Prof Shannon Rutherford

With a background in environmental science, Prof. Shannon Rutherford's career has focused on researching the links between environmental change and human health, and building capacity to understand and respond at local, national, and global levels. Shannon has been involved in researching public health problems, ranging from pandemic risk communication in China, to mosquito-borne diseases in Kenya and Bangladesh, coastal salinity and hypertension in Bangladesh, and disasters and climate change governance in China, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Griffith Experts Profile

Dr Sebastian Binnewies

Dr Sebastian Binnewies is a Senior Lecturer in the School of ICT at Griffith University and Director of the Griffith App Factory. App Factory is a student enterprise, where high-achieving students have the opportunity to work on real-life projects to expand their employability and entrepreneurship skills. Given the wide range of IT expertise within the School, the projects are not limited to mobile apps, and can include general software applications, data visualisations & dashboards, machine learning models etc., developed according to industry standards. Dr Binnewies has multiple publications in top-tier outlets and previously secured external grant funding. His research interests include data science, text analytics, and knowledge representation & reasoning.

Griffith Experts Profile

Dr Aaron Bach

Aaron Bach works on a number of projects as a post-doctoral research fellow within the School of Medicine and Dentiry at Griffith University. Primarily, he co-leads a Wellcome Trust funded project looking to develop heatwave risk mitigation strategies for older populations. His background in human physiology, specifically occupational safety, work/exercise performance in extreme environments, thermal comfort, and risk mitigation strategies. Dr Bach is the Early Career Researcher representative on the Cities Research Institute (CRI) Executive Committee within Griffith University. Dr Bach is currently a co-supervisor of two PhD students looking at health and wellbeing of occupational workers in low-middle income countries, and mitigating heat stress in older populations.

Griffith Experts Profile

Dr Zhiwei Xu

Dr. Zhiwei Xu is a mid-career researcher at the School of Medicine and Dentistry. His primary research interest is to identify and quantify the health impacts of climate change (particularly extreme heat) and develop accessible and sustainable adaptation strategies. As of March 2023, he has a Google Scholar H-index of 37 and has been cited >4,600 times, including citations in 54 policy documents from the United Nations, WHO, World Bank, European Union, and governments of Australia, Brazil, Finland, Germany, Nepal and USA. His research (e.g., health-based heatwave definition framework) has been integrated into the development, evaluation, and upgrading of heat early warning systems in Australia and China.

Griffith Experts Profile

Mehak Oberai

Mehak Oberai is an early career public health researcher with a background in Microbiology. She is building her experience in the stream of Public Health Promotion and Health Informatics by utilizing her current knowledge and skills in the most effective and efficient manner. Mehak aims to develop and use her skills to bridge the gap between researchers and the audience to ensure that academic research reaches the general public in the most comprehensible way.

Connor Forbes

Connor Forbes is the Software Engineer for the Ethos Project. His role is concerned mostly with creating the internal workings of our in-home system, preventing any bugs  and ensuring a high quality user experience. This is achieved through a combination of multiple programming languages, including Python, JavaScript and C++. Connor has a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Griffith University, and undertook a supervised research project focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) during his Honours year, where he was awarded Class 1 Honours.

Ella Jackman

Ella Jackman is the Project Support and Communications Officer for the Ethos Project. Her primary focus in this role is to engage the community and key stakeholders about the Ethos project, using various communication channels. Ella uses her creativity and writing skills to develop Ethos-focused editorials, and works on the quarterly Ethos Newsletter to educate readers about heat, health and all things Ethos. She also creates visually appealing heat health flyers, posters, magnets, and postcards that help spread awareness about the project. Lastly, Ella is actively involved in producing a series of Ethos heat-health videos.

Ella's academic background includes a Master of Public Health from Griffith University and a Bachelor of Medical Science from Central Queensland Uni. Ella also studied Fine Art at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, which helps her communicate health issues through a creative lens.

Dr Steven Baker

Dr Steven Baker's research interests revolve around exploring how technology can be used to support human flourishing and benefit disadvantaged groups. He is particularly interested in investigating how human service workers can partner with local communities to address the impacts of climate change. Steven's research often seeks to combine his interest in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) with his professional experience as a social worker, allowing him to bridge the gap between the two fields.

Griffith Experts Profile

Prof Geraldine Torrisi

Prof Geraldine Torrisi's interests lie in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), the user experience, information systems, interactive digital media, instructional technologies, learning theory, and teaching practices. Her passion for these areas stems from her experience in designing, developing, and project managing digital interactive media for learning in higher education and teaching mathematics and physics to secondary and post-secondary students. Geraldine strongly believes in design with 'the human at the centre', which is a central theme across her interests. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Senior Fellow of the Griffith Learning and Teaching Academy.

Griffith Experts Profile

Dr Fan Zhang

Dr Fan Zhang is a senior lecturer and DECRA Fellow at the Griffith University. She holds a doctoral degree in Architectural Science from The University of Sydney and a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Building Technology from the University of Nottingham. Dr Zhang's research expertise relates to indoor environmental quality (IEQ), indoor and outdoor thermal comfort, cognitive performance and productivity, post-occupancy evaluation (POE), sustainable design and building performance simulation. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed and high-impact international journals and conferences.

Griffith Experts Profile

Prof Dian Tjondronegoro

Prof. Dian Tjondronegoro is currently leading the “live” theme for Griffith Inclusive Future Beacon, which focuses on supporting inclusive living, healthy, safe, affordable, and accessible urban environments, housing and transport systems in the technological era. His R&D and innovation teams have been working closely for 12 years with the Australian Health sectors and health practitioners (since 2010), impacting personalised wellness promotion, alcohol and substance abuse prevention, and chronic pain management. The eHealth innovations, involving mobile-cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, were co-designed, developed, trialled, and evaluated with a world-class team of interdisciplinary researchers and software engineers.

Griffith Experts Profile

Prof Wendy Moyle

Professor Wendy Moyle is the Program Director of the Healthcare Practice and Survivorship Program (HPS) (5 Research Groups) at the Menzies Health Institute Queensland at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. She is also a Professor of Nursing at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University.   She is the current President of Aus-Hartford, a gerontological nursing association that aims to promote gerontological nursing.

Wendy’s research expertise is in dementia, depression and delirium. She has focused her research on finding evidence for best practice in the care of older people and, in particular, those with dementia, improving quality of life, and evidence for managing behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) using controlled trials to test psychosocial interventions.  She has a keen interest in technologies and, within a social robotics laboratory, she develops and evaluates assistive technologies and social robots. She works with a multidisciplinary team of researchers from Australia and internationally, in particular from the UK and Japan.

Griffith Experts Profile

Prof Norman Morris

Norman Morris is a physiotherapist who holds a joint research position as Professor (Cardiothoracic) at The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane and Griffith University on the Gold Coast.  His program of research examines the factors that limit, and interventions that improve, exercise tolerance in individuals with chronic heart and lung disease and is undertaken in both clinical and laboratory-based settings. He has previously held the role of Discipline Lead of Physiotherapy and Deputy Head Research, School of Allied Health Sciences at Griffith University. He has published over 100 peer reviewed manuscripts; obtained both local, national and international research funding support and supervised over 20 higher degree students to completion.  He is the past Chair of the Physiology and Sleep, Special Interest Group for the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Griffith Experts Profile

Dr Sandy MacQuarrie

Dr MacQuarrie is a senior lecturer in Paramedicine and researcher with specific interest in the health and wellness of paramedics. Dr MacQuarrie has been a paramedic since 1992 and has worked as a ground and flight paramedic (fixed wing and rotor) as wll as senior management positions in EMS in Canada. He is currently a registered paramedic with the Paramedicine Board of Australia.

Griffith Experts Profile

Dr Son Nghiem

Dr Son Nghiem has more than 10-year experience in applied econometrics and health economics research. Dr Nghiem has developed a strong track record with over 100 peer-reviewed papers published in high-impact journals in health economics, public health and health services research. He has been awarded over $1,500,000 in research grants and fellowship. One of his most impacted studies is the development of the Classification of Hospital Acquired Diagnoses (CHADx) to improve the safety of patients.

ANU Research Profile

Dr Dung Phung

Dr. Dung Phung has background in both medicine and public health. He has experienced diversity roles from clinical practice, health management, and research and teaching academic before joining to the UQ School of Public Health as a senior lecturer in environmental health.

UQ Research Profile

Prof Albert Gabric

Teaching and research in the environmental sciences, especially climate change impacts and adaptation.

Sarah Cunningham

Transdisciplinary PhD student