Researchers and Areas of Expertise and Interest

Researchers

Centre for Environmental Management	Centre for Plant and Water Science	Process Engineering and Light Metals Centre
Professor John Rolfe	Prof David Midmore	Associate Colin Greensill
Dr Ralph Alquezar	Prof Phil Bown	Dr Saleh Wasimi
Associate Professor Larelle Fabbro	Associate Professor Nanjappa Ashwath	Professor Masud Khan
Dr Susan Kinnear	Dr Surya P Bhattarai
Dr Delwar Akbar	Dr Phul Subedi	Dr Kai Duan
Dr Catherine Bernard- Pattinson	Karuna Shrestha	Professor Gopinath Chattopadhyay
Dr Jill Windle	Centre for Railway Engineering	Power Engineering Research Group
Dr Alison Jones	Professor Colin Cole	Dr Mohammad Rasul
Dr Sandrine Makiela	Professor Masud Khan	Professor Gopinath Chattopadhyay
Ms Vanessa Petkova	Dr Mohammad Rasul
Mr Lindsay Greer	Associate Professor Yvonne Toft
Dr Judith Wake	Dr Yan Quan Sun
Mr Wayne Houston	Dr Dhamodharan Raman
Mr Wayne Boyd	Mitchell McClanachan
Dr Victoria Vicente-Beckett	Scott Simson
Dr Mohammad Rasul	Professor Gopinath Chattopadhyay
	Centre for Intelligent and Networked Systems
	Prof Brijesh Verma
	Dr Dennis Jarvis

Researcher	Centre/ Research Group	Expertise	Research Interests	Keywords
Assoc. Prof. Larelle Fabbro	CEM	Environmental management especially water quality management. Investigations of toxic algal blooms and their control and management.	Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and their management, taxonomy, toxicity, human health impacts and ecology.	Environmental management, water quality, industrial waters, algae, aquaponics, cyanobacteria, Cylindrospermopsis
Associate Professor Colin Greensill	PELM	Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Chemometrics, Data Mining, Applied Optics	Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Chemometrics, Data Mining, Applied Optics	Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Chemometrics, Data Mining, Applied Optics
Associate Professor Nanjappa Ashwath	CPWS	Selection of plants for degraded land, Contaminated land remediation, Biodiversity Conservation, Degraded land rehabilitation, Plant propagation, Plant identification, Waste to energy, Bioenergy from wastes, Biofuel from native plants	Phytoremediation, biofuels, mine site remediation, plant tissue culture, plant breeding, plant identification, native plant selection, mine site rehabilitation, landscape ecology, plant identification, environmental biology, seed technology	Phytoremediation, phytocapping, mine site rehabilitation, Bioenergy, Native plants, heavy metal tolerance, selection of plants for stress-prone sites, biofuels, plant tissue culture, ecophysiology, seed technology, plant breeding,
Dr Catherine Bernard-Pattinson	CEM	Autoecology and taxonomy of protists and cyanobacteria in marine and freshwater ecosystems	Current interest: toxic cyanobacteria in freshwater environment	Microbial ecology, protists, cyanobacteria, taxonomy, autoecology, plankton, benthos, anoxic ecosystems,Light and electron microscopy, RT-PCR

Dr Jill Windle	CEM	Environmental and resource economics	Environmental and resource economics; natural resource management, market-based instruments; non-market valuation; choice modelling	Environmental and resource economics; natural resource management, market-based instruments; non-market valuation; choice modelling
Dr Judith Wake	CEM	Mangrove health assessment, PAM fluorometry, herbicide and nutrient sampling in sediment and water	Mangrove Ecology, Water Quality Monitoring and Management	Mangroves, water quality, herbicides, PAM fluorometry
Dr Kai Duan	PELM	Fracture mechanics, fatigue, failure analysis, microstructure-property relationships of Engineering Materials	Fracture mechanics and fatigue, mechanical properties of materials	Fracture mechanics, fatigue, boundary effect, size effect
Dr Ralph Alquezar	CEM	Marine and coastal ecology/ecotoxicology	Water quality, environmental risk assessment, coastal processes	Coastal, fisheries, ecotoxicology, biomonitoring, estuarine processes
Dr Sandrine Makiela	CEM	Microbiology	Plant disease, Microbial Ecology, Food microbiology, Microbial physiology, Mycology, Naturopathy / natural medicine, Natural antimicrobials	Plant disease, Microbial Ecology, Food microbiology, Microbial physiology, Mycology, Naturopathy / natural medicine, Natural antimicrobials
Dr Surya P Bhattarai	CPWS	Crop physiology, irrigation, agronomy	Irrigation, horticulture, agronomy, natural resources management, erosion control	Oxygation, cotton, erosion, water use efficiency
Dr Susan Kinnear	CEM	NRM, regional development, sustainability, climate change, blue-green algae, algal toxins, water resource management	Climate change, NRM, sustainable regional development	Cylindrospermopsis, Microcystis, Bowen Basin, carbon, Hymenachne, central Queensland,
Dr Victoria Vicente-Beckett	CEM	Environmental chemistry, Analytical Chemistry and Electrochemistry	Metals and PAHs in waters, sediments and air; portable chemical sensors; chemical pollutant bioavailability	Chemical pollution; waters; sediments; sensors; metals; PAHs; bioavailability
Dr. Delwar Akbar	CEM	Resource Economics & Sustainability, Urban & Regional Planning	Quantitative modelling in the theory & practices of resource economics, infrastructure planning and regional development	Resource Economics, Infrastructure Planning, Regional Development
Mr Wayne Boyd	CEM	Conservation Biology, Mine Rehabilitation, GIS, Remote Sensing, Spatial Analysis	Modelling, Mapping and Analysing environmental components, landscapes, natural resources, demographics and economic and social systems	Spatial, Simulation, Modelling, Landscape, Ecology, Environmental, Remote Sensing, Rehabilitation, Restoration
Mr Wayne Houston	CEM	Biodiversity assessment - identification of birds, reptiles, frogs, mammals, fish and invertebrates (ants, termites, insect families), management and research of conservation listed flora and fauna, use of invertebrates as ecosystem health indicators	Ecological research aimed at: 1. conservation of threatened fauna; 2. development of sustainable land management practices based on biodiversity assessment; 3. understanding the role of wetlands, mangroves and salt-marshes in the landscape.	Biodiversity, ecology, fauna, invertebrate, vertebrate, ants, wetlands, mangroves, salt-marshes, rangelands, management, rehabilitation, restoration, grazing, pastoral, ecosystem health, bio-indicators, conservation, sustainable land management
Ms Vanessa Petkova	CEM	Stakeholder interviews / analysis; community development; data collection / organisation; report writing / reviewing	Mining, health, indigenous
Prof David Midmore	CPWS	Over 30 years as an agricultural researcher, 20 spent in developing countries, the balance in Australia I hold the Foundation Chair in Plant Sciences and the Directorship of the Centre for Plant and Water Science, with a team of c. 40-45 students/staff.	Sustainable resource management, including developing countries. Enhanced water use efficiency in irrigated and rain-fed cropping systems. Demand chains for minor crops, eg Asian vegetables, natural sweeteners. Crop diversification. Crop modelling.	Agriculture and horticulture. Catchment scale erosion. Economics and policy. Re-use of ‘wastes'. Ecological services. Integrated pest management. Bamboo agronomy and utilization. Urban and peri-urban agriculture. Land reclamation. Agricultural development
Professor Brijesh Verma	CINS	Computational Intelligence and Pattern Recognition	Pattern recognition, neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, handwriting recognition, digital mammography, web document retrieval	Pattern Recognition, Computational Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Data Mining
Professor John Rolfe	CEM	Economics, Commerce, Non-market Valuation, Impact Assessment, Environment, Agriculture	Non-market valuation, Impact assessment, Regional Development, Environmental management, Agricultural Economics, Resources, Recreation, Conservation auctions, Market based instruments, biosecurity, water, climate	Non-market valuation, conservation auctions, choice modelling, contingent valuation, recreation economics, regional development, impact assessment, agricultural economics, environmental management
Professor Masud Khan	PELM and CRE	Fluid Mechanics, Thermofluids process/flow, Rheology and non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, Sustainable energy	Fluid Mechanics, Flow simulation and CFD, Thermofluid process and transport, Rheological properties of materials and their flow, Sustainable energy technology	Fluid mechanics, Rheology, Flow simulation, Thermofluid process and transport
Mr Lindsay Greer	CEM	Sociology, social economic impact assesment, regional development	Community Indicators, Liveability indices, housing audits	social, regional development, community, liveability
Ms Alison Jones	CEM	climate change on reef ecosystems, Coral ecology and physiology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Molecular biology, genetics, fish populations, Local Community and Conservations
Dr Saleh Wasimi	CINS	Water resources (flood control, irrigation management, reservoir operation etc) ,Hydrology (rainfall, climate modelling, runoff, erosion etc) ,Hydraulics (sediment movement, coastal engineering, waves, currents etc) ,Time series analysis (forecasting, econometrics etc) ,Statistics (stochastic processes, hypothesis testing, experimental design, statistical process control, total quality management etc)	Water resources (flood control, irrigation management, reservoir operation etc) ,Hydrology (rainfall, climate modelling, runoff, erosion etc) ,Hydraulics (sediment movement, coastal engineering, waves, currents etc) ,Time series analysis (forecasting, econometrics etc) ,Statistics (stochastic processes, hypothesis testing, experimental design, statistical process control, total quality management etc)	Water resources, hydrology, climate change, statisics, hydraulicsmanufacturing, defence, agnts
Dr Dennis Jarvis	CINS	Manufacturing control, scheduling, simulation, project management, software engineering, business modelling	agent-based systems, simulation based training, behaviour modelling	manufacturing, defence, agnts
Karuna Shrestha	CPWS	Organic agriculture, sustainable agriculture, microbiology, biochemistry and molecular biology	Compost tea, soil amendments, microbial enhancement, biofertiliser, soil health, vermicomposting and vermicompost tea, organic matter turnover, plant disease suppression and bioremediation	Compost tea; Soil health; Microbial respiration; Microbial biomass carbon; FDA hydrolysis; BiologTM; PCR-DGGE.
Dr Phul Subedi	CPWS	Quality control in supply chain management, Non-invasive quality control of agricultural commodities, Pre- and post-harvest physiology and technology of horticultural commodities, Industry liaison and transfer of technology, Commercial production system of market oriented high value horticultural crops, Seed production technology of cereal and vegetables crops, Natural rural resources policy, planning and management, Research methods (Rapid Appraisals, Participatory project Monitoring and Evaluation, and biometric		supply chain management, agricultural commodities,Seed production technology, Natural rural resources policy, planning and management
Prof Phil Brown	CPWS	Horticultural science, vegetable crop physiology and agronomy	Horticultural crop growth and development, tuber and storage root physiology, physiology of flowering and fruit development, plant water relations, carbohydrate metabolism	Horticulture, plant physiology, plant growth regulation, tropical vegetable crops,
Prof Colin Cole	CRE	Railway engineering, Train, locomotive and wagon dynamics and simulation, Mechanical vibrations, Modelling and simulation of non-linear systems, Multivariable optimisation: evolutionary algorithms, particle swarm, Automatic control and industrial hydraulics	Derailment analysis, Locomotive traction,Train and wagon dynamics and simulation, ,Modelling and simulation of non-linear systems, Multivariable train operational optimisation, Railway component and vehicle acceptance testing, Development of new railway technologies	railway, rail, engineering, train, locomotive, wagon, car, bogie, simulation, energy, optimisation, automated, control, rail vehicle, traction, braking, vibration, non-linear, dynamics
Dr Mohammad Rasul	CRE/CEM and PERG	Energy and thermodynamics, renewable energy, railway engineering, process engineering, thermofluid engineering, resource industries	Energy and power engineering, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, process engineering, railway engineering	Energy, thermodynamics, process industries, fluid mechanics, railway engineering
Associate Professor Yvonne Toft	CRE	Human factors, design, systems safety analysis, design induced human error in transport, health, mining, industrial and education contexts	Prevention through design (safe design); mitigating latent sources of human error in engineering design; optimising the engineering design process for sustainable outcomes; learning from failure - nexus systems safety, human factors & higher order controls; tools and methods in accident investigation, analysis and error prediction; transdisciplinary education, problem solving, teams and communication; professional design practice and education in OHS, human factors and engineering.	Human factors; accident analysis; failure analysis; design; systems safety; education; accident investigation; transdisciplinary professional practice
Dr. Yan Quan Sun	CRE	Mechanical Engineering & Railway Engineering	Design, manufacture and field-testing of machine; Machinery maintenance and machine condition monitoring & diagnosis; Mechanical and structural dynamic strength & fatigue analysis; Finite element analyses & Optimisation analyses. Rail track assessment based on vehicle performance; Rail vehicle-track interaction system dynamics & modelling; Rail vehicle dynamics, & suspension analysis & design.	Mechanical and structural dynamics; Rail vehicle-track interaction system dynamics
Mitchell McClanachan	CRE	Rail vehicle dynamics, Rail vehicle modelling, Train Control, Artificial Intelligence	Rail vehicle dynamics, Rail vehicle modelling, Train Control, Artificial Intelligence	Rail, railway, railroad, modelling, artificial intelligence, genetic algorithms, train, instrumentation
Dr. Dhamodharan Raman	CRE	Engineering Maintenance, Asset Management, Operations Management & Multivariable Optimisation	Railway Engineering, Vibration Analysis, Modelling and Simulation of Systems, Maintenance Engineering, Operations Research & Asset Management	Railway, Maintenance, Asset Management & Optimisation
Scott Simson	CRE	Vehicle dynamics and Contact Mechanics	Steering bogies; adhesion; Rail Squats; Insulated Joints; Lubrication; Grinding; vehicle simulation
Prof Gopinath Chattopadhyay	CRE. PELM and PERG	Asset Management Strategies, Maintenance Decision Modelling, Reliability Analysis, Warranty Policies, Rail Curve Lubrication, Rail Grinding, Failure and Degradation Modelling, Lifecycle Cost Modelling, Quantitative Risk Modelling, Simulation, Probabilistic Models	Asset Management, Maintenance , Cost and Risk Analysis in inspection, maintenance and replacement decisions	Asset Management, Maintenance, Inspection, Life Cycle Costs, Risks, Failure and Degradation, Reliability, Warranty, Decision Support Systems, Simulation