Day 1 Speakers

Welcome to Country & Conference Opening

Professor Sakkie Pretorius

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Macquarie University

Professor Sakkie Pretorius is Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research at Macquarie University in Sydney. Professor Pretorius began his career in South Africa. At Stellenbosch University he was appointed Professor of Microbiology, then became the founding Director of the Institute for Wine Biotechnology.

In the US and Europe, he conducted research into molecular yeast genetics. He relocated to Adelaide with his family to become the Managing Director and CEO at the Australian Wine Research Institute Ltd. He was also appointed Affiliate Professor, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, University of Adelaide, then Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President: Research and Innovation, University of South Australia - a position he held until 2013 when he took up his role as Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research at Macquarie University.

His commitment to research excellence drove the creation of the Strategic Research Framework World-leading research, World-changing impact, shaping Macquarie University’s research priorities for the next decade. As a synthetic biologist, he leads the Australian node of the international Synthetic Yeast Genome (Yeast 2.0) project and represents Australia on the International Advisory Board of the Genome Project Write (GP-write) initiative.

Professor Simon Handley

Pro Vice-Chancellor, Graduate Research (GRA)

Professor Simon Handley is an accomplished academic whose passion for psychology has seen him teaching and supervising in universities for the past 27 years. He currently sits as Pro Vice Chancellor Higher Degree Research Training and Partnerships, responsible for the oversight of research training for more than 1700 research students at Macquarie University. Prior to this he served 4 years as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences.

While Simon holds a PhD in Psychology from Cardiff University, his academic career in psychology was fostered and developed during his 22-year tenure at the University of Plymouth, moving from a psychology lecturer to the Head of Psychology, Associate Dean Research and Acting Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology during this time.

Simon remains an active researcher with a focus on human reasoning. His work primarily looks at the impact of knowledge and beliefs on thinking in children and adults and the psychological processes underpinning our understanding of logical arguments. Simon has also authored more than 100 peer reviewed research publications, been awarded more than $2M in grant funding, and has supervised 17 PhD students to completion.

(Creating the) Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Research Candidates - Workshop

Mr Hugh Kearns

Public speaker, educator and researcher, Thinkwell

Hugh Kearns is recognised internationally as a public speaker, educator and researcher. He regularly lectures at universities across the world including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Berkeley and Stanford.

His areas of expertise include self-management, positive psychology, work-life balance, learning and creativity. He draws on over twenty five years of experience as a leading training and development professional within the corporate, financial, education and health sectors in Ireland, Scotland, North America, New Zealand and Australia. He has coached individuals, teams and executives in a wide range of organisations in the public and private sectors.

Hugh lectures and researches at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. He is widely recognised for his ability to take the latest research in psychology and education and apply it to high-performing people and groups. As a co-author with Maria Gardiner, he has published ten books which are in high demand both in Australia and internationally.

In Conversation – Journeys in Supervision

Professor Jennifer Cornish (Chair)

Academic Director of Graduate Research and a Professor in Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University

Professor Jennifer Cornish is Academic Director of Graduate Research and a Professor in Psychological Sciences (Macquarie University). Professor Cornish obtained her PhD in Neuropharmacology from Monash University in 1997 and has since researched in the fields of drug use disorders and associated mental health issues of psychosis, anxiety and depression. Her work has discovered neurotransmitter systems and brain circuits that mediate maladaptive behaviour (80 publications, H index of 31, 3245 citations). In addition to lecturing in biopsychology and psychopharmacology, she has been Director of Higher Degree Research (HDR) for Psychology (2007-2014), acting Associate Dean Research (2014) and Associate Dean HDR for the Faculty of Human Sciences (2017-2020). Jen has a strong interest in supporting graduate research candidates, and continues in this domain in her current role in the Graduate Research Academy. 

Professor Tracy Rushmer

Associate Dean, Research Training and Performance, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University

Prof Tracy Rushmer is serving as Associate Dean Higher Degree Research for the Faculty of Science and Engineering. She is actively involved in recruiting high quality HDR students for Macquarie University science programs.  She currently oversees the progress of over 600 PhD students in the Faculty and a growing number of Masters of Research students. The Faculty consists of 9 Departments and 1 School (of Engineering). Tracy’s academic background is as an Earth Scientist and she overseas several experimental laboratories which can induce both hydrostatic and deformation conditions to investigate mineral interactions under pressure and temperature. Her work focuses on the evolution of planetary bodies, particularly on differentiation, which is the fundamental mechanism by which the terrestrial planets evolve through time. Her work on terrestrial bodies is through a combination of chemical studies, rock deformation experiments and numerical modelling.

Professor Vito Mollica

Associate Dean of Research Training and Performance at the Macquarie University Business School

Professor Mollica is the Associate Dean of Research Training and Performance at the Macquarie University Business School, responsible for the development and promotion of the school’s higher degree research training program and for monitoring research performance and quality. Professor Mollica’s research centres on securities market design, asset selection criteria, quantitative investment research and residential property price dynamics.  He is currently working on issues related to high frequency traders, market transparency, institutional execution costs and property marketing strategies. Professor Mollica has published in leading finance and accounting journals including Journal of Banking and Finance, ABACUS, Journal of Futures Markets, and Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal. Professor Mollica has provided policy advice to the Australian Financial Markets Association, Financial Services Council, Australian Securities Exchange and Financial Conduct Authority (UK), he was also the Head of the Market Quality-Finance of the $32.3m Capital Markets CRC. Professor Mollica has been awarded multiple prizes including the Australian Council of Graduate Research Prize for Excellence in Promoting Industry Engagement in Graduate Research, Marie Curie Fellowship (Aarhus University, Denmark), and multiple Dean's prize for excellence in Teaching. 

Professor Ronika K. Power

Professor of Bioarchaeology in the Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University

Ronika K. Power is Professor of Bioarchaeology in the Department of History and Archaeology at Macquarie University, and the Director of the Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage and Environment (CACHE). Ronika is an Honorary Research Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, an elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries London and the Royal Society of New South Wales. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Australian Institute for Policy and Science, and is one of the 30 inaugural Superstars of STEM for Science and Technology Australia.

In 2019, Ronika was announced as the winner of the Max Crawford Medal from the Australian Academy of the Humanities; the Kwang-su Lim Early Career Award of the Union Académique Internationale, Brussels; and was named as a Tall Poppy of Science from the Australian Institute of Policy in Science. Prof. Power’s research platform aligns with biocultural archaeological approaches, whereby data derived from scientific analyses of the human body is interpreted in conjunction with all other forms of archaeological and historical evidence to provide meaningful insights into the demography, health, diet, environment, life-ways and world-views of individuals and groups from past populations.

Associate Professor Tim Doyle

Associate Professor, Department of Health Professions, Macquarie University

Associate Professor Tim Doyle is a biomechanics and physical performance researcher. He also holds an adjunct Associate Professor with the Centre for Musculoskeletal Research at Griffith University.

He was previously employed as a human performance scientist by the Australian Department of Defence, with published research covering military performance, injury screening, and employment standards. He is an accredited Professional Strength and Conditioning Coach with the Australian Strength and Conditioning Association, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and an accredited level 2 Sport Scientist, and Exercise Scientist with Exercise and Sport Science Australia.

His professional and academic collaborations extend both locally and internationally, including professional sports (Rugby Union and League), and Military and Law Enforcement agencies. He completed his PhD in Biomechanics through Edith Cowan University and before this he completed his Master of Science at Ball State University, and his undergraduate studies at the University of Queensland, Bachelor of Science (Human Movement Studies) - Honours. In addition to project grant funding he has been awarded an Endeavour Executive Fellowship which provided the opportunity to spend time at The Mayo Clinic and Stanford University. His research involves neuromuscular biomechanics, injury prevention, and physical preparation in athletes and tactical populations.

In Conversation – Alumni Experience

Dr Samiya Tabassum

Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University

Samiya completed her Masters of Research and PhD at Macquarie University studying the ecology and evolution of invasive plants. Samiya has a very strong background in classical plant ecology but made the transition to a more industry-focused project for her post-doctoral career. She is currently a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences working on climate tolerance of horticultural plant species. Her currently role is very industry-focused and she is enjoying doing outreach and navigating the ups and downs of being part of a large multi-disciplinary research group.

Dr Luiz Pizzato

Executive Manager AI Labs, Commonwealth Bank

Luiz Pizzato is a Data Scientist and Entrepreneur. He has more than 20 years experience working in the area of Artificial Intelligence. He has a PhD and a MSc in Computer Science both with focus on Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval. Luiz’s expertise also comprises the areas of Recommender System, Machine Learning and Data Mining.

Luiz is an academic at heart with a strong commercially-focused mind. His postdoctoral research work at the University of Sydney was directly applied at one of the largest online dating platforms in Australia.

He is now the executive manager at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia leading the AI Labs. A team that focuses on improving the financial wellbeing of our clients and society while bringing innovations in AI/ML. Some of the work led by his team involved the detection of abuse using AI and the weather data model.

Dr Chiara Pomare

Project Manager and Data Analyst, Centre for Population Health, NSW Ministry of Health

Dr Chiara Pomare is a research trained data analyst and project manager in health. Dr Pomare is originally trained in Psychology then continued her training in research; she undertook her Master of Research and PhD at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI) MQ, examining staff collaboration and organisational change in health care settings. After her PhD, Dr Pomare was employed as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at AIHI where she worked on a myriad of health care services research projects. Dr Pomare now works at the NSW Ministry of Health in the Centre for Population Health as a Project Manager and Data Analyst. Dr Pomare continues her connection to research at MQ as a visiting Research Fellow.

Dr Dragana Stosic

Sessional Lecturer at the University of Sydney and Australian Catholic University

Dr Dragana Stosic is a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Sydney (Linguistics department) and Australian Catholic University (School of Education). Since completing her PhD studies on research communication in the field of clinical psychology, her research has contributed to the development of pedagogical tools for teaching how to read and write academic discourse in the STEM fields at secondary and tertiary levels. As a discourse analyst in a PETAA (Primary English Teaching Association Australia) project, she designed multimodal text annotations aimed at developing teachers’ professional knowledge of language and pedagogical practices to support students’ disciplinary literacies, with a focus on implementing the Australian Curriculum: Science. Dragana has also published her articles in leading international journals in the field of educational linguistics.

Dr Merril Howie

Sessional Academic

Following her Master of Research Degree in 2018, and the award of the Macquarie University Medal for English, Merril Howie completed her PhD in May 2021. Expanding the scope of the MRes thesis, this transdisciplinary study, which received a Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation, explored the representation and impact of memory and emotion in literary memoirs. An article based on sections of the MRes findings, entitled “‘Prose that Makes Us ‘Laugh, Cry, Squirm, and Gasp and Wonder’: Imagery, Memory and Emotion in Helen Garner’s Memoirs” was published in the June 2019 edition of Antipodes (vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 22-39). Over the past two years, Merril has worked as a sessional academic (disciplines of Literature and Communications) in Macquarie’s department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature. She is currently working on a book proposal based on her doctoral research.

Main campus

Balaclava Road
Macquarie University NSW 2109

City campus

Angel Place
Level 24, 123 Pitt Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Event Contact

gr.conference@mq.edu.au

Acknowledgement of Country

Macquarie University is located on the land of the Wallumattagal clan of the Dharug people. We pay respects to the Elders and knowledge holders who have, and continue to share their wisdom and knowledges, nurturing and sustaining our environments, cultures and education.