis at international universities on the role of exercise medicine in cancer care. He also contributes to university teaching through undergraduate and postgraduate lectures and training activities. He is actively involved in national and international supervision and mentoring of postgraduate students, including PhD candidates, supporting the development of research skills in clinical trials, translational research, and exercise prescription in oncology populations.

Dr Bettariga’s work has been recognised through multiple prestigious national and international academic awards, including the Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA) Medal, PhD Academy Award, Edith Cowan University Media Award, and recognition as the best postgraduate and doctoral student (Vice Chancellor Top 100 Student, Edith Cowan University).

Dr Bettariga’s work has achieved substantial global visibility and translational reach. His research has generated over 500 media mentions worldwide, including coverage in outlets such as The Washington Post, Daily Mail, Fox News, The West Australian, and ABC Perth. He has also been interviewed by 9News, where his research was featured on national television. This coverage has contributed to an estimated audience reach exceeding 2.3 billion and an earned media value greater than USD $22 million (ECU media analytics).

In addition to research dissemination, Dr Bettariga’s impact extends to clinical and community settings through professional education, stakeholder engagement, and knowledge translation activities. He has established and led a Breast Cancer Consumer Advisory Group, bringing together patients, caregivers, and nursing professionals to directly incorporate lived experience and clinical perspectives into research and knowledge translation activities. He also contributes to the development and delivery of exercise medicine services, supporting the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based exercise interventions for patients and healthcare professionals. By working with healthcare professionals, patient groups, and professional organisations, he contributes to improving the implementation of exercise medicine in real-world cancer care, with the potential to reduce healthcare burden and improve patient outcomes.

Dr Caitlin Biddolph is an award-winning researcher and Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), and the Course Coordinator for the UTS Master of International Relations program. Prior to this role, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Gender and Global Governance at the University of Sydney. Caitlin completed her PhD in International Relations at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, and was formerly a Research Associate with the Australian Human Rights Institute. Caitlin is an Honorary Associate with the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney, and an Associate Fellow of AdvanceHE (AFHEA).

Caitlin's primary research focuses on queering governance, international law, and transitional justice. Her doctoral research explored discourses and logics of gender, sexuality, civilisation, and violence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). She's currently researching transitional justice through queer decolonial perspectives. More broadly, Caitlin is interested in queer, feminist, postcolonial, and decolonial approaches to global politics.

Dr Helen L. Blake is an Adjunct Fellow in speech pathology at University of Technology, Sydney. A certified practicing speech pathologist, she is a member of the working party that developed Speech Pathology Australia’s national position paper and clinical guidelines for Working in a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Society and a member of the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech. Helen’s research focuses on English proficiency, intelligibility, and participation of multilingual speakers in Australia. Helen has previously led the Speech Intelligibility Clinic, University of Newcastle. Helen’s work in Intelligibility Enhancement in multilingual speakers is informed by her previous role as a standardisation officer in Air Traffic Control.

Dr Anja Bless is a Lecturer in Sustainability and International Relations (education-focused) in the School of Communication and Social Sciences, Faculty of Design and Society. 

Anja’s research focuses on environmental politics and policy, food politics, and the political economy of agri-food system transformations. She has received the 2025 Australian International Political Economy Network (AIPEN) Richard Higgott Journal Article Prize and the 2025 Pete Hay Early Career Research Prize for Environmental Politics and Policy in recognition of her work in these areas. 

Anja completed her PhD with the Institute for Sustainable Futures, UTS. Her thesis was titled ‘The Politics of Regenerative Agriculture: Looking beyond the farm-gate’ and was awarded the Australian Political Studies Association 2025 Best PhD Thesis Prize. She also holds a Masters of Environment (with Distinction) in Sustainable Food Systems from the University of Melbourne, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours I) in Government and International Relations and Sociology from the University of Sydney. Anja is a Future Leaders Fellow of the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, Australian National University and a founding member of the Climate Agencies Research Collective. 

Anja is the Acting Course Director for the Bachelor of Sustainability and Environment and also teaches into the Masters of International Relations at UTS. Her contributions to teaching and learning in this role has been recognised with the 2025 UTS Faculty of Design and Society Early Career Teaching Award.

Anja has previously worked in the community and government sectors, primarily with the Victorian State Government as a Policy Officer and Senior Policy Advisor. She brings to her work a professional background in public policy with a grounding in political and sociological theory and environmental studies. 

Dr. Milena Bojovic is a lecturer in the Bachelor of Sustainability and Environment at UTS. She completed her PhD in Discipline of Geography and Planning at Macquarie University, Sydney in 2024. Her thesis investigated just and sustianable transitions for Aotearoa New Zealands dairy sector. 

She has a background in sociology, social policy, environmental science and human geography. Her research interests are the intersections of climate change, animal agriculture and transitions to alternative proteins, while also looking at the environmental and social justice issues within food systems.

Since 2024, Milena has chaired the Faculty level GenAI Community of Practice to facilitate discussions about the impacts of GenAI on research, teaching and learning in higher education.

Emily Booth is a Research Fellow at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. She specialises in narratives, particularly as they manifest at part of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories; and has a particular interest in the narrative experiences of young people, offline and online. Her work seeks to address the underlying drivers of social discord rather than their surface-level expressions. At the intersection of social sciences and literary studies, she draws on the theoretical and methodological strengths for her transdisciplinary research.

Her work has had considerable direct impact, including integrating into the national Respectful Relationships Education program for combatting sexism and discrimination in schools, supporting the Step Together deradicalisation program currently facilitated by the Australian Department of Home Affairs, and more. 

She has published widely on misinformation, conspiracy theories, and radicalisation; reading and book publishing; digital media; school education, and more. She has written for The Conversation and appeared on radio and podcasts disseminating her research. In 2025, she consulted on the BBC Documentary "Men of the Manosphere", available to watch in Australia on Stan. In 2026, her co-authored book How to use Wikibase for Mixed-Methods Research: An Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Approach was published by Elgar Publishing.

Her research includes work funded by the Facebook Research Award, the Australian Department of Home Affairs, the Defence Innovation Network, the Australian Department of Defence, the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, and more. She has also led a series of grants including the UTS Social Impact Grant (2019), the Frances Henne Research Grant from the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), and a UTS Blue Sky Discovery grant (2024).

She is passionate about research ethics and has been a member of the UTS Human Research Ethics Committee since 2020. Formerly, she was also a member of the University Student Conduct Committee (USCC) and Student Misconduct Appeals Committee (SMAC).

Her PhD research explored how teenagers respond to adult influence on their reading practices in the contexts of leisure reading, school reading, and industry engagement. She has published widely on diversity and inclusion in the Australian publishing industry as part of her love for literature and the power of stories; particularly with regard to young people. Outside of academia, she worked in the publishing industry for a decade as a specialist in children's and young adult literature.