Her research explores the relationships between hydrology, physical geomorphology and ecology in river systems, she also has a keen interest in all aspects of river health.

Fran has worked on a number of projects across Australia. Most recently she has been the Freshwater Advisor for the South-east Queensland Healthy Waterways Ecological Health Monitoring Program, a CI on an ARC Linkage exploring trajectories for riparian restoration in South-east Queensland rivers and streams, a member of the CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country Ecological Responses to Altered Flow Regimes Cluster and the Science Leader for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority Northern Basin Sustainable Diversion Limits Revision process. In early 2019 she was a member of the independent science panel investigating the causes of mass fish deaths in the Darling River for the Federal Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources.

Professor Susan Rowland completed a BSc Hons and PhD at the University of Sydney, Australia, and a Human Frontiers in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Connecticut, USA. She also holds a Graduate Certificate In Education from The University of Queensland (UQ). Susan is a teaching-focused academic in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at the University of Queensland and is Deputy Associate Dean Academic (Future Students and Employability) for the Faculty of Science. She was previously Deputy Director of the Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITaLI) at UQ, where she led the Higher Education Group. Susan has been a Manning Clark Fellow, an American Society for Microbiology Biology Scholar, and a UQ Teaching Fellow in 2011 and 2017. She is also a graduate of the Women in Technology Board Readiness Program and is a Board Chair for The Lodge Youth Support Service.

Susan teaches biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology. Her Scholarship of Teaching and Learning focuses on the development of student professionalism and employability through immersion in authentic scientific practice. She has particular interests in undergraduate research experiences, work-integrated learning through students-as-partners, and science communication. Susan has won multiple awards for her teaching, including an Australian Award for University Teaching (2014) and the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Beckman Coulter Award for Teaching Excellence (2014). She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Associate Professor Niru Nirthanan graduated MBBS in 1994 from Sri Lanka, followed by a PhD in pharmacology from the National University of Singapore’s School of Medicine in 2002. As the recipient of the Joseph Brooks Fellowship in Neurobiology from the Harvard Medical School, Boston, he conducted postdoctoral research from 2002 to 2005, working on drug development for Alzheimer’s disease. He then joined the National Neuroscience Institute of Singapore as Principal Investigator in 2006 and established a Neuropharmacology Drug Discovery Laboratory with over $1,000,000 in grant funding.

Niru relocated to Griffith University as faculty in 2008, where he is following his passion for learning and teaching. His contributions have been recognised by a Health Group Citation for Excellence in Teaching in 2010; Griffith Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2010; a National Citation from the Office for Learning and Teaching in 2011; and, Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (UK) in 2018. He is presently the Program Director for the Medical and Biomedical Sciences Cluster in the School of Medical Sciences and Discipline Lead for Pharmacology in the School of Medicine. He also serves as an Academic Ambassador for the British Pharmacological Society in Australia, promoting pharmacology education; and is a Senior Fellow of the Griffith Learning and Teaching Academy.