College of Science & Engineering

Sophia Love

Sophia Love

Romain Vaucher

Romain Vaucher

Jenny Fisher

Jenny Fisher

Ambili Narayanan

Ambili Narayanan

Sarfaraz Ali

Sarfaraz Ali

Mikaeylah Davidson

Mikaeylah Davidson

Liuxin Chen

Liuxin Chen

Rafael Cabral Carvalho

Rafael Cabral Carvalho

Tom Lloyd

Tom Lloyd

Mohamadreza Chalak Qazani

Mohamadreza Chalak Qazani

Spatially integrated Portfolio Approach to support a portfolio of livelihoods. (Old ID 27105)
Stephanie Duce
01 Jun 2021 - 30 Jun 2024
The Integrated Livelihoods Approach (ILA) provides an approach to diagnose and help navigate interrelated and cumulative impacts, trade-offs and co-benefits of interacting livelihood activities occurring in spatially defined coastal areas. Participatory and interdisciplinary research, integrated governance, negotiation, trust-building, ongoing conflict management, and cross-sectoral and political engagement are central to the ILA. This project will establish the mechanisms for achieving the strengthened networks, integrated governance and policy, and improved planning required to implement an ILA in Western Province, Solomon Islands, with the potential to scale-up to other locations.
Induction of gonadal maturation and egg release using hormones in redclaw crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus) to facilitate intensive breeding for commercial juvenile production (Old ID 27423)
John Cavalieri
17 Jan 2022 - 31 Dec 2023
The commercial expansion of redclaw is hampered by suboptimal methods used to produce fertilised eggs, asynchronous hatching, and mortalities of juveniles that suggest broodstock fertility and nutrition need improvement. The proposed project will investigate induction of gonadal maturation and spawning using hormones in female redclaw. The outcomes of the study are validation and development of strategies to facilitate synchronised mating and spawning of redclaw within hatcheries in preventing suboptimal reproductive performance of redclaw in hatcheries. The established knowledge will help in understanding the hormone induced endocrine control of decapods and facilitate the development of artificial reproduction in intensively managed hatcheries.
Can parental care behaviour and breeding microhabitat protect Critically Endangered nursery frogs from rising temperatures on Wet Tropics mountaintops? (Old ID 27875)
Conrad Hoskin
02 Feb 2023 - 02 Feb 2024
Nursery frogs are terrestrial breeders with ‘direct development’ and the male stays with the eggs until hatching. While climate change is their biggest threat and their breeding biology of is very poorly known. I will study parental care across Nursery frog species, under varied environmental conditions in the field (low elevation, upland areas, heatwaves, drought) to uncover the details of nest choice and parental care. I will use non-invasive cameras and data loggers in natural nesting sites to determine how variation in parental behaviour impacts larval survival and differs between species and microhabitats under different climatic conditions.
Barratta Creek Biodiversity Fund (Old ID 20785)
Nathan Waltham
01 Feb 2013 - 30 Jun 2017
Barratta Creek is one of the better condition creeks remaining on the Burdekin floodplain but its health is declining, due to the pressures of surrounding development and invasive weeks. This project will study the benefits to the health of the creek of controlling aquatic weeds that infest the system and improving water quality through the establishment of artificial wetlands to treat runoff from cane farms.
Applications for Magnetic Resonance Image Guidance in Radiation Therapy in Prostate Cancer. (Old ID 27208)
Febrio Lunardo
29 Mar 2021 - 30 Sep 2024
Prostate cancer is a serious disease with a large burden on the Australian health system, often treated with radiation therapy (RT). A specific RT treatment called Magnetic resonance image-guided radiation therapy (MRIgRT) combines imaging with therapy to provide potentially superb targeting. In this project, technical machine learning solutions for novel applications of MRIgRT will be explored.
Portable genome sequencing as a point-of-care diagnostic test in remote tropical Australia. (Old ID 26407)
Matt Field
01 Aug 2019 - 31 Jul 2020
Respiratory disease, fevers, and sepsis are common in tropical northern Australia, and treatment often requires admission to hospital. We will trial new portable genome sequencing technology as a point-of-care diagnostic test for fever, sepsis, and pneumonia at Thursday Island Hospital in Far North Queensland. We will test the hypothesis that this new approach will increase the proportion of infections that are diagnosed and reduce the time it takes to achieve a diagnosis. Throughout the course of this project, clinical staff and health workers will have the opportunity to be trained in specimen preparation, genome sequencing, and data interpretation.
Tackling long-term food allergy among children to recurrent tropical allergens (Old ID 21737)
Ludwig Lopata
01 Jul 2014 - 31 Dec 2019
The aim of this research is to study the reactivity of allergens found in commonly consumed tropical foods by Australian children, for the development of improved allergy point-of-care diagnostic platforms for paediatric allergy in the tropics.
Jaragun Wetland Restoration (Old ID 27070)
Mostafa Rahimi Azghadi
30 Nov 2020 - 30 Nov 2021
A small wetland will be targeted for weed removal and replanting along Babinda Creek in this project. These restoration works will be monitored using a high-tech surveillance camera to live stream images from Jaragun’s website that track wetland restoration over time and its value to our birdlife. Overall, this project kick starts a struggling local community nestled in the heart of the wet tropics. This project is about creating green jobs and building a pathway for long term strategic investment into restoration and rehabilitation of the Russell River catchment.
Using novel eDNA technology to identify pollinators in tropical cocoa (Old ID 22911)
Megan Higgie
01 Sep 2016 - 31 Dec 2017
I am developing a career focused on identifying roles insects have in ecosystems, and methods to improve the services provided by insects to improve food production. To this end, I have paired in the proposed research two aims with different risk reward ratios focussed on insect pollination generally and pollination of cacao specifically. The first aim, to use molecular techniques to identify pollinators in Australian cocoa, includes very little risk and will serve to improve global relevance of my research and provide a basis for increased funding of cocoa research in Far North Queensland. This is because we have demonstrated tremendous potential to increase yields by providing pollinator habitat, but without identification of the pollinator species it is difficult to apply our research to other growing regions around the world. Demonstrating applicability of research conducted in Australian cocoa for other growing regions will allow me to apply for international aid grants and funding from international companies for research that uses JCU Cairns facilities for mechanistic studies paired with international fieldwork. I have already developed a relationship with Mars Chocolate, which benefit from this demonstration, and will expand my funding through ACIAR and ARC Linkage grants. The second aim of the study, to develop eDNA methods has a higher risk associated with it than Aim 1, given that we may not be able to identify pollinator presence from traces left behind on flowers. However, if we are successful, it will completely change the way pollination biology is researched, putting myself at the forefront of this new technology. One of the key questions remaining in ecology is what species provide pollination of crops and wild plants, and where in the landscape those services are provided. This technique will allow anyone, anywhere to identify which pollinators have visited which flowers in any type of flowering plant. Pioneering this broadly applicable methodology will put me in an ideal and unique position for funding and collaboration opportunities.
Geology and Ore Potential of the Tommy Creek Block, Mount Isa Inlier (Old ID 22960)
Ioan Sanislav
01 Sep 2016 - 31 Dec 2018
The objective of the proposal is to establish a new research project to understand the geological evolution of the prospective Tommy Creek Block, located near Cloncurry, utilising the expertise of geological staff and research facilities / resources at JCU, Cardiff University, and our industry partners Mount Isa Mines (MIM - Glencore and GBM Resources. These research partnerships will be further strengthened through this project. The project is designed to deliver benefits to the industry partners by providing an improved understanding of the geology of an active mineral exploration region, which will directly lead to better strategies for exploration and hence, enhanced prospects of exploration success. Such future mineral resource discovery is crucial to sustain the economic prosperity of Queensland. The project will provide industry with highly trained graduates with the specific skills sets needed to develop successful career paths in the minerals industry.
Title: JCU reef scientist goes global after plumbing the depths, Townsville Bulletin
Reseracher: Gemma Galbraith (AIMS@JCU Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Reef Connectivity)
Start Date: 10 Nov 2024
Title: Deep dive: How I use robots to survey coral reefs, Nature
Reseracher: Gemma Galbraith (AIMS@JCU Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Reef Connectivity)
Start Date: 31 Mar 2025
Title: Bengali
Reseracher: Khandakar Faisal Ibn Murad (Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering and Related Technologies))
Title: English
Reseracher: Khandakar Faisal Ibn Murad (Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering and Related Technologies))
Title: Wet Tropics Management Authority - Scientific Advisory Committee
Reseracher: Nathan Waltham (Associate Professor, Blue Carbon)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2024
Title: ARC Future Fellow ($680,000), Global Change: Rainforest responses to experimental drought
Reseracher: Susan Laurance (Professor, Personal Chair)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2014
Title: Aquaculture without Frontiers (AwF), Australia
Reseracher: Simon Das (Research Fellow - Grouper Nutrition)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2024
End Date: 01 Jan 2027
Title: American Society of Naturalists
Reseracher: Megan Higgie (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2003
Title: PhD, James Cook University
Reseracher: Alana Grech (Professor)
End Date: 01 Jan 2010
Title: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Led "Super Gurus" team on the CSIRO ON Prime #15 program from 03/03/2024 to 25/06/2024 conducting customer discovery for the “Digital Twin Student” Educational Technology Project.
Reseracher: Kranthi Addanki (Lecturer, Information Technology)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2024
End Date: 01 Jan 2024